Dragon Con 2012: Vampires and Star Wars and Weres! Oh my!

I’m a geek.  Anyone that knows me can attest to this fact.  I can throw a Star Wars reference into almost any situation life gives you.  I am obsessed with reading and watching anything involved in the fantastic. I never miss The Vampire Diaries or True Blood.  I love the Walking Dead.  I’ve seen the LOTR countless times.  I could go on and on, but I think the point has been made.  Having said this, I had until yesterday, never been to a Con.  Why?  I have NO idea.  It was a geek MECA.  Geekiness embaraced.  Geek CELEBRATED.  Where letting your geek flag fly isn’t just a right… it’s a necessity.  There’s nothing you can do, you can’t help it.  It comes pouring out of you in the most terrific way. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves….

This whole thing started last year when I first discovered there WAS such a thing as Dragon Con when I had heard that Zak Bagans was going to possibly be there.  I became VERY interested in learning more.  I looked it up and saw that there were MANY MANY people there that I would be interested to see.  At the end of the day, Zak Bagans fell through as did my plans.  But I never shelved the idea of Dragon Con.  Not completely.  Cut to this year a couple of months ago when I looked to see who all would be there and I see not only Alcide from True Blood but most of the cast of The Vampire Diaries.  Are you KIDDING me?  You mean to tell me that there is a place only a mere 2 hours from me where I can go and see all of the marvelous people?  Umm… yes please!!

So I recruited my little brother, as he is a giant geek as well, and decided to give it a go this year! (The straw that broke the camel’s back was the rumor that Norman Reedus aka Murphy MacManus/Daryl Dixon might be there)  We got our Saturday only passes ordered and booked a hotel and it was official! I was going to my first con!!!  

Our trip started like most (although I have to admit this was my first time ever road trip with just my bro and I), with some well-planned amazing car mix CDs.  Although these mix cds had a slight different twist than my usual…. Jason wasn’t down with the Hanson/BSB/NKOTB awesomeness that Steph and I rock out to.  But there was some “Istanbul (not Constantinople)” so it fit the theme of the weekend well.

Since we booked less than a month ago, nearly every hotel in the Atlanta area was completely booked.  So we HOTWIRED anything within half hour of the Con…. Not the WORST place I’ve ever stayed…. But certainly not the best.  The room smelled like what I imagine the inside of King Tuts tomb smelled like when it was first opened.  It was the most stale/unused smell. And the pillows were about as flat as two sheets of paper stacked… But I digress.  

So I wanted to make sure we were in line as soon as possible for the registration opening at 8am because I kept hearing that it took up to three hours with the lines so I planned for us to get up at 5am and head that way as soon as possible. I’m not sure if it was the knowing that I had to get up early or the fact that they were an hour ahead and I wasn’t tired…. Or the Goldilocks bed… too hard… pillows too flat…Or all of the above… but I could NOT sleep! I just lay there listening to my brother snoring gloriously while I watched the time go by.  I fell asleep around 1130 and woke up around 2… then woke again at 430 (330 normal time) and just got up…. I do NOT do well without sleep… I looked like a crack addict going through detox…. I spent around 45 minutes getting ready (Jason jumped out of bed and was ready to go out the door in about 5.7 seconds…) and we were on our way.  Nothing like heading out in the morning and it looked like the middle of the night.  We had planned to get breakfast on the way… but it being dark and me not really knowing where I was going… and getting lost in downtown Atlanta…. I forgot.  And remembered again when we were standing in line at 630 am and not being able to get out because didn’t want to lose our place.  And little did I know how hard finding food in this place would be….

Waiting in line turned out to be one of the more interesting times in my life.  I thought I knew about how it would be… but it turns out I had NO idea.  I knew people dressed up, but I guess I didn’t realize to what degree… and how high the percentage of people dressed up would be.  Next year I’m going to seriously have to consider dressing up… I feel like I missed some of the fun.  People were dressed up as EVERYTHING! Doctor Who, Anime, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Star Wars, Batman, Superman, True Blood, Predator,Tropic Thunder, Allen from Hangover,  ect… Some of which I knew… some I had no idea.  But it was crazy! At one point this little Asian dude wearing a girls costume (which I later found out of Sailor Moon) comes up behind us and starts talking to some girls and at some point he mentions he can do the whole dance (there’s a dance?) and he turns the music on his phone and precedes to do a thirty minute dance like there’s no tomorrow.  One of the most fun things I’ve ever seen.  He just DIDN’T care.  And NO ONE was judging! That’s the best part of this con.  You can be as “lame” as you want to be and NO ONE cares a bit! It’s license to geek out!  We saw a car that was made into a Tie Fighter (R2 Unit included!), The Ghostbusters Mobile, The Batmobile… I’ve never had such a time waiting in line! 

There was also an older dude in line in front of us wearing a Big Bang Bazinga shirt (which I saw about 75,000 at the con) whom we coined Wikipedia because he just stood there spouting out random facts about random unrelated things.  At one point he started talking about the British invasion and starting singing.  He was UBER annoying… but at the same time mildly entertaining.  I’m sure the people he was with were about ready to cut his throat.

Once the line started moving, we went through it relatively fast.  We were done with registration by 8:45 I bet and so we had a good hour and a half to figure things out.  The way Dragon Con works out is it takes place between four of the major hotels in the Peachtree area.  We walked to the Marriot because that is where all of the events of the morning were taking place.  My brother got his picture worked out.  He was getting his picture made with Stan Lee at 11:15. (One of his Heroes).  I found the area that I would be going to the True Blood panel and then we went in search of food.  

Now I don’t know if it was some kind of survival game to make you feel like you were in any number of scifi movies… or if I am just not meant to be a hunter/gatherer (my blood line would have gone extinct within a matter of days if I had lived in the stone age)… but it was SO hard to find food!!!! They had stuff set up everywhere for when lunch started but NOTHING for breakfast.  We tried to at least find something to drink and there was a place selling canned cokes for two dollars (WTH????) but you had to have exact change.  UGH!!! So not only are we walking all over hell and creation but we are doing it on no sleep and absolutely no food!!!! Finally after an hour or so of wandering around we found a place selling candy bars.  I bought two just in case food was this hard to come by again.  We looked around the HUGE shopping area for a while then I headed up to the True Blood panel to get in line and Jason headed to get his photo. 

I had originally planned to skip the True Blood panel so I could go to The Vampire Diaries panel and then get my picture made with Joe Manganiello so I would get to see the ones I wanted from both shows… but then my picture time was scheduled at the same time as the Vampire Diaries panel… so I had to miss it.  Boo.  But my moments with Alcide made it worth it! One of the best looking people I’ve ever seen in person in my life.  Face melting. Truly.  But I’ll come back to that later.

When I get to the area (that was relatively empty only half an hour ago) it looks like they are having the Beatles/Elvis/Tupac reunion concert up there.  You can barely move! And just as soon as I get up there they start wrangling everyone into a line (which goes outside… in the hot sticky air) and somehow I get lucky and am very near the front of the line.  The room they lead us into is HUGE! I end up in around the fifth row which is really nice.  They show Dragon Con TV on the big screen while we wait and they did show one thing that was really hilarious.  It was a fake promo for a movie that (and I paraphrase) went like this: “From the people that brought you Alien and Alien 2 and Alien Verus Predator comes a new movie which hopefully not also suck.  It’s Predator Versus A Ninja Versus Waldo” and then it cuts to a scene in a forest and all you hear is crickets chirping and nothing happening for like five minutes.  It was hilarious! And for anyone that doesn’t get that… those three things are all things that are never seen.  I dunno… I laughed.  Around five minutes before the cast was due to come out they started playing the “cricket” type sound that HBO always plays right before True Blood starts and I gotta say… I got chills.  I was super excited.  It’s always awesome to suddenly be in a room with people that you’ve loved watching on TV or seeing on stage or however for a long time.  And then the “moderator” man came out and started introducing everyone.  We had (and I’m going with character names) Sam Merlotte, Alcide (yummmmm), Arlene, and Lafaette.   I videoed a lot and took a few pictures.  It was so fun! Hearing them tell stories of filming some of my favorite parts on the show.

Let me take a quick moment to interject with something about being out in the humid hot air…. I have naturally disgusting… I mean curly hair.  I straighten it because I hate the curls.  Throw this straightened hair into humidity and you get something wonderful called… fluffiness.  Giant nasty fluffy hair.  There is also a phenomenon that is created on my face called shiny greasiness.  So right before I get my picture of a lifetime…. Both of these wonderful events take place.  I am now greasy/shiny/fluffy. Let the meeting of a sexy beast begin!!!!!!

Immediately after I tried to make my way down (amongst ten trillion people) three floors to the area where my picture was to be taken, because I only had a few minutes to get there.  I walked down there and was sorted into the correct line for which person I was getting my picture with.  It wasn’t a big room so we were all really close to the stars of True Blood.  OMG. Seriously seriously… Joe Manganiello is so good looking that it actually made my stomach hurt.  And oh man is he huge! 6”5’.  Wow.  We got to watch other people getting their pictures made for about twenty minutes or so before it was my turn.  They were taking the pictures really any way you wanted them.  Some of the men would act like they were scared and he would put on his werewolf face and one girl got him to pretend to propose (which is had already thought of but didn’t actually want to do).  He would hug you or just whatever you wanted it to be.  And I loved how no matter how many people there were (and there were a lot) he talked and smiled at every single person that came up and didn’t act like he was getting tired or bored with it.  When it was my turn and I walked up to him and he smiled down at me… Oh holy crap.  He held out that giant muscular beautiful arm and pulled me to him…. What dreams are made of friends… truly….  I mean, it felt totally surreal. This giant sexy beast of a man and for the one small moment in time, he’s only focused on you.  It was a matter of seconds but it could have been a lifetime.  I saw our unborn children in his eyes and my god they were gorgeous! Dark hair and green eyes.….. “Hey how are you?”  I’m pretty sure I said “I’m good. How are you?”  (I love you. Can I have ten thousand of your babies?) Or something to that effect.  They took the picture then I had to look WAY up to see his face and his smiled down at me and said thanks or something… I’m not sure.  I was stupefied.  Beautiful.  Simply beautiful.  And again flashes of our long happy life together appear. And he sees them too, because, I mean, why wouldn’t he?  And then I walked out into the hall where my brother was waiting and I know I was beaming like a jack ass.  Couldn’t help it.  SUCH a wonderful moment!!!! And I have a photo to commemorate it forever!

Jason told me how he had just run into Dean Cain in the hallway and he’d shaken his hand and said hello. I thought that was really nice that he took the time to stop and shake his hand when he didn’t have to.  He could have just kept going to made him get in line and pay but he didn’t and that was cool.  We had also walked past Lou Ferrigno earlier in the day which was cool.  (He was the original HULK for anyone that doesn’t know).  He wasn’t nearly as big as I would have expected.  He was short.  

We decided to head over to what they call the “Hall of Fame” where all of the celebrities gather and you can pay and get autographs and pictures.  Even if I didn’t want to pay for anyone I could at least walk past them.  We saw Anthony Michael Hall (16 candles, weird science, breakfast club, Edward Scissorhands), Felicia Day, Dean Cain, Lou Ferrigno again, some of the voice actors in ARCHER, Adam West and Burt Ward(original batman and robin), the True Blood cast again, a bunch of people from Star Trek the Next Generation, among many others.  It was really awesome! Alice Cooper was also there but I didn’t see him.  We saw Bonnie from the Vampire Diaries but none of the others (boo).  I had considered getting my picture of Joe Manganiello signed but after I picked it up and went back there were ten trillion people there and we couldn’t get back in.  

We walked back to the Marriot to search for lunch because our lonely candy bars had long since abandoned us… and again… what a feat! There were places selling 6 million dollar hot dogs and hamburgers everywhere but there were people crawling all over them like ants on a picnic.  Finally we found a Papa John’s station that was pretty empty and we were so hungry that it ALMOST tasted good.  (I hate Papa John’s…) We found a place on the floor by the stairs to sit and people watched while we ate.  It was actually nice.  We saw a group of Predator’s taking photos and pretend attacking people.  We also saw the best Superman I’ve ever seen… including all of the movies.  He was tall, had a square jaw, dimple chin…. If he had taken off flying I would NOT have been surprised.  

I had planned on going to the Walking Dead panel… but I couldn’t find the hotel it was located in… and after walking around outside in the 10,000 heat  I gave up… Honestly it wasn’t that big of a deal .  The only person there that I liked was Glen… and Carl was there… my Walking Dead friends KNOW how I feel about Carl (least fave character on a show almost EVER)…. So I skipped it.  By this time of the day there were about 8 zillion people in the hotels.  The air was grossly hot… and I was beyond exhausted so we decided to go ahead and call it a day. 

One thing I wanted to mention was a moment I witnessed when I went back to pick my picture up.  Someone from Doctor Who was in the room taking pictures with the people who had ordered them and I was standing by the door where the people come out after theirs is taken.  Two young boys (early 20s?) walked out and this is a moment I’ll never forget.  The looks on their faces… like they had just reached the pinnacle of their lives.  (I equated it to when Stephanie and I went backstage at Hanson) They both looked beyond overwhelmed… like they wanted to cry and puke and jump in the air all at once.  And then they both looked at each other and just fell onto each other in a bear hug.  I could just feel the moment pouring off of them.  It was so awesome to witness.  I wanted to jump into the hug as well.  It was just such an amazing moment for them, you could tell.  

All in all, Dragon Con was SUCH a fun experience!!! I can’t WAIT to do it again next year! Anyone that has an inner geek should really consider giving it a try.  Not only did I see a ton of people I never imagine myself being that close to in my life, but I got to see my future husband and a glimpse of our life together.  Can’t wait until he looks me up and we start on those gorgeous children!  

I Wanna Be A Part of It New York New York!!

A wise man (or woman, I'm really not sure) once said "No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they had plenty of sleep." That sentiment has never been proven more than by my recent trip to NYC with the besties. NYC truly is the city that never sleeps. It's also the city of honking, and crazy driving, and lots and lots of walking. It's loud, and crowded, and throws random stink into your face. People accost you every three second to ask if you want to buy fake name brand purses, sunglasses, perfume, ect. And it was one of the most amazing places I've ever been in my life. It's full of fun and excitement and culture. It's a complete melting pot. Unless you are someone who has panic attacks in crowds, then I recommend going at least once in your life.

Our trip of legendary-ness started not yet bright and early on Friday morning. We were to meet in the parking deck at 5:15 am, which for most meant getting up between 3 and 4 am. Very early start to a jam packed day.

All seven of us met in the deck by 5:20. Bev, Ann, Magen, Megan, Erica, and The Steph's. We crammed into McGough's SUV, and surprisingly all seven fit as well as our seven suitcases. Nice! Especially when you have to pay to leave your car at airport. All was well, until we arrive at the airport deck and realized Mc Gough's vehicle was a BIT bigger than the deck could fit. Only a little scraping occurred....

So we get into the deck relatively without incident, check our bags (mine weight 51 lbs... phew, close call), made it through security with me only setting the metal detector off twice... and make it to our gate. All without major incident. This isn't usual for any trip that Steph and I are part off. Should have known some type of shoe was about to fall. As we are in line at starbucks it hits me suddenly that I failed to bring the vouchers for our shuttle from the airport to our hotel. This wouldn't be a big deal, except it said specifically that you MUST have the vouchers to get on the shuttle. Okay, no big deal, I'm SURE we can't be the first people forget our vouchers in the history of the world. We will be able to figure this out when we arrive. I feel like I've put a damper on our trip with my forgetfulness but everyone assures me that it will be fine and no one is worried. Okay, cool.

The plane ride goes as they usually do. Peanuts, ear popping, slight motion sickness, boredom. And we arrive at La Guardia. In the interest of saving time and not boring you to death, I'll cut to us at the Delta Baggage area where we are trying to find out about our shuttle. Long story short, without the vouchers, there is no way we can take the shuttle. Now really? You mean to tell me that if you don't have a printed piece of paper you can't use the shuttle? That you have no way of looking in your system and seeing that we have paid and can give us a ride? REALLY? Okay, fine. Now I'm feeling like a real failure as hours of our short time in NYC are being wasted trying to figure out how to get to the hotel. Steph is on the phone with hotels.com spending so much time talking to someone that by the end he's calling her Steph like they are bff's. They've made plans for dinner to meet the family and start a book club. But by the end, all we have accomplished is getting the shuttle canceled and our money back (which thank god we WERE able to get). So Erica calls our hotel and speaks with someone who DOES get us a shuttle and says they can be there within 20 minutes. Turned out he was there within 5. I was shocked that he was able to get there so fast... that is until we got in to the van and he started to "drive" and I use that term loosely.

I now know what astronauts feel like as they ascend through the atmosphere into space. I'm pretty sure at a couple of points in the ride we actually DID lose gravity. This man was driving down extremely narrow extremely crowded streets at 150 mph (actually 80 but STILL). And instead of blinkers, horn honking is used to signal that you are coming over. It's actually used to signify EVERYTHING. Move pedestrian or I WILL flatten you like a pancake. Get out of the way every other car or buy a new bumper. I see this red light and it means nothing to me. Honk honk honk. The soundtrack to NYC. It was really the ride of my life. I am not sure I've ever seen Bev look so scared. I'm pretty sure she was ready to get out and walk the rest of the way to the hotel. Steph on the other hand was having a grand time. She has to be an adrenaline junky.
After we arrive at the hotel, and kiss the ground, we go inside to check in. As we stand in line, I see from the corner of my eye Don Corleone walking our way. He walks up to Erica and starts asking her about the shuttle and if we got our money back and did he need to take care of things. It was just like a scene from ANY mob movie. It's so true what they say, the mob takes care of women AND the people they do business with. He was very nice. And Erica so has an in. The hotel really is nice. The staff is nice (and I'll get more into staff later... there's going to have to be an entire paragraph dedicated to one specific employee....) and room is small but location is PERFECT. My only complaint is, we have seven on our trip. Four in one room and three in another. So why when you check us in, do you give the room with four people the tiny room with one bathroom and the room with three people a bigger room with two bathrooms? Now come on people, do the math. We ended up just putting four in the bigger room, but still. That just doesn't make sense. And thanks to Luna for switching to the other room. Not that we booted her out, not at all. It just made more sense for room size. But later on, they totally made up for anything that happened in that hotel with their Adonis-like staff member. Sigh. I digress... for now.

After we check in, we immediately hit the city. We want to find food and we want to see as much as we can. Sure we've already been up for HOURS, but the excitement gives us a high.
We are already starving so we pretty much just walk into the first food place we see that looks at all promising. Oh how we should have looked a little harder....

I can't remember the name of the place, and I probably shouldn't say it anyway seeing as how I am about to bash the crap out of it. But it was a small Mexican place. We should have realized when we walked in and there were only three other people in the establishment that maybe we hadn't made the best decision. But we sit, we look at the menu. We decide what we want, and she comes to take drink orders. Now mind you that this is a bar and grill place and they have a bar IN the restaraunt AND they have drinks on the menu so when McGough orders a margarita and they say they don't have them because they don't have a liquor liscense we are confused. They can only serve beer. Okay, that's fine. Whatever. But don't you think you should maybe change your menu? And maybe take the bar off of the Bar and Grill title. And maybe get rid of the bar full of liquor as well? You can see where we would make the mistake ordering a drink? But whatever, we order. We eat. The food isn't bad. Then when we pay we notice that the waitress has to go to her purse to make change for Ann. Wow. I almost feel bad for this place. I highly doubt they will be open for long.

After lunch, we head to Times Square. This place is nuts! It looks JUST like it does in the movies and on tv. It felt SO surreal to be there! Times Square (and NYC in general) is one giant advertisement. If I ever get famous for any reason at all I will immediately get a face tranplant and begin a year long set of sit ups so I will be ready to have myself 100 feet high on the side of a NYC building. But still, Times Square and the theater district was a very awesome place to visit. It felt authentic NYC. Day one is before we have begun trying to navigate the subway system so we spend the entire day on our feet. And it took it's toll! I don't think anyone didn't have aching feet after day one. And it basically continued until.... well today as I write this they feel pretty decent finally. We spend the rest of day one sightseeing. Rockefeller center, radio city music hall, trump tour, Tiffany and Co., so much to see! We end up back at the Empire State building and decide to go ahead up to see it. We end up walking up roughly 8 floors so by the time I GET to the view I am so winded it takes me a couple of minutes to enjoy it. But WOW. It was amazing. The views of NYC were breathtaking (which was a lot on top of the breath that the 8 floors had already taken). It truly was something to see. As we were finishing up, we hear a loud thunk. It was the sound of someone's head hitting the concrete. We turn to see a young man layed out with his brother over him rolling him to his side. Then his brother is yelling, "Nothing to see here!" Like we are all crazy for staring. We were SO freaked out!!! He helps his brother up and someone comes outside that is a paramedic to help and they lead him inside. His skin color was COMPLETELY yellow and his mouth was BLUE. The nurse in all of us was really coming out and we wanted to demand he went to the hospital. We followed them inside and saw that they were kinda refusing help. THis makes me think that maybe this is something that happens to him a lot. But still, we were so sick to our stomachs with worry. I did see him about thirty minutes later when we were out of the building and on the street and he looked like nothing had ever happened. That gave us something relief. But it was such a scary moment!



We end up eating dinner at some place called "Heartland Brewery". At first, our server seems nice, the food is decent, good conversation, relaxing after a long day... things are good. Then we hardly see our server at all, but FINALLY we flag her down. Then when we go to pay, she never asks, just brings out the whole check which is like 250 dollars or something. Well, after a long time, we flag her down again and ask if she can split the checks. She immediately gets an attitude. "Well only if you can wait a long time. It's going to take me a long time to do this. I'm really busy to be doing this. I don't even know what you all ordered." And walks off. Okay... I'm so sorry that this is such an inconvenience. Well, after about ten more minutes she comes by and asks us to write down which we ordered so she can split them. Well we do this and get all of our cards ready. After a while she picks up the cards and the check and walks off. THEN someone ELSE walks up and says that they can't do this. They can't split a check more than three ways or it will shut down the system. She is REALLY rude about this, and while we are TALKING she just up and walks away. Literally. Just walks off. Are you kidding me??? Well we take forever sorting it all out and just pay with cash. But truly, it was ridiculous.

After dinner, we are all exhausted and day one comes to an end.

Day two starts around 10:00 am in the lobby. (It actually started at 7:17 in our room.... yuck. Thanks Steph for waking me up to early.) We decide to head from breakfast first and to pick up our bus tour tickets. We end up eating a place Ann's friend suggest call Eatery NYC. It was BY FAR the best place we ate with the BEST BEST service. Our waiter for amazing. LOVED him! He also was a big fan of Alabama having been here a few times. He was great and the food was great. They had amazing mimosa's. Great suggestion. After we eat, we head to pick up our bus tickets then head back to Times Square to pick up the bus tour. We ride the bus for a while, getting a nice upper deck view of the city. And as a side note, our tour guide who was a funny little guy, takes an interest in Erica. She had such a way. He probably heard she was in with the mob. It IS pretty impressive.

We decide to stop in Chinatown. And while I am glad that I can say I've been there, I shall never go again. Unless it's to get a pair of the 5 dollar Coach sunglasses that I regret not getting. But otherwise, nope, once was enough. I shall forever be plagued by nightmares of hearing "Gucci, Louis, Coach. You want to look? Perfume. Sunglasses..." On repeat. Craziness. I don't know how people stand it! "Gucci, gucci, gucci." Yes, saying it three times really does the trick. It's like Beetlejuice. Saying it three times conjures the money right out of my wallet and into your hand. But again, I'm glad to say I've been there.

After Chinatown we ride the bus a short ways to the Brooklyn Bridge and walk across. Everything that I had researched and read and everyone I had talked to before going said that walking across the bridge is a must do. I'm very glad that I did it. It has great views of the city. And it's great to be able to say I've done it. The Brooklyn Bridge is iconic and being there really makes you understand why that is. After we crosses it, we walked around Brooklyn for a bit until we reach the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. The line was very long when we got there, but I am glad we waited. The Ice Cream was great. I wish I had gotten more than one scoop! Instead of walking back across the bridge, we took a ferry back across. Even though I'm bad for motion sickness, it was kinda fun riding back across. It was very fast! When we arrive back in Manhattan, we were right on Wall Street. The best part about this section of the trek, is seeing a GoodBurger. I had no idea they existed!!! Stephanie and I became besties for two reasons. We both love Hanson and we both loved Kel Mitchell. From GoodBurger. So seeing this was really really cool for us. I so wish we had had time to eat there. I would have loved to have seen if they actually say "welcome to good burger home of the good burger can I take your order?" I'd have died!
We head back to the hotel and do a quick refresh. (And use the restroom, you would not believe how hard restrooms are to come by in NYC! No wonder it always smells like urine there. People have no CHOICE but to go in the streets!) And head back to the bus pick-up to do the NYC Night Tour. NYC is BEAUTIFUL at night. At one point, we drove across the Manhattan Bridge on the top of the double Decker bus and they let us stand up. It was scary and exciting. It was an amazing view! Times Square was also amazing at night! It was a very amazing thing to see. The picture really do not do it justice.

After the night tour we found a quaint little Italian place that was very delish and then headed back to the hotel to end day two. Again, we were super exhausted, but having a blast!

Sunday started with us heading towards the World Trade Center site. We stopped and got a quick breakfast that was actually pretty good and I cannot remember the name of the place, but it was very close to the Trade Center site. By the time we finished breakfast, we headed over to the Memorial. Just being in the area was such a surreal feeling. To know how many people lost their lives in such a horrible way right where you are standing... it's a lot to rationalize in your mind. You just look at the area, that now looks untouched, and remember the footage of what it looked like that day and you try and image, but at the same time you don't want to. How scary it must have been. How chaotic. Crazy. The destruction and smoke... It somewhere I very much wanted to go, and was so glad that we were able to. Such a touching and emotional place.


After the memorial we rode the Staten Island Ferry so we could get a look at Lady Liberty. An iconic part of American History. The ferry was very crowded and kinda hard to find a good spot to be able to see everything, but it offered much needed time to relax and still see some sights.
We headed back to the hotel after this, to start getting ready for Broadway. We took the subway and just so happened to get into a car that the air conditioning was out. Anyone that knows me, knows that I get motion sickness very bad especially when I feel like i can't breath. And the air was so stale! I almost passed out. Thankfully Stephanie stood up and let me sit and a nice lady next to me opened the back door and held it open so air could come in. It was kinda scary to have that door open, but it was a nice gesture. What WASN'T nice, was a guy sitting directly across from me, whom I shall refer to as D. bag. He was sitting so he took up two seats, and he made NO effort to move at ALL so anyone could sit down even though there were quite a few women standing up and me who is passing out on the train. A young child and his mother got on and he didn't move an INCH to let them sit. The mom sat the boy down in the tiny bit of room next to D Bag and the mom had to squat next to him. Are you KIDDING me? How can you live with yourself when you are that selfish? He just sat there with his headphones in his ears, listening to what I can only assume was a self-help book that was telling him over and over again how important he was and how he deserved to sit and take up two seats while others stood around him marveling at how awesome and deserving he was.


After what seemed like 10,000 stops we made it back to the hotel and did a shower/dressing change for dinner and Broadway. We ended up going to a great place called John's Pizzeria. The pizza was delish! But more importantly, their Martini's were toxic. Expecially the Apple Martini, apparently. It was a giant Martini glass filled with green colored vodka from what I can gather, because the three people at the table that ordered them were OFF. THE. CHAIN. Little Stephanie, especially. I always wondered what it would be like to see her drunk. Now I know. And I kinda hope I never see it again. :-) I'm pretty sure everyone else in the establishment wanted us to drop dead on the spot. Between me spilling an entire glass of water all over the table... Steph yelling at the top of her lungs "You spilled the pizza!" Erica loudly proclaiming that her toes were sweating and she was wearing open toe shoes and Stephanie LITERALLY asking me 54,000 times if the cheesecake we were eating "was our cheesecake"... well we were a site to see. And honestly, I bet in NYC they don't even notice this type of behavior. It's probably common place. But no one can say we didn't have fun!

"Was this our cheesecake!?"

And then... the best thing that happened on the entire trip... or ever in my life happened.... ROCK OF AGES. Holy cow. I had NO idea it was going to be that epic. I should have worn a helmet or something with a face shield, because my face was completely rocked off. From beginning to end it was just one rocking epic song after anotherer. McGough and I were singing and Bon Jovi fist pumping, and dancing in our seats the entire time. It was SO MUCH FUN. "This must be just like living in paradise. And I don't wanna go home." I would love love to see it again. 80s rock music has never been so much fun! "Was this our cheesecake?"

After rock of ages, or what I would like to call Best Thing Ever, we road the subway back to the hotel. I was on SUCH a high after the show. Maybe it was the endorphins from the amazingness of it all, but truly, I was SO happy! And good things too, because by the time we got into bed at close to 1130 and then slept really really crappily and got up at 3am... I needed some jump in my step. I've never been one that was good without 8 hours of solid sleep. But again, I say, "No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they had plenty of sleep." And this one I'll remember for a long time.

So, not so bright and oh so early, we get up to get ready for our trip to the Today Show. We meet in the lobby at 5:15 am and make our way to Rockefeller Center. It was really neat to see the streets of Manhattan finally empty. We passed rotting fruit on the street, puke... the kinds of things you'd actually expect to find in good ol' NYC. When we arrive we see that there are a few people in front of us, but we are very close to the front. We have our trusty sign (brought to you by one talented Donna Gentry) and are ready to go! "Was this our cheesecake?"

At around 6:30 they let us in and we find our spot. Turns out it isn't a bad spot, but it wasn't the best best pick, but still. It's good. We hang around, meet some fellow Alabamians, take some photos and then the show starts. We do get to meet Matt and Al and shake hands and they talk to us a little bit and ask where we are from. We only get tongue tied for a second when Matt first ask where we are from and everyone goes silent and then Erica yells UAB and the rest of us wake up and tell him Alabama. We do manage to get on camera a couple of times, although the never talk us on camera. Apparently you have to have a child or elderly person with you in order for that to happen. If only we had known... After we leave the Today show we head back to the hotel so we can check out and secure our shuttle ride back to the airport and this is when we first see the Greek God who apparently works in our hotel. I can only assume we never saw him before this moment because he was probably in the fitness center doing pull ups for the first three days we were there. He was a certifiable sex bomb. No kidding. Gorgeous. Amazing arms. And he was working those pants like they owed him a favor. I could go on forever, but I'll leave the subject. For now.

After we deal with all of our hotel business including checking our luggage until later in the day we head back out. We go to Central Park to eat lunch and then explore. We end up at a place called Big Nick Burgers. And I really can say that they were good burgers. But I did have a little incident. First off, everyone except for McGough and I got their food and then it was at least another 10-15 minutes before we did, and then when I cut into my burger it was raw. Like, ACTUALLY raw, not just pink. And I hate hate hate having to do this, and I normally will just suck it up and eat it, but I couldn't... I sent it back. So it was even longer before I got my food. BUT once I did, it was very good. Truly. Delish burger. Oh, and once again, I spilled water all over the table.

Central Park was beautiful! It really was. And it humungous. Truly. We barely saw a fraction of it, and we were there for a while. We DID get approached by some YOUTUBE channel who wanted to film us for an episode they were doing. They have over 13,000 subscribers, we could have been famous... yeah.... we politely declined. EVEN IF I wasn't an idiot when it came to talking, having already been up for ten hours at this point was enough reason to say no. My face was probably greasier then a napkin after a dinner at KFC. "Was this our cheesecake?"

After beautiful and quiet Central Park we head back towards the Times Square area to get all of our last minute souvenir shopping done. We walk about and go in and out of shops for a while and then decide to head towards the cheesecake place. This is when Austell finally sees... dum dum dum... The Naked Cowboy. He's a bit of a distance away when we spot him and even though we head straight for him, but was apparently leaving and good night is he fast! I can only assume the tighty whities make him more aerodynamic like a swimmer in speedos because he appeared as if he were only walking but he was moving at the speed of light. Unfortunately we didn't catch him before he disappeared and Steph was unable to get her picture. But we DID get the most delish piece of Cheesecake I've ever had in my LIFE at a place called Juniors. It was heavenly. Truly. LOVED it.

We next walked over to the Broadway Store that was across the street, and as soon as I realized that the prices varied from Vital Organ to First Born Child, I quickly booked it out of there.
As our last day drew to a close, we headed back to the hotel one last time and picked up our luggage and again Mr Sexy Hot Pants was there to assist us. He took my suitcase for me and commented on how it rolled like a self propelled vacuum cleaner. Which means not only is he sexy, he cleans. I might die. And I have to say, and I wish I had videos proof to document this, but watching him throw 40 lbs suitcases into the back of that van... well it was the stuff dreams are made of. Not to mention he was nice. Back to the whole Italian Mob thing. It's like in the movies, they treat women and people they do business with very nice.

We had the same driver back to the airport that we had had to the hotel. And if we thought he was bad the first time around... adding rush hour traffic into the deal was NO JOKE. Beverly said she was texting her family members to tell them she loved them because she was pretty sure we weren't going to make it back! If at any point in my life I had needed a drink, that was it. We LITERALLY road in the emergency lane for a good while until he pushed the van right in between two cars that only had EXACTLY enough room between them. It was scary. And he never broke a sweat. He looked as if he were doing a lazy Sunday crossword puzzle over a cup of coffee.

And when we finally DID make it to the airport he was NOT playing around. He was pulling the van literally up on TOP of cars and people that were in his way. It was so awkward and terrifying.

Not a lot went down at the airport. We were all basically cast members from The Walking Dead at this point. The Flight back was uneventful. I slept the ENTIRE way and didn't even wake up when we took off. Mouth hanging open and everything.

When we arrive back in the ham we all piled back into McGough's SUV and ended our trip back in the deck. There were a few minor bumps in the road... missing vouchers here, grouchy sleepiness there, almost dying in a runaway shuttle from the airport here, almost getting beat up in a jealous fit when everyone realize I hooked up with the sexy Hotel man there ;-), but all in all it was an amazing trip that i will NEVER forget and I am SO glad that I was able to share with some amazing people that I am thrilled to call my best friends. I CAN'T WAIT for our next adventure!!!!

And Happy 30th Bday trip to Steph and Bev!