From the New York Philharmonic to Catherine Zeta-Jones.
I've had a busy weekend so far and its only half over.
Friday night after work I went to a performance of the New York Philharmonic with another MS co-op. People under 30 can get cheap tickets (only $25!) and for really good seats. I was really impressed by the performance, and we ended up getting an encore from the piano soloist. Afterwards we went to a poker game that was going on at a full-timers apartment. I didn't fare so well this time, and ended up losing $20. Many of the others were much more experienced than me and so my beginner abilities were fairly obvious. I did have a couple impressive rounds, though (i.e. on the first round I played, I ended up doubling my money). Taking into consideration the $30 I made last time I played, I'm still up $10. The game ended pretty late at 3:00 am at I didn't get home until 4:00 am.
Sleeping in on Saturday would have been a nice idea, however I had gotten the idea of trying to get a ticket to see Saturday Night Live and I was determined to do it. I originally came up with this plan before I knew about the poker game and had planned to get several hours rest. So, that several hours of rest had to be changed to 2 hours of rest.
In order to get a ticket for Saturday Night Live, you have to line up by 7:00 am. And even with that ticket, you only get into the show if some people who ordered their tickets back in August don't show up. The ticket you get at 7:00 am is numbered, and so the earlier you get in line, the better chance you have of getting into the show. Some people start lining up on Friday night! Ben may have explained all this last winter, but oh well, I want to explain it again. Anyways, I was certain (perhaps foolishly so) that I could just get in line around 6:30 am and still get into the show. It was cold and rainy, so there was no way I was lining up too early. You can choose to go see the show that is live on TV, or the dress rehearsal which is done right before the live TV one is done. The dress rehearsal show is exactly the same as the live TV one, and I figured that less people would want to see it, so I chose to get a ticket for that. I ended up with ticket #57. Then I had about 12 hours to kill before finding out if I'd get in.
Normal, sane people would probably have gone home to get more sleep, but I guess that's not who I am (after all, I plan to take real-time :)). I had a lot of other things I wanted to do. First, I checked out a Farmer's Market that my sister wanted me to visit. I was glad I did. It was definitely the cheapest and best variety of fruits and vegetables I've seen in this city. A 3 lb bag of apples for $1? Yes, please! I plan to do all my fruit and vegetable shopping there from now on.
Next, I passed some time, and warmed up, by reading in a nearby McDonalds. I'm currently reading the original Dracula by Bram Stoker, written in 1890. I'm really enjoying it and find it to be rather quaint compared with the novels of today. After warming up, I took a subway to the Times Square area to see if I could get cheap broadway tickets for a matinee show at 3pm. Unfortunately, I was not successful. Somewhere around this time, I also went into work for about an hour (my office is only a block from the Times Square area). I didn't actually do any work though. Instead, I signed up for Blockbuster Online, because I had recently learned that Morgan Stanley employees get a 1 month free trial. So very shortly, free movie rentals will be arriving in my mail box.
After not being able to acquire any cheap broadway tickets, I decided to take a tour of the United Nations, which was a good educational experience. I never realized that the United Nations sits on land that has been declared International Territory.
After the tour ended (around 2:30 pm), I finally went home to get some more sleep. In the evening, I headed back to the NBC Studios to seee if I could get into Saturday Night Live. As you may have guessed from the title of this post, I did get in. Catherine Zeta-Jones was the host and Franz Ferdinand was the musical guest. Catherine was great, and the show as a whole was really good. There was even a hilarious fake commercial where they made fun of Morgan Stanley, which the New York audience really liked. It was really cool getting to see how all the sets are laid out around the studio, and how everyone rushes everywhere. Every time a sketch with Catherine Zeta-Jones ended, a wardrobe assistant would grab Zeta-Jones by the arm, and they would literally sprint backstage for her to get changed. It was quite amusing to see.
And that has been my weekend so far. Tomorrow will probably be a day of rest.
Friday night after work I went to a performance of the New York Philharmonic with another MS co-op. People under 30 can get cheap tickets (only $25!) and for really good seats. I was really impressed by the performance, and we ended up getting an encore from the piano soloist. Afterwards we went to a poker game that was going on at a full-timers apartment. I didn't fare so well this time, and ended up losing $20. Many of the others were much more experienced than me and so my beginner abilities were fairly obvious. I did have a couple impressive rounds, though (i.e. on the first round I played, I ended up doubling my money). Taking into consideration the $30 I made last time I played, I'm still up $10. The game ended pretty late at 3:00 am at I didn't get home until 4:00 am.
Sleeping in on Saturday would have been a nice idea, however I had gotten the idea of trying to get a ticket to see Saturday Night Live and I was determined to do it. I originally came up with this plan before I knew about the poker game and had planned to get several hours rest. So, that several hours of rest had to be changed to 2 hours of rest.
In order to get a ticket for Saturday Night Live, you have to line up by 7:00 am. And even with that ticket, you only get into the show if some people who ordered their tickets back in August don't show up. The ticket you get at 7:00 am is numbered, and so the earlier you get in line, the better chance you have of getting into the show. Some people start lining up on Friday night! Ben may have explained all this last winter, but oh well, I want to explain it again. Anyways, I was certain (perhaps foolishly so) that I could just get in line around 6:30 am and still get into the show. It was cold and rainy, so there was no way I was lining up too early. You can choose to go see the show that is live on TV, or the dress rehearsal which is done right before the live TV one is done. The dress rehearsal show is exactly the same as the live TV one, and I figured that less people would want to see it, so I chose to get a ticket for that. I ended up with ticket #57. Then I had about 12 hours to kill before finding out if I'd get in.
Normal, sane people would probably have gone home to get more sleep, but I guess that's not who I am (after all, I plan to take real-time :)). I had a lot of other things I wanted to do. First, I checked out a Farmer's Market that my sister wanted me to visit. I was glad I did. It was definitely the cheapest and best variety of fruits and vegetables I've seen in this city. A 3 lb bag of apples for $1? Yes, please! I plan to do all my fruit and vegetable shopping there from now on.
Next, I passed some time, and warmed up, by reading in a nearby McDonalds. I'm currently reading the original Dracula by Bram Stoker, written in 1890. I'm really enjoying it and find it to be rather quaint compared with the novels of today. After warming up, I took a subway to the Times Square area to see if I could get cheap broadway tickets for a matinee show at 3pm. Unfortunately, I was not successful. Somewhere around this time, I also went into work for about an hour (my office is only a block from the Times Square area). I didn't actually do any work though. Instead, I signed up for Blockbuster Online, because I had recently learned that Morgan Stanley employees get a 1 month free trial. So very shortly, free movie rentals will be arriving in my mail box.
After not being able to acquire any cheap broadway tickets, I decided to take a tour of the United Nations, which was a good educational experience. I never realized that the United Nations sits on land that has been declared International Territory.
After the tour ended (around 2:30 pm), I finally went home to get some more sleep. In the evening, I headed back to the NBC Studios to seee if I could get into Saturday Night Live. As you may have guessed from the title of this post, I did get in. Catherine Zeta-Jones was the host and Franz Ferdinand was the musical guest. Catherine was great, and the show as a whole was really good. There was even a hilarious fake commercial where they made fun of Morgan Stanley, which the New York audience really liked. It was really cool getting to see how all the sets are laid out around the studio, and how everyone rushes everywhere. Every time a sketch with Catherine Zeta-Jones ended, a wardrobe assistant would grab Zeta-Jones by the arm, and they would literally sprint backstage for her to get changed. It was quite amusing to see.
And that has been my weekend so far. Tomorrow will probably be a day of rest.