Day One of this blog; Day One in New York City.
"We'll be ascending at the JFK international airport in New York 20 minutes early," says the Captain over the loudspeaker. We beat the bad weather just as he hoped.
My best friend and business partner, 'Amelia and I hustled out the plane to get our 5 lugz full of LA gear; video cameras, laptops, speakers, tripods, all the filming equipment ready to hit the ground running.
We're here for the United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women's (CSW) 54th session. Meeting our WAVE media partners on a global collaborative opportunity that was flagged just 72 hours ago.
We made it.
One pit-stop, two teenagers on stilettos and three big gulps of semi-stale water later, we made our way out to an apple-crisp New York morning. Then we almost got hustled by the "gypsy-taxi" rides...Good thing 'Amz used to live here, otherwise, we would've been ripped off for $60 bucks to the eastside.
We got a cool cabby, Pravash from south India. He told us about his three kids back home. Small chat on the improved weather conditions, a glum tour of the Queens borough, some unsuccessful phone calls to the hotel for early check in options, and before I knew it, Pravash had zipped us straight to the curb of the Ramada on Lexington.
Ahhh, welcome to the big apple, so far so good. Although, it did look more like bananas than apples with all them taxis, but I digress. LA ain't that much different.
At the front desk we met up with Julie, she stressed the 3pm check-in, didn't seem too eager to accommodate us and then asked us to leave and come back at noon, as if doing us a favor. We were starved and given that Virgin America didn't serve us a meal, I asked her to show us the breakfast room where we could grab a bite. [Ramada offers free continental breakfasts] Some hesitation and then came Julie's Big Apple welcome, "Im sorry, you cant eat there, its for guests"
'Amz and I were speechless.
I noticed that Julie had her back against a Ramada clock and the logo of the apple core hotel chain. Interestingly enough, the inscription had "You do your thing, leave the rest to us." It didn't surprise me that Julie turned her back on that.
Is this really the core of the Big Apple i traveled thousands of miles for?
We ended up going downstairs for breakfast in spite of Julie, met up with our girl Lisa Williams Lahari, who flew in last night from Dunedin, New Zealand. We talked about the core of women like Julie in the context of CSW and other challenges women in media have, set up some assignments and off she went.
'Amz and I spent the next 5 hours in the business center setting things up and working the social net around the guests coming in and out of the office.
Around noon, we finally make our way up to the lobby. This, after checking in with Julie a few times prior. Of course, she then hassles me for some AAA paperwork. I said, "Julie, we've been waiting for 5 hours."
To add insult to injury at the front desk, the male bag handler who pulled our luggage from storage, suggested that we, tired and hungry travellers, take the roll-away carrier stacked 4 tiers high up a narrow elevator to our room because he was tied up.
I just wanna know one thing about New York, what time it is at the Ramada Eastside on Lexington? I dont think they've made it to 2010, and doubt that I'll ever 'do my thing' here again.
Can you show some love? Please just show people some love.
