Amalia Week

OMG... The sister reunion was amazing. My little sister and I are only 1 year and 7 months apart (don't even tell me she looks older than me. I already know) and we grew up sharing a room... so we grew up to be extremely close. Well, I moved away from home almost 6 years ago and not having her around as much has been really hard. But... now that I am living in NYC, she is determined to visit often since we are at least on the same side of the country now.


She decided she would come up for her birthday, so we had a week filled with festivities and sister-bonding time.

She had been here before, but only once and for 3 days during which we saw Times Square, and yeah... that's pretty much all we saw during that trip.


So this trip, I wanted her to experience as much of NYC as she could... We pretty much walked the entire city (IN THE RAIN!). We walked through some areas I knew she would like like Greenwich Village, Chelsea and the Upper West Side... We also went out to eat a lot. We had some amazing Thai food from Chelsea Market and I introduced her to Fat Witch Bakery, Pink Berry and Maoz vegetarian.

We did the museum thing... Which I have to say I probably liked the MoMA more than she did. I am WAY more into art and grew up studying it, so I was basically in heaven. But I think she loved the MET, especially the part where they had rooms that were brought over from Europe. I felt like I was at Versailles... Not that I've ever been there, but you know... It all looked very Versailles-ish to me.

We also got to see some Broadway shows which is surprising because my sister is totally my opposite. She does not love Broadway the way I do. But she surprised me by saying she wanted to see Hairspray and/or Wicked.

On Wednesday, we got student rush seats to Hairspray and it was amazing! But we still wanted to see Wicked...Bad. So, we tried the Wicked lottery like four freakin' days... It was so discouraging, and I am convinced that "Shades" (AKA the guy at the Wicked lotto) was not pulling my card on purpose because he totally knows my face and he knows I live here.

Anyway, on Saturday, we recruited some helpers and ended up winning tickets for Saturday night. It's kind of funny actually, because we had three people there to help us and it was my sister's name that was called, not the helpers. Still.... a shoutout to Anna, Mary and Karene for being so selfless and braving the NYC rain to come help us win. I will totally help you win lottery tickets next time you need them.

Anyway, it was an amazing experience for her. I could just tell how excited she was to be there. It reminded me of my first time seeing Wicked and how I almost cried because I was so excited. After the show, I took her to the stage door to meet the cast (which is totally a tradition) and we our programs signed... We did this at Hairspray too because I LOVE Constantine Roussouli (AKA Link Larkin). Like... A LOT.

We also did the birthday thing... We went to dinner at Maoz which is so good, by the way. Then we went to Max Brenner's with two of my sister's friends and then we went to Arlo and Esme for dancing. Natalie, Elise, Kristin, Jeff and Rustin joined us for the dancing as well.

The weekend was a little more relaxed. We went through Central Park (which is so beautiful in the fall), walked the Brooklyn Bridge, walked the East Village, and shopped for vintage glasses frames. That last one took forever, but we miraculously ran into a vintage shop near the Life Cafe in Alphabet City that specializes in frames. So all was good.

My sister left very happy with her trip and I am so happy I got to spend nearly a full week with her.

Pictures to come soon. I promise!