Archive by Author

Back in Chicago! by Victor

16 Jun

I was a bit emotional leaving New York. I hadn’t felt that way about ending a trip in a long time. My friend said it was probably because it wasn’t another trip in Texas to see my favorite band, Steel Train. It was a steel train out of Texas for a new experience.

The Webby Awards Gala was overwhelming. Never had I been in a (big) room with hundreds of talented, influential, and famous people from Internet culture, television, film, and science.

Alexis and I enjoyed a conversation with Greg, the teacher of the P.S. 22 Chorus that was specially recognized with Artist of the Year for their millions upon millions of YouTube views. In the videos, the children in the chorus are recorded singing pop songs led by Greg. I’ve long seen their performances thanks to PerezHilton.com. It almost brought a tear to my eye hearing their angelic voices singing Ne-Yo’s “Closer” in person.

I was also glad to be able to tell the founders of ICanHasCheezburger.com, the home of the lolcat phenomenon, how much their site meant to me. I discovered their site in 2007 on a day that started very roughly. After an hour discovering a blog for cats in funny poses with captions in broken English, the course of my day changed and I was forever a fan and advocate of lolcats.

We all had the privilege of meeting Gilbert Gottfried, who was there to accept an award with the real Aflac duck on behalf of the ad agency that worked on Aflac commercial among others. He was all smiles and very happily posed in a photo with us. I told him I loved him in “Problem Child.”

Some of the team mocked me for my excitement, but they didn’t understand that I am moved by being around or meeting people and places that have influenced my life no matter how big or small or famous or not famous. Our reactions to who we met were all relative. To me, meeting the founders of ICanHasCheezburger.com meant the world to me. To Chelse, meeting the inventor of the Internet (Sir Tim Something-Something-Lee) and Isabella Rossellini was overwhelming for her. For Oscar and James’ wife Eva, it was film critic Roger Ebert. To Alexis and Hilda, it was astronaut Buzz Aldrin (for different reasons).

What was also great was telling all these amazing people, big or small, about our little town in Texas and about UTPA and the work we do. I felt incredibly fortunate to be there.

Now we’re on our way back and we only have photos and videos of to relive that night. I didn’t pack my camera cord or external hard drive so my photos and video will come later. Posts about other experiences in New York, like free hugs, The Today Show, and tourist attractions, will come in other posts.

Victor: “Is that the Empire State Building!?”

14 Jun

Last night, we treated ourselves to a wonderful meal at The Diner. I enjoyed meatball sliders and cheese fries. It was a bit pricey, but I don’t care because I’m in New York!

We ate outside so we could enjoy the cool air and watch people walk by. Everybody looked like they were dressed for an outing to a club, but I realized it was Friday night… they probably were.

Afterward, we enjoyed a leisurely stroll for a few blocks. We joked about how we were passing Mrs. Doubtfire’s or Ross Geller’s (from Friends) apartments. We’re total tourists.

We discovered late last night, after a quick Google search, that the Empire State Building was viewable from our hotel windows! The Hudson River is also right next to our hotel.

After a decent sleep, we’re now making plans to grab breakfast. We’ll see where the wind takes us!

P.S. No sign of the Cloverfield monster yet.

NYC, day 2, by James H.

13 Jun

Hello, it’s James again.

Lastnight was fun. We all went to “The Diner” to get some grub since everyone was starving. Their homemade boneless chicken was amazing.

The group was a little restless after the meal so we all went for a walk around the Meat Packing District. Friday night in this area is crazy. Everyone was out at the bars and clubs. The majority of us were underdressed for the venues in the area so we ended up walking all around getting a better feel for where we were staying. All of us stayed up late, winding down in the hotel room, saving our energies for tomorrow.

Victor’s alarm woke me up @ 8:30 this morning and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I woke Victor up and we worked on taping a blanket to the window end of the shower. We called next door to get the girls up and everyone is now finishing up as I type this. I hope it doesn’t rain today because we have sight-seeing to do.

Will keep in touch through Twitter throughout the day. Twitter name JamesHdz.

Till next time, James Hernandez

Victor’s Accounts of Wednesday, June 9 – Thursday, June 10

12 Jun

Hey everyone! Victor checking in. Boy, does “adventure” really sum up our trip so far. Mine started before leaving Edinburg!

After depositing dinero at an ATM, I was shocked to find out the machine decided not to return my card for “security purposes.” Little did I know it would be the first of a few headaches on this trip!

Time went quickly on our journey up to San Antonio to catch the first train. Most of it was spent laughing or listening to Eartha Kitt (she’s the good kind of weird), Laurie Anderson (the weird kind of weird), Electric Light Orchestra (the sometimes weird), and the Glee soundtrack.

The ensuing headaches included: where to safely park Hilda’s car for nine days, whose bags will be checked, reducing our bag count, no WiFi anywhere on the train (we were told otherwise), and, oh yeah, 700 feet of train tracks washed out from the prior night’s storm.

Four hours after our departure time, the conductor announced that the train would go no farther. We only made it a few miles out of San Antonio. We were to board buses instead and travel over five hours to Fort Worth and board another train there. WHAAAAT!?

We arrived to Fort Worth, boarded the train, and waited another 45 minutes for the other two buses of passengers. At 6:30 p.m., roughly 11 hours after our departure time, we were finally on a train gaining speed.

I befriended a lovely lady from San Antonio (I think) who told me about her son who was trying to leave Alaska at the same time. We bonded over mocking the woman in front of us who had no idea what an “indoor voice” was.

Despite relatively close to the Texas-Arkansas border, it would be another 7 hours before we’d hit Arkansas.

My inability to sleep led me to sitting in the lounge car and watching Arkansas pass me by in the dark. The most I was able to see was their capitol building in Little Rock. (Texas’ is better.)

I found it much more comfortable to sleep lying down in the lounge car. I stirred from my slumber shortly after 6 a.m. (only three hours of sleep) to find a beautiful Arkansan sun lighting silos, piles of woods, farmland, pine trees, and farmhouses.

Hilda and I played a series of card games in the lounge after grabbing coffee and befriending the rude snack lady. Don’t worry! She wasn’t rude to us.

We later befriended D.J. and Alexis (another one), a young brother/sister from Dallas. We played multiple games of Egyptian Ratscrew (I won all games). They were a lot of fun and helped the time pass by so much quicker.

We arrived in Chicago at 6:47 p.m., a mere FIVE HOURS later than expected. After grabbing Chinese food and haggling with Chicago Union Station’s Internet, we departed at 9:30 p.m… the first on-time anything we had on this trip.

Victor’s account of Friday, June 11

12 Jun

Right now we’re in Syracuse on a “smoking break.” I know it’s meant for everyone to have a stretch break and breathe fresh air, but why do they need to call it a smoke break?

So far, this train isn’t as cool as the Texas Eagle. This one’s not a double decker, the seats aren’t as big, there’s no observation lounge with giant windows, they close the lounge car at certain times, and they lock the doors to other cars at night. This makes me appreciate the longer leg of the trip a lot more.

(Several hours later…)

We’re in New York City! FINALLY! I could have kissed the ground if we weren’t aggressively hailing a cab. Before we took off, someone from the curb rushed to our cab, bent down, and showed me my phone. OOPS! That would have been bad news for me.

After some confusion with our cab driver hearing “The Strand” instead of “The Standard,” we arrived at our beautiful hotel only to discover the showers offer ZERO privacy. There is a giant window that allows anyone on the bed to view the shower. WEIRD!

I believe we’re going to find a place to eat soon. James is watching “Men In Black” (set in NYC!) while I blog. I can’t wait to see what this city holds for us.

Landed and lounging

12 Jun

Hey everybody, James here. I’m gonna be using Victor’s account until mine goes through.

I had the fortune of flying to NYC which took @ 5 hours. From what I’m hearing, flying is the way to go compared to train.

Eva (my wife) and I spent last night in Austin with her sister who we were staying with. It was a good night of beer and BBQ before our flight. We arrived at the airport with no problems and all our schedules were ahead, including the airport’s. The seats on the plane had TVs so Eva and I bought $2 headphones and enjoyed the inflight “entertainment.” A sprite, some chips, a banana, and a half bottle of water later, we landed at JFK. This is when the real adventure began.

We used a flyer at the airport which advertised for “black car” taxi (limo) service for $40 to get us to Manhatten. It turned out to be a good deal. I forgot how crazy taxi drivers are here in NYC. We braced ourselves and we were off. This driver was probably an ancestor of Magellen himself because he knew exactly how to get where we needed to go on about 100 different streets. I asked him if he ever used a GPS and his only reply was, “No, it’s the city.” I left the issue alone.

We finally got to The Standard hotel and it is a swanky looking place. It seemed like the whole city was out in the Meat Packing District (where the hotel is) eating and jogging. Eva and I got to the hotel before the train group so we left our luggage at the front desk and went out for a drink. We felt a little out of place at the ritzy bars around the hotel except for a corner bar called, “Hogs and Heffers.” This place was a qualiy, hole-in-the-wall joint. Eva and I felt right at home. We only had time for one beer before we got a call from the group saying they were checking in.

The hotel rooms are awesome and I can tell we are going to have lots of fun with their “Peek-a-boo” showers. The shower only has two solid walls and the other two is a window into the room and an open door into the bathroom. The girls were smart and taped a blanket to the shower’s glass window. We will be following the trend in the morning.

I’m starving right now and can’t wait to eat some NYC food!

Tune in tomorrow for a new day and new post. Bye.

James Hernandez

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