3/30/12

The Best Day of My Life.

Michelle and I decided to make the most of our last full day in NYC. And the most of everything it was! At


740am
we woke up to stand in line for rush tickets for the musical Sister Act. Apparently if you go to the theater when it opens at 10am, they have a limited amount of front row seats you can buy for really cheap! However, people start lining up outside before the theater opens to ensure that they get seats, so we had to be exceptionally early birds to get our award-winning worm. By

8am
we were heading down to Times Square, unshowered, unawake, and unprepared for the cold. We were a seriously pretty sight. There was mist everywhere which only made us look groggier and more disgusting. We were finally in line by

830am,
a full hour and a half before the theater opened, and we were fifth in line! Now, the general rule for lining up for tickets is that if you're not there, waiting in line, you don't get a ticket. This means no saving spots for people who haven't shown up yet. There we were, shivering in our misery, and three girls and a dude join one of the girls in front of us, making us NINTH in line. They got the most awful death glares from everyone. Also a few loud "If I don't get tickets because of them"'s. It was intense.

10am
and we finally get our tickets! Honestly, it was just a relief to be let into the building, it was so cold. But we did! We got tickets!! They were in the front row. For $26.50, and therefore, extraordinary. We arrived back at the apartment, skipping with glee, by

11am
and were dead tired. Michelle decided to take a nap while I explored facebook for a while. And lo and behold! Our dear friend Jessica was online!


We skyped and chatted quietly for a while (everyone else was still asleep) before it was time to get ready. Gradually, the rest of the apartment mates woke up and said hi and got ready for the rest of the day. At

2pm,
we head out to do some real touristy stuff while Matille spent some time with her friends from home.

Neither of us had ever seen the Brooklyn Bridge, so we went there first. It's HUGE! And PRETTY! I can't believe people get to run/bike across that for exercise.

We also went to see the Statue of Liberty but we didn't take the ferry there.


While we were too cheap for historical monuments, we weren't too cheap to get caricatures of ourselves...



ones with beautifully big boobs, too. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the apartment at

530pm,
but we couldn't slow down yet! We had to get ready for Sister Act later that night! We got dressed in our cute outing clothes and were heading to the subway by

6pm
with the intent of eating dinner in Times Square. Halfway to the subway, Michelle asks, "Do you have the tickets?" A sallow face was my only response, and we started trudging our way back to the apartment. Luckily, she volunteered to climb the six flights of stairs to get them (Thanks Miche!!) Soon after that, we decided to just eat some place on our street. We went to this great falafel place across the street, and damn, was it great. Also, I had the best baklava of my life. As we left, stomachs achingly full, we saw the best thing in the world: the Waffles & Dinges truck.If you do not know what this is, I will fill you in. It is the source of all the sunshine and starlight in the galaxy.


It is a truck that serves the best waffles in the world that relocates itself everyday. You have to go online to find out where it will be, and sometimes, if you say the secret word for the day, you get a free topping! We had been seeing it driving around and swearing that before we left, we would necessarily need to get one. We figured it was our last night there - when else would we be able to fulfill this promise?? By this time it was

7pm
and we needed to be hurrying to the theater if we wanted to get there with some time to spare. We grabbed our waffles, slathered with nutella and their homemade secret spread, and speed-walked and ate simultaneously...BAD. HORRIBLY. AWFUL IDEA. Chocolate and sugar started dripping down our hands, and soon after, my face. A woman passed us muttering, "Ew.." to which Michelle replied, "You don't know what you're missin, lady." And she was right.


At the end of the block, I had somehow managed to smear chocolate all over my hands, face, and scarf. Michelle was somehow pristine. Our giggles progressed into hysterics as I tried to clean up with the two napkins I found in my purse. I'm pretty sure people may have thought we were crack-whores, but we didn't care. Our bellies were full of chocolatey warmth and sunshine :)

745pm
We get to the theater, and we're escorted to the front row, where we see the orchestra pit, a rather young and handsome director, and of course, a high, high stage. The lights dim and fabulous blaring sounds of the 70's spring from the pit and the stage. I knew I could get some amazing pictures if I wanted to, but in those first few minutes of the performance, I promised myself I wouldn't. I was going to enjoy the show that was in front of me for the live experience and keep the memory forever engrained in my mind. And forever it shall be! The show was so powerful and affective! Maybe it was the fact that we were sitting in the front row and could literally feel the music and see the actors' spit, maybe it was the fact that Sister Act was one of my favorite movies growing up, maybe it was the catchy beat of the songs, maybe it was the fabulous day I'd been having so far. Whatever it was, I was so affected by this show that I cried almost consistently throughout the second act. It was funny, hopeful, inspiring, sad, sassy; it was phenomenal. After the show, at

1030pm,
"Sister Mary Robert"
Michelle and I laughed about how we just wanted to see the performers so that we could just hug them all. No need for pictures and autographs! We went to the stage door where the actors came out, and we told them all how wonderful they were and thanked them for an amazing night. We got most of their autographs and a couple pictures.The last lady we met played the character Sister Mary Lazarus, an old, raspy rapping nun, and it turned out she went to a college literally 10 minutes form our that has been closed down. Most people now think it's haunted and I've always wanted to go there, but still! She 

"Deloris VanCartier"
graduated in the 70's. She liked us so much that she asked us to wait while she took a quick phone call just so that she could hug us each goodbye. I think we were a little star-struck after this, because all we wanted to do was
goggle and walk around Times Square! For half an hour, all we did was wander around some stores and soak in this last night together, "high on life," as we called it. At one point when we were talking about how awesome our day had been, I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, threw out my arms, and yelled, "Michelle, HUG ME!" It was such a special day, and I don't think I could have shared it with anyone else! At

11pm 
we realized we should probably be getting back. When we got back to the apartment, though, there was a party going on. It was fun for a little while, but kind of crowded, so we decided to go down to the street where we seriously contemplated getting tattoos. We eventually decided to go back to Times Square; we just didn't want the day to end. There wasn't much open at this time, but we managed to find a little cafe at around

1am
and just sat and talked about life and love and happiness :) This trip really gave us a chance to bond, which I'm so grateful for. Even though the majority of my friends this year are seniors and will be graduating in a month or so, it's days like these that make my meeting them so worthwhile; each of them, Michelle especially on this occasion, have made a significant impact on my life, and I'm a better, happier person for knowing every one of them. It's a select group of people who you can be around for over 20 hours (we didn't get back until around

3am)
and enjoy every moment of it!

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