This is Cheebs, if you can't tell by the proper capitalization and punctuation. I have taken over the blog for today.

Ylbissop and I proceeded to wake up a little later than our normal Thursday mornings. And by later, I mean an hour and a half. Small benefit to that. Packing commenced as I realized that despite having power back, our water was still at its full capacity so I still had the trickle but the good part was everything was charged. With our handful of gear (handful=two suitcases, one computer case, one bookbag of food and drinks, and one large purse of personals)

we walked from the apartment to Ylbissop's normal morning routine of taking the 99 but this time we passed his normal spot and went all the way to Norristown. In Norristown we caught the R6 into Philly at Market East. Both rides were pretty normal, minus the fact that neither of us turned to our iPods for entertainment.

After finding that Cinnabon was open but nobody was at the counter, I had to settle for a somewhat healthy breakfast, minus the mass amounts of chocolate in that muffin. The race towards the bus proceeded with me stopping at every bus along the way thinking it was the right one and Ylbissop yelling at me to keep going, its not that one or that one or that one. Got loaded onto said bus and found it to be a bit

CRAMPED! Jarod had no room to breathe. So Pris and Black Beauty were put to good use.

Arrived just around the block from the hotel. Walked right into the registration line and soon discovered that check in was NOT the same time as check out. So we had almost 3 hours to wait. As we sat in the lobby, we watched people who we "assumed" were HOPE attendees like ourselves (some had 2600 shirts, duh!) to see if they got into their rooms. After timing a pink shirt woman, we decided to hop right in and try our luck. After 20 minutes of waiting, we got our room keys. YAY! for a room. Discovered a tiny room with a big bed and far too many alarm clocks.

Ylbissop left his credit card downstairs so he left. I made friends with one of the wait staff since they thought we requested a cot. Ylbissop returned and my friend returned with an ashtray.

We put it to good use. Surprisingly neither of us told my friend about the possible need of a cot or an ashtray, but she just seemed to really want to welcome us to NY I guess. After unpacking, we went sightseeing into Broadway to possibly get tickets for Spam-A-Lot. Ylbissop noticed up at MTV some blonde chick that created havoc in the streets. Havoc meaning screaming teenagers stretched as far as the camera stretches. Still don't know who it was, Christina Aguilera or Jessica Simpson, whatever. After getting mis-directions from my mother on where to find discount theater tickets, we found the Shubert Theater. We had no luck in getting cheap seats together for the night so we headed back to the hotel.

A second outfit change occurred for myself. Made a plan to register since it was about that time and then head to Ground Zero with some food afterwards for Ylbissop. Assimilation into the conference was completed.

you may now refer to me as number 322 and ylbissop as number 380. we got a map of "our village"

and now that merecat isn't here to talk about it anymore aninconvienenttruth was the flyer inside the program.

we noticed what looks like very small writing on the buttons and walked over to Penn Station to experience the convenience of the Metrocard.

But discovered the incoherence of subway personnel. So a mix up occurred but we discovered the "lovely" Washington Square Park. Lovely as in filled with trash but strangely, fashionable dressed people. Almost a mini Harajuku. We Reboarded the subway to World Trade Center. Whitch almost felt like a prison.

But there was some artistic merit to a few things.

I will leave the rest of the pictures for my own blogs.

We soon discovered the confusion of subway lines 1 2 and 3

the eyes watched us as we jumped on and off of each train till we were finally on the right track. After about 30 hints, I finally realized about half a block from our destination that Ylbissop was taking me to

Jekyll and Hyde. I didn't entertain the waitress by screaming when she wanted me to and the butler dusted my buns. Ylbissop renewed his membership and I got my own and the alien assured us that "i'll probe you good".

With The Failed Experiment and The Blue Brains running through my veins, we inched our way back to the subway. We learned our lesson this time. (Side note: It is third ring of hell fucking hot under NY!) Came back to the hotel room to sit down post this and reflect on our time here so far.

I learned that Birkenstocks have no place on NY streets.