I'm back in sunny LA and I couldn't be happier! I survived my 5 weeks in New York City. The dedication ceremony was spectacular, and I had a lot of fun playing tourist more. So, here's a recap of my other four weeks in the big apple.
Week 2
After a long week of work at the 9/11 offices, I switched shows and started work on the American Comedy Awards at the Hammerstein ballroom. I stayed at the Eventi hotel for the weekend, and really enjoyed the location. The theatre was right next to the huge Macy's, Penn Station, and tons of other shops. The theatre itself was pretty historic. The dressing rooms had stickers from old shows that the talent left in the rooms. The backstreet boys sticker was pretty impressive.
The show took place on Saturday. The carpet was setup right outside and thankfully it stopped raining before the carpet opened.
The stage was transformed into NYC itself with a subway station and bridges.
I spent my time assisting Don since his assistant had to fly out of town. During the show, I sat beside Don making sure he knew exactly where we were in the rundown. (The rundown is a document which lists the order of the show including the performances, awards, and the timing they've predicted for each act.)
The biggest comedians were in the house for the show. Pretty awesome to have Sir Patrick Stewart, Amy Poehler, and the guys from Veep there. As soon as the show was over, I got Don into his car and headed back to my hotel. With a scout the next morning, I was too exhausted for the after party.
After a location scout at the memorial, I ventured back to my hotel. I stopped for a bit of shopping and then took the subway up to 51st street to meet my friend Lindsay. We had one goal for the evening: meet Daniel Radcliffe.
Granted, I've already met him while working on the Oscars. A very strict rule in my business is never bugging talent for any photos or autographs as they're working just as we are. Therefore, I couldn't ask Dan for anything last time but this time it was fair game. Lindsay and I waited about 3 hours before he finally came out. While waiting, the other cast members of the play walked out the stage door and took their time taking photos and signing autographs. I was able to get my poster signed by all of the cast members and take photos with a few of them.
We were so crammed, pushed up against the barricades by fans. Dan was super nice and friendly. He took a photo with everyone who asked, and took his time talking with fans and signing autographs. When he got to me, I mentioned working with him on the Oscars and he remembered me. He asked if I had worked on it again this year and how it was. He took my phone from me and took several selfies with me. He signed my poster and then he moved along. It took everything in me not to scream.
After dinner at TGI Fridays with Lindsay, I headed back to the hotel to catch Game of Thrones.
(Someone on the show made themselves a little red carpet.)
Week 3
The third week was a lot of work in the office. It flew by pretty fast though, and I ventured back to Los Angeles for the DGA Training Plan assessment. I didn't make it on to the next phase, but I really enjoyed being back in LA, sleeping in my own bed, and hanging out with my friends. All too soon, it was time to board a red eye flight back to NY.
Week 4
I landed at 7:30am at JFK and took the train all the way to downtown for work. I was exhausted, but I had a hotel room waiting for me that night so I looked forward to some rest. My work that week consisted of prepping to move offices over to the museum. Working with IT to coordinate phones, printers, and internet and working with facilities to coordinate tables and chairs load in. It might sound boring, but it's pretty essential to office life. My hotel room was pretty nice. It had its own living room area with a pull out couch, a huge bed, two TVs, and a shower head that came off the wall. The view from the room on the 18th floor was simply spectacular.
(The view on my walk back from Subway.)
(The view from my hotel window.)
I ate at a nearby Subway so much the guys knew my order. During the week I stayed around the hotel, but Friday night I ventured out towards the water to take a walk after work. The view was spectacular showcasing the Statue of Liberty, Pepsi building, and a lot more.
A while back, Buzzfeed wrote an article about the top places to visit in NYC. They mentioned an Irish memorial that felt like you were in Ireland while standing on it. I found the monument and walked to the top to stare out over the ocean. The grass was so green, the stones were pretty old, and it was fun to explore even though it was pretty small.
After exploring, I stumbled upon a movie theater to see Neighbors. Thankfully, the theater didn't card me since I left my ID at home. I guess I'm finally starting to look older! Finding my way back to the hotel was a little difficult due to road closures, but I finally made it back.
On Sunday, we had quite a few pre-tapes for the show to do. It was Mother's Day, so we wrapped as early as possible. I handled the props for the exterior shoot which were flowers. They smelled lovely in my hotel room.
After the shoot was finished I was pretty tired, but I forced myself to explore more of the city. I hopped on the 1 up to Soho where I went to the Kate Spade store. (Special shout out to my friend Stephanie who got me hooked on the store.) I found practically the cheapest item in the store, a Jane Austin pencil case, for a souvenir.
I wandered around looking at some great architecture, then hopped back on the 1 up to wall street.
The film, The Wolf of Wall Street, made me want to go see the famous Wall Street bull. I found it up near the NY Film school where it was mobbed with people. I managed to con some tourists into taking my photo with the bull. When I looked at the back of the bull I noticed lots of people were taking shots with the bulls' balls. I just had to participate.
YOLO, right? I picked up some Chipotle, and ventured back for Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, there was a hotel issue so I had to leave in the middle of the episode. Good thing HBO loves to repair the episodes so I could catch what I missed later on in the week.
Week 5
It was finally show week on the dedication ceremony. The tension was running much higher and we were all located on the bottom floor of the museum. The climb to the bottom of the museum is about 7 flights of stairs. The elevators and escalators didn't work until show day, so we all got a great workout. We were only allowed water in our office, so we had to climb up to grab food and caffeine. I explored the west village with Ben, Don's assistant one night. We had pasta and sangria at a great restaurant. We hit it just right at happy hour. He took me to get awesome ice cream at Big Gay Ice Cream afterwards. I got the "Bea Arthur" and it was heaven in a cup! This was our last night of fun until the dedication ceremony was over.
The day before the show, Idina Menzell rehearsed her song for the ceremony.
(Idina Menzell rehearsing.)
Unfortunately, she got sick and let us know she wouldn't be able to perform. At 2:50am on show day, I woke up to emails regarding her replacement. Since I was the go to for clearance, I woke up and the emails started flying. I didn't go back to sleep until that night. The show day was crazy, but there was a very odd feeling in the air.
(A pano of the control room.)
When you stepped outside of the production world, the museum was solemn. I remember a moment in particular I felt very odd and out of place. Like I didn't belong there. I was riding down the escalator just as the families and survivors were let in. I rode down the escalator beside them. I kept my head down and kept silent as I didn't feel I should be there to experience this moment with them. During the ceremony I stood in the back of the room to watch. I watched Obama make his brief appearance (if you can call it that), the opening packages, and a few other speakers. I ended the show sitting down in the PO watching on the monitors trying to hold back tears. It was such an amazing ceremony, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room.
Immediately when the show wrapped, we had to start getting out of the museum. It was the fastest load out I've ever experienced. The production office had to be cleared out by 6pm that night as at 5pm they were letting all survivors and families and first responders into the museum to look around. I was in charge of coordinating the production office supplies getting back over to the other office.
(This is how the PAs decided to clean up since they didn't have a dust pan. They used this instead.)
I had PAs help me throw all the supplies into 4 empty and clean garbage cans. We rolled the cans from the museum, across West street, and into the office building. It was pretty hilarious, but we finished really quickly I was wrapped and back in my hotel room by 6pm starting work on my next show, The Huading Awards. Thankfully, I was just putting names into grids so I could enjoy my subway sandwich and work from my bed. Finally at around 10pm, I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning I slept in so late. I was waiting on DJ to arrive via train, and since he missed the first two I got to sleep even later. We ventured into the city around noon where we went to a bunch of stores for shopping such as Rockefeller center, The Lego Store, NBC Universal Experience, American Girl (had to go since I dreamt of it as a kid), Tiffany's, The Hershey's store, M&M store, FOX news, FAO Schwartz, Eloise At The Plaza, and the big Apple store.
(It was a must since I never got here as a kid.)
(I got so excited to see this!)
(Going up in the elevator to the surface.)
(I absolutely loved these films when I was a kid!)
Despite the rain, we walked a little bit in Central Park. The ducks would walk right up to you expecting you to feed them.
I really enjoy looking at old architecture, so we stopped by St Patrick's Cathedral. Surprisingly, they were doing a LOT of renovations on the church so there was scaffolding everywhere but we still looked around inside.
(On the steps of the cathedral.)
After a quick dinner at Chipotle, we got in line at the Cort theatre, I was really excited to finally see Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple of Inishmaan.
We didn't have the best seats, but since the theatre was fairly empty in the balcony we were able to move down and more towards the center. DJ was afraid he was going to fall out of the balcony because it was pretty steep. The play was great! Daniel was fantastic and so was the rest of the cast. We raced outside afterwards to line up to meet Dan. It was absolutely pouring down rain. The security guard was screaming at everyone to not block the sidewalk. I knew the routine, so I had us stand up against the wall and wait until I saw the guard start to pull out the barricades. My entire backside was drenched in water.
(Some of them must have been waiting quite a long time since they were there when the show let out.)
Trying to keep my Playbill dry was nearly impossible. None of the cast members walking out stopped for autographs or pictures, but Dan came out and immediately started thanking everyone who waited and signing autographs. I was first in line for the autographs! I got him to sign my Playbill and then take a photo.
(I was quite wet but it was very worth it!)
A woman behind me nearly tackled me thinking he was going to move on and not sign her playbill. He shouted "Hey, whoa whoa," and that he would get to her. I pulled DJ out of the crowd as soon as he got his autograph and picture so we could take cover. I was mighty glad for a hot shower and dryer when I got back to the hotel that night!
Despite my lack of sleep lately, I was up and moving the next morning and on a mission to get a Newsies ticket. I stood in line for 2 hours and was able to get a rush ticket. Rush tickets are where you go to the box office the morning of a show to get a really cheap ticket if they have any seats they haven't sold. I snagged a seat in the second row, dead center for only $30!
The show was awesome! I stood outside afterwards to meet the cast members and have them autograph my playbill.
(He plays the lead in the show!)
That evening, I waited outside the stage door with my friend Curtis. It was a perfect time for us to catch up since we hadn't seen each other in forever.
(The view from the stage door.)
Bryan Cranston was the nicest guy. He took a picture with everyone that wanted one and also autographed anything from his play. Since I hadn't seen it, the security guard gave me a Playbill to have autographed. My friend Curtis held down the burst feature on my iPhone, so now I have this awesome stop motion view of me meeting Bryan. Thanks, CURTIS!!!
I had already accomplished SO much that weekend, but I still had an entire day left to do stuff.
(Looks like something out of a horror film!)
I walked the Brooklyn Bridge, went to the National Museum of American Indians, and went back to Queens to gather the remainder of my things.
(A bird's nest on the fire escape. Poor egg was deserted.)
(Totally miss this pup! Chipper is the best!)
I went to dinner with Jason and Laura in the East village at a wonderful Italian place. Dinner was awesome, and afterwards I introduced them to Big Gay Ice Cream. Delicious as usual. I ended my night watching Game of Thrones in the hotel as per usual. This had been my busiest week by far in the city.
Week 6:
The work week was more of the same. Packing up, inventory, and shipping things back to LA. On Tuesday we got to tour the Freedom Tower which is still under construction We went to the 83rd floor to look around. The view is spectacular from up there. You can literally see the entire city.
(I thought this looked like a Transformer. It's the new World Trade Center subway station.)
(The lobby of the Freedom Tower.)
Everyone who visits the floor before during construction writes their name a little message on the wall. I felt pretty privileged to be able to add my name.
Despite my feat of heights, I joined Natasha on a trip up to the Empire State Building the same day.
The first observation floor was incredibly crowded. We stood in between people shoving us to take in the view.
Thankfully, the 102nd floor was not crowded at all. I was so glad to be able to experience the city at night with all of the beautiful lights around.
I purchased a sock monkey with a New York t-shirt in the gift shop. As everyone knows, I love sock monkies so this was perfect!
On my last day in NYC, my friend Klarissa joined me. We started our day at the Central Park zoo. It was a really small zoo, but we still had fun watching them feed sea lions and penguins.
We walked around the city quite a bit afterwards venturing the Chinatown, Little Italy, Wall Street, and also around ground zero.
It started pouring that night which killed our plans to see Daniel Radcliffe one last time, but we still enjoyed a nice dinner. The next morning I ventured back to Los Angeles! I couldn't have been happier to get back home! I'm already back to work in Los Angeles as a Credentials Coordinator on The Huading Awards. They're referring to it as the 'Chinese Oscars.' It will be broadcast in China to an estimated 6 million viewers. I've already been booked on another show after this one. I'm the Production Coordinator on the iHeart Radio Pool Party at the Fontainebleau in Miami, FL. Looks like I'll be busy traveling again, but I'm looking forward to some much needed vacation time after that.
That was by far the longest blog entry I've ever written! I hope I didn't bore you! I'll write again soon when I have some other entertaining things for you to know about. Until then, thanks for reading and enjoy all of the pictures!
♥ Mir
