NYC OR BUST!

I'm back from New York City and absolutely exhausted. In a good way, though. 

It was so much fun and exactly the right amount of time for that city. My pictures are of course up in the photo gallery. A brief run down.......

We were all up at 3:45 on Tuesday morning to catch our 6 o'clock flight. We got into NY at 12. From the airport we took a bus to the subway in Queens to NY Penn Station. From there we jumped onto a train to Princeton, NJ, where Allison's sister Liz and her husband Dan were nice enough to let us stay at there very tiny house. We arrived there around 3 pretty much in a zombie type state. We pulled out some blankets and took about an hour nap in their back yard. Then we decided to go to this awesome grocery store to stock up on things for pack lunches. For dinner

Liz and Dan grilled out an assortment of sausages and Boca burgers along with grilled every veggie you can think of: mushroom, squash, zucchini, red and green bell peppers, eggplant, and corn on the cob. It was oh so delicious! After dinner they took us for a walk around Princeton, and on a tour of the campus where we had ice cream at a really cute little ice cream parlor. Back at the house and in need of sleep we all fell into bed about midnight. 

Full of energy and ready to start our city adventures we began every day at about 7:30 because we had to catch the train into the city. I can't even begin to describe how busy we were and how much we saw in 3 days, walking about 10 hours a day. I think the only way to even bring you close to understanding is just to write out a list. So here goes......hope I don't leave anything out.........

Day #1

-catch the train to Newark Penn Station. 

-walk around Ground 0 of the 9-11 attacks. 

-Battery Park

-Clinton Castle (a fort where you can buy Statue of Liberty tickets)

-Ferry to Libery and Ellis Islands

-Statue of Liberty/lunch on Liberty Island

-Ellis Island (yes....they are 2 different things) where we saw the Wall of Honor and toured the immigration building

-walked down Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village

-Magnolia Bakery (best cupcakes ever!)

-Subway....lots of subway

-Chinatown

-Little Italy (best manicotti ever!)

-Down to South Sea Port

-Train back to Jersey

Day #2

-Train into New York Penn /Station

-Downtown New York City

-Little street shops

-Fashion Ave (you know what that means....)

-Times Square

-Hershey's store

-The Met

-Juilliard

-Avery Fisher Hall

-Standing 2 hours in line for rush tickets to a musical

-Did I mention we went in about 20 Starbucks looking for NYC mugs?

-Rockefeller Center 

-St. Patrick's Cathedral

-NY pizza for dinner!

-Legally Blonde the musical (which was actually super super good)

-Tasty Delight (on Sex and the City and super super good frozen yogurt)

-Tired and delirious catch the train back to Princeton. 

-Bed at 1am, up at 7:30 to start Day #3

Day #3

-South St. Sea Port

-Brooklyn Bridge

-Wall Street

-NY Stock Exchange

-Tiffany's  (don't ask)

-The Bull statue

-Friend's apartment in Greenwich Village

-Carrie's apartment from Sex and City 

-lunch at a little cafe in Greenwich Village

-meet up with an old friend in Central Park

-search for a black and white cookie

-finally found a bakery with black and white cookies (an hour of walking later)

-some shopping (well, the girls shopped while Brenden and I caught up some more)

-dinner at a 50s style diner.

-Rent!!! (it's going off Broadway at the end of the month after a 12 year run)

-Train.......too excited to sleep...........bed at 1:30.........

Day #4

up at 6 to catch the train, subway, bus, plane back to Minneapolis

Well, that's it in a nutshell. And tonight I go see Jonny Lang in concert!

Twins vs. Yankees

A bunch of my family came up to watch Nick pitch against the Yankees. 

Nick was nice enough (as always) to get Holli and me tickets. So we joined 

the rest of the fam for the game. The pictures are up in the photo album. 

We had a blast!! I got to spend some time with my family, I got to see the Twins

play the Yankees, and I learned what Rally Hat is! You'll see what I'm talking 

about in the pictures. I wish they could all come up more often, but I'll take what I 

can get. 

When I was calling my cousin Chuck to discuss meeting up with everyone, I didn't 

realize I had 2 Chucks in my phone. I accidently called my bassoon teacher and in an effort

to cover up that I'd made a mistake I ended up with a lesson before my audition! He fixed some 

reeds for me because mine were giving me grief and all is right with the universe now. Sort of..... I'm still a little nervous and I still need to pack before tomorrow :) But that is exactly why I took the day off work. Now I can go through all of my audition material, pack, and still relax and stay sane (as sane as possible anyway) :) Midland....... here I come!!!

Full speed ahead!

It is less than one week until my first audition of another marathon. 

Some things came up that I thought would set  me back a little, but after time 

and much consolation from my wonderful mother, I have had time to put things into perspective and pull myself together once again. I thought my audition material had started to fall apart (great timing) but I think I've just gotten to another point where I start getting much more particular and picky. Hopefully I will not drive myself too crazy in the next week and stay focused. I'm sure I'll be making many phone calls to my mom and dad. Not only am I auditioning next weekend, but my parents will be with me so I get to spend some time with them. Auditions are so much easier when you know there is someone there for you when it's all over..... and who better than these 2? After numerous band competitions, dance recitals, piano competitions, etc. etc. it's kind of cool to have them at these particular auditions..... the auditions I've been waiting for my whole life! Who ever thought I'd get to this point? And there's no one I'd rather have with me. 

There will be a small break in this audition marathon. The day after I get back from Midland some of my girlfriends and I are heading to New York for 4 days! A couple of months ago we found super cheap plane tickets and one of my friends has family on Long Island with whom we will stay. We've been waiting for this for months! I don't think i could be any more excited!!!!

I think it will be the first trip I've taken without my bassoon since high school. And I'm talking sophomore year of high school :) 

Shortly after I get back I have 5 more auditions. 3 in September and possibly 2 in October. At the same time I'll be figuring out how to get from point A to point B living wise. I could end up at any of these places which would put me at home for a few weeks to a month or end up in Oklahoma for another year. Who knows..... I also have to figure out when I would move my stuff wherever it needs to go seeing as how someone is moving into my current room at the end of August! Too much to think about! :) Who knows....maybe I won't even have to plan past next weekend. ;) For now I'm just trying to keep my head on straight and take things one (or maybe 2) at a time.  But lets think realistically....it's me... so it's probably more like 3 things at a time. 

I'm just trying this out to see if I like it. 

I've been having problems with my other one, and I'm finally irritated enough

to change it. :) we'll see if this lasts or if I just deal with the other.