The end.

Okay, I have a really bad memory, and I've been home for more than 2 weeks, but I am now going to try my best to remember what exactly we did the last three days in New York.

Wednesday:

The day after we got home from Boston, we got up kind of early to try for Shakespeare in the Park. Unfortunately, we got there later than the rest of NYC's population, and missed the ticket cut-off by about 1000 people. Ay me. On the way out of Central Park (or what I thought was the way out), Patricia caught a glimpse of the lake and rowboats... well, naturally, she insisted we rent a boat and we ended up walking halfway around the lake trying to find the boathouse. Then it cost like $12 or something.

Anyway, it turned out to be fun. Perhaps a little too romantic for the two of us, but we made do with Titanic reenactments and tunnel explorations. Of course, Patricia was happy to do all the actual rowing while I sat back and got a tan. Thanks, mac.

Um, I think this was the day we also hit up Chinatown for some shopping? Yeah...and SoHo, where we met some hippies selling their artwork. They were so funny and strange. We both ended up buying something from them, and Patricia even got a free poem out of it. 

Oh, we also bought more books, but don't tell my mother.

Thursday:

We finally saw the Statue of Liberty, wooo. We opted for the free Staten Island ferry view and skipped actually going to the island, especially since no one's allowed up past the pedestal anyhow.

Then--Coney Island. First things first, we grabbed delicious food from Nathan's. Patricia got one of their famous hot dogs but I was craving a cheeseburger and so got that. We also shared some chili fries. I think 2 weeks later I am still full.

Then we went on the INSANE Coney Island rides. I almost lost my purse and everything in it on the first ride. Then we went on the famous Cyclone roller coaster. TERRIFYING. Also, when we got off and sat down to breathe, I realized my water bottle popped open in my purse and drenched everything! That sucked. A wet purse is no fun. Then we went on this upside-down ride that's like the Hammerhead at Knotts Berry Farm, except way more intense and scary.

I think all these rides are illegal in most states.

It was a fun time, though, and I think it was worth the hour-long subway ride each way.

Friday:

Friday we went to Chinatown again because Patricia needed a necklace. Then we wandered through SoHo, ending up at the Cupping Room, a cute little restaurant/bar/bakery. It was expensive, but delicious. We even got dessert. Yum.

Then we went home and packed. Yuck.

Saturday:

On Saturday we FINALLY went to see Patricia's prospective culinary school. It was SO HOT on this last day that we wanted to die. Oh, we also got lost for an hour or so and had to call and reschedule the appointment. They were cool about it though. We took the tour and got the whole spiel. Then we wandered about looking for some food and also Pashminas that Patricia desperately needed to buy. We ended up being in the wrong neighborhood for tourist shopping, so hopped the subway to Rockefeller center. 

It started raining on us in Times Square, but we were fine with that because it was at least a little cooler.

Unfortunately, though, by the time we headed back to the apartment, it was just as hot and humid again, to the point where we were sweating so much that we each took a second shower before we left for the airport.

Did I mention our plane was delayed an hour? It was.

Then our taxi was 20 minutes late and we had to haul our stuff out in POURING rain.

Then at the airport we had to repack some things to be under the 50 lb weight limit.

Then in security my NBC carry-on pack split in half!

Then we had to walk a mile to find our gate.

Then they didn't let anyone board for a while.

When we finally boarded, we couldn't take off for TWO hours. I would have slit my wrists, but razor blades aren't allowed on planes.

So we ended up spending a restless flight, cramped in our seats with all our stuff, and landed in LA 3 hours later than planned. 3 AM-ish for CA, 6 AM for us.

In any case, I am home. I now sleep nonstop. I had fun. I am happy.

I fail.

Okay, okay. Eventually I will tell you how I finished up the trip, but for now, there are pictures!

Boston pictures are up, and pictures from our last few days (in Central Park, Coney Island, etc.)

Enjoy.

Boston Tea Party: Amy and Patricia-Style

^^That was lame.

So we just got back from Boston. We stayed there three nights, in Michael M.’s brother’s apartment. He is 29 and rich.

After a 4 and ½ hour bus ride on Saturday, the M picked us up and we hopped on the subway, dropped off our stuff at the apartment, saw the view of the city from the roof, and then walked over to a pizza place, Santarpio’s, for dinner. Michael M. claimed it is the best pizza in Boston, and it truly was very delicious.

Then we headed to Back Bay (home of Berklee School of Music and Boston Conservatory) to meet up with other people at his friend Phoebe’s apartment. We basically had a mini-party with these strangers, which turned out to be fun. We didn’t get back to Michael M.’s place until 7 AM, after waiting for the subway for an HOUR because it didn’t start running until 6:30. The station was cold, we were exhausted, and each of us kept thinking we heard the subway when we didn’t. It was a sad and delirious hour.

So we slept from 7 to 1, showered, and then headed off to eat lunch at this big hall with a bunch of food places. Kind of like a food court, except none of the food places were chains, and it was all really good. Better food than a typical food court. Me and Patricia had clam chowder in bread bowls from “Boston Chowda.” REAL New England clam chowder! It was so good.

Oh, also, a statue of crazy Samuel Adams was outside, which I thought was cool.

Then Michael M. took us on the Boston Freedom Trail, which takes you to all the historical/colonial/revolutionary war sites in the city. Now, when he said we were going on the Boston Freedom Trail, I thought it would be like you get a map with the historical sites marked and you just go to each one, but it is actually a physical red brick trail on the sidewalks leading around the city. This blew my mind. Apparently the whole trail is more than 2 miles long. I think we probably walked a little more than half of it.

We saw Paul Revere’s House, The Old North Church (where he lit the lanterns to warn that the British were coming), some old graveyard with a gate that was unfortunately locked, and Bunker Hill Monument. The Old North Church has cubicles (see pictures), which I found strange, but also one of them had a plaque claiming Teddy Roosevelt sat in it, which I thought was way awesome. Of course, I sat in it for a moment and tried in vain to contact his spirit. Didn’t work.

We ended up convincing Michael M. to take us to Cheers for dinner. The original Cheers! Good cheeseburgers.
Then we met up with Phoebe again, but only stayed in Back Bay for a little while before heading home.

Then we were supposed to leave Monday afternoon, but Michael M. said we could stay one more night, so we did. On Monday we slept in (me and Patricia, anyway), then ate huge burritos at this Mexican place. Me and Patricia could only eat half of them, but took the leftovers with us. They came in handy when we were sitting in UMASS waiting for Michael M. to get out of his Spanish class. We sat in the student center and went on Facebook and ate our burritos for like 3 and ½ hours. We had nothing better to do.

Then we went home and hung out all night.

And today we hopped the 4:30 bus home, drove through a thunderstorm that then produced a beautiful rainbow, and pulled in to Penn Station around 9. Me and Patricia both admitted to be relieved to be back in the city. We kind of feel at home here, I guess. Just kind of. Boston was strange. Cool, but strange. The NY subways are easier, and we don’t have to deal with Michael M.’s “travel anxiety,” which is when he power-walks everywhere and yells at us for not keeping up. He forgets that we have little legs and heavy backpacks. In any case, we very much enjoyed Boston, especially the colonial stuff, but in comparison, we are much more comfortable here in Manhattan and Queens (never thought I’d say I was comfortable in Queens).

But I will miss the wireless internet of Michael M.’s apartment. Back to writing blogs on Word…meh.

Oh, so on the way to the E in Penn Station, we saw the first Taco Bell since California! We were so excited that we stopped and ate there. Now I have a headache and don’t think I’ll stop being full for at least 10 hours. It was only one burrito too…so I think the problem was really all the Pringles I ate on the bus. Woops.

Also: I got my favorite cat-call ever today! These dudes we passed on the way to the house from the subway said I looked like Alicia Silverstone. Ha! Thanks, nice creepers! Usually we get hisses and kissing noises and “sexy sexy” etc. I prefer compliments like that.

Anyway.

We have only 3 full days left in NYC, then we fly out on Saturday, landing us in LAX at midnight. We still need to see Shakespeare in the Park, Patricia’s prospective culinary schools (kind of the reason we came here in the first place), the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, Coney Island, Greenwich Village, and the Meatpacking District. We also need to buy another suitcase and souvenirs for people. And we want to go back to Chinatown and Soho.

I think tomorrow we’ll do Shakespeare and shopping. No more sleeping in!

Speaking of which, I am now exhausted. I'll do pictures tomorrow instead.

Goodnight, moon.

BUGS.

An exposé on the insect problem of Jamaica, Queens.

Boston post to come either tonight or tomorrow. 

Later.

The Quest for Conan

I need to catch you all up on the past 3 days. Ahem.

TUESDAY:
Oh, my friends, let me tell you my tale of woe that is Tuesday. Thank God I didn’t actually write this Tuesday when I was beyond exhausted/bitchy/pissed off, because that would have been a depressing blog. Now I am in much better spirits and am actually now very capable of laughing at myself. Finally.

Why was I so exhausted and pissy? Because me and Patricia skipped sleep Monday night, started getting ready at 5 AM, and got to Rockefeller at 7 AM to get in line for standby tickets for CONAN, only to be informed nine excruciatingly long hours later that they would only be taking 15 people. We were numbers 19 and 20. Ouch.

Needless to say, I was crushed. CRUSHED. Wahh..

The only good thing about Tuesday was that we met Billy Ray Cyrus! He happened to be walking down the street where we were in line at about 8 AM, just leaving the Today Show (which is literally just down the street half a block). He is so handsome…sigh… (of course we got pictures)

Also we met this really REALLY awkward Canadian guy named Craig who was visiting NYC by himself. He was in line right behind us. He was nice enough to save our spots and not steal our money as we ran down the street to see Billy Ray, so we invited him to wander around with us after we got our numbers. He suggested Harlem, so we agreed to go with him.

An hour bus ride later (should have taken the A Train, we realized a day latee), we arrived in Harlem, wandered a bit, and then happened upon the APOLLO. We talked to the chick at the merch desk for a few minutes, found out amateur night was the next night for only $15, so we both got tickets.

After Harlem we split from the awkwardness that was Craig and hung out in Central Park for a couple hours. Then we forced down some really really bad coffee (thinking we were about to see Conan), made ourselves nauseous, and THEN found out we didn’t make the cut. Shit.

We went home, depressed and sick and tired, and passed out. I’m not sure how long I slept Tuesday night, but it had to have been more than 15 hours. Bliss.

WEDNESDAY:
So yesterday we slept in till 3:30 or so, then got ready for Amateur Night at the Apollo, which turned out to be AWESOME. We got to boo people! On guy got booed off the stage halfway through his rap. A lot of the others got boo’s, but not enough to get yanked. It was a very fun night.

I also discussed Boston with Michael M., and it has been decided that we will stay with him Saturday-Monday instead of Thursday-Saturday. Yes, this offered us a new opportunity to try for Conan!

THURSDAY (TODAY):
We were going to try to sleep at least a couple hours last night, but what with phone calls to people and eating dinner and stuff, I only slept for half an hour and Patricia didn’t sleep for any. We started getting ready at 2:30 and got to Rockefeller at 5 AM, BITCHES.

Yeah, we were shamelessly the first ones in line. The barricades weren’t even up yet. Neither was the sun. It was FREEZING. A cool moment occurred when they filmed something for the show right near where we were sitting in front of NBC. A giant inflatable Conan! And I mean giant. (see picture above) If you watch the show tonight, you’ll see it and find out why it’s there.

Well, long story short:

WE GOT INTO LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN!!!!!!!!

I’m still recovering from the shock and joy and love and happiness ahhhhhh…..

His studio is soo small and his legs are soo long. Dude.

Max Weinberg is touring with Bruce Springsteen, but the band was still awesome and La Bamba was way cool and Pender is a badass.

I was so overwhelmed with love and delight when Conan came out for the first time before the show to talk to us that I may have looked like a giddy schoolgirl to everyone else. Maybe I am. We may have made eye contact once, me and him. Oh, love love love.

I also screamed really obnoxiously after everyone else had stopped clapping when he first came out for the monologue and he HEARD ME and he made fun of me! It was ammmazing! I nearly died. I’m still dying.

What else? He is just as amazing as I thought he was. Thank God.

I bought too much stuff in the NBC store, but people do crazy things in the name of love.

I think the shot glass was a necessity.

Don’t you?

p.s. all pictures in picasa to your right!

Psychics and Stars

Happy Father’s Day!

If you’re wondering what I did yesterday, don’t. I don’t think I need to tell you about sleeping in till 5, only to fall back asleep (after eating breakfast/dinner) until 9:30, and finally waking up again, watching the end of the Notebook, and crying.

Because we slept so much yesterday, me and Patricia found ourselves wide awake at 4:30 AM with the uncomfortable prospect of getting up early for church on the horizon. So we decided to just not go to sleep. Instead we read books, ate cocoa pebbles, and…well, actually… that’s it, now that I think about it. Hm.

At 6:30 we started getting ready and were on the train by 8:30. We caught the 10:15 mass at St. Patrick’s. My first Catholic Mass, and it was in a huge and BEAUTIFUL cathedral in New York City on 5th Avenue! Strange how things work out. For my first mass, I enjoyed it and thought the more traditional aspects that don’t exist in my church were interesting and cool. Although I did feel like a child at times, glancing at people (mostly Patricia) out of the corner of my eye to know what to do, when to kneel, when to make the sign of the cross, etc. The only thing I didn’t like was that tourists were using camcorders during the service, and during communion! Communion, people? Seriously? Have SOME respect…

For lunch we went to Friday’s, BADLY in need of some good ol’ fried appetizer goodness. We ate way too much, and ended up hobbling over to Bryant Park to read and digest and write postcards and soak up some sun and NYC-on-a-Sunday-afternoon atmosphere. We happened to sit next to this guy who we accidentally made friends with when we first asked him where to get stamps and then proceeded to carry on one of our normal conversations with each other, which he apparently thoroughly enjoyed and was entertained by. We discovered he was studying for an exam at work (some stock/Wall Street/money job) and was 31, though he didn’t look any older than 24 or so. I’m not sure how long the three of us sat there, him studying and occasionally cutting in, and us talking to each other and occasionally feeding white pigeons a stale bagel. Maybe 3 hours? Finally he left and a little later me and Patricia, now much less full, wandered away trying to find a place to buy postcard stamps.

Well, we didn’t find any FedEx or anything, but in our search did accidentally find a street fair on 6th avenue! Lots of jewelry, handbags, food, crafts, etc. Me and Patricia did both buy really beautiful glass necklaces, though.

Then—okay, you’re not going to believe this—we got our fortunes told by a psychic! It was only $5 once we made ourselves seem so poor that she lowered the price, and it was fun, if nothing else. Apparently I’m going to be successful at a young age, be married once, have 3 children, 2 of which will be twins… among other things. Jeez. Twins? No thanks.

Then we were about to take the subway to Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking District, when we look across the street to Radio City and see the RED CARPET for the Tony’s, complete with photographers, news crews, bodyguards, screaming fans, and barriers.

Of COURSE we got in on that.

We squeezed in at a part of the sidewalk where the cars and limos stop to let their people out, so it was really a pretty good spot. It was made better when, due to the hysterical squealing at the tiny glimpse of Daniel Radcliffe I got between someone’s arms and neck, the two ladies in front of us let us move up to their spots and have a better view! I guess Patricia claiming that he’s her “future husband” and me exclaiming proudly that I saw Laura Linney’s hair made them take pity on us or something. Works for me!

Here are some of the people we saw tonight:

1. Dan Radcliffe
2. David Hyde Pierce
3. Laura Linney
4. Bradley Whitford
5. Cheryl Hines
6. Julie Chen
7. The lead singer for some band everyone else seemed to have heard of but not us?
8. Lily Tomlin
9. Glenn Close was there but I couldn’t see her
10. THE BROADWAY LION KING CAST! (!!!!!)

It was so way cool to even be in that crowd though! It was sweaty and exhausting, but a good tale to tell. And we found it by accident, too!

When we got home I promptly passed out at about 9 (would have watched the actual Tony’s but the roommate was ASLEEP when we got home at 8:30 and we couldn’t turn on the TV GAH). For some reason I woke up at the split second that the roommate switched off the lights, and then could not go back to sleep, once I realized I was still in my dress and makeup and wearing my contacts and also was kind of hungry.

So now I am up and Patricia is asleep.

Whoa as I typed that she woke up. Freaky.

Stuffed Beasts and Sugary Sweets

Happy Friday the 13th!

Today we went to the American Museum of Natural History. It was way cool. I felt like I was on a field trip, except without the chaperones.

I took SO many pictures, which are up on picasa in the link to your right. We saw so many stuffed beasts, skeletons, replicas, miniatures, etc. The best parts were the dinosaurs and the stuffed animal dioramas. We spent so much time looking at and taking pictures of dead animals it was ridiculous. Much fun though, as I’m sure you’ll be able to see from the pictures.

Unfortunately, it closed at 5:45, so we wandered the Upper West Side. What do you know, right down the street from AMNH is The New York Historical Society! They have this kind of museum thing, which offered free admission on Friday from 6-8. Well, lucky us, it was 6:30! We popped in, took pictures of ourselves as colonials and of a guillotine and then popped out, but not before I bought a super cool hat that will undoubtedly make an appearance at the soonest suitable theater party USC has to offer in the fall. I’ll make it work, trust me. (Pictures of me and Patty wearing said hat on picasa)

Then we wandered through some rich residential streets and found ourselves by accident at Verdi Square, which happens to be in You’ve Got Mail! And then we found Grey’s Papaya, yet ANOTHER [delicious] You’ve Got Mail location! I can’t believe my luck… and H&H Bagels and Zabar’s just the day before! If you were wondering, Grey’s Papaya’s hot dogs are truly as good as everyone says. And so so cheap. 2 franks and a drink for $3.50! Of course, that’s what we got. A frank apiece and we shared the drink. It was orange juice.

Oh, before that, while searching for a restroom, we also stumbled upon this darling [yet expensive] bakery called Buttercup Bake Shop and I just couldn’t resist, so I bought a brownie and a peanut butter cookie. I already ate the cookie, but may have to hold off on the brownie until my stomach can handle it…aka, tomorrow. Patricia got a piece of carrot cake that turned out to be ginormous. I know she’ll have fun eating that over the next 5 days.

In other news, a few minutes ago I finished reading a book that almost drove me to tears! I am so distraught by the unfairness of this ending. I will no doubt be in recovery from heartbreak for the next 72 hours (at least). So sad. So, so, so sad.

No plans as of yet for tomorrow. Goodnight, lovelies.