Blade Edge

My friend Sasha had to go into the city (NYC) today to check out a Mini Cooper he was looking to buy, which was owned by a friend of a friend, both of whom are trapeze artists that work at a gym in west/central Manhattan just a few blocks from Penn Station. Of course, Sash and Dizzle, who was driving, were late catching our intended train… which was a double-decker train. I have not yet ridden one of the new snazzy-lookin NJ Transit double-deckers, and was very disappointed to miss this one. Very. Dizzle owes me a damn ride on a damn double-decker. Dammit.

Anywhoo, we get to the city and walk over to the gym, which is a lot smaller than I imagined – I thought they’d be in some large empty wharehouse, not a pre-fab structure barely large and long enough to handle all the trapeze apparatus. But it suited the purpose well and our friend Dallas (friend of the friend with the Mini) showed up after Sasha took his test ride and let us swing on the trapeze. Sash and I both took turns on the bar – mind you this is a real trapeze. You’re standing 30ft up on a teeny platform hooked into a spotting belt and when you swing off you’re swinging in an arc of a good 50ft – it’s awesome. They have the large trampoline netting underneath for when you release and do tricks – I just let go and fell to my back (one time kinda my head, hahah). Getting used to the swing took me three seperate tries, because I’m used to a gymnastics high bar in which you can bend to generate lift and swing. A trapeze bar does not bend. So I had to learn to let it do some of the swinging for me before I arched and kicked through the bottom. Unfortunately I didn’t think to get any video – they have a TiVo setup with a camera that lets you rewind the video feed and watch yourself, but that was it. I’ll have Dallas use his own video camera next time.

So after playing around a bit we walked through Manhattan all the way down to Chinatown, stopping and checking out shops along the way. We got a little turned around when we hit the SOHO district, but luckily there was an Apple store I was able to plug into to get wifi on my iTouch and pinpoint our location using the map, which led us to Canal Street and Chinatown, where we stopped to grab some good Chinese grub from Hsin Wong’s. Got the leftovers in the fridge. Then we hoofed it partway back uptown before giving up and catching the subway. In all, according to my rough plot on Google Earth, we walked about 6-7 miles. My legs are killing me. Well not true – just my left one for some reason. But still.

Oh but the fun does not end there. Coming home on the train we get held up two stations away from our stop because there is a “car on the tracks” according to the conductor’s announcement. So, I’m thinking another train is held up in front of us. 15 minutes later they come back on saying “automobile”, and my picture of things changes entirely. My friends are confused but I remember hearing stories of the drunk and elderly making turns onto tracks thinking they’re roads and getting stuck on the rails. 30 minutes later cops come walking through the train, and we postulate that there is no car on the track ahead – they’re just coming up with a story to hold the train while they search for a suspect. 45 minutes later (and after moving up one station) we finally get the full story – some drunk dumbass decided to take a ride on the tracks, got hung up on the switch (where the trains change tracks) and was leaking gasoline, which made cleanup quite the hassle. About an hour total and we were finally back underway, passing the offending car in the process. Oh, and the cops were called in because apparently one of the passengers had become unruly and was threatening the conductor for the delay.

So I finally made it home, but it was still a very fulfilling day. Hopefully Sash will be able to nail that Mini Cooper, which was in nice condition, and hopefully we’ll be able to get back to the trapeze gym soon so I can get some video of me swingin. Now tho I’m gunna lay in bed and rest and read my new Star Wars book.