Amen for NYC

Hello again, friends. As I sit in my room preparing to head to Boston for the Fourth of July (casually patriotic, I guess) I figured it was only right to update you on the first and probably forever best leg of our trip: New York City! In case you haven't deduced this from my other posts and/or from interacting with me in real life, I had never been to New York before this trip. I was a little bit excited. And I guess NYC was coolish.

OKAY JUST KIDDING I was heart-attack level excited and it was a shiny skyscraper-y ball of everything I could ever have wanted plus so much more!! On Monday, our first stop was Rockefeller Center. Given my unhealthy obsession with the Today show and my conviction that "writer for SNL" is a job absolutely created for me, this stop was the first of many that nearly drove Sarah to cardiac arrest. Our next stop was mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is, you know, pretty much a typical, boring Monday morning. (Hint: that was more of that new-fangled sarcasm stuff.) We spent most of that afternoon in Central Park, which, again, is like, whatever. So routine. Blah. JOKES. We didn't even do anything and it was still awesome. We met some cool hardcore parkour guys, we encountered a shockingly high number (no pun intended) of people smoking weed on various play areas, we took some horrendously touristy but incredibly fantastic jumping pictures...it was the best. After a return trip to 30 Rock and dinner in Soho, it was back to our new home base on Long Island. This overnight, which should be the most boring part of the trip, was still awesome, what with the beautiful home, close and casual proximity to Billy Joel's old house, and rockin' slumber party.

Then there was yesterday. It was a relatively chill day, because we had devoted ourselves to one purpose and one purposes only: Broadway. I decided fairly early in the day that my goal show was Porgy and Bess. Classic American musical, starring Audra McDonald (ultimate Broadway rockstar of all time, casually). Then we got to the line and were informed that Audra would not, as advertised, be returning from her sick leave that night. I was bummed but still excited. We headed over to the Richard Rodgers Theater, and then I thought I was going to die. Excitement levels were not normal. Then we got inside, and it was even worse, then we sat down and I thought my heart rate would never return to normal for the rest of my life. The girl next to me informed me she was there by herself and was so excited she might cry. "Oh, I'll definitely cry," I assured her. "No," she replied, "I mean right now." We had a chat in which she informed me she had auditioned for Porgy and Bess just hours before (it went very well) and in which we plotted how we were going to rush the stage. Then the show happened. It changed my life. When Bess entered, we discovered that the morning's sources were mistaken: Audra was back. Audra McDonald is my hero. She is unbelievable. This was the best night of my life. More later, because we're off to Boston!