Here’s to the Big Apple

Back in November, I was lucky enough to win a contest. A big contest, actually. A ‘shopping trip’ to NYC! It was during a promotion of four weeks of fly-aways from a local country station (101.5 the Eagle, to be specific). There were four different trips to concerts, etc, and honestly, I won the best one! Because it wasn’t associated with an event, I was able to push the trip back to a time when I could actually go, hence the after roadshow scheduling. When I was talking with Stacey, from Stoney Creek Records, she was great about the scheduling. The prize was supposed to be two nights hotel and the flights, plus $500 spending cash. But when I was scheduling, she told me she could just pay for two more nights of the hotel instead of giving me a giftcard, if I wanted. YES! Especially since the hotel is $300 per night! So, it should be a pretty fun trip.

I bought City Passes for us, so for one price we can now go to:
The Empire State Building
American Museum of Natural History
The Museum of Modern Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
and then we can choose either ther Top of the Rock tour or the Guggenheim, and chose The Statue Cruise or the Circle line Cruise

And if that weren’t enough to do, I’ve got us tickets to see the Late Show with David Letterman for Tuesday (so you could tune in Tuesday night and maybe catch a glimpse of us in the crowd!) I was a little worried when I got the call from the Late Show, and they told me I had to call a guy named Jack and answer a trivia question before they would let me have tickets. UGH! What kind of trivia question? Do I have to watch teh show every night? Do I have to know who the guest was the day before? So I googled something like “trivia questions for Late Show tickets”, and read up about other people’s experiences. I also took a quiz to prepare me. (Questions like ‘where did Dave go to school (can’t remember), what is the name of the production company (worldwide pants), who is Biff Henderson, what is the name of the Deli nearby (Hello Deli), and who runs it (Rupert G) and stuff like that. I read a few different web pages about Dave and the history of the show, and then I gathered my courage to call Jack. He put me on hold for a minute, then asked me the big question, “Alan Kalter has been a part of the show for many years. What is his job?” I knew that one right away! He’s the announcer! And it’s a good thing they didn’t ask me, “who is the announcer”, because while I would have said Alan right away, I don’t think I could have come up with his last name. So, tickets we have!

I also requested tickets for the Nate Berkus Show on Wednesday (not sure when that will be televised, but I’ll let you know). Isn’t he the cutest?

He’s the guy with the good hair, not the other guy who works at Lowe’s, by the way. Ryan may think I’m challenging his manhood a little by making him go to a ‘design show’, but he’ll just have to deal with it, and my tiny little crush on Nate, since I won the trip and I’m taking him as my guest.

I tried to get tickets to see Rachel Ray, but haven’t heard back from then. There’s always stand-by, I guess, if we decide we want to try to do that.

Just today I got a call from ‘the View’, since I had also requested tickets to that show. But they aren’t taping on Thursday, and we couldn’t do the time they offered us on Tuesday because it would conflict with Letterman’s show. No problem. Ryan is relieved, and said he “dodged a bullet with that one.” What? I was requesting tickets so I could have options, people.

We have actually been to the Late Show once before when we went to NY in 2006, but this should hopefully be a little bit slicker process, since we already have the tickets. When we went before, we had NO plan for our three day adventure, and literally just started walking around and ended up at Spamalot. This time, I’m trying to figure out how to use our time wisely, not just wander around aimlessly. And I don’t have the burning desire to spend hundreds of bucks on theater tickets. I’ve seen Wicked twice, otherwise that would be at the top of my list.

I’m also not too concerned about all the great FOOD in New York. We won’t have a lot of time to eat at fancy places, so we’ll probably just stop and eat when we are hungry. Except for one night, when we have a dinner invitation to eat with a Control4 dealer that Ryan works with. When Ryan told him he was coming to NY, he invited him to come and see his business and that he would take us out to dinner. Well, I’m all for free dinner, so I’m on board.

Ryan’s not much of a shopper, either, so we won’t be spending hours touring the garment district and looking for clothes. But, if we should happen upon cute purses or shoes, or see a store that’s especially inviting, I might just have to pull him inside. Hopefully there will be a chair or a bench where he can sit. But I’m such a cheapskate, I can’t see me forking out big bucks for some designer clothes, unless it’s a knock-off. We’ll have to see.

I have a lot to do before we go, so I don’t really know why I’m sitting here blogging, but I am. Since I will be having people come here and help with the kids, I’ve got to get the house in decent condition, make sure there are enough groceries, make a few meals for the freezer, return all the library books, catch up on all my primary stuff, clean the bathrooms, make the schedule, make sure the kids are caught up on homework, clean our bedroom, and pack. And I can’t just pack any old schleppy clothes, I want to look nice. Especially when the email from the Nate show specifically said, “Colors photograph best and we ask that you please refrain
from wearing anything all white or all black We all know that Nate has
great style and we expect the same from you! /Think Chic! /Absolutely NO
athletic attire or sweat suits, sneakers, oversized jeans, hats,
sunglasses, shorts, t-shirts with logos, busy patterns or casual tank
tops will be permitted in the studio. Men should wear nice pants with a
button-down shirt, sweater, or blazer.” So no jeans and t-shirts for that show, I guess. Then I don’t know if it will be warm, cold, rainy or sunny, so I’ve got to watch the weather for next week and pack for all possibilities.

So excited!

So stay tuned for pictures, because I’m sure we will be taking LOTS of them!!