Spontaneity is the Key

I'm a planner, there is no denying that, but even I can be spontaneous every once in a while.  On Friday, I decided that I wanted to do something fun this weekend.  So with the help of some of the interns, I started to brainstorm.  First, I thought, "I want to go to the Hamptons! Who doesn't want to say that they've been to the Hamptons? "  But after talking it out with the interns, I realized that it was too much necessary planning for one day.  At that point one of the interns said, "you should go to A.C.! (Atlantic City). There are beaches and it is super cute!"  That is all it took.  The intern from Tennessee, whom I'll refer to as TN, said she would join and invite her sister who was in town for the week.  I invited my suite mate and the four of us made the decision.  After work, TN and I went to get tickets at the Port Authority bus terminal.  After buying them, I walked towards the subway to head home and that is when I stumbled upon the student ticket for that night's performance of Mary Poppins. Soooo I returned home, went to dinner with my roommate/suitemate, and returned to the theater to watch the show.  Saturday, my suite mate and I headed to the bus station at 7:00, an hour early, so we could buy her ticket.  At that point, they told me that my ticket was wrong and it wasn't likely that I would get my money back. WHAT?!?!?!?! Apparently you can only buy a ticket to Atlantic City on the day of the trip! Yeah, right! After talking to the manager, I was reissued a ticket and my suite mate and I got on the 8:00 bus.  However, TN and her sister were late and faced the same wrong ticket issue, so they had to wait and take the 9:00 bus.  The crowd on the bus was all over 60 and ready to party and gamble!! tooooo funny!  Laura and I got to A.C. at 10:10 and headed towards the wonderful boardwalk.  Once there, we started on the mission to find a beach towel and a cute hat! I wanted a cute hat!!!!! Little did we know that the side of the boardwalk we were walking on had no power that morning because of a storm.  Once realizing that at the point of purchasing of my new hat, we left to walk north on the boardwalk and halfway we met TN and her sister.  On the other side of the boardwalk we found my towel and a cute hat and headed for the beach.  We got settled and relaxed.  We took turns walking on the water, laying, sleeping, and getting lunch.  After lunch we all fell asleep and Laura and I woke up scorched at 2:00.  At this point we went in the water and headed for shelter from the sun, also known as an ice cream shop! We left TN and her sister under the umbrella they rented and we headed for the ferris wheel at the end of the pier.  The view was amazing!! Once back on the beach, we all packed up and headed towards the bus.  On the way, we stopped at a casino to use the bathroom and got a little bit of that side of A.C. Once on the bus, it was hilarious to hear the crowd complain about their losses.  Once in the city, Laura and I headed home and crashed for the night.



In the morning, Adam and I had planned to wake up at 4:00 to go line up for tickets to Once, but instead we decided to meet at 8:30 for tickets to Harvey.  My skin was killing me, but we found a shady spot and waited for the box office to open at 10:00 so we could get rush tickets for just $20.  Thus far we have watched 7 shows, all but 1 in the front 5 rows and have not paid more than $40 (and that was just one, the rest have been 30 and under). At 10:00 they announced that no tickets were being sold.  Panicked, we hurried to see if Once was packed, or to find another show.
SInce the beginning of the summer, Adam has been wanting to see Book of Mormon, but it is sold out and the lottery is during work hours.  We also heard that the standing room only line is impossible, so we had settled that it was unlikely.  HOwever, on the way to another theater that morning, we saw a short line outside and decided to ask about it.  The group contained some really bratty high schoolers (7) who shared that they had been sitting there since 5 in the morning for standing room only tickets sold at 2:00 (1 hour before the show). At first I laughed and then... I realized that Adam was excited.  There were only 7 people in line and there would be between 24 and 28 tickets sold for 27 dollars.  He wanted to wait... He wanted to wait in line for 4 more hours... At 1:00, they would have a lottery for seats in the front rows, but if we lost, we would still get standing room in the back at 2:00. So... of course, we waited.  And we made great friends with two couples behind us.  One of the couples turned out to be family friends with the guy in Newsies that we both fell in love with.  The other couple ended up running over with me at 1:00 to see if we could get Avenue Q tickets for the night.  We had a blast! And at 2:00 we got the tickets.  We did the impossible!!!  After grabbing a quick bite, we were back at 3:00 to stand and watch the show!
The show was wonderful and horribly offensive at the same time.  We laughed in shock and loved the wonderful music.  After all... it was a HUGE surprise that we were getting to see it! After it ended we returned home and got some well deserved sitting and resting time!
Monday at work was slow, but it involved lots of intern bonding.  We finally gave in and realized that the summer is almost up, so... we made plans! We now have an itinerary of activities for the entire week and are excited to get started!
After work I rushed home to do laundry before meeting Adam for dinner and going to Bryant Park to watch the Wizard of Oz out there.  Since it was packed, we ended up going back to Washington Square park and sitting on the grass for a good hour or so. It was wonderful and relaxing, I would trade it for the world!
Tuesday was slow again, but after work came our first activity! We planned a dinner/play time at Dave and Busters, which is a restaurant that has a game zone with it.  Nothing better than making a fool of yourself playing games! Dinner was sort of crazy, because we expected about 12 and got about 20.  We hadn't made a reservation and we were scared to make our waiter mad so we kept adding chairs to this tiny table.  After we ate we encountered our next obstacle... the bill... splitting the bill... How many accounting majors does it take to split a dinner bill??? Well, everyone seemed to think it was a good idea to simply round up and divide tip and gratuity evenly, but there was just NO way I was letting that happen. Hahaha... I know, its crazy, but I hated to see those that just bought a drink pay the same tax and gratuity as someone who spent $40 on food. Sooooo. I took it upon myself and we figured out exactly how much everyone owed! It was fun! Girls were panicking throughout lunch because they hated not making a reservation and being spontaneous, but it was a blast! I like last minute things sometimes and this was one of those times! The stress brought us closer and after the stress, we got to play!
At the "play zone" we won tickets, one of the interns got injured with a air hockey puck that was flying around, but most of all we enjoyed each others company and got to know each other even better, which is crazy considering that a lot of us sit in the same room for 8 hours a day!

Whew... Anyhow, I know that was a lot, but I wanted to share some details and stories!!!