Shaping up.

Having finally recovered (well, mostly) from the utter shock of receiving my invitational letter from The Cloisters, my New York plans have really started taking shape. This past weekend, Mom and I booked both our flights and hotel for the week we’ll be in Manhattan. Mom is flying from Spokane down to Phoenix, where I will meet her at the airport and we will fly together to JFK. All told, my roundtrip flight from Phoenix to New York costs less than it would cost me to fly home (a fact I don’t think I will ever stop being amazed by).

During our sojourn in the Big Apple, Mom and I will be staying at the Library Hotel (http://www.libraryhotel.com). That’s right…we’re staying at a library-themed hotel ‘cuz we’re cool like that. This isn’t some cheesy Vegas theme hotel though…oh no, it’s MUCH classier than that…here’s how it works:

The hotel is based around the Dewey Decimal System. Each floor corresponds to general subject headings (thus, the 4th floor is dedicated to languages, the 7th floor is the arts, etc.) and individual room numbers are dedicated to specific topics. For example, the 4th room on the 10th floor is themed around the DDS entry 1000.004 Museums. Cool, huh? But how exactly does the theme enter into the room? Well, each room is outfitted with lots of books and artwork based on the theme applied to it. The hotel itself also has a reading room, a writer’s lounge, and a “Poetry Garden” (whatever that means). Each night from 5-8pm, complimentary wine and cheese is served upstairs and free fruit, nuts, tea, coffee, espresso, and cappuccino is available to guests throughout the day. I’m pretty darn excited! (See the photo below to check this awesomeness out!)



Another cool benefit to this hotel is that it is really centrally located...near the New York Public Library, the Morgan Library, Times Square, and Grand Central Station. w00t!

So not only have flights and hotels been booked, I finally got a chance to call The Cloisters and set up my interview appointment. I’ll be talking with the Education Office staff on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 1pm giving me plenty of time to explore the museum beforehand (AND I get free admission for the day! How cool is that? Yay!). Mom’s and my list of things to do/see/visit while in New York is getting a little out of control. I think our general plan of attack is to walk around a lot and do stuff we see/think is cool. Museums, of course, are on the top of our list (The Met, Natural History, The Frick Collection, MOMA, Morgan Library, New York Public Library) and we’re going to try and see a Broadway show (and rumor has it that one of my professors will be able to get us comped tickets for an opera!!!). I’m also planning on going to some swank SoHo galleries, a jazz session at either the Blue Note or Birdland, and spending some quality time at FAO Schwarz. I’m still completely overwhelmed at the sheer number of things to do and I still stop every twenty minutes or so and get a stupid grin all over my face as I remember that I’m going to New York City.

On a completely unrelated note, things here in Tempe are getting a little crazy as well with some serious concert-going plans shaping up…I’m hoping to go to a Dropkick Murphy’s show on the 3rd and my St. Patrick Day’s plans are already all set up…Ross and I are going to the Flogging Molly show that night.