Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Getting There part 2 of 2



Friday

I made it to New Haven. Sam looked fantastic! She has recovered remarkably from her accident – I couldn’t even tell. It was a joy to see her parents again. They are such amazing people and always make me feel apart of the family. We just took it easy on Friday and tried to figure out our game plan for the opera that night.

The weatherman predicted snow, and we certainly got snow. I would say maybe 6-8 inches, which totally put a little hitch in our plans for the day. I was so stressed about everything working out smoothly for the opera. With me, if anything can go wrong, everything WILL go wrong. It’s just a matter of time. The weather really put a crimp in my style, literally and figuratively. I just spent a fair amount of money on some cute black satin pumps that were going to compliment my outfit perfectly, but I am not going to traipse around the snow in two-inch heels. So I reluctantly wore my black cowboy boots. I cringe at this notion. It totally threw off my whole outfit. I guess the consolation was that my feet were warm, dry, and comfortable.

Sam and I decided to take the train from New Haven to New York after we realized that the train wouldn’t pick us up in Clinton. So her mom, Daryl, took us to New Haven where we barely made our train by like three minutes. We quickly grabbed a bite to eat before hailing a cab outside of Penn Station. At this point, we only have about 30 minutes to get to the Lincoln Center. I’ve never been, so I had no idea how long it was going to take for us to get there or how long we’d be standing in line once we arrived. And you must be there on time; otherwise you have to wait for a break in the music (normally between acts) before you’re let in. And I was NOT going to miss one second of Otello! I had waited so long and come so far to miss one single moment.

Sam and I made it with a few minutes to spare. In our haste, we entered the first doors we came to, which actually lead to the New York City Ballet. I suppose all the posters with ballerinas should have been the tip off. The famous fountain was blocked off, so I was disoriented, but we eventually made it to the Met.

With all of the worrying about the weather and making it on time, I missed the opportunity to really breathe in the experience. Fortunately, once we found our seats, I took a few deep breaths and began inhaling the enormity of the situation. It was actually a little overwhelming at first – in a good way. The Met is just so massive and the colors are so rich, plush red velvet with gold accents. And my Lord, the crystal chandeliers…amazing! Our seats were in the Orchestra section directly under the lip of the balcony. I unfortunately didn’t go to a center aisle to look at the whole theater, which would have probably blown me away.

But there we were. A twenty-something girl from Bullhead City and her best friend trying to take it all in….

1 comment:

Sarah B. Roberts said...

Brava Chelsea! I can't wait to read Part 3.