NYC and GAGA

Chris and Mom in Central Park

Waiting in Line for Gaga

Lady Gaga on Stage

WOW- It has been a great and crazy 24 hours. Yesterday, Thursday July 8, Mom, Nick, Nick's friend (Paul), Chris, and I left for NYC at 11 am. We took the train to Grand Central Station for an 80 minute ride and arrived in NYC at around 2. We walked to our hotel through all the hustle and bustle of the NYC traffic. We dropped off our stuff and we were off to explore the city! Mom, Chris, and I made our way to Central Park. We passed the NYC Public Library and Times Square. We did A LOT of walking. I had never been to Central Park even though I've been to NYC before. It is HUGE! It is 10 times bigger than I thought. We saw plenty of runners and horse carriages. We decided to go a paddle boat ride. It was fun, but Chris did all the rowing for Mom and I :). I was just to uncoordinated to do it. It was a gorgeous day and the water was beautiful. After we went to dinner and met up with Nick and Paul. The main reason that we went to NYC was to see a free concert of Lady Gaga on Friday morning. Nick discovered that people were already lining up for it (at 3)!! We figured we would wake up at 4 to get in line.... but no, we needed to get in line then, at 6 pm! So the journey begins.....

We basically sat on the side of the street for 12 hours (6pm-6am) and then we were shuffled into the area of the concert. We did take shifts and went back to the hotel for a nap and shower. I only got 3 hours of sleep... boy was a tired once we got home! But let me just say that sitting in line was entertaining. There were crazy people dressed up like Gaga. I never realized that so many gay guys LOVE Lady Gaga. We were surrounded by them and I have a never seen so many in my life! There was guy dressed up in a red dress with stilettos and long black hair. I thought it was a girl for sure when I first saw him. And then there was this one guy running around in Spanx all night and he looked naked! It was so obnoxious. He was right behind us earlier, but luckily moved away with his friends. Thank goodness or it was going to be a long night. We saw a few cat fights and I heard the F word way too many times. They surely WEREN'T polite at all. I can say that I am definitely more cultured now.

At 6 am we were getting ready for the concert! They let us in the area of the concert.. a little bit further away from the stage than anticipated but considering there was a record breaking 20,000 people there we did great! Gaga didn't start singing until 7:30 or so to practice, but the crowd went crazy. We were sardines in this cramp area and several gay guys were pushing off of me to see and it was annoying! Geeze. But I got to see her!! She went on a platform (luckily) so I (short, 5 ft tall person) could see. She sang great and was awesome live. I took some pictures to capture the moment. We stayed to hear her sing "Bad Romance" and a new single "You and I." I can officially say that I have seen Lady Gaga! What a great experience. In the middle of the concert it started pouring on us! It was crazy but it really cooled us off.

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to grab some breakfast and then we left to board the train. We were exhausted, but it was a great time in the city. I can't wait to go back. There are so many other things that I want to do. I still want to go to the wax museum, Guggenheim museum, shop at all the cool stores, take the ferry, etc.