Jeff: giggle giggle
Heather: sidelong glance, thinking, "he must have a secret from me but is busting to tell me"
Jeff: Ahem! Giggle giggle. *big grin*
Heather: [I know something is up but refuse to let him know - I love surprises and would love for him to pull this - whatever this is - off]
Jeff: I have a surprise for you. Would you like to know what it is?
Heather: no
Jeff: It's a good one! Wouldn't you at least like a hint??
Heather: Nope
Jeff: Are you sure? Because this is really good.
Heather: DO you want to tell me?
Jeff: Only if you want to know
Heather: Well I would rather be surprised but if you really need to tell me, go ahead.
Jeff: I thought you'd never ask!!
And then the secret is told. In his defense, I'm rather glad he did tell me as it involved not only packing a suitcase (which he had been prepared to do himself to perpetuate the surprise) but leaving Emma behind. Rewind. Not so sure I'm ready to leave her overnight. He's arranged for his mother to come stay at our house and watch Emma while we are gone. My mother in law insists everything will be fine and I try to say that I'm not worried about Emma or the care she will receive, but about how I will react to being without her.
Jeff ends up telling me that his plan is for us to fly into Newark, take a helicopter over to Manhattan, have dinner at Tavern on the Green in Central Park, see Wicked the musical, and fly home the next day. Thankfully I have some time to digest the part of the trip that includes leaving Emma at home.
We take a 6:30am flight to Newark and land about 10:30 or so. The helicopter doesn't start flying until about 1:45 and I am in need of some relief since the last time I fed Emma was at about 3am. We stopped by the gate for the helicopter and confirmed the flight left at 1:45 and asked if they knew where I could find an outlet and some privacy at the airport. Since there is apparently no place to pump in an airport and we were stuck there waiting for the helicopter, we bought President's Club passes and hung out there. We ate lunch at McDonald's (you can't bring outside food or drink into the P Club) and finally made our way back to the gate for our helicopter ride. Truthfully that was what I was looking forward to the most. I know, with theatre tickets that is sort of backwards, but I REALLY wanted to fly in a helicopter!! We attempt to "check in" about 30 minutes before it was supposed to take off.
The same guy who confirmed our flight was checking the computer. It was taking longer than I expected, but I hadn't done this before, Jeff had. Finally, he says to us, "That flight has been cancelled."
WHAT????
This guy has got to be on crack.
Apparently ALL the flight for the day have been cancelled.
Note to reader: Remember with me, if you will, earlier in this post when we went to the gate and verified the flight time. With the same gate agent.
AT WHAT POINT WAS HE GOING TO LET US KNOW THAT ALL FLIGHTS HAD BEEN CANCELLED AND WE COULDN'T GET TO THE CITY VIA HELICOPTER?????????
I am boiling. We have spent a hundred dollars on President's Club passes, eaten at the trendy McDonalds in Newark airport, and not to mention spent an additional three hours at an airport! In New Jersey! We could have taken the train hours ago and been in our hotel or out on the town having fun. But no, we were patiently waiting in Newark airport for a helicopter that was never going to fly. I can tell that Jeff is livid, so I keep my emotions in check and try to remain the calm one while he leads us to the tram to get to the train platform. Oh yeah, now we have to purchase train tickets to the city. And did I mention how much I hate the train?? It takes you to Penn Station which is under Madison Square Garden. Heather doesn't like getting off of the train underground and fighting with 5000 of my closest friends to get up a narrow escalator to the next highest level. Then you still have to take some stairs to daylight. Not my favorite part. But we did it. It was not an 8 minute trip and it was not a scenic view of the city. It was a scenic view of "New Jersey's finest" let me tell you.
But we finally get into Manhattan and find a cab to take us to the Radisson. We get to the hotel and when we are called up to the desk, they say they may not actually have a room ready. Hmmm. Heather is exhausted after the morning's "activities" and ready for a little down time. The woman tells us she does have a room ready. With a double bed. One double bed. Memories of our honey moon come flooding back to me. At least there we had TWO double beds and could look at each other across the room. But this alas, was only one double bed. I look at Jeff and say there is no WAY we are sleeping on a double bed. I'm ready to go back to the airport and fly home. First the helicopter, now a double bed. That might not be available yet. We get a room with a queen size bed (I don't think Jeff and I EVER get a king sized bed when we stay at a hotel. The hotels have something against us I think) and make our way up there. It's a pretty room for NYC standards, but quickly I realize that the bathroom door doesn't close all the way. Sigh. The pillows are fluffy and the bed is one of those sleep numbers I've always wanted to check out. I jump on the bed and grab the remote (it was set on like 80 and was hard as a rock) and quickly attempt to lower the number and thus soften the bed. I'm not moving. But soon I realize that Jeff is sinking. Apparently the remote that indicates left and right has them backwards; I checked myself twice to make sure I wasn't the one backwards and it was really the remote. So I get Jeff back up to sea level and start adjusting my side. I find a comfortable setting and think about taking a nap. Jeff leans over to hug me and my side of the bed raises up. People, a sleep number mattress is nothing more than a glorified air mattress. Remember when you were younger and you would have slumber parties and sleep on air mattresses? And you and your friends would jump on the air mattresses to make the other person "fly" off of it? Same concept. Only I'm no longer wearing Wonder Woman Underoos and thinking this is fun. I'm tired but before I take a nap, Jeff calls his mother to check on Emma. She puts the phone on speaker phone and Jeff puts his phone on speaker phone. It is at this point that I must pass along some advice to any and all present or future new mommies. Do NOT, under any circumstances, call to check on your child the first time you are away from her and actually listen to her. Emma wasn't even crying, just making noises. And. I. LOST. It. Gone. Not just crying, I'm talking sobbing. It was an ugly cry. Like do not leave the room for several hours cry. I had mascara running down my cheeks, red swollen eyes, the whole nine yards. Just don't listen. Let your husband make the call and confirm what you already know - that the baby is fine - but don't let yourself hear the child. It's lights out and game over at that point.
I fall asleep after The Call and wake up hours later. We have missed any and all opportunities to do anything all afternoon. I must at this point get ready for dinner and an evening at the theatre. FUN! I get dressed and we take a cab to Central Park to Tavern on the Green. We are seated outside and it was beautiful!!

We ordered our food (which unfortunately was less than stellar - I took a chance and ordered lobster and it was way overcooked which is why I should remind myself to only eat lobster when my Uncle Vaughn cooks it EVERYWHERE else it is too overdone) but the scenery was beautiful as was my company. *wink* Jeff had arranged for a small cake to be delivered to our table that said Jeff loves Heather. So sweet. During dessert, the sky opened up and let out the rain. We rushed to finish our food and went to the front of the restaurant to wait in line for a cab to take us to Wicked. Unfortunately, there were about 10 people ahead of us and taxis in Central Park during rush hour on a Friday were few and far between. So we got in a bicycle taxi in the pouring rain and he biked us all the way to Broadway!


We walked around a bit before the show and I eyed every detail there was.





Once inside the theatre (the people working the doors were so rude - it was almost unimaginable how rude they were!!) I soaked up all the details in there as well!



I couldn't WAIT for the show to start and once it did it held Jeff and I captive the entire time. We sat on the edge of our seats and loved every last minute of it. I could have sat through it again immediately after it was done. It was SO GOOD! I highly recommend it; and plan on seeing it again and again!!
We walked to our hotel after the show and lookee what I saw up on a building....

Once back at the hotel, we packed and went to bed as we had to get up in 2 and a half hours!
It's 2:30am, we are packed and ready and leave the hotel for a cab to New Jersey. Once at the airport, I get stopped at security as I STILL don't have my new driver's license. The agent says it's probably OK he just needs to get his manager. I get through security with no problem and we head to the gate. Once there we hear the gate agents asking for volunteers to bump themselves to a later flight. It's not looking good for the home team. Jeff runs over to a computer and quickly sees we are going to have a hard time getting out of Newark. There are 4 other non revs trying to get out and Jeff realizes we are going to have to fly to New Orleans and then connect to Houston. But we have 13 minutes to connect! We get to the gate for the New Orleans flight and we all make that one easily. Once in NOLA, I rush off the plane to the next gate over to collect our boarding passes and alert the gate agent that there are 4 others trying to make the connection as well. Jeff shows up soon after me and the other people who were trying to make the flight all got on as well. We fly to Houston, drive home, and soon after Jeff and his mother head for La Porte so Jeff can get to his Fantasy Football draft and I get ready to take Emma and I to a baby shower. Home sweet home but on only 2 and a half hours sleep!!