Four visitors and a VIP Ben Gibbard show!

You know how there's a saying that "pictures can say a thousand words"?

Photo credit: Darcy Wade

Well, that saying is going to be the foundation for this entire blog post. 

I just spent practically one whole week with some of my favorite people in the entire world. We did way too much, stayed out way too late, got way too little sleep, and had way too much fun. Even if I had an entire day to write this blog post, I don't think I would be able to explain every single thing that happened. Therefore, I am not even going to try! Instead, I am going to give you a mishmash of photos and briefly explain what is going on in each one.

My first visitor arrived on Thursday morning.

Yay Sarah!

My second visitor arrived on Thursday afternoon.

Woohoo Darcy!

We were three strong.

My third visitor arrived at about 10:30pm that evening. As soon as she stepped in the door, we made our way to the Lower East Side for a night on the town.

(Michelle was happy, I promise). At this point, it was probably 3:00am... we'd all been awake for far too long.

The four of us did quite a lot the next day.

I took them to my favorite spot in Central Park.

And then, we visited the MoMa. I believe Darcy was in art heaven.

And then we had a delicious Italian dinner (with pear ginger cocktails) near Times Square.

Photo credit: Darcy Wade

And then, I took them to the insanity that is Times Square.

My final visitor arrived Friday evening.

With Mackenzie finally here, we were complete!

A lot of stuff happened after that.

We stuffed our faces with bagels down by the promenade.

And hung out with people on the subway.

And scarfed down Malaysian food in Little Italy (I know... what? It was SO GOOD).

And hung out with other people that were visiting New York City at the same time.

And ate eclairs larger than our own heads at a diner at 12:00am.

And walked around the Williamsburg Flea Market.

And ate some delicious New York City street cart food.

Basically, I had a complete blast with all of them! It was so so sad to see them go... However, I do have to say that my body hated me after those five days. I had slept very little, and I was starting to feel a little insane. I miss my best friends already! What a perfect fall break it was :).


On Tuesday evening, after I said my final "farewell" to my last visitor, I got a call from my supervisor at Bank Robber Music asking me for a favor... he reallyyyyy needed someone to sell merchandise for a Ben Gibbard show that was going on later that night. Ben Gibbard... as in, from Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service. His music DEFINED my middle school and high school life. Despite feeling like I had been run over by five trucks in a row, I couldn't say no!

So, at about 7pm, I arrived at the HiFi in the East Village to set up the merch table. The guy literally handed me a box of CDs and a box of LPs and told me to do whatever I wanted to make it look nice. I did my best.

Sorry for the terrible photo quality... This was from my phone. And it was very dark inside the venue.

Turns out, this whole show was SUPER VIP. As in, you pretty much had to be in the music industry here in NYC in order to get in. This means, there were only about 50 people there in total. This means, it was a super intimate show... Ben Gibbard played by himself... Just him and his guitar (and occasional piano) for about 2 hours.

There he is! I know.. it doesn't really look like anything. But I promise it's him.

And he played EVERYTHING from Death Cab songs to Postal Service songs to covers to his new, solo stuff. It was so perfect.

I met so many random people... Such as, a writer for the New York Times and a girl that I'm pretty sure offered me some sort of job (?). No idea. As the night progressed, people got drunker and drunker, and they were more willing to buy merchandise from me. At the beginning of the show, someone came up to me and told me that I would probably not sell a single thing, because most of the people there were industry guys (who get their music for free). I decided to prove him wrong! And I did. In total, I believe I sold 6 of the vinyl and 7 of the CDs. Hoorayyy.

What a fun, fun night :).




Yesterday, I had my internship, and then I went to see my friend, Eric Livingston, play with his band for CMJ! It was so wonderful to hang out with him after not seeing him for practically two whole years.

And last night, I went to bed. FINALLY.



This was a whirlwind of a last week, but it was wonderful in every way possible. And guess what?? I have another visitor coming to see me... and he will arrive in approximately one hour, so I must go! I can't wait to show Bobby around this great city :). I will update you all when he leaves!

<3
Nat