Toss Toss!

The trek back to the hotel was probably the hardest of any of the treks we'd made because it was in the middle of the day and super hot. We managed to make it, although I didn't think I would make it.

We got to the hotel, and they didn't have Emily's room or Izzy's and my room wasn't ready. Izzy looked into getting a room at a different hotel, and Kofi, Lynn, Emily, Elissa, Sam, Mario, Sara and myself sat in the lobby waiting for my room to open up. It did finally, and around that time Elissa left, so we all said our goodbyes, and Izzy went to a hotel a block away.

When we got upstairs and in our room, we started the shower rotations and I passed out super quick. I woke up to Kofi hovering over me, he was leaving and Emily made sure he said goodbye. It was in no way easy, but it wasn't as sad as last year. After meeting up once, I wasn't scared I'd never see him again.

I don't remember if I passed out again, or stayed awake after that. I do remember talking to Sam and realizing that he's probably one of the coolest people I've had the pleasure of knowing. He did a few impersonations, and I think one of them was me, which was ridiculously accurate.

Eventually we all finished getting showered, and we were in the last stages of getting ready, so we started to work on where we were going to go eat. Sam wasn't dressed up, because he was just crashing in the room until his friend got off of work, so he didn't want to go somewhere nice and look out of place. We thought about a few places, but decided on Shake Shack eventually. I was wearing my black dress shoes, black dress pants, a black T-shirt, navy blue button up, a silver tie, and a black velvet vest. I got told the heat would kill me, and it tried to. I had to take my vest off after we got to Shake Shack in order to live.

If you get a chance go there. They had the best orange cream slush thing ever! The burgers are pretty great too. After eating, we walked with Sam over to the subway entrance and all said our last goodbyes with him. Sam, if you read this I miss you, and wish I had spent more time with you than I ever did. We got on the subway, and down to our stop easily, and weren't sure if we should go to the theatre or wait and shop some. We decided to go in, and looked at some merchandise, and bought some, and then went upstairs to where our seats would be. We couldn't get in the theatre yet, but we sat outside the doors and it was a bit overwhelming. The whole building is Wicked themed... Did I ever mention we had planned to go see Wicked? Hrmmm...

It's legit though, the building that is. We got drinks because they came with a souvenir mug, and then just talked as we waited to go in. The stage... Ahhh. The work that goes into that shines forth when you just look at it. Ahhh!

Had I finished this the other night when I started it, I would have skipped out on describing the Wicked experience to you as well as I could. Emily had said something about it being almost inevitable that we would cry at the end, and she was right. I need to explain something before I go on, we had all been up since 7ish the previous day, and had got, at most, a few hours worth of naps in. Sitting in the theatre was super hard, because it was cool and comfortable which didn't help the whole tired thing. Izzy took a nap before the show, and I think Sara might have tried.

I'm not going to devote a lot of time to explaining the show, because if you know it you know what happens, and if not you need to, but it's a lot for this blog, haha. I think Izzy was the loudest person in the theatre when he laughed at Galinda, and at the end when Glinda imprisons Madame Morrible. There were several parts in the show where I couldn't help but cry, it was a mixture of the amazingness that was the show, and the overwhelming feeling that I was actually sitting there watching a Broadway show in New York. I'm silly like that. =D

I do think I dozed off for a short second, Emily quickly woke me up, haha. During this whole thing Mario was sitting twelve seats from the stage, while Lynn, Emily, Izzy, Sara and I were a row or two from the very back of the balcony. The view was amazing though, haha.

After the show, I talked myself into buying a Wicked sweet track jacket. It took me the whole show, but in the end, I couldn't help but buy it. We took several fun pictures right outside, and then made our way to the heart of Times Square, and did our last bit of shopping. Hershey store, M&M store, a little shop for "I heart New York" shirts. The good stuff, minus Disney, haha. We eventually decided we were super tired, and all made our way back to the hotel.

We talked about the show, and all of our favorite parts, but still crashed pretty quick once we were back. We ended up waking up later than we expected to, which was bad because we didn't have much time before Lynn and Mario left for the airport. We managed to run to this nearby food place and grab some breakfast/lunch to go and eat it outside the hotel before the shuttle for Lynn and Mario showed up. I think Lori arrived before they left, and we all said hello to her and goodbye to Lynn and Mario. Izzy went to his hotel with Lori to get his luggage so he could keep it with mine and Sara's at our hotel while we ran around before we left. While he was gone the shuttle for Emily popped up, and he didn't get to say goodbye which was super sad.

After Sara and I saw Emily off, we checked out and gave them our luggage, along with Izzy's to hold till our shuttle arrived. We made our way over to Central Park, and found ourselves walking around this big lake thing, which wasn't too exciting, so we left the park and went to a nearby Starbucks. We then walked as we looked for a place to eat. My phone battery was on it's last legs, for some reasons, which was bad because I had given the shuttle company my number.

We eventually decided to eat at the Shake Shack, so we caught some shuttles over there and stood in the line, which was long. It was nearing time for the shuttle to arrive, and I was worried, because my phone had died. We got our food to go, and basically ran back to the hotel. The guy had waited for us, and he wasn't too happy about that, but we were thankful. The hotel then took a long time finding Sara's luggage, which made the guy a bit angrier I think. We said our goodbyes to Lori and Izzy, and sat in the shuttle, eating quietly to ourselves.

We made it there, before 4:30, which was an hour after we had signed up for the shuttle at, which meant we didn't get charged extra but the guy asked for a waiting fee, or whatever so we paid it so we could just go inside. We got inside, got checked in to our flights went through security, and waited at the gate. They informed us that we might miss our connecting flights because they had to stop in Tennessee to fill up, because it was too hot in New York. We called our families to tell them, but ended up landing in Dallas only a few minutes late.

Sara and I walked to my gate, which was overbooked so they were taking off a bit later. I charged my phone, and we talked about how we'd see each other in a month so it wasn't sad. Then, I boarded the plane, waved goodbye, and that was pretty much it...

I got home, and was super happy to see my sister and parents. I couldn't stop thinking about the trip, but I was ready for that Sunday afternoon, because I was having my birthday party then.

Ummm... That was my New York trip, since then I've had a birthday party, played in a Brawl tournament, watched Brian's movie with the cast and crew and am currently waiting for the premiere on Tuesday. It's a legit premiere with people paying to watch, and catering, and we rented out a room at the Civic Center. Crazy stuffs.

I'll tell you guys how that goes. Love ya! =D