Wednnnnnnesday

Today was a nice and well-rounded day. It started off with breakfast at a cute little diner, which was supposed to be "southern". To achieve this "southern" look, they had cows all over the walls and the word moo plastered everywhere... it was awesome. The food was amazing though. We then sub-wayed over to Time Square where I went to the Duane Reade clinic to get a quick little check up! That was nice and really convenient. After handling the medical stuff we wandered all around the area, surrounded by thousands of eager tourists doing the same.

A highlight of the day (and possibly the source of my future nightmares) was the Charmin stop-and-go bathroom facility in Time Square. Apparently Charmin donated this public restroom to the city (because it is the only public restroom in time square). It was quite the advertisement for sure. It was a surreal experience. We were greeted by dancers and obnoxious music, led up 3 flights of stairs and funneled into a room that looked like a club. There were people everywhere, most in line to use the facilities. There was a roped off section that kept the line in order, and a bathroom bouncer that directed you to the next available stall. There was a ball pit, the kind you see at McDonalds (or saw, back in the 90's when hygiene was optional), only instead of balls there were fake rolls of toilet paper. There was also a giant toilet that people sat on to be photographed by the staff. none of this was nearly as exciting as the inside of the bathroom stall, which was completely closed off like a little outhouse and held 2 flat screen t.vs and 6 different kinds of charmin. I had the privilege of listening to strangers talk about their feelings towards going to the bathroom and saw their oddly eager faces in hi-def.

Don't believe me? View the picture.

Alright, enough about that. Onto more important topics, like the block of Elmo's that we saw.

Backstory: You know how sometimes you go to a place like, I don't know, Disney and there are people in elaborate costumes? Well, we were on 5th avenue or something and as we were walking we saw an Elmo and a Cookie Monster posing with some children. Naturally we were intrigued and rushed the pair of them, knocking the children aside with no regrets. We posed with Cookie Monster and Elmo and laughed and smiled like it was Christmas (oh wait, it almost is) and then went on our merry way... until about 5 feet later when there was another Elmo, sitting on a fire hydrant. It was then we noticed that all of the Elmo's and Cookie Monsters, and the newly visible Tiger, Pooh, and a haggard Minnie Mouse, were wearing backpacks and/or holding stockings and taking donations. Suddenly what the first Elmo slurred to us as we walked away made sense "donacheihgasn" was acutally "donations please". It was simply obscured by his heavy accent. As we walked away we heard the security stationed near Rockerfeller center asked one of the Elmo's to leave.

NBC studios was amazing. There were many tee shirts that I would love to get my hands on, particularly the 30-Rock shirt with the phrase "I want to go to there". As my luck would have it, right as I decided to go to the bathroom in the downstairs area (a charmin-free zone), Mr. Big from Sex and the City walked by! Josh and Austin saw him. We also saw a few other celebrities, including Richard Kind (walking alone down Broadway), Harvey Weinstein, and Rob Marshall. The last two we saw at the Lincoln theater a few hours ago. We were there to see a showing of Up in the Air (which was really a great movie) and while we were waiting in the lobby the pair of them, accompanied by many other important people, were making their way through the lobby towards a special conference room for a Q&A session about Rob Marshall's movie Nine. The best part of the whole thing: Austin's obsession Marion Cotillard was there too, in our theater, but we didn't see her.