A - NY Minute

Greetings from Manhattan... home of the Empire State Building. If you take the letters of the words "Empire State Building" and rearrange them, you get "Big line - me, despair" with the letters TUT left over (for Thousands of Unsuspecting Tourists).

Last night I "called ahead to see what the wait time is" because when I bought my ticket online there was a number to do that. Sucker! He told me 15 minutes. (another anagram - butt lie, me despairing....) It was about 15 minutes before my totebag was x-rayed. BUT....

Then I waited in a line that snaked one way, then another. Every five minutes the line would lurch forward about 100 people or so. It didn't seem too bad. Then I realized that when the line left my area of sight, it was just ANOTHER line in another hallway. At last - the elevators. Which open to reveal, yes, another line. Snaking around a floor that is under reconstruction and currently looks like something any slumlord would be proud to own. The purpose of this floor seems to be to put you in front of a green screen to fake a beautiful shot of you on top of the building... which will later be offered to you for $25. (It was a crummy picture of me, so no.)

After well over 90 minutes, when my feet really effing hurt, I finally popped out at the top. Well, the gift shop at the top, of course. And then I went outside to the cool night air. Which smelled like garbage and other things I don't want to think about, on certain areas of the observation deck. Really special. Maybe I was just tired, but after a few minutes I was all "Meh.... damn... I waited so long to come up here, now I can't just leave in 5 minutes...."

It was a little bit of a bummer because I was up there alone, and there were of course couples making out everywhere. So there's that. Maybe I'll have better luck with the NBC tour tonight, if I can get in... I'm sure it's only a 10 or 15 minute wait.

Carly, out!