A Manhattan Love Story | Day 2

Arriving in her own state of exhaustion and delirium, my travel partner, Hannah, text me upon her arrival to JFK.  I awoke to the familiar chirp of my alerts to see that it was 6am and not only had she arrived, but she had discovered upon said arrival that she had no money.  She was going on 25 hours with no sleep, and I was awoken out of a REM cycle so deep that it caused me to scramble for clues as to where I was.

When my head finally cleared it was obvious that she would be stranded in the airport until she had money to purchase a metro card and get to the apartment.  My choices were to travel nearly 2 hours by train to retrieve her, or figure out a way to get her money.

My part of the story goes like this: discover she doesn't bank where I do (can't transfer money into her account), discover she doesn't have a PayPal account (can't send money through the handy-dandy app), discover I can't purchase a Metro card over the phone or internet (a discovery I find to be sorely disappointing and remind myself to look into the process in the future - could be a genius business endeavor).  Finally I decide I may have to actually head out on the train to rescue her, the least appealing scenario for me (such a long ride).  This is when I have a stroke of genius and remember all those scenes in the movies when the poor college kid calls dad and desperately asks him to "wire him money."  Western Union!  I quickly create an account and wire her $50.

Her part of the story: tired, delirious, confused, in pain... when will it all end?? (You should ask her about this experience some time.  In hind-sight it really is quite entertaining.)

Some time later, after she finally locates the Western Union within the airport and traverses the 3 trains to the apartment, I am awoken by another text chirp alerting me to her arrival.  She falls upon the bed in her own dramatic flair, similar to one I performed 27ish hours earlier, and 5 hours later we leave the apartment and head to Times Square.

Seeing Times Square for the second time gave me more excitement than the first.  I'm not sure if it's because I was introducing it to Hannah for the first time, or because this time it was dark, but either way it just felt more real to me.  I was excited to walk around and really take it all in.

We started with grabbing dinner at a local cart and setting up at one of the iconic red tables to eat...

I've seen these tables in so many scenes of my favorite NYC based film and TV shows, and it was ridiculously exciting for me to sit at one myself and watch the chaos of Times Square around us.

Next up we discovered a booth where you can write your New Years wish on a piece of the confetti that falls on NYE.  I love that a lot of the confetti has wishes written on it, I had no idea that was the case!  We each wrote our wish and added it to the pile.  Here's mine...

We wandered around Times Square a little more and I geeked out BIG TIME.  I am a huge fan of Broadway, and there are so many plays being advertised on the big screens all around.  I paused in front of Idina Menzel's poster for "If/Then" and took a selfie with my favorite Broadway talent...

I know it's just a poster, but something about it felt magical.  It's not just any poster, it's the one hanging in TIMES SQUARE!

Next up was discovering the TKTS booth (where you find discounted tickets for Broadway and off Broadway shows) and
I.
Freaked.
Out.

The iconic red stairs.
Hannah had no idea what I was babbling about, but these stairs for me signified something.  To me these stairs meant I was here.  I was in New York.  I was standing where many Broadway stars had before me.  Rachel and the crew from GLEE had sung standing and dancing on these same stairs, and millions of Broadway fans before me had stood in the same location and felt the same excitement I was feeling.

I stood on the stairs for a few minutes and looked at Times Square laid out before me.  I read the posters around me advertising for various plays, "Avenue Q," "The Lion King," "On the Town," "The Real Thing," "Book of Mormon," etc.  

I stood there taking it all in and thought, "Holy shit.  I'm in New York!"