Day 1-2: The Diana Dilemma and First Day Shennanigans

Hello all!!!

Well as promised here are today and yesterday's goings-ons!
Day 1: The Diana Dilemma
So I got here at about 7:30 yesterday morning after taking the LONGEST red-eye from San Francisco. Here's the deal, so I get on the plane and I see this adorable little baby and it's mother, and I realize that they are sitting right next to me. So all is going well until about an hour in to the flight when the baby just starts screaming. At the top of its little lungs, screaming. This went on for almost all of the flight, so all that much needed rest I was planning on getting went right out the window...
I get into the baggage claim to find my incredible/wonderful/amazing friend Diana waiting for me, so we grab my bags and head to the airtrain (a transport monorail around JFK) to get to her sister's apartment. All was going well until we thought we were going the wrong way, so we changed directions and went the other way only to think the same thing. This went on for a good hour until we finally asked someone who told us that we needed to take the train we initially got on all the way to the end. So we do that and reach the subway which we take to the apartment in Brooklyn, Diana then asks me if want to take the bus or just walk the 7 blocks. I decided just walk , why not, right? Unfortunately, this was the 7 blocks from hell, I lugged my ginormous suitcase up a ridiculous amount of subway stairs and then 7 blocks UPHILL, over really not very pleasant asphalt.
After this wonderful start to my trip, exhausted/sore/just plain tired me and Diana, reached the apartment. We then decided to go take the subway to Times Square just to give us something to do. From there the city was our playground, we went all over the place, from the Whole Foods in Union Square, up to attempt to see strawberry fields only to run into a free Bon Jovi Concert in Central Park. We then hook up with my drama teacher/mother Ms . Byrne at Broadway Barks in Shubert alley. For those of you who don't know, Broadway barks is a benefit put on annually by Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters for stray dogs. There are TONS of broadway stars who attend, and lucky me, met AND HUGGED Harvey Fierstein and Nathan Lane. Essentially the greatest thing that has ever happenned to me. :))
Diana and I then go to see our show for the evening SPRING AWAKENING. So we walk into the theatre and I see an usher who looks REALLY familiar, then a name popped into my head. So I walk over and say "Ummmm, this is REALLY weird, but are you by any chance Kelly Brandeburg.?" It was none other than Montgomery High School Alum, and actress extraordinare Kelly Brandeburg. Now let me explain the awkwardness of this situation to you, Kelly and I have never met, I know her purely through talk, we have never talked, and she essentially had no idea of my existence. Luckily, Kelly is a really wonderful person and we ended up talking and making plans to meet up after the show to go and surprise Ms. Byrne.
Diana and I take our seats onstage and notice two things, 1) the drums are really friggin close, 2) the seats around us are empty. Well, 1) the drums were REALLY FRIGGIN loud and 2) we were completely surrounded by actors. I was very let down by the show this time. When I saw it last summer it was one of the most incredible thing I had ever seen, but the show I saw last night was lackluster, to say the least, with a not too amazing cast.
Moving on.
We then went and surprised Ms. Byrne and her sister Kathy, with Ms. Brandeburg to grand effect. We had dinner at Joe Allen, which is a very popular restraunt in the theatre district very similar to Sardi's. And who is sitting next to us but Peter Gallagher a la The OC, Guys and Dolls revival etc. What a small town. :))

Day 2: First Day Shennanigans

I checked in at about 1 o'clock-ish, but according to all the "official rules and regulations" , unfortunately Diana was not able to show me up to my room, and they made her stay outside. So I went up to my room unpacked all my bags, made my bed, organized the desk etc. and then went to go meet up with my fellow "Tischers", with whom I have all thoroughly enjoyed and fallen in love with up to this point. Seriously, the nicest, funniest, all around greatest group of people one could ever hope to meet. We were told to meet down in the lobby of the dorm at 4:30 for orientation etc. which gave about two hours to do with what we pleased (without leaving the actual dorm, mind you). So I went and hung out with all the photography and imaging kids for a while, then came back up to meet most of the rest of the drama kids. At around 4:30 we all headed down to the dining hall where we had dinner and then orientationized as a whole big group.
After all this we broke up into our smaller program groups and were given sort of the basic outline of what to expect and all that great stuff. We had further orientation with the drama group where we played theatre games, given a further outline of the course, and played several name games.
After all the orientationing was finally over we headed back to the dorm, I went on a quick Kmart run with some of the group to pick up some extra items, then came back and hung out with people from my group until our curfew approached at around 11, and I proceeded to pass out... :))

So today we have auditions etc. and let me tell you, I am petrified. After the day is over I'll give you all a rundown of how everything went down...

That's all for now!!!!

-Patrick