I've Done Something I've Never Done Before

My sister (the flight attendant) calls me and tells me she has a 30 hour layover in New York City and asks me if I'd like to come along to see a broadway show. Well...New York is my favorite city I've ever been to and broadway shows are just about my favorite thing in life, so really, how could I refuse. I hadn't been to NY in about 5 years, so 30 hours wasn't going to give me enough of a fix, so I booked a hotel to stay an extra two nights and do something I've NEVER done before...been alone outside of my hometown. I had to fly stand by again (free trip and all) and as luck would have it, I made it on both flights. This time the flight was a lot more fun! For the first time I was flying while my sister was working the flight AND she was in first class AND there were two empty seats so she bumped me up there (I hope she never leaves that job!). We flew on a red eye and I got to ride in the shuttle with the flight crew (saving me money) and got to stay my first night in my sister's room (saving me more money). How lucky she is to visit all these great cities and stay for free while sightseeing. We had decided that we would see "Gypsy" together, because it's our favorite musical of all time and frankly after seeing Patti LuPone's performance on The Tony's, I was left speechless. We ended up with great seats for that night's performance so we headed to the hotel for a nap and then dinner in Little Italy. Well, the performance was even better than I had imagined. Of all the times I've ever seen this show, this was, by far, the best. I was really bummed when my sister had to go back to work the next day and a little nervous about being alone for 2 days. I love living alone and spending time alone, but travelling alone..I was a little hesitant. Well, being alone can really come in handy. I was planning on seeing Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid the next day and they are pretty much sold out each evening, but since I only needed one ticket, they had some great seats available. I'm a complete snob when it comes to theater, because my rule is that I won't see a show unless I get the first 10 rows of the orchestra or the first 5 rows of the mezzanine. Sorry, but I was a theater major and have seen about 90 plays and I know that any further back becomes an issue. I ended up with third row center mezzanine for Mary Poppins at 2:00PM and
13th row (broke my rule a bit) center orchestra for The Little Mermaid that night. The shows were GREAT and so were the seats. I spent the day roaming around the Time Square area going to all my favorite stores I never get to spend any time in because I'm always with people who have never been there before and want to do the touristy things. I love NY, but there are only so many times one can see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, Empire State Building, etc. I took full advantage of my aloneness and went to all my favorite broadway memorabilia stores and any place else that caught my eye. My favorite cupcakes in all the world are at Magnolia Bakery and as luck would have it they opened a new store around the corner from my hotel so I didn't have to head all the way down to Greenwich Village. I took my sister there before she left and...made a couple more stops there myself! Thursday I woke up to some rain so I decided to go to my favorite museum-The Museum of Natural History. I'm sure most people would say that the Met is their fave, but not me. I walked around there for hours, loving the fact that no one was rushing me like the last time I was there and got to see things I've never seen before. It was great! When I left the museum, the sun had come out so I headed down to Canal Street to shop for all the knock off Dolce & Gabanna purses and see what all the fuss is about. Well, I don't care what label they put on these purses-they were all adorable and it took me HOURS to decide on my three faves and get out of there. I headed down to Dunkin' Donuts, got a coffee and a pound to go (it is the BEST)and headed to Central Park. Oh, how I love Central Park! I sat there eating a hot dog thinking about how lucky I was to be there in my favorite city in the world doing all my favorite things. The best part is that all the plays I saw were free because my boss (who shall remain anonymous since he is very famous) gave each one of us for Christmas a $500 AMEX gift card and I used it at every box office on Broadway. I had the most difficult time deciding what show I wanted to see on Thursday night, because I knew it was my last night in NY and the last show I would be able to see for awhile. After talking to my sister and a few very gay men with strong opinions (just what I was looking for), I took their advice and decided on Xanadu. It was hilarious! I'm so glad I was able to see it. I went to bed sad that I was leaving, but grateful that I got to experience the most perfect 3 days in my favorite city. I arrived yesterday afternoon and woke up hoping I was still in my hotel room! Well...maybe I'll go back at Christmas and see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular.

Austria & Germany

What a fantastic time I had in Austria & Germany! It started out a little stressful, as I had to fly stand by with my sister in order to get her fantastic airline discount rate. (Round trip to Germany ended up being $50!). We did make it on the second flight to Philadelphia, although my sister had to sit in the jump seat since I got the last empty seat on the plane. We had quite a long layover then made it on the flight to Austria and were able to get seats together, so it was perfect. Twenty seven hours after getting up and getting ready and flying and all, we landed in Munich, Germany. It was 9:00AM there and we were able to check in to our hotel early and take a nap, after which we roamed the city and went to dinner, came back to our hotel and decided what tours we would be taking when we arrived in Austria. We took the train the next day to Salzburg, went to our hotel and proceeded to look up the tour company which offered the Sound of Music tour we were so looking forward to going on. We ended up booking an Ice Cave tour through them that left at 2:00PM that day. What an adventure that was! We took a bus about an hour out of the city, up to the Alps, got off and had to hike up into the mountains for about a mile, then get on the steepest aerial tram in Europe, just to get off and hike up yet another mile. Whew! I would have trained for that if I had known it was going to be that hard! It was also 91 degrees instead of the 68 degrees it was suppose to be. Once we made it to the 5,000 feet elevation level, we approached the entrance of the 1500 year old ice cave. Wow--it was amazing! Every three people in the group had a lantern and when we approached a really large ice formation, our tour guide would back light it so it would glow and we could really see the beauty of the ice formations. It was quite a long trip into the caves and consisted of walking up 750 steps, including 75 steps which were at a 45 degree angle! It was quite a workout, but well worth it! Halfway down the mountain on the way back we stopped at a cafe and had our first apple strudel--delicious! We walked the city for the rest of the evening and I quickly decided it was the most beautiful city I had ever seen. The next day consisted of touring on foot. We visited a castle, many Sound of Music shooting locations, took lots of pictures and did some shopping. Our third day was the official Sound of Music tour! We got on a bus with a lot of other Americans obsessed with the Sound of Music (something the Austrians just don't understand, nor have any of them seen the movie) and proceeded to drive by many locations, stopping at the Von Trapp patio where the children fell into the water, the "sixteen going on seventeen" gazebo and traveled 50 miles to the church where they shot Maria and Captain Von Trapp's wedding. It was a great trip, in a comfy, beautiful bus, all while listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack--a cute touch! Upon leaving the bus, the tour guide passed out a booklet to everyone with the locations of every scene shot in Salzburg so we could visit the rest of them on foot. What a great time we had and nothing had changed at all since the movie was filmed in 1965--amazing! The following day we took a tour to the salt mines. What fun that was! We had to wear a miner's uniform (basically a jumpsuit), got on a small train which whipped you through the salt mine tunnels, then got off and had to slide down a huge banister to get to the bottom of the mines--oh so fun! We had many great meals in Salzburg and saw every inch of that town--it was truly memorable. After being there for almost five days, we took the train back to Munich, checked in to our hotel and decided we would go to the Dachau Concentration Camp, because we knew it would be terribly depressing and we wanted to see it, but didn't want it to be the last thing we did before coming home. It was actually harder than I even imagined to walk around this terrible place. It's something you can't even describe to someone, it's so painful to see. The next day we went to the Neuschwanstein Castle. It was beautiful! This castle is in Bavaria and was used in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and it was also the castle that Walt Disney had his imagineers design Sleeping Beauty's castle after. It was a great day trip and I'm glad we made the last minute decision to see it. We spent our last day in Munich walking around the city, visiting a 15th century monestary where the monks still brew their own beer and eating and shopping. It was a trip I never imagined I would be taking and SO glad I did!

The Next Adventure

Well the show I was working on has offically wrapped. It wasn't the most fun I've ever had, but not the least either. James Cameron (THE James Cameron as in writer/director of Titanic) was supposed to be on yesterday's episode, but cancelled. I knew it was too good to be true. :( We only did 13 episodes and yet they had a wrap party and gave us a going away present--very nice. So, now I have time to concentrate on the next adventure! I'm leaving for Munich, Germany on Thursday and I'm totally excited. My sister is a flight attendant and I get a fantastic discount through her airline. We are flying into Munich, taking a train to Salzberg, Austria, staying for a few days and then heading back to Munich by train and spending a few days there. I am paying a total of $67.00 for the round trip ticket and the hotels will be a total of $500 for the 7 nights we are staying-a fantastic deal! I'm travelling with my sister or I would not be entitled to the hotel discount at all--the plane fare still stands whether I'm with her or alone. I've only been out of the country once before, so I'm really looking forward to this trip. Last year for my 40th birthday I went to Paris and had a fabulous time. We were able to do everything I've ever wanted to do there, including Disneyland Paris. Most Americans wouldn't even consider going, but since we both worked at Disneyland years ago, we wanted to see it and compare. I'm glad we did, because we had more fun than we ever imagined. Germany & Austria would not have been my first choice, but since my sister has seen many popular cities in Europe and it's practically a free trip, I wasn't going to be that picky about it. I'm just going to go, enjoy and report back. Speaking of getting back--when I return I will have 7 weeks till I have to head back to my regular show---a lot of time to hang out and watch all these fantastic movies that are coming out this summer, ie: Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Sex & the City and Mamma Mia--I can't wait. Speaking of Mamma Mia--I'm thinking I may take a little trip to New York to see a few shows before heading back to work.

A Surreal Moment

I am a script supervisor in the entertainment industry. I have been working on the same show for the past 6 years and during our 4 month hiatus, I ususally find work elsewhere. Currently I am working on a brand new show which will air on a new network created by Discovery Channel. It's difficult to explain what it's like to work in entertainment. You get so used to being around "celebrities" that you don't usually give it a second thought...and then...sometimes you do. Take the other day for instance--we finished taping one of two shows and broke for dinner. We are shooting on location at a house, so "dinner" was set up a few doors down in someone's front yard which resembles something you'd see on "Cops". Let's just say it isn't the classiest of places. Anyway, we're all sitting at long tables and Nell Newman (Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward's daughter) sits down as does Martin Mull (a comedian who was a regular on Hollywood Squares). At first of course I think nothing of it, then as I'm listening to Nell and Martin talk--Nell telling us her parents are in New York right now..Martin telling stories of his good friend Steve Martin and the banjo playing gatherings at his house, I'm thinking--wow--I really don't lead a normal life. I mean, this is strange if you really sit and think about it (which I usually don't, since I've been working in this business for 19 years). I looked across the table and thought about how Nell looks just like her father--same eyes, same features and what it must be like to be raised by two of the most famous people in the world. The truth is, she's completely normal and so was Martin, but they lead very interesting lives and sometimes, so do I. I don't take my life for granted, I'm just used to it after all these years. I thought if I started to write these moments down and share them with other people, it would keep my life in perspective, so if I ever did take it for granted, it would bring me back to reality, because as an ex-boyfriend recently pointed out--there's nothing about my life that is normal. Did I mention I was single?