2909.9 Miles

HEY THANKS FOR READING THIS! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COMMENT AS YOU GO. THX - Katie (also all of this is true I made none of it up)
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I never thought I'd get to see them again. Never for one second believed that I, a California fansie, would get to fly 2909.9 miles to get to see them again. But I did. I know that not a lot of people got to go and even less from my side of the country, but this was such an amazing night that I really wanted to share it.

November 6, 2016: New York City

There was nothing like a Newsies Day. By this point I'd already been through 3 and each one was significantly different. Something is magical about a Newsies day. The excitement and the nervousness practically consume you. For example, I didn't eat anything the whole two days I was in New York because I was so nervous and excited to see them again.

My sister, Sammie, and I were an emotional wreck this day. She was so excited to see Sky again and all of our other favorites. We watched the social media accounts all day for pictures about it which fueled our excitement. Tonight was going to be different than the past three Newsies Days. Tonight we'd get to see some people we've never seen before. Examples: Dan DeLuca, Jeff Heimbrock, Mike Ryan.

For those of you who don't know my full Newsies story, I didn't see the show live for the first time until May 2016. I had been begging for tickets since 2014, but my mom wasn't taking the bait. She nibbled the bait and got hooked on the show. Leading to two more trips to Newsies Square and a Christmas present trip to New York to see the Variety Show. Because of this, I never got to see Dan, Steph and co. (Hence why they aren't very present in my fanfictions- because I don't know them).

We spent the entire day leading up to the show in Central Park: enjoying the fall, watching the marathoners, being happy. Central Park is gorgeous in the fall. The leaves are all red and yellow and orange. That's magical to me because where I live the trees go from green to completely brown. No pretty fall, so getting to see one was amazing. The minutes ticked by and the show was getting closer and closer. The show was at 7 and the doors were opening at 5:15. We could barely wait.

I remember my sister asking me, "Are you excited to see Josh again?"

I think I recall just nodding and saying, "I can't even eat."

(If you don't know anything about my fan relationship with Josh please go read my other Newsies Day books right now)

At 4:30, our subway train pulled into the station 16 blocks from 54 Below. As I climbed the steps to get out of the station, all my butterflies showed up. I felt like I might vomit. There was nothing like it.

We walked all the blocks and laughed about how cool it would be to see Tyler Mount. Then we stopped at 54th street.

My heart was so full. I was on the same street as 54 Below. My poor inner broadway fangirl couldn't handle herself.

We turned down the street and walked three blocks to actually get to 54 Below. I was under scaffolding, but we found it perfectly fine. My family and I ducked into a hotel to change into the clothes we brought for this very occasion.

I changed as quickly as possible into my dress and leggings. I smiled in the mirror as I thought of what tonight could be.

We finished then walked down the street to get something warm to drink because it was so darn cold out (not used to cold: California).

Two hot chocolates later, my family walked back. I was extremely excited to share the Newsies with my dad for the first time. My mom had been with me at every single Newsies venture, and my sister at two of the three. But never my dad. He heard all the stories and even knew a few of the songs, but never tagged along when we went. My dad and I are extremely close so getting to share a group of people I'm so in love with with him was going to be awesome.