Carnegie Hall / James Galway Performance

Tonight was definitely another memorable moment in my life. I got to go to Carnegie Hall tonight to see Sir James Galway , probably one of the greatest flute virtuosos of all time! I am also a flute player, and I really admire him, and wish I could play even half as good as him. I found out about this show by accident though.

One night, I couldn't sleep, pissed off about some drama going on w/ my father's estate, his bank, my bank, his pension, etc. So I was looking up random stuff that came into my head. I happened to watch a performance of Clair de Lune, by James Galway, and then I just looked him up in general to see what interesting things I could read about him. The Carnegie Hall website came up among the results, but didn't say he was playing. I got side tracked and wondered who was playing at Carnegie Hall. I never went there and was curious if anyone I knew of would be there since I have a little extra money these past 2 weeks.

Ironically enough, James Galway was playing this Saturday (March 12, 2011)!! I really didn't want to go so soon though. There was something else I could've done that day, but I thought about it for a whole 5 seconds (I'm very impulsive), and after looking on Galway's website, and seeing he'd be touring the world after this and wouldn't be back around here til.... well his calendar doesn't go that far out, I decided to buy a ticket.

There were discounted seats in the Parquet (what Carnegie Hall calls the "orchestra") but I hate being there. I like box seats. I'm a diva who always [tries to, at least]get what she wants. ,but there was NOTHING in the first two tiers on the side of the stage, where I like to sit when I go to concerts. Any concerts. My bank issue w/ my dad's estate thing was still going on, so I couldn't even buy the damn ticket for 3 days after. I had to WAIT, and I don't wait. *stamps foot*. If I want something, Iwant it NOW! I will go to great legnths to get it now. I let it go for this. On the third day, a seat opened up in the first tier right on the side of the stage. It was more expensive and had no discount. I got it anyway. Glad I did. I had such a great view.

So the day of the performance comes. Of course I sleep all day. I guess I needed it. All I really did was get up, shower, cook, watch a little tv, and it was time to go. I deposited my shitty little paycheck and jumped on the train at a station that is a little safer than the one I usually go to (which is closer by 1 minute). Big Mistake. I made it to the train with moments to spare. What did you expect? I'm a procrastinator! The train was late too. Whew. Got on and the trip felt like it took FOREVER! I had my iPod on but I'm really not a fan of long trips in general. I'm too fidgety and I hate sitting still.

Needless to say, I arrived in New York early. I decided to walk to Carnegie Hall. People thought I was crazy. I needed the exercise. Then I side tracked from the 25 block walk and walked 3 extra avenues east, and the same 3 back, making my walk about 50 city blocks (equiv.). No biggie. I have done that before when I lived in NY. I havent' walked alot lately due to temping and me running myself ragged handling my dad's estate, so such a long walk definitely killed my feet. I brought flats w/ me and changed into heels at Carnegie Hall.

I walked up there, got my ticket at Will Call. They told me to go to the museum. I really just had to pee and wanted to do it in a CLEAN bathroom. I figured Carnegie Hall would be clean. They really wanted me to go to the damn museum, so I did. Cool stuff in there. Autographs, instruments, programs, ticket stubs. Then I found the bathroom (clean!) and went to my box. Damn, Carnegie Hall is so nice! Its not big at all, but its very ornate and makes you feel like you were in the era when it was built. I have pictures of the venue, and Sir James here:
by Gitana621

After the show, I wanted to go to Bamn! It's an Automat that was on Food Network. Automats were popular in the 50s and Bamn was supposed to be a new age automat with real food and a real chef with tiny portions of different food. I wanted to try their famous mac and chese croquettes. I went down to where it was, walked up and down the avenues and NADA. I asked one of the many drunk college kids in the area (it's near NYU, and arent NYU kids supposed to be SMART?!), and they said they think Bamn was shut down. I wasted $5 on the metrocard ride, so I bought a slice of pizza and took it back to 34th street where I ate my cold slice on a bench in front of Macys (the REAL Macys in Herald Sq), not the bullshit one at your local mall. I heard about fires in my town again and tried to get ahold of people hoping it wasn't my house that caught fire. FInally my neighbor got back to me.

In Penn station, my train home was supposed to be at 1am. I realized today was daylight savings time and you move the clocks forward. So did that mean my train was coming at 12? Because 12 would really be 1... Dunno. The cop there said just get on whatever train you can. Because the 1am train was the last one and I don't have a place to crash in NYC anymore since one person moved away and the other passed away =( , I HAD to get back to NJ. Got on the 12am train. It didn't go all the way to my stop. Every other train goes past Long Branch. This train didn't go further than that. I was gonna wait for the original train, but I was getting bored and impatient (really? me?! haha) and was pretty sure I'd just get a cab to the station where my car was (near home). I live near 2 stations and one is shady at night, so I went to the other one. I got a cab with another dude who was going to the same station, who also didn't want to wait for the next train, an hour later. We talked in the cab, but it was hard to cuz the driver was on his cell phone speaking Pakistani or whatever since over there it was like 2pm.

Finally got home and I wanted to write this now, before I lost my motivation, as I tend to do, after I sleep. My night didn't end how I expected it to, but I'm glad I popped my Carnegie cherry and got to see James Galway. I definitely want to see him again. Hopefully if he is a soloist with a symphony or something. I hate going to NYC from the Jersey Shore. I'm doing it one more time next month for my friend's bday, but I will make sure I park my car in Long Branch. I would def go back to Carnegie Hall, especially to see them perform some Shostakovich stuff (one of my 2 fave composers). But we'll see. This trip was such a hassle. I wish it wasn't. lol

Check out my video of clips of Sir James Galway.

Anthony Bourdain

Reserved for the blog I still haven't written, but need to. I just want everything to be in the correct order. I'll be back!

$488/mo Commute to be a ...........

So today I get a call from a rectruiter in Philadelphia. At first I figured she was gonna try to get me to commute to Philly to work (not gona work on what I'm making, and the fact that my car has about 115,000 miles on it (ven thought its not old!)), but i asnwered her call and she said she found my resume on [Well known Job Site] and wanted to submit me to a receptionist job in NY.

Knowing what receptionists get paid, I was cautious, but asked the salary anyway. It was $10=15/hr. I told her $10 is out of the question, as my commute will cost $488 a month without a metrocard. Even $15 may not be enough, since thats pretty much the bare minimum I can live on, but once you add hte almost $500 commute to NYC, plus an 80 something dollar monthly metrocard, it'd be stupid to go up there to work. I did say if it were a higher level job, along the lines of what I used to do - Mortgages, Finance and Marketing that paid sig. higher, I'd consider it. But I think its a no go. Too bad. Another friend asked me the same thing today but I'm waiting to hear details from her. Spending 3h commuting to NYC everyday, although drastic, would be a reality if I was really gonna make money that I just couldn't make here. Unfortunatelyl, noone wants to pay any kind of good salary. I'm better off as a temp here doing my tedious, back intensive work. Well see what happens.

I don't want to be a receptionist but.. I have a feeling if I EVER get a job again, it's gonna be smething along those lines, since mid level jobs and 40K plus salaries are now a thing of the past.

In the meantime, I am enjoying some Chicken teriyaki I got from Osaka. Mmmmmm. Then rest time. i'm going to Carnegie Hall on Sat to see Sir James Galway (famous flute virtuoso). Should be exciting.

I'll have to try to write a blog about my first time in Carnegie Hall.