20 April 2007

“Trixie & The Oklahomos” Take Over Times Square

What’s New York City without a good night of sober fun in Times Square dressed up as a country rock band from the great state of Oklahoma? It ended up that several friends were in The City for various reasons, allowing for one big night out full of fun, laughter and country singin’. It’s no secret that I’m knuts, as are most of my friends. What drove us to raid Tina’s closet in search of the world’s finest cowboy-inspired “threads” is beyond me, but I was definitely feeling my red hat and aviator glasses.

After a major photo shoot in her apartment we hit the town in search of excitement. Equipped with our finest Oklahoma accents, the looks and stares came before we even got to the end of the block. After a failed attempt at karaoke it was decided that the only place to really truly enjoy our temporarily created selves was to go directly to the epicenter of the universe – Times Square. It started off light and fuzzy – a few Puerto Rican girls asked to take their picture with us. We agreed and struck our “band pose,” as we called it.

Then Tina & Emily decided to chat up a police officer, who couldn’t of been nicer. Another photo shoot ensued.

From there is was off to Hard Rock Café, where Tina asked the mater dei if “this is where the singing competition is.” She explained that we had won the youth singing extravaganza in Oklahoma and that we were now here to compete in the national competition. This led to some confusion and discussion until Trixie herself asked point blank, “where is the stage? We need to rehearse.” Sadly, Hard Rock wasn’t familiar with said competition. Neither was Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Factory, Planet Hollywood (where Trixie became obsessed with photographing the large Batman toy suspended from the ceiling), The Marriot Marquis or TGI Friday’s, where we ended up stopping for dessert. Our lovely waitress Chental couldn’t of been nicer, teaching us the ins and outs of the scary and intimidating “Big Apple.”

After a good three hours of happiness and merriment we hopped into a cab and headed back home, pledging to seek out the competition venue on Saturday. While the whole evening was a rip-roaring good time, what struck me more than anything was how few people took notice of our ridiculous outfits and terrible accents! Post-China I had this idea in my head that people in the US were just constantly staring at everyone but it seems that – in New York at least – Americans, like the Chinese, could really care less. How refreshing…or is it?

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