I am not a Jay-Z fan. Nor am I now a Jay-Z fan, but I gotta hand it to Mr. Beyonce & Alicia Keys…
That Empire State of Mind song is pretty darn catchy. It was also amazing hearing it IN Times Square.
IN TIMES SQUARE.
Got it? Good.
I’ve been back in Texas for almost 2 weeks now, and I haven’t blogged about my vacation partially because I was sad it was over and because I was insanely angry about what happened in NYC. So, in order to avoid rubbing salt on any wounds, I decided to keep my mouth shut.
Let me give you a bit of background on me and NYC. It’s been a LIFELONG dream of mine to visit NYC. I remember wanting to go when I was in elementary school. I even found an old Christmas list I wrote in 4th grade- at the top of my list was me asking to be taken to the Empire State Building. Yes, 4th grade, Empire State Building. In parenthesis, I wrote (even for just 10 minutes). TEN minutes.
Then as I grew older, NYC became shopping, Tiffany & Co., Bloomingdale’s, and of course Sex & The City (SATC). They made it seem so glamorous, vibrant, fun, and surreal. NYC=my dream. NYC inspired me to dream and to dream BIG. And I was still obsessed with the Empire State Building.
There was an opportunity for me to go in college, and I couldn’t go because I just couldn’t afford it. I had put down a deposit, and when it came time to pay off the balance, I was short like $400 and I had to forfeit my deposit and not go. Then, we considered going for our honeymoon, but again, cost was a factor since a night in an NYC hotel can cost as much a 1-month of rent in Texas. So, we opted for DC.
Finally, my chance to visit NYC was upon me. I was going to Delaware to visit Jackie, and she suggested we go to NYC for the day to see a Broadway play and explore the area around Times Square a bit.
I was SO excited that I immediately made a countdown calendar and had it on my desk at work. My moment to be IN NYC was finally approaching. My stomach had butterflies whenever I thought about it. Then, Brittany decided to make the drive from Virginia to Delaware to come along, too. I was even more stoked because she had never been to NYC either.
Perfect! Simply perfect.
I flew in on Friday, and Jackie & Brittany went to the Philly airport to pick me up. While I was certainly excited to hang with them and to be away from Texas, I couldn’t get NYC out of my mind. Friday night, Brittany and I stayed up talking about NYC into the wee hours of the night. We both were psyched about seeing the Empire State Building. Brittany was SUPER pumped about this because one of her fave movies features a scene in that building. It’s like *the* major scene in that movie, and Brittany LOVES this movie. Like really. Loves. I can’t stress that enough. We both decide our major NYC priorities are Empire State Building, Times Square, Canal Street, and maybe Ground Zero. Statue of Liberty was out of the question, though we did see her from afar. We force ourselves to go to sleep, and we wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed on Saturday to head out to NYC at 7 am sharp, so that hopefully we’ll be there by 10 am-ish.
And this is where it goes wrong. Now, I may sound like a huge baby in this post or the latter half of it, but it is what it is. I’ve already prefaced this moment by emphasizing how long I’ve wanted to go to NYC. I’m emphasized the fact that Brittany is just as excited as I am. Also, at this point, I’ve spent 4 vacation days, $200 on plane tickets, 2 hour drive to the airport and other misc. amounts just to get myself to this moment. Brittany saved every nickel and dime to be able to drive the 3 hours and ride along with us.
And here we go.
We’re supposed to leave Jackie’s house in Delaware at 7 am. Sharp. Not 7:30, not 8:00. SEVEN ON THE DOT. Jackie’s 2 friends, Brittany & Lauren, (yes, another Brittany, from here on out referred to as B&L) are supposed to meet up with us around 6:45 to get on the road.
It’s 7 am and Brittany and I are impatiently waiting for B&L to get there. 7:01, 7:05. At 7:06 I am about to cry. Well, B&L call that they just woke up, so for us to please leave without them and they’ll catch up with us later.
Alrighty, progress. We then drive towards New Jersey to pick up Stacy. That all goes fine until B&L call that they forgot a wallet or something, so now they need to go to Wachovia. At this point my blood pressure is like, oh I don’t know, through the roof. You’re messing with my NYC time, not too happy. We keep driving onwards to NYC.
We get to Becca’s apartment in Brooklyn, and we’re already like about an hour behind schedule. Brittany and I are like 2 curse words away from landing ourselves in the hospital due to a heart attack because we are BURSTING at the seams to get on with the day. But, we can’t. We gotta wait for B&L to get to Becca’s apartment so they can get a parking pass. Lovely.
So, we’re waiting.
And waiting.
And we wait some more.
Finally, they get there. FINALLY.
We head onto the subway towards Canal Street, and I swear it takes FOREVER to get there from Brooklyn. There must have been like 20+ stops before we got off.
Brittany and I wanted to cry.
Finally we get to Canal street (which will be it’s own post, and oh my Lord, wait until you here why…) we browse a bit, and it’s so late and we’re so behind schedule that we have to cut it short and go to Times Square to see Wicked at 2 pm on Broadway.
Sigh. If B&L would have been on time, I am confident Canal Street wouldn’t have been as um, crazy rushed. But it was, so alright.
We see Wicked (it’ll be it’s own post as well), and then comes the awkward part. Now it comes down to the battle of the tourists vs. non-tourists. So far, the NT peeps are winning since they totally cut into our time.
Now, I get that if you’ve been to NYC “a thousand times” like someone that day said, that Times Square is nothing new. No big deal. And that the Empire State Building is just an office building. But, to Brittany and I, it’s all new. Have some consideration. Really. I didn’t fly 4+ hours to go to Sephora or LUSH. Neither did Brittany. We spent time, money, energy to see NYC. So, please, do NOT tell me the Empire State Building is just an office building when to me it is the epitome of NYC.
And I feel really sorry for poor Jackie, because she’s caught in the middle of all this. She has us (the newbs) and she has her pals, and we’re obviously wanting completely opposite things. I am the non-confrontational type, but I really had to speak up (as did Brittany) because we wanted to see the ESB and we wanted to just walk around Times Square and soak it all in. All of it.
But unfortunately, it did turn into an us vs. them kind of day, and we won some battles, but lost most. Mainly the time battle.
I knew there was only so much I could see in a day, so I had set my expectations pretty low. I don’t think I was difficult, but I wore my heart on my sleeve because I had a permanent sad face all day long. :-(
I wanted to see Ground Zero, which is a “hole in the ground” I think was the phrase used. I now realize it wasn’t anywhere near where we were, so I would have understood if we couldn’t make it because of distance.
Overall, I certainly didn’t appreciate being made to feel like an idiot because I wanted to do touristy things. I was/am/will always be a tourist in NYC. It’ll never become old to me. Ever. I can’t go often enough for it to.
What’s the point of this post? Well, it’s meant to give you all a background of my NYC day, and to serve as a PSA. Inevitably you’re going to have people visit you, and they may want to see something you have seen a million times. Instead of making them feel bad about it, put yourselves in their shoes. They may have dreamt their whole lives about seeing that one attraction (Empire State Building, The Alamo, Epcot, Mickey Mouse, etc.) so is it worth it to make them feel like complete crap because it’s boring to you?
I hope not.
Overall, NYC in a day was good, but it would have been better if I didn’t feel stupid, angry and sad for the majority of it. I remember a moment while on the ESB Observation Deck (yes, I did indeed get to fulfill my dream!!) where I reflected on exactly what I was doing at that very moment, and I got teary eyed- I almost completely lost it because I was so overwhelmed. I was finally up there, 96th floor, NYC, evening…finally my dream and wish had come true. Finally. Looking back on that day, I am not angry anymore, but I guess I am hurt a bit. I know I shouldn’t let strangers or anyone ruin my NYC day, but it just didn’t go quite like I hoped.
So, there’s the background. My next 2 posts will be about Canal Street/Pizza Nazi and Wicked/ESB.
I heart NY. I really do, and I can’t wait to tell you some of the reasons why.
PS- I want to thank Jackie for driving us to NYC and letting us stay in her beautiful home (she did a FAB job driving…I could never, and I mean NEVER drive in NYC) and Becca was a wonderful tour guide for the few hours she got to spend with us. :-)
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