Last week I went on a mother/daughter trip to New York City. I’ve already written lengthy posts about the ecstatic joy of seeing Hamilton (and meeting the cast) as well as the surprise opportunity to attend Seth Meyer’s monologue rehearsal. Although I don’t have quite as much to say about everything else that happened, I still want to share what a December trip to Manhattan can look like. So in lieu of words, I will mostly rely on pictures!
DAY 1
Mom and I were leaving the NBC gift shop when a woman approached us. “Would you like to see Seth Meyers?” she asked.
“Um, what?” I said, very eloquently.
“We need people to participate in his monologue rehearsal. It’s just forty people or so. You’ll meet the writing staff and Seth Meyers – it’s very intimate. I have three spots left.”
“Is it free?” Mom asked, very practically.
“Yes! You can show up or not, it’s totally up to you.”
Mom and I exchanged a look. Her eyes seemed to say, please choose, I don’t know enough about what is going on. I answered the NBC worker, “Sure. Thanks.”
As we walked away, Mom asked, “Who is Seth Meyers?” Continue reading
[Editor’s Note: If at any point while reading this you think, Wow, she’s a spoiled brat, you are correct.]
Yesterday I discussed the process my mom and I went through as we planned to come to NYC (we’re here now!). I’ll be honest: I’m always up for a trip, but I wasn’t super excited about going to NYC again (my mom and I went for a few days in July 2010). The fact that it will be the Christmas season was definitely a bonus, but still, my passion level was at about a 6 out of 10.
AND THEN. A few days later, I discovered the musical Hamilton, and if you’ve been paying attention to this blog at all, the rest is history.
My brain quickly put together: Hamilton is on Broadway, and Broadway is in NYC. Suddenly the trip was a 10 out of 10. I immediately looked at their website, and my passion plummeted to a 0. They were sold out. For months.
This roller coaster of emotion continued. I discovered #ham4ham, a lottery in which Lin-Manuel Miranda and cast perform a little bit to street crowds, then offer 21 front row tickets in a raffle – if you win, you pay $10 (because Hamilton is on the bill). Awesome!, I thought. Until I read on and saw that every single day, an average of 700 people show up to put their names in the raffle. I calculated our odds to be .003%. Noooo. Continue reading
When your mom says she wants to take you on a mother/daughter trip to New York City, the answer should always be Yes.
Of course, it wasn’t quite that simple.
Several times, my mom mentioned wanting to go to NYC together before I leave for Greece, and every time I said sure, okay. But she kept asking, so I became more certain that the trip would not happen. You see, my mom and I plan very differently. I operate on gut instincts, and when I say I will go somewhere, it’s a done deal, and the rest (travel, lodging, etc) will follow after. My mom likes to think things through for a while before committing. She interpreted my immediate yes as me flippantly agreeing, and I interpreted her waiting as her not really being interested. Thankfully, we avoided the perils of miscommunication this time and after a couple weeks of awkward conversations, we bought our plane tickets (unlike the 2014 $999 trip to Ireland that included airfare, car rental, and four nights in castles, but I’m not still hung up on that or anything)!
And what tickets. I found us seats on Southwest: $40 going and $110 coming back. Let me repeat that: we’re flying from Chicago to NYC in December, two people, for a total of $300. On top of that, I had an $80 credit from the flight I cancelled during #32DaysInMyCar, so we only spent $220 combined. Continue reading
It Is Trish 