So I’ve had a busy two weeks; I meant to write a bit about my trip to New York City, but upon arriving at YVR and consequently Vancouver, I learned I was working the next five days in a row.
I never do that. Unless it’s Christmas, which it’s not.
Not that I minded tons, but being on your feet for eight hours (and one six hour) days makes it hard to concentrate when you collapse when you get home. I need to get insoles or something.
Regardless, I have a ‘weekend’ (two days off in a row), and said New York write-up is here.
~
We left Tuesday, May 18th in the night; the flight wasn’t until past ten, but we always do the North American ‘come three plus hours early’ thing.
I love how deserted YVR is at night, but I kind of love airports in general. Maybe they represent adventure, maybe it’s the abundance of Starbucks and that reminds me of home. Anyway, love those airports.
We flew Cathay Pacific Airlines, which I love. Basically, they go from Hong Kong to Vancouver to New York to Vancouver to Hong Kong and so on and so forth. Apparently there’s money in that route.
There are TVs, adequate food, and the flight attendants are always nice. I watched ‘Nowhere Boy’, which isn’t even out in Vancouver yet. I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more without the two kids screaming in Chinese behind me.
Sidenote; That was the third flight in a row I had kids behind me. It’s like the airlines find the person who can’t stand children the most (me) and put kids behind them.
We arrived in New York at about seven in the morning, but couldn’t check in until about three. Figured.
My sister was dressed in her airlines best in a shirt she usually sleeps in, Lulu Lemon pants, and no make-up. She knew we probably wouldn’t get the rooms until the afternoon, but she was willing to take the chance of an early check in.
Tired and oily from the make-up from the night before, we decided to go on the harbour tour, then a walk on Madison Avenue in which I saw Courtney Love, and then our rooms were ready. I then slept, which was so sweet.
My sister woke me up many hours later and said ‘It’s time for dinner!’ and I groggily walked with my family to Becco, and amazing Italian restaurtant, and my favourite of the trip. Basically, they have a prix fixe where you get salad and three pastas. They even volunteered to make mine vegetarian without me asking, which was incredibly sweet.
Sidenote; New Yorkers are super into Canadians, I found. The harbour tour guy asked us ‘Washington or Canada?’ when he found out we were from Vancouver, and yelled ‘Au revoir, les Canadienes!’ after us when we left the boat. The waiter at Becco literally yelled “Oh my god!’ when he found out we were form Canada, and was all excited to talk to us about it. It was all really sweet.
The next day we went to the MoMA and saw 'The Artist Is Present', and saw ‘West Side Story’ on Broadway; I wasn’t impressed by the play. The actors hadn’t been chosen for their singing voices, and I felt it was kind of flat. But after the play, at Joe Allan’s restaurant, I had the most memorable New York experience.
I met Michael Emerson aka Ben from ‘Lost’.
Joe Allan’s was super packed; the waitress lead us to our seats, and sat us down. When I looked up he was directly across from me at the bar with a friend, and my jaw dropped. I whispered to my mom and dad and debated talking to him. Finally, I mustered up the courage, plus I actually did have to get up and go to the bathroom, and decide to talk to him.
I just put my hand on his arm, since he was turned away from me, and said
“I just wanted to tell you that I love ‘Lost’, and that Ben is my favourite character.”
He shook my hand and said
“That’s very sweet thank you for telling me that.”
Then he turned around and smiled at my sister.
I was shaking, which is so embarrassing because I’m not a celebrity obsessed person. But he’s my favourite character on my favourite show, and that was huge.
Oh, and guess who else was in the restaurant. Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley on ‘Lost’. Michael Emerson said goodbye to him as he was leaving, and since we were leaving at the same time as him, he said goodbye to us. My dad told him to not spoil the finale for us and he laughed. Then we all left and my night had been made.
Friday we shopped and I went to the Alexis Bittar boutique in Soho, but didn’t buy anything. Then I went to Topshop and bought a top, some rings, and a necklace. Spoiler alert, that’s all I bought this trip; last time I went to New York I didn’t buy much either. I don’t know why. London was more of a shopping town for me.
The next day was more bus tours and me wandering around SoHo by myself and being asked for direnction by tourists who thought I was a New Yorker (!!!) and meeting Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family. We were just passing on Greene St. and I called
“I love Modern Family!”
And he smiled and said ‘thank you’.
That night we saw the amazing ‘American Idiot’; you need to see this play. I was blown away.
My dad was in charge of buying tickets when we were in New York, and I’m so happy he picked ‘American Idiot’; if you know the CD, if you like Green Day, or even if you grew up in the nougties you will love this play.
It takes the story of the rock opera described in the album ‘American Idiot’, adds to it, and brings it to visualization. Plus the actors were defiantly chosen for their singing ability (I’m looking at you, Stark Sands and Tony Vincent).
I loved it.
On the last day we had a leisurely breakfast, went to the Museum of Natural History, and at the last minute, and at the assistance of my sister, purchased tickets to ‘Rock Of Ages’, our third Broadway show.
My parent loved it more than ‘American Idiot’; I didn’t, but I was thoroughly entertained by it, even thought Constantine Maroulis was in LA for the American Idol finale and his understudy was performing his roll.
Basically, I think any red blooded male should see this play; it’s a comedic look at 80’s rockers making it in LA in, obviously, the 1980’s. They gave us fake lighters that lit up to sway at the ballads, which was an awesome touch.
Then it was off to JFK, which looks so ghetto compared to YVR, but what airport doesn’t?
Another celebrity sighting: my sister met and took a picture with Nick Jonas in the airport, and he smiled at me. He was so sweet; he was obviously exhausted, but he took two pictures with my sister. He didn’t have any bodyguards around him, which I thought was odd, but my sister was the only who asked for a picture that I saw.
She freaked out for over an hour afterwards, with shaking and everything. And she doesn’t even like the Jonas Brothers.
Then it was home to Vancouver with a crying baby on the flight. But it wasn’t behind me, so that’s OK.
We got home at about one in the morning and went to sleep.
Then we watched the ‘Lost’ finale the next morning, and now my life has no meaning.
But I had fun in New York.
~
More posts to come this week, now that I have time to write. Expect new nail polish, a small haul, and my musing on whether or not I buy a Nintendo DS within the next week.
Love.
I never do that. Unless it’s Christmas, which it’s not.
Not that I minded tons, but being on your feet for eight hours (and one six hour) days makes it hard to concentrate when you collapse when you get home. I need to get insoles or something.
Regardless, I have a ‘weekend’ (two days off in a row), and said New York write-up is here.
~
We left Tuesday, May 18th in the night; the flight wasn’t until past ten, but we always do the North American ‘come three plus hours early’ thing.
I love how deserted YVR is at night, but I kind of love airports in general. Maybe they represent adventure, maybe it’s the abundance of Starbucks and that reminds me of home. Anyway, love those airports.
We flew Cathay Pacific Airlines, which I love. Basically, they go from Hong Kong to Vancouver to New York to Vancouver to Hong Kong and so on and so forth. Apparently there’s money in that route.
There are TVs, adequate food, and the flight attendants are always nice. I watched ‘Nowhere Boy’, which isn’t even out in Vancouver yet. I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more without the two kids screaming in Chinese behind me.
Sidenote; That was the third flight in a row I had kids behind me. It’s like the airlines find the person who can’t stand children the most (me) and put kids behind them.
We arrived in New York at about seven in the morning, but couldn’t check in until about three. Figured.
My sister was dressed in her airlines best in a shirt she usually sleeps in, Lulu Lemon pants, and no make-up. She knew we probably wouldn’t get the rooms until the afternoon, but she was willing to take the chance of an early check in.
Tired and oily from the make-up from the night before, we decided to go on the harbour tour, then a walk on Madison Avenue in which I saw Courtney Love, and then our rooms were ready. I then slept, which was so sweet.
My sister woke me up many hours later and said ‘It’s time for dinner!’ and I groggily walked with my family to Becco, and amazing Italian restaurtant, and my favourite of the trip. Basically, they have a prix fixe where you get salad and three pastas. They even volunteered to make mine vegetarian without me asking, which was incredibly sweet.
Sidenote; New Yorkers are super into Canadians, I found. The harbour tour guy asked us ‘Washington or Canada?’ when he found out we were from Vancouver, and yelled ‘Au revoir, les Canadienes!’ after us when we left the boat. The waiter at Becco literally yelled “Oh my god!’ when he found out we were form Canada, and was all excited to talk to us about it. It was all really sweet.
The next day we went to the MoMA and saw 'The Artist Is Present', and saw ‘West Side Story’ on Broadway; I wasn’t impressed by the play. The actors hadn’t been chosen for their singing voices, and I felt it was kind of flat. But after the play, at Joe Allan’s restaurant, I had the most memorable New York experience.
I met Michael Emerson aka Ben from ‘Lost’.
Joe Allan’s was super packed; the waitress lead us to our seats, and sat us down. When I looked up he was directly across from me at the bar with a friend, and my jaw dropped. I whispered to my mom and dad and debated talking to him. Finally, I mustered up the courage, plus I actually did have to get up and go to the bathroom, and decide to talk to him.
I just put my hand on his arm, since he was turned away from me, and said
“I just wanted to tell you that I love ‘Lost’, and that Ben is my favourite character.”
He shook my hand and said
“That’s very sweet thank you for telling me that.”
Then he turned around and smiled at my sister.
I was shaking, which is so embarrassing because I’m not a celebrity obsessed person. But he’s my favourite character on my favourite show, and that was huge.
Oh, and guess who else was in the restaurant. Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley on ‘Lost’. Michael Emerson said goodbye to him as he was leaving, and since we were leaving at the same time as him, he said goodbye to us. My dad told him to not spoil the finale for us and he laughed. Then we all left and my night had been made.
Friday we shopped and I went to the Alexis Bittar boutique in Soho, but didn’t buy anything. Then I went to Topshop and bought a top, some rings, and a necklace. Spoiler alert, that’s all I bought this trip; last time I went to New York I didn’t buy much either. I don’t know why. London was more of a shopping town for me.
The next day was more bus tours and me wandering around SoHo by myself and being asked for direnction by tourists who thought I was a New Yorker (!!!) and meeting Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family. We were just passing on Greene St. and I called
“I love Modern Family!”
And he smiled and said ‘thank you’.
That night we saw the amazing ‘American Idiot’; you need to see this play. I was blown away.
My dad was in charge of buying tickets when we were in New York, and I’m so happy he picked ‘American Idiot’; if you know the CD, if you like Green Day, or even if you grew up in the nougties you will love this play.
It takes the story of the rock opera described in the album ‘American Idiot’, adds to it, and brings it to visualization. Plus the actors were defiantly chosen for their singing ability (I’m looking at you, Stark Sands and Tony Vincent).
I loved it.
On the last day we had a leisurely breakfast, went to the Museum of Natural History, and at the last minute, and at the assistance of my sister, purchased tickets to ‘Rock Of Ages’, our third Broadway show.
My parent loved it more than ‘American Idiot’; I didn’t, but I was thoroughly entertained by it, even thought Constantine Maroulis was in LA for the American Idol finale and his understudy was performing his roll.
Basically, I think any red blooded male should see this play; it’s a comedic look at 80’s rockers making it in LA in, obviously, the 1980’s. They gave us fake lighters that lit up to sway at the ballads, which was an awesome touch.
Then it was off to JFK, which looks so ghetto compared to YVR, but what airport doesn’t?
Another celebrity sighting: my sister met and took a picture with Nick Jonas in the airport, and he smiled at me. He was so sweet; he was obviously exhausted, but he took two pictures with my sister. He didn’t have any bodyguards around him, which I thought was odd, but my sister was the only who asked for a picture that I saw.
She freaked out for over an hour afterwards, with shaking and everything. And she doesn’t even like the Jonas Brothers.
Then it was home to Vancouver with a crying baby on the flight. But it wasn’t behind me, so that’s OK.
We got home at about one in the morning and went to sleep.
Then we watched the ‘Lost’ finale the next morning, and now my life has no meaning.
But I had fun in New York.
~
More posts to come this week, now that I have time to write. Expect new nail polish, a small haul, and my musing on whether or not I buy a Nintendo DS within the next week.
Love.
