It's Up to You, New York New York

My brother called out of the blue last week. He and his wife wanted a vacation, so they're going to New York. I was actually a little surprised when he asked if I would be able to take some time off to head up there to see them. (I don't know why I was surprised, I just kinda was.)

So on Saturday morning, I'm hitching one of those ghetto cheap Chinatown buses (which by now are pretty much a misnomer, as they don't just go "Chinatown to Chinatown" anymore) to see my bro for the first time in maybe two years.

I'm kind of excited. My brother and I don't have a close relationship as most people would define it. But our family is just that way -- we don't openly express emotion, so we basically just guess and assume feelings from actions. So I'm really looking forward to seeing him again just to hang out with him and (somewhat wierd) wife for the weekend just because it's good to get together with the blood relations more often than I do.

Of course, we're not staying in the same hotel. I didn't want to sleep in the same room as them. That would be kinda skeevy. So I ended up leafing through a gay guide I had a long time ago and located a (relatively) cheap B&B on 14th Street. By "(relatively) cheap," I'm talking $80-99 a night (good thing I'm only staying for two nights), and this is with a shared bath. But hey, it's New York in the city, and I think if I can deal with gym showers, I can deal with shared bath facilities in a B&B.

I feel like my brother will be a bit exhausted by this trip. He's not the big-city type. (It's a wonder we sprang forth from the same womb.) He actually detests big cities. He also claims he doesn't like what living in a big city "does" to people -- along of the lines of numbing them from rudeness, and thereby becoming rude themselves. But his wife loves The City, and he tends to give her everything she wants (I can't imagine how their income supports this), so Big Apple, here we come. I imagine he will hate this trip -- he will be dissatisfied by the subway system (especially the smells), the hustle of the street, the honking of the cabs, and the 'tude of people in general. I, on the other hand, just love that stuff.

My plan is to spend the days doing all the typical touristy stuff with them (Statue of Liberty, World Trade Center, probably Ground Zero), then splitting from them after dinner so I can do my thang. It is New York City, after all.