NYC Birthday Trip (Part II -- Everything I Thought It Would Be & More)

When I texted Jay Saturday night after spending nearly an entire day in NYC, he asked me what my favorite thing was so far. My answer? EVERYTHING.

It was literally that difficult to pick my favorite thing because a)we had done so much and b)I was enjoying every single second. If I have learned anything over the last six years it is take NOTHING for granted. And, with this trip, that was not hard to do at all!

I got to the house in Brooklyn just after noon and got to meet the housemates (Sara, Lindsay, Sofie, Kerry, Kay, and Max). 

THE HOUSE!

<3 <3 <3

THE HOUSEMATES

(but wait for Sara! and where's Kay?)

PERFECT :p

After all the introductions -- they had all arrived the day before -- we headed a block down the street to Gates Station to take the J line into Manhattan. Yes, that's right. I just typed that sentence and it really happened. I will never get over it. (See what I mean about finding joy in all things? So frickin' easy on this trip)

TAKING THE TRAIN TO MANHATTAN

They showed me how to do the whole MetroCard thing and then we waited for the train and all of it was blowing my mind. People do this everyday like it's no big deal. I am well aware of that. But I felt like a newborn (lol). And loved it! I didn't even care to ask where we were going because I knew whatever they had planned would be amazing, and OMG we were going to Manhattan. I mean really.

FIRST TRAIN RIDE!

(yep, I'm THAT annoying tourist girl)

ME & SARA

We traveled past these amazing neighborhoods that were exactly like everything I had ever seen about NYC on TV/movies. It did not disappoint. Another reason why I had no answer for "what was your favorite part" because literally THIS was even awesome to me. And, I grew up in a city of over a million people so I'm not some country bumpkin. NYC is just that amazing.

GORGEOUS

AND NOW WE GO UNDERGROUND...

Lindsay had no problem making sure I was well aware of just how far underground the subway went. I would never have even thought about otherwise to be honest. Thanks Lindsay :p Kinda scary! Just glad there was no Seinfeld moment where the lights went out and the train stopped. Oh my Lord...

I was so overwhelmed by little things like child performers, switching lines, and all the million and one sights that I had never seen before in the biome that is the NYC subway (lol) that the one thing I didn't pay attention to was where we were. I was so "out of it" that I literally saw this sign, thought "Wow, that's cool! I'll take a pic" and STILL it didn't register to me what I was about to see.

PROOF THAT I WAS LOSING MY MIND BC OF OVERLOAD

And thanks to Sara and Kay, I am able to show you the pure amazement on my face when we emerged onto the intersection of Broadway and 42nd, aka TIMES-freaking-SQUARE. And I wish I could say I was faking the total dorkiness that you see here, but........yeah, that's all me...feeling 16 years old again.

DORK IN THE CITY :)

Where do I even start with this? 

TIMES SQUARE

 THE LOOK ON SARA'S FACE...LOL

It was crazy and I am so glad I had my friends there to tell me what NOT to do because it is pure sensory overload. We took a break to stop at a row of food trucks for which I had no appetite yet. Then we walked around and headed towards Bryant Park which was a couple of blocks east of Times Square.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN

BRYANT PARK

And the reason we were at Bryant Park, was to make it to the other side of the road to the NY Public Library. It was ridiculously beautiful.

KAY TOLD ME TO LOOK EXCITED

(smh)

After that, we headed down 5th Avenue towards the Flatiron District. Oh, and we passed a little place called The Empire State Building. People say it's pretty cool ;) We didn't go in because of time constraints but I got a kick out of this.

OUTSIDE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

We finally made it to our destination to find a dress shop for Kerry for the play we were seeing the next night. But that intersection was so cool I had to take lots of photos ;)

FLATIRON BUILDING

SIDENOTE: While Kerry shopped, we stopped at The City Bakery on W 18th & 5th. OMG if my phone hadn't been dead I would've taken a photo of the most amazing brownie I've ever had in my life. It was half cheesecake (on top layer) and brownie on the bottom. SO GOOD.

Then we headed back to Brooklyn to continue our night beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.....(to be continued in Part III).

NYC Birthday Trip (Part I -- Getting There)

It's been uhhhhh, 18 months since I last published on here. Embarrassing, but life goes really fast and sometimes you just fall behind.

Let me catch you up with a story about my very first trip to New York City.

In January, some of my friends told me about an extra ticket they had to see Gillian Anderson (aka "Scully", aka THE BEST ACTRESS IN THE WORLD) performing live in Brooklyn, NY the weekend of my 35th birthday in Streetcar Named Desire which she had recently done a run of in London to critical acclaim. I talked to Jay since I knew this would mean depending on him to take off a day of work to stay with the kids plus spending money we hadn't budgeted for. Yes, we are THAT couple. Back to my story...

We talked, he was in love with the idea of me doing something like that for myself for my birthday, and so I bought the play ticket. But, over the next month doubt and guilt started taking over and I started thinking it was way too much money to spend on myself and too much of a hassle. But, my husband and my friends kept reminding me of my bucket list, and how much I had always wanted to go to NYC. I mean, guys...I legit had a freaking tin can with a collage of NYC photos I printed from a Windows 98 PC when I was in 9th grade that I put my babysitting money into saving up to take a trip my senior year. Started out with it on top of my dresser and then, as I realized my dream was dying, it went into my sock drawer and, eventually, the trash.

Because of their insistence, though, I told guilt and doubt to take a ride and, on April 5th, bought my plane tickets with the biggest grin ever plastered to my face.

Finally, on Saturday morning, May 21st at 2:30 in the morning, my alarm went off and I was headed to the airport in Midland to begin my journey.

Funny story, I got to the airport at 3:15am for my 5:01 connecting flight to DFW. TSA didn't get there until 4:10. Not even kidding. But looking at the positive, it gave me the chance to go pee and realize I had my shirt (with the collar and buttons) on inside out. Yeah. That is what happens when your alarm goes off at 2:30 and you didn't fall asleep until well after midnight because your brain was too excited to turn itself off. :p Anyway....we boarded at 4:30 and took off on time for the 40 minute trip to Dallas.

APPROACHING DFW

I FOUND THE RIGHT GATE!

 BOARDING PASS TO NYC!!!!!

Now, before you get the wrong idea, I'm not a total travel rookie. I've been to 3 countries outside the US including a couple in Europe. I've traveled to 13 states and swam in multiple oceans, seas, gulfs, etc. But I hadn't been in an airport bigger than Love Field in Dallas by myself in my life. And now I was going to 2 in one day--one of which was in friggin' NYC. So, everything about this was new and giving me "fun" mini-panic attacks. And, this is where my type-A husband completes me. Despite having charged my battery every single chance I got, my phone was suddenly below 10% when I landed and I had a crap load of calls to make and texts to send to the friends I was staying with. Knowing this, my man got on the phone, set up car services and looking up info for me just to make me feel a little less "alone" and reminding me that we were in this together. Then, after going thru DFW and LaGuardia and messing up and still surviving (lol) after I made it to where I was staying in Brooklyn, I was good and he was happy to have helped and ready to let me go so I could get on with my trip. Teamwork! :p

And, despite the anxiety of everything new and problems occurring, those same scary things also had me smiling because every new little sight reminded me: "OMG THIS IS REAL!" And I am well aware at how ridiculously cheesy and overexcited I seem about all of this but the truth is this trip was 20 years in the making. And if I hadn't worked my literal butt off to lose 85lbs working on myself to regain the joy I had for life, bringing in extra income (that paid for this trip) helping other people do the same, and remembering what it's like to dream...this would never have happened.

It wouldn't have mattered if my friends and family had given me the money themselves and said "Go!", I would not have felt comfortable enough to do it, let alone enjoy every little thing about it.

And that is why I decided to let 16 year old, Charity Beth Files -- who was dying to travel to NYC -- have her trip and literally be excited about EVERYTHING I got to see and do. I let go of the introvert part of me and let myself enjoy being surrounded by friends from the second I got to the house in Brooklyn, until the second I left that house two days later.

EXTRA LEG ROOM ROW!

MISSISSIPPI RIVER

 ATLANTIC OCEAN

I SEE NYC! :)

 THIS IS WHEN THE FREAKING OUT STARTED

 

Then I had to figure out how to communicate with the car service where I was (sidenote: I had NO IDEA where I was in the airport annnnnnd I had to tell the dispatch that LOL....embarrassing), they found me in like 3 minutes and then the 40 minute drive across Brooklyn began. I took in EVERY SIGHT! Such a shock to my system but I absorbed every second and loved it all!!!!! FYI, it was the scariest car ride I've ever been in :o #NYCdriversareclinicallyinsane #ICouldNever

TAKING IN THE SIGHTS OF NYC

And then I arrived at the house and the real fun began :)