Sunday – 29th July – The Birthday 🙂

I actually slept in until nearly 9am. I’d made plans to meet up with Jill – she was coming to meet me by the hostel – to begin our day of fun together. We walked around a bit until we came to a restaurant – I’m blanking on the name, but it’s one we’ve been to before when we were in NYC last March (2011) and gave Jill the first season of the OVS. I’ve yet to find a way to get a chance to pay for a meal when Jill’s around. Started off with French Toast (me) and Flapjacks (her), then we caught the subway over to Brooklyn so we could walk the Brooklyn Bridge back into the city. Despite the overcast day, it was very humid.

I don’t think there are pictures of ME walking the bridge unless Jill took some, as I was doing a fair bit of picture taking myself. But these are some of my favourites:

Brooklyn Bridge Walk. New York, NY, © J. Lynn Stapleton, 29 July 2012

Brooklyn Bridge Walk. New York, NY, © J. Lynn Stapleton, 29 July 2012

Brooklyn Bridge Walk. New York, NY, © J. Lynn Stapleton, 29 July 2012

Brooklyn Bridge Walk. New York, NY, © J. Lynn Stapleton, 29 July 2012

Brooklyn Bridge City Hall Subway Station Elevator, New York, NY, © J. Lynn Stapleton, 29 July 2012

Heading uptown, walking, to Times Square. Now, having done TS a few times, I wasn’t thinking I’d make a run back there, but I did want to go to the Swatch store to get a watch, and we did need to come up in that general vicinity as I had to be up there to go to the Gershwin Theater to see “Wicked”, so off we went. About mid-way up, the sun came out and it was getting warmer. Much warmer. 🙂 We went up to the Ace Hotel on 29th Street and had pictures taken on the stairwell. There’s a story behind that, that belongs to Jill, but I was glad to be part of…where everything is going to be all right.

Jill Hurst, Ace Hotel, New York, NY, © J. Lynn Stapleton, 29 July 2012

One of my best friends, Patricia, had decided for my birthday that she was going to get me a ticket to a Broadway show of my choice. So having picked “Wicked” after hearing many wonderful things about the show, she arranged for the ticket. Words can barely express how much I appreciated that. Just wow. I mean, I appreciate all my birthday presents because they are given with thought and love behind them. Not necessary but fun all the same. 🙂 Thanks to Jill as a birthday present I got a “Wicked” t shirt and the program book/poster. We went our separate ways as it was time to go to the show, and we were meeting up later to go for supper.

I’d gone into Wicked, not hearing the music nor reading the book it was based on. And boy was I impressed. It didn’t take very long to get hooked into the show. To put it bluntly: spellbinding. And more than a few times did I identify with Elphaba. Misunderstood, intelligent, stubborn, an odd sense of humour, sensitive & protective…except, you know, having a thing for Fiyero. Defying Gravity and For Good will always give me goosebumps. Just awesome.

Wicked, Property of Universal Studios.

Oh, and I went back and bought one of the Wicked zipped sweatshirt. Obsessed? According to Bettie, I was a Wicked virgin anyway, and it’s going to be a while before I get to see it again. It being rather warm when I came out of the air-conditioned theatre I headed for the subway to head down to the hostel to shower & change for supper.

As the restaurant wasn’t too far away, I walked down to Pepe Verde on Hudson Ave and met up with Jill, then Bettie and her daughter, Barbara. Oh wow, the food was good. And there was plenty left over – leftovers. Just as well we were walking again afterwards. We wandered over to the 911 Message Memorial and read over many of the messages that were turned into ceramic tiles. Just heartfelt.

911 Message Memorial, New York, NY, © J. Lynn Stapleton, 29 July 2012

After that, we wandered over to the Magnolia bakery and got some cupcakes. Jill had some birthday candles but we had no matches/lighters, so they called over a couple of guys who had a packet of matches and they all sang Happy Birthday to me. I’m quite sure I turned beet red, thankful that it was dark out, though. Walking along, we headed down to Washington Square Park, where there was a few musicians playing, with quite a good sized crowd gathered around. I took the shot below just as we were headed back out of the park.

Washington Square Park Arch, New York, NY, © J. Lynn Stapleton, 29 July 2012

We walked over to Brother Jimmy’s on E14th, but alas Brian Malloy – Jessica Leccia’s husband, wasn’t working at that place that night. He’s also managing the Brother Jimmy’s up on 80th & Amsterdam. Jill & Bettie decided they were going to turn into pumpkins and headed to their homes, while Barbara and I stayed for a few drinks and watched some of the Olympics on the big screen tvs. We finally packed it in about 10:30 or so and headed over to the subway station where we parted ways. I finally got back to the hostel about 11pm more than a little buzzed. But hey, it was a great birthday with great friends.

To be continued…