The Comedian and I went to NYC this past weekend for one last hurrah before the baby arrives. Two days before departure, he got sick with a cold courtesy of his coworker. One day before departure, I joined him in his misery.
We had to get up at 4am to get ready and drive to the airport to catch our 8am flight. 4am is not fun, not even a little bit. Even with the promise of being in my favourite city a few hours later, I was not a happy camper. Oh, and did I mention it was pouring rain?
We managed to get through security in a timely fashion and went to our gate. Our plane was sitting there getting fueled up and bags loaded. At about one hour to departure, an annoucement was made that our flight would be delayed because our pilot was still in NYC.
Great. Awesome. Perfect.
That bit of news didn't help The Comedian's anxiety levels. He's only ever flown once about 15 years ago, to and from LA. So now he had another hour to stew over all the things that can possibly go wrong. I don't think I was being my supportive best when I told him to "suck it up, Buttercup" after he told me another one of his why-the-plane-will-go-down scenarios. And, we also had a friend meeting us at the airport who went in on the flight ahead of us. So she got screwed over too.
When our pilot finally arrived, and we finally got moving, I was utterly exhausted. All I wanted to do was nap on the flight. But we ended up sitting next to a very nice, but very chatty lady named Lizzie. She yakked our ears off the whole way there. And since I was in the middle seat, I couldn't exactly fall asleep while she told us all about her two grown daughters, how she recently retired from running a daycare in her home for the last 18 years, her planned family trip to Italy in June and how she gets REALLY NERVOUS flying. She really was very lovely, but I just wanted to sleeeeeeeep.
NYC turned out to be overcast but dry when we touched down so that gave me a little hope that we wouldn't be stuck inside all day. We made our way to the hotel via cab, checked in and then made our way to meet with some friends for lunch at S'MAC in the East Village.
Eventually our friends showed up. By the time we all finished eating and walked back to the subway, I was pooped. The plan was to go back to the hotel and rest for a little bit before hitting Central Park.
You know, inertia is a very powerful force. We ended up staying at the hotel for a few hours and skipped Central Park because I just couldn't peel myself off the bed. But do you know what's more powerful than inertia? The promise of the best cupcakes ever.
Sprinkles lived up to that promise. While I was devouring their red velvet cupcake, I thought back to all the times when I thought I was having the best cupcake ever, and this cupcake kicked the crap out of those memories. This was indeed, the best cupcake I have ever had in my whole life!
And inertia applied itself even harder than at the hotel because before we knew it, it was time to head to the Neil Simon Theatre to catch a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar.
I'm really glad JCS is a loud rock opera because I would have been thrown out of the theatre for disrupting the show with my constant nose-blowing and coughing. I believe I went through an entire box of kleenex (which I brought along from the hotel room) during the 2 hour performance.
Somewhere in there, I did manage to contain my snot long enough to see my friend have his moment to shine in the spotlight. He completely demolished his song!!! I was punching The Comedian in the leg I was so freaking proud!! I wish I had the words to accurately describe his performance but believe me (and I'm a super tough critic), he was total AMAZEBALLS!
We caught up with him after the show at a greasy spoon diner across the street from the theatre. I asked him a million questions about what it's like to live out the Broadway dream. He was telling us all about rehearsals, how well the cast gets along, how they may get nominated for a Tony, how he's adjusting to living in NYC and suddenly, I hit the proverbial brick wall.
It was midnight, which was also the 20th hour of being awake. Oh, and it started pouring so hard it looked like a fucking monsoon hit midtown Manhattan.
We went outside to hail a cab and people, let me tell you, YOU CANNOT FIND A CAB WHEN IT RAINS. In a city where the cab to person ratio is like 3:1, there wasn't a SINGLE one to be found. After about 30 minutes of standing in the rain like idiots (I stood in a phone booth like an idiot), we walked over to a nearby Marriott and begged the concierge there to phone us a cab.
By the time we got back to our hotel, it was almost 1am and I was almost dead. But instead of being able to collapse into a coma-like sleep, both The Comedian and I were up all night coughing and blowing our noses.
The next day wasn't any better. I was cranky and tired and we fought when he wanted to go to the NBC Store and I wanted to get something to eat. It was still pouring rain so no hopes of a quick tour around Central Park. We chalked it up to shitty timing and headed to the airport sooner rather than later.
But no trip to NYC would be complete without a terrifying cab ride. Our driver was busy chatting on his phone while our cab was flying at warp speed, cutting off everyone in our path and damn near slamming into a truck in front of us. And The Comedian is afraid of flying?!
And our flight home was delayed an hour. Only this time we had the pleasure of being stuck on the runway, waiting for clearance to depart. And believe it or not, our friend Lizzie was on board again. It's a small (rainy, germ infested) world afterall....
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