When two worlds collide

The past few days have been a whirl-wind. Holy. mother. of. all. cows this has been a crazy week! From opening, to sight-seeing with my parents and Sam, to finally getting to see my best friend from Xavier after months apart! It's been a really wonderful week and though I'm exhausted, I'm very excited to be here and I'm feeling extremely blessed right now. I would really like to take a moment to thank everyone for the great comments and messages of encouragement I've been getting from through this blog from every one. It really means a lot to me and your thoughts cheer me up when I'm feeling a little overwhelmed here...which happens pretty often.

Anyway, the last two days have been really really special. My best friend from Xavier, Maya (Frickin') Farhat came to visit! I met her at Penn Station on Wednesday morning (bright and very early...yeesh) and we actually had one of those moments I've only every seen in movies when we run across the platform to hug. It's just so great to have my friends from school visit me. It really means a lot to have their support. I can't say this enough, but there is literally no possible way I could be here doing what I'm doing without my XU Theatre family. Dave and Stephen have really created this amazing environment for us to learn and grow as professionals as a team that is so supportive and encouraging. Maya and I talked a lot this weekend about how much our family will be growing this year (11 new freshman + a new TD!) and while a new chapter is always scary, I am starting to get really, really excited about getting back to school to start our next adventure together.

But I digress (surprise) - Maya's visit was wonderful. We kicked it off in style, and I took Maya to the most appropriate place I could think of for our first outting in the city: Ellen's Stardust Diner. For those of you who haven't been to or heard of Ellen's, it's this little diner on the corner of 51st and Broadway in Times Square where the entire wait staff is made up of singers and dancers hoping to make it big on "The Great White Way". In the past year alone, Ellen's has had 11 of it's waiters and waitresses go on to star in a Broadway production. The thinga bout Ellen's is....when they're not taking your order or delivering your fries....the entire staff is in a constant rotation of musical number after musical number! It's pretty crazy. The food at Ellen's is terrible, and the service itself isn't the best (but who can blame them when they're running around singing and dancing), plus it's also pretty loud and distracting so it's not the best place to be having any deep conversations, but it is a ton of fun! Some of the songs they did were "Love is an Open Door" from Frozen, and everyone's favorite toe-tapper of the year, "Uptown Funk". We had a great time.

After Ellen's, I walked Maya over to the Booth Theater where she saw Hand to God, and then I headed into the office for a bit to make some copies and pick up a few things for the communications team. Then we headed back uptown to my apartment to hang out for a bit before going over to HERE for At The Table! Maya ended up loving the show, and it was SO wonderful to get to spend time with her AND my Fault Line friends at the same time. After the show, Maya, Craig, and I did a lot of reminiscing on From White Plains and it really made me miss Xavier a lot. Maya and I then took an Uber car home from Soho Room, and our Uber driver's name was Yang, who gave us free bottled water from a cooler. He was a sweetie --- I now interrupt this blog to bring you news of a really cool thing that happened on the ride home from the bar last night --- GRAY'S PAPAYA IS A REAL RESTAURANT. It's true, ladies and gents! The famous hot dog/juicery (uhum, what) from TV favorites such as Seinfeld, 30 Rock, and HIMYM ACTUALLY exists. They have a sign that actually says "for when you're out late, drunk, broke, or just hungry for a hot dog". It's hilarious! I got a big kick out of it when we passed it in the Uber and Yang thought I was saying my mom was at Gray's Papaya and did I want to stop to pick her up when I shouted "Oh my God that place from HIMYM is real!". Ooops.....haha, no Yang. My mom is not at Gray's Papaya. Patricia doesn't like hot dogs.

*I crack myself up* - here's a picture

Today though was a real adventure of a day. First we grabbed brunch at Good Enough to Eat at 85th and Columbus with Elizabeth. Holy Halloween, Batman that place was great. I had pancakes and bacon with...wait for it...strawberry butter. Oh my Lord, that stuff was delicious. Next, Maya and I treked into Midtown to visit the Drama Bookshop. I'm going to be really honest for a second (sorry, Stephen), but when Stephen told us we should go there I was not too excited. How much more interesting could a book store be than any other book store? Don't get me wrong, I love bookstores, but what was so special about this one? Well lemme tell ya, ONLY EVERYTHING. First, they have a dog there. His name is Chester and he sits on the counter while people pet him all day long. What a life. Second, the walls are packed with biographies, journals, librettos, text books, history books, scripts, and teaching/learning materials for actors, designers, producers, stage managers, and directors. This place was really really cool. We were there for awhile just looking around at all the cool things they had. I bought a book all about paperwork!!!! WOO HOO! After Drama Bookshop we then took the R train allll the way down to the Flatiron district to walk around a bit and get our photo taken. We also visited Craig over in the East Village...PHEW. That was A LOT of commuting. By the time we left Craig and got back to my apartment, it was time to say goodbye to my friend and go back to work. Even though it was a quick trip, we really had a wonderful time. Maya handled herself like a champ and I can't wait until she moves here after school and becomes a big star. I'm very proud to call her my best friend.

So I did have a new quote of the day today, until I realized that it was a repeat! COME ON, PEOPLE WHO POST THE QUOTES!!! It was one of the earlier ones from our friend Khalil Gibran. So I've decided to add a different section to the end of the blog in addition to the quotes of the day in case something like this should happen again or we don't have one for some reason. I've just recently started watching the famous How I Met Your Mother on Netflix (God bless the inventor, I swear), so I will mention the episode of the day and track my progress and what I think of the show. A lot of you may think this is dumb, but I know my fellow HIMYM fans will be somewhat interested.

HIMYM Update # 1: Currently on Season 3, Episode 11 "The Platinum Rule"

Barney is trying to convince Ted not to date his tattoo removal doctor by laying out a set of rules for him for getting involved with someone you interact closely with.