They say it's 5 bucks..it's never 5 bucks. NYC Part 3

How I could have forgotten this, I don't know. I claim fatigue and the fact that alot is starting to run together. A fresh batch of pictures from Jill jogged my memory. We DID infact go out after Spamalot. We got Virgin Margaritas at the Hard Rock Cafe one because we don't drink, and two, even if we did I assure we do not need the alcohol!

After enjoying the atmosphere and a yell-over-the-music conversation, we headed home. Jill and Andrea were walking a little ahead of Beth and I. I still would like it on the record that had we all been together, they could have saved Beth and I from ourselves. Very quickly we're approached by this caricature-ist who says, "I do your picture, 5 dollar?" Maybe there was something in my drink because I think, Hey, 5 bucks, why not? So we sit down for this funny 5 dollar drawing and two men sit down in front of us to draw and say things like, "you both, you both?" and I'm all, "Uh, yeah, you're the one who asked us, duh." Two things we could not have anticipated. No matter what it is, you're always going to end up spending more in NY, especially on the street. It's never what they first tell you. It was 5 dollars a person, plus two different guys were drawing so that was extra, and by some convoluted Math I still don't fully understand, our funny, on-a-whim caricature, is now 30 bucks.

Second, when you sit on the sidewalk getting your picture drawn, you can't anticipate how horrified you are that mass amounts of people are now walking by and staring at you. I think that is what sent me over the edge into hysteria. All I could do was cry tears of laughter that I am now paying 30 dollars for a picture that started off as a joke and now half of New York City is watching us do it. A fresh batch of hysterics started when after they were finished, they tried to talk us into a 10 dollar frame. I suppose in the end, it was money well spent to laugh your guts out.

Saturday we wake up and plan for a day of walking. We want to go to the Statue of Liberty, see Wall Street, the WTC site and to add to the hectic pace of the day, Jill and I have matinee tickets for Wicked, and Beth has a matinee ticket for a musical called Thirteen. Andrea has big plans that include shoe shopping. Enough said. We also wanted to buy tickets for Grease for that night in big part because I had heard that a good friend of mine from High School, Joe, was in it as well as Ace Young from American Idol.
The whole trip, I had this odd feeling of being on a TV or movie set. We'd constantly be saying, "this is the actual building from such and such show or movie.." or "that looks straight out of TV." It was just bizarre and I had to keep telling myself I was not infact, playing an extra on Law and Order or something. I mean, look at it, am I wrong??

We referred to this house as the Cosby house.

"I am not on Law and Order, I am not on Law and Order..."

Brooklyn Bridge...

Seeing Wicked with a newbie is so much fun. This was my 3rd time seeing it and Jill's first. Even though this cast wasn't my favorite (the original cast on Broadway I heard was just phenomenal. Check out YouTube.) it still was excellent!! This show is in my top 3 of all time favorite musicals. Beth had also seen Wicked and opted for lighter fare in the musical Thirteen. She reports that it was really good, with a super talented cast of young kids who's central theme was a kind of coming of age sort of thing.

So everyone seemed super happy about their play choices and we headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner, Grease, and to see if Andrea's credit card was smoking from all her shoe purchases.

Then we came across this guy.

Again. Only in New York.

I'm not sure what store it was but we noticed two guys behind glass and Jill was fascinated with what they were doing. I mentioned that they were probably live models, as apposed to manikins. I had seen a live yoga model the day before and it had startled the living daylights out of me. Jill also didn't think the guy could hear her behind the glass and was going on and on to us that he had been in that little store window for 25 days now. We realized he could indeed hear us when he laughed and gave us a thumbs up. That sealed it, and we needed a picture of "guy behind glass model." I believe he's doing this for a literary cause, so rock on dude, that's awesome.

Always from one extreme to the other. From guy locked up in a box for charity to the Naked Cowboy performing in Times Square. If you assume, like we did, that a guy in his underwear would be a little shy or standoffish, then like us, you would be wrong. He was all about the touchy feely with whoever went up to get a picture taken. Case and point: we only have pictures of The Naked Cowboy from a respectable distance!

BTW, it probably goes without saying, but this was freak show number 7.

I will post our last night's adventures and Sunday later today. Hope you have been enjoying it so far:) For now, I need a nap. All this uploading is making me sleepy...