March 14, 2008

New York, New York

Well, Heather and I survived our first “vacation” together. It was a bit dicey at times before her audition, when she was a giant ball of nerves. I tried to be the caring and understanding and compassionate guy that I am, and tried to be receptive to her needs and her feelings, but to be frank she started acting like a big baby pretty much the second we got off the plane at La Guardia. It happened that it was raining and a little bit chilly – not cold but cool - during our time there and she refused to be outside. At all. I know she was preserving her voice, but couldn't she have bundled up? Anyway, the time we should have spent sightseeing we spent holed up in the hotel room. We watched The Today Show on TV one morning when we should have been AT The Today Show. And, I’m a guy. Spending hours upon hours in a hotel room with your hot girlfriend is a pretty awesome scenario, but it got old, even for me.

I think I was more relieved when her audition was over than she was.

She nailed her audition, of course; I know this because she “doesn’t feel she did very well,” which is Heather-speak for “I nailed it,” but she won’t find out for awhile if she got in. She didn’t want me to be there for the audition, so I finally got to hit the streets and actually see some of New York. I took the subway downtown and went to the Empire State Building, which I know Heather would never have gone for anyway since she’s scared of heights, and went to Times Square and Rockefeller Center. I didn’t know how much time I would have before she was done (she had to be at Lincoln Center at 10 a.m. and there was a possibility that she could have been there until 10 p.m.) so I just walked around, exploring, until she called me about 3:30 and said she was done. Before I got back on the subway I happened to pass a florist so I stopped and bought her a dozen red roses, and when I met her back at our hotel it was tres romantic.

I had promised her a fancy romantic dinner while we were there, so I had made reservations at Tavern on the Green for the night of her audition in the hopes that she would be out in time. Luckily, we had plenty of time to make it to dinner at 7 p.m. I know it’s kind of a New York cliché, but the meal was really amazing and the restaurant is gorgeous. I think Heather enjoyed it, and I know she loves to get all dolled up. It was really nice to just unwind after the tension of our first couple days in the city. The next day we really got to do some sightseeing…as in, we saw what there was to see in the cab ride from our hotel back to La Guardia.

It was a good trip, though, and I know Heather is glad to be through with the audition. Now, we just wait to see if she gets in to Juilliard. And I wonder, if she does get in, what happens to us…