The Adventure begins, Halloween style.

Well, it's been a long week for not having accomplished much until today. And, since it's one in the morning, this will be a fairly short post. Here's the quick update...

I started working today at the Times Square branch of Halloween Adventure. Today was a ten hour day (yeah overtime!), all of which was used to start getting the store ready, which should open on Sunday or Monday. Ten hours of sorting costumes is a lot for anybody! And I'm back at it again tomorrow morning! But the big news on that front is, I'm the head cashier! I've never been a cashier before, so the choice boggles me a bit, but I'll take it and enjoy it! I hope it comes with a higher pay, but even if it doesn't if I get to be in charge, I think I'll be happier.

After work I went to my cousin Zach's place for the first time and let me tell you, it's beautiful! I met some of his friends and got to watch the presidential debates which was actually rather interesting.

Anyhow, since it's now 1 and I need to be up around 7, I'll say goodnight!

The Week One Update

It's, as of late tonight, one week since I've been a resident of New York City. The first few days were like vacation, but since Jared's left (he's back home now) it's become real living. Here are some pictures from when Lindsay W and Jared were in town, hanging out with Sam and I!

Hanging out at McCann's

Jared and I at a little place in Midtown.

"Photo Op" with Trekie Monster from Avenue Q! Great show!

Here are some pictures from the awesome new place I live!!!

Bryant Park, where Jared and I liked to stop while wandering Midtown.

I just thought this was neat.

Theatre row.

Since hanging out alone is lame, I've been spending a fair amount of time haning out with Al, a friend who I met rather randomly in college. He's sort of my big brother in the city. He's an actor and knows a ton of people (he seems to be mister right place, right time). The other evening I met him after work and we hung out at his place in Spanish Harlem and cooked dinner (amazing, amazing stirfry) and the next night we went to see Gypsy with Patti LuPone. That show was the MOST amazing this I've ever seen. The three leads all won Tony awards for their roles and, let me tell you, it showed. It was astounding. Here's some pictures!

Al, the Mrs. Dash salesman.

Our tasty stirfry!

The insanity that was the crowds outside of Equuis. They're all waiting to see Daniel Radcliffe... aka, Harry Potter.

Tonight, I'm having a date with myself. I went to Martha's Country Bakery and got a really tasty cupcake and watched When Harry Met Sally alone in my room and enjoyed every second of it. Sometimes, I just need time to unwind and be alone. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the New York City Church in Times Square. I'm sure it'll be the first in a line of church shopping!

Overall, it's been a good week. Surreal, but good. So, now it's off to see what the next week holds!

The First Reality Check

Alright, now it's real. Until last night/early this morning, in my own mind this was a vacation. Doing fun things like seeing shows, but the big this was having Jared here with me. Now that he's gone, it's real. Sending him off like that was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, partly because I honestly didn't expect it to be THAT hard. Hard, yes, of course, but not that hard. "Just a few weeks" seems so very far away. But I know this will make being together again even better. Now on to find a job, get all of my stuff in order and make some new city friends! Hopefully my invitation to hang out with Al and his theatre friends tonight still holds. I've got some pictures from Sam, Lindsay W, Jared and I hanging out that I'll post later!

Here I Am!

Alrighty, the adventure has begun! Jared and I pulled into Astoria, Queens, New York City at about 2 AM Sunday morning!!! The drive was long, mostly because I was so anxious to be there. We got in and the first thing we saw was the friendly face of Andy rounding the corner on his way up to the apartment. We moved everything in upstairs then went for a quick bite to Mike's Diner near the Astoria/Ditmars subway station (it's the Perkin's of Astoria, but Greek).

We tried to win rush tickets for Avenue Q last night, but didn't win (Jared attributes it to his winning both Monopoly and Risk in the recent past) so we wandered around Manhattan, stopped at a few stores, sat in Bryant Park and looked at all the pretty, pretty lights. Then we went back to Astoria to meet Lindsay W and Sammy at McCann's (http://www.mccannspubnyc.com/) on Ditmars just a few blocks from the apartment. It was a nice little bar that I'm sure I'll be frequenting soon enough. It's so nice to have no smoking in all bars!!!

Now, I'm going to go back to bed!! G-night!

I'm a Terrible Person, or: My Own Personal Hell

Karaoke bars are possibly the worst idea ever. Ever. Especially when they're in a little dying town in Pennsylvania. Let me let you in on my world a little...

Yup. It was really and truly that bad. Best part, Jared and I couldn't leave because we didn't have a car and even if we borrowed someone's, we had no idea how to get back to town.

Here's what the bar looked like, since you can't tell in that video...

Check out the blonde hair, orange shirt on the left... that's a tranny.

A really, really bad tranny.

Missy and Tom, the kids are lucky we still love them ;)

And Angry Sam in the background. An angry, angry Jared.

When they make a movie of our lives, this will be a scene. I tell ya, I need a bar full of well dressed, snobby 'mo's, overpriced cosmo's and the bright lights of the city. And Mozart Cafe cake. That stuff is amazing.

I'll update again when we FINALLY make it to the city!

The Last Few Days...

It's been a wild last few days. The Military Ball weekend in Minneapolis was wonderful and Jared and I were just the most handsome couple ever :) I'll have a picture of both of us later, but here's what I took of myself.

Then it was back home to finnish packing and head out. I left my room more of a disaster than I wanted to, but I suppose there are worse things. Then Jared and I left my house at around 11:00 pm central time. It was the most surreal feeling ever leaving home for the first time. Sure, I haven't lived at my parents house for a long time, but La Crosse has always been my home. I've gone away on trips for extended periods, but I've never moved. Yes, I cried, but somewhat less than I though I would. Either way, we were off, Jared holding my hand the whole way.

This is what 4:00 in the morning looks like when you've been driving for five hours.

And this is what 9:00 in the morning looks like.

We arrived in Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburg, at about 4:00 in the afternoon and went right to Jared's friends Tom and Missy's house. I was excited, if not a little nervous, to meet them but they were very friendly right away and Missy and I have hit it off quite well. I'm glad to fit in. Then we met up with some other folks, had dinner and played around with the kids for a while.

And then today has been a lazy, sleeping day. Missy made us from scratch biscuits and gravy for breakfast (at 2:00 this afternoon) and now we're just tooling around the house and deciding what fun we'll have tonight!

I'm excited and fairly anxious to get into the city, though. But just a day or two more!!!! I'll be posting then!!

And the fun begins!

Welcome to my blog! I'm currently located in Wisconsin, getting ready for the big move on Monday! I have two days left to pack and get everything in order, then I'll be in Minneapolis for the weekend, and then Jared and I are off to head east!

Now, for the first blog, I've decided an introduction to the likely cast of main characters is in order...

Amanda- that's me. A young college graduate with a degree in theatre who has decided to test herself by moving across the country to a strange, large city.
Jared- Amanda's boyfriend. He's NOT moving to New York, but is dropping her off there. He is a reserve Airman and the other part of his heart belongs to the US military. Jared and Amanda have not been together for too long, but have quickly fallen head-over-heels in like with eachother and are on the relationship fast track. We'll see how distance tests their relationship.
Jana- Amanda's friend from college, the wonderful lady she's renting her room from.
Kelsey- Amanda's best friend in the whole, wide world. They've been together since high school and Kelsey will be in the second wave of moving to Astoria.
Al- A fine young man who Amanda met by chance in Wisconsin. A fellow actor and a guy who's turned out to be a wonderful friend!
Sammy (or just Sam)- A good friend from Wisconsin, who along with Jana were the first wave of Wisconsinites in Astoria. Amanda will be relying on him for a lot of moral support.
Tom and Bob- A pair of Kelsey's friends who have become Amanda's friends. They are both recent transplants from Wisconsin to Astoria.
Reb- Amanda's mother's best friend's daughter. The girls grew up only seeing eachother for a few days in the summer because of distance, but the internet has kept them in contact and fate has now brought them to the same city.
Zach- Amanda's cousin, the longest, most well established resident of the city in Amanda's world. He will be frequently called upon in a crisis.

The folks back home:
Mom and Dad- Amanda's loving and supportive parents.
Richie and Jackie- Amanda's eldest brother and his significan other.
Brian and Carmen- The middle brother and his wife.
Ali- Amanda's second college roomate and one of her best friends.
Jenna- Amanda's first college roomate, also one of her best friends.
The Sarah's- Two amazing friends from the Girl Scouts. Sarah O is a school teacher and Sarah H is the mother of delightful Ollie.
Caitlin- not exactly at home, but is the support on the Left Coast. She's mother to Cole and along with the Sarah's and Amanda, they make up the Spice-Girl-singing, boy-terrorizing girl gang "F.L.A.S.H."

I believe that should conclue the major casting at this point. Stay tuned for more pictures and thoughts!