Serendipity

The theme of the week and the cafe I'm at withj Wahima. Also a John Cusack movie.

Sub(?)way

We're actually above ground, en route to Coney Island for some skee ball and a Nathan's hot dog.

Lottery Tickets

Well, today started off on a pretty sour note. We hustled down to the theatre district to try to get tix for Wicked. The train we were on the longest had a broken ac, and it was miserable. Then we got there too late.

We went to Sarita`s for mac & cheese, and then over to Greenwich Village, where I got separated from the guys via a miscommunication and was standing there wondering if Aaron knew I didn`t have my cell phone (he was carrying the bag).

Then we played phone tag with Wahima and ended up trying again for Wicked tickets. They have a line where you go and they draw names to be anble to purchase the front two rows of seats. We did not win (shocker). While we were on our way there, the engineer on the subway came on and said something about smoke coming from the back of the last car- which happened to be ourcar. So we had to switch trains.

I did get to see The Lion King, and that was beautiful. Now it`s much later than I wanted to be up, but that`s the gist of it so I`ll leave it at that.

let's try this again

ok, this time we actually made it to the line. there are 34 tickets up for grabs, and it's on a lottery. there are 4 of us and we are just hoping one of our names gets called so two of us can go.

s'mac

thanks, Dottie! this is bomb!!!

Wicked

Nothing like riding a subway train with broken ac and hustling through times square to get to the theatre and miss even the chance to get tickets via the lottery. :(

Day 3

It's hard to believe yesterday was only our second FULL day in NY. But I guess that's partly because we ended up staying out until 1am on our first night here after getting in at 6:15!

Yesterday was mostly spent recovering from Monday night. We started moving towards the city around 3:30pm.

First stop was the little deli/restaurant that Joe's family owns. His aunt insisted we go down there and get some food before going to Manhattan. Then we made our way over to Target for a few necessities before hitting the TKTS booth to get some discounted tickets.

The best option at the booth was Spamalot for $60. The tickets were in Orchestra, but had partial view. We couldn't decide if we wanted to go ahead with them or not, and we ended up going back up to the windows a few times after talking amongst ourselves and trying to figure it out. At first they didn't have any two seats that were together, but by the last time we went up they had just gotten two sets of two tickets, and they were actually pretty close in proximity to each other.

The show was "okay", but just okay. I'm a big Monty Python fan, so I guess I had greater expectations for the show than I should have, but whatever. If I can get these boys to get a move on we can try for $25 tickets for Wicked via the lottery, and my Broadway theatre experience can be redeemed!

I'm off to get ready and to try to wake up three sleepy and cranky guys. And don't think me unreasonable, it's 10:40am and I've been up since 9:30.

No pics

Well, no pics again tonight. Maybe tomorrow, if we get in at a decent hour.

So far, so good

There are so many iconic places to see here, it`s actually ridiculous. I`m definitely getting a lot of mileage on my camera, and it`s really fun to try and capture these places on "film."

I really want to post pictures, but I`m still getting used to my dad`s tiny comp, so I`ll recap with words and then post pics this evening.

SO, yesterday we went to get standby tickets for Conan O`Brien. Which meant we were all at Rockefeller Center around 7:30am, what should have felt like 4:30 to us, but thankfully we were super adjusted to the time already. They don`t hand out the "tickets" until 9am, so we were standing around for quite a while. While the rest of the troops held our place in line, Aaron and I went and checked out the Today show people. Once we finally got our blue tickets, we still weren`t guaranteed a seat. For that we had to come back at 4:15 and pray that at least 14 people who had reserved tickets for the show wouldn`t make it.

Once we had secured our standby ticket spot, we walked over to the NBC studio store and then to Nintendo World. We walked around at Rockefeller, and then made our way up to St. Patrick`s cathedral. Talk about breathtaking! The outside is gorgeous, but then you step inside and it`s a whole new level of beauty.

Side note here. When I post the pictures you will see another guy and girl consistently in them. These are not just random people we met in NYC. We actually discovered a few weeks ago that two other Cal Poly theatre friends would be here at pretty much the same time as us, so we`ve been hanging out with them on and off. Then, when we got here, Joe informed us that yet another CPP grad would also be around in the BIG city. We had already let Carlos and Samantha know we would be here, so we hooked up with them Sunday night.

Dave, on the other hand didn`t answer his phone when we called, and we weren`t even sure he was still around.

So imagine Nathan`s surprise when he`s just walked in to the cathedral, and comments about how remarkable it is, and turns around to see Dave standing there. Coincidence? I`m going with no.

We finish up there, Dave and Sio have plans for the day, but we agree to meet up later at a dive bar Samantha found.

We headd over to Little Italy to get pizza at America`s first pizzaria, Lombardi`s. Then we got some rice pudding from this over-priced trendy little joint called Rice to Riches, and to Ferrara to get gelato for Aaron. Then there was a lovely walking debacle with trying to finf the right Subway station, but once we were finally on we still had plenty of time to find the Flat Iron building before we had to get back to the Rock for Conan.

Obviously we did make it to Conan, but unfortunately Kelsey Grammar apparently got shuffled around and the other guests weren`t great. It was still fun to see Conan himself, at least.

When we were done at the studio, we walked over to see Carnegie Hall and then went on some bad directions in search of Gray`s Papaya for hot dogs. When we were back to the M&M store at Times Square, we knew we were doomed. But, we were spotted by Samantha`s mom who recommended we go to Sbarro fr dinner, that they had a good price on a buffet. That was disappointing, and expensive for Nathan and Joe (they charge by weight of your plate), but we were hungry so we made do.

We walked over to the giant TS Toys R Us and wandered around, then started making our way over to the bar to reunite with the rest of the CPP people. Once everyone got there, we were just amazed at how it could have happened. Seriously, we couldn`t have coordinated a trip like that if we tried. PLUS Carlos talked to Wahima, who`s MOVED here, only, she just got here last night. It`s crazy, I tell you.

While at the bar we met and befriended Ion and Gabriel, and had some awesome conversations with them, plus they gave us good tips for where to go and what not to pay for.

Then we walked down to Gray`s, and I`m so glad we didn`t end up eating dinner there. Yuck! But there was a man named Charles there who was homeless, and Aaron and I ended up having a pretty good talk with him, too.

At about the time we started walking to the subway station across the street, we realized Joe had had a bit too much of the sauce. W!hich left us to figure out the trains back to Queens. Oh yeah, add to that that it`s 4 in the morning so some trains aren`t running and some stops are skipped.

A good hour fifteen and four transfers later, with Aaron and Nathan tending to Joe and helping him up and down stairs, we got back to the house at 5:30, just in time to see Joe`s aunt leaving for work. And, at which point, we had been out in the city for over 23 hours.

It`s almost 2pm here, Nathan`s still asleep, and Joe was working on a crossword puzzle, but apparently sleep was calling him back. Once we rally the troops, we`ll go get some mac and cheese per Dottie`s recommendation. Joe says it`s good hangover food. :P

Watch tonight AND tomorrow

So, we got into Conan. You may catch a glimpse of us tonight, but we also got held after to shoot a piece for tomorrow's show, so watch then, too. Can someone tape it in case we're there?

Sandwich Shop

Clever...

Conan O'Brien

Well, we finally landed yesterday around 6:15. Then we hopped on to a train and made our way over to Joe's aunt and uncle's house in Queens. Which, when you're hauling luggage on and off of subway trains and through turnstyles is no easy task. Then we had to walk up a "nice" little hill. Once we got unloaded and slightly cleaned up, we hopped back on the subway and headed over to Manhattan.

Thanks to Joe's cousin we headed to the best hilail place, a stand on 53rd and 6th. Check out www.hilailguys.com. Aaron and Joe learned just how hot the hot sauce was, and then we walked to Times Square.

We finally ended up getting to bed at 1:30.

Now we are waiting and hoping to get standby tickets for Conan. I hope we get in, tonight's main guest is Kelsey Grammar, and then the musical guest is The Ting Tings.

We also walked over and took a peek at the Today show. I have lots of pics to post later!

So how is the weather?

Well, at least we're not the only ones sitting around in allentown, pa waiting for the weather in NYC to clear up. We circled around for a long time before we just got too low on fuel to make it in to JFK.

The people behind us are whiners, and the captain has an English accent and promises to update us every 15 minutes, so we're keeping entertained. PLUS we each have the coolest media setup... more on that later. :)

NYC!

Well, Aaron and I are off to the big apple in 3 days. I can't believe it! Finally!

Anyway, keep an eye on this blog if you want to know what we're up to, I'm planning on documenting all of the exciting details.

We leave at 7:15am Sunday and return the afternoon of Sunday the 3rd.