Day 307: Sheetz Savez

For those of you readers that don't know sheetz is a gas station in this area that's comparable to QT. One major difference though is there is a made to order fast food to go restaurant inside that serves everything. I go there occasionally to get a hot dog but not often and I especially never get a drink or a donut or anything. However, I have just discovered one night after rehearsal the power of the sheetz card. I was hesitant about getting one because I thought it meant like a gas credit card. No, it's just a savings card like at a grocery story, and let me tell you, you can save. Today I got two free hot dogs just because I got two bottled beverages to store in my fridge. Also, you get three cents off a gallon for gas. The sales and deals and eventual freebies are endless and perfect for a college student. All I can say is that sheetz savez.

Day 306: Netflix

For some reason, this week, I find myself discussing my evening discoveries as opposed to what I learn at school during the day but we will get back to that eventually. In case you live under a rock and haven't heard, there is a new film and television system called Netflix. For a monthly fee you can watch unlimited movies and shows instantly or have them mailed to you. Or both. It's a great way to discover movies you would have never found otherwise. For example I watched sleepless in Seattle and it was great. I also watched breakfast at Tiffany's and other then the score it was terrible. I was so bored. Maybe it's just dated to me. I also watched Mr. Deeds, a comedy starring Adam sandler. Very good and hilarious. I watched a TV movie called double wedding which was cute. But of all the movies I've watched recently, the rare gem that stood out was Listen to your Heart. It was a beautiful movie about the power of music. It told the story of a deaf girl who fell in love with a striving musician despite her overprotective mothers objections. It's a sad movie but very moving. Also, any movie that is music related is usually pretty good to me. Here's the poster for the movie.

Day 305: Game Shows

For those of you who didn't know, I love game shows. Action game shows, family game shows, suspenseful game shows, trivia game shows, survey game shows, old game shows, word game shows, etc. Game show network is my favorite channel but here we have the lowest of the lowest level of cable and don't get that luxurious channel. We have ESPN but not GSN. What sense that makes I'll never know. However, there is a genius device called YouTube. It's a website with videos of anything you could think of. I use it to watch broadway related clips, comedy, and lately full episodes of classic game shows. I had seen a particular game show before back when I had access to GSN but wasn't hooked on it because mom always made me change the channel because she didn't like going back in time with these old shows. However, now, every night after a long day of school and rehearsal I come back to my room and watch full episodes of Match Game. It's a really funny, witty show even forty years later. Plus betty white was on a lot of the episodes and who doesn't love her. If you have any recommendations of other game shows I should check out let me know.

Day 304: Weird Weather

Because I spent last week talking about subtopics of the NYC trip I'm going to go back and discuss some important school topics. Last Friday was the first day of spring but you would never know it if you walked outside that morning because here in Winchester the weather was welcoming spring with winter weather by snowing. Now this week it's been in the 70s but it's going to be in the 50s this weekend. Mother Nature can't make up her mind on how the weather should be in Winchester. Seasons don't exist here but despite the inconsistency of the weather, any weather brings beauty to this campus. This photo was the first day of spring.

Day 302 and 303: NYC Summary

For this weekend blog i will wrap up my blogs about my spring break trip. I hope it was apparent from the photos and the writings that I had a great time. I was exhausted of course. However, I was thrilled that I could spend an entire week with the greatest mom ever enjoying and introducing her to the greatest city on earth. As they say in on the town, "New York, New York, it's a helluva town." Here's a few more photos for the road.

Day 301: Broadway

As many of you probably know, I love musical theater and want it to be my career some day. Therefore, the best place to live for that field is NYC because that is the home to the great white way. It's also called the theater district or Broadway. No matter what you call it though, it is still the home of my passion. I was in New York and you see these big marquis that have these huge broadway posters and broadway souvenir shops on every corner and ticket salesmen. It's such a brilliant sight to see and a place to see some great shows. There is so much excitement, or for me anyway when I walked into the theater and the usher handed me the Playbill, or the broadway version of a program, and you read it anxiously awaiting the orchestra to start and the curtain rise on theatrical magic. We saw three shows while we were in NYC: on the town, the Book of Mormon, and the king and I. They were all magnificent except the last one. However the last one was a revival still in previews so it's kinks will be worked out because I could tell it has so much potential. If you're not a regular theater goer try it out because you will be surprised at how magical it is.

Day 300: Transportation

There are four main forms of transportation in NYC: walking, taxi, subway, and bus. None of these are particularly easy but driving a car in those streets would be a wreck waiting to happen especially for your standard suburban resident. Walking is a great option but there is SOOO much of it. Even though it's just a few blocks at a time it adds up. I'm sure we could've taken the subway more than we did but it would be too easy to get lost on it. Busses are just as confusing and there are so many stops that you're just stuck waiting for a six dollar ride. Taxi is the easiest way. They are readily available and searching for people needing a ride because they want business. I was worried about not being able to hail a cab but it's really quite easy. Aggressively stick your arm out in the road and keep it out till a car with the light on pulls up. It's as easy as NYC.

Day 299: Delis and Pizzerias

New York is known for three foods: bagels, pizza, and cheesecake. You can find all or some of these at the final types of popular eateries in the big apple. Generally near every Starbucks is a deli that either includes or lacks a dessert shop. You can find some bagels there or classic pastrami or Reuben sandwiches. While we didn't go to any delis, they are everywhere. Also, pizza places are everywhere of all scales. There are hole in the wall places that sell pizza for a dollar a slice. There are places that have wide varieties and you can see fifty different pizzas from the street. There are places that specialize in super homemade where you see a brick oven and a man tossing dough. Then there are nicer restaurants that are devoted to pizza. We went to the latter kind called johns pizzeria because it was nice and a block away from our hotel. The pizza was fantastic, huge and worth the wait at the popular restaurant.

Day 298: Starbucks

People always say that in New York there is a Starbucks on every corner. However, you can't truly understand the grand scale of this statement until you see it in reality. NYC is already so cramped that to see so many Starbucks crowded together, it's a little ridiculous to the suburban mind. However, I guess New Yorkers need that much caffeine to keep up with the pace of the city. Also, they can only have the best of the best coffee even if it's oversized and overpriced. Here's one of many on the corner.

Day 297: Diners

Today I will start talking about sub topics that interested me from the trip. The first three days of these will be about food because as a southerner all I naturally think about is food. In New York there is no Waffle House or anything so they have little diners throughout the city. We ate at one everyday: Times Square diner, Westway diner, cosmic diner, Brooklyn diner, and stardust diner. Most of these places are open 24 hours and serve food that you might find at an IHOP, Perkins, or Waffle House. Most of the places though had daily specials of some kind and you always wanted to try them because they were the most reasonably priced. Everything in New York is so expensive. I had two favorite diners. The first was the Brooklyn diner which is on broadway in manhattan not in Brooklyn. It was an upscale diner that required reservations, had nice place settings, and the seating was like a little train car booth with a window and everything. They had the most elegant takes on the most classic dishes such as pigs in a blanket and chicken pot pie. The stardust diner was my other favorite because the servers are young adults who work part time while trying to make it on broadway. So to get extra tips in addition to the typical serving tip, they perform to pay for voice lessons, acting lessons, etc. They serve you and they rotate around and you're eventually watching your server perform. They perform a variety of solos, duets, and group numbers from all genres. They even did the act one finale of les miz before we left. It was a super cool place. So if you're in New York find a diner and dine.

Day 296: Restoration

One bad thing about the way housing is set up here is the short time frame in which you to have to leave and come back to restore your room by cleaning or laundry. For example, we were allowed to return on Sunday and then had half a day to fix things before starting school again the next day. Luckily, I have a great mom who helped me restore the room while I restored myself physically by taking a nap. It wasn't the most fair trade off but we both knew that that would be the most productive system. All of it got done and my room is still spotless because of her. All I can say about my amazing mom is: damn, she's good.

Day 295: NYC 7

This blog should really be called the attempt to return home. After we didn't receive our wake up call, we rushed to eat breakfast, catch our shuttle to the airport, and go through the TSA process to board our plane. We shouldn't have rushed because after boarding we were told to deplane because we were being delayed for three hours. After a long wait, we finally made it back on the plane and later that night we were finally back in Winchester. What an exhausting day after a long yet exciting and fun trip.

Day 294: NYC 6

Today was about four things, shopping, wax, theater, and food. With all the tours done, we went shopping for our souvenirs after eating at a diner of upcoming broadway stars that sing while they wait on you. We also went to the celebrity wax museum followed by The King and I revival at Lincoln center. In between was a dinner that could have fed my whole extended family at a great Italian restaurant. It was a great day to end the NYC part of the trip on.

Day 293: NYC 5

On Day 5, or Thursday of spring break, we ate at the fancy Brooklyn Diner (which isn't in Brooklyn), used the downtown bus tour as a way to get to the Brooklyn bus tour, went on that tour, went on a night bus tour of the city, and got a high night view of the city from a high level rotating restaurant called the view. It was a vividly viewing day.

Day 292: NYC 4

Today, we had brunch at the cosmic diner, had a bus tour of uptown manhattan and the Bronx, got a snack at a two floor mcdonalds, saw the Book of Mormon, and ate a French meal at Pigalle. It was an extraordinary day.

Day 291: NYC 3

On the third day, we ate at the Westway diner, went on a bus tour of downtown manhattan, saw on the town, and ate at Sardis. It was a much busier day than it sounds.