November 6, 2018 – My Pretty Little Life

I went to NYC over the weekend with my Little Gretchen Weiners to see Mean Girls on Broadway. It was actually an early birthday trip for me (my birthday is in December, but we realized that we were busy almost every weekend leading up until my birthday, so this worked for us!) As much as I loved the play (absolutely amazing, and so on point with the movie!) and despite having a wonderful time with my Mama, NYC is not a place I’ll be running back to anytime soon.

We left Saturday AM, and I had Saul drop me off at South Station, because we were taking the Amtrak. The train was departing at 8:00 AM, and we literally left the house at 6:30, so I was like, Okay, we’re good, we have plenty of time. Of course, it was torrentially down pouring that morning. It was so bad, even the highways were flooded. This of course slowed us down, but my ETA was 7:36, so I knew I’d be fine. I was wrong. As soon as we got into Boston, WAZE started going haywire and rerouted us like ten times. My ETA kept creeping up, and I began to freak out. Greta is calling me and is like, “They’re boarding the train!” And I’m like Fuck, I’m totally not going to make it. Saul let me out at a red light, and I grabbed my carry on and ran through the rain to South Station. I made it just in time. However, I was soaked, cranky, I didn’t have time to get an iced coffee and I was super anxious.

Once we were actually on the train, I was fine. (Well, once I got my Starbucks at the cargo café and took a Xanax.) While on the train, we were seated with someone named Clay (Greta is super chatty) and we learned that he was headed to NYC for the marathon that weekend. I looked over at Greta, and were both like, “Marathon?” LOL – Only us.

We arrived in NYC around noon, and I was paranoid because Mean Girls was at 2:00 PM. We exited the train station (which, holy shit, is as big as Logan Airport) and debated whether or not we should wait for a taxi. Greta was looking at Google Maps on her phone, and I watched as two taxi drivers almost got into a fight because one of the guys refused to move his car up, so the other one bumped him. He actually called an ambulance. Greta and I decided to walk after that.

NYC was hustling and bustling, which I’m sure it always is. (I’ve only been once, and it was in January of 2011 – I don’t recall it being this crazy.) You can barely walk, it’s so annoying. As we were stopped at the crosswalk, this tall, big ass dude literally walked directly into Greta. Like plowed into her. He almost knocked her down. (The ghetto in me really wanted to say something, but he looked kinda crazy and I was really out of my element, so I kept my mouth shut.) I made sure my Mama was okay, and then we got our bearings, and hailed a taxi.

We arrived at The Gallivant Hotel, which is super cute. It was too early to check in, but we planned on leaving our bags, getting lunch, and heading to the play. At the front desk, we were told if we wanted to go to the room right then and there, we could, but it would be a room w/a double bed. Greta told the guy that was okay, we would wait for what we paid for. (Two Queen beds.) The front desk clerk said that they didn’t have any rooms in the entire hotel that had two queens. My mom had booked it through Priceline, so she showed him the email. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “That’s wrong.” I looked at Greta, like WTF else could go wrong right now? The clerk told us that he could upgrade us to a room with a Queen bed, and bunk beds. We were both like, seriously? But we took it.

We ate a super quick lunch and headed to the play. Can I just say – Mean Girls was absolutely amazing? The cast was incredible. They strayed from the movie as little as possible, which I was all for. It was a little bit more modernized, obviously, because we didn’t have Social Media when it came out in the 2000’s. It was incredible. I bought a mug (of course I did) and I had such an amazing time.

Some words of wisdom in the elevator @ The Gallivant.

After the play we headed back to our hotel. After checking in and getting into the elevator, I asked Gretch what floor we were on. “Sixteen,” she replied. I was confused. There was no floor 16. Then I realized – we had been upgraded to the Pent House Suite. We were both super excited. The room was gorgeous. I’m not sure why they told us the bed was a Queen – it was most definitely a King. And the bunk beds were full sized. The shower was so cool – it was one of the rain showers, which I love. We had a balcony, and we could actually go out on it. (I was surprised, Me & Mel couldn’t even open our windows in Vegas!) We were thrilled.

The Wallpaper in our Suite.

After hanging out for a while and then freshening up, we headed to dinner at Carmine’s. OMG – can I tell you that they literally have the best Italian food I’ve ever eaten in my entire life? It was amazing. They serve everything “Family Style”, so you get this massive dish that can basically feed a family of four. The dinner was fabulous. We had a really nice waiter, who definitely made our experience better. (So far, almost everyone we encountered in NY was so rude. I thought Boston was bad, but nothing compared to this.) We also met a couple from El Salvador who were very sweet. Of course, Greta told the waiter we were there for my birthday (even though I told him my birthday wasn’t until December.) His birthday was also in December. After dinner, Greta got a cappuccino, and to my dismay, as her cappuccino came out, all of the chef’s came out with a little cup of ice cream with candles and sang happy birthday to me. “I hate you so much right now,” I whispered to Greta as I turned fifty shades of red. “I didn’t tell him to do it!” She insisted. LOL, it was fine, and in the end I was happy to have the ice cream.

I filtered this to be as pale as possible, because I’m mortified here LOL.

We flew home Sunday, but of course I wanted be to super touristy before we left. Greta and I got up super early and walked around before we headed to La Guardia.