Unforgettable Day in NYC

The first day of a two-day flying visit to NY turned into something worthy of a short story.

So I woke on the Tuesday at 4 a.m. to catch an early flight from the island in the company of two colleagues. We arrived in NY around 9 a.m. The hotel kindly had our rooms ready already so we could dump our stuff and head out for a big breakfast. Then we got to the photography studio. Then I got a message that my voice-over agent wanted a demo voice test that I could make on and send from my iPhone. But they needed it by 5:30 p.m. I figured I would be back at the hotel in plenty of time to make the deadline.

And then I got a message that I had a box seat for the opera that night (starting at 7 p.m.), but also that I would be meeting my boss.

I was in jeans...

I hightailed it to Macy's, flinging myself on the mercy of a couple of salespeople who were WONDERFUL. Armed with some new clothes and shoes I exited the store to find myself in rush hour and unable to find a cab. It was 5:10 p.m. My agent was hurrying me. I ducked into a doorway and held up the script, bellowing into my phone, trying to sound well-modulated and irresistible. Of course the script was to do with promoting tourism to the States. I e-mailed the test off, pointing out to the agent in my e-mail that the whistle sounds, car horns and sirens were all perfect ambient noise as I was in fact standing near 34 Street and Fifth Avenue. She found this very entertaining. I ran back to the hotel, got changed, rushed up to Lincoln Center, collapsed in my box seat (back row of the box thank goodness, so no-one could detect my breathlessness), and was swept up in the magnificence of Strauss's Die Frau Ohne Schatten. A totally wacky story line on paper made beautiful sense as it came to life on stage. I momentarily was swayed by sleep and remembered I had been up at 4 a.m. The opera was four hours long and kept me riveted. I collapsed into my bed near midnight.

And after a perfect sleep, I woke to the sound of a cello very sweetly playing. I couldn't make it out at first, but then realized it was an actual cello being played very near by. It turns out some sort of Italian youth orchestra was staying in the same little old hotel near Penn station.

A perfect day in NYC... IMO.

P.S. I got the voice over gig! :)