Amazingly enough, I made it through the flight to New York relatively calmly. I think I just might be getting better at flying–which would be awesome, since there are a great deal of places I’d like to visit that would require flying. (More specifically, many of them would require taking flights over larger bodies of water, which is possibly more terrifying than flying over land. Or possibly not, I’m still debating that one.)

Anyway, once I landed I had to get to my hotel. I’d had good experiences with Super Shuttle in San Francisco and Oakland, so I went with them–big mistake. It took me about 2 1/2 hours to get from JFK to my hotel. Which, really, is just ridiculous, and included the driver taking the long way around to play tour guide to a couple of overly chatty passengers and the van overheating enough that we spent 10 minutes sitting on the side of the street in Times Square while it cooled down. Then, they guy insisted that the confirmation that the desk printed out for me wasn’t enough proof that I had paid, so I had to pay cash, despite having put it on my credit card.

I managed to get customer service to refund the c redit card charge (probably because I sounded like any objection would result in me screaming, which it would have) and needless to say, I cancelled my return trip. I’ll cough up the cash for a cab, thanks.

Once I got in, I headed to the East Village to visit Enchantments. It was a great store–I wanted to get a lot of their oils, but unfortunately I couldn’t, since TSA rules limit how much liquid I can have on the plane. I did get some Aphrodite oil and Aphrodite bath. Because she follows me everywhere, now, apparently.

After Enchantments, I headed to Curly’s Vegetarian Lunch. One thing I have yet to find in Berkeley and San Francisco, surprisingly, is vegan diner food. There’s vegan food, yes, but it tends to either be fine dining type food, or super healthy five-grain-wheatgrass whatever. This? This was delicious. A vegan milkshake and vegan mac and chesese. My favorite dairy-filled dishes with none of the side effects. So very, very good.

Today, I headed out early to hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is, hands down, my favorite place in New York City. I kind of ran through this time–there were a lot of pictures I wanted to take, particularly in the Egyptian and Greek and Roman wings. They’re on my camera, not my phone though, so I can’t upload them until I get home. After that, I headed up to the Current meetup–but more on that later (again, with pictures).

I did see some interesting things on the way.

The Scientology Celebrity Center. (No, I’m not joking, that’s what it was, at least according to the awning. I didn’t dare risk going inside.)

A random, cool lion.

A pair of random, Greek-looking statues outside a building.

One from the Museum. A statue of Aphrodite (sadly, missing her head) that was probably one of the most moving pieces I saw. But that whole part of the saga deserves a post all to itself.

Finally, after we dispersed, I made a trip down to Babycakes and got a vegan cupcake. In honor of Gay Pride, they had Malibu Barbie cupcakes. It was good…but I have to say, the ones I make are just as good (or maybe even better). Is that bad to say? Oh well, it’s true, and makes me feel a little better about being unable to buy vegan cupcakes at home.

Now, off to get some sleep since I fly back tomorrow!