wonderful world of wax

last sunday, i met up with a former classmate who was in NYC touring with her husband and 9-month-old baby boy. the bus i rode to get there was excruciatingly slow--it took almost 2 hours when normally it should have been only half that time!

the spanish-speaking lady i sat beside with saw the time on my wristwatch and exclaimed, "oh my god! it's 3'o clock and we're still [in jersey]! when i go to work there it only takes an hour and 15 minutes!"

"maybe it's because it's a sunday?", i suggested, but secretly i was just as exasperated, since i was supposed to meet my friend at 3pm, and here i am still about 30 minutes away from the ny/nj port authority bus terminal. looking around, i saw that the bus was full, and still the driver kept picking up passengers, but advising them that it's "standing room only".

the lady then proceeded to say the exact same thing to her companions sitting in front of her, but in spanish.

i continuously texted my friend and apologized that my bus was running late, so our meeting time would be closer to 4pm. i had designated the toys r'us store in times square as our venue.

thank god it was nice and sunny that day, but there was definitely plenty of tourists milling about in 42nd street that my walking speed was slowed down.

my friend and her family had come all the way from virginia to visit manhattan that weekend, and i'm glad i was able to meet them and finally see her baby boy and husband.

to make up for my tardiness (caused mainly by lakeland bus lines), i decided to treat them to madame tussaud's wax museum, which is conveniently on 42nd street. luckily i had a $10-off discount coupon which i received in the mail for that place. the tickets cost $29 for adults now...and with the coupon, i saved $30 for all three of us (the baby was free).

the last time i went there was three years ago. since then, they've added more celebrities to their exhibit. i'm posting some of my pictures and letting the wax speak for themselves...





i must say, britney's waxy likeness climbing the rod, mimicking her previous concert (from way back when she hadn't chopped off her locks) is very impressive. other new additions in the museum were paris hilton, donald trump, bill and hillary clinton, and even that savvy pirate known as capt. jack sparrow. that one was a paid photo op, though, and my friend has that hard copy. i do hope she remembers to email it to me. haha.

i noticed, however, that the beatles were missing from the exhibit. i saw them there three years ago. perhaps they flew to the madame tussauds wax museum in london. after all, that is their native homeland.

what's so amazing about madame tussaud's is that you can actually hold the wax figures, even put your arm on their shoulder when taking pictures with them. i wince a little when i see people embracing the wax figures because they might accidentally damage them.