New York City Conundrum.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you may have seen a status update that mentioned being dropped off in the ghetto of Brooklyn on Friday when I was supposed to be staging at Cafe Boulud.

This would only happen to me. And apparently a piece of mail that was supposed to go to my best friend's house in Manhattan.

So let's start with a back story. The last time I went to NYC with a few friends, one of them downloaded this app called Hop Stop. It's used for navigating the subways of the city. Before I even got on the train, I plugged the address of the restaurant (20 East 76th Street) into the app. It told me that I was going to be taking a lot of trains, but I had never been to this place so I had no clue what to expect. I just went along with what the app was telling me.

After a transfer from the 4 train to the L train, I thought I was on my way. I realized that I was going to be a few minutes late, however, because the app told me to get off at the Rockaways (the last stop) and then walk 20 blocks to the restaurant. That's alright, I thought, they'll understand.

As soon as I had trucked my knife roll, scarf, jacket, and large bag filled with the outfit I needed to work at the Cafe 20 blocks up the street, I realized I was in trouble. I was in the ghetto. Oh, and 20 East 76th Street in Brooklyn is a run-down used cell phone store. So I called Cafe Boulud and told them my situation. I apologized, and said that I hadn't really had to navigate NYC except for a few other times, so I was completely and hopelessly lost.

I was determined to make it. I google mapped the nearest train station and was not happy to see that it was located on Flatbush Avenue, which was 1.5 miles away. It was only then that I really started to get upset, because I realized that there was no way I would make it back to Manhattan before 4 PM. I had no other options, so I walked.

I made it to Flatbush and took the train back to Grand Central. When I got there I had 10 minutes until the next Metro North train left for Poughkeepsie, so I quickly phoned Cafe Boulud and told them that I was not going to be able to come in. After that, after not eating since breakfast, and not using the bathroom since around the same time period, I got on the train back to Hyde Park. I was miserably defeated.

However, after talking to my chef, I feel a little bit better. She swears that she has done things a lot worse than not showing up. So I emailed the woman who is in charge of setting up stages and explained what had happened. I'm still waiting to hear back from her, but hopefully I can reschedule my stage for an upcoming weekend.

The moral of the story? Do more research. And don't always trust technology, because it is stupid.