Scoliotastic Lives

Yes, Scoliotastic is still alive, I promise. It's been far too long since I last posted, but there is a lot to write about my NYC trip, which is the main thing that has happened since the last entry. Something else that has occurred that I can gloss over pretty quickly is Justin and Candace's wedding on August 8th. We stayed in a hotel in Greensboro for 2 nights in order to attend the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to be able to see my dad's side of the family since I don't get to see them that often. There was a couple who were always drunk, and the woman kept hitting on Gene. I nicknamed her Cheesecake because my dad said he might want to stay longer at the rehearsal dinner to get a piece of cheesecake. He obviously meant the dessert because this woman was so annoying, but I took his comment a different way. Anyhow, the wedding was lovely, and I loved getting to wear my new brown dress. As for everything else that I've not written about in the past few weeks, I've been out to lunch with Matt and Kristen, breakfast with Matt, and over to Gog's house with Poo and Sarah to play shuffleboard. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of things, but they're insignificant. Now I'll get onto the NYC trip. I have some notes I wrote about the trip as it was happening, but they're kind of confusing now. Basically, I'll do my best piecing the events back together.

We flew out of RDU, and when we were going through security, the rods in my back set off the metal detector, which I was hoping would not happen. One of the officials had to use the explosives wand on me off to the side, which was pretty embarrassing, but oh well. After we got through security, we grabbed a bite to eat and found out that our flight was delayed until 2:35. We boarded, and took off at about 3:00. Unfortunately, there was a weather delay, and there were too many planes over LaGuardia, so we had to stop in Baltimore to refuel. We had the most annoying and loud girl a row behind and diagonally to us, and she was constantly complaining about the smell coming from the bathroom, and how she was dying for a cigarette. Basically, after all the delays, a flight that should've only taken about an hour ended up taking four hours, and after a long time circling over LaGuardia, we landed at 6:54. Since we had a show to catch at 8:00, we had to rush out of the airport and into a cab. Sarah called and said that we didn't have time to check into our hotel, so we ended up checking all our bags at the theater coat room. By the time we got into our seats, it was about 7:55. The show we saw was Next to Normal, a rock musical about a family with a mother who has bipolar disorder. It was awesome, and I'm addicted to the soundtrack. It was easily my favorite nighttime activity we did the whole trip. Afterwards, we went across the street to Junior's to finally have dinner, and I had a club sandwich. We later checked into our hotel, On the Avenue. By 11:30, we were all asleep.

The next morning, we woke up at 10:30 and headed across the street to eat at Manhattan Diner, one of our favorite breakfast spots in NYC. I had a Belgian waffle and coffee. Even though it was scorching outside, we then took a walk through Central Park and ended up at FAO Schwarz, where we got to see some giant Lego movie characters and the huge piano from the movie Big. The air conditioning also felt amazing. Our next stops were Canal Street, where I found a great fake Coach bag, and Burger King, where we all got something to drink. Eventually, we found our way back to the hotel, made time for a short nap, and then went to a jazz show and dinner. The show was excellent and just really relaxing, and the food was quite delicious as well. I had coconut shrimp and strawberry cheesecake for dessert. When we got back to the hotel, I took a shower and fell asleep quickly. Overall, it was a big day to ride the subway everywhere.

At 10:00 on the next day, we all woke up and tried to have breakfast at Alice's Tea Cup, another one of our favorite restaurants in NYC, but there was an hour-long wait, so we ended up at Sarabeth's. I had a pumpkin waffle topped with pumpkin seeds, raisins, sour cream, strawberries, and honey, and I had coffee to drink. It was all scrumptious. We went back to the hotel for a nap, and then walked to Loehmann's to shop some. I got a cute shirt with two cats on it, and a massive thunderstorm started outside, so we were stranded in the store for a while, especially since I now have a lightning rod embedded in my body. Even though it was still pouring, we managed to make it to a Starbucks a few blocks away, where I got a caramel apple spice. There was a woman inside who got into an argument with an old lady in a neon yellow poncho about an open seat, and then the woman started yelling at a young guy in the corner about him looking at her. She called him a disgusting pig and told him that he just wished she were looking at him that way. After she left, he called a friend, relayed the story, and said that it was the funniest thing to ever happen to him in a Starbucks. When we had finished our drinks, we all went back to the hotel to relax until 7:30, when we headed to Sylvia's Soul Food in Harlem. We met up with Anna, who was one of our closest friends when she lived in Albemarle years ago, and we all enjoyed a delicious Southern meal while catching up with her. I had fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, cornbread, and sweet tea. It was heavenly. When we were all stuffed, we said goodbye to Anna, hopped the subway, and then walked back to our hotel. In front of the hotel, there was a woman face-down on the street, surrounded by a few people trying to revive her. Since they weren't freaking out or anything, we just assumed she had gotten drunk and passed out right there. Once we got into our room and my head hit the pillow, I was fast asleep.

On our final full day, we got up at 10:30 and walked across the street to Manhattan Diner again. There was an old man right behind me who had the nastiest cough that sounded like he was choking and dying. It was so nerve-wracking that I had a panic attack and had to walk back to the hotel room to recover. A bit later, we went to an outdoor swing music concert, which was really cool, and then we decided to explore a Titanic exhibit in Times Square. It was absolutely awesome, especially some of the rooms that made you feel like you were actually on the ship, including a hallway and the Grand Staircase. We had our picture taken by the staff on the Grand Staircase, but it didn't turn out very well, so I really have nothing to show for this venture. I'd definitely recommend the exhibit to everyone, though. After we left the great ship, we walked through Bryant Park on our way back to the hotel, where we got ready for dinner at Alice's Tea Cup. I had an amazing smoked salmon sandwich and Earl Grey tea. Since we still had a few minutes before we needed to head to the theater where our next show would be, we explored a few shops. In the Heights was that night's entertainment. It's a musical about Washington Heights, and it was really good, too, but not nearly as good as Next to Normal, in my opinion. On our way to the theater, though, I saw a familiar face. Although he's not a big celebrity, I knew who he was. It was Christopher McDonald from Flubber and Chances Are. Unfortunately, none of the rest of the family was alert enough to spot him, but it was unmistakably him. After the show, we went to Roxy's Delicatessen for cheesecake and where some retard shouted, "I love NY!" I had a huge chunk of blueberry cheesecake, absolutely stuffing myself, and then we went back to the hotel for bed.

I don't have any notes on the next day, but we got up, said goodbye to Sarah, and went to the airport. The odd thing was that my back didn't set off the metal detector in LaGuardia, which makes me put a whole lot of stock in their security system. It's New York! They should have some of the best security around! Apparently not, though. Anyway, everything was pretty much on time with our flight, and I actually took a nap on the plane, which was a first for me. There was some nasty turbulence that woke me up at one point, but the rest of it was pretty smooth. As much fun as we had in NYC, we were all glad to be home. The trip was fantastic, but extremely exhausting, especially since we had Sarah as our tour guide.

As for this week, I don't have much planned. I'm heading back to Duke on Saturday, so I'm just going to spend these last few days at home relaxing, most likely. It's been a good summer. Mary, here's my blog entry for you. I know it's long, but I promised I would catch you up on everything! If anyone else reads this blog, I hope you enjoy the update as well. If anything else important happens in the next few days, I'll let you know! Also, I didn't proofread this entry because it's so long, so please forgive any grammatical errors or anything that just doesn't make sense.