The title says it all. Yesterday I turned 25, it feels wierd to say the number out loud. I wanted to create a blog at the start of 2010 as I knew it would be a big and significant year for me. But either nothing interesting happened to me in the first few months of 2010, I forgot or just never got around to it- probably the latter. I always thought I had a good memory but I am slowing starting to forget little things and details so I wanted to start a blog as a fun way to document events or important happenings in my life. I figured when I turned 25 was as good of a time as any. Not to mention I had a very interesting weekend to tell about...
For my birthday, my fiance, Matt surprised me with a weekend trip to New York and tickets to see the Lion King! I am so lucky, Matt always does a such a great job about putting a lot of thought into presents, birthdays etc to make them special and he knew I had been wanting to see the Lion King on Broadway for a long time! I was so excited to go and spend the weekend with him in New York. We arrived Friday night (4/30) we checked in at our hotel, ate dinner at an Italian Restaurant nearby, went to a comedy show and then to a couple of bars in Times Square. It was a great night! On Saturday we went to Chinatown where I got some fake shades and was smuggled into small closets to look at fake purses (although I did not get any, it was an interesting/shady process). Then we walked up to Soho where we ate lunch and went shopping, I really love that area. After a day of walking around for a while it was time to go get ready for dinner and the show. We went to the meat packing district for dinner at STK (very good by the way). Then headed to Broadway to see the show. This is where things got interesting...
For those of you who have turned on the news/CNN in the past few days I'm sure you know where I am going with this. When we got to Times Square we were trying to walk to the Lion King entrance when we found they were in the process of blocking off the street right in front of the entrance to our show. We got up right beside the barricade to see what was going on and all we could see were tons of police cars and fire trucks. Then I hear a police women screaming at a man standing beside us with his son, "Sir take your kid and get out of here, do you want it to blow up?! Take your kid and go home!" At this point I was pretty scared. We called the Lion King to ask if they were still doing the show. They acted like we were so stupid for our concern, they said yes they were still doing the show, this was all over a car fire and that this happens all the time. We told them two of the entrances we had tried to come in through were blocked off they said to come through the 8th street entrance as it was the only one open. I found it very odd that if this were a car fire why were multiple streets blocked off?? We went into the show but I was still a little unnerved. The second floor of the Lion King had their staff blocking all the windows and they wouldn't let anyone near them. I'm not sure if it was because of the safety issue, that they could shatter or because they didn't want anyone to see what was going on, probably both. But oddly enough on the third floor, where our seats were, the windows were not blocked. So as we were looking out the window we could clearly see a van with man inside of it operating a robot that was being sent to the car. The car in question was parked on W 45th and Broadway. The Lion King building is on Broadway and W 44th st so we were EXTREMELY close. Before we went to our seats for the show I asked a lady working there what was going on she told me that the car had been there for a few days (which I later found out was a lie) and that they have to treat that as a bomb threat and examine it. She says this happens all the time and again, no big deal. By 8:30 the show had still not started (it was supposed to start at 8:00) at that point they made an announcement saying they were waiting on the OK from the police before they started the show. About 10 minutes later they made an announcement that everything was fine and they would be doing the show. At this point I was incredibly relived. I thought it was an abandoned car, they must have checked it out and found nothing so everything was fine. I really enjoyed the first half of the show, it was awesome!!! Then at intermission we went back by the window expecting to see Times Square to be back to normal...WRONG there were more police cars, they had blocked additional streets off, there were dogs and men in huge bomb suits. At this point I started to get really scared. I looked across the street at the Toys R Us and other surrounding buildings and saw they had been completely evacuated. I realized that besides the police and firemen we were literally the closest people to the car (which was parked about 100 feet away from the building we were in). Needless to say, I was really nervous and on edge the second half of the show. When the show was over a lady from the NYPD got on stage to make an announcement. I thought we would finally get some idea as to what was going on. Wrong again, all she said was that at 6:30 PM a black pathfinder was parked on 45th and Broadway and if we had any information on the car or the driver to come talk to her. The Lion King announced the only exit was through 8th st entrance again. As we walked out we had to walk through 2-3 blocks of abandoned streets that had been evacuated. I was basically running to try to get out of the area ASAP. There was tons of firemen and police but none would give any information. After that we went to meet Ted and some of his friends at a bar in Soho. I was very glad to be away from the chaos. We didn't realize until we got back to the hotel that night what a big deal it was and that it was all over the news. Turns out there was a bomb in the car and we later found out that it was an attempted terrorist attack and they caught the guy. Thank goodness he basically did not know what he was doing when he tried to make this bomb. Below I have posted some photos and video of what we saw (as well as other NYC pictures). I know its not a great video but we submitted it to CNN and they asked us a if they could use it and a bunch of other questions about the night, so I thought I would post it.
On Sunday we ate lunch and went to Central Park before heading to the airport. Overall it was a GREAT weekend but it contained a little too commotion for me! I was very glad to be home in Charlotte. Yesterday (my actual Birthday) I just worked and Matt and I ate at the Melting Pot for dinner (yum!) My parents are coming up on Thursday to take me to a belated Birthday dinner and Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo and we plan on drinking lots of Margaritas so it should be a fun week!
Sorry for the extremely long first blog, they will not all be this long but I had a lot to tell!
Until next time....
For my birthday, my fiance, Matt surprised me with a weekend trip to New York and tickets to see the Lion King! I am so lucky, Matt always does a such a great job about putting a lot of thought into presents, birthdays etc to make them special and he knew I had been wanting to see the Lion King on Broadway for a long time! I was so excited to go and spend the weekend with him in New York. We arrived Friday night (4/30) we checked in at our hotel, ate dinner at an Italian Restaurant nearby, went to a comedy show and then to a couple of bars in Times Square. It was a great night! On Saturday we went to Chinatown where I got some fake shades and was smuggled into small closets to look at fake purses (although I did not get any, it was an interesting/shady process). Then we walked up to Soho where we ate lunch and went shopping, I really love that area. After a day of walking around for a while it was time to go get ready for dinner and the show. We went to the meat packing district for dinner at STK (very good by the way). Then headed to Broadway to see the show. This is where things got interesting...
For those of you who have turned on the news/CNN in the past few days I'm sure you know where I am going with this. When we got to Times Square we were trying to walk to the Lion King entrance when we found they were in the process of blocking off the street right in front of the entrance to our show. We got up right beside the barricade to see what was going on and all we could see were tons of police cars and fire trucks. Then I hear a police women screaming at a man standing beside us with his son, "Sir take your kid and get out of here, do you want it to blow up?! Take your kid and go home!" At this point I was pretty scared. We called the Lion King to ask if they were still doing the show. They acted like we were so stupid for our concern, they said yes they were still doing the show, this was all over a car fire and that this happens all the time. We told them two of the entrances we had tried to come in through were blocked off they said to come through the 8th street entrance as it was the only one open. I found it very odd that if this were a car fire why were multiple streets blocked off?? We went into the show but I was still a little unnerved. The second floor of the Lion King had their staff blocking all the windows and they wouldn't let anyone near them. I'm not sure if it was because of the safety issue, that they could shatter or because they didn't want anyone to see what was going on, probably both. But oddly enough on the third floor, where our seats were, the windows were not blocked. So as we were looking out the window we could clearly see a van with man inside of it operating a robot that was being sent to the car. The car in question was parked on W 45th and Broadway. The Lion King building is on Broadway and W 44th st so we were EXTREMELY close. Before we went to our seats for the show I asked a lady working there what was going on she told me that the car had been there for a few days (which I later found out was a lie) and that they have to treat that as a bomb threat and examine it. She says this happens all the time and again, no big deal. By 8:30 the show had still not started (it was supposed to start at 8:00) at that point they made an announcement saying they were waiting on the OK from the police before they started the show. About 10 minutes later they made an announcement that everything was fine and they would be doing the show. At this point I was incredibly relived. I thought it was an abandoned car, they must have checked it out and found nothing so everything was fine. I really enjoyed the first half of the show, it was awesome!!! Then at intermission we went back by the window expecting to see Times Square to be back to normal...WRONG there were more police cars, they had blocked additional streets off, there were dogs and men in huge bomb suits. At this point I started to get really scared. I looked across the street at the Toys R Us and other surrounding buildings and saw they had been completely evacuated. I realized that besides the police and firemen we were literally the closest people to the car (which was parked about 100 feet away from the building we were in). Needless to say, I was really nervous and on edge the second half of the show. When the show was over a lady from the NYPD got on stage to make an announcement. I thought we would finally get some idea as to what was going on. Wrong again, all she said was that at 6:30 PM a black pathfinder was parked on 45th and Broadway and if we had any information on the car or the driver to come talk to her. The Lion King announced the only exit was through 8th st entrance again. As we walked out we had to walk through 2-3 blocks of abandoned streets that had been evacuated. I was basically running to try to get out of the area ASAP. There was tons of firemen and police but none would give any information. After that we went to meet Ted and some of his friends at a bar in Soho. I was very glad to be away from the chaos. We didn't realize until we got back to the hotel that night what a big deal it was and that it was all over the news. Turns out there was a bomb in the car and we later found out that it was an attempted terrorist attack and they caught the guy. Thank goodness he basically did not know what he was doing when he tried to make this bomb. Below I have posted some photos and video of what we saw (as well as other NYC pictures). I know its not a great video but we submitted it to CNN and they asked us a if they could use it and a bunch of other questions about the night, so I thought I would post it.
On Sunday we ate lunch and went to Central Park before heading to the airport. Overall it was a GREAT weekend but it contained a little too commotion for me! I was very glad to be home in Charlotte. Yesterday (my actual Birthday) I just worked and Matt and I ate at the Melting Pot for dinner (yum!) My parents are coming up on Thursday to take me to a belated Birthday dinner and Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo and we plan on drinking lots of Margaritas so it should be a fun week!
Sorry for the extremely long first blog, they will not all be this long but I had a lot to tell!
Until next time....
