The Implusive NYC Getaway that Broke My Friend's Foot

Rachel and Lauren

Let me introduce you to my travel buddies: Rachel and Lauren. I met Lauren on Jan 13, 2014. How do I know that? Facebook, of course! It's a story I must tell. I met Lauren at FHE after Rachel convinced her to come. Rachel says she knew Lauren and I would hit it off immediately. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I remember her making snarky comments throughout the night which made me laugh....and I knew fate had brought us together. I sent her a creepy facebook message about how I am excited to be her new friend whether she wants to be friends or not. She responded saying that she was quite excited. It was a magical beginning. We hung out a handful of times before my impulsive behavior kicked in.

I was checking emails and saw an email from Playbill.com (yes, I subscribe to it, even though I'm not in NYC) stating that Idina Menzel was going to Broadway in an original new musical. I thought to myself, "cool. I'll go this fall." A few minutes later, I thought, "How do I know she'll still be there in the fall? What if she gets a better offer to do a movie or something else?" I tried to calm myself, and then I thought "If Aladdin (which I have been planning on seeing since I heard they were planning on making it to a Broadway show) has opened finally, I will to NYC now." Lo and behold, they were both in previews. I thought...who do I want to go to NYC with...and Rachel and Lauren popped into my head. I found out when Rachel's spring break was, and texted them. They both said yes. It was amazing.

We arrived in NYC about a month later for a long weekend. I convinced them to go get cronuts the first morning we were there, because it was supposed to be the warmest we were going to be there. (Winter in NYC is a lot colder than winter in Houston). The we made friends with the guy in front of us, Tommy, who is from NYC. He was super fun and ate with us before going to bring a girl a cronut too.

With our new bestie, Tommy

After the cronut, we did the 9/11 memorial and the gift shop. It took all our will power not to buy something. Rachel wanted a really expensive purse and I wanted an expensive scarf. It was just soooo pretty!!! The 9/11 memorial was quite moving and lovely. I would recommend it to anyone. We wandered to Battery Park and Wall Street before meeting up with Ben. Woohoo!

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and it was beautiful! It was also really windy. Who knew? Still, the sun was out, so I was able to take off my coat and enjoy some much needed warmth! I think the best part was when Ben asked Lauren if she could tell him any of my crazy adventures and secrets, and Lauren was like "No. I don't really know that much about her" lol. We made it to the other side and wandered down to Grimaldi's for lunch. After waiting in line for an hour, I find out that there is a Grimaldi's very close to where I live in Texas. #jaded While we were waiting for our order, two older ladies (who we met in line previously) offered us their extra pizza slices. We were ravenous and said yes. #worthit It was an epic lunch followed by some ice cream on the windy dock. As we metro-ed back to Manhattan, Ben explained to me how to navigate and read the signs. They are quite unclear when you're unfamiliar with them. Seriously, there should be a website explaining how to read them. It was the best gift anyone could have given...the knowledge of how to get from Point A to Point B. He dropped us off at The Met and took a couple of Gossip Girl photos for us. (now that's a good friend)

Sadly, after he left, we talked and decided there wasn't enough time to wander around the Met and not feel very rushed. Instead, we went to the hotel to prep for a night on the town. We walked to Time Square before our showing of Aladdin. Can I just say, when we tried to book tickets for Aladdin, it was showing to be sold out. I was heartbroken, until I went to a new site and found a handful of scattered tickets throughout the theatre. I tried to buy three, but when I clicked to purchase them, it said the tickets were already sold. Luckily, third time is a charm, and we got seats....just not all together. NBD.

Wow. Wow. Wow. I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was such a high energy show, with the razzle and dazzle expected from a Disney show. The costumes are so bright and vibrant. The dancing felt a little more Bollywood than anything, but it's still amazing. The genie was by far my favorite. I have never EVER seen an audience have an intense standing ovation during the middle of a show like I saw with "Friend Like Me". It was brilliant.

Sunday started with church and brunch with Dena! I haven't seen Dena since our reunion trip to Chicago in 2009. It was so good to see her. I wish I had more time to catch up with her. She is as fierce and fabulous as ever. We went to a french bakery, and of course, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. What else is new? As she walked us back to the metro stop, Lauren asked if we could go to a pharmacy and get an ankle wrap, because her ankle was hurting. We got back to the hotel room for her to rest a bit. She said she could still walk, but we decided to have a slow evening to not hurt it more so it would be better in the morning. Spoiler alert: it was not better in the morning.

We went to see If/Then...the show we had all been waiting for. Ladies and Gentlemen, it did NOT disappoint. The summary is a bit confusing, so I wasn't sure what to expect when we got there. All I knew was that it was a play about choices. The best part is that the show starts with Idina on a balcony, talking on the phone...first line "hey. it's me" and the audience goes wild. She is amazing live. Wow. Wow. Wow. Goosebumps. The show starts at the same point and shows how one decision can impact your entire life. It starts in a park where she is meeting two friends and the one decision of who she will spend the day with has a ripple effect and the play showing both possible lives she could have based on that one decision. It was one of those plays that makes you reflect on the decisions of your life, and how you got to where you are. It was so powerful that I probably spent the last 20 mins of the show in tears.

After the play we went to get some cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery and spend the rest of the night, resting Lauren's ankle and having much needed girl talk time. #girlsnight #bonding

Monday morning started with Lauren telling us that she didn't think she could walk. With the idea of "leave no man behind", we decided to change our plans a bit. We decided we should do an early dinner and see another Broadway show. Suggestions were thrown around, and the decision ended up being: Newsies. Lauren stayed in the hotel as Rachel and I faced the cold winter air. We went to Mecca...the New York Public Library. Sooooooooo pretty. Please note: Rachel and Lauren are English majors, and I'm just a huge nerd/book lover. It was magnificent! We took a free guided tour, which also allows you to get discounts in the gift shop.

I saw this and laughed.

After the Library, we wandered through The Met. It was pretty cool. However, the best part was when we saw our friend Tommy again! What a crazy coincidence. I loved it. After The Met, we went to pick up little Lauren. We took a taxi up to our dinner location of choice, the classic Serendipity's. Frozen Hot Chocolate. Check! Eating lots of food and spending lots of money on said food. Check! Then it was time for Newsies. Ever since I saw Elijah Kelley singing and dancing in Hairspray (the movie), I realized how dancing singing men are absolutely brilliant. This was more proof of that theory. It is a musical full of dancing men who sing, and I was in love. The choreography blew. me. away. I did have a fav newsie...Specs. Everyone loves a guy in glasses. We were on a musical high as we walked back to the hotel that night. It truly was a great sacrifice we made going to another Broadway show for Lauren. ;)

Our last day in NYC had us checking out Chinatown, stumbling upon an epic Sample Sale, and meandering through NYC towards Levain Bakery, all while Lauren waited in the lobby as a cripple. It really was a great trip! Lauren pointed out that Rachel and I say the same things, at the same time. #twins I have found great travel buddies.

While we were there, I was writing my previous blog post, which is a disclaimer of all my travel crazies. Since it was my first time traveling with them, I realized the little crazies I have that people who have traveled with me before don't notice anymore because we already have the ying-yang/give-take travel routine down. I started making notes of things that popped into my head throughout the trip. I was sharing it with them as I wrote it. On Tuesday, Rachel asks me, "are you hungry? because you said earlier that you act different when you're hungry, and you seem a little off." I *was* hungry! lol. See, the disclaimer was already effective.

Now I know what everyone is wondering. Is Lauren's ankle okay? It turns out she has an os peroneum fracture. Oops. We broke her. Nevertheless, she is still my friend, and we are all looking at another possible travel adventure later this year together. 

I Believe in a Thing Called Love

This is a love story. This will also be a "Natasha Story" as my high school bffs call it, meaning it will be a really long story and will take forever to get to the point. This love story starts on Sept 26, when I had to wake up really early and was miserable having to leave my wonderfully comfortable hotel bed to go to an early meeting, after staying up to work on a presentation I was going to give, but never ended up making changes to it, since my calculations were not making sense. I realized that I was a little Europe homesick. I have a group message on Whatapp with some of my friends from studying in Spain in this group. Becca tried to comfort me in my distress from the day saying, "don't worry, we will be in Guatemala soon. your job is paying for it!" and I said "I kinda want to switch Guatemala for Germany." She said "I'm okay with either, just as long as we go somewhere" wow. that was one of the greatest and easiest change of plans. It got me pretty excited. I was on cloud nine. Sadly, even though I was in a great mood, I was having some bad luck. Nevertheless, this news put a spring in my step all weekend.

I left work a little early to go pick up Teri Jo from work and start our weekend. It was gross stop-and-go traffic all to the airport. Bah humbug. The traffic wasn't as terrible as anticipated, so we arrived early. This was good because I was getting hangry for some food. The flight was good, and I got to start The Spy Who Loved, which is a biography about WWII spy who kept on blowing my mind with her quick thinking in super intense situations. We got to the LaGuardia pretty late and got in the taxi line, only for it to be ridiculously slow. The New Yorkers in line were getting very vocally upset and verbally assaulting the worker over the line. I was part amused and part horrified. Luckily, we got a taxi without any bloodshed, but after a super long wait.

We got to the hotel we were staying at, the W in Time Square. Teri Jo's friend is a chef for a super fancy hotel in Boston, and got us a friend-rate. So we walked into the hotel, and the lobby/check-in area is on the 7th floor. The 7th floor is also a club. There were people dancing,and great music. We checked in and got into a different set of elevators to get up to the room, except you have to insert your hotel card to get to the floor you needed. Teri Jo was having major problems with the key card. lol. I used my hotel expertise to get us to our room...and the room was super swanky with a beautiful view of Time Square. I hoped in the shower so I could sleep in a little more the next morning since we were going to get some CRONUTS!!!

Saturday morning began with waking up, putting on my red lipstick, and grabbing a scarf to keep me warm in the chilly weather...at 5:30am. We got a taxi to take us down to Dominique Ansel's Bakery, and figured out where it was at from the line that had already formed. We took a seat on the side walk and attempted to stay warm, and made a friend. She worked in fashion design for bathing suits at Target. She was pretty cool, and we became friends for the 3 hours we were in line. The bakery is pretty small, so you go into the bakery in groups. We were in the second group. There was someone waiting in line in a sleeping bag, napping. There was also another person with an office chair, which they claim they found outside by and took it to the line with them. lol.
We were waiting in line for the cronut inside the bakery. I spotted Dominique, and the New Yorker girl we became friends with said that he was really friendly and took pictures with tourists. I finally got up the courage to ask him for a picture. He looked at me and said, "No". My face dropped, and I said, "Oh. Ok." to which he smiled and said "of course! How can I say no to a face like that?" with a smile. He came from around the counter and took a picture with me and another one with me and Teri Jo. His French accent just melted me. I loved it. The cronut flavor of the month was fig. Honestly, you say fig, and I am not impressed. Oh snap. it was tasty. Was it as life-changing as everyone makes it out to be? Maybe not so much. But the experience of it all made it all worth it.  I ate a cronut and ate a few bites of a frozen smore. I'm pretty sure I was about to die from a sugar coma. Luckily, I got some milk to balance out the sugar. It was great. We then took a walk to the subway station. On the way there we walked past the Dash store, and I thought of Saryah. I didn't even notice it, since I'm super unobservant, but Teri Jo pointed it out to me. We got to the subway, only for me to realize, I don't understand the differences between the metro tickets. It took a few minutes and we just chose the $10 fare ticket you can reload with more money later. We hopped on the metro, switched lines to go up to Time Square. After a few stops, we started to suspect that we were going the wrong way, except we only were sure when the train went above ground and across the bridge into Brooklyn. It was ridiculous. But I couldn't find a map of where we were on the metro, and I didn't have signal in the underground metro to follow where we were on my phone. It was quite ridiculous; it's the first metro that ever got the best of me.

We miraculously found our way back to Time Square before heading off to book a bike tour of Central Park. Sadly, it was booked, so we had to go on the 1pm tour. Since this was the case, we went back to Time Square; Teri Jo wanted to see the Disney store (she's one of those Disney lovers). We were talking and saying how we would love to just love seeing another play on Sunday afternoon before we leave, even though we are going tonight. I was kinda happy that Teri Jo was so cool with this idea, because I could honestly come up to NYC and watch plays all weekend and be as happy as a clam. We went back to the bike tour place, and it was pretty fun. The biking was relaxing and nice. Teri Jo was getting a little annoyed with me always looking behind me to make sure I haven't lost her. She called me out on it, so I stopped. This backfired, because when we got to the lake in the part, she was not there. We lost her. She found her way back, but it was not unreasonable for me to check on her. She walks really slowly, so I wanted to check on her on the bike too.

I had texted Dan earlier in the week to tell him I was heading to NYC and how I wanted to meet up. We were texting to meet up. We finished the tour, and he called. The funny thing was, when I picked up the call, I thought, 'Why is a British person calling me?' and then I remembered...hahaha, it's my cousin; he has an accent. (i honestly forget my dad has an accent most times)

Teri Jo and I went to a little coffee shop on the corner, to meet up with Cool Cousin Dan. Plus, it was almost 3:30pm, and we hadn't ate any lunch. I needed a sugar level boost. Dan met up with us, and we had some great catch up time. I was teasing him about wearing a helmet as he was biking around. He said it was because he fell asleep on his bike one day and fell off. He really is the coolest. He introduced me to the concept of traveling the world for a year. I thought if I ever took time between jobs, it would be for two months or something, but when he said a year, it was like a light-bulb turned on in my brain and in my heart.

really cool art on the side of a building off the High Line

We went down to High Line to walk the trail. It was on a list of things to do that Saryah sent me. It was really beautiful, and was a nice place to walk. We were pretty hungry, and Dan recommended a pizza place off the line. We went, and it was delectable!!!!! The wait was a little longer than was desirable, since they didn't have any slice immediately ready. Nevertheless....sooo good. Dan and Teri Jo ate it so quickly, that I tried to eat it faster, and I'm pretty sure I burned my tongue. Dan then had to go get ready for a wedding reception, and Teri Jo and I needed to get back and get ready for our night on Broadway. I ended up passing out on the bed, while Teri Jo got ready. Teri Jo and I were headed off to two different plays. Teri Jo had the dream of going to Newsies on Broadway. I never had that dream. I was willing to go, but honestly wasn't too excited about it. Luckily, Teri Jo is pretty cool, and was like "you don't have to go to the same play as me" so i took that out like a Nox spell and went to Once. Oh my. Lindsay went to see this when she went to NYC last and told me how amazing it was. Before the show, the cast is on the stage singing Irish songs. It was brilliant. Then when the first song came on it, was soooo hauntingly beautiful. I was captivated. It as a totally British ending. I loved it.

After the musicals, we met up and walked around Manhattan at night, after Teri Jo got her pics with the Naked Cowboy. It was part amusing and part disturbing. lol. The walk was super relaxing and beautiful.We walked around for a while. We went to get some cupcakes for a midnight snack. We went to Rockefeller Center, Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, NYC Public Library (they were having a black tie event in the library. i wish i was invited), and Empire State Building. It was a nice walk, even after being sexually propositioned by random guys I smiled at in a car.

We woke up and took a taxi to go to church with the Young Single Adult congregation in the Manhattan temple building. The bishop's wife was super nice to us. Everyone in the congregation looked like models. It was ridiculous. We took off after sacrament meeting to go to brunch at a restaurant Dena recommended. It was sooo good. Plus, there was live jazz playing. The ambiance was pretty legit. We then went down to see the Freedom Tower. I forgot to get us ticket to the 9/11 memorial beforehand, but the line to pick up those tickets was super long as well.

After the Freedom tower we went to Battery Park. It was beautiful. We got a ice cream and lemoneade as we sat on a bench and just relaxed. We were relaxing and waiting for Ben to show up #multitasking I honestly wanted to find a patch of grass and lay down to soak in some sun. Sadly, Battery Park seems to be more of a plant part rather than a grassy knoll park. Ben finally showed up, and we saw each other across the memorial and Ben started dramatically slow running toward me, so, of course, I had to join in the fun. Don't tell Ben, but I had forgotten how much I love that kid! I finally got to tell him, in person, how I've joined him in the i-dont-want-to-get-married-anytime-soon-slash-i-love-being-single club. I think Teri Jo was a little overwhelmed by the energy and excitement that Ben and I created. I had to explain to her that we were kindred spirits. Teri Jo told Ben that I was like a black widow, killing everyone who might be possibly interested in me. We caught up, we caught a taxi back up town to make it back in time for the musical Teri Jo and I were going to catch before our plane out. On the plane we were joking and having too much fun. I dont remember what the joke was, but I said one of my twisted humor jokes, and teri jo said "that is dark". ben said something along the lines of "there is no darkness with natasha, because she is the light". omg. I almost died. It rivaled my super cheesy comment to him i made earlier, which I do not remember, but it was too perfect to pass up. Ben dropped us off at the First Date, literally, right before it started. I miss that kid.

First date was amazing. I was laughing so hard with the first song. It is a "musical comedy", and when I heard that, I wasn't sure what to expect, and my expectations were pretty low. OMG. TOO FUNNY! It was as if anything awkward or ridiculous happened on a first date, it was in this musical. It was great. The best part...Zachary Levi. He is amazing. His singing voice was great. He was the voice of Flynn Rider in Tangled, and you always think that that Hollywood changes voices to make it better, but his voice was exactly the same as in the movie. Afterwards, we met him in real life after the play. We waited at the stage door, and the cast came out to tell everyone it was his birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to him, and he went around signing things for people. I got him to sign my ticket and play bill. The girl next to me bought a Flynn Rider doll (action figure?) for him to sign (the box, not the actual doll). There was another girl who was telling him how she asked her friend to get something signed from him and it didn't happened and she tweeted him. He responded that he received the tweet and wanted to talk to her and how grateful he was that she came, so he could sign her stuff. It was then time for photos. I got a photo with him, and as I walked away, I looked back at him, made eye contact, and I fell in love. It was beautiful. Maybe it's true love, or it goes to show how I can only love people who are unavailable. We'll see. See....I told you it was a love story.

It ended on a great note. We took another walk, feeling high off the love in our hearts for Zachary Levi. Taxied our way to the Newark Airport, because NYC metro and trains confuse me to no end. We ate sushi and slept on the flight back. The end.