On Monday night I found out that my boss at the Barking Dog decided to give me a week-long break because "I seemed stressed." Although I really wasn't stressed and I really didn't want a week-long break, it was kind of nice because I got to do things in the evenings that I don't normally get to do. I went to see "Peter and the Starcatcher," a "prequel" to Peter Pan, on a whim. I entered the $30 ticket lottery and lost, but I got a "lottery loser" ticket for $50. It's more than I normally like to spend on theater tickets, but it's a lot less than I would otherwise spend on that particular show because they don't have student rush. I got 8th row seats and the show was great! I found myself thinking in a British accent afterward.
On Tuesday night I decided to see the new Spider Man movie about 10 minutes before it started (we have a movie theater 5 blocks away), which was awesome! I am now a big fan of Andrew Garfield, and I was already a huge fan of Emma Stone. The dialect was incredibly clever and the acting was fantastic.
On Wednesday two of my friends from Hagerstown that I met working at a Young Life camp two years ago, Rachel and Ashley, came up to visit me in da big city. We went down to South Street Seaport and ate at Uno's because it was the cheapest option there. The food was excellent, though! I got a delicious salad with blueberry vinaigrette and a great pizza. We had a great view, and during lunch we got to watch the trapeze artists at the trapeze school next to the water. After lunch we went down to the Staten Island Ferry and rode it over to Staten Island and back for free--there was a b-e-a-Utiful view and it was about an hour-long ride total. After that, we headed over to lower Midtown and met Rachel's aunt at a hotel because she also happened to be in New York for the day. While we were sitting in the hotel lobby, it started pouring. And this wasn't just your average New York rain. It was hailing, pouring, you name it--it seemed like a hurricane. We ended up spending a little more time in there then planned. Rachel and Ashley were heading back to Baltimore at 7:30 on Greyhound, and it was around 4:00 that we started planning the rest of the day in accordance to their leaving from Port Authority. I kept saying that I wish I could come with them until I realized, "what's keeping me here?" I didn't have work that week, so I could go with them! I went on the Greyhound website and the tickets were only $17, so I decided to come back to Baltimore with them and bought a bus ticket! I didn't even go back to my apartment to pack--I had enough clothes at home. We realized that the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon, so we sprinted to the subway, getting drenched along the way. We ate dinner at the McDonalds in Times Square (Rachel had coupons!) and then went over to Forever 21 to find some new, dry clothes for Ashley to wear on the bus ride. By now it was about time to walk over, so we went over to Port Authority and waited for our bus.
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| The Crazy Crazy Rain Storm. |
Let me tell you, going back to Baltimore was about the best idea I had all week. It was just what I needed. My dad was in upstate NY visiting family, so I got some alone time with my mama. On Thursday my mom and I went to lunch at Miss Shirley's, which was fanTASTIC. I had heard a lot about the restaurant, but I had never eaten there myself. I had a sandwich with cheese, turkey, yellow and red tomatoes, and bacon. It was DELICIOUS and I had to eat it with a fork and knife. My mom had a special grilled cheese with goat cheese and strawberries--I know it sounds weird but it was really good. For those of you reading this who are from Baltimore, I strongly recommend heading over to Miss Shirley's ASAP. After lunch we went shopping for my mama since we have a few vacations coming up. On Thursday evening my mom and I rented the film Safe House. I had an internship last summer at Taylor Royall, a local casting agency. While there I helped out with the location extras casting for Safe House and had heard a lot of good things about it since then, so both my mom and I were eager to see it. It was a little too action-packed and had quite the complex plot, which isn't really my style. To be honest, I had some trouble following the plot. But I'm not really a fair judge for those kinds of movies--my mom liked it a lot!
On Friday we went to Loco Hombre for lunch, a Mexican restaurant which is in the same strip as Miss Shirley's. The food was good but not great. After that we ran some errands until it was unfortunately time for me to get on the bus. My friend Madison from high school was coming up to visit Melanie and me in NYC that night and we were fortunate enough to get on the same bus up to the city. Not quite so fortunately, my mother had a bit of an accident and fell in the parking lot, fracturing her elbow! I felt really bad leaving her, but Mrs. Awalt (Madison's mother) was kind enough to bring her to the hospital after Madison and I got on the bus. She has to be in a splint for the next two weeks, but aside from that all is well.
Saturday was our only full day with Madison, so we really tried to pack in a lot. We went down to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Melanie's favorite place to take her guests. We ate at a place called "The Fat Goose," a cute little lunch place with a very limited menu. At first I was worried about the size of the menu, but I decided to go with the BLT. It was so delicious! Sometimes I'm hesitant to order BLTs at restaurants because they can be bland, but they added some sort of dressing to the sandwich that really sealed the deal! After lunch we went over to "Smorgasburg" for dessert, a weekly Brooklyn Food Market right on the water. They had all sorts of yummy and exotic foods. I got cereal-flavored ice cream--it had a milky-flavored base with raisins and corn flakes. It was pretty darn good! The three of us ate our ice cream on the little beach with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline that Melanie and I visited earlier in the summer. After that we shopped around a bit (Williamsburg has great thrift shops) and then headed up to Chelsea for dinner. By the time our food came, we were exhausted from the day's adventures. We decided to call it a night and took a taxi (which I never do, but made an exception this time) back up to the UES and rented the movie 21 Jump Street. It's a great movie--hilarious!
On Sunday I went down to Midtown with Madison to drop her off at noon. I thought I'd see a show afterwards, so I went to a couple theaters until I could find tickets. I ended up at Nice Work if You Can Get It, which is currently starring Matthew Broderick. My high school acting teacher, Mr. Briante, knows someone in the show (Stanley Wayne Mathis--he plays the police officer) so I texted him telling him that I was seeing it and he was able to get me a backstage tour last minute! He told me to go to the stage manager at the Stage Door and give them my last name, so I headed back there a few minutes after the show. I didn't see the stage manager, but shortly after I got there Stan came out and started calling my name. I yelled to him to get his attention and he came over and gave me a hug. He said, "why didn't you come backstage?" Did he really think I was just going to waltz to the backstage of a Broadway show? I told him that I thought I was just supposed to come to the Stage Door, so he immediately took my hand and brought me backstage. And just like that, I became one of those people whom I always envy that get waved backstage from the Stage Door after a show. We passed the female star on the way and she was very sweet. Stan made sure to introduce me to everyone we passed. Then we got to Matthew Broderick's dressing room. Stan yelled, "Matthew, are you presentable?" and I heard a "yes!" Stan then led me in and introduced me to the one and only Matthew Broderick. He was very nice and we talked for a little about how I knew Stan, etc. Stan and Matthew started joking about some bloopers that they made in the performance that I saw--I thought it was neat to hear them talking about that, but I hadn't noticed any bloopers! After my very generous and exciting tour, I headed over to go to church at the Apostles Church Union Square location. I still really enjoy that church and I think I'll stick with it through the school year.
On Monday I tried out a dance class at Broadway Dance Center. It was a Theater Jazz class, so we danced to music from The Lion King,Bye Bye Birdie, etc. I wanted to take a Beginners class but at that particular hour they only had an Advanced Beginners class...and I think next time I'm going to hold out for Beginners, if you catch my drift.
On Tuesday I had a rather epic day. I haven't written a blog in two weeks, so I haven't gotten to write about the fact that my hours at Barking Dog have been significantly cut down. They hired a bunch of new waiters, so I wasn't working as much. They had been keeping me hanging for the last two weeks, so finally on Tuesday I decided to quit. I walked over, picked up my check, and quit. I was pretty proud of myself. Although it would be nice to have that job for the next week (I'm leaving NYC next Friday), it's really a relief.
On Wednesday I went into Midtown to sell tickets. I was out there for two hours and sold 3 tickets...not great but also not too shabby. As one of my co-workers says, it's more interesting than staying home and you usually get money--so it's a win-win situation. OH, and I totally forgot--I got offered a comedy ticket sales job! I'm not going to take it, but one of the people selling comedy tickets near me came over at one point and said that she was a manager and she has two open positions and she liked me "gumption and fearlessness," and she offered me ajob. Apparently she's really picky, so I was quite honored. On Tuesday night I saw an Off-Broadway show called The Last Smoker in America for a very cheap price...the website that I got the tickets from, Studentrush.org, offers us very cheap tickets as long as we don't mention on any websites, etc. exactly how cheap the tickets are. But if you live in NY, I would definitely recommend signing up for the email list! The show wasn't that great, but I'll see anything for the price I paid.
This morning I got up at 7 am to rush for the show Once,which won the Tony award for Best Musical this year. I waited in line for an hour and a half--part of that time spent in the rain--only to be told that they were sold out when I got to the point in line when there were only about 5groups in front of me. Dang it!!! I'll probably get up earlier someday next week to make it count and try again. So I headed back home and took a shower--an ice cold one. Our hot water was turned off for some reason so that when I turned the hot water faucet, literally nothing happened. No water came out. I think I was in and out of that shower in less than 2 minutes, screaming the whole time. After my nice, relaxing shower, I got lunch with a friend of mine from Fordham at a place on 85th & Lexington called Lili's--a Chinese restaurant. I definitely recommend it! I got my Chinese staples, miso soup and friend rice with chicken. The servings are HUGE, so there were plenty of leftovers for dinner tonight :) After lunch,Melanie and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX in Times Square. It was EPIC and SO GOOD. Awesome. Strongly recommended. Strongly. That is all.
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