The Great scamp NYC Trip & The Midtown North Precinct

As some of you know I was a part of a focus group for Microsoft's KIN phone.  When I first started this focus group I thought it was a bit of a hoax.  We talked about phones and made suggestions but we never knew what we were really working on.  Until one day our Project Coordinator sent us an email stating that they would be in town and wanted to take us for a drink.  I was really busy that week and was almost planning on ditching but I had two friends that needed to go out for a drink so I suggested we head over to The Wit and check it out.  So glad I did, because I met scamp!

You know how there are some people you meet and just bond with instantly?  Well this is how I felt when I met scamp.  I told some fun stories, asked questions, and possibly made fun of the idiot who invited 10 other people along with him to the private event.  scamp and I could talk about everything except what she did for work and who employed her which honestly made me 10x's more interested in getting clues out of her.  She ended up adding me on to the Ambassador list and I was able to go out to dinner with them the following night at Proseco.  We had a blast despite the fact that I spilled proseco all over scamp while making wild hand gestures.  The dinner was pretty eventful in itself, all of the Ambassadors shared their similar feelings of disbelief in the project.  The other two ambassadors were Tyler who was a guy from a small town just excited about technology and very confused about the buffalo on the menu.  Nina was unintentionally hysterical and can be summed up in one phrase, The perky blond.  scamp asked Nina, why she flew out from Ohio if she was so skeptical and under the assumption that she probably was going to get her kidney's stolen in the middle of the night.  Nina's eyes searched the ceiling for the proper answer then shrugged and responded nonchalantly, "Well my kidney's aren't that great anyway." 

We had so much fun those two days that I was deeply disappointed when I found out I was going to miss scamp's May trip to Chicago for a private KIN concert.  She was equally disappointed and so she pulled some strings and requested I be flown out for the NYC Concerts.  It worked out perfectly and I flew out to meet her three weeks later.  I had no idea what was going to happen on this trip other than we were going to dinner Saturday night before going to see The Ting Ting's at an undisclosed location.

There is no way that I could have imagined a more random and fun trip to the Big Apple.  I got to the W in Midtown just as scamp and Brendan were headed out for a shopping trip in the meatpacking district.  I checked in and rushed up to my room to change into more comfy clothes and head out.  After 2minutes of introductions we were all chatting away about the concert that night, people on the street, and clothes.  Brendan had to go back and set up so he left scamp and I to wander around.  She was on the hunt for comfy shoes and on our walk/subway ride to 5th Ave area of town we encountered some interesting people.

There was an old creepy woman who leaned towards us and snapped her over sized dentures shut as she walked passed us.  She looked like she was about to take my earring off with her incisors. 

On the Subway a normal athletic looking woman had about 5 black gallon trashbags. Four looked pretty fluffy and the other looked like there was a dead body inside.  It was holding something soggy and definitely wet because of the squishing noises it was making as she slapped it all over the floor.  Watching her walk up the steps made me pretty anxious, her weight was not even 1/16th of the weight she seemed to be lugging around.

In the Subway car we were standing close to a woman who didn't seem to grasp the concept of "don't lean on the doors" and she also underestimated the need to hang on to something.  She was flying all over the place and running into people one car away.

After our shopping trip we had about 1hr to rush back to Midtown and get dressed up for the concert and make it to dinner on time.  We were running into the hotel in quite a hurry.  In our haste we passed right by some of scamp's co-workers who asked her what the plan was for the evening.  I know I smelled like sweat, dirt, and American Airlines leather seats at this point in the day.  We backtracked to talk to them and I was pretty shocked to see Dreamy Derek, a guy I had recently become friends with on Facebook at the suggestion of scamp.  He had a Bradly Cooper coif going on with his hair, his eyes look like crystal blue pools, and his smile would make any girl turn bright red.  We did introductions and I was cringing inside trying to look away and counting down the getting dressed minutes I was forgoing standing here.  We decided to meet in the lobby in 20min.  WHAT?!   I had to mentally rush through all the options I had in my bag while I was rinsing off the NYC street smell.  I picked an outfit and ran downstairs.  Even though I made it out in record time I was still about 7min late ok maybe 10.  We went to dinner at a fabulous sushi restaurant, Jewel Bako in the East Village.  At the dinner party was scamp, Dreamy Derek, and Maxi.  I'm not sure how it started, considering I wasn't drinking at any point before this moment, but I started to jokingly talk in a Mexican accent, imitating Gloria from Modern Family.  Trust me, I do weird things when I'm nervous and there is silence to be filled.  When we finished dinner Max-a-million, scamp, and I went off to the Ting Ting's concert and Derek went to The Black Key's.  I have to say I was pretty giddy when he sent me a text saying "See you at the Black Keys."  I knew I was going to be impatient for this concert to be over the moment we walked in.  To distract myself from being an over texter Max and scamp suggested that I put my fake Mexican accent to work on Max's friend Devlin.  There was no way I could keep that going and I kept slipping up and Devlin eventually pulled Max aside and said "She looks Mexican but I don't think that's her real accent!  She is conning you guys."  The joke was on him but I still turned red.

The concerts were amazing and the list of celebs in attendance was pretty ridiculous.  After a long long night of celebrity sightings and shimmy shaking we all made it home.  The following day I called scamp when I woke to see how she was feeling and she invited me to Starbucks to snack n' chat.  We sat on the steps of a Catholic church and she told me about her adventure back to the hotel.  When scamp got home she left her tiny wallet in the cab and managed to walk out with only her company credit card.  Not good when you need your photo ID for the flight home.  The cab company is supposed to drop all lost articles at the police station.  So she asked me to go with her to the Midtown Police Station to file a report. 

When we walked into the police station they had just made an arrest.  A man tried running off with a handful of candy and snickers bars from a store.  Mind you the store happened to be across the street from the police station.  When we walked in a tall giant of a police officer said "What can we do fuh ya ladies?"  scamp repeated her story and he told us to take a seat while they dealt with the thief who was now so nervous and upset he had given himself an uncontrollable nose bleed.  "Oh come on man!" was heard in the background as we tried to sneak peaks over our shoulders.  You could tell the police officers were pretty glad two well dressed ladies walked in and just needed a simple report filled out since they were starting to gather and tease us.

We sat down with one officer and two others came over to see what was happening.  They asked us where we went last night, what we were doing, how her wallet was stolen etc. etc. etc.  Then one of the police officers came over and I couldn't help but ask questions about the arrest.  He told me that they were lucky it was just a nose bleed and not a "piss your pants situation."  Both of our jaws dropped and he says "What you two nevah pissed yo pants?"  Both of us muttered "uhh no.  gross."  The police officer Mike who sounded like he was from Long Island says "I don't believe you two!  Er-re-body pee's dah pants sometimes."  We both are nervously laughing then he starts running through the questions on the list.  "What city do you live in?"  Officer Mike asked, after scamp responded he looks at me and says "And you?"  I'm confused why do I have to respond?  I say "I'm living in Chicago."  This brings on a million questions about how we know each other, what we do for a living, and if we need a kept man.  We somehow end up talking about the KIN and trying to sell them one.  It didn't work they were a bit more interested in getting more information out of us.

"Where did you lose the property?" then the kicker question "Are you in a gang?"  We both erupted laughing and Officer Mike says "What?!" We say "Are you serious?"  We start joking back that we're in the JCrew gang, and the cupcake posse.  When we look at the report it really does say "Gang?" then the next question was "Do you have any tattoos?"  The guys are openly flirting now and asking us when we are going to come back to NYC.

The guys are laughing and we're having a good time.  Then the large tower of an officer walks over and says "Aeeee Steph-a-nee the perp left you a message."  He slides over a piece of paper and under his arrest report it says "Call me Stephanie..."  It was just a copy of the real report but it was hilarious because for a second we weren't sure what was going on.  The confused and shocked looks on our faces prompted them to tell us that they were joking.  We left the precinct in good spirits because Officer Mike and scamp had bonded so well that he felt the need to call his 2nd cousin, Frankie, who works for homeland security. Officer Mike gave scamp his cousins phone number just in case any "situations" came up when she tried to board her flight.  Luckily her Costco Card got her through security and she didn't have to make the call to Frankie.  She did however have to call her Fiance and explain the insanity that occurred in the last 24hrs.  I can't wait for my next encounter with scamp!