Elizabeth Jamieson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elizalavelle) wrote2007-09-28 08:42 am
elizalavelle) wrote2007-09-28 08:42 am
Entry tags:
NYC day 1
I'm now back from NYC, back at work, back to real life. Of course I'm getting sick now lol. Both Ava and Julie were sick while I was there and I refused to get sick 'til I got home, ergo I'm getting a cold. I bought some Airborne while I was in the US though so I took a bit last night as I felt myself getting sick, hopefully it helps me get well fast and by Monday I should be shiny again :)
Anyways, I now bring you the first of my epic vacation posts:
Starting from the beginning I caught the late night bus out of TO for NYC. It wasn’t too busy so I was able to snag a double seat all to myself for the entire trip. Crossing the boarder was just about the easiest I’ve ever had it. They didn’t ask for hardly any info, they asked if Ava was my boyfriend (I’ve never heard of that being a boy’s name) but that was it. There was a woman from the US (Boston I think) ahead of me for the security checks and she was complaining about how it was too much and she didn’t feel safe because they checked everything so well. That makes no sense to me. I think she just didn’t want the hassle but there really is very little hassle at all, at least I don’t think it’s bad.
On the way down we didn’t stop at the fun convenience store anymore, instead we stopped at McDonalds, twice. So I didn’t eat much on the way there, just some Crispers and Cheese-Its. There was however a dinosaur toy machine at one of the McDonalds stores and I took great amusement in thinking to myself “curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal” and taking a picture of it.
Overall I think I managed to sleep for about an hour and a half in total. Not great but I have to be fully exhausted to sleep on a bus.
We were delayed by construction in the last bit of the trip so we hit NYC an hour late, I thought I was not going to get a student rush ticket for A Chorus Line at all by then since they go on sale at 10 and I made it to the theatre a little bit after 12 but I got a fantastic seat, first seat in the closest box, I don’t think they’d sold many tickets yet. Fantastic luck! Then I ran down to Ava’s work and was by this point late to meet her for lunch but I found it alright and dropped my luggage off in her office which was so awesome to be able to do instead of fussing with it at a show (especially as ACL’s coat check was downstairs I think) and I got changed out of bus clothes into slightly less casual theatre clothes. This was the first trip that I’d worn jeans to any shows. While I like to be able to dress up being that I was walking all day it was nice to just be able to change into a nice top and go to a show rather than have to carry a full outfit change with me.
We had a nice lunch at The Bread Factory and then I had to head straight back to the theatre to see A Chorus Line. There was already a line up down the block to get into the theatre. This was a trend in all shows and it’s not really a good one. They now scan your ticket instead of tearing off the ticket stub because that helps to foil the scalpers who make fake tickets. But this means that usually they have just 1 or 2 doors open to enter the theatre instead of all of them so it takes ages to get into the theatre when the open the doors. This means things like washroom lines are longer closer to the show starting just because people have only really had 15 minutes to get settled instead of 30. It might work better if they did the scanners and line up and all but then had to open the doors 15 minutes earlier. However the line up, and people in line being really fussy about someone cutting in front of them, is a little much. You have an assigned seat, therefore it doesn’t matter when you walk into the theatre you will still get your seat.
Anyways…
A Chorus Line was fantastic! I’m so glad everyone encouraged me to see that one. I really enjoyed it, the cast was great, and everyone was hitting their jokes perfectly. The dancing is of course amazing and it was just a really neat theatre experience. The stage is so simple so the show is all about the performers, it’s rare to see a show that is that stripped down right now. So many things are fancy and all about set design and effects and I liked seeing that a great show can still have a very simple stage and very basic costumes and still can rock.
After the show I went to the visitors centre to buy my MTA card, but they don’t sell them anymore… they also don’t have the cute mural they used to have and are missing a few other things. I guess funding got cut. I did call my brother so he could let me parent’s know I was alive and having fun already, and then I wandered Times Square a little bit, saw the M&M’s store etc until I had to go back to meet Ava and head back to her place in Brooklyn.
I have decided that I love Brooklyn. The part of it that I saw was a beautiful neighbourhood and there are all of these huge old houses (most of which are now apartments on the inside) and it was just nice there.
We waited for Julie to come home and then went out for a fantastic Italian dinner. Then we watched the premiere of Gossip Girl. I didn’t see the second episode last night so I don’t know if it got any better but the premiere sucked. Kristen Bell’s voice was just grating, as it’s supposed to be I guess, but it bothered me. The show assumes people have read the books, I had read some of them, Ava and Julie hadn’t and so the short forms of the character’s names in the GG updates were confusing unless you knew who everyone was. They tried to put way too much detail into the episode and it just felt like most of it was filler, not even exposition, just filler. It’s being promoted all over Manhattan, huge billboards and such, and I think they’re wasting money. Gossip Girl made The O.C. look like art.
That was the end of the day. Time for some much needed sleep ;)
Anyways, I now bring you the first of my epic vacation posts:
Starting from the beginning I caught the late night bus out of TO for NYC. It wasn’t too busy so I was able to snag a double seat all to myself for the entire trip. Crossing the boarder was just about the easiest I’ve ever had it. They didn’t ask for hardly any info, they asked if Ava was my boyfriend (I’ve never heard of that being a boy’s name) but that was it. There was a woman from the US (Boston I think) ahead of me for the security checks and she was complaining about how it was too much and she didn’t feel safe because they checked everything so well. That makes no sense to me. I think she just didn’t want the hassle but there really is very little hassle at all, at least I don’t think it’s bad.
On the way down we didn’t stop at the fun convenience store anymore, instead we stopped at McDonalds, twice. So I didn’t eat much on the way there, just some Crispers and Cheese-Its. There was however a dinosaur toy machine at one of the McDonalds stores and I took great amusement in thinking to myself “curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal” and taking a picture of it.
Overall I think I managed to sleep for about an hour and a half in total. Not great but I have to be fully exhausted to sleep on a bus.
We were delayed by construction in the last bit of the trip so we hit NYC an hour late, I thought I was not going to get a student rush ticket for A Chorus Line at all by then since they go on sale at 10 and I made it to the theatre a little bit after 12 but I got a fantastic seat, first seat in the closest box, I don’t think they’d sold many tickets yet. Fantastic luck! Then I ran down to Ava’s work and was by this point late to meet her for lunch but I found it alright and dropped my luggage off in her office which was so awesome to be able to do instead of fussing with it at a show (especially as ACL’s coat check was downstairs I think) and I got changed out of bus clothes into slightly less casual theatre clothes. This was the first trip that I’d worn jeans to any shows. While I like to be able to dress up being that I was walking all day it was nice to just be able to change into a nice top and go to a show rather than have to carry a full outfit change with me.
We had a nice lunch at The Bread Factory and then I had to head straight back to the theatre to see A Chorus Line. There was already a line up down the block to get into the theatre. This was a trend in all shows and it’s not really a good one. They now scan your ticket instead of tearing off the ticket stub because that helps to foil the scalpers who make fake tickets. But this means that usually they have just 1 or 2 doors open to enter the theatre instead of all of them so it takes ages to get into the theatre when the open the doors. This means things like washroom lines are longer closer to the show starting just because people have only really had 15 minutes to get settled instead of 30. It might work better if they did the scanners and line up and all but then had to open the doors 15 minutes earlier. However the line up, and people in line being really fussy about someone cutting in front of them, is a little much. You have an assigned seat, therefore it doesn’t matter when you walk into the theatre you will still get your seat.
Anyways…
A Chorus Line was fantastic! I’m so glad everyone encouraged me to see that one. I really enjoyed it, the cast was great, and everyone was hitting their jokes perfectly. The dancing is of course amazing and it was just a really neat theatre experience. The stage is so simple so the show is all about the performers, it’s rare to see a show that is that stripped down right now. So many things are fancy and all about set design and effects and I liked seeing that a great show can still have a very simple stage and very basic costumes and still can rock.
After the show I went to the visitors centre to buy my MTA card, but they don’t sell them anymore… they also don’t have the cute mural they used to have and are missing a few other things. I guess funding got cut. I did call my brother so he could let me parent’s know I was alive and having fun already, and then I wandered Times Square a little bit, saw the M&M’s store etc until I had to go back to meet Ava and head back to her place in Brooklyn.
I have decided that I love Brooklyn. The part of it that I saw was a beautiful neighbourhood and there are all of these huge old houses (most of which are now apartments on the inside) and it was just nice there.
We waited for Julie to come home and then went out for a fantastic Italian dinner. Then we watched the premiere of Gossip Girl. I didn’t see the second episode last night so I don’t know if it got any better but the premiere sucked. Kristen Bell’s voice was just grating, as it’s supposed to be I guess, but it bothered me. The show assumes people have read the books, I had read some of them, Ava and Julie hadn’t and so the short forms of the character’s names in the GG updates were confusing unless you knew who everyone was. They tried to put way too much detail into the episode and it just felt like most of it was filler, not even exposition, just filler. It’s being promoted all over Manhattan, huge billboards and such, and I think they’re wasting money. Gossip Girl made The O.C. look like art.
That was the end of the day. Time for some much needed sleep ;)