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New York was a blast!! My platelets we're above the threshold so no need to do any stair climbing this time (actually I did, but it was proactively before they took my blood the first time). Dr. O'Connor addressed the nasty back pain on my off week from the the pills by prescribing me a fentanol patch to apply a day before my last dose. Hopefully it works and better yet, whatever it is that's causing the pain decides to go bye bye...

As far a activities in New York this time around, there were some interesting stories. One, involved taking a bike around Central Park. I was trying to rent a two wheeler and there were plenty of offers... However, most required a two block walk to go pick it up and most were over $15 an hour. To my surprise, I came across a woman who offered to rent one to me for $15 for two hours, plus, she had "her" bikes waiting right at the entrance to the park -- score right?! So, I followed her over and she waves to an Islander looking guy and he proceeds to walk the bike over to me. It was a pretty decent Specialized Hybrid and I was happy. I then fully expected to give her my license, a credit card, my car keys, anything for collateral along with signing some type of contract or something. To my surprise again, she required none of these things -- collected my $15 and walked away. The whole thing seemed kinda sketchy if you know what I mean... So, for the first 10-15 minutes, I was envisioning some pissed off bike owner seeing me riding his bike, coming over and beating me over the head with a baseball bat, yikes... There was no way that this was her or anybody in her posse's bike. So, after the threat of that faded, I had a nice relaxing stroll around Central Park and probably could have taken it to my next destination but my morals and the need to preserve my Karma wouldn't let me! I figured out how to get back to where the transaction went down and fully expected nobody to be there but sure enough, there was the woman with a look of surprise on her face. As I was getting off the bike to hand to her, she shocked me by saying "are you sure you don't want to keep the bike"?!! I just nodded my head and got the heck out of there, crazy...


Me at Central Park with the mysterious bike!



Ah, drink it in!!!

So, from there, it was off to the MOMA which was really great. It's four levels and while some of the stuff is a little too far out there for me, I really enjoyed the third (photography) and fourth (classic paintings) floors. In fact, I think I must have taken a hundred pictures of all the original Van Gogh's, Picasso's, Diego Rivera's, Monet's, etc... All in all, it was a great day!



You have it all at the Museum of Modern Art, from a huge Monet painting...


To the famous Andy Warhol soup can piece...

Also had a chance to check out a couple of great bars with my friends one of which is in the top three oldest pubs in the city. It's called the EAR bar and was built in 1817. The reason it's called the EAR is because the lights on the curvy part of the B burned out several years ago and they never replaced them! Had a chance too to check out the lower east side which is more of a younger crowd but still a lot of fun.



The "Ear" Inn, est. 1817

So, this week is all about resting up for what I hope is a trip to Amsterdam this Friday. My buddy from Seattle Sean is facilitating the whole thing but there's no guarantees we can go as it all depends on available seats on the flights going out there. Kinda crazy being on standby for Europe but that's how I roll these days I guess!

As soon as I know for sure, I'll make sure to update.

Cheers!