I wanted to drop a line to you guys while it's on my mind...
I am leaving at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning to head to NYC for the final (*sniff*) GL weekend. I think this is what will bring the closure for me. I have not felt a sense of finality about GL's end, despite "The End" being plastered across my TV screen. (Well, my friend Jessica's TV screen where I watched it.) I am sure there will be many tears and many hugs as I say goodbye to friends and to the lifelong "friend" that was Guiding Light.
The more cheerful news about this trip is that I am doing things differently than I've done on any of my NYC trips before. Every other time, I've gone up there by myself and met up with friends from online to do the GL events. Those have been great times, and I am thankful for all the (non-crazy) people that I've met online. But, for this trip, I am going with three of my very best friends who did not watch GL, but wanted to do the New York thing with me.
We have a full itinerary planned (which I naturally coordinated minute by minute in an Excel spreadsheet) and I am looking forward to what I hope will be the trip of a lifetime for the four of us. I have a lot of "touristy" things planned, some of which I have not even done before, and I made sure they had things to do while I'm at GL events on Friday night and Saturday.
We're going to see Wicked on Thursday night and we're going to be doing a lot of walking around to see various historical and/or tourist locations throughout our trip. We're gonna do the City Lights Cruise that I enjoyed so much last year, and go up to the Top of the Rock. On Sunday, we're going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, which is something I have always wanted to do but never actually done. I'm hoping we'll have good weather for all of this, and that my new shoes make it enjoyable (or at least not miserable) for my feet as well.
We're flying home on Monday (and then driving home from the airport, two hours away), so I'm sure I'll be photo-blogging all the adventures sometime next week as I can get photos edited and have time to write something.
If you want small doses of news throughout the course of the weekend, then I welcome you to "follow" my Twitter here: www.twitter.com/shifting_sand
I may post some tidbits on my Facebook as well, but Twitter always gets updated more frequently because it's so much easier.
I have a friend who basically travels for a living (in fact, we met when he came and stayed with me last October when my friend Levi came through town on tour), but he is "living" in NYC for a month or two and we are going to catch up while I am in town and I'm looking forward to that.
Of course, I'll also be seeing Shari (who you all know as Tamblyn) on Saturday for Bradley's breakfast and the Luncheon. It is always great to see her, too.
Tony, were you able to get your hands on a luncheon ticket? They were certainly a hot commodity, for obvious reasons. I think Bradley's late show still has some tickets available, so let me know if you plan to come to that so I can look for you! Or, if you decide to swing by the bar at the Marriott on Saturday, I'll keep an eye out for you there as well.
I am so excited about my trip, but as always, going out of town gives me inexplicable anxiety. You would think, having traveled so much (and loving it so much!), it wouldn't bother me at all. But, I inherited the worry-wart gene from my Granny, and I just can't help myself. It seems like my family members on both sides are just wired to be home-bodies, so I guess my adventurous streak doesn't get along with that part of myself. As I am typing this, it occurs to me that my younger brother used to get horrible anxiety when we'd go away from home when he was little. Now, he has no interest in going anywhere at all. He'd rather watch the Discovery Channel! For me, I want to see the world, so I just barrel through the anxiety and do it anyway!
I'll still be around for the next few days before I head out, but in case things get busy, I wanted to get this post in while I had the chance!
Good for you. It sounds like a fun and exciting time! I think I read somewhere that Trent is singing with Bradley's group on October 9 (?). Enjoy it all and report back. Safe journey.
Amanda, I am so jealous!! I wish I was going but alas, I will have to live the events through you. Have a wonderful, wonderful time and please tell all our GL actors how much we love them and miss them!
Tony I feel your pain. I was sick for 3 weeks with H1N1. IT is beastly.
For everyone else not yet blessed with the flu, if you wake in the morning feeling fine, but start to feel like a truck ran you over and develop a fever over 100. You must call you health care provider and get started on Tamiflu in the next 24 to 48 hours. Sooner is better. My husband got H1N1, I started him on Tamiflu and he was better in 3 days.
For me, I was so sick I didn't even think aboput calling the doctor for about 2 weeks! LOL wadda idiot I was!
