New York
When I woke up this morning, I rolled over with a groan and saw that it was 11:30. It took me a minute to remember why I was there, then I saw Alexia sprawled out on my trundle and I realized that we had been in Central Park not twenty-four hours ago. o_o I was such a giggle-bucket last night. I swear, I laughed at everything- pulling my new House and Star Trek shirts from my suitcase or taking a drink of water was funnier than hell for no good reason. ...I was so freaking tired. Well, we had messed around the city for a few hours, ate, went to the airport, waited for over an hour because the flight was delayed, flew into Detroit, somehow managed to find Miss Harper's car, and made the two-hour drive home. It was a long day.
I feel so much better though after this vacation. It wasn't because I was in NYC- as wonderful as it was- it's the fact that I wasn't here that rejuvenated me. I enjoyed myself so much more this time than when I went last summer, because I was in such a small group and was with people I knew and they weren't my family. *cough*
My favorite part of the whole trip by far was watching the musicals. We saw three- Mary Poppins, Wicked, and Avenue Q. All were absolutely amazing, but Avenue Q gave me the greatest joy since I'd be dying to see it for so long! It wasn't even on our schedule. On the day we arrived, we passed by a smaller theater where it was playing and I marveled at the huge posters of Rod and Lucy in the windows. I pointed them out to Miss Harper and she grinned and said, "If we have time." This usually means, "We'll never get around to it, I'm just saying this to shut you up," but I was bound and determined to see this show! We walked by that theater like six times and every time we did, I proceeded to ask if we could check the ticket prices. The place was always closed when we went by though! Finally on the third day, our guide, Byron, checked the price online for me and said it would be somewhere between $50-70. This was fine by me, but I knew I was the only one in our group who would be willing to cough up that much money to see an off-Broadway show. That afternoon, we were in Times Square near the ticket center and Miss Harper turned to me, "Lauren, how much are you willing to pay to see this show?" I'm like, "A lot." It took some time, but I convinced my fellow travelers to wait in line with me and if the tickets weren't too expensive, they were ready to pay and see this with me. We waited for an hour only to find out that they were $70. Everyone backed out but me and I thought for sure that we'd give up and do something else, but no. I... I simply love Miss Harper because then she was like, "Well, if you three want to go with Byron to do some more shopping, I can take Lauren." Alexia then volunteered to join me and we stormed the ticket office. When I sat down in my seat, I truly could not believe that after all this time, I was finally going to watch Avenue Q- and it wasn't on an itty-bitty youtube screen either. It was the real thing!
It. Was. Amazing. When every character walked on, it took all of my self control not to squee loudly, especially Rod and Nicky. X3 I think I was mouthing along with every song and even some of the lines. There was something magical about seeing Fantasies Come True and For Now unfolding right before my eyes, and once I realized they were about to sing my favorite song, Everyone's A Little Bit Racist, I became so close to exploding with excitement. The cast was impressive- much different from the original of course, but they all brought out a spark in the characters that made them wonderful in their own right. Their Kate was so cute, I think I like her more than the original. She'd be so childlike and awkward around Princeton, and then she'd get so bitchy with Lucy and practically screamed lines at her. XD I sometimes couldn't decide whether to watch the puppet or the actor because she kept making the most adorable faces! I even found myself going, "awww..." during There's a Fine, Fine Line, which has never happened before for me.
I loved everyone though- Rod, Nicky, Gary, Christmas Eve, Brian, Lucy, Princeton, everybody. The only moments when I was disappointed were during Schedenfraude and The Money Song, there were lyrics cut out for some reason. Oh, and I didn't to prepare myself during intermission for The Money Song. I had made plans months ago that whenever I saw this show, I was going to give them a dollar and a note that said, "Tell Rod he's the coolest gay Republican on this planet," but I completely forgot until the cast started running at the audience with hats. Princeton's head came right between me and Miss Harper too and his face touched my cheek. ...Princeton is very soft. XD
I can't believe Miss Harper allowed us to see this while on a school-based on. She knew what she was taking us to, she'd seen this before! During You Can Be As Loud As the Hell You Want and The Internet is For Porn, I kept glancing over at her and she was laughing so hard, I seriously thought she was going to have a heart attack. She told me later that the teacher in her couldn't look and at me or Alexia because of the rated R moments. We all agreed though- puppet sex is really awkward to watch. XD Oh! And during For Now, instead of saying "George Bush," it was "Fox News." XD How true that is.
After the show while I was buying a shirt, Gary Coleman ran by and waved to me, and thanked us for coming. Magic moment right there, I tell you. I wanted a picture so bad but he(she) was in such a hurry, I couldn't get my camera out in time. I found a book of Avenue Q sheet music and I'm so going to learn the songs and record them. It's for piano but I'm sure I can work around that. The top bar always has the melody anyway, which is all I need.
Okay, now that I've got Avenue Q out of the way...
Mary Poppins had one hell of a cast. The leading lady herself played Todd's wife in Burton's Sweeny Todd movie and she was Galadriel in a stage production of Lord of the Rings. <3 Their Bert was in Legally Blonde the Musical, and Jonathan Freeman, the voice of Jafar, was Admiral Boom and the Bank Chairman. Epic much?!
I wish I had discovered Mary Poppins sooner. I've never seen the movie before so the whole thing was new to me. I only knew some songs from my sing-along tapes and the fact that Mary Poppins was a nanny that flew via umbrella. That's about it. The musical is causing me to fall in love with MP though, and once I'm done here, I'm heading to youtube to watch the movie. I can't stop listening to the soundtrack, especially Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. <3 It's so ridiculous! I love it! I really want to learn the dance for it, because when they spelled it out during the song, there was a different move for every letter.
WICKED! Ah, my favorite musical of all time. It was so nice to see it again. I didn't like this Glinda as much as the one I saw last summer but I loved this Elphaba! She reminded me of myself in some ways- snapping at people for staring at her, the way she ranted angrily at Fiyero, it looked like stuff I would do. ^^ I love Elphaba's character in general because she's such a maverick and later becomes a badass once she discovers her power. And of course, Defying Gravity blew me away once again and when the lights went out, my hands were still shaking.
I think that's all I'm going to say for now. The musicals were the major highlights of my trip so I at least wanted to touch on them. *sigh* I'm glad that I'm home and all because I missed everyone on here, but really wish I could go back to New York. I swear, if it wasn't for my personal space issue, I could totally live there. Maybe some day...