New York City 2006

I had a great time this past weekend in New York. My friend and I had decided to just do a few things on this trip since we had done much more last year.

Friday evening, after checking into the Milford Plaza, we just walked around Times Square and ate at the Hard Rock…much fancier than any other one I had been to. We decided not to walk to MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) since it was so cold. I wanted to get in bed early anyway because I had to be up early the next morning.

Saturday morning, I overslept. I had wanted to be up at 6 am and in a cab at 7 am to be at the test center by 7:30 am. But I set my alarm clock wrong and woke up at 6:57 am. I dashed out of bed and quickly dressed. Thankfully, I still made it to the testing center by 7:30ish, since the cab drove very quickly. The test didn’t actually start until 8:00 am, so there was plenty of registration time. I was testing to try to get into the Director’s Guild Assistant Director’s Training Program. I feel I did much better on the test this year since I wasn’t sick like last year. It tested on math, vocabulary, general knowledge, cognitive thinking, and personality. I whizzed through most of it, except the math portion. So we’ll see. I won’t know if I move onto the Phase II until the end of March.

While I was testing, my friend got us discounted tickets to see Chicago at 2 pm. I got out of the test at 11:30 am and met my friend at 2nd and 42nd and we ate lunch at Grand Central Terminal. I love that place for some reason… maybe because I remember being awed by it as a little girl when we were there in the 70s. We headed on to the Ambassador Theater where we saw Chicago . Our seats were in the back (orchestra level) off to the left side. But we were allowed to move to the center when some people didn’t show up. So that was sweet. It was a very, very good production. It starred Robin Givens and John O’Hurley.

After the show, we went over to the Le Parker Meridien to eat at a little hidden place called the Burger Joint. My friend had read about it before we went and she wanted to try it. The food was fine, but I got excited when I found an actress from my favorite soap, All My Children, there!

Yes, Kendall Hart and all her glory was sitting in one of the back booths. While we stood in line, I tried not to be a gawking tourist/fan but I found I couldn’t help it. I was literally star struck! But I got through it and we ate our burger. Then as we were leaving, I noticed she and her people were filming something in the booth. But I didn’t recognize any other actors so I didn’t know if it was for AMC or not.

WELL! We went out into the Lobby and waited while my friend finished her milk shake. Lo and behold, Kendall (Alicia) came out by herself. Yes, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by. I went up to her and told her I was a big fan of the show and would she mind taking a photo with me (I’ll post it soon!) She was very gracious, friendly, and surprisingly chatty. I was expecting to just take the photo and go, but she asked us about our stay in NYC and about Chicago and about Texas and she told us about her mom and that she was there filming for the Travel Channel. Anyway, it was very fun and may be the highlight of my trip!

So, we had overheard the people behind us in the show talking about the impending blizzard. That was news to us. That evening we called the airline to find out about our flight the next day (Sunday) and it was canceled. We rescheduled a flight out first thing Monday morning.

Sunday morning, everything was covered with LOTS of snow. After much to do and finally getting a cab, we made it to the closed LGA airport in Queens and decided we would stay the night there because we didn’t want to spend the money on more nights in a hotel. However, about 4 pm we learned our flight out the next morning was canceled. We then rented a car and drove all night to Nashville to make our connecting flight to Dallas. Yes, we had to spend money on the car, but it was better than missing more work. The first half of the drive was actually fun…an adventure! The roads were not bad at all once we got out of NY. We drove through NY, NJ, PA, MD, WV, VA, and TN. But the 2nd half was not so fun because we were so tired. But we made it and was able to get on a 10 am flight from Nashville to Dallas. I got home about 12:30 Monday.