Tuesday: Ten Years in the Making

First thing Tuesday I headed to the Upper West Side for a bagel, cream cheese and lox at Zabar's (if you've read the Babysitters Club books you understand).

From there I headed downtown to the 9/11 Memorial. September 11, 2001, though I have no actual attachment to NYC, was a very emotional day for me. It was a period in time where I was seriously considering moving because I was really unhappy with events transpiring in Norman. I remember when the attacks happened one of my friends freaking out because I had so seriously been talking about moving. Though I didn’t know anyone it felt extremely personal to me. In anticipation of seeing the memorial I seriously was choking back tears the whole way down and while I was picking up my visitor pass (which you have to reserve ahead of time).

On the way to pick up my pass I found Occupy Wall Street:

They were still pretty riled up, however they had been evicted at 1:00 am, so the park was clear, though there were TONS of NYPD floating around.


On my walk to the memorial I ended up behind some Kansas fans in town for a basketball game (because we know they don’t care about football!)

Then came the nice, long, Six Flags line to get in. There is a ton of construction going on around the WTC, including the building of One WTC, which will take the place of the Twin Towers.

I found this pretty funny:

It says what is not allowed and one is “demonstrations of any kind.” With all the hoopla around the corner I found that pretty funny, even though my picture got cut off.


When you entered the memorial there are two pools, the north and south.

The names are adjacent to one another based on relationship, whether family or where they were. You can look up the names on a kiosk and print off maps. Since I didn’t actually know anyone I used the little girl from Flight 77:

When I went to the north pool there was a family doing a rubbing of a name.

I was really surprised at the peace that I felt while in the memorial. I really expected to be in tears the entire time, but that was not how I felt at all. Peace is the best way to describe it. If that’s what they were aiming for then they certainly did a great job.


Eventually there will be a museum on site.

For the time being there is a small museum around the corner. Seeing all the artifacts from the attacks nearly brought me to tears, but probably none more that this:

It is always interesting to put names and faces together. To see the people that were lost during this attack. To see the wall of their smiling faces; graduation pictures, wedding photos, snapshots of them with their kids. It was quite overwhelming.


I spent quite awhile at both of these, but knew that I had theatre tickets for that evening and wanted to make it back to the apartment in time to chat with Whitney, so the memorial and museum was all I did on Tuesday.


I did however manage to get lost downtown. I always get lost in downtown. The worst part was that my trusty phone, with Google maps, was on its last legs. I did a quick search of which trains to take and tried to take a picture of it with my camera. That was worthless, so I jotted the directions down.


While trying to find the subway station (I swear they hide sometimes) I managed to end up IN Occupy Wall Street. Yeah that wasn’t so much fun. I was afraid I would get in the middle of something I didn’t really want to be in the middle of (however I apparently have a “thing” for NYPD because there were several I would have taken home with me, I think it’s the hat).


Finally I found where I needed to be and made the trek back to the Upper East Side.

Monday: I Heart NY

To say that I slept in out of ridiculous exhaustion Monday is an understatement. I finally woke up and knew exactly what my first stop would be and I knew that the M72 would take me right to it. The problem was that I had an empty Metrocard and no change, thus I needed to make a trip to a subway station to fill my Metrocard.


The closest subway station was at 77th and Lexington: three and a half long blocks and four short blocks. I fully intended to head there and then walk back to 72nd and York to catch the bus. Again, best laid plans. When I got done with my new, and full, Metrocard I realized I was really close to another landmark that I was interested in seeing: the New York Junior League headquarters at 80th between Madison and Park. So off I went.


It was fabulous, not that I expected much else.

From there I was only a block or so from the park, so why not just head that way, it would get me to my intended destination.


Again, Google maps on my phone became my best friend because the park is confusing! While looking for what I wanted to be my first “official” stop I did manage to get several gorgeous fall park pictures.

Then, after missing it once, I managed to get where I wanted to be:

The Imagine Mosaic in Strawberry Fields: the memorial to John Lennon. This is part of my New York obsession. I love that song, that word, everything about it. (note to future husband: this is where I want to be proposed to!)


After a nice little trip around Strawberry Fields and lots of pictures I snapped one of the Dakota (where John Lennon lived and was killed) and headed to my next destination: Gray’s Papaya. This was featured in one of my favorite New York movies that actually does not take place in New York: Fools Rush In.

I’m not a big hot dog fan, but these were incredible.


I then meandered through the Upper West Side and back into the park. I found Tavern on the Green, now the visitor center. Then had a Serendipity moment:

Found the zoo.

Then wandered around taking a lot more pictures (all of which are public on my facebook profile for your viewing pleasure).


I went through Columbus Circle and over to Lincoln Center, then decided to have a Sex and the City moment:

Yes, Manolo Blahnik. Be still my heart.


I wandered across 54th and then up 5th to 5th and 57th, also known as Mecca, or Tiffany and Company to most.

Next on the agenda was something sweet, but of course, this came first:
 And then…

Though some people don’t understand the idea of “frozen” hot chocolate I love it. I decided that I needed some food first, so I ordered a “high heel pump” which was amazing.

And then it was dessert time.

Worth. Every. Calorie.


I didn’t really intend to not take public transportation, but I guess I subconsciously was still a bit flustered from the night before.


After a trip through Dylan’s Candy Bar and what I’m sure was to be a sugar coma I headed back to Whitney’s for a nice low key evening. I made a few reservations for things that night, but you have to wait and see what!

Sunday: The Return Trip From Hell

I think I must have been spoiled on the way to DC, but I certainly paid for it on the way back.


My bus was set to leave at 1:15. I was hungry, and able to eat again, so I grabbed some food in the food court before. I was rushing a bit and then couldn’t find where the buses were set to depart. Crazy me stopped by the desk marked “Information” and asked where the buses left from and the EXTREMELY rude man behind the desk said “I don’t know.” Apparently the information was for the train, though it just said information. He was an ass. The end.


Finally I figure out where the garage was and then I can’t find the bus. Well it turns out it was running late. This was foreshadowing of things yet to come.


The bus finally arrives and we jam on. I mean jam. The bus was completely full. I end up with an aisle seat with my bag crammed under my feet. It was an old bus and I couldn’t find an electric outlet and my phone was quickly dying. We finally head out. Overall it wasn’t so bad…yet.


A bit into the trip I see the guy in front of me plug his laptop in, so I tapped him on the shoulder and asked where he found the plug. He told me under the seat. Finally I found it and got the phone charging. Overall it seemed to be going slow, however I had no idea just how slow it would be. Apparently there was a 30 mile back up on the Tollway, so we took the back roads, in a bus. It was AWFUL.


I was set to arrive back in Manhattan around 5:15. Since we didn’t leave until nearly 1:30 I was expecting around 5:30. With the traffic I was still in Jersey at 6:00 and was not happy about it. I was supposed to check in when I got back to Manhattan, so I sent a text that said “not dead, but not in Manhattan.”


We finally made it to Manhattan around 6:15. That was too long on a bus.


When I got back no one would answer their phone for me to check in with them (jerks). I headed back to the subway, because clearly I am an expert. All I had to do was back track.


Best laid plans, they say. First I literally back tracked and tried to get on a downtown train. Luckily I figured that out before I got to the platform. So I waited on my train, got one call back, on the platform even (miracles never cease). I get off at my stop and head to catch the M72 at Central Park West and 72nd. Things were a bit dead on the Upper West side at this time of night on a Sunday, so I won’t lie I was a little nervous, but not too bad. My bus shows up, I hop on, dead tired, but happy to be headed in the right direction.


All sounds good, right? Until I get to 71st and something and the bus driver says “last stop.” Um, what??? So I get off, and find my new best friend: Google maps transit option. I punch in where I want to go and it tells me M72. Well now I’m mad at the M72, so I consider walking, but don’t want to walk through the park at night. Finally it directs me to the M66 a few streets down.


As I’m walking I find The View studios (no pictures because I was a little frustrated). I also realize that I am out of money on my Metro cards. No problem, I was smart and got cash before I left Oklahoma so I wouldn’t have to worry with it. I pull out two dollars and a quarter and make my way to the M66 bus stop. The bus pulls up, I get on, and this is when I realized that you cannot use dollar bills on the bus.


To say that I almost burst out in tears is an understatement.


And this is where I would like to give my PSA on how New Yorkers are not mean. As I’m staring from my money to the machine and back again the bus driver looks at me and says “get on, I’m not going to leave you stranded.” We ended up chatting across town and I got off at 68th and York and had to walk a few blocks.


I had never been more happy to see anything in my life than those evil steps at Whitney’s brownstone.


I crawled up the stairs and into the apartment. I dropped my stuff and was DONE. I made my check in phone calls, to which I burst out crying on the phone to two different people. I decided that my emotional breakdown was not due to public transit or New York, it was simply that in 60 hours I had changed states 12 times. That will do in anyone.


I crashed pretty soon after (well after a trip to Duane Reade for earplugs, orange juice and a candy bar) and slept in the next morning.

Sunday: A Day of Memorials

Well the PLAN was to wake up around 7:00 and have breakfast and then go to the Pentagon Memorial, Arlington Cemetery and finish up by walking around the Mall and the White House so that I could get more pictures.


Saturday night we went out. We watched a lot of football. We went to bed really late.


The alarm went off at 7:00. It stopped. Then it went off again, and again, and again and finally, out of fear of smashing it, it was turned off. I was awakened around 10:00. After a nice dose of Tylenol and water I got dressed and we headed out.


First stop: Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. Considering I have an obsession with New York and not so much with DC I hadn’t really heard much about the memorial. I knew there were benches, but didn’t know much else. The design of it was actually really, really cool. There were two type of benches: one that faced the Pentagon for those that were on Flight 77 and one that faced outward for those that were in the Pentagon.

There was a zero line that was the time that the flight hit the Pentagon and then there were age lines past that.

 The first line was 1998 for Dana Falkenberg, the youngest victim: just over three years old. They went up from there in chronological ordered.

 There was also a wall that started at three inches tall, for the youngest victim, age 3, up to seventy-one inches tall for the oldest victim, age 71. Under each bench was a small reflecting pool as well as a plaque that had the names of family members that were also killed in the attack.


Overall it was pretty spectacular.


From there we headed to Arlington. I had two things on the agenda for Arlington: the Kennedy graves and the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, specifically the changing of the guard. Seeing that it was already after 11:00 and my bus left at 1:15 seeing both seemed somewhat unlikely. HOWEVER, this is me we’re talking about and things just seem to work out for me.


Arlington was absolutely breathtaking. The fact that the trees were in full autumn bloom helped, but I cannot imagine that it is not gorgeous year round.

We started up the hill to the Kennedys and saw the eternal flame along with JFK, Jackie and the two children they lost while he was in office.

We then went down a ways to Robert Kennedy’s grave and around the corner to Ted Kennedy’s grave (that one was cool because I watched the service).

Next we headed to the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.

In true Wendy fashion we ended up getting to see the changing of the guard.

From there we hurriedly headed back to DC so I could catch my bus. We said our goodbyes and I headed into Union Station to catch my bus.


The adventure that followed gets its own post…

Saturday: DC Bound

For having gone to bed ridiculously late Friday night I got up ridiculously early, especially for me, on day two of vacation, however it was worth it. The night before we had looked up exactly how I would get back to Penn Station to head towards DC. I would take the M72 and then the 1 (I think, I have slept since then, this is why I should blog immediately). At any rate, M72 across the park to Central Park West and 72nd then to the subway.

It went quite well, even to the point that some guy on the subway asked me where something was on his map. Of course that something happened to be Tiffany's, which I happen to be an expert on! Yeah that pretty much made my life!

I got off at Penn Station and headed up to find the DC Deluxe, the bus I would be heading to DC on. I found it no problem and went into Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and a donut before I left. That is when I remembered another reason I love this city: calories posted on menus. Hello heaven.

I got on the bus, got an early morning check in text from my dog sitter (who is the best person ever since I called her Thursday night and asked if she would check on Zoe for me!) who also got a perfect score on her first OU grad paper! Yay Amanda!

The bus driver was hilarious. He reminded me of a black Donnie Wahlberg, and if you know me anyone who reminds me of Ddub makes me happy. I got a window seat and the seat next to me to myself. There was electricity on the bus, so my phone stayed nice and charged (a problem throughout this trip). I read quite a bit. This book is seriously good, I highly recommend it!

As we pulled left NYC I was a bit sad, because I just got there and here I was headed back to Jersey.

I added several states to my visited list: Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and whatever you count DC as (for counting purposes I counted it).

Entering Delaware:

And in Baltimore:

And finally made it to DC (there were no photos of this because I was getting phone calls). We drove around looking for parking for quite awhile, but in the midst I got to see the White House and the Washington Monument. I knew that, because it was going to be a short trip, I wouldn't get to see everything I wanted, but the first stop was the Smithsonian, the museum of American History. I have degrees in both Poli Sci and History and most of the time I ignore this, however certain places and times of the year bring these interests out. DC is apparently one of those places.

We looked at the "map" and tried to find the entertainment section because I had something in mind that I wanted to see, however we couldn't find that section on the list. So we went through the military history portion of the museum and as soon as we hit World War II I was in heaven. Here is Rosie the Riveter (our theme for JL this year!):

We came out of that exhibit, thinking the museum closed at 5:00, and went upstairs and I saw Dumbo, which I figured meant the entertainment section, however we couldn't seem to get there, but we ended up in the American Presidency.

After we came out of that exhibit (on the opposite side from where we started) I was determined to figure out how to get to Dumbo and we finally did.

And here is what I wanted to see:

Ruby Slippers!

By this time it was about 4:45, but we stopped and asked what time the museums closed and were told 5:30, so we still had 45 minutes!

We headed over to the Natural History Museum, which the building itself was beautiful. I didn't take as many pictures as I should, but oh well. We looked at the mammals and then went up and saw the butterflies. Unfortunately we were too late to go into where the butterflies were, but they were pretty through the window.

We then headed back to the Capitol to head to the car to head to eat (which sounded like an excellent idea since I had only had that donut all day!). I wanted pictures of the Capitol because it was so pretty at night, however my new camera's flash did not want to play friendly, so I tried without the flash which resulted in blurry photos. We tried balancing the camera on my head to steady it, however apparently I don't hold still very well. I ended up remembering the auto timer and set it up on the edge of a fountain and did pretty well. I did the same for the Washington Monument, but probably the best was on the front of the Capitol.

Top of my head shot

Not too shabby

Washington Monument

I really, really, really like this one!

That was about all for Saturday, besides a delicious sushi dinner and a lot of college football. Sunday had more of DC events and all kinds of fun (if you can call it that) on the trip back to Whitney's.

Tuesday: I Lied

Okay I am jumping ahead of myself, but to the ladies that happen to read my blog you will appreciate the jump. As for the title, last March or April I wrote a blog called My Life Is Complete: I Saw Harry Connick, Jr. Live. Apparently I was WRONG! My life is now complete and here is the story of how.

Many months back I was watching an interview with Harry (yes I speak of him like we're friends) and he mentioned that he was going back on Broadway in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. He explained the plot, which sounded a bit crazy and said that it would open November 2011. This was sometime either just before the last time I went to NYC or just after we got back. I was pretty adamant that I NEEDED to go see this show.

As the months came and went I saw a few more interviews (and saw him live) and the dates changed and he said something about January 2012. When I started planning this trip that I'm on I actually thought about changing the dates just so I could see this show. Little did I know that life would hand me a favor.

A few weeks ago I got on Broadway Box to see what all was playing and such. They have a feature where you can search for discounts during the time you will be in NYC. I already had my plane booked and had decided that if I went to see shows I was going to see The Book of Mormon, because it won the Tony and looks hilarious, and Spiderman again because they have totally changed it since I saw it last December. I was glancing to see if they had discounts for either. What I happen to notice is that On a Clear Day is listed on the side. So, naturally, I click on it. Low and behold the show is opening in December, BUT previews opened November 12, the day after I was set to arrive.

WOOHOO!

To say I was pumped was an understatement. I actually put off buying a ticket until last night and was slightly terrified that I wouldn't get one. Well I did. And I got it for an amazing price.

So tonight off I head to the theatre district. I feel pretty darn confident with the subways (still a bit sketchy on the buses, but we'll get to that story later). Before I left Whitney told me to take an umbrella as it had started to rain. Want to know when I remembered that tidbit? As I walked outside her building. I'm not so fond of those steps back up, so I figured I would just deal with it and be fine. I was, for two blocks. Then I dodged in and bought an umbrella. It wasn't really raining that hard, but I have naturally curly hair, which I am currently wearing straight, and figured I didn't really want to test fate.

Armed with my umbrella I head to the subway station. I managed just fine and popped out on Broadway and 43rd street. After going the wrong direction the first time I head back the right way and pick up my ticket. Row K, Seat 111. Want to know what that translates to? Eleven rows back, dead center. Love it!

The show starts and here appears Harry. I do love him, I really do. If he would just ditch his supermodel wife we could really live happily ever after! He sounded amazing and looked amazing. I won't give away the whole plot to the movie, but the storyline follows a therapist (Harry) who starts doing hypnosis on a patient (cute guy named David) who happens to be gay. During the hypnosis process Harry's character,Mark, meets Melinda, the woman that David was in a previous life. Mark then, of course, falls in love with Melinda. (His wife had died a few years earlier and he hadn't really dealt with it.) All kinds of craziness and singing and dancing ensues from there. It was set in 1974 so the costumes were very bright and very seventies. It was a phenomenal show.

Now you are not supposed to take pictures in the theater, but for goodness sakes I was eleven rows from Harry! I broke the rules:

I was worried that I would miss the beginning of the show, so I didn't do all my standard tourist pictures until after:

I then noticed a line forming by one of the doors. I knew what that meant: the cast was coming out. Would I get to see Harry up close?

First out was the guy who played David, whose name was also David. Sweet guy and very humble. He signed autographs and took pictures with people:

And then...HARRY!!!

I didn't get too close for fear of getting arrested when I touched him the way I wanted too. ;) However I was in fact close enough to touch him. Oh and close enough to get this:

That would be a Harry autograph. And I am holding something that he touched. Be still my heart.

And you might ask, what does one Mr. Harry Connick, Jr. drive (or is driven in)?

An F150 from Massachusetts. Geez, I love him.

So eat your heart out ladies. That was my Tuesday night. I love this city. I love that man. And I'll try to catch everything else of the trip up tomorrow! I just couldn't resist this one!