Last Thursday my friend Nicole and I drove a couple hours to the house of our other friend, Amanda, in Jersey.  She scored some Rachael Ray tickets (to be in the audience of her hour long cooking/talk show).  Maybe we'd get some prizes, meet famous people, eat some good food, and maybe get a few seconds on TV ;)  The most important thing though of course, would be, to learn a new scrumptious recipe so we can go home and cook up a fabulous meal for our husbands and fiances....right??

After four of us gals met up at Amanda's we took the train into NYC.  In the meantime we discussed how hard it was to pick out an outfit for the day.  The RR show has a strict dress code...no sneakers, no flip flops, no torn jeans, not white or off white, nothing too busy, nothing sleeveless....and so on.  Sounds easy, but it was a challenge for all of us.  Besides, we were going to be walking from the train station to the show.  Who wants to wear fancy shoes?  Solution: flip flops on, fancy shoes in the purse. 

On the way to the show we stopped for lunch in Bryant park...that didn't work out so well, the whole city and their moms come to eat at Bryant Park for lunch.  I wondered if a park even existed there, I think there were more people than blades of grass.  Instead we went to a sandwich shop across the street.  It was a little chaotic, entering into a sea of people trying to order their salads and paninis cafeteria style.  Nevertheless, mission accomplished. 

After filling our bellies with food we walked down to 44th and got in line for the Rachael Ray show.  We got there a half hour before the doors opened, but remained one of the last groups in line.  After about 45 minutes of standing on the sidewalk, reapplying makeup and changing out the flip flops, we were told that the audience had reached its maximum capacity and about the last 20 people in line would be cut.  That would include us... We were given a quick apology and Amanda was given VIP tickets to a show sometime in the next season.  That means you'll get seated before anyone else...but maybe in a year or so. 

We walked back toward the train without pitching a fit.  We stopped at Jamba Juice and Starbucks on the way.  Oh well, it was a good time with friends- we had fun and none of us were devastated to miss Rachael.  If it were a U2 concert, that would be a completely different story, and I'd probably still be crying. 

All this to say, this is strike number two for New York City.  I hope it's blissful next time... but I'm not really in the mood to go back anytime soon.