The Webby Adventure

This is going to be a summation of my experiences both in NY and at the WEBBY Awards. I’ll try to be as detailed as possible, but I can’t promise anything since I’m tired and a lot has happened.

My NY experience was pretty cool. We got to do a lot of the touristy NY things. We saw the Statue of Liberty and thanks to Alexis we were able to get in because our City Pass didn’t include going inside. The Empire State Building at night, which was beautiful and on a side note, Victor was scared poopless and gripping onto anything he could get his hands on. He even got on his knees to feel somewhat grounded and a guard told him “You can’t be on your knees, unless you have a ring.” We went to the MoMA and the only painting I wanted to see was Van Goh’s Starry Night. There was also Andy Worhol, Seurat and they had a special exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photography. Afterward, we headed over to the MET and along the way walked into where the Puerto Rican Day Parade was happening, so we had to take a detour to the museum. We visited Times Square and got our souvenir shopping done and out-of-the-way, no haggling was done on my part, I don’t know about the others. After a short break back at the hotel, we went to the American Museum of Natural History. We saw the dino bones and then headed over to the planetarium, which in my opinion, was all I needed to see. It was amazing and I felt like I was actually traveling through space and witnessing the birth and death of stars and planets. The planetarium was probably my favorite thing we did sightseeing wise. The next [early] morning we headed over to the NBC studios for the Today Show. We had tried to go the day before, but got there too late and couldn’t get in to where we’d be visible. There’s a funny story to this, here we go: We had all agreed to meet down at the lobby at 5:15 am. I set up the alarm clocks in my room because my phone’s alarm doesn’t work and Alexis was already asleep, so I couldn’t set her phone’s alarm. I had stayed up packing my things and by the time I went to bed, it was 3am. I sent a text to the guys asking them to call me when they woke up because I didn’t know if the alarm would work. Well, James called me at 4:45-ish and I remember saying “Ok, we’re up.” and just fell back asleep. When I woke up again, I immediately looked at the clock and it read 5:09 and I turn to Alexis and wake her by saying “Alexis! It’s 5:09!”  We literally jumped out of bed and got ready in 5 mins and made it down to the lobby in time. James was the only one there and Chelse followed shortly. Well, turned out that Victor and Oscar hadn’t even woken up yet and we left without them. They eventually caught up with us, Oscar first and Victor last [which was usually the case for everything] We got to Rockefeller Center on time and got in line for the show. We got a good spot and Ann Curry went straight to me to shake my hand. I was the first one she shook hands with that morning Al Roker did an invisible cowboy hat tilt salute to us since we were wearing cowboy hats and giant #1 finger hands. We were visible when they interviewed Jillian Michaels, so hopefully you saw us. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and ate lunch and finished packing. Later on the train, I realized I left behind my baby blanket [it was the smallest one I had] and my star wars playing cards.

All of the sightseeing out-of-the-way, here’s a quick run through of the WEBBY Awards ceremony. I got to meet Buzz Aldrin! I got to meet Buzz Aldrin! I got to meet Buzz Aldrin! Meeting him was hands down the best thing ever. I wasn’t gaga over the celebrities, although it was pretty cool to see and meet some of them. I’m not one to flip out over someone, but Buzz Aldrin is not just a someone, he went to the moon and that is something only a very limited number of people can claim. It’s also pretty cool because I had just been to the planetarium earlier that day. The ceremony was entertaining, although the “battle” wasn’t that great, nor the food. The next two people I was excited to see, though not as much as Chelse, were Sir Tim Berners-Lee  and Vinton Cerf. I didn’t get to meet them, but being in the same room and seeing them was good enough for me.

I had a great time that day and night and am truly grateful I got to experience all of this. Now I await the long leg of the trip back and hopefully we’re not delayed too much again since there has been flooding recently. I also hope my car is fine back in San Antonio.

-hildabot  [roll out]

Right now we’re in Syracuse on a “smoking break.” I know it’s meant for everyone to have a stretch break and breathe fresh air, but why do they need to call it a smoke break?

So far, this train isn’t as cool as the Texas Eagle. This one’s not a double decker, the seats aren’t as big, there’s no observation lounge with giant windows, they close the lounge car at certain times, and they lock the doors to other cars at night. This makes me appreciate the longer leg of the trip a lot more.

(Several hours later…)

We’re in New York City! FINALLY! I could have kissed the ground if we weren’t aggressively hailing a cab. Before we took off, someone from the curb rushed to our cab, bent down, and showed me my phone. OOPS! That would have been bad news for me.

After some confusion with our cab driver hearing “The Strand” instead of “The Standard,” we arrived at our beautiful hotel only to discover the showers offer ZERO privacy. There is a giant window that allows anyone on the bed to view the shower. WEIRD!

I believe we’re going to find a place to eat soon. James is watching “Men In Black” (set in NYC!) while I blog. I can’t wait to see what this city holds for us.