.nyc.

ahhhh...have i mentioned before how much i love nyc? i absolutely love it. maybe once the novelty wears off, i won't love it as much. but right now, i love it. it was fabulously beautiful, especially this past friday. the sky was clear blue and the temperature was up to the 60s! 60s in november! can you believe that? we took advantage of it by walking around central park for several hours. lemme back up...

.friday.
woke up before the butt-crack-a-dawn, so that we can hopefully take the 1st train out to nyc...why do we need to get to nyc early, you ask? well, i wanted to finally see my fav morning show - the today show! and can you believe my luck when i found out earlier that week who would be performing in the middle of rockafeller center that friday? if you're an avid reader of this site (and you're probably not), you'll know who i'm talking about with 1 guess. yes, that's right. my #1 guy who i would leave arch for! Justin. can you believe my luck?? the 1 weekend i spend in nyc and my favorite performer is performing on my favorite morning show! so you can imagine my anticipation that morning. and the excitement! but of course, you can't get to nyc without a little drama mama. to make a long story short (and because i don't feel like writing out all the sorry little details), we left the sheraton around 5AM. realized my headlights were not working. stopped on the side of the highway before we got on the turnpike. and saw that someone jacked the headlights out of my rental!...while it was parked in the hotel parking lot...with a security car driving around the lot all night! unbelieveable! only in jersey, i say...anyways, we had to fill out these forms at the budget office. and apparently this happens ALL THE TIME with their maximas. but usually in the city. that's why, they said, they don't allow their maximas into nyc anymore. so be careful, faithful readers. if
you ever get a maxima in jersey or nyc, be assured that your headlights will most likely be stolen. how embarrassing. (hrm, i guess that story is kinda long...sorry! i'm so verbose)

so we get through that delay, hop on the train from the airport to nyc...i'm thinking, ok, so we'll be a little late, but maybe there's a chance we can still see him...we're sitting on the train...and what happens? another delay. 4 trains ahead of us, 1 train is stopped on the tracks. so we're delayed another 20 minutes, when it only takes 20 minutes to actually get to nyc penn station...i'm thinking we're doomed. thinking it's not meant to be...

we finally get to the city, hail a cab, and check our bags into the grand hyatt. then we haul ass to the show. the walk was nice...part of the reason i love nyc. we find rockafeller center, and see that the stage is real close to 49th. we're actually standing behind it, but there are barricades blocking us from getting closer. so i ask the nice cop, "how do we get in there?" and he says in his thick nyc accent, "The entrance is on 48th street". so we go around and through security, and finally get within the barricades. but then there's 1 problem. there are so many people there, and the stage is so damn low to the ground that we can't see ANYTHING. and we don't realize that we won't be able to see justin until he actually gets out there and
performs. we seriously didn't even see his bobbing head. the stage was that low. everything on tv always looks bigger. but the 1 high point is that we did see katie and matt! woohoo! katie is so cute and they look just like they do on tv. except they're right, the camera does add 10 pounds to you. i got a couple good pics of katie and matt, but again, it was hard because we were so far back. i'd put my pics up right up here, but i don't have a web hosting service....so here's the link

afterwards, we stopped in the dean and deluca cafe, the nbc experience store to get my 'what a difference TODAY makes' magnet (how chessy!), and then headed uptown to the metropolitan museum of art...i felt so bad because i do love going to art museums, but i was so tired that i was walking around the museum like a zombie. literally falling asleep as i was walking. i felt like i was going to pass out a couple of times. afterwards, we
ended up hangin in central park. walked along the hills, and chilled on the grass. we walked from the museum to the south end of central park. long way, but well worth it. made me fall in love with nyc even more...

that's the gist of friday...we ended up checking into the hotel and then passing out for 5 hours, until mari called us to go out. we didn't go out with mari and rach, we wanted to walk around times square at night...so much fun...

.saturday.
wtc site. shopping in soho with mari and rach. dinner in little italy with jackson, mari, rach, & arch. out to exit (WARNING TO ANYONE CLUBBING IN NYC: do NOT go to exit. even if someone pays you. it's NOT worth it. it's not a 21+ club. nuff said). took a cab to the village to try to salvage the night, but we got down there at 4AM and everything was closing. so we just got something to eat down there. good times.

.sunday.
ate at leo lindy's (you know, that diner you always see underneath the mtv studios). WARNING: DO NOT EAT THERE. can you imagine paying 17 bones for 3 eggs, dried up bacon, fries, and wheat toast??....geez, just because they're under the mtv studios, you'd think they can charge anything! we actually saw 3 groups walk out after looking at the menu. i admit, we were suckers, but whatever. it's not like we do it all the time, right? then afterwards, me and arch just walked up and down 5th ave. it was so sweet...we had such a good time...the only bad thing at the end of the trip was that since there were such bad storms yesterday in the midwest, arch was delayed sitting on the plane for 2 hours, then they had to take another route to chicago which added an hour to their flight time. my poor poopie. good times. good times.

can't wait for nyc again in december...woohoo!


sidenote: did anyone see the sopranos last night? can we say a little gruesome?? geez. but i guess that's all good stuff. they took all the background music out, which directly affects the tone. those writers are damn good. applause. applause.