So I've been on a hiatus from this blog, which to be fair I need to take a few times a year to refresh my self. My depression has been getting much worse and my motivation to do anything but hide under my comforter with a giant bag of Doritos or lay on the couch to watch old Growing Pains reruns. It's not like I plan these things but when it happens it affects literally everything in my life, so if I barely have the motivation to change my rabbits litter box, how can I concentrate on producing quality blog content? So with that, I do apologize for the lack of MOTU Month updates. I really had wanted to provide something fun and entertaining, but again, it just wasn't gonna happen. Good news, is a lot of the articles will be held over and used for this coming Halloween, because the theme of some do fit into the spooky season! Next year, I'm gonna try it again and limit it to "MOTU Week". At least just to try and keep it simple and doable. I still love my blog and don't make money off it, so I at least wanna keep my passion going.
...And I feel like today's a good time to break that hiatus and come back with something fun.
Earlier this year, my wife and I decided we needed a vacation and we decided we'd head down to Brooklyn to soak in the sun and attend the biggest party of the summer, WWE's Summerslam! We're both gigantic wrestling fans and we've never had a vacation, so why not? On top of that, Laurie's never been to NYC, so this would be quite the experience for her. Of course when visiting the big city, we had to make a sizable list of places we wanted to hit, places to eat, sights to see. And you'll see that, if time allowed, there was just one place I truly had to hit. More on that later.
Other than having extreme difficulty driving into the city on a Friday night, which should have been expected, we had no major issues with our trip. Saturday and Sunday were obviously meant for some live 'rasslin action and sleeping in until about 1 pm, but Monday was all about hitting Times Square and seeing everything we could before Monday Night Raw at the Barclays. After a very swift 30 minute Uber ride, we found ourselves directly in the heart of Times Square, on a very busy day.
Why? Well, the Video Music Awards were taking place right up the block at Radio City Music Hall! The entire area was taken over by wacky MoonMen promoting the huge event. It was pretty fun to see an event I spent so many years watching as a teen and young adult right in front of me. Even more fun was seeing The Backstreet Boys preform during the preshow!
Talk about a total timewarp! Is this 1998 all over again?
Of course, I couldn't visit Times Square without stopping by to see my buddy Jon, who is the face of one of my favorite blogs, the Ninja Turtle themed
The Sewer Den . Jon's a great guy that I've met twice this year and both times we've met, we just talk, talk, talk. It's like we've known each other forever and quite frankly, he's one of the most genuine friends I've made thanks to this amazing thing called "blogging". Jon, Laurie and I walked around Times Square and hit up the Hershey's Store, since we're all huge Reese's fans, it was quite the heavenly spot to be in. It was great to hang out, chat and goof off. I hope everyone gets to become friends with someone as awesome as Jon is.
So after we parted ways (Hey, Jon's gotta get back to work!) Laurie and I walked around more of the area, even hitting The Nintendo Store and passing by the sprawling Rockafeller Center. As a huge fan of Saturday Night Live and NBC in general, it was fantastic to finally visit and see these studios up close.
Ok. It's lunchtime. One of the spots we *needed* to hit was the famous BlackTap, known for their delicious craft burgers and world famous milkshakes. Now, I've been trying to cut back on eating red meat, but I had been wanting to try one of these for a while. The burger was absolutely delicious. I don't know what they do to that burger to make it taste so sinfully good and I don't want to know, but it certainly was one of the best burgers I've ever had in my life. Just straight up perfect. Nothing too fancy, just a big juicy patty with cheese, just how I like it! Of course, the true main event was the milkshakes:
GREAT GAZOO! WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!?
Your eyes do not deceive you. That is indeed a giant slice of birthday ice cream cake atop of an absolutely delicious milkshake. Apparently BlackTap is trying to put me in the biggest food coma since the great post-Thanksgiving nap of 2014 when I passed out before my annual viewing of Christmas Vacation. As great as the milkshake was on it's own, the addition of the cake was what made it a true homerun. The cake was as delicious as it looks. I can't even begin to describe the taste. It was like getting about 14 birthday presents at once! They don't play around at Black Tap and I can see why they're such a popular spot with tourists and locals. I'm still amazed that I was able to down all of this and move afterwards but I made it happen.
So...what happened next? We were full of food and ready to head back to our hotel in Brooklyn to put our feet up and change for Monday Night Raw. But I couldn't leave NYC without hitting one spot. There's a lot of historic spots in this city that people go to that hold a lot of sentimental value but for me I had to see THE GHOSTBUSTERS FIREHOUSE!!!!
After getting somewhat lost, we turn a corner and my wife points to the Firehouse and says "Hey! There it is!" and I immediately turn into a child. My face went from being tired and full of cakey goodness to the extreme joy to the point that I actually teared up. I couldn't believe I was standing right there. It was absolutely incredible. So of course, I had to take about 598 photos of the location. I'm sure the brave men and women working that day are already used to the lunatic fans coming by, taking photos and geeking out, so I tried to contain my excitement the best I could, so I wouldn't be in their way. Thankfully, they were nice enough to allow me to walk in and take photos of the Ghostbusters 2 sign hanging inside the actual firehouse.
Of course, I'm aware that only the exterior was used in the movie and very little remnants from the movies are intact especially after all the renovations through years, but just standing there meant the world to me. I've tried to get here for years, multiple times and I either couldn't make it or it was still under heavy renovations, which finished this year. As a huge Ghostbusters fanatic, I can't see any better way to celebrate my fandom and love of that wacky series than heading to what most fans will refer to as "Mecca". Had I been quicker on my feet, I would've brought one of my frozen Ecto Cooler boxes to drink while standing there, but it's for the best.
A great trip down to NYC concluded with our last wrestling event and a trip to a 24 hour Target across from the Barclay's Center. The next morning, we drove back to Rochester and pretty much slept through the next day and ate any Wawa we brought back with us. Of course nothing compares to that amazing burger from Black Tap!
Oh and of course, being the tourist I am, I had to get a photo with The Naked Cowboy!
-Chad
