After a GLORIOUS morning at the Today Show, Mom and I walked over to the NBC digital cafe for a much needed coffee! The wifi in there didn't work, by the way, so I am not really sure why it's called the digital cafe. Anywho, we went to the "just-a-regular" cafe to check on where we needed to meet later that afternoon with our JIMMY FALLON stand-by TICKETS!!! More on that later.
From there we went back to Battery Park (this time more efficiently because we have mastered the subway system). We hopped on a boat with like a million other people and headed to the Statue of Liberty. I know, I know, this was something I was supposed to avoid, but once you see her out there at sea, you must take a closer look. Not too close, though, going up in the crown is sucksville! On the boat there was standing room only and birds were pooping on helpless foreign tourists. I felt much like an Irish immigrant coming to America in 1843. I took a picture as this immigrant character I created, but then decided that it was disrespectful, mentioning it here on this blog is pretty disrespectful too, so let's just get on with the story.
At Liberty Island we walked around amazed by the beauty and grandeur (she is really really green!), took the obligatory pictures of Lady Liberty, then hightailed it back to the boat so we could get out of there. The next stop on the boat was Ellis Island. I'm sure it was moving and interesting, but we had a late night show to get too, and we hadn't had any street hotdogs or falafles for lunch yet!
We arrived back at NBC (looking back, we sure did end up hanging out at NBC a lot), and we checked in with the lovely NBC Page (those are good people), who told us that even though it didn't look like we would be able to see the actual show, we could go watch Jimmy Fallon rehearse his monologue!!! So we filed back into the official, one-stop-only, high security elevators and into Jimmy's studio. Where. We. Saw. The. Roots!!!! They were only standing around, but it still counts! Also we met some cool Late Night writers, one of whom caught my eye and thoughts of marrying my way into a NBC comedy writing job crept into my mind.
So the rehearsal turned out to be a trial run of several possible jokes for that night's show, and we acted as a litmus test of funny or fail, but of course they were all funny because it's Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy was so cute and charming and HILARIOUS! I love him! Several Sarah Palin gems were left out of the show, but trust me, they were good! It was really cool, and I think Mom became a fan of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. She's going to have to Tivo it though because she goes to bed at like 8:30.
From that brush with greatness, we decided to plan our last night in The City from the comfort of our excellent hotel. Also, I needed to fix my hair because, yikes!
We decided to have a low key night in Soho, but we walked through Soho without anything grabbing our attention, besides the hipsters, and we found ourselves in Noho (which I didn't know was a thing). I then realized that I wanted to be in Greenwich Village instead so we kept on walking until we found a charming little Italian restaurant with a Zagat Rated sign in the front window (so you know it's decent). We were the only patrons in the restaurant, but that didn't deter out spirit! The food was good, the wine was better, and the waiter was a little slow (in the mind). Mom then noticed an open mic night sign in the bar across the street, so we decided to check that out. After a beer and encouragement from the staff, Mom and I took to the stage for an acoustic rendition of Free Bird. Actually, that didn't happen at all, but it would have been much better than the crap we fell victim to. We tried to make the best of it and make up our own words, but we weren't able to because there was zero melody or rhythm! It was very special, in a very bad way. So, we made our way back to our hotel, even making a last minute jump to the express train to insure efficiency in our travel. We had a street pretzel and struggled to stay awake long enough to watch Jimmy's monologue to see which jokes made the show. It was a great last, night in New York, and I didn't hear any of the street noise that night, which goes to show that you really do get used to it!
So, that's all. We had a fantastic time, and I am glad we got to share it with you! I recommend not planning out anything next time you go to New York. It adds to the mystery and spontaneity that the city is desperately missing ;) I don't know what my favorite part was, so I'm just going to go with the city itself and the fact that I got to do all of this stuff with my awesome mom! If you see me after I get back to Dallas don't worry, my Not-in-New-York depression usually only lasts a couple of weeks, and then I will be good as new.
And in the immortal words of future Poet Laureate Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z: New York! Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do...
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