Tuesday - BROOKLYN!!

Amie joins us!!

We had fun at the Daily Show Monday night, I couldn’t believe that we got tickets, and I’m so glad that everyone else had a good time there too.   I looked for tickets on a whim, and then jumped on them without asking the group just because I was afraid of them going away – BP said that it was cool to see anything taped, and he was funny – but she wishes that we could see a show taped….   Ummm..  We just DID see a show taped…   “No, I mean to see a REAL show taped... “  -  “Daily Show is a real show”…    “No, a real show.. Like Friends”…   well we would have to go back in time for that one.  We’d need a TARDIS!  (Wonder where we could find one around here??)   I realized we didn’t do a word of the day for Monday – and not that you were missing it – but it was pretty much our TV day.  We did the NBC tour, got on the Today Show for a nana-second, saw the Daily Show taped, and then walked over to David Letterman’s theatre.   An accidental theme!

We like hearing from you guys out there in reality… Brandy McCoy, I’m glad that we’re blowing up your facebook page between the 5 of us – we weren’t sure if you knew that we were in NYC.  ;)   And Stef Russell – we appreciate you joining in on the verbing creating, she wished us all “Happy New Yorking”…   but the most real of all was my old roomie from Gallaudet, Amie Fredericks, *actually* coming into our little bubble to say hey!   She found a babysitter for her two little ones, and took a 90 minute train ride into the city to hang out with us for a few hours!   We’ve always stayed in touch, mainly when the Amazing Race is on because that was our favorite show to watch together back in the day – but we hadn’t SEEN and touched each other for 7 years.   Hard to believe that it’s been that long!!

Today is kind of what we're calling our Brooklyn day.  We want to eat at Grimaldi's pizza which is near the foot of the Brooklyn bridge on the Brooklyn side, we want to walk across the bridge, and go to a shop over there that BMc has on her list, and go to a bar called "The Way Station".  It has a Tardis for a bathroom!  C'mon!   It is a bar though, and it doesn't open until 4 - so we may have to go back over for drinks at some point if we can't get it in today.  So the word of the day is “Brooklyn”.   McKay has told Mr. McKay that today is Brooklyn day and he responded “No! Sleep!  Til BROOKLYN!”…  A little later Dana says “Well, if you can make it here you can make it anywhere.. “ – so they’re trying to make a case for this being called “Lyric” day.  But that will have to be decided later.  Becki and I are writing out own lyrics, but that was actually yesterday so I don’t  think it counts as part of our lyric challenge.  Its the Tomato, tomata song...  We were talking about our different body temperatures ... I love it cool, that's why I sleep in the basement...
B:  oh I do too...
S:  Oh see?!  Something in common!
B:  I use an electric blanket...
S:  Oh.  I use a fan.

I got up about 6 today and finished up the Monday blog - I haven't posted it yet because I like to read it to the group and let them help me remember things and fix stuff I got wrong.  But it's now 8:30 and they're all still sleeping.   BP's alarm went off at 7:30 (and again at 7:40) so I thought that she was getting up.  But no, not really – she told me later that she DID get up and take a shower after her alarm… she got up at 8:30 and showered…. I’m not sure that I can see a direct cause and effect relationship once an hour has elapsed.   Dana claims that I just don't sleep - and I do seem to be the last one to bed and the first one up every day.  Not sure about Becki though, she could be in the running.

I’ve been in touch with Amie about when and where to meet up, and we’ve decided that we’ll meet her at 10ish at the metro stop right by our apt because that’s the line that we want to take downtown today.   But at this rate, she may be coming up to the apt while everyone gets ready. I'm not sure how long people need to be ready or if they've already set alarms...so I’m a little cautious about actually waking them up.   It all works out in the end, I’m not worried about a strict time schedule, just want to be sure that we get Amie in the right place at the right time.  I’m actually the hold up in the end – I wanted to get the Monday blog posted before we left because it was done and we were going to be gone all day, so we took another minute or two for that to get posted, and in the meantime Amie came up to the apt to see it. 

There is an interesting phenomena that we have called "The Brittany Delay"..  Doesn't matter which one.   We’ve been talking about it for a few days – but today is the first time that we actually tell the Birttanys about it.    Here’s an example, we're walking along, heading to food trucks on Friday and Becki and I spot Bloomingdales.  I say, oh the Brittanys are going to squeal over this is.... Count, 1, 2, 3.. "ooooh, hey guys!! Bloomingdales!!".  But it happens every time that we’re out an about because we’re walking a little bit ahead and they can’t hear us very well.  So it’s not a blonde thing – just a "great minds think alike, but just a little bit later" thing.

The most eerie one was the other night when we walked past the pizza place where BP and I found the good slice and cold coke.  Becki and I are walking a few steps ahead - but just ahead.  I say, "this is where we had pizza last night..."  (1, 2, 3...  we here “This is where we had pizza last night”).  Becki and I chuckle.   I say, "ok let's test this one... “This is where we sat..." (1, 2, 3... “This is where we sat...”).  Whoa.  Exact words and everything… Pretty cool.  It happens a little today also, and I bring it up because now they know about it. 

On our way over to Brooklyn we stop at Washington Square Park – it’s right off the line that we’re using to get to Brooklyn, and we didn’t want to get to Grimaldi’s too early, but we’re aiming for about 11 or 11:30 so that we get lunch, but we miss the big rush.  We get off the subway and come upon some crazy shops – we of course have to check us (and Becki and Amie) in – and then decide which direction we should turn.  I think I need a compass here to help we get my bearings.  When you emerge from the subway it’s easy to get turned around.

We find Washington Park Square and the first thing we see is the chess area!  That was one of our goals, so that’s cool!  I get a few pictures, but Brittany wants to play chess with herself – just like the old guy from the Pixar short movie.   That’s a fairly easy photoshop job, so we take pics of her on each side – I just sent her the resulting picture, so I’m waiting to hear her squeal.  Here it is… what do you think?  There were a few people actually playing chess there, and they looked at us like the tourists that we were... 

CHESS in Washington Square Park

We head further into the park and see the Arc – it’s based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but was built to honor the victories of George Washington.  It’s also the first thing that we really see in NYC in “When Harry Met Sally” – this is where they part ways after the long road trip across country.  There is a puppet show happening, and Beck considers sticking her feet in the fountain… but we’re fairly quickly on our way.  On our way back out of the park BMc notices a guy with a chess turn timer, sitting alone… “He’s playing with himself!”  (you see, she’s excited because that’s what she wanted to do, and doesn’t yet realize that what she’s said might carry another meaning)… but she got it pretty quickly when we all busted out laughing.

The Arc

We get back on the train and head across to Brooklyn, BP gets us a map
of the system, we needed that!  yay BP.

We walk to Grimaldi's from high street and the view of the Brooklyn Bridge is just gorgeous.  We can see Tower One in the background too. We get in line and its about 12 now, a little after when we wanted to be there, but we're about 20 people back in line and its moving
quickly.
I'm always at a loss for what to order on a pizza here, I'm not a good topping decider, I need like set pizzas to choose from like a margherita or the house special or meat lovers... But McKay is really good at it.  I declare her in charge of ordering pizza.   We get 2 small pizzas, at six slices each that means that we all get one slice of each kind (since we’ve added Amie we’re a part y of 6!  One was a mushroom and ricotta (loving his cheese on a pizza!) and the other was pepperoni and extra cheese.   Their mozzarella isn't grated, so it's nice "blobs" of gooey cheesy
goodness.  Delicious!   Becki used to live in Italy and so she speaks/understands a little Italian (or “EYE-Talian” as BP likes to say it) – and she’s dying to hear Becki speak a little eye-talian… we are more focused on getting BP to stop saying EYE-talian.   She doesn’t say “EYE-taly” (no, of course not, that would be silly)..  ok try saying “Ital… lian”    Nope.  It’s a no go.

Its been great to catch up with Amie!  So impossible to believe that it's been 7 years since we've seen each other! She has to catch her train back at 2:00 from Grand Central - so she has to head out. Hugs!  (and I get comments about how weird it is to see me offering hugs ... What ev.)

The Bridge, and Grimaldi's (the white building)

Are you tired of pizza yet?  Nope.

Junior's Cheesecake

 

Now we head to Juniors for cheesecake – We haven’t really planned our Brooklyn trip to be the most efficient, we’re just going from place to place by plugging in the next address into google maps on our phones.   We take the bus to Juniors – and each time we struggle just a little with the way the metro card goes in the machine.  If you try and follow the picture, that people with a 3^rd grade education could follow, then it seems more confusing – there are also arrows on the card to tell you which way to do it.   And yet, we struggle.   Juniors is like downtown Brooklyn – we go in and ask what is their most popular cheesecake, there are SO many to choose from -  an apple crumble, red velvet, carrot cake, raspberry, strawberry shortcake, fresh strawberry “pie” (which confuses us since it’s cheese CAKE)… but that one turns out to be the most popular.   So 3 of us order it.  I’m picturing just a cheesecake with fresh strawberries over it – but it comes out and its actually like a layer of cheesecake and then a layer of strawberry pie!  Way yummy!  Becki gets the raspberry and BP gets the red velvet – and the layer of cheese cake in the middle of that is just solid and crumbly and perfect.  If we get cheesecake again (WHEN we get cheesecake again) I’m just getting the plain.  Gotta be a purist on this in NYC I think.   As soon as everyone gets their cheesecake we’re taking pictures; Dana, Becki and BM are posing together with their plates, and just as I’m about to snap it, Dana’s plate up ends and her cheesecake is suddenly splatted (new verb) on the table – her mouthing gaping open.  Now I am the queen of schedenfraude, but even I could not take that picture… we assured her it would taste the same and she gets it back up on her plate.   Take two!  But if you look, you can see the red remnants of the crime scene on the table.

Hot Subway

Sad face!  Closed!!

 

We head back to the subway (google maps is SO our friend),and head to “Lee Lee’s Valise” – it’s a second hand clothing store that Brittany has seen on reality tv and really wants to go to.  It’s quote a trek to get to this one it feels like, but we’re truly in no rush because it’s about 2:30 and the bar that we want to go to doesn’t open until 4:00, so we’re right on schedule.   We get there and as we approach we see bars on the front – it’s a Tuesday afternoon…  and it’s CLOSED.   Britt reads the hours on the sign and, oh yah, they’re closed on Tuesdays.   Of course they are.  Who would be open on a TUESDAY – what are you, some kind of weirdo thinking that a store would be open in the middle of the week like that?    BM is sad, we feel just a little defeated that we worked so hard to get here (the trains were just especially slow, and the subways just a little more steamy.   We’ve also had some weird experiences on the subway – one homeless guy in particular was going along and asking for money, but he was singing to people and droning on and on and on – I thought BM might just lash out at the guy as he made his way toward us.   He looked just a little impaired.

But we back track toward the subway, and on the way we see a bathroom in a nearby park.   From all accounts (didn’t experience it first hand), it was the nastiest bathroom on the planet.   And BONUS, on the way back, Becki see what seems to be a red ball bouncing on the roof of the bathroom… wrong.  WATER BALLOON – bouncing toward her and SPLAT!   Nice.  

 

Back on the subway and now we’re heading to “The Way Station” – for the specific purpose of seeing a life sized, nearly functional (if not for it’s original purposes, definitely as a bathroom) TARDIS.   Now this is where you ask, “Susen, what is a TARDIS?”  - well it stand for “Time and relative dimension in Space” and it’s a Time machine/space ship of Doctor Who….  And it’s at this point that people usually ask, “WHO???”  - Exactly.   It’s a television show on BBC (It’s British, ok?!)…   anyway BP, BMc, myself and even Becki are Whovians and when we saw this on Facebook we knew that we would be making a trip to Brooklyn.  

Get off the subway and there are a lot people sitting out in front of their stores people watching as we walk by.  One guy that was on the stoop said, “Hello again ladies” as we walked back by him on the way back.. and there was a guy handing out flyers as soon as we get off the train, and BM tells him that we’re from out of town – and when we come back he tells us to have a great time while we’re here.   Brooklyn seemed very friendly and in touch with their surroundings.   There was one scary moment when the Brittanys thought that they saw a guy conceal a weapon in his pants as we walked by – I didn’t see it – but Dana said that it was coke bottle, not a gun.  

Jim and the TARDIS (with props)

Anyway, back at the back…  they have drinks on the menu that are Doctor Who drinks – (only people who know the show will know what this means, but River Song and Captain Jack have drinks, as well as Sonic Screwdrivers for the 10^th and 11^th Doctor).   We have to try one of each, of course – so Becki gets a River, I get the 11^th and BM gets the 10^th – we love them all, and they’re so BRIGHT and colorful!   We get our picks with the Tardis, and we’ve been chatting up the bartender, or he’s been chatting us up, or whatever.  But we learn that he’s from St. Louis!   Born and raised in St. Ann!   He hooks us up with props to pose with the Tardis, and even poses for a picture with all of us with the Tardis.   Dana is a little afraid of the sonic screwdriver (it extends), and is not quite sure what it is – but her mind is in the gutter.  Jim, the bartender comes over to our table and talks to us and tries to think of things for us to do while we’re here, but once we tell him where we’ve been and what we have planned for the next few days, he’s pretty speechless, “Wow, you guys are doing a lot – I don’t have anything else to tell you to do!” – that’s because we rock (in case you were wondering).

The green is 10th Doctor, red is River, and orange is the 11th

It’s now about 5:30 – we hit the Way Station at the perfect time, just as it opened, and now it’s still light out.  Becki is “marathoning” on the way back to the subway and the Brittanys are being pretty vocal about how fast she’s going.   We try to slow her down by telling her that her shoe is untied, but it’s only a momentary advantage before she has once again pulled ahead.   At the subway station I have a little issue with the turnstiles that are like grated revolving doors – I slide my unlimited metro card, and then push through, and it locks up!   I’m still on the wrong side of the turnstile – and now my card won’t work because it’s recently been used.   I was a little panicked at first because it didn’t work, but more so because I didn’t see a machine to but another ticket, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to get anywhere.  But then I see one and buy a single ride ticket and this time I make it through alright.

Just gorgeous!  That's the new WTC tower in the back ground

The sun doesn’t set here until about 8 or 8:30, so we have plenty of time to find the pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge so that we can walk across it.   I’ve been here a few times and this is something I’ve always wanted to do but never got the chance.   It was totally worth the wait!   The walkway across is wooden, cars zooming by below us, Manhattan skyline stretching out in front of us, and the beautiful structure of the bridge above us!   BP and I hang back and take our time, taking lots of pictures – Dana and Becki marathon across, even running at one point to be able to say that they ran on the Brooklyn Bridge, and BM was somewhere in between.  

The Bridge

GPS Tracking of our walk

The bridge was amazing – beautiful!   Great experience!   We walk off the bridge and start walking to a train that we can ride uptown (Dana starts singing Uptown Girl, but I tell her that I’m not sure that we have enough lyrically references to qualify this as “lyric” day… we’ve had 3, and she had 2 of them).    We find a bathroom at Checkers and make a small purchase for the right to use it – had some toilet paper issues – but manage to get things take care of.   We’re in the home stretch now, and good thing cause we’re BEAT!   Long day of subwaying and walking all over Brooklyn!   When we started out this morning they asked what we would do after we were done with the bridge, but they’re not asking that now.  J   We’re so ready to be home. 

The Brittanys make a small detour once we get off of the train and they head to Staples to print off the order that BMc made for the Cake Boss.   She ordered a crumb cake from there and is going to pick it up tmw morning!     

For dinner we decide to chill at the apt and order in.  There are SO many choices of places that deliver to us – BP orders Chinese, BMc and I get Mediterranean (braised lamb for me, yah, baby!) – and Dana and Becki make sandwiches.   We thought about going back down to the plaza below and getting some frozen pink lemonade, but that doesn’t happen.  We are tired and our feet are swollen from being on them all day (all week!) -  I don’t blog one thing and I go straight to bed – zzzzzzzzzzzz….

Wednesday is Cake Boss and Tribes!!  

BP personal Chinese buffet

Monday - Day 5 in NYC!

We see you!

The empty plaza...

 

We had to deal with a couple of crises off the bat this morning.   First of all, we’ve been awfully concerned about our neighbor in the next apt.   The newspapers are piling up, and sometimes we hear strange noises… we’re waiting for strange smells to emit from under the door.   But today the newspapers are gone – and there was bustling about and noises.  Some of us suspect foul play.  Worth mentioning for the record, just in case it comes to something.

Our second crisis was more personal – last night (Sunday night) we did a couple of loads of collective laundry, but failed to notice that they closed (and locked) the laundry room at 10pm every night.  The hours clearly state 8am-10pm, and not to leave your laundry unattended.  Well, it’s directly across the hall – so we feel that we’re kind of attending it… but now it’s locked up and while we can see it through the door, there is a little concern that people will take it in the morning because we left it unattended.   BM sets an alarm for 8am so that she can go over and get the laundry as soon as they open up, but her biggest problem is just getting out of our own door.   There are double locks, and in order for the door to open, BOTH locks have to be unlocked at the SAME time.   Tricky, I know.  We hear a series of turning and clicking, that goes on for a little while… we know what to expect next, BMc come back into the bedroom to Dana.. “I can’t get ooooout”.   But it was a great effort.

We start getting up and getting ready and it’s raining pretty good – by 9ish, we’re all starting to stir.   I’m typically the first one up (unless you count Becki, who I sometime wonder if she’s slept), and then Dana, and then the kids.  We are treated once again to the dulcet tones of Bm singing on the shower..  I recommend her cover of “Rumor Has It”.

Last night we had a little time to review our list of stuff that we still wanted to do, and the list is long, but doable.   We nixed Coney Island for this trip just because it’s an hour train ride each way, and I just kinda want to see it.  Wanted to eat a Nathan’s hotdog at Nathan’s, see the beach and the boardwalk and the rides… but maybe with everything else that we want to do we don’t want to spend 2 hours on a train just to get a hotdog and see the beach.   We’ll see – but it has moved to the bottom of the list.  

We don’t really have set plans each day – it’s always fluid because if we feel like we’re done for the day then we head back.   There are only a few things that we are working around, like today we had tickets to the NBC tour at 11:30, and we have tickets to get tickets to the Daily Show at 2:30.  Thursday we have tickets to the 9/11 Memorial, and Wednesday night we have tickets to Tribes and Wed matinee will be our last chance to try for Harvey tickets.   I looked online at regular tickets for the show and they’re $140 each and there aren’t many seats left – the show with the most seats is Wed afternoon, so if we’re first in line at the TKTS we may have a chance.   We still need to do things like Central Park, Washington Park, Empire State Building, Cake Boss, maybe a Yankees game, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, eat at Katz’s Deli, breakfast at Tiffany’s… and a few other things.  So we’re trying to organize things geographically to be more efficient – but we will be getting our money’s worth from our unlimited metro pass.

We leave the apt by about 10:15 to head down to the NBC studio tour - we have tickets at 11:30 and have to check in by 10:55.  Becki is running on empty, didn't sleep well last night after our exhausting day so she drools in Starbucks’ windows as we walk past them. We get to 30 Rock and check in and then decide to head down to the Today Show window because they’re still filming the 4^th hour with Kathie Lee and Hoda.   We see the back of their heads in the studio as we cross the street, and a Today Show barrier right behind the window, so we walk up it and I start taking pictures..  VERY shortly after we step up we are asked to clear this area, and we step over to the other window where there are about 10 people waving in the window.   We’re fairly sure that we were caught on camera looking like goofballs before we were asked to move.  Patti has confirmed that she saw us walking up to the window – and then they probably did an edit to get us out of the shot.  I must say that every officer that asks us to move or be somewhere else is very polite about it.  They don’t have tone in their voice like we’re idiots, you really want to help them out by moving to a different place.  We take our new place with the other people at the window, but BP totally clears out because she doesn't want to be on tv.
But she's so cute.  I ask, and according to Britt, seeing them through layers of glass totally counts as our "meeting" a famous person for the day.   We’re doing pretty well.

They wrap up filming and we head over to the NBC store again, we need snacks and Becki needs caffeine.  She is quite daring and gets a green apple jamba energy drink.  Tastes like a
green apple jolly rancher – very puckery.  We'll see how effective it is.   There is also a Red Mango frozen yogurt here!  Best.  Yogurt.  Ever.  This is my plug for Red Mango, there is one in Kirkwood, and I think one in Chesterfield, if you have not heard of it or tried it – you MUST. The flavors are intense (sparkling, even) and the toppings are just as amazing.  We are definitely getting some Red Mango after the tour.  We also plan to eat after the tour, but we all get snacks to tide us over before getting in line.

ENERGY!

Tickets!

N B C!

The city below...

 

We feel official now because we have lanyards for our tickets – we must carry our tickets in them and keep them visible the entire time.  In front of us in line, we are joined by the team from captain obvious.   There is a video montage of NBC moments and they must comment on EACH show as it appears, naming it and giving commentary like, “Friends!  Oh, I love "Friends".  Then, “That's Harvey Milk, he was the first openly gay mayor”.  Becki and I exchange pained looks and then discuss how grateful we are to have someone that we can turn to and just with a look know exactly what is happening – whole conversation, right there, one look.  I think the most painful comment to my ears was, “Oh American Graffiti, Star Wars directed that”…   His name isn’t Star Wars.

We getting ready to start and we get “The Rules”.  I’m ready for a list of what to do, not to do but the guy walks up and down the line a couple of times and all he says is “No weapons”. This is heavily emphasized as if someone actually takes weapons.   I guess people actually take weapons which is a little scary.   Its also a rule that you have to have your cell phones off (collective energy will interfere with their broadcast) – which I think is hoooie – there are thousands of people in this building, all with phones, a group of 20 people will disrupt broadcast signals?  I think it’s just a way of ensuring that we don’t take pictures or video, which is also a rule..  we’re a little sad by that.   You can take my weapons, but don’t take my camera phone.

We enter a little theatre to watch an opening movie on the first 100 years of NBC, and it’s hosted by our friend Lester Holt!!  He's everywhere that Lester.  And this time the girls recognize him without prompting.  We get to see the set for the nightly news with Brian Williams.   The last time I went on this tour (2 years ago) there was an actual functioning newsroom behind his desk.   Well, they've since moved him to a new studio that also houses his show “Rock Center” and because Americans hate change, they put a screen behind him and on it they project a loop, the same loop every night, of video of a newsroom.   It's all fake.  So look for the same people sitting behind him in the same clothes, doing the same thing every night.  And if he turns his desk, there is another screen where they project a looping video of a control room, look for the lady with the coffee cup.  Apparently she takes quite a few drinks from it.  ;)   Even when he does Rock Center he’s against a wall of windows, and whatever skyline is out there behind him is all fake.   The only show that has real windows is the Today Show and it took a lot of technology to make that happen – if you have real windows on a set then you have lighting that you can’t control and every time a cloud passes over you have to reset lights – that’s expensive.  So they have cool technology that helps them at the Today show, they have layers of screens that they lower or raise to adjust for the natural light.    The only time Brian has actual live events happening behind him is when he stands to do the news and there is a wall of screens behind him that show the street view out in front of 30 Rock.   Watch for it!

We head to the Dr. Oz set next and the daughter from the captain obvious team is a HUGE fan.   She looks to be about 16 and she’s like “Justin Beiber exicted” about going to the Dr. Oz set.  It’s a little weird. Its teeny tiny - everything looks bigger on tv of course, but there are only about 4 rows in the audience and three sections that are 5-7 rows long – there is only one circular area in the middle where they do everything. And it's soooo cold.  Yes, even I notice that it’s way cold, so you know that Becki is a frozen block of ice.   Our guide explains that because they use more lights than in a normal studio while shooting this show (because they're also lighting the audience members since it’s so interactive) they have to keep it cold.  AC at this temperature would have too much moisture and mess up equipment and lights, so they use refrigerated air!  It's literally like a meat locker in there.  I liked it.  I need it.

We kind of saw the SNL studio (8H), but we couldn't go in because they're using it for a base for the London Olympics coverage.  But we saw it through the large glass windows.   It’s rectangle shaped, a very long set with 3 staging areas. There is the center area that looks like Grand Central, that’s where the guests come out to do monologues – but it was interesting that they also do many sketches in that same place.  Anything with an easy set will be there, like Weekend Update is done right in the same spot as the monologue, same thing with the skits in the Oval Office or she used Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin as an example…   The stage to the right is used for semi-permanent/complicated sets, like things with working stair cases (Wayne’s World, Coneheads) or running water (Eddie’s James Brown hot tub sketch)…  and then the stage to the left is the band and the musical guest.   We learned that SNL is the only truly live show that airs – other shows are live (like the news – who knew) but there is a 7 second delay so they can fix things.   Because SNL airs after 11:30 they don’t have to have the delay.   This was the big mistake that Ashley Simpson made – she thought they had a 7 second delay so that her gaff could be fixed and no one saw what happened.   Oops. 

We didn't get to see Jimmy Fallon's studio because they were getting ready for the show tonight so we were a little disappointed.   I saw it two years ago and was amazed at how small it is.  They said that they trick the eye into thinking it’s bigger by never panning from the band to Jimmy – they always cut back and forth so they appear to much further apart.  They have an area where they show us a video on how they do SNL make up so quickly, and then we’re ushered into a room where two volunteers will do fake news and get a dvd of it that they may purchase on the way out.  We get a photo opp, and posed for pics signing “NBC” and we were just do darn cute we got a copy of it.   We get out of the tour, get our Red Mango (white peach with blackberries for me, white peach with strawberries and giradelli chocolate for Bm and just
plain white peach for Dana), but just as Becki was making a purchase something happened that they claim never ever happens... Their whole system went down.   So we're stuck waiting for them to try and fix it because we were in the perfect stage of the process where it had already been purchased, so they can't cancel it but they can't print it.  Other people in the tours behind us come up and they’re told that they have to check online with their picture number and they can order from there. Eventually they say that they can mail us the pics- but Becki gives them her cell phone number and they'll call if it gets fixed.

We are looking for the restroom and are directed downstairs, below Rockefeller Center, into this secret city. It's massive.  Like a big mall underground – but limitless.  Becki gets Starbucks (there are like 10 people working to wait on 3 people and it seriously takes like 15 minutes).  I told Becki that we were vicariously annoyed for her, and that this stuff they made must be precious liquid.  We check the map and head down the inner pathways to go get Chinese food.   Seated is limited – but we’re told to go out and to the left… but still nothing, and in the meantime Becki has a call about our picture, it’s ready.   So Becki and Dana head back up to get the photo and the rest of us head outside to eat it in front of 30 Rock...  Again limited seats, so I sit on the curb and Becki joins me for a moment, until again, very politely, we are told that we can’t sit on the curb.  

It's so nice outside - cooler than inside for sure, which is odd given the modern technology ofair conditioning.  It's about 1:45 and we need to pick up Daily Show tickets at 2:30.  Actually we should be there before 2:30, when they hand out tickets, because there is no guarantee we get in.   They overbook every show to ensure that they have a full studio – so we could get there and not have tickets.   We decide that instead of all 5 of us going and waiting in line for tickets that we may not get, that just Dana and I will go since it’s our names on the tickets, and we’ll let these guys finish shopping in the NBC store.   If we do get tickets then the rest of our party has until 4:00 to claim them, so we’ll just text them and have them come over and get their tickets. Dana and I use our metro card and grab a bus over to the studio and leave Becki with the kids.  (kidding!).   The studio is in an odd place – like just looks like another store along the street, right next to a pawn shop and a Subway (like sandwich shop).   We get there about 2:00 and we get tickets with no problem.

Food Truck!

Baja Shrimp - yum

 

The interesting part about the tickets, that I was SUPER paranoid about, was that there is a limit of 4 tickets per group, and they specifically state in bold AND italic print that if you have more than 4 people in your group, EVEN if you book separately, you will be asked to leave.  So Dana and I keep a little bit of distance between us – I have 3 tickets under my name and Dana has two tickets under her name, and we do NOT know each other.   I start thinking of what if they check our driver’s licenses and see that we’re both from Missouri, will they suspect that we’re really together?   Dana asks if I want her to move back in line … no we’ll be fine.  I’m pretty sure…   We get our tickets and text the others to come and get their tickets (they have numbers to give to the ticket guy and then he’ll just hand them over).   Dana and I wait in the Subway, and then we’re kind of careful not to walk in groups like we know each other while we’re in the sight lines of the ticket guy.   It’s silly.  They couldn’t care less honestly – but it was in bold and italic… they all want to make sure that this makes the blog so that everyone can chuckle at my paranoia.

In our absence, they have finally found and eaten at a food truck!  The Sweetery NYC, and BM had a red velvet whoopi pie, BP got a snickerdoodle, and Becki got a brownie, and they were all warm…    they also say some lady back her very expensive car into a phone booth (there is debate over the kid of car it was, maybe a BMW, or a Mercedes, or aLexus depending on who you ask… but it was expensive, they all agree).   Some lady got out of the car while it was still running (for valet) and it rammed into a phone booth – by all accounts a big crash – and she just gets back in the car and drives off.  I know that I have this a little wrong – but it’s the best I can pull together.  J

We have about an hour to kill before the show (they let us in at 4:30) but there is a park just across the street.   There are benches available, but they’re in the sun – and we spot benches in the shade within an enclosed area for a dog park so we decide to go in there.  A lady comes in with her dog – and at first we can co-exist, but she becomes increasingly annoyed by our presence and eventually demands that we leave the dog park area because we don’t own dogs.  I tell her that we do actually own dogs… “Oh yah, well where are they??” … in St. Louis.   We leave, no fighting on the trip – and it’s clearly her dog park.   It’s about time to head back across the street anyway.   Just as we’re lining up it starts to rain – but we’re very lucky that the Daily Show as a huge awning to protect their ticket holders for just such an occasion.

The show is great – we get in without anyone caring that we know each other.  A comedian comes out and warms us up after about 45 minutes, he’s funny – we like him and he teaches us how to be really loud.   Our mikes are set at half the power of Jon’s mike, so we have to be really loud when we cheer or laugh – we can do that.   Jon comes out and chats with us for a while, we’re allowed to ask questions with the understanding that he will most likely use that question as fodder for mockery (all in good fun).  One guy mentions that he’s from Florida which is where the guest is from that night (Senator Mario Rubio) and it’s also where the first Hooters was established – and Jon uses that in the opening.   He gives us a briefing and reminds us that we don’t boo any guest of the Daily Show, even if we don’t agree with them we listen to them and we have a discussion – and that’s why I like the show so much.  We laugh a lot – we learn a lot from the discussion, but we realize that we won’t be on camera.  Our only hope is to be able to watch the show later and identify our laughs.  BMc is sitting directly under a mike, so we think we’ll be able to hear her.

Pomegranete glazed tacos

After the show it’s about 7:15, and Dana and Becki head back to the apt to pee (we’re only a few blocks from our apt).  They decide to do salad at the apt for dinner so they head off to the
grocery store to get salad supplies.   The Brittanys and I had talked about going over to the stage door of Letterman after the Daily Show to see if we could see Emma Stone coming out – but they tape at the same time as the Daily Show and they say the guests come out after the finish their segments, so we’re sure we’ve missed it.   We have been craving Mexican (and specifically tacos) for a while so we urbanspooned (new verb) a Mexican place that was 2
blocks up and 2 blocks over called “El Centro” – we’re in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the city.

We get a nice little table outside and enjoy great food and amazing weather – we all have taco variety plate and get pretty much the same tacos.  These are not your Casa tacos.. they have Baja Shrimp with a spicy aioli, a short rib with pickled cabbage, and pomegranate glazed flank steak with caramelized onions.  So good!  

We are pretty close to Letterman so we walk that way to see his theatre and we run into the theatre where Harvey is playing.   Round the corner and there is the Letterman marquee – we send a pic to Scott.   He’s a fan.   We head around to the side to see the stage door and the Hello Deli – and there is a bag (I heart NY) and an umbrella just hanging there off of one of the barricades set up for the stage door.   It’s a nice bag too – free bag for BP. 

Back at the apartment we just hang out and share our day, try to figure out a plan for Tuesday, and I finish up the blog for Sunday while we’re waiting for the Daily Show at 11 so we can see if we can hear our laughs.   We think we do.  J

In line

Our fancy tickets

Lazy Sunday

The word of the day is LAZY.   Kind of.  The irony is that we set this day aside for a fairly relaxed, no set schedule day, and I think across the board we agreed that it was the day that we all felt the most tired and blah.   I tried to explain the "Lazy Sunday" rap to the others but no one knows what I'm talking about it - it will be a goal to play it for them...  "the Chronic-what-cles of Narnia!"

We start off SLOW – well, Becki and McKay go down to get mani-pedis.  They had been wanting to do that in the city, and after a couple of days on our feet, they were ready.   They just wanted some little affordable place, not some NYC celebrity treatment place that cost an arm and a leg – but I warned them that they also didn’t want to just want into a place that was “cheap” and get a fungus.   They spotted a place just across the street from where we’re staying and Becki looks up the reviews on her handy dandy NYCWay app – and they’re good to go. 

They take showers and get ready, and BMc is excited that everyone is awake so that she “can shower with music”… we’re not sure what that means exactly, until she gets in and we hear the music, and her, singing along.  She likes to shower with music.  

They go for their mani-pedis -  and the place was really nice, affordable and they communicated prices well instead of just doing things and giving you a surprise bill at the end.   Bmc picked out a color that was a “gel” (that’s code for “expensive”) and if she would have used it, it would have cost 3 times the amount that a normal mani-pedi cost (like $97!) -  instead she got green for her fingers and orange for her toes… it’s like Halloween a little – but she looks good.   Becki got purple toes, and had a lady that was going to try and convince her that there was this orange color that would go great with that for her fingers.. UH NO!   Becki is in fear of color on her nails.  Another woman who worked there took her aside and said, “You want French?  I take care of you.” – and then Becki was in the celebrity seat in the front window of the store.  She was the one that people gawked at as they walked by.   So she’s famous now.  And we know her.  J

Meanwhile back in the apt, I was blogging my little heart out (that really long Saturday post), and we were watching CNN.   We see the news about a Mermaid parade that we missed on Saturday in Coney Island.   Dang.  But there looked to be a lot of people and most were weird men who just wanted to see women dressed up as half-naked fish.   So maybe it was a good thing that we were busy.

The girls get back and we all head out for brunch.   Continuing to make new verbs, we are brunching.  Literally our only plans for the day are mani-pedis, brunch, see if we can get tickets for Harvey, and shop a bit.   See? LAZY.   And the things we’re doing are all really close to each other – mani-pedi across the street… and brunch is in the open plaza as you step out of our front doors.    The girls noticed the menu on a placard as they walked by and sent us a pic of the menu and it looked pretty interesting!    They had Frosted Flake French toast, granola pancakes with warm bananas – oh and “orange flowers” - frozen margaritas mixed with mimosas.  Becki and I have one…  and then just one more… We are in love.    We all determine that one of us MUST order the Frosted flake French toast, and then in fairness we order one for the table to share so that we aren’t eating half of someone else’s breakfast.   We get it as an appetizer – hmmm… breakfast appetizer, I think that it’s a new trend that we’re starting.  And when I say breakfast – that’s not really what I mean because it’s like 1:30 at this point.   See? LAZY! 



BMc's green and orange

Mmm, orange flowers



Frosted Flake French Toast

Those drinks are sneaking up on Becki and I – uh, whoa.   We’re thinking now that maybe starting the day off with alcohol wasn’t the best idea after all.  But they’re so GOOD.  I think the biggest mistake was that we didn’t get the water that we asked for, so we were drinking our orange flowers for thirst and not for just sipping and enjoying.   Bmc videos a bit of our public non-sobriety (not really drunk, but not really sober), and notes that she sees the pleasure that I gain from capturing silliness on video.  J

 We’re sitting outside, and the tables are like the iron patio furniture, with holes in it.   Becki is having a hard time with spilling and dripping sticky things through the table (her drink, syrup..) and BP is a little nervous about being dripped on – but she can’t get too close to BMc because her pant leg is “flapping” in the breeze and touching her leg (the nerve!).   She’s feeling a little hedged in.  There are fake owls perched in the trees above us to scare off birds that might fly through and beg for scraps – and on occasion we hear them screeching.  Took us a minute to figure it out.     

We get the bill and we’re dividing it up – this won’t even be funny to anyone but us (and maybe not even to us, but it was really funny at the time).  I’m sorry in advance – but Dana turns to me and says, “You're 12 dollars” – it sounded like an insult, like I was cheap!   Oh yah, well “YOU’RE $12!”… and I point out that she is incorrect – in fact the $12 is for 4 drinks – of which I only had TWO – so I am $6!  So there.   I’m even cheaper than $12.    Becki is struggling with picking up her pancakes to put in the to go box (we’re going to run them upstairs)….  “Help!?”   Can someone watch Becki?  She needs a little assistance here.     I’m a little thirsty… I need water.  BP says, “Well you have a water bottle”… I know.   But I wanted THEIR water that they were supposed to bring to me.  

While we’re sitting there at the table, BP is keeping up with the twitter feeds of all the celebs hanging out in NYC with us  – and Hugh Jackman just posted about us!   Even posted a picture of us!   Well he posted about Tropfest, and posted a pic of the crowd from the stage (and I’m sure that we were in it).  

We head back to the apt for sunglasses (mine), water bottle (BP) and bathroom (all).  There is still much silliness.   Becki and I are in a bit of a state.   BP cannot find her Kleenex box.  She’s quite sure that someone stole it.  It's square.  Not rectangle.  And they're puffs, not Kleenex and she just had them so someone stole them.   The scariest part is that it's only the 5 of us.   There is a thief among us.

 It’s after 3:00 now and we have had brunch – we hit Starbucks on the way to Time Square – Becki and I need caffeine… yah, that’s what we need.    Starbucks!  We should do that.  Now?  Ok!   We are Starbucking.  Becki is standing right behind me but somehow she isn’t the next person to be waited on – seems to be a pattern in NYC and line etiquette.   BP and I were out on Time Square looking for a bathroom (when we were coming back from our time with Hugh), and BP was standing in the line for the bathroom, clearly next – and this blonde chick steps up right in front of her just as the door is opening and gets in there – and then decides that she doesn’t want to use that bathroom anyway, and lets the door shut – it’s now locked.   You have to buy something to pee.   Gotta pay to pee (that’s from Urinetown)  And you gotta be aggressive if you want to hold your place in line in NYC!

TKTS opens at 3:00, and they were saying that Harvey tickets don’t post until 3:00 when they open because it’s only been running for about a week so there aren’t a lot of extra tickets to the shows yet.  So we have to go to the TKTS BOOTH. Soon.  Now...  At least that’s what I say in my head.   On my lips it sounds more like “Soo-now”… the others in my party gain a bit of pleasure from repeating that over and over.   Soo-now…  soo-now…  Try it.  J

We get to TKTS just after they opened.  No Harvey tickets.  Sadness.  We will try for another day.  Or possibly just stalk Jim Parsons at the stage door.   So we truly have no plans today.   We think that maybe we can go back down to the village this evening and check out the shops.  We’ve heard it’s a fun place to be at night and there are unique little shops down there.   For now we head to Foot Locker (not just ANY Foot Locker – *Time Square*, bling bling Foot Locker) so that Becki and BMc can look for shoes.  Becki has a true blow out.  She is in need.   Dana and I have found "the visitors center" (which is what we’ve come to call any place that we can sit and wait).  BP heads off to find a bathroom.  Dana hopes that she can find her way back – this is a girl that turns the wrong way every time we get off the elevator in the apt.   Can we trust her to find her way back to us once set loose alone in Time Square?  But alas, she returns safely to our relief. Becki and BM have success!  They bought shoes and Dana bought a song that was playing while we were waiting...   Becki got purple and BM got green - Matching their nail color?  Hmmmmm….   Dana and BP and I keep checking on their progress from the comfort of our seats, we’re watching the door too, we expect to see them walk out any moment.   Then we get a text from them, “Where are you?  We’re in Toys R Us?”    What????  We’ve for 45 minutes, patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for them to shop and try on and purchase… we waited for them to go to Toys R Us, and then they leave us sitting in Foot Locker?   It’s all good.  We’re just acting cranky for the fun of it.  

Our own personal "visitor center"

Purple for Becki and Green for BMc



We find them in Toys R Us which is just next door.  This place is HUGE!  There is a full sized ferris wheel inside, and 3 floors of kids and madness!   There are more lego displays, huge one of the Hulk that Becki got a picture of, and just lots of fun things to see.   I was kind of in a funk today, starting the day slowly and with brunch alcohol is not something I will do again – and I think that we were just BEAT down from the past two days of running everywhere and doing everything – but I told the others at one point, I think missed a lot today.   There may be gaps in the blog.   Oh well!

After Toys R Us the only other thing that we really wanted to do was shop for cheesy NYC souvenir stuff and there is plenty of that to choose from!   We head to a shop that says that it’s Broadway stuff, and we like that…  it seems that the Brittanys take much longer to make their way through a shop than Dana and I.   So we’ll always be just a little ahead of them.   There is another shop just next to that one and we spend some time in there too.  But then we see this cool street festival on 44^th Street, right off Broadway – so right there at Time Square.   There are tons of great vendors there with tables of stuff from leather wallets and bags, to bracelets, glass jewelry, scarves (BP needs one, she’s a scarf girl!) – and food too.  There are kabobs and smoothies and these odd corn cakes with mozzarella in them (we get one and try it – meh).   I get a new wallet and a cute bohemian style shoulder bag, BP and McKay bought some hair trinkets, Dana got a cute wallet that is SO her – and Becki was looking at these cute dresses!   She haggled her way into a deal and got TWO!   They’re super cute!   This was the best thing – just what we needed.    They closed down at 6pm and we had perfect timing because that’s when we were done too.  



Street Fair!

Cute scarf shopping



I think they're so YOU!

Cute dress!!

Corn cakes - worth a try!

Naked Indian!!

We hit one last store – this huge souvenir shop and we got a few more trinkets for us and for people at home (so we can’t share).   And just as we were getting ready to leave the shop we got the news that our friend Amy Slama had passed.   I don’t feel the need to make any more comments about that – we all dealt with it in our own ways.   We miss her already. 

While we were standing out in Time Square, they noticed the “Naked Indian” – BM decided that since she had a picture with the naked Cowboy that it would only be fair to get one with the Indian – equal time.  

We were so beat!   And after not really doing anything – we went back to the apartment to chill.   On the walk back we see these guys signing at some tables in the plaza next to our apt building.  The Brittanys are sure that they’re Deaf and want to go talk to them… Becki, Dana and I are happy just to get back to the apt.   The Brittanys debate about how they’re going to approach them – just sign next to them or be bold and go up and talk to them?   They come up to the apt with us, but then go back down to get food from this guy who is becoming our favorite vendor (the same guy that gave the free food before).    They got up their nerve and approached them and introduced themselves as interpreters from the St. Louis area, curious about deaf events in the area this week.   They suggested a website for local Deaf events and then BMc told them at that we were going to see Tribes on Wednesday – they love Russell also and seemed to know him.  They said that he was so great, and said that when we go, that Russell leaves out of the front lobby because there really isn’t a stage door, and that sometimes he tries to sneak out.  We will be on the look out!  

We rest up a bit because we want to head back out to Time Square at night – so at about 11pm we’re back up and out on the town.   We head to the M&M Store to grab snacks for us and people back home, and then we went to another NYC store that was across from there.  It was basically the same stuff as the one that we went to earlier, but more expensive – totally going back to the other place to get the things we wanted.    It’s raining – and literally it’s the first time that we’ve been out that I decided to leave the umbrella behind.  Great decision making skills, this one.   So we’re walking in the rain (not singing or dancing in the rain) – and we’re just a LITTLE wet.   We want to do pizza again and the other girls want to try out the place that BP and I went the night before with the super cold soda.   

This time around Dana and I just get a pepperoni, Becki gets a cheese (with mozzarella and ricotta), BP tries the BBQ pizza but regrets not getting the hot wing pizza again, and BMc is very happy with her margarita pizza.   We even try a bit of their dessert – I get a famous black and white cookie (it’s a thing that most of the websites said was iconic NYC and a must try, but it tastes just like a cake/cookie with thick icing that is black and white)… Becki gets the cheesecake (she wins), and the Brittanys get cupcakes that are a little too dry. 

We did a little shopping, had a little silliness – but no naps and we were so worn out!  I didn’t even get this blog written up , but Dana reminds me that it’s not homework.   But if I don’t do it while it’s fresh then it loses a little something.  

Monday we’re back in the swing of things with a trip to the NBC studio tour and the Daily Show!

Modelling for us back at the apt