NYC How I Missed You So! 4.19-4.21.13

This was Kristin's and my NYC weekend! It had been a long winter, as I'd mentioned, and I had missed the city. This weekend was a bit surreal, as earlier this week at the Boston Marathon, there was a now-infamous bombing that occurred, killing four people, and seriously injuring hundreds more. While I was in NYC one of the brothers involved in the bombing was killed(thank god!) and the other brother was found, and is now locked in a prison hospital.(Was excited when they finally captured him!) In the wake of the tragedy that happened, I went to NYC proudly rocking my Sox gear, Boston pride...which normally I would never wear in NYC because I know better. Going to NYC was an experience. We took the train from New Haven as always, and not long after we had gotten on, we were stopped at a station for about 45 mins-an hour. We had no idea what was going on, finally found out that the Boston bombers were thought to have boarded an Amtrak train up ahead of us that was heading to NYC. Pretty scary to look out your window and see police officers with machine guns walking back and forth. Finally we get to NYC, and as I am walking out of Grand Central Terminal, my sandal breaks. Unreal. Luckily, there is a Modells across the street from Grand Central. $25 and a new pair of flip flops later, we were on our way. We stayed at the Mayfair Hotel, where we stayed last year. We dropped off our stuff and headed for the subway, where we went to Brooklyn(first time ever!) We went to the Botanical Garden, which was nice. Then we got lost and ended up walking all over the city til we found a subway. We ended up eating at a place called La Defense, which had amazing red velvet cake. After La Defense, we walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge, which was fun, and great views of the city! My evening show that night was the AMAZING Pippin! Pippin was delightful, incorporating a circus and acrobatics, with all the actors doing their own stunts! Pippin is the story of a guy who was trying to find his place in the world. It's a magical show that should not be missed! Patina Miller is the Leading Player, Andrea Martin is the Grandmother(Berthe), Terrence Mann is the king(Pippin's father), and Matthew James Thomas is Pippin. The doorman at Pippin teased me about my Sox hoodie, but immediately stopped when he found out I was from Massachusetts, and apologized. Saturday we started the day snagging my rush matinee ticket to Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, and then went to Serendipity 3 for early lunch and frozen hot chocolate. After Serendipity, we went to Dylan's Candy Bar(my fave candy place!) After Dylan's we walked back for our matinees. I was seeing Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, as Id mentioned. The story of siblings Vanya and Sonya who are in their late 50's, and live together. They bicker, and they really don't do much with their lives. Older sister Masha is a famous celebrity, and she swoops in with her gorgeous and very much younger boyfriend, Spike, to try to sell the house from under them. Vanya and Sonya are warned by their house keeper(who gets visions) to beware of the house being taken from them. At the end, Masha and Sonya and Vanya are sitting in the house(which is no longer being sold) and enjoying each other's company, Spike is out of the picture, and the housekeeper was right on her prophetizing. Sounds boring? It's NOT!!! It was absolutely hysterical! Vanya-David Hyde Pierce, Sonya-Kristine Neilsen, Masha-Demi Moore, Spike-Billy Mangnusen. At Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, I realized my external phone charger wasn't charging, and my phone was almost dead. No problem! We had a hotel room! After Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, I went to Schmackarys to try their cookies. Had a chocolate chip and a red velvet. To me they were kind of dry, I much preferred my dessert from La Defense! But they are really popular, so maybe it was just an end of the day batch. After that I went back to the room to relax a bit, as I had two shows at night: Cuff Me, a 50 Shades of Gray Parody which was funny, and F%$king Up Everything, a rock musical. At the room I discovered my wall charger didn't really want to charge either, unless I bent the cord a certain way. Turns out the plug was fried. Cuff Me was really funny, they did the book by making parodies of songs and putting the story around the music. I don't even like the 50 Shades books, I find them boring and poorly written, but the cast of Cuff Me did a great job! I didn't stop laughing! F%$king Up Everything was really good! I loved the music, the storyline was good, and it was really upbeat! Definitely one of my favorite shows of the weekend, I really want a cast recording! It was a totally relatable show, also! After F%$king Up Everything, I was hungry so I went to McDonalds(it was around midnight) and I wasn't paying attention after I'd ordered, and these three stoner guys came up to me and started teasing me about my hoodie, which I promptly reminded them about the recent events in my state, and I'd said something that made me naturally drop my R's, and one of them actually came up to me and was like, I have to give you a hug, you dropped your R. It was really strange! But I figured stoner guys were harmless enough, and those guys and the doorman were the only people who teased me. EVERYONE was talking about the Boston Bombings all weekend, no one was disrespectful in any way, and it was nice to find camaraderie. Sunday we hung around the room for awhile, until about 1045. Check out was 11, and after check out Kristin went to rush Chicago to get us seats because Adam Pascal had just joined the cast. I went to Starbucks for a Passion Tea Lemonade and a Lemon Loaf slice, and then I went down to Old Jews Telling Jokes, which had been on my list to see for awhile. We both snagged our tickets, and we grabbed a snack at the Little Pie Company(vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting for me as they had no red velvet!) and I went to my first show of the day(I had three more that day!) Old Jews Telling Jokes was HYSTERICAL! Again, nonstop laughing the entire time! I had read the book, and really enjoyed it! On stage was awesome! I was the youngest person in the audience, but that was ok! I definitely recommend this one, especially if you are in the city on a Sunday and want to do something before Broadway's start(most shows start at 3 on Sundays!) After Old Jews, Kristin and I both went to see Forbidden Broadway Alive and Kicking. I had been DYING to see a Forbidden Broadway show for years, so I was excited to see this one! It didn't disappoint! It parodied shows that were currently on Broadway(some had closed at this point but that was ok!) You didn't have to see every show to get their comedy though! They definitely did a good job, and it actually closed the week after we saw it, so I am very grateful that I finally got to see one of them! I hope they come back with it soon! After Forbidden Broadway, we had some time to kill before our evening show, Chicago. We hung around Times Square, just hanging out, mostly in the Marriot Marquis Theatre, charging our phones, til we got booted out of there. (Remember the shoes I had to buy? Yea. My feet were NOT happy with me at all! I could barely move!) When it was time for Chicago, I was excited because I hadn't seen it on Broadway, and I was going for Adam Pascal. We figured since he'd JUST signed on, there was no way he was missing a show yet--and an evening show to boot. WRONG!!! Mr Pascal had taken the night out!! I was really upset about that, but the show was still really good. If they had advertised that when we'd gotten the tickets, I woulda said forget it for another day! Very disappointed about that! On the way to Chicago, my purse broke. Awesome! But I managed to fix it thank god! We also tried to stage door at Nice Work if You Can Get It, but Mr Broderick decided to remain elusive and not come out. Which was also disappointing. It was sad to leave NYC, but it was a fun weekend! Still with me? Good. So if you are paying attention, That was SEVEN shows, kids. Seven shows, one weekend. Pretty Amazing, and topped last year by two! Don't know if I will ever be able to do that again, but I was really pleased! So. Seven shows, 5 dessert places, and 4 things that broke(BUT when I realized the external charger only wasnt working because of the cord and got a new cord, the external started working again, so YAY!) Now. You know they are coming, pics!!