NY in 24hrs. Part Deux

After I bought my ticket to see Spring Awakening, I was walking down 8th St. trying to find something quick to eat before the show. All of a sudden, I hear someone call my name....on a street in New York City. It was one of my friends from Grad School, Justin! I didn't even know he lived in NY! He has been there for about 6 months and lives right in the middle of the theatre district! He was on his way to the grocery store and saw me. How weird is that?? We talked for a little bit, and then went our separate ways. It really is a freakishly small world.

Another fun thing was crossing an item off THE List.* #27 on THE List was "Stand outside the Today Show window and try to get on TV." Ever since I first bought my ticket, I was planning on doing this. Unfortunately, Lindsey beat me to the punch one week earlier and there is really nothing I could do to match her stunt. So I changed #27 before I went and luckily was able to do it before I got sick. So unveiling the new #27:

27. Eat a cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery in New York City

I ate the red velvet cake one first. It was totally different than anything else I've ever had in my life. One bite I would think "I really don't like this", but then the next bite I'd think "This is the most amazing thing ever!" and back and forth until I finished. The icing wasn't very sweet and basically tasted like pure whipped cream, so it was like having cake and milk together at the same time. The next day before I left for the airport, I tasted the other one. I was sick so I didn't feel like eating the whole thing, but what I tasted....WOW. It totally lived up to everything I've heard and I can't wait to get another next time I go.

*Confession: I kind of cheated a bit on this item, but I'm totally okay with it. I went to the 2nd Magnolia Bakery location, which is right around the corner from ABC Studios. So it was close to where I was and didn't have a 20 minute line at that time of day. Some people might say it shouldn't count, but hey, its my List. :)

Last sort of stereotypical thing I did there - I had a hot dog from a street vendor. Actually I had 2. The first was because I got to my hotel at 2pm and I was STARVING and it was right outside; the second was right before I went to the airport because I needed to eat something and didn't feel well enough to venture any further than the CVS across the street from my hotel where I bought medicine and then the same hot dog stand. That's right, 2 of my 3 NY meals were hot dogs. Kind of pathetic.

And with that, my New York trip comes to a close....and with it all of my scheduled trips for awhile. It makes me sad to look at my AA account online and see the sad words "You do not have any reservations to view." I need to schedule a flight, pronto! :)

New York and back in 24 hours

Well, my New York trip turned out not at all like I expected! I got really sick my first night there and had to change my flight and come home the next morning. So basically I got to do none of the things that I had planned! But I did accomplish a couple of things.

We'll start with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: I went to the audition. It starts out with probably 100 people in a room taking a 30 question multiple choice test. You have 10 minutes to take the test on a scantron, then they score them and announce the people who pass. Most of the questions were really easy, but some were just so random! My favorite was "Which of these events occurred earliest in the calendar year: A) O.J. Simpson Verdict; B) D-Day; C) JFK Assassination....I can't remember the last choice, but you get the point. Crazy! Well, I didn't pass. From what I could remember and look up later, I think I missed 4 maximum, maybe only 3. So they're looking for near perfection.

After the test I talked to Holly Root. We were originally going to meet up that night, but she wasn't feeling well so I decided to see a Broadway show and then we were going to figure something out on Friday. So I succeeded in crossing #8 off the THE List

8. See a Broadway Show

It was even more special to me because my first Broadway show happened to have one of my best friends from High School, Phoebe Strole in it. The show was great, and seeing her on stage made me so happy. I started crying during the first number that she's in and I'm sure the people next to me thought I was crazy because it wasn't a particularly sad number! I regained my composure for the rest of the show though. :)

That was pretty much the end of my New York trip. My sickness started to kick in during the second act and by the time I got back to my hotel, I was just dying. I was so sad! I was planning on doing some sightseeing, Phoebe and I had plans to meet up for lunch, I was going to see Holly and Jonathan and hopefully see Jonathan in Avenue Q that night...instead I got to fly back early. Blah.

I did get to do one other thing that has recently been added to THE List, but I'll blog about that tomorrow because this is getting really long! To sum it all up - I had a great time in New York for the ~24 hours that I was there. Didn't get to do much, but I did enough to know that I really liked it and will definitely be going back!

Calling All Bloggers!

Thursday I was looking through blogs, and for some reason decided to go to Lindsey's blog even though I know she doesn't update it anymore. Then I noticed that her old posts were still there, so I started reading from the beginning. After a while I went and read some of my old posts. It really made me miss the "Golden Age of Blogging" amongst our friends - when everyone had blogs and updated them frequently.

My excuse for being a bad blogger is basically that I don't think I'm interesting right now. I don't have kids to blog about and for some reason I don't think my life post-school is nearly as interesting as it was when I was in school. This is kind of ridiculous, because I still do a lot of the same things that I did before. So I'm making a declaration now that I'm going to be a better blogger. And I'm going to make a plea to Lindsey to start blogging again (though I'm pretty sure she won't!) And to everyone else, I miss hearing what's going on in your life! Leave me a comment if you have a blog so that I can update my blogroll and start reading them. :)

LinkedIn - you have officially blown my mind

I love magicians. I love trying to figure out how they do an illusion, and then when I can't figure it out it makes me even happier. Today, a website did something that a lot of magicians can't....it performed a trick that I seriously cannot figure out how it did it!

I use LinkedIn as a way to keep track of my professional network and reconnect with some people outside of the Facebook world. Today I opened up Linked In and as always, it had a couple of suggestions of "People You May Know." Usually, these are people who have something in their profile that matches mine: Schools, companies, a lot of the same connections, etc. But today the first suggestion was Jeff Cameron. Turns out, I do know Jeff Cameron...but not in any way that would be visible to LinkedIn. He is the husband of the Children's Minister I interned with about 6 years ago (and that is not on my profile). He lives in Houston and owns his own company, we have no similar companies, no shared connections....there is absolutely nothing in our profiles that match in any way. But somehow LinkedIn decided I might know him. I'm stumped. I'm glad I found him, but I am definitely stumped.

How has this not been invented sooner???

Every now and then, I see a new product that ellicts a reaction of "That is such genius, and so simple.....how has that not been invented already??" A good example of this is the pasta pot with the holes in the lid for draining without requiring a strainer. Another happened tonight...I actually said it out loud when I saw the commercial. Introducing....the Black and Decker Gecko Grip Level! It is a level that has movable "accu mark targets" so you can measure how far apart holes need to be in a wall, and then mark and level them at the same time. How in the world has this not been invented already?

And no, I'm not getting any royalties for pushing a product....unless someone out there wants to pay me for it! :)


What products have you seen that make you think, "How has this not been invented sooner?"