I'm in a New York State of Mind

Warning: Tons of pictures coming your way... Hector and I returned home a couple of days ago from a trip we took to New York City. Hector's travelled there many times for business. This was my first time to the Big Apple. The city was everything I imagined it would be; crowded, noisy, busy, fun, exciting, and electric with energy. We went in celebration of my 39th birthday (which, by the way, passed by without too many "I'm getting old." emotional moments from me). New York City really is exactly like what you see in the movies. The streets are always full of taxis and ambulances and cop cars and people. Tons of people.Someone is always honking, but very rarely does anyone move or respond to the honking. And there's bike messengers and delivery personnel walking and weaving their way in and out of all of the cars.Things I expected... I expected Time Square to be bright and loud and visually enticing. And it was. I also expected the streets to be crowded and somewhat dirty. And they were. At night, the restaurants and local businesses throw tons of bags of trash onto the sidewalks. The already over-crowded sidewalks become even more crowded as people try to weave around tons of bags of garbage. That was one part of New York that I honestly could have done without. I expected the food to be awesome. And it was. I'm a foodie. Yes, I took pictures of the food. I loved every single minute of the food in NYC.I expected the Statue of Liberty to be breathtaking. And she was. The moment I saw her, I was in love. Seriously, she is beautiful. And I was so thrilled that I was able to see her, in all of her glory, in my lifetime.Things I didn't expect... I didn't expect Central Park to be as beautiful as it was. I knew it would be nice. But I was blown away with just how romantic the atmosphere was. All of the detail in the stone bridges and iron work all over the park like on the lamp posts and hand rails on the bridges, and all of the gloriously detailed carvings in the park benches... it really was beautiful.I didn't expect Grand Central Station to be beautiful too. I expected it to be dirty and shady looking. But it wasn't. They have crystal chandeliers hanging in Grand Central Station, and marble floors, and stained glass windows, and a beautiful mural on the ceiling. That was quite a shock to me.I didn't expect to stumble upon a part of Manhattan called the Sutton Area. Sutton is my maiden name, and I found it amusing that so many of the local businesses had "Sutton" in their name. I also didn't expect for my purse to be knocked off my arm on the way to see Wicked on Broadway. True story... We were leaving the hotel to go to dinner before the show. As a cab pulled up to get us, a woman walked by and knocked my purse off my arm. My purse fell to the ground and it opened up. In that moment of chaos, I simply picked up my purse and we jumped into the cab. It wasn't until after we ate dinner and were almost to the theater that I realized that the tickets for the show were not in my purse. Panic set in. By the time we got to the theater, I was in tears. I walked up to the very first ticket window in a long line of windows. I explained to the man what had happened. While crying, I think I said something to the effect of, "Purse - knocked off arm - rude woman - lost tickets - what can we do?" The man asked me what our seat numbers were, and thank God that Hector actually knew the seats! The man reached over, and handed me our tickets! Someone had found them on the street, and went all the way to the theater to turn them in for us! Obviously, both Hector and I were ecstatic and were honestly in shock that someone went to all the trouble to help out complete strangers. Let me put this into perspective for you all. The man who found the tickets either walked 1.5 miles (one way) from the hotel to the theater, or paid probably around a $25 cab fare (one way) to go turn in our tickets for us. This man (who we later found out from the hotel's concierge was literally just a man walking by our hotel and saw the tickets and decided to do the right thing), not only went into the hotel and tried to find us, but when he realized that we were not in our room and that the show was that night and was starting soon, he decided to stop what he was in the process of doing. He decided to not leave the tickets at the hotel's front desk, and he decided to take the tickets to the Gershwin Theater himself. And let me break this down even more. He decided to not try to use the tickets for himself. And he decided to not try to sell the tickets on the street... 7th row Broadway show musical tickets... Thanks be to God that there are honest, kind people in this world, even in New York City!!! :-) I am now convinced that New Yorkers have an undeserved bad reputation as rude and short-tempered people. Every New Yorker we met was beyond nice and helpful to us. And that was quite possibly the most wonderfully unexpected part of our trip. We were SOOOO happy to be sitting in our seats! And the show was amazing!

There were a few things we weren't able to see (like the Empire State Building) because of bad weather. But all in all, it was a truly wonderful and truly memorable trip. But now, Spring Break is over and it is back to life in Texas, and back to reality.