NYC cont.

St Patricks day arrived and I was where I had planned to be, in New York city. Luckily for me Meghan had the day off and she said that we could do whatever I wanted, she was at my disposal. Well of course I wanted to see the parade,so off we went. What can I say? The parade was definitely not what I had expected, although thinking about it I am not sure what I had expected. Maybe something along the lines of huge crowds with ticker tape streaming from the buildings. That was not what I got. The parade consists of high school bands, bag pipe bands and men and women from the services walking in the street. There was even a group of people in cheap green t-shirts walking in the parade. I don't know why they were parading and I'm not sure why all the service people were either. Surely not all of the service people are Irish? Couldn't the city organise a parade just for service people if required ? I didn't find it exciting at all, very disappointed. After I had seen enough we walked through the park which was full of drunk people from Jersey. It was amazing how similar they are to drunk Brits abroad. Meghan explained that Jersey is where the real party takes place and it happens on the weekend nearest St Patricks day.
In light of my disappointment I needed a drink, so we went to the nearest Mexican restaurant for Margaritas. The Margaritas were good, but expensive. We went back to the apartment and made our own Margaritas and sat on the roof enjoying the sunshine.The weather had turned warm and I was enjoying the opportunity to wear fewer layers. When Christophe got home we walked to a local bar and sat outside in the courtyard and had a couple of pints. I had a beer from a Coney Island brewery, good beer. I think they maybe another brewery tour in my future. And it was looking increasingly likely that I would have to change my flight home as my passport hadn't arrived yet. I was getting a bit worried, my situation was not helped by me being on my period, whereas on Monday I had felt absurdly happy I was now feeling a little bit depressed. I dread to think how hormonal I would be if I was pregnant, having a period is bad enough!
Thursday started badly. I had arranged to go to City Hall, you have to make a reservation, you can't just walk up and join a tour which had been the case at every City Hall and State Capitol that I had been to previously. I got to the area in plenty of time and walked up to what I thought was City Hall and what people in the queue told me was City Hall and went through security. I then had to wait in another line where the guy told me that the building wasn't City Hall and that he didn't know where it was. I asked a cop who was in the lobby and she gave me directions but I had spent so much time in the two queues that I wasn't able to get there in time for the tour. I wasn't bothered so much about the tour but I was really bothered about the fact that I had screwed up again. I hadn't checked exactly where I was going and so had gone to the wrong place, this coupled with my passport problem made me feel out of control. I don't handle a loss of control. I would like to say that I don't handle a lack of control well, but in reality I don't handle it at all. I walked back to Brooklyn, I was going to try and get some tickets for a show that night. Meghan and Christophe were both working that night and I thought I would go to show, it is a very New York thing to do after all.
TKTS is an organisation that sells half price theatre tickets. They have a booth in Times Square and when I walked past it back in January the queue had been huge despite the weather being freezing. I had considered buying a full price ticket just so I could avoid the queue. I was hoping that not many people would make it to the booth in Brooklyn. There wasn't and I was able to get a ticket for Avenue Q, I hoped that things were starting to go my way. I spent the afternoon sitting in the sunshine in Prospect Park. The park is next to the Library in Brooklyn and was designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted, the guy who designed Central Park. He did such a good job on Central park that they gave him a piece of land in Brooklyn to do what he wanted with. I got back to the apartment at a decent time and decided to call Darren. The clocks had gone forward the previous weekend and the time difference was only four hours. We discussed my passport woes and what I wanted to do when I got home. I then called the passport helpline and they gave me the news that I was dreading. There was a backlog at the embassy and it would probably be ready in two to three weeks. I was devastated, I almost wept. In my mind I was going home, I had started sorting through my clothes, bought a new suitcase, made plans for my first few days at home. I felt like shit!And I didn't want to go out that night, if I hadn't of had the tickets already I would have stayed in and comfort ate/drank my way through the evening. I think the worst thing is is that this is all my fault and could have been avoided if I had gotten my act together earlier in the year. I not trying to minimise my responsibility for this but I think that I had been lulled into a false sense of security, everything else that I had worried about had resolved itself in my favour and I guess I thought that this would too. How wrong was I.
My bad luck didn't continue and I found the theatre without any problems. I decided to see Avenue Q has I hadn't been able to get tickets for Mamma Mia and I really liked one of the songs from the show. Christophe had told me that the song was from this show,so that's why I went. I am so glad that I did, the show was great and I laughed more than once. The acting, the songs, the set, everything was great and I would recommend it to anyone. Darren says that he wants to see so maybe we can go in London, I would be happy to see it again. I bumped into the Meghan on the walk back from the subway station, we had been on the same train. She asked me about my passport and I explained what had occurred and that I would have to delay my flight. She was great, apparently she and Christophe had discussed me staying longer, next week they are having a house warming party and would like me to be there. Now I would be. It made me feel a little bit better and it isn't that I don't want to hang out with M & C for longer it's just that I want to be home more. Also I didn't know what I was going to say to my mother, she would not be happy.