Friends, if you’ve been following along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you already know that my trip to NY for the New Voices of Beauty filming was amazing.  It was one of those experiences that’s so surreal you can hardly believe it’s actually happening in real life.  Getting my hair, makeup, and nails done by a glam squad, having a videographer follow me as I walked the city streets, and getting to ask Maura Lynch my beauty questions are not exactly things that happen in my everyday life.  And I promise to tell you about all of them!

But first, in keeping with the way we roll around here, I have a few other stories to tell you.  Stories that will remind you even though I might look like I’m channeling my inner movie star, I’m honestly still just me, which sometimes means…well, you’ll see.

My friend Jess traveled to the city with me again, and the moment she arrived to pick me up, the handle of my screen door came off in her hand.  It was right then that I knew I’d have to share a “blooper reel” with you of all the ridiculous, goofy things that happened.  Some of them just confirmed that I’m not much of a big city girl, like the fact that I had no idea you had to use your room key in the hotel elevator in order to successfully get to your floor, so we were kind of stuck in the elevator going nowhere until a hotel employee pointed out that little fact {while laughing at us}.

Some of them were just me being less-than-graceful, like when I was meeting two of the other girls and tripped over a table, or when we were filming the four of us walking down the sidewalk and I tripped over a set of stairs.  Awesome.  Some of them involved me being star-struck, like when we were in the hallway at Lucky and Jean Godfrey-June, the Executive Beauty Director was walking toward us.  I faithfully read her columns and she was the one person {besides Eva Chen} I had secretly hoped to meet on the trip, but in that moment I was so awestruck I just stood there like a dufus right smack in the middle of the hallway.  She had to walk around me, and gracious lady that she is, she said, “Sorry” as she walked by, as though it were her fault I was frozen in place right in her way.  {I so wanted to crawl in a hole!}

But those are just the tip of the iceberg.  Let me tell you my three favorite stories {I’m saving the best for last}.

3. Walk this Way

Pretty much everywhere we went, Lucky had arranged transportation for us, which was awesome because once I’m outside of Times Square and the Theater District, I have no idea where I am in NYC.  On Saturday, a car came to pick the four of us up at the hotel and take us to Mercer Kitchen for a delicious brunch, then Jamie from P&G Beauty and Dina from Lucky walked the streets of Soho with us, taking us shopping.

We went to TopShop and Madewell, then Jamie and Dina had to get back to work, so we were left to fend for ourselves.  After a quick trip to H&M, Katie and I had finished our shopping and were ready to head back to the hotel, while Nikki and Naty were headed for Piperlime.  Katie and I figured we’d just split a cab; how hard could that be?  So, we flagged down a cab and told him to take us to W 16th Street.  He said no.  We were totally thrown off…um, isn’t it a cab driver’s job to drive us where we want to go?  Apparently, he wasn’t allowed to go to that part of town…who knew?  He pointed in a direction and told us to walk that way and try to find a different cab.  We literally had no idea where we were at all, let alone where we were in relation to our hotel.  I decided we should go down into the Subway station and check the map, then maybe take the train back.  Unfortunately, from our particular location, we would have had to change trains three times to get there.  But the map did help us figure out which way to walk so we were getting closer to the hotel as we looked for another driver.  So we walked.  And walked.  And walked.  Our apparent inability to hail a cab continued; we didn’t even see one at all.  We were both freezing, particularly Katie, who’s used to Florida weather, so I started praying for a Starbucks, which we eventually found.  After recharging with grande hot chocolates, we walked the remaining way back…it ended up being a 2 mile hike back from Soho.  At least it was free {well, except for Starbucks} and we got our exercise, right?

2. Makeup Mishap

It’s not every day I get to have someone do my makeup.  In fact, I have only had it done three times, always for a dance showcase.  I even did my own makeup for my wedding.  But the day of the filming, Lucky brought in a glam squad to do our hair, makeup, and manicures…how fabulous, right?  So, I’m there in the chair having my makeup done by someone who works with professional models and celebrities.  And she starts frowning.

She’s putting on my foundation, and she’s staring at my left cheek, back by my ear.  She grabs a tissue and starts rubbing at my face.  Frowns some more. She calls over her assistant and asks her to bring over some remover.  The assistant comes back and starts scrubbing my cheek with something.  “Is something wrong?” I ask.  “Glue.” she says.  “You have some kind of glue on your face…?” and gives me a look as if to say, “Why on earth is there glue on your cheek?”  Meanwhile, I’m instantly remembering the last projects I worked on before coming on the trip.  Yep.  It’s either Elmer’s glue from our Valentine Mailbox or Mod Podge from one of several projects.  I must have had some on my finger, then gotten it on my face while trying to push my hair behind my ear. The perils of being an Artsy Mama…

1. Can’t touch this

So. The filming was over and it was time to meet Jess back at NY Penn Station to catch our Acela train home.  I arrived there first and decided to wait for her over by the NJ Transit area because there was some room there to stand and not be in everyone’s way.  At that point I had five bags; my giant purple suitcase, my gift bag from Lucky, my shopping bag that was holding my comfy shoes so I could change during the filming, the messenger bag I wore for the video, and my JoTotes camera bag.  Jess had texted me that she was in a cab and was still a few minutes away, so I decided to sit everything down except for the messenger bag.  We had planned to meet at a particular entrance, but Jess’ cab dropped her off at a different one instead.  She called me saying she didn’t know where I was.  She told me all the stores and things she could see and I told her what I could see, and we decided to walk toward each other until we saw the same things.  I picked up my things and started walking.  Finally, we both saw the same Wells Fargo, and then each other!  Hooray!  But that wasn’t the end of the story…

We were discussing where to grab dinner, when I looked down and realized that something was missing!  My JoTotes bag!  Immediately, I realized I’d left it sitting back at the NJ Transit.  I had the worst sinking feeling…that bag {besides being super cute and stylish and awesome} had thousands of dollars worth of stuff in it.  It had my Nikon D5100.  It had my SpeedLight attachable flash.  It had my laptop cord, mouse, and cell phone charger.  My sunglasses.  And it also held my train ticket home.  “I’ll stay right here with everything, you RUN,” Jess told me.  So I did.  I just knew it was gone.  I mean, there we are right in the middle on NYC with hundreds of people coming and going…it would have been so easy for anyone just to pick it up and go and have all of my things.  I was sure it was gone forever.  Then I saw it!  A flash of turquoise!  My bag was still there!

I ran right to it and reached for it, when a voice stopped me.  “You can’t touch that.”  I looked up and saw five uniformed and armed military officers.  Gulp.  Then this happened:

Me: “Um, It’s mine.”
Officer: “What is it?”
Me: “It’s my camera bag.  I left it here by accident…I was walking to meet my friend and I forgot to pick it up.”
Officer: “What’s in it?”
Me: “Just my camera…um, well, my Nikon, my lens, my flash, my…”
Officer: “Ok. Slowly open it.”
Me: {unzipping it} “See, there’s my camera…”
Officer: “Ok.  Fine.  Zip it up.  You can go.” {says something into a microphone on her uniform}
Me: “I’m really really really sorry.”
Officer: {nothing}

Can you believe it?  Let it sink in so you appreciate this story to its fullest.  They thought my JoTotes bag was a bomb in Penn Station.  I was so embarrassed and relieved all at the same time.  Of course, someone must have seen a random bag left there and reported it; in today’s world, you have to.  What an experience.

So, next time you start playing the comparing game, let me remind you that on my once in a lifetime trip, I tripped, I froze, I got lost, I couldn’t hail a cab, I walked around with glue on my face around Lucky staffers, and I alarmed the US Military who thought I was a terrorist.  Just saying.  All in a weekend’s work for One Artsy Mama.  Hope it gives you something to laugh about today!

Hugs & Glitter,