Tag Archives: Broadway

Frozen Hot Chocolate and Heathers (or The Last Full Day In NYC)

Posted on March 27, 2014 | 5 comments

Our last full day in New York was this past Saturday. We started by taking the subway to our brunch location. We had reservations, but we got there before the restaurant opened! So to kill some time, we went to a little coffee house so Krystle could get a coffee.

While walking across the street to get coffee, a familiar logo was in front of me.

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I found a NYC SoulCycle! SoulCycle started in New York and they have a bunch of studios there, but we didn’t see one until the last day. We went inside to see what clothing they sold there (if they had a NY SoulCycle shirt I probably would have bought it) and because all SoulCycles use the same brand of candles, it really smelled like being home (who would have thought a workout place would be considered home to me). I gave my brother and Krystle gift cards to SoulCycle for Hanukkah this past year, and they haven’t had a chance to go yet. But hopefully since Krystle saw what one looks like inside, they’ll be more motivated to go soon!

After the SoulCycle and coffee detour, it was finally time for brunch. Krystle and I both got mimosas to celebrate our last breakfast on the trip.

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It was sad to think our trip was coming to an end, but we still had a full day to do. After brunch, we got onto the subway and checked out Central Park.

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We didn’t really get to walk around (next trip we will) because we had a mission to go to Bergdorf Goodman. Krystle is a buyer for the department store Gumps, and Bergdorf is the east coast equivalent to Gumps. So we went inside to see what they had for sale.

After looking at lots of expensive things, we continued our “out of our price range” shopping on Fifth Ave. and a stop at one of the biggest jewelry stores I’ve ever been to.

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This particular Tiffany is 6 floors! We only explored 2 floors before we headed back out to the next part of our day.

We were meeting one of Krystle’s college friends at Serendipity, which is famous for their frozen hot chocolate. They don’t take reservations unless you are getting lunch or dinner, so we had a little over an hour wait outside waiting for our name to be called.

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But at least Saturday was a much warmer day so it wasn’t too bad waiting outside. And the wait was totally worth it!

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I got the peanut butter frozen hot chocolate, Krystle got the salted caramel frozen hot chocolate, and her friend got the original frozen hot chocolate. They were so delicious and I figured all the walking around and stairs going in and out of the subway would work off the calories of the treat (side note, even with all the crazy eating on this trip, I managed to lose a pound).

After our treat, we said goodbye to Krystle’s friend and headed back into the subway to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and the show that evening.

I was beyond excited for the show that night. It was our only off-Broadway show, but it was perfect because my friend AJ was in it! We saw “Heathers”. Technically it was still in previews, but that’s ok. AJ lived in LA until recently. He moved to NYC to be in the show (he was also in the LA version of the show).

As soon as we got to the theater, I was so giddy to see a dear friend doing what he loves to do.

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And seeing a familiar face in my Playbill was one of the coolest things of the entire trip!

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“Heathers” was incredible! I think it was the best show that we saw this entire trip! The set and costumes weren’t as grand as the Broadway shows that we saw, but the music and story was so much better. I think that if this show moves to Broadway (which it totally should), it will be a serious contender for the Tonys!

After the show, we met up with AJ near the stage door, where he was busy signing autographs.

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While we were waiting for AJ to finish up with his fans, my phone rang. I saw that it was my friend Alex, who we saw the night before. When I answered the phone, nobody was there, so Krystle and I figured it must have been a butt dial. But just then, Alex came around the corner! She was walking past the theater and figured that we would probably be there. It was so cool to get to see her again really quickly, and to introduce her to AJ. It was one of those really cool moments that made the trip so perfect.

After AJ was done with autographs, we went around to the other side of the theater to get a picture together in front of the poster for the show.

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And no, AJ doesn’t have a giant hand. I didn’t notice that particular optical illusion in the photo until someone else pointed it out to me.

After the photo, a group of us which included AJ’s girlfriend and a listener of the podcast I work for (and AJ co-hosts) headed a few blocks away for a drink at a bar.

There was nothing super special about the bar. It was just a good hangout with friends. It was so normal (and not touristy) and the perfect way to end the evening.

Before we knew it, it was midnight and Krystle and I had to get up around 5am the next morning to catch our flights. It sucked to say goodbye to AJ, because if “Heathers” is as successful as I think it will be, it could be a long time before I get to see him again. But it gives me motivation to visit New York again (and to see Alex again as well).

As Krystle and I headed back to the hotel in a cab, she and I both said how this evening really was the perfect ending to the trip. It sucked that it ended so quickly, but I don’t think we could have asked for a better NYC adventure.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Travel

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Non Stop NYC (or More Adventures On My Trip)

Posted on March 26, 2014 | Comments Off on Non Stop NYC (or More Adventures On My Trip)

I know, it seems like I’ve been writing about my NYC trip for forever! But that’s because each day has to be its own post (or two like the past two posts have been) because Krystle and I did so much while on our trip!

This trip was not a relaxing vacation, but that’s exactly how we wanted it! So after going to a super late night dinner the night before, we tried to sleep in a bit on Saturday (which for me meant getting up at 8am instead of 7am). We then headed to a brunch place that got some awesome reviews on Yelp. They didn’t take reservations, but we figured since it was a weekday that we should be ok.

Turns out, it’s crazy crowded there on weekdays too! We were told it would be about an hour for a table (we ended up waiting about 40 minutes) and the only place to wait was outside. So we tried to kill time in the cold by checking out the menu and figuring out what we wanted to eat so we could order right away.

Once we got a table, we really enjoyed being inside in the warm restaurant.

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We ordered a quick breakfast, and then we were on to our adventures for the day. We started by going back to Canal St. and doing a bit more shopping (I don’t have any photos from that because I was pretty sure that the store owners didn’t want people taking photos of the knockoffs they were selling).

Our next stop was back to Times Square where we went to the Discovery Museum. Before going on this trip, I had heard about a Lego exhibit there. I had totally forgotten about it until I saw a poster advertising it at a subway stop. So we went off to The Art Of The Brick exhibit where there were both replicas and originals pieces of art made entirely out of Lego.

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The replicas were amazing!

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And the original pieces were pretty incredible as well.

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I think one of my favorite pieces was the dinosaur. It was huge and I was so amazed that something like that could be made out of Lego and look so real!

At the end of the exhibit, you got a Lego piece to sign your name on.

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You then added it to a wall of signed Legos. When the artist creates his next work, all the signed pieces will be used (but you won’t be able to see the signatures then). There were a ton of signed Legos on the wall when we added ours.

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After the museum, we headed back to the hotel to get dressed for dinner and our show that night. We saw “Matilda”. I wish I could show you a picture of the set, but they were super strict about no pictures being taken in the theater. But I can tell you that the stage looked like Scrabble pieces exploded everywhere (in a good way) and that the set was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life! I highly recommend the show!

Our last activity that day was something that I had been looking forward to for so long. I had met my friend Alex in 2008 when she and I both worked at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. We were instant friends and had tons of great adventures together. But about 3 years ago, she moved to NYC to pursue more theater work. I hadn’t seen her since she left, but this past Friday I got to see her again!

She met us at Jekyll and Hyde, which is a bar where she works sometimes. It was right across the street from the theater, so that was perfect for us! It’s a really fun bar, lots of horror related things and all the artwork in there was interactive. But I just enjoyed getting to sit down and chat with a dear friend who I hadn’t seen in forever!

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Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hotel and get some sleep before our last full day in NYC. It was tough to say goodbye to Alex, but I know that I’ll see her again soon.

Tomorrow’s post is all about frozen hot chocolates and seeing my friend in his off-Broadway debut!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Shopping, Travel

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Blowouts, The Book Of Mormon, and Buddakan (or The End Of Day 2)

Posted on March 25, 2014 | 1 comment

FTC Disclosure: I was giving a complimentary blowout in exchange for my review. All opinions are of my own and were not influenced by the free service.

After checking out the Empire State Building, Krystle and I got back on our hop on hop off bus. Our plan was to take the rest of the loop back to our hotel, then take the subway one stop so we could get to Drybar for our 5pm blowout appointments. I had mentioned to Drybar before the trip that I was going to be in NYC with my sister-in-law and they offered to treat me to a blowout while I was there. Of course I also booked an appointment for Krystle so we could have a fun beauty adventure.

It seemed like the perfect plan. Until it the bus seemed to be taking forever to make the loop. We finally ended getting off the bus with only 15 minutes to make it across town. We weren’t near a subway so we tried to hail a cab. Only we didn’t realize that it is very difficult to catch a cab between 3-5pm because that is when the shift change happens. We got turned down by several cabs and I started to panic that we were going to miss our appointments. I called Drybar to let them know that we were running late, and finally we caught a cab.

We made it to the Parker Meridien hotel about 10 minutes late. Before the appointment, I was a little worried about how my sister-in-law would like going to Drybar. My first experience with them (on my birthday) wasn’t the best. But I was trying to go into this with an open mind.

As soon as we walked in, we were both very happy. The place was gorgeous and as soon as we walked in, we were offered our choice of coffee, tea, water, or champagne (we both chose champagne).

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I was very happy to be offered a drink as soon as we walked in. That wasn’t not what happened at my last experience at the Drybar in Marina Del Rey (I was actually never offered a drink that time).

Krystle and I took a quick before picture. Our hair was totally windblown after being on top of the Empire State Building.

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We were taking back to have our hair washed. The warm water was so nice after being so cold on the bus. And the scalp massage was heaven. We got to sit in chairs next to each other, but we didn’t chat too much during the blowout because it was a bit loud with all the blowdryers.

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I chose the Straight Up hairstyle, which is a straight style with body at the ends. I can’t remember what Krystle chose, but it was a style with curls. We looked pretty amazing afterwards.

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It was so perfect that we got blowouts that day because we had an exciting evening planned that night. We started by going to “The Book Of Mormon”. We had seats in the very last row in the theater, but we were very centered.

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The show was great and Krystle enjoyed it as well. After the show, we got a cab and went down to Chelsea for dinner at Buddakan. My quick review of the restaurant was that the food was amazing, but the service was awful. Even though we had a reservation, we still waited over 25 minutes for our table. But if you go, I highly recommend the appetizer sampler and the mushroom noodles.

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I also recommend the Charm cocktail. It was delicious.

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By the time we were done with dinner, it was after midnight. We were exhausted.

But this was such a wonderful day of the trip.

Thank you so much to Drybar for providing me with a blowout that day. And now that Krystle has experienced the blowout experience, she’s hooked on it (as am I after seeing how great the experience can be). I know that blowouts are now going to be a regular outing on the trips that Krystle and I take in the future. And I know now that the Drybar experience is not what I experienced on my birthday, I will be going more often in LA, especially when I have special events.

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First Day In New York (or How To Do The Most You Can On Less Than 3 Hours Of Sleep)

Posted on March 21, 2014 | 1 comment

Right after my flight landed at JFK, I had to go from one terminal to another to meet up with Krystle, my sister-in-law. It was only one terminal over, and being used to LAX I figured it couldn’t be that hard to walk over.

While it wasn’t too far (maybe about 1/4 a mile), it was freezing out! And I mean literally freezing! It was about 30 degrees outside, so I definitely woke up from that walk over. On the plus side, I got to see the amazing sunrise.

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Once I made it over to the other terminal, we got a cab and headed into the city. We had let the Waldorf Astoria know that we wanted a very early check in, but there was no guarantee that they would have a room ready for us. But when we got to the hotel around 8am, we were lucky enough to be able to check in then and go to our room. We got changed and got our purses together and headed out for the day.

Our first stop was going to be breakfast. We found a place that we wanted to check out, and we consulted our map on how to get there. But we mixed up what were subway lines and what were bus lines and weren’t able to figure out how to get there. We eventually found the subway and took it to Times Square because we figured we could find something there.

We ended up finding a random breakfast place that made custom omelets for about $6, and that sounded perfect! And those omelets were super delicious!

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After getting some breakfast in our stomachs, we headed down to Canal St. where  we did some cheap shopping. Krystle got 2 fake Louis Vuitton wallets and some jewelry. I got 2 rings (there were selling them for $15 each and I got them down to $25 for both).

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For fake rings, I think they look pretty good.

After doing some shopping, it started to rain and it was getting close to the time that the show we were going to was starting, so we headed back to Times Square on the subway. We hung out in a Starbucks for a bit to warm up (it was still close to freezing temperatures) and then headed down the street to the Broadway Theater to see “Cinderella”.

Right now, Fran Drescher plays the stepmother and Carly Rae Jepsen plays Cinderella, but Carly Rae Jepsen doesn’t perform on Wednesday matinees, so we saw the understudy (who was fantastic!).

We had gotten some really great seats in the mezzanine, and they weren’t too expensive either (we bought them online before going on the trip).

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And the theater was really gorgeous with some amazing chandeliers.

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The show was so great! The cast was amazing and it was a fun and upbeat show. Before I came on the trip, I had mentioned on Facebook that I was going to be seeing this show. My friend (and previous boss) Laura had mentioned that her friend was one of the cast members. So after the show, we found him and I got a picture with him to show Laura that we met each other.

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After the show, it was still raining and we had about an hour and a half before our dinner reservations. As we were walking to the theater, I realized that I bar that I had been wanting to go to was around the corner from the theater. So after the show, that’s where we headed.

We went to McGee’s, which is the inspiration for the bar McLaren’s on the tv show “How I Met Your Mother”. Not only do I love the show, my friend Woody has been playing the bartender on it for the past few seasons!

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I didn’t really get any pictures that made McGee’s look like McLaren’s, but you can tell being inside there that there are some similar things and how the creators used the bar to inspire the one on the show. Of course, I texted my friend Woody to tell him I was sad that he wasn’t behind the bar.

Besides the bar being the inspiration for the show, I have to say that it really is a great bar. We both ordered a drink there and honestly they were the strongest drinks either of us has ever had.

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Finally, it was time to head back onto the subway to get to our dinner. We had reservations at Rubirosa, which is known for their pizza. We ordered some rice balls as an appetizer and got a pizza to share.

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The pizza seemed huge, but since the slices are super thin crust, it wasn’t as crazy as it seemed. Plus, it had been about 10 hours since we had breakfast so both of us were pretty hungry. It was delicious and a perfect dinner for our first day in NYC.

After dinner, the jet lag and lack of sleep started to kick in. My hips were also starting to get a bit sore from all the walking (and all the stairs up and down for the subway). So we got back on to the subway and headed back to the hotel. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went to bed pretty early and I really needed it. I had a lot of sleep to catch up on, and I needed a lot of energy for the rest of the trip!

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Getting Ready For Next Month (or Broadway Here We Come!)

Posted on February 18, 2014 | 1 comment

Saturday was a day that was pretty much spent at home with my parents. My high school friend, Jackie, came over with her son to see Tucker (and her little son was pretty traumatized by Tucker since Tucker was trying to kiss him every minute). It was a fast visit, but a nice one. Jackie is expecting her 2nd baby in about 2 months and I’m excited for her and her husband (they are waiting until the baby is born to find out if it’s a boy or a girl).

After Jackie and her son left, my brother and sister-in-law came over. They came by to hang out and have a family dinner, but Krystle and I had a lot of planning to do. Our trip to New York is in about a month and besides having our flights and hotel booked, we had nothing else done!

And since Saturday was the only time that she and I would be in the same place at the same time before the trip, we tried to get as much done as possible.

In planning the trip, Krystle decided that I should plan what Broadway shows we should go to and she would plan what restaurants we would go to. We both want to see “Book Of Mormon”, but those tickets are so crazy expensive! We have a date in mind to see the show and we might take a chance on the ticket lottery, but we might just have to suck it up and pay the full price (which is like $150 a ticket!).

But we did get great prices on the 3 other Broadway shows we are going to see. We got tickets for “Cinderella”, “Matilda”, and “Heathers” (which my friend AJ is in!). All of those tickets were under $100 each so I think that was a pretty good deal.

We also did some planning on what we want to do during the day while we are out in New York. We did some investigating on the hop on hop off bus options and managed to find one that has our hotel as a stop. We haven’t gotten tickets for it yet, but I’m sure we will. We also have some plans to do some shopping and see a museum or two.

Exactly a month from today, we leave for the trip (both of us are taking red-eye flights and will be arriving early the next morning). I’m a little nervous about the flight. I don’t sleep too well on planes, and that flight is pretty much going to have to count as my night’s sleep. I don’t like taking medicine to help me sleep, but I might do some research and find something that I can take this one time so I won’t be exhausted on my first day of the trip (which is the day we are going to see a matinée of “Cinderella”).

I’m so beyond excited for this trip and I know that Krystle is too. I just can’t wait for the next month to fly by so I can go on my adventure!

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