Can you say road trip?? How to entertain ourselves on the road....
Almost there...thank God for the Garmin, we had no problem driving in the city!
The Chelsea hotel was a very interesting experience! Would we stay there again...? Heck Ya! It was a fun adventurous experience, that gave us a great fun tale to tell for weeks!
Okay so easy enough, 6 of the 8 of us decided we would like to attend the International Beauty show at the Jacob Javitz center in New York City! Flying by the seat of our pants, the week before I play Russian hotel roulette (well we had the tickets for months, but with the expansion...I was a little behind in planning;) The best deal and seemingly best place to stay was the Chelsea hotel! Okay big deal, it may or may not be haunted...and the reviews boasted "interesting" experiences. We Bijou girls are not chickens and Manhattan here we come...we just asked that Nancy, from Sid and Nancy, not make an appearance in our room!
So we get there and there is a problem with the hotel, computer glitch and they basically overbooked the whole hotel...They were sending people out to other hotels and we were instructed to "wait"...listen, everyone around me was getting really mad, and I just waited, I mean seriously, we have all experienced computer problems...(They should have called our awesome computer guy at Nachral studios, he can fix anything!) So I waited:) I have infinite patience, I don't know how, I guess I can entertain myself with my own thoughts and time flies...I was thinking...and watching the people...(thinking...oooh blog entry;) So we had the residence of the hotels, then we had the "guests" that we being evicted...the very nice, but very dirty and dusty Rastafarian's all in Tye dye, top to bottom (I would have loved a picture to offer you, but they were true blond haired Rastafarian's in every essence, I wanted to touch the dread locks, take a picture and talk to them, but they were rather unhappy at the moment, they had to leave) So I wait. And wait. Creating stories for each person that walked in, so much fun. So my patience paid off, and somehow we got a room! And definitely not the haunted room!
The lobby of the hotel, so cool! The paintings and history in this building were awesome! Just watching the "people" of the hotel was even better!
We checked in, check for bedbugs, (no really, we did, we even had our own sheets;) and headed for downtown. Ready to ride the subway and find the "fun" shopping! The bijou girls wanted purses..we just needed to find the Chinese people whispering "Prada, Gucci and Coach". I was a little worried, because you have to follow them into basements....go into cars with them...seriously all for fake bags...that is what is adventure is all about I guess:) Everyone except me found their treasures...I was more or less recording everything into my head:)
Proof that we actually did go down in one of THOSE basements, I swore they would never get me down...kinda scary, but kinda interesting...see the Asian guy hiding behind us...he's saying..."no camera, no pictures"...
We leave Canal street, walk and walk and walk, then we end up in Little Italy at a cozy little Italian place and settled down for a nice dinner! So good. But don't ask Kimberlee, she took a little nap, don't let that young girl fool you, she's really a 80 year old woman under that gorgeous exterior;) Ha!
So on the way home, after walking for hours and riding the subway to the hotel (we were hoping it was the right direction, no one really knew for sure;) We were lucky enough to add to our adventure and have an interesting character looking kinda near us and shouting...you'll have to come into Bijou to hear what he was actually saying, but let's just say, it made Courtney start laughing hysterically, because she was thinking to herself...wait..I do bikini waxes..I see that sometimes! (Okay, now I'm hoping only some people will actually get down this far to our adventure and most will just skim over and skip this part)...I may be getting a bit to risque! So we luckily escape the subway and the "interesting" subway rider and head to our room!
Okay so a bit of history and somewhere here you will see the picture of the corridor, very narrow, very long, very dark...of course here is the line order...me with the key (stupid me for wanting to hold the key) Michele, Kimberlee, Courtney and Jackie in the caboose! I get the door unlocked as Kimberlee and Courtney are loudly admiring the AXE gashes in the door before ours, and I freeze..suddenly recalling the very few horror movies I have watched..(seriously I opted out of the showering in the a.m. because I was sure Janet Lee could have been killed in our shower) So I freeze...I say to the girls..."I can't open it, it's dark..I just can't do it.." and Michele says..."Oh give me the key, I'll do it" and then I turn to look down the hallway at Jackie who has this really over reactive look on her face...Like she was IN a horror film...and I give her this confused look and I'm really thinking...Gee, Jackie, a little over expressive for the situation, I don't really see a ghost, I'm just being a chicken and she screams and pushes us....and says...something like...."Heeee's commmmming, get in the rooom nowwwwww!" So before I know it, a horror film is happening for realz!! Michele flies in and hides in the bathroom, still totally confused but sensing danger...Jackie hid in the closet..( and she is supposed to be the mother hen in our show;) and Kimberlee and I are holding the dooor which is being pushed open by this man who is shouting..."You are in big trouble, who do you think you are, you're gonna be sorry, this is my house and you're in it"...Oh yeah! So I said, "You are going to be in trouble mister, because we've called security and they are going to come and take care of you", he kept shouting...we were screaming...and when security came...I went to the door, the man is shouting, and I realize he is very old...(okay we have wild imaginations..i thought it was the "HAC" man from the subway....) and I say, "This man tried to get into our room" and he says......(drumrolll please)...
"THE CORRIDOR THAT STORMY LIVES DOWN"
"I am not a man, I am a woman!!!" To which I look more closely and say very very sincerely..."Oh my goodness, I am SO sorry!" so I basically talk the the security guy and realize that she has lived here for 30 years, in the room next to us...so to her it looked like we were sneaking away to her room....her room did not have a bathroom in it, she was obliged to use a community bathroom and to her, I think we looked like we were breaking into her room, the woman was 82 years old...and later we found out, that she was in her time...a very very famous big band singer...she always had a low voice and resembled a man so she didn't make it huge until she started dressing as a drag king...she was one of the first ones in NYC and apparently during the gay rights days, in books that are written about it..our neighbor "Stormy" was the first one listed to pull a punch during the gay rights riots...
We did steal away into the rooftop, ignored the signs that said only residence could go up there...we just had to see for ourselves...(that's not entirely true...the doorman told us how we could get up there, and he suggested it...good thing "Stormy" wasn't having her morning cup of coffee up there:)...The rooftops were so cool, such a treat to see:)
The rest of the night was so much less uneventful and then the next day we had a fabulous time at the hair show! It got us all excited, we took some various classes, business orientated for Jackie and I, and the girls watched some really cool foiling classes along with up'do's and cutting shows! It was a great success and charged us up for spring!
Riding home, studying what we learned and reading the new stuff we saw!
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