It's been a bit of a whirlwind lately. After two weeks of downtime, I ventured off to the city that never sleeps for 5 weeks of work. I was offered a position as coordinator on the 9/11 Museum Dedication show. 5 weeks in New York exploring the city that never sleeps in my downtime, so I couldn't say no. The only catch was finding a place to stay in the city. My college friend, Jason and his wife, Laura were so wonderful and are letting me stay in their extra bedroom.
I'm living in Queens and my commute to work is 45 minutes -1 hour daily depending on train traffic. Yes, there's even traffic when you ride the trains. The apartment is wonderful and I'm in love with their dog, Chipper. Such a sweetie.
The Subway:
The subway is always an interesting place. Kids walking between cars selling candy, homeless walking between cars begging for money, people playing instruments in the terminals and on the subway cars, and you can't forget the homeless who sleep on the cars in the corners. In the morning, the subway cars area always jam packed. I take the E from Roosevelt in Jackson Heights all the way to the end of the line at the World Trade Center stop. Typically after the first 5 stops I can find an empty seat. Riding the subway has made me realize how there's no hope for humanity. Elderly standing as guys take a seat, everyone shoving each other out of the way to get where they need to go, and the word excuse me seems to be in no one's vocabulary. There are warning signs everywhere not to go through emergency exits, but for some reason no one follows the law around here.
Work Life:
Work is pretty much the same as other shows. Lots of calls, email, forms, spreadsheets, and word documents. Daily life is pretty much the same. Sometimes work drags into the weekends, but I've been lucky enough to have some time off in the city. I've really enjoyed getting to see the 9/11 Memorial for the first time and to experience the museum as it's getting to the finishing stages. The memorial is wonderful, but the museum really brings to life the events of that terrible day.
Tourist Life:
My first fun outing was finally seeing my freshman year college roommate, Shabiba. I met up with her at Penn Station and we walked to Korea town. We passed Madison Square Garden. She made fun of me for being such a tourist taking photos. After walking around for a bit, she convinced me to try and Korean and Japanese restaurant. I tried sushi for the first time in my life.
Granted, it wasn't a very 'fishy' roll as it just had shrimp, rice, and seaweed. I absolutely hated the seaweed, so our wonderful waiter had them prepare the roll again using soy paper. The second roll was fantastic! Best part is he didn't charge me for the first roll! After catching up over dinner, we walked back to Penn Station to part ways on our separate trains. I definitely miss this girl!
Weekend 1:
There are rare occasions I get enough time off to just be a tourist. This past weekend, I was able to sneak away from work and do just that. On Saturday I ventured to Times Square to shop and meet up with my friend, DJ.
I started out at the Cake Boss bakery and bought a cupcake since they ran out of nearly everything else before I could get to the front of the line!
Then I met up with DJ in the middle of times square. We made our way down to the Disney store. The store is two stories, while you're riding the escalators up to the 2nd floor, there are lanterns from Tangled hanging above you.
I bought a mickey NYC shirt and cup. Afterwards, we made our way over to The Hard Rock Cafe where we had dinner and drinks. Leigh Ann stopped by at the end of our dinner and joined us for a lovely time.
After dinner, we raced over to see Wicked. We lost track of time so we were literally racing over to the theater to make it in time. We made it with 15 minutes to spare and were quite out of breath.
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The musical was phenomenal. The song which ended the first act was Defying Gravity. The best song of the entire play. During intermission, I stood in a VERY long line for the bathroom while DJ got us drinks in collectible Wicked cups. The bathrooms at the theater had attendants controlling the line. I was bit surprised to see people tipping the attendant, but it is NYC after all. The second act was just as amazing. After the play we bought souvenirs and then stood next to the stage door for the cast members. We saw the Wizard, Boq, Madame Morrible, and Glinda.
We took photos around the exterior of the theater. A girl even tried to pose for my photo. She must have also been invigorated from the show!
Afterwards, we jumped in a cab for Grand Central Station where we caught a train to Croton Falls.
It was my first time on a train traveling somewhere. I wouldn't call it an exciting experience, but it got us there! We finally arrived at the station, and DJ drove us the rest of the way to his house in Connecticut.
The next morning, I woke up to an Easter basket from DJ's wonderful mom.
I spent the day decorating Easter eggs, decorating, and having Easter dinner with DJ's family.
A home cooked meal was just wonderful! DJ and I raced to the train station after dinner trying to make the 7:22pm train, but we missed it by 2 minutes. We hung out at the station for an hour waiting on the next train.
I finally made it home around 10:30pm. I'm looking forward to exploring more when I have time!
The Fire:
Monday night I went home from work and while walking home I discovered a building on my street was engulfed in flames. Two stories of the building were just gone.
The entire street was just a black hole of smoke. In order to get home, I waited with some other individuals who live on my street at the front door of an apartment complex on the backside of the building I'm staying in. We were able to get into the center courtyard. From there, I flagged someone down who lives in my building to unlock the backdoor so I could get inside. The apartment smelled of smoke the entire night, but thankfully now things are back to normal. It was an office building and there were not any casualties.
I'll try to update more since I'm in the city. Until next time, blog world. Enjoy a few more NYC pictures below.
♥ Mir
Outside the MAC store.
Snow fall in April.
This Easter bunny decorates the middle of the street I'm living on.
Extremely creepy minion in Times Square.
The view from my office.
In NYC, front yards include miniature bridges, evidently.
