I am running myself ragged this week. I know this because i have had a fairly exciting couple of days but have come home too tired to blog... heck... i'm too tired to call my boyfriend and tell him about it (Sorry Chris!)
      Monday was (as i hope you know) the Royal Baby birth/announcement.  Therefore, i was on "royal baby watch" all day.  This sounds way more exciting than it is.  Basically, it consisted of me staring at the live feed of the door and wall outside the Ludlow Wing outside Saint Mary's hospital in case the couple came out.  Which, they didn't.  There was the random town crier. In case you didn't know (i certainly didn't) that guy is in no way associated with the royals.  As our foreign editor said, "its a guy who wears a hat, gets drunk and runs around making announcements." Fair enough. He seemed pretty excited about his fake job and got plenty of media coverage.
      The next day i went to watch Good Morning America from the control room.

Or, i thought i was just going to be in the control room but i got to go to the studio for the second hour.  The first hour i got to watch how they handled the Royal Baby coverage.  This was the day they got to make the announcement but it was raining in London where Amy Robach and Lara Spencer were.  It damaged their mics and ear pieces.  The whole studio was in a frenzy 5 minutes before show when this was happening.  The executive producer said we were taking them whether you could hear them or not! They picked up their cell phones and the mics miraculously worked but it was definitely stressful.
     I got to go into the studio next.  The guests were the hosts of project runway and Cate Blanchett.

They were all so nice.  The studio was pretty full of camera men but there were a total of 3 interns in there so the guests were excited to say hello to us.  Heidi Klum and Cate Blanchett both said hello to me and would look over sometimes and give me a wink and a smile! It was pretty cool and Heidi just glows.  Everyone else just kindof disappears around her.

       I then went to work and wrote a dot com story and watched for the Royal Baby to make its first appearance and St. Mary's.  My dot com story was on some mosquito patch they are coming up with so you don't have to use spray.  Obviously i get the most coveted stories.
       Today, i did another story .  I think this was my most involved one.  Some rare bird was spotted in New Mexico so i got to interview a lot of people and do a lot of research.  I think it's my best one yet!

    This weekend was a huge blessing.  It's always nice to have family and loved ones come visit me in New York and this weekend my Aunt Brenda was here.  We hit the ground running in a sense and ate dinner and did a night tour double decker bus the second she got in.

 The city is beautiful at night and we got to see it from Brooklyn where you can see the entire skyline lit up.

     The next morning we got up early and went to the Jason Derulo concert in Central Park for GMA. I have a friend interning there that i met at orientation that will always give me VIP wrist bands so we don't have to wait in line or stand in the back.

Neither of us had any interest in Derulo... turns out that's probably good because he sounded awful live.  We stood over by the anchor desk and watched them the whole time.  We were very close!

     Bren had heard of this place called Donut Plant in the Hotel Chelsea so we went there right after the concert and waited for the MoMath to open.  The donuts were delicious! They had unique flavors and the decor and music was very indie.

 We then walked to the MoMath which was very close to the Hotel Chelsea.  The museum was interesting.  Clearly not as awesome as some of the mainstream museums but unique in its own way.  It was very hands on.  We got to play games and experience everything first hand.  There was an exhibit that you got to step on and it would light up.  The woman manning it said it changed every couple of minutes to something new.  We experienced it making a maze and another time it would create a zone for you when you stepped onto to.  Pretty cool!  Didn't get too much bang for our buck though due to the museum only having two levels. But all in all pretty fun!

     This was the hottest day of the summer so far here, keep in mind.  So very sweaty and tired from GMA, we decided to go back to my place and regroup.  After about an hour, we grabbed lunch at a very tasty French place called Le Pain and headed to the tkts booth to try our luck at cheap broadway tickets.  Could not have gone better!

We got our first choice at tkts: cinderella!!!
      For TKTs, you have to wait in line in the middle of times square for a few hours and then reach a booth where you can buy heavily discounted tickets.  We got orchestra seats for Cinderella for 90 bucks... you heard me... 90 bucks!!!!
       So we went home, rested, and primped and headed out to grab dinner before our show.  We ended up going to an italian place right next door to our theatre.  Cinderella was really amazing.  The music was cute and the costume changes were awe inspiring!  Teared up several times because it was just that great and we were soooo close!

      That was a late night, so we headed to bed and slept in a bit the next morning.  We had heard of this  brunch spot called the Clinton Street Baking Co.  We arrived and they said it would be an hour and a half wait.  I was skeptical so we stayed.  Turned out, i was right... the wait was 30 minutes.  Score!!! Some of the best breakfast i've ever had.  Just look at the picture.. have you ever seen anything so delicious looking!!!??

     After that, we headed to the Empire State Building.  I hadn't been up there since i made my NY trip with my dad for my 12th birthday.  I remember, it was foggy that day so we couldn't really see anything! but that day when Bren and I went, it was beautiful.  Hot... but beautiful.  You can see everything!!

     We had big plans with World News that night so we headed home so i could change because i knew i'd be taking pictures and i don't know that a Texas Rangers shirt would have gone over so well.   So we rested our feet, enjoyed some air conditioning and headed out.  We made a stop by Big Gay Ice Cream on the way... not that that's on the way... it's in West Village... but still!  I firmly believe that is the best Ice Cream in the world.  I had a cone lined with Nutella... like... come on!

     I got to show her around ABC after that.  Again, i don't want all my readers to have all these ideas of grandeur about this building.  In all honesty, its more of an office building that happens to have a studio and some famous news people.  Its fascinating for us newsies and avid watchers of ABC News, but as for the general public... not much to look at.

But i showed her where i work and we stopped by the World News studio to wait for Ginger Zee who was kind enough to let us watch her do her thing as well as watch the rest of the show with David Muir hosting.  We met Gio Benitez, Ron Claiborne, Rob Nelson, David Muir, Ginger Zee and ran into Dan Harris in the elevator.  She got quite the ABC News celeb studded evening!! I gained a new love for the very sarcastic Ron Claiborne.  I was thrilled to share that with Bren!  It was a really good time!

    It wouldn't be a true New York trip, if we didn't get some New York pizza.  Lombardi's in SoHo was the highest rated one i could find in Manhattan.

 There are some great ones in Brooklyn but i thought we should stick to Manhattan.  It was delicious, very uniquely displayed and highly accredited.  The walls were lined with magazine articles and celebrities who had stopped by! So yummy!

     The last thing we did was go to an improv comedy show.  Those are a big thing in Chelsea and very cheap.

I thought that would be a fun thing to end the weekend with, though, i had a slight fear it would be very raunchy.  It was hilarious... laced with foul language on occasion... but the subject matter was just funny.  They did these impressions of women and little children with lisps.  Probably hard to picture.  Bren, i know you're reading... you know what i mean!

Anyway, we passed out very quickly that night and she left for the airport early this morning.
     This afternoon, i met some friends in washington square park for a free event called Comedy in the Park.  they had a bunch of Comedy Central semi-celebs that varied from funny to very funny!  On top of that, it was free... so even if they weren't funny we didn't lose anything but time and maybe some sweat!
     As far as the week ahead goes, i believe i have plans to see Despicable Me 2 and go to dinner with some folks.  My boss is setting me up with GMA to shadow the control room one morning which should be a blast!  I'm in the final stretch!  I miss everyone in Dallas and Norman very much and i can't wait to be back.

     I was on the elevator with Diane Sawyer today!  Otherwise, there isn't much to talk about.  The phones weren't even really ringing.   Ginger Zee did agree to let me shadow her this weekend and i have a meeting with a big wig in the investigative unit tomorrow! So lot's of plans being made for later but not much happening in the way of business.

    This weekend feels like a dream.  Chris got in on Thursday and we hit the ground running from there.   Some friends of mine staying in the NYU dorms were nice enough to let him stay there during his whole visit so that made the trip very painless and much cheaper than it could have been.
     The one thing he really wanted to eat here was New York pizza so we grabbed a slice before heading to meet up with some of my friends i've met here!  We found a very cheap bar and grille and sat and chatted for quite a bit.

I really wanted to get some good "coupely" pictures at the top of the rock that night so we did that at around 10:30 and got a great view of the city lights.  Thanks to all the strangers who very willingly took our picture for us.

 The next day we woke up and did brunch before going to the Natural History Museum.  I get in free with my ABC ID but we decided to do a special exhibit: the whales.  It was really cool! they had this huge skeleton of a sperm whale that made the entrance fee all worth it.  

 We spent a few hours there then headed to Greenwich village to get Big Gay Ice Cream.  Chris was kindof iffy about it... obviously the name freaked him out a tad.  We got there and he made these big eyes as soon as he bit into his cone! So worth it.  It's the best ice cream in new york in my opinion.

      Our plans to go the Yankees game weren't for a few hours so we hung out in West Village for a little bit.  There are lots of little shops and bars to explore so it wasn't hard to find things to do.  We also grabbed some Gray's Papaya hot dogs because i thought he needed to experience that.
       At around 5:30 we caught the subway to the Bronx and walked through Harlem to get to Yankee stadium. Needless to say, we took a different route home.  The stadium is beautiful.  We bought some hats and found our seats.

Nathan's hot dogs were a must! We voted: Nathan's beats Gray's Papaya... sorry!

After about two innings, it began to sprinkle, kinda cold but bearable.  About two innings later, it started pouring.  It was fun for a little bit, we didn't think it would last long so we laughed and kept saying we'd remember it forever.  When they pulled out the tarps and began a delay, we headed downstairs to explore the rest of the stadium.  The game ended up being on an hour and a half delay and we left along with the rest of the stadium after about 45 minutes of waiting.

      The next morning, i showed him around work and we grabbed a waffle at the waffle stand over there.  Then we headed to the intrepid.

This was the number one thing i thought he would want to do.  He's a huge nerd about planes and they have an entire flight deck filled with different planes plus this past wednesday they opened up the enterprise again.

I loved it more than i thought i would... he taught me a lot about the planes.  I mean really, who needs a tour guide when you have this guy.

      Carnegie Deli was the lunch place of choice so we got sandwiches bigger than our heads and explored times square so we could know where we going for our show that night.

We decided to rest for a little bit and change before Phantom that Night and spend an hour or so at my place where he had brought his clothes to change into that morning.  
      I thought it might be cute to do an unheard of dinner before a fancy night like this so we went to shake shack right across the street from the Majestic Theater and then went to stand in line for our show.

 He loved it! Much more than i had ever thought he would! I was so glad.  I kind of worried that he was going to think it was too girly! I forgot about all the pyrotechnics and staging this show had.  Seeing it again was a blast!

      I had a friend seeing Chicago around the same time as us so we met up with him after.  Came in handy because he took our required picture in Times Square!

      Chris left early this morning and is now back in Oklahoma.   I miss him so much more than i did before but i'm so beyond blessed that he got to visit.  My Aunt Brenda is coming next weekend and we have exciting plans as well!  Two weekends of fun with family and friends in New York?? I'll take it.  Oh... and i have work too... have i mentioned that in a while?  It's going fine... if something exciting happens y'all will be the first to know.
     It's mostly been slow because there has been a lot of waiting for our news... Zimmerman is finally done.  But now we're waiting on the Royal Baby and Mandela to die... or live forever? you never know!

     I'm sorry for the late post.  My wifi has been iffy so it's been difficult to post and have it actually go through to the point of posting.  Not too much to update.  The past few weeks have been fairly slow actually.  It was a holiday last week, not many people call then obviously and we try not to make correspondents travel.  I did go on a shoot last week about the statue of liberty reopening. We interviewed those creepy little guys dressed up in times square.
    I had the actual 4th off and went to a museum and watched fireworks at a park behind my apartment.   The next day i had VIP tickets to the Good Morning America concert series.  Over the weekend, i really just hung out.  Saw a movie and caught up on sleep. Today, i did some networking and worked an 11 hour shift.  So, i'm tired.  But excited about the next couple weeks ahead.
      My boss promised to get us into GMA soon and let us help out at World News a little more.  Plus, christopher will be in this weekend and my aunt will be in the next!!!

So this didn't post when i thought it did....

    I wrote this on sunday.... I apologize to my multitude of valued readers for not updating for a bit.  It's been a crazy week so if you feel like reading a not so short story... props.  This week, work-wise, was uneventful.  I booked travel for correspondents, wrote for the web, answered phones... got insulted during those phone calls.  Yah know.
    Wednesday, however, i got an interesting call.  I was the only person manning the desk and thus was getting all the calls, weirdos and all.  So when i answered a phone and heard a man say "Well fancy getting you on the first try," i assumed that it was a crazy who had called in earlier and almost hung up until he said, "it's Mike." Immediate excitement.  Mike is my professor from OU who got me this internship.  He's a war correspondent at ABC and most recently did a lot of work covering the Moore tornado. Currently, he's in the midst of coming out with a movie on his time in Afghanistan.  He told me he'd be at ABC soon and not to leave.
     Once he was at ABC he told me that he was having a premiere on the Intrepid and he would love for me to come.  Then he invited me to dinner with him and his son, who also works at ABC now. It was quite the fancy place where i met him and Carlos, but it was really fun to catch up with him and he loved hearing about every second of my internship.  He really is a blessing and it is wonderful to hear a man i look up to so much say, " i just want you to know I love you and i am so proud of you." I don't know how i got so blessed.

The whole next day i was looking forward to this premiere.  I caught a taxi at the end of my shift with some of my bosses on the assignment desk and met Hillary and Amy (two other OU students) in the theater on the ship.  Mike was speaking at the start and gave us a little shout out, saying his students were there.  The theater was filled with some very important people in the news business so that was very cool.  The movie was amazing! I sobbed.  It's a story in honor of those lost in the war as well as a father son journey with Mike and Carlos. There were lots of families of those lost in the infantry Mike covered in the audience, which made  it all the more touching.

     After the movie there was a mixer, where Mike introduced me to some executives at CBS.  I got their cards and they told me they would love to help a student of Mike's especially with the passion i was showing.  Seriously, so cool! That night was amazing, it was on this huge ship with a wonderful view on the deck, i met executives, and i got to watch my favorite professor in an amazing movie!

      I was thinking this would be the last time i saw him before school started but he came and visited me at work the next day after he had lunch with the assignment editor for international news.  He took me around the office and introduced me to a lot of really cool people like the chief investigative producer and the man in charge of all the affiliates.  I also got to sit in a meeting about his movie.  It's a huge deal.  It's already raised a ton of money and is set to release in all theaters in November.  The premiere will be in Dallas after a benefit country concert with stars like Carrie Underwood.  I got to introduce Mike to some of the friends i've made in New York as well.  He made this week very exciting and his confidence in me really means the world.
    Yesterday, i had brunch with the Desk Assistants (DAs) from work.  DAs typically are the interns from the previous summer that have been hired to do what I'm doing in my internship but then work their way up to where they want to be in the company with time.   It was really nice to sit down and just poke fun with each other.  We're all very close in age (21-24) and listening to how each of us got to where we are was awesome! Although, i wouldn't exactly call what we had brunch... more like eating breakfast food at 1pm.  While at brunch i got a text from Christian asking if i could help show his friends around ABC.  So, once i was done with brunch, i headed to ABC and gave a tour.  I ran into Gio Benitez (correspondent) while giving the tour and introduced Christian and his friends to him.  If you want to know the story of how i met Gio ask my Dad ;) haha.
     It was a pretty full day after that.  We wandered Central Park for a bit then headed to Brooklyn to go to some street fairs and grab a slice of pizza.  Favorite thing at the street fairs?? obviously the antique cameras.

 

      The guys had a plan to go to the number one rooftop bar that night but it was fancy so we had to go home and shower and change quickly to get there before it got too crowded.  Let's be real: it really was just a photo op more than a desire to "party" or whatever so we had no interest in being there when lots of people were around.  So i hopped on my train after getting some help finding which one to get on.  There was a young hispanic girl who wanted to share her life story  with me on the subway for an hour soooo that made the trip not so enjoyable. Plus it was really crowded.
      I got home and got speed ready.  Threw on a dress, brushed my hair and brought makeup with me to put on in the cab and headed to meet the guys at the NYU dorms.  The bar/hotel is over by the intrepid ship so we took the subway over there and got there by 8:30ish.  The view was incredible!

Seriously, i can see why its ranked the number one rooftop bar in the city.  You can see the whole thing lit up! We spent an hour or two there then wandered the city for a bit then i went home. 

It was a pretty good week overall.