the Bronx is up and the Battery's down.
the People ride in a hole in the ground.
New York, New York --
it's a hell of a town!"
spent the weekend in NYC.
i think i briefly mentioned this before...natalie randomly called me up and asked if i wanted to go.
HECK YEAH.
so friday morning, we woke up early and went to D.C. to catch a "DC2NY" bus in front of this cute little commuter café....
there was a lot of traffic, but now that i think about it, it might have just been a drawbridge.
about an hour into the trip....i guess we were less than 20 miles out of Baltimore....
we stopped.
because the windshield wipers broke.
(it was down pouring. ridiculously.)
except that the bus driver was just like "pit stop! be back in 20 minutes!"
at noon he told us that we would have to wait for another bus...there was one with 10 seats on it for those who had to be in the city immediately.
that one came after about maybe 40 minutes? 45?
our bus came after that.
but not until 2PM.
we waited 2 hours.
unlucky for me & matthew, we didn't think about leaving the bus to get lunch until the bus arrived.
so we gave up on eating. haha
we played SIMS3 for a while, though.
IT'S RIDICULOUS! i love it. :P
we got stuck in other ridiculous amounts traffic in Jersey.
a little after 6PM, we finally reached the city.
we left at 9:30AM...
we were supposed to get there at around 2PM.
wow.
but all was good!
we drove past Herald Square
(i geeked out like crazy. i think i'm allowed to, considering i got to march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade last fall. haha)
and then got off the bus and into Penn Station.
we rode for such a long long time (about 40 minutes) to Riverdale.
ben picked us up and drove us to the apartment (yes! thank you! it was still raining...)
his parents' "library" apartment (they don't have room in their house for their books) is in such a posh area.
good lord.
the houses in the area are like multi-million-dollar CASTLES.
i want to live there.
we ordered chinese food, played more SIMS3....
and drank a lot.
it was a good time.
we played a drinking game with the pilot episode of "The Office".
whenever Michael Scott laughs at his own joke, Jim looks at the camera, Angela gets mad, Dwight says "assistant to the regional manager" (or something of that ilk), or a prank is pulled, then you drink.
we ran out really fast. :P
on saturday, we woke up, went to breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts (YESSSS!!!), and hopped back on the train.
the Bronx needs to be not so far from Times Square.
i will talk about this again later. haha
we walked around Times Square for a little while, looked at the newly blocked off areas, saw a high school drama troupe pretend to be bronze statues ('twas awesome) and saw the naked cowboy.
then stopped in Toys 'R' Us for a bit.
then stared walking off in the direction of SoHo.
we eventually made it back to Herald Square, where we stopped at Macy's (after i freaked out some more about the parade)
Macy's is AMAZING.
i mean, yeah, in NoVA there are 8 Macy's stores, and even more in the entire D.C. area....
but the one in NYC is AMAZING.
we looked around, then started our journey to SoHO again.
we walked almost all the way to the Flatiron Building, then hopped on another train.
got off in SoHo.
AND IMMEDIATELY WENT TO UNIQLO.
i have been obsessed with UNIQLO since i was 9, and have been wearing it since even longer before that.
we must have spent like an hour...or maybe an hour-and-a-half there.
ben & natalie walked around trying to make conversation with the employees....
only to ask them later "so, would you consider yourself a hipster?"
BAHAHAHAHA.
oh god, i wish i could work at UNIQLO.
it's got an entirely different feel in NYC than in Japan.
in Japan it's all over the place.
it's like Old Navy or GAP or even Target.
everyone owns something from UNIQLO....everyone is women, men, children, teens, elderly, babies, whoever!
in NYC, it's the ONLY store in the U.S. and is like.....
perfect for hipsters?
funny. :P
usually when i go, i come out with at least one massive bag.
this time i only bought a t-shirt & a linen scarf (b/c mom says we're going back later this summer to buy clothes for jeremy...starting 7th grade is a big deal!)
matthew bought so much stuff!
i'm glad he enjoys it as much as i do. i think i've taught him well. :)
we had a snack at the SoHo Café (how appropriate.)
and then hopped back on the train and went to Williamsburg!!!!!
(we almost had to derail our Williamsburg plans because matthew & i spotted TOPSHOP a little too late. oh well, next time!)
WILLIAMSBURG IS INTERESTING TO SAY THE LEAST.
that is all.
haha.
"look at this fucking hipster." was uttered many times.
there were these two really awesome "German" ones.
we're not sure if they were really Germans with thick accents when speaking English, or if they were just being "ironic".
either way, they were talking about denim and cut off shorts and it was HILARIOUS.
ben is remarkable.
he's the youngest out of all of us, but manages to pass as a 25 year old (at 18), so he went and bought us Pabst.
Pabst: the beer of hipsters.
hahaha
so here is where i start freaking out some more:
i think i might have seen Annamarie Tendler leaving the station we were entering.
she passed me on the stairs.
who is this?
she is the designer of Court & Plume.
I LOVE HER HEADPIECES.
but i wasn't 100% sure it was her, so....
i really wish apparition was real, because it would make life SO MUCH easier.
there is a lot involved in trying to get from Williamsburg to the Bronx....
it takes a lot of time.
time we didn't have.
eventually we got back to the apartment and decided to leave again at 6:45PM to get back to the station by 7PM, so that we could get to Times Square by 7:30....
TO SEE HAIR!!!!
however, we didn't leave until i started freaking out at 6:55PM....
we got to Times Square at 7:54.
nat, matt, ben & i sprinted from 42nd & 7th to 44th & 8th.
LITERALLY SPRINTED.
it was like in a movie.
mostly because it was so crowded and natalie kept shouting things like
"THREE MINUTES!!"
"TWO MINUTES!!"
etc.
at 8PM (when the show was supposed to start), we got stuck at the crosswalk.
we got to the theatre at like 8:01PM....
BUT it wasn't too late.
people were still in line at will call.
people including
KRISTEN CHENOWETH.
KRISTEN FREAKING CHENOWETH.
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I FREAKED OUT???!!
i'm a huge Wicked and Pushing Daisies fan.
i almost peed my pants.
literally.
my heart started pumping EVEN MORE.
you would think that after sprinting, you wouldn't be able to take anymore excitement.....hahaha
it was magical.
our seats were in the third row from the back (luckily they were the four on the aisle...i had the actual aisle seat)
but they weren't bad.
you could basically see everything, and the cast members loved climbing all the way to the back.
they messed with us so much.
IT WAS AWESOME.
they chit chatted with me & matthew a bit, played with my hair, waved at us, sat on us, it was.....
just spectacular. ♥
speaking of being able to see everything.....
you know the scene where everyone is naked?
yeah.
you could see everything from the third row from the back on the second floor mezzanine.
EVERYTHING.
at the end of the show, after the cast bowed and the whole theatre turned into a dance party,
CLAUDE CAME UP TO THE MEZZANINE AND TOLD PEOPLE TO COME DOWN.
NATALIE, MATTHEW, BEN AND I DANCED.
WE DANCED ON THE STAGE.
WE DANCED ON THE STAGE WITH THE ENTIRE COMPANY OF "HAIR".
WE DANCED ON THE STAGE WITH THE ENTIRE COMPANY OF "HAIR" IN FRONT OF EVERYONE IN THE THEATRE.
HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN SAY THEY DID THAT!?
well, only anyone who decided to go down to the stage during a performance.
which is not everyone.
:D
if you can believe it....
IT WAS THE BEST FEELING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.
Claude touched my shoulder.
Berger gave me a hug.
everyone was excited.
it was W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L.
best moment of my life.
i fell asleep on the train.
haha.
we partook in more shenanigans.
i read his father's books.
he has a very very very old copy of Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense.
and many many many books about Shakespeare and all of his works (ben's father is a Shakespearian lit professor at Fordham)
we woke up too late on sunday, so we had to skip Central Park and go straight to Penn Station.
you would think we would learn that if it takes 40 minutes to get to Penn from Riverdale, we would leave earlier than we should but.....
anyway, we cut it really close again.
we showed up at the bus stop at 2PM exactly.
luckily, the bus waits 15 minutes before the actual departure.
hahahaha~
this time the trip went without a hitch.
the guy sitting natalie was very attractive, albeit hilarious to watch while he slept. (you had to be there)
ahh....
i'm glad that it was a super awesome super fun trip.
i can't wait to go again.
