Again, my Internet took a dive. Just got home today.

Aside from the bulk of my day consisting of the email marketing conference, Wednesday in Manhattan took me as far north as 81^st Street and the top end of Central Park, to as far south as SoHo and everything in between. Again, I’m amazed with the diversity and sheer mass of this city. Our style of living in Utah is a 360 degree turn from the style here in New York City, both in how we are sheltered and our collective mindsets on work.

Around lunch I took the subway from 23^rd street to 50^th street and then walked over to 5^th Avenue and all the fancy shops. There are the familiar shops – the Gap, Banana Republic, the Disney Store and Abercrombie & Fitch (the first one I’ve ever seen with a shirtless doorman sharing his six pack with the store’s visitors). Then there were the New York-centric shops: Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany’s, NBA Store and Harry Winston. People walking down the street were dressed to the nines. Most females had a long coat, big sunglasses and looked like they stepped off the pages of US Weekly. Most men either had jeans, pointy European dress shoes, sport coat and Burberry scarves, or a finely tailored suit, wingtips and an expensive tie.

From 5^th Avenue I crossed over to Times Square and actually passed the New York Public Library. This building, like so many others, is simply amazing. It almost looks like a church or something pulled up from London and dropped in the middle of Manhattan. It’s also one of the few areas with a large amount of foliage, as you don’ see to many trees in Manhattan (other than Central Park and some Brownstone sections of Chelsea). When it comes to Manhattan in the movies, if you pull out “The Day After Tomorrow,” the NY Public Library is where the refugees go when Manhattan is flooded by the giant tidal wave.

Took the subway back down to 23^rd from Times Square Station and I need to say that is massive. So many trains running smoothly and fast in every possible direction is a testament to the genius – albeit crazy genius – of New York City. I took the #1 redline subway to 23^rd and then walked back to my conference for the afternoon sessions at 2PM.

After the conference, I took the subway – yes, I’m a pro now – to Houston Street. When you move one block south of Houston you find yourself in SoHo (South of Houston). The best way to describe SoHo is a mixture of hippy, trendy, artsy and the overall brisk pace and swagger that all of New York boasts. I was offered a fake Dolce & Gabbana bag, as well as a Rolex for $70. Pretty sure those were both fake. I enjoyed SoHo and wished I could have spent more time exploring, but I had to get to Central Park before the sun went down.

And I didn’t make it before 7PM. In fact, I was at the Southwest corner of Central Park right when the clock struck 7PM and it was pitch black. The park looked creepy, but still I ventured forth. A lot of those creepy underbridges you see in the movies. I didn’t spend a lot of time at the park and instead moved to up from 59^th street to 81^st street to the American Museum of Natural History. What a cool looking building. The whole museum will be featured in the movie “A Night at the Museum” coming in December.

After my brief stop at the museum, I took the subway to the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 9^th West 42^nd street. To borrow a line from Star Wars, “you will never see a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” than at this subway stop. I had to use the bathroom and aside from standing at a urinal with an entire gang of Puerto Ricans, one decided it was best to let everyone know he was next in line for my urinal by standing right behind me and drinking his .40. And yes, I mean RIGHT behind me.

At this point it was getting late and there wasn’t much left to do but grab a bite to eat and go pack for the return trip to Utah. I hit up the ESPN Zone for dinner, went back to the room at 12AM, packed, slept until 3:30 and then departed for the airport at 4:15AM.