NYC: Day II

Here we go, kids. 

Day two of our trip.

This was by far - I'm talkin' across the country far - the best day we had.

First off, let me back up and give you the run-down on our hotel room.

We got to stay RIGHT on Time's Square.

It was insane. INSANE, I TELL YOU.

Turns out Time's Square is a very popular destination in NYC during the holiday season.

Who knew??

Here's the view from our window:

christmas time. grr..

 And this is the wall art I wanted to steal and bring home.

 Apparently I'm not the only one who's had that idea because they nailed it to the wall.

Bastards.

Annnnnd here is our wine storage. 

no, we didn't buy cheap-ass boone's farm. we bought cheaper wine than that. that's how we roll. 

Yeah, we used coasters to keep our wine fresh. 

It didn't work. 

Fortunately, the wine was terrible anyway, so a little staleness didn't do much harm.

And yeah, Megh preserved her Blue Moon with a dish of nacho cheese dip.

I didn't take pictures of the room other than that because I'm pretty certain I have a mild case of A.D.D. and I didn't think about it. 

Okay, so we woke up at like 11 every day.

Because we were on vacation and we stayed up alllll sorts of late most nights.

Day 2:

First up, we went to the NBC experience store at 30 Rock.

It's in here:

While we were there, we were approached by a young, overly enthusiastic page.

"Do you guys have plans for this afternoon?"

I reply with the assumption that she's trying to sell us something. Like tickets to some shitty TV episode filming or something. 

"Yeah, we're going to the world trade center."

Which we were planning on, so it totally wasn't a lie.

And she kind of just looks at me like I'm crazy and should assume that I know she's about to offer us something awesome. 

Luckily, my sister takes the hint from her stare and takes the conversation over.

"Why?" She asks the page.

"Do you like Jimmy Fallon?" the page asks.

Seriously, are we under arrest? What's with the questions?! Get to the point!

 "Uh...yeah, we do." 

"Well, I've got 75 tickets to his monologue rehearsal tonight, do you guys want 3?"

Hell yeah we want three!

The rest is pretty boring. There was a lot of standing, some anxiety that we wouldn't get in [they handed out 75 tickets, but only let 55 in] and a lot of talking to random strangers.

Totally worth all of that crap,

 because he was HILARIOUS.

this could be a picture of my living room for all you know. just take my word for it.

We weren't allowed cameras in, but I snapped a picture on my phone as I was walking out the door.

Literally, I was walking while snapping this picture, which is why it is barely fair to call it a picture. 

I could draw you a photograph better than this. 

Anyway, I thought it was one of the happiest moments of my life. 

Little did I know that later in the day I would get winked at by Paul Rudd.

I'll get to that. 

After the show, we walked around the city more in an attempt to kill time before we went to see the play later that night.

 We got to see the tree lit up. Much less depressing, no?

And then we went back to the hotel and got fancy. 

For this:

I got us a round of beverages. I had a cocktail, Megh had a beer, and Mom got a glass of wine. 

Guess how much it was?

Just guess.

You'll never guess it.

$45 dollars.

I shit you not.

Granted, we did get these cute little keepsake cups that they came in, but I'm not entirely convinced that was worth the price.

The play was AWESOME.

It was a dark comedy, and holy balls was the acting good. 

Afterward, Mom [who is always right, by the way] insisted that we wait and stand by so we can see them leave. 

Megh had to find a restroom stat after the beer, so we ran back to our hotel, dropped off our $14 dollar keepsake glasses, and then ran back. 

Just in time, too, because we weren't there 10 minutes before the cast [which consisted of 4 people] was leaving. 

The leading lady came out first [bored], 

and after what felt like hours of anticipation, the one and only

PAUL RUDD

came out.

marry me, paul.

I almost died.

But wait - that's not even the best part.

So my mom, who you do not want to  mess with when it comes to crowds, was at the very front of the line of people. She's the one who got my playbill signed. I was in like the second row, so I was super close as well, but I don't have the lady junk to be pushy. 

Somehow, a miracle occurred when he was signing for mom. 

Like...I turned into a different person.

I chose to yell out:

"ROCK CHALK, Paul!"

[Because we're on a first name basis.]

And I winked at him.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Did I take some sort of crazy pill?

Like...give Mallory a bucket of confidence with this handy little pill!

But apparently I didn't make as big of an ass out of myself  as I thought because
he looked me DEAD IN THE EYE, SMILED, and said "Rock Chalk!" in return,
and then finished it all off  with the most blissful WINK. 

Seriously - and I'm not kidding right now - I almost passed out.

That is not a joke.

If you're reading this right now and you don't know who Paul Rudd is,

crawl out of your cave and go watch one of the many, incredibly popular movies he's in.

Allow me to name a few:

Anchorman

Knocked Up

I Love You, Man

Our Idiot Brother

Role Models

Clueless

40 Year Old Virgin

and, of course, as Mike Hannigan in Friends

Tie that all in with the fact that he's a Kansas City native and huge KU fan, and you have yourself a bona fide stud muffin. 

So after I recuperated and began breathing again, I called Matt. And then Cole.

And pretty much annoyed my sister by talking about it all night.

That was my second-ever up-close and personal encounter with a star. 

My first was with Jimmy Fallon earlier that day. And he was like 50 feet away from me.

But I still count it.

The night after we happened to be walking by when the rest of the stars were leaving, so I got a couple far-away shots of them:

michael shannon

ed asner

Stay tuned for Day 3 coverage, coming soon to a blog near you.