epilogue: and the ron stands alone...

So my day in NYC wasn’t as good as it was billed in the previews. It was supposed to be “an edge-of-your-seat thriller” and “funny yet poignant” and also everyone was supposed to give it two thumbs up.

Things that happened in New York City before that didn't happen this time:

• Didn't meet the Rockettes in NYC (5 years ago)
• Didn't get a backstage tour of Saturday Night Live (4 years ago)
• Didn't go up the Empire State building AGAIN (3 years ago)
• Didn't get a chance to see Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon at TRL (2 years ago)
• Didn't get a chance to go to Radio City Music Hall AGAIN (last year)
• Didn't stay up all night in the city and bump into random bums at Penn Station (3 weeks ago)

Instead after having a couple of hours of sleep Sunday morning Matt woke me up and we starting driving. Unfortunately (this was what I was afraid of) the original group that was supposed to take this road trip pretty much dropped out and it was just Matt, his friend [Girl] and me. I didn’t want to be a third wheel and that’s exactly what happened. We got there pretty early (10:00) and we had a bite to eat in Times Square. Then since we really had no planning whatsoever for this journey besides go to the box office two hours before the show and possible win the $20 ticket raffle [to see Rent…normally these tickets are $95+]. When it was time we put our names in the raffle and then we waited. The guy running the operation got up and began announcing the lottery winners. The second name he announced was mine. I was really happy about this because I thought it would be quite thrilling to see the show from the first two rows. But also there were three of us so we would need Matt or Girl to win another pair. 33 winners later Matt and Girl were still standing on the other side of the winner’s line. So basically I won two front row tickets and we had to buy one ticket that was NOT in the first couple of rows. Guess who ends up being the odd one out [as per usual] ?

My consolation prize for giving up my tickets was a gloriously far far far stage left seat about 4 rows back. I had an excellent view of the speakers and two lights but the stage…well I could maybe see about ¼ of it. Generally speaking it’s quite hard to enjoy a theatrical production on Broadway [or anywhere] without being able to see the entire stage. I was really upset and I contemplated leaving the theatre but I decided to stick it out. The actors were decent for the exception of a couple who I just didn’t think they did a good job as their character. I’m not going to name names but overall I’d give it a B- [maybe would’ve been better if I would actually see it…I dunno].

Anyway I'm back home now (got back an hour ago) and even though I lost plenty of money by not working today [and by using it for food/parking/$40 tickets] and I didn’t get to see the show that I wasted an entire day to go see everything’s ok. I could’ve worked and made $200+ or gone to see Some Like It Hot at AFI with special guest George Stevens Jr. [founding director of the American Film Institute] and then wrapped up the day with finishing laundry but it’s ok. Life is all about moving forward and since there is nothing that I can do about what has already happened I’m not going to dwell on it. That’s it for now…I’m going to need more than two hours of sleep tonight…