ellen, justin, and italian food

[emily513]

so i just wanted to write about my totally awesome day in nyc. so kate got free tickets to the taping of the ellen degeneres show in central park. its her season 4 premiere show. and justin timberlake was the musical guest. so basically it was a free justin concert in central park, so even though i dont really like his songs i figured it would be fun so me and my sister anna went with kate. so after waiting in a line that was about 5 blocks long to get in, we all were let onto this huge lawn (b/c we had lawn tickets...there were also seats). even though it was extremely humid and overcast, it never rained so that was awesome. and basically it was just a live taping of the ellen show which included justin singing 4 songs and an interview with him. it was alot of fun, they really got the audience involved and pumped up. and thats saying alot considering there was supposedly 10,000 people there. so yeah ellen is hilarious and u should definitely watch the premier on monday on nbc at 4pm. so anyways near the end of the show she's like oh yeah i almost forgot to tell u all the surprise...we have another guest...beyonce is here to tape a second show!! how random is that?! so yeah after like waiting forever for them all to change outfits and switch sets and stuff, ellen came back and acted like it was a new day for the taping of her tuesday show. and beyonce performed. by then we had been there forever so we headed out in the middle. but not before getting free tshirts from this random sketchy guy who was promoting the vmas...the shirts have lyrics on them from songs that were nominated. i got that shakira song but its freakin extra large...but whatever it was free. oh yeah and there was free water and ice cream all day that they were practically throwing at us b/c they had so much. and we got free ellen show sit-upons (in case thats just a girl scout term, they are basically plastic wrapped around styrofoam cushions that u can sit on the ground on) and they came in very handy during the taping of the show. so by then it was like 530 or something and we headed to little italy which was quite difficult considering none of us know the city at all and all of the maps we had said little italy was in a slightly different location. so we made our best guess at which subways to take...and ended up being a little off...but honestly not too bad for being clueless. so after walking practically in circle and randomly turning when we thought we saw italian looking places and almost dying of hunger we stumbled upon a restaurant that had italian food and looked pretty normal so we wandered in. and it ended up being absolutely amazing. i believe it was called pomodoro's and i'm putting the address in here for future reference...its on the corner of mulberry st and spring st. so then we asked the waitress where ferrarra's pastry shop was b/c they have the best pastries EVER (which she said also, so i guess thats just a known fact). and it ended being only 3 blocks away! (at grand st and mulberry...again for future reference.) so we got our pastries and walked back to find the much closer subway stop. but after accidentally walking in the wrong direction for a couple minutes we walked by a rice to riches shop! which is amazing b/c thats the little food place where they go in the movie hitch and me and kate always wanted to find out where one was in nyc so we could check it out and there it was! so we went in to see what it was and it turns out they sell flavored rice pudding! like its like an ice cream shop but with rice pudding! they had all kinds of flavors...vanilla, rocky road, mango, banana w/coconut...and u can get toppings too! like granola, fruit, other stuff. so yeah we were too weirded out by the mango stuff that looked like mac n cheese and were way too full from dinner so we decided not to get any, which we now regret. but oh well, we'll have to go another time (it was on spring st by the way...just one block down from pomodoro's in the direction away from the subway). so we finally found the subway and got back to grand central and then home. so for being my first time in the city with no one who actually knows the city at all it went pretty well. actually, very well. only 1 wrong turn and 1 wrong subway choice. so yeah it was a fun day of free stuff, good food, and an awesome show. and thats my story.

yay for school in 1 week from today! that means i actually have to pretend to start packing!

p.s. - i'm COMPLETELY obsessed with this song.