Friday, November 17, 2006

New York trip in a nutshell, about a week late
Mmk. Time to go to the list.

Thursday

-Got to school at around 5:40am, and shipped out at 6:50am. Keke. I was lucky and snagged two seats for myself. Very handy for when I curled up and slept. XD

-We watched five movies on the drive there. In order, they were "Cars", "A Walk To Remember" (of which I slept through), "The Longest Yard", and "Chicago". And yes, I know I'm missing a movie. But I can't remember it at the moment. >_>

-Arrived in New Jersey at the hotel at around 1:00am. I took my shower, and me and my junior roommates (Erin, Marissa, and Rochelle) stayed up 'til 2:30, joking around.
Rochelle, right after we turned the lights out, suddenly realized the presence of a refrigerator in the room and freaked out, leaping out of bed to check it out. Erin just mumbled, "Rochelle, check it out in the morninnnng..."

Friday

-Ate breakfast and shipped out to go to New York City at about 8:00am. It took us an hour or so to get there, due to traffic and such. The tunnel under the river was pretty cool, though we found it amusing to see a "no pictures" sign. But it was there for more than obvious reasons.

-While driving through town, I found it more than amusing to see purse bootleggers and their moving tarps of doom.

-We went on the NBC Studio Tour, and I ducked in to the first group to be with my friends (there were spots that needed to be filled). It was pretty cool to see the sets of things, such as SNL, Dateline, and a replica of the newsroom.
Me and a freshman snare drummer (Sparkle Muffin XD) volunteered to reenact a news blurb. I was teh reporter and he was the weatherman. Afterwards, I got a lot (a lot) of compliments. The tour guide even said I should look into journalisma as a career. o.O

-Rockefeller Center is cool, but confusing to navigate when you've never been there.

-Ground Zero didn't move me to tears as I thought it would. We were just standing outside of it (or rather, sitting on some steps across the street) and listening to some guy speak about the day as he had experinced it. Meh.

-After standing in line and listening to some awesoem street musicians, we boarded the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We didn't get off at the statue, but rather at Ellis. We missed our ferry (long line), so we had to wait an additional twenty minutes.
I was on the second deck up in the front, expericning the full force of the waves. Coool.

-Our dinner was this place called "Elle's Stardust Diner"...on Broadway. *sings* They had a staff of singing waiters (and one waitress). And...one of the waiters was really cute. >.>;; There's a debate raging as to whether his name is Todd or Tony. I swear it's the first.

-After dinner, we saw..."THE PRODUCERS"! Dear Lord, that made the trip for me! I bought a shirt saying "I wanna be a producer" and the "fancy playbook". Ah...it was just a great time. I tell you, there's nothing like leaving the theater and having all these new fans surrounding you. Now they know what I've been fangirling over for the past five years. =)

Saturday

-The whole "lighting of the torch" ceremony was quite boring, and everybody just sorta started blending together for me.

-We must've waited on a sidestreet for two hours before actually getting into the parade route. We warmed up, and then dispersed. Every so often, we'd be called back into our rows, but then those would break within five minutes.

-After visiting New York, I just love Chicago more. At least Chicago is clean. I tell you, I've never seen so many smokers, or - my personal favorite - see somebody spit in the street and walk away. (On our sidestreet for waiting. Oh yes.)

-The parade was...woah. I wasn't as overwhelemed as I thought I would be ("700,000 people? woah!"), but it was still fscking amazing. I loved hearing women scream out to me, "You GO girl, you PLAY those drums!" everytime I crashed the cymbals. That kept me motivatd, and I never once put my cymbals down to rest when I should've been playing.

-Afterwards, we went shopping on Broadway and Times Square. LOVE! The neon lights are amazing, and just fun to lose yourself in. We also had a field day picking out posters from Broadway shows we've seen/liked/wanted to see.
I bought a shirt for Avenue Q, and also a print from a street vendor.

-After getting back on the bus, we went to the National Track and Field Museum for dinner. Us and about eight other bands were there. (For the record, the other nine or so had been there the previous night.) During the course of about two hours, I drank six sodas - two Pepsis and four Diet Pepsis. (It was a sort of 'personal bet' thing, then I changed it into an event.) I tell you, I'm glad the bathrooms were so near. I went about nine times before we left. >.O

-Got on the bus and conked out within two hours.

Sunday

-On the way back, we watched "Young Frankenstein", "Ladder 49" (of which I slept through again), and "Them!". XD Horray for 1950's B-grade sci-fi movies!

-We stopped in Ohio for a buffet-breakfast. I've never befroe seen so many people eat ice cream before 9:00am. >.>

-At around 3:30pm, we got back to the school. I had to stay behind a bit to pack up all the percussion stuff - we're done for the season. I laughed while going through my cymbal bag, since it had stuff from last year in it. XD I looked lovingly at them before glancing at the smallest bass drum and going, "You're mine next year."

-Since the start of school, we've had a countdown going in a corner of the bandroom chalkboard. The week of, it would say "2 days until NYC!!!", along with my message of "Have you packed yet?"
I tell you, it was moving to see the words, "Been there, done that" written within that box. Having stared at it for more than two months, it was kinda sad to see it over with.


My final note - I'm sorry, but I didn't learn until I came home that the parade wasn't broadcast to Illinois. I'm not sure how far it was broadcast, but I apologize if you turned on the TV to watch us. ^^;;
However, we do get a DVD around the holidays, and on it will be a recording of us. So yeah. I'll try my best. X)
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