Kipworld

Woke up at 11 when Jure came back from his morning walk. Chern was still asleep. I showered and got packed and then they took me to lunch at Elmo, this hipster diner in Chelsea. After that, we went for pastry at City Bakery (mmm, apple tart with almond crust) and then went back so that I could get my stuff and get on the subway.

Mike called in the morning to tell me that somehow they’d shattered Peter’s car’s rear windshield in the night. Some werid trick of physics as they closed it.

Joe called to say that we could stay in York, PA that night for free due to his dad’s connections.

Met some of the others who’d stayed in the city at Grand Central Station. Got on the car and waited for Jenny, who running late. My team buzzed about the show the night before.

A few minutes before the train left, Jenny came tearing down the path to the track. She kissed her boy goodbye (he’s on vorp’m) and sat down in a heap across from Laura and me. Pearce was still on the platform so we all urged her to kiss the window in a romantic gesture which she did.

“Gross, you touched the glass with your mouth,” we all said. We’re evil.

Matt and his brother picked us up at the Larchmont station and took us back to his house (I should mention again how nice this house is. It’s uber classy.) to wait for everyone else. We didn’t get everyone gathered until 5.

Set out around 6 for York. Matt’s mom lavishly loaded us up with car foods. Getting out of the area took a while. We were on the Jersey Turnpike in the rain for a lot of it so we couldn’t even enjoy the view leaving the city. The good weather was leaving with us (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the days in NY were amazingly warm and sunny). I was nominated driving leader again after we got out of the city proper. I hated being the leader, but it was nice setting the pace (it’s the responsibility that sucks).

I didn’t want to stop much. I told them my middle name Yip-Keong meant “Iron Bladder” and that I needed no stops. We stopped soon after for some of the weaker willed ones. In the bathroom, I got mocked. “What about your Iron Bladder?”

I answered, “Iron Bladder is not stupid. If the opportunity presents itself, Iron Bladder will take it.”

Made it to York around 10:30. The road got closed right before the hotel so we had to loop around into the actual town of York. I called the front desk for instructions and got guided in. It’s a good thing I phoned or else we would have taken a wrong turn and gotten very grumpy. Yay cellphones. I can’t imagine making this sort of trip without them. And yet people did. Yow.

We didn’t have as many rooms as in Buffalo (but that’s OK). A couple of us wanted to use the pool but it closed at 10. We took to our rooms. I was staying with Jonathan, Orvin and Kearney. They (Orvin and Kearney) got in a huge wrestling match that I tried to capture with my camera (after starting to join in, but realizing that I was just going to get hurt).

The group met up and we took the rest of the beer that had built up over the trip and drank it in my room and watched bad TV and talked. Nayla, Laura, Jessie and Mike went to a diner for dinner but the rest of us went to bed in preparation for the 11 hour push back to Chicago.