A Manhattan Love Story | Day 6

Day 6 started out with a walk through two areas of Manhattan named Greenwich Village and Chelsea - otherwise known as the areas Macey first pictured herself living in New York.

I had begun falling in love with the city, but until this point still couldn't picture myself living in NYC.  I had started fantasizing about New York being my place to visit once a year, and who I was going to introduce my city to, but hadn't felt the pull to live there.  Within our first block of walking through Greenwich, that all changed.  It just felt different, and it felt like home.

The other thing that stood out thus far is that I hadn't seen any 'found hearts' yet.  If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that I love to take pictures of various heart formations I find.  I see them rather often and I was looking forward to capturing some in NYC.  Hannah and I had just been commenting on day 5 how strange it was that I hadn't seen any yet.

Within the first 5 minutes in Greenwich I spotted one, and all throughout the day I spotted many more.  

A sign?

Yeah, I think so too.

After a few hours of wandering around the Village I hopped back on the Subway and headed north to Harlem to meet up with the lovely Annette for lunch.  We met at the legendary Red Rooster and enjoyed conversation over amazing southern comfort cuisine.

I was connected to Annette through my sister-in-law Danielle a few months ago on Facebook and we quickly became friends.  Annette has lived in NYC for 17 years and runs a very successful event planning company.  She has TONS of connections in the city and I enjoyed learning about the different events she held in historic buildings around Manhattan.  Out of the many connections Annette has, one (my personal favorite) offered her a VIP experience for New Years in Times Square and she was more than happy to extend the invitation to Hannah and I so we could experience it with her.  I know, right?!

As Annette and I wrapped up our delicious meal she sent a text off to her contact and promised to let me know the details as they were figured out.  (more on that amazing experience to come on Day 7)

After parting with Annette I hopped back on the Subway once again and headed to Times Square to stake out a prime spot at the Richard Rogers Theater backdoor, hoping to catch Idina Menzel after her matinee performance.

After waiting an hour and half in the freezing (and I do mean freezing) cold, the crowd had formed, the door opened and... Anthony Rapp exited the building.  I didn't want to appear to snuff anyone in the cast who I had already received an autograph from, so I opened my Playbill to the page with the cast photos and asked him to sign his picture rather than the front of the bill.  He was gracious once again and began signing autographs for the crowd.  While doing so, he kept looking at me and appeared to be attempting to place my face.

After a few glances he said, "were you here the other night?"

I laughed and told him that yes I was and that I had come back hoping to get Idina's autograph as well. I also assured him that even though I hadn't seen the show that afternoon I was sure he was amazing, and that seeing him live on Sunday night is something I'll never forget.  He smiled, said thank you, wished me luck on meeting Idina and continued on.

OMG.
Anthony Rapp remembered me!
Can we just pause on that for a second?!

After Anthony left the door opened again and the security guard stepped out.  He told us that no one else would be coming out to sign. The crowd was so disappointed and I felt a mixture of sadness for them that they didn't meet anyone else and gratefulness that I had attended the show on Sunday and met so many of them.  I chatted quickly with the guard and he was very honest with me and said that it wasn't worth my time coming back later in the week and that Idina very rarely signs autographs.  I thanked him for his honesty and left feeling as though the glass had been shattered a bit.  I guess that's why they say it's best to not meet your heroes.

Hannah had been waiting in a pub down the block from me so I headed out to meet up with her.  We enjoyed drinks, a warm fireplace and a bartender with a Scottish Brogue while we waited for our dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant, Don't Tell Mamma.  Not a bad way to kill an hour or two.

Dinner was great, but another bit of a letdown since it wasn't what I was expecting.  Our waiter more than made up for it with his flirting though, so that was nice.

After dinner we made our way back to the apartment after spotting a photo-op I couldn't pass up.