Adventures in the City - Day One

So I was in New York City last week.  Well...me and probably about a thousand other romance authors.  The only difference was that I wasn't there for the big RWA Conference - sort of.  It's a long story.  Let's just say that I was going to go to RWA, then I wasn't, then I ended up at some things related to it.

It's complicated.

I grew up on Long Island.  It wasn't hard to get into the city on any given day or at any time.  But you know what?  I never did.  In the 27 years I lived on Long Island, I can count on one hand the amount of times I actually went into Manhattan.  So this trip was kind of a big deal.  Plus, we brought our 15 year old with us (hubby and I) and it was his first trip to the Big Apple.  So like I said, it was kind of a big deal.

We basically were all over the place our first day.  We checked in at our hotel a little before noon and then walked over to Bryant Park because the FABULOUS Kristan Higgins was there with a group of authors doing a panel and then signing.  It has been a dream of mine to meet her and so I dragged hubby and son with me on my quest to meet her.  There was a pretty big crowd there and I was happy to sit there, but I was also starving.  So we ran over to the Bryant Park Grille and had lunch and then got back as the signing was winding down and I got my chance to meet Kristan. 

Seriously, the trip could have ended right then and there and I would have felt like it was a complete success!  So happy!!

Then we got to play tourist and went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  I don't know why this was something I wanted to do, but it was!  If you're thinking of going - Spoiler Alert - Don't.  It was expensive.  It was hot.  And basically I don't think it was worth the money.  The Marvel 4-D movie was good but not worth the price of admission.  I can cross it off my bucket list but I don't feel like I gained anything by going except to make fun and pretend that I was in Oprah's book club.  

Or Hemmingway's.

Yes, I'm THAT person.  I'm ridiculous and inappropriate and pretty much enjoy being goofy sometimes.  But I had fun and after the amount of money I spend to get in the darn place, they're lucky I didn't do more of this!  All in all it was a nice distraction and some of the figures are so life-like that it was borderline creepy.  

That night I went to an RWA cocktail party with my literary agency at Sardi's.  And if you can believe it, we took NO pictures.  I don't even know how it happened.  I wore a fabulous dress and my husband and son looked so handsome and there's no record of it anywhere!  I did get to meet two of my favorite authors - Shannon Stacey and Sylvia Day - so that was a bonus.  But no one there was taking selfies and being silly so I refrained from asking anyone to pose with me.

Bummer.  

We walked back to our hotel - right through the middle of Times Square - and had room service bring us dinner at 10:00 at night.  It was a little decadent.  The thing was that we aren't used to so much walking and by that time of night, we were positively exhausted.

And that was only the first day!