Pottery Cups

I’ve been on break all week, and it’s nice to have free time, but almost all of my friends went home, so I’ve had slightly more free time than is generally fun. I’m not complaining, though, because it really has been great to catch up on sleep and I’ve met some new people, which is always cool.
I just finished my midterms last week, and had some projects and papers due, and I think all of that went ok. I hope so at any rate. It’s kind of amazing how quickly this semester is going, though. They just posted the schedule of classes for next semester. Yikes!
By far the most exciting thing going on of late, however, was my visit to NYC yesterday! My friend Kylie (who I had talked to over facebook a lot, but only actually met this week) and I caught the 8:51am train down to the city. We had absolutely no plans. I had called Andy Lonsdale to see if he was free, but that was iffy, so we were basically just planning on wandering around. Arrived at Grand Central Station at around 10:20 and called Andy again. He said he’d be free for lunch if we wanted to get up to the corner of Broadway and 72nd at 12:30, which we were totally game for. We walked the 4 blocks from Grand Central to Times Square and hung out there for a bit. The Manhattan School of Music was having a concert that was quite enjoyable, so we listened to that for a little while. Then we wandered a bit more, went into M&M world, which is both hysterical and rather alarming. There is more M&M themed crap in that store than I think I could have imagined. Ridiculous.
We learned quickly that having the camera out was a VERY bad idea, so I have very few pictures of the day, which is a shame. But every time I took it out, someone else approached us trying to sell us things. We got into a semi-long discussion with a guy trying to sell us tickets to a sight-seeing bus, which we turned down by saying that we were meeting a friend. However, in my haste to get away from the guy, I was almost hit by a taxi, so that was exciting. We were fleeced by some guy who was giving out “free” demo CDs and then insisted on a $10 donation. He was REALLY smooth. The conversation went something like this:
Franchise (that’s his rapper name, I don’t know his real one): Hello ladies, I’d like to give you a free copy of my CD.
*I’m taking a picture and not paying any attention*
Kylie: um…
F: It’s got 24 tracks and it’s completely free, I’m just trying to build up a fan base.
K: uh…
F: here, take one. And even though your friend isn’t paying any attention, she gets one too.
Me: huh?
F: I’ll just autograph these, what’re your names?
K: Kylie.
Me: Domino.
F: Domino? That’s an awesome name! Well, Kylie’s a cool name, to, but Domino. Wow! Now remember, you can visit my website, and please contact me. I respond to all emails from females.
The rest of the conversation is unimportant, basically it was all demanding money, which we gave him cuz I’m no good at saying no to peoples’ faces. But Kylie and I were pretty sure that was the WORST pickup line either of us had ever heard—at least it was until a little later in the day when we got an even more awful one, but I’ll get to that. Anyway, we walked the 30-or-so blocks up to 72nd, met up with Andy and went to lunch. We got delicious paninis and coldstone for dessert. Yum! We ate in Central Park, which was very neat. And Andy pointed out Strawberry Fields and the bridge they used in Spiderman. At around 2:15, Andy had to go to rehearsal, but he invited us to come see Twelfth Night because he was doing lights for it and could get us in for free. We were interested, especially because he pointed out the building it was in and it was GORGEOUS! And apparently Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie live on the top floor, but that’s inconsequential. However, the show didn’t start until 8pm, and we had nothing to do until then. Andy recommended trying to get Student Rush tickets to a Broadway show, and we’d seen a sign for The Little Mermaid earlier, so we walked back to check it out. Little Mermaid doesn’t start until November, and our second choice, Chicago, was sold out, so we were pretty sure we weren’t going to get lucky anywhere. But we stopped by the box office for Spring Awakening and they still had Student Rush tickets, so we bought them! They weren’t great seats, but the tickets were $26 instead if $55, so we weren’t complaining!
But again, the show didn’t start until 8pm, and it was only about 3:30pm, and we were tired because we’d gotten up early and we’d already walked about 100 blocks. So we went and sat down on the steps outside some hotel off Broadway. We were talking and relaxing when all of the sudden this guy, who is wearing a Tour-Bus-Ticket-Seller uniform approached us. Kylie and I gave each other the “oh boy, here we go again” eye-roll, but the guy surprised us. Instead of trying to sell us tickets, this is what transpired:
Ticket Man: I saw you before, didn’t I?
Me: um, maybe?
TM: were you up on 42nd? Going away from Grand Central?
Me: yes…
TM: yeah! And I saw you and tried to sell you tickets!
Me: (recognizing the gold tooth) oh, yeah.
TM: yeah! You and your friend. (spotting Kylie) you! You wouldn’t speak to me, but (addressing me) you did.
Me: yeah, that was us.
TM: I’m good with faces. I remember two pale-skinned women, that was you. I don’t like the word “white,” I try not to profile anyone so I say pale-skinned. Well, what would you rather I called you?
Me: um, I’ve never really thought about it. I don’t mind white, though. I don’t find that offensive or anything.
TM: where are you from?
Me: Wisconsin.
TM: oh yeah! I remember one of you saying you were from Wisconsin! You want a pen pal?
Me: um…… you know, I’m really terrible at writing people back….
TM: how old are you ladies?
Me: 18
Kylie: 18
TM: 18?! Damn, I thought you were older. You’re awful big for your age. I’m 38. you sure you don’t want a pen pal?
At that point, thankfully, a representative of the hotel came out and asked the man to leave. Kylie and I took that as our cue to leave, also, but went the direction opposite from the one the ticket man went. And yes, that’s the worse pickup line: “I’m 38. are you sure you don’t want a pen pal?” oh dear.
It was only about 4pm still, so we decided to walk back to Central Park. We hung in the park and people-watched until almost 6pm, when we decided to head back towards Times Square and eat. We had pizza, because everyone talks about New York pizza, and it was good, but nothing spectacular. Our dessert, however, was AMAZING! We went to the Roxy Deli and got chocolate mousse cake. Holy cow. Delicious.
After that, we went and stood in line until they opened the house for Spring Awakening. The show was stunning. I’m in love with it. I REALLY want the soundtrack! So I think I’m gonna order it online as soon as my debit card comes, cuz I just finally opened a bank account this week. All the kids in the show were incredible. And I’m very jealous because most of the cast is 18 or younger. Supposedly they’re recasting soon and you can’t be over 18 to audition. I REALLY want to try out, but it’s rock music, and that doesn’t really work out for me. But I’m SOOO jealous of that cast!!!! Seriously, if any of you ever have the chance to see it, do! It was soooo good!!! Ah!!!!!!!!! I wanna see it again! I love student discounts!
So, that made it totally worth it to stay over break. But now I should really go start all the homework I’ve been putting off all week. Yuck.