NYC!

Thursday, July 17, 2008
I never thought we would leave the house! My mom kept putting things in my suitcase, a little old lady at the gas station took 10 years to move, and I forgot to print off our airline conformation number. After picking up Alex, we were finally off to Jackson. We got to the airport in plenty of time and both flights go well, although I'll never understand why we had to fly to Dallas to get to NYC. Anyway, we land and get to the hotel, which is surprisingly not that bad. Will and I talk and we learn that every single showing of The Dark Knight on Manhattan Island at midnight, 12:30, 3:30 AM and 4:00 AM are all sold out, so no movie for us. He still came up from Brooklyn to spend about an hour with us in Times Square. We meandered around, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the city. Alex was amazed at the number of people out at midnight. We bade Will a fond farewell as he went downtown and we went uptown. Day One was complete.

Friday, July 18, 2008
Thes was the day we just fooled around Times Square. I got my morning Starbucks (Tall Light Mint Mocha Chip Frap with a shot of Expresso!)and we went to M&M World, Virgin Records, Borders in Madison Square Garden and Central Park for a nap on the giant rock at Central Park South. We also ate at Ray's Pizza (My goodness, I love Sicilian Squares!). At about 5, we made our way to the Richard Rodgers Theatre, home of In the Heights. We were hoping to get lucky in the lottery, but we failed. We did, however, discover the location of the TKTS booth and bought tickets for Legally Blonde. Omigod, this show was really, really good. Laura Bell Bundy was absolutely a-mah-zing, and I also have dorky theatre crushes on Christian Borle and Richard Blake (even though his character is an ass). Nicolette Hart has joined the cast as Brooke Windham, and she kicked butt! Just as good, and funny, as she was when I saw her as Maureen in RENT. Paul Canaan made my day. He was so adorable on stage, and I want to be his best friend. At the stage door, someone next to me asked him who was going to be the next Elle Woods, and he told her that HE won the whole show. it was very funny. Day 2 had come to a close.

Saturday, July 19, 2008
We woke up, I got my coffee, and Alex and I wandered around the Upper East Side until we found the Sony Wonder Technology Lab. It would have been fun if the whole place was open(3 of 4 floors were closed for construction), but since it was free, I'm not complaining. We tried our luck at In the Heights again, but failed for the second time. That was OK, though because we had tickets for Spring Awakening that night. Alex needed some cash, so we went back to the hotel. While there, I used my phone and supposedly put it back in my purse. I either missed my purse or took it out again on the subway and misplaced it because 20 minutes later, it was gone. I'm in tears, my mother is telling me to go back to the hotel and see if someone has turned it in, but it's no use. The phone is gone. I've lost my Blackberry. I call my mother and tell her to cancel it, and by then, we don't have enough time to go the The Metropolitan Musuem of Art. We leave the hotel in search of ice cream because I am convinced that it will make me feel better. We get off the subway at 50th and head downtown. As we cross 49th, we see the cast of Spring Awakening exiting the stage door, and I forget about my ice cream search. We stage door, even though we had tickets for that night. We take pictures with everyone that comes outside, and I'm all smiles again. We wander around 8th Avenue until we find Ben and Jerry's, and my troubles are completely melted (well..frozen) away. It's finally showtime. We are in the very back corner of the O'Neill, but since the theatre is small, the seats are great. The show was absolutely wonderful. It was the last night for Skylar Astin, Lilli Cooper, Brian Charles Johnson, Phoebe Strole, and Remy Zaken. They rocked. I near about died when Skylar started making out with Christine Estabrook during My Junk. At the stage door, everyone looked like rockstars. I saw Johnny Wright again, which made me smile a whole lot. Johnny Gallagher was there too, but he didn't come to my end of the line, which made me super sad. Despite the awfulness of the day, it ended on a high note because Spring Awakening always makes my day better.

Sunday, July 20, 2008
Sunday was kind of a lazy day. We slept in and tried for In the Heights one more time, but failed miserably. We wandered around Times Square, trying to decide on a show to see, and finally pick Spamalot. We spent the afternoon at Madame Toussad's Wax Museum, and had an absolute blast. One of the best places to spend $30. We still had some time before the show, and we were hungry. We made our way to Hell's Kitchen, and found a burger place called 5 Napkin Burger, and it was really good! The burger was huge, and I ate as much of it as I could. Spamalot was wonderfully hysterical. I love Stephen Collins and Drew Lachey. The work so well together! I don't think I've ever laughed so much on Broadway (except during the Skylar/Christine Makeout session). They even broke the mystical 4th wall, by bringing the audience on stage and having a sing-along at the end of the show. Great fun was had by all. We ended the day with cheesecake at Lindy's, and it was delicious. It was another good day.

Monday, July 21, 2008
It's my Birthday! Alex and I get up super early to get in the student rush line for Spring Awakening, in hopes that they'll have some onstage seats available. Getting to the box office at 8:15 was worth it because we were 3rd and 4th in line, and we got the onstage tickets! I got my coffee, and we heard from the wonderful Adam Hembree. We meet up in Little Italy, and have lunch at my favorite pizza place in all of New York City: Lombardi's. After lunch, we wander around Little Italy, Chinatown, Soho, Lower Eastside, and Greenwich Village(that's a whole lot of walking!). We got some ice cream(because it was so damn hot), and being the brilliant, graceful person I am, I spill ice cream all over myself. We wander to the nearest subway, and say bye to Adam as we go uptown and he goes down. We get back to the hotel, only to find that our key won't work. We get security up to our room, and we finally get in. Because we are tired from all the walking, we take a short nap before we have to be back at the O'Neill. We get up, go to the theatre, and the new cast is wonderful! I adore Andy (the new Georg)! Gabe (Otto) has such a clean, beautiful voice that he can give the rockstar edge with the flip of a switch. the new Anna and Martha are great. The only one who seemed a bit nervous (but was still awesome, nonetheless) was the new Thea. I just have this image of Remy Zaken completely owning the role, that change become difficult.
I must digress for a minute. I ADORE, LOVE, AM AMAZED BY Gerard Canonico as Moritz. I love the kid anyway, but oh my God!!! His characterization is so different from anyone I've ever seen in the role and I absolutely adore it .
Now I'm back. I beg Alex to let me go to the stage door because I want tell Gerard how awesome he was and to buy his band's CD. I told him it was my birthday, and I got the CD!...for half off, now that I think about it, but oh well. It's amazing, and Taking Chances is my new Favorite band.
I wish I could say our day ended here, but it didn't. We got back to the hotel, but we were still locked out of our room. We waited for another hour and a half but no one could get us in. The front desk put us in another room for the night and we finally got in the next morning.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
It's our last day. After we finally get back in our room, packed and showered, we go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The place is massive and filled with things of pure beauty. We spend about 2 1/2 hours there. We try to go to Serendipity 3 for lunch, but we didn't have time for a 45 minute wait. We had a great lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then head to the airpot. That's when more drama begins.
We get to the airport and our flight has been delayed 30 minutes. No problem. We board at 6:25, and we wait. And wait. And wait. We don't take off until almost 9:00. We later learn that the Atlanta airport had been shut down because of bad weather; and then LaGaurdia had been shut down for some unknown reason, and THEN flights from JFK had been diverted to LaGaurdia. I was not a happy camper at this point because I was ready to be home and I was certain we had missed our connection in Atlanta and we would be stuck there for the night. As it turns out, we didn't miss our connection, and we landed in Jackson at 12:30 AM. My bag, however, was the last one taken off the plane, so we couldn't leave until almost 1:30, putting us home at about 2:15.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip!