In case you missed my post last week I got to spend a fantastic 4 days in New York City at a blogging conference. It was an amazing opportunity to learn alot more about blogging and see some of my incredible blogging friends that I love so much!
Another local blogger and I got up insanely early on Wednesday morning (my alarm was set for 3 a.m.) and flew up to New York. We took the scariest shuttle ride in the history of the world to our hotel, unpacked and walked the twenty blocks to Times Square. After looking through insanely overpriced stores we stopped at The Roxy and split one of their famous sandwiches (they have one pound of meat on them).
After lunch we went back to the hotel and slept until we met everyone for dinner. There was much squealing and many hugs (as some of us who chat online have never met each other before). Then it was off to what was a surprisingly tasty BBQ dinner- many of us were skeptical of NYC’s ability to create good BBQ since we live near or in North Carolina or Texas. Below is a picture of the apple pie they served us!
After dinner we had the pleasure of doing New York Style karaoke. Basically you go inside and instead of it being one big room with lots of random people singing karaoke, it was a small room with just us in it. Throw a bunch of people who are pretty comfortable with each other and some alcohol (I didn’t partake) in a room with a karaoke machine and you have about three hours of all of us laughing uncontrollably. I sang “Ironic” by Alanis Morrisette and closed out the evening with a lovely rendention of “Friends In Low Places.”
The next day we were in seminars but that night we had a cocktail party with a red carpet and lots of cosmos. Since there wasn’t much food at the party we decided to go out and grab dinner. The concierge told us about an Italian Place right around the corner with reasonable prices so we headed out.
“Right around the corner” was over 20 blocks and “reasonable prices” were $25 appetizers. After we sat down and looked at the menu and the prices we had the big conversation. “Do we get up and walk out?” “Do we stay?” “If you get up, I will get up” etc. We ended up walking out after waiting for someone to take our order for about 10 minutes (yes I left a small tip on the table). Around the corner we found a diner with $9 omelets and sat down for a much more frugal style meal (although the $9.25 kids menu was a bit much for me). Then we walked back to the hotel in the rain!
The next morning we went on a cool bus tour, finished up the seminar and then went to change to go see “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.” It is a fantastic show and currently stars Daniel Radcliffe (yes, Harry Potter) and John Laroquette (think Night Court).
I had been the one in charge of ordering the tickets weeks before and had ordered one ticket too few. So I ended up sitting by myself (ordering a single ticket) and made the supreme sacrifice of sitting in the center seat in the first row of the balcony. My seat was amazing. And at the very beginning of the show they pull Daniel Radcliffe up out of the orchestra pit and there he is, about 15 feet in front of me, staring right into my eyes. I am suddenly surrounded by screaming people- many of whom are grown women.
Afterwards we hung around while several of my friends decided to hang out at the stage door and wait for John and Daniel. And there was more screaming and cameras flashing everywhere. My new blogging buddies Ruth and Brittany were right in the mix, screaming “I love you Harry Potter” as the star flew out to his waiting town car.
Saturday morning I headed over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to meet my dear friend Mike for Mass. Mike lives in DC but ironically happened to be in New York the same weekend! We went to college together and usually only see each other every few years so I was thrilled we were in the same city. And while I am not Catholic I think Mass is beautiful.
Alas all great trips must end and after another nail biting shuttle trip Dana and I returned home back to reality. I had an amazing trip and learned so many incredible things.
Thanks so much for being patient with me while I was gone and I promise to find you lots of great deals to make up for it!
Sounds like a great trip!