Stop, Grammy-time… (Forgive me for the long pauses, I’ve been so stupid busy.)

Day 3 – The Call

On day 3, I woke up earlier than I expected after a long night out galavanting all over the town, and I’m so glad I did because this is the morning I received that fateful call. “Hello, is this DeAndre Wright?” “Yessssssssss, who’s calling?” “This is Blankitty-Blank with the Recording Academy and we saw your request for a ticket since you emailed that you were in the New York area. Still interested?” “OH MY GOSH! Uh yesssssssss.” Blur blur blur. Yada yada yada. “Alrighty, well your ticket for both the ceremony and show have been confirmed and processed. Can you come in today to pick up your ticket at bippity-boppity-boo?” “Yes! I’ll be there within the hour!”

And just like that, I was set to go to my first awards show, the 60th Grammy Awards in Madison Square Gardens. I don’t even think I believed it. I was in shock. It’s been weeks since that call and I’m still in shock. At the time, I didn’t even think it was real life. Like how could my random waitlist inquiry turn into a whole ticket? I don’t know, but it did. I made a few calls, squealed a bit, threw on my best fabulously-casual ensemble and headed out to pick up my tickets.

It was crazy. During my walk, I was stopped by a random lady who asked me if I knew a rapper named Montana who just left some nearby nice-store on a shopping spree. Took me a few minutes to realize she meant French Montana and that I was absolutely headed in the right direction.

So I made it to the ticket pick up location and I’ll spare you the details but as I walked out, I almost scored red carpet credentials (by accident). Drunk off excitement, I practically powerwalked back to my hotel room as I talked to my mom and stepdad about my adventure. I laid my tickets on the bed and sat in disbelief. It was all too good to be true.

After hiding my tickets in in the room (yes, I sure did), I got ready for my next hoorah. It was time to meet New York extraordinaire, the Ms. Sara Katherine Runnels.  I’ve known Sara since the 6th grade and in my adult life, she’s become a kindred spirit full of ambition (mixed with a healthy dose of shenanigans). Sara wanted to take me somewhere “Instagram-worthy” and we ended up here –at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge.

We talked, ate and drank champagne for hours while looking at the Empire State Building as our backdrop. It was fabulous. I felt just like Mariah Carey on MTV Cribs. All I needed was a bathtub…but real life, it was amazing. Then she took me to Little Italy where we bar hopped our way over to Chinatown and later met with my college friend Darrel. I felt like I fit right in. I was a New Yorker. Thanks Sara and Darrel.

Day 4 – The Dress

Sunday, I woke up early again. How? I don’t know. My body hated me but I made it up and got a call from my friend who wasn’t able to make the trip. In all of her PR-marketing wizardry, the chick scored me a dress with a new designer from New York and demanded me to be at my fitting in less than an hour. This was on Grammy Day y’all. I was like are you kidding me?! I barely had pulled my life together but I trekked my way to 5th Avenue and went upstairs to this beautiful studio full of glamour goodies. I was in heaven. Thank you Gracy Accad!

After dropping the dress off at my hotel, I had to grab food and hit a couple shops to finish my look. My friend Darrel (from the night before) was nice enough to meet with me for lunch and show me around the city a little more before my big night. We even got to walk through Central Park, it was beautiful and I can’t wait to go back when it’s green.

So I get back to the room again, with everything I needed and there I am with this fabulous dress panicking over my new look. It took me about an hour or so to do my makeup and then my buddy from Houston (Christopher Allen) did an impromptu photo shoot with me in my room and in the lobby of the hotel. As you might imagine, people were utterly confused. I didn’t care though, I felt like a Grammy nominee and I was low-key kicking myself for letting those Red Carpet credentials slip through my fingers.

After the drama of getting to the show in my Uber (there were shut down streets and traffic on the sidewalks leading into the venue), I finally made it. It was glorious. There was a sea of gowns and tuxes, faces I recognized from past associations and a slew of beautiful people. Mama I made it! I’m not rich but I sure did feel it.

I hiked to my seats in 5-inch heel, took in the view and started making new friends out of my neighbors before hearing from behind me “DeAndre?” I’m like, who at the Grammys knows me? It was my buddy Huy, a former A&R I met during my music label interning days. Then I ran into another friend of mine who was actually working the show so, naturally, we caught up and snapped pictures between the breaks.

The 60th Grammy Awards in Madison Square Garden

Now here’s the good stuff. I saw e’rrbody. I mean e’rrybody! I saw them scramble to their seats and get yelled at by a real-life Siri demanding everyone to sit back down before going live. I saw the stages get loaded with talent before they performed. I saw it all. I saw folks like Kendrick Lamar, Bono, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Cardi B, Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Sting perform. I just couldn’t believe my eyes or ears. People I would never have seen anywhere else were now in the same room with me being honored for their musical greatness. It was absolutely inspiring, then it was all over and time to party.

I headed over to the official afterparty and like everywhere else, fought traffic to even get in the room. And yes, it was as grand as you might imagine. There were floors of entertainment. There were endless drinks and so much food. There were ice sculptures, bars, lifesized floral arrangements and so many people everywhere. My brain was on overload. It didn’t stop me from eating, socializing, twirling, or dancing all over the place though. After doing the absolute most with a couple folks I happened to know, I saw some more celebrity-types and went back to my room. Cinderella’s lil carriage turned back into a pumpkin and the night was done. It was 4 am.

Nile Rodgers at the Official Grammy Afterparty

Day 5 – Pinch Me

My early flight couldn’t bring me off of my high. I made my flight without a hitch and returned home completely dumbfounded by the week I had just experienced. I went from being fearful to letting go and adventuring all over a place I thought I’d never come to love. I met so many people and had such a wonderful time. I felt it couldn’t have possibly been my life. I could barely sleep though I clearly didn’t while on my vacation.

Just Believe

I asked God how a girl like me, who came from the “hoods” of the north side of Houston, Texas could be so blessed to experience the things I have. How could someone like me be plopped into the most unbelievable situations? I don’t get what He’s doing up there but I figure it’s just a preview of the main event.

I haven’t stopped reflecting since then and what I realized was faith only works when you actually have it. I took a leap of faith and found it to be one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my life. Just remember friends – if you don’t have faith, you will never believe the impossible can absolutely become possible for yourself. And I’ll tell you what, I’m gonna keep living in this New York state of mind. <3

-D.Wright

Hitting the streets…

 The second day I woke up late and as you can imagine (after only one day in New York) had the most wonderful, deep sleep. I’ll spare you the details of how I woke up, but know – your girl had some good sleep smack dab in the center of Times Square. Again, this was only after one day of adventuring. I was sure that the rest of the weekend would be a long one.

I obviously missed the complimentary breakfast so I decided to venture out to find my first meal of the day before roaming the streets.  After pulling together my ensemble for the long walk, I managed to brave day two of the hawk and found a little spot nearby called Aya Sushi that seated about 10 people.

It was interesting, seeing people rush in and out. They came, they ordered, they left – repeat. Across the street, there was a woman on the second floor of this beautiful building shifting the curtains to frame a gorgeous chandelier. Then inside, there was this group of ladies going on about their men problems. One was absolutely jealous of this guy’s relationship and she just kept going on and on about how he would pay her no mind. I’m sitting there like yeah girl, it’s probably because doesn’t want your thirsty behind. Sigh, chicks today I tell you. So anyway, I’m sitting in this uber-small restaurant people watching and just hearing these stories swirl all about me, while sipping my wine with my tasty sushi and texting folks. It was so cozy. I enjoyed my moment for a good hour and a half before leaving and that’s when things started to speed up a bit.

My Faux Celeb Sightings

Whitney Houston

As I walked through the whipping winds, there were merchants and drivers everywhere I turned. Everyone was on the hustle. I guess that’s honestly the New York state of mind. All I wanted to do was go to Madame Tussaud‘s and it felt like the trip took forever. After following a trail of marquees and lights, I had finally I arrived, got my ticket and instantly became like a kid in a candy store.

It was pretty amazing and if you’ve ever been to Madame Tussaud’s you’d probably recall how freakishly accurate or laughably inaccurate some of the wax figures were. This installation was no different. There were some hits and definitely some misses, but overall the museum did a good job of catching celebrities in their most iconic moments. I was super excited to see Whitney Houston and ET.

ET

What caught me off guard was how impressive the British Royal Family was. It was so good it was creepy.

I think there was about 3 or 4 floors of figures to check out. I mean, it was just so many to look at and standing right next them was definitely weird. It’s like how is it that these people are so tall or is it that I’m more of a smurf than I imagined?

The Royal Family

As I was heading out, I saw the “Spice Girls” and tried to take a picture. After some failed attempts due to photobombing, a woman hit me with the “oh I’m so sorry I’m in your way. And you know what you kind of look like Scary Spice” Insert blank stare here. I went to the gift shop and got my souvenir and left. It was so dumb I had to laugh.

Anywho I headed out back to the bustling streets of NY and in the midst of the wasp’s nest that was Times Square. It was still frozen in that beautiful kind of crazy I left when I entered the wax museum. I was overwhelmed, yet excited. I mean who would have thought New York would have me turning into a little Black Dora the Explorer? I figured, “I have a whole rest of the day left, I have to keep on adventuring.” So where would the buzzy streets take me next, right? I just so happened to wander into an artist’s paradise, naturally.

MOMA-Mia

I had heard amazing things about their art museums from a few friends and knew just the direction to head. Mind you, I’ve never done so much deep exploration in my life so MOMA aka The Museum of Modern Art would be like my own little feat.

Louise Bourgeois, Arch of Hysteria

First of all, they have this whole Free Friday Nights deal that I just happened to stumble onto. I just knew it was MTB. Then, the entry way was glorious and I was immediately met with this enormous Spider installation by artist Louise Bourgeois. I hate spiders by the way. It was INSANE.

Then there were about five floors of the most beautiful pieces of work I’ve ever seen in my life, including a classic van Gogh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen classic art presented in this way. I mean I’ve been to a couple museums but this was extravagant.

I have no clue what this piece was called, it’s just so shiny and pretty.

I know I have to go back to visit New York for the museums alone. The history is just so amazing in this city and they have all of these ridiculously wonderful collections of seemingly everything. How was I not aware? And the crazy thing is I always felt like I would hate New York if I ever visited it. Then there I was, all in love, looking at a fabulous van Gogh with shrieking school children and enthusiastic parents. I fit right in.

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night

The walk back home, after such a cool experience, was magical. I took everything all in and snapped more pictures. Can you guys  honestly believe I was out in the city for about 10 hours, all on my own, and did not get lost?! I mean, I was on a freaggin roll! I even took an alternate route so that I could get another view of the city. How is it that you can even be starstruck by dog-on buildings?! Radio City looked just like I imagined it to be and per the usual, at this point, there were people everywhere. I think it took me about twenty minutes or so to get back to the hotel but I braved the cold and walked as if it were Spring. I couldn’t rush through it, I just couldn’t. I mean how many first walks alone, at night, in New York City does a girl get? It was my first and I will never forget it.

Now on to the good stuff. There was more food! I made a pit stop back at the hotel, threw on some extra layers (so I wouldn’t catch pneumonia) and was ready to roll back out. My friend Brittany and I decided to head out to a nice dinner in true New York fashion – at a swanky Japanese restaurant named Inakaya NY. Let me tell you, IT WAS AMAZING…the ambiance, the food, the cocktails. I thought I was in Sex and the City for like 2 seconds. Just like only 2, then snapped back into reality. It was a great experience, they even did like a blessing for us. I couldn’t have been happier.

We ended the night with my other buddies visiting from Houston, photographer Chris Allen and marketing chick Arnaecia Jones-Aldrige. And since the night was young, we hit Jay-Z’s The 40/40 Club. It was definitely a good time. They had two DJ’s, quality cocktails, a coat check AND we didn’t break the bank being there. I definitely recommend getting your partying tourist on there if you’re into R&B and hip-hop. We had a blast and there was lots of twirling – from me.

Now can you people see why it took so long for me to update?! It’s been quite the last two weeks, on top of this being one of the busiest days I had while in New York. There was obviously a lot to cover but I promise to tell y’all about the rest of the trip like in like the next two days. <3

-D. Wright

Touchdown…

I landed, and a rush of nervousness spread from my head to my toes.

Laguardia was definitely overwhelming. It was old and full of characters straight out of a Black 90s sitcom. It was the best kind of circus to be apart of. Well wait…not when you’ve never been in it. I take that back. Luckily my buddy was on hand and waiting for me at the airport. Thanks Tyrrell, you helped make me appear less awkward. After clumsily picking up my bags and getting pimp slapped by 37-degree weather followed by the infamous NY “hawk,” we hopped in an Uber and I was on my way.

The car ride was awesome as far as I’m concerned. It was well worth all of my lil $40 (yes brace yourselves for an up-charge in any service you need while in the city). I’m sure I annoyed everyone in the car but you know what… YOLO fools! I had my “mild” fan girl moments as we passed up historic landmarks and buildings. I soaked it all in. Even the wall unit ACs made me excited. Needless to say, my friend likely thought I was out of my mind but decided to humor me with useless facts and all the New York nerdy things. That’s one thing I really appreciate about New York, there’s so much to learn and I want to learn all the things, cause duh – nerd.

Anyway, we dropped off my bags at my new temporary home in Times Square (the hotel) and got to wandering. Of course it started with food because that was just the right thing to do in order to keep me from terrorizing anyone in New York with my Texas sized hangriness. So I was fueled up and we were off!

As you might have seen in my Snapchat (@msdcwright), we did team too much…

Time Square

Union Square

Soho

Battery Park

I took pictures of literally everything, including the Metro-Card dispenser at the train station. I’m legit turning into my mom. Sue me! I don’t care, I was just so into the experience. Tyrrell obviously took his tour guide role seriously because he answered all my questions, and made sure that I didn’t look like a lame on the train. That would have totally been tragic.

I would say out of all the places in Manhattan the 9/11 memorial was one of the toughest things I’ve seen so far, monument wise. I had this eerie feeling wash through me and literally became nauseous the closer I got to the names on the wall. I’m glad I had an opportunity to see it but I don’t know if I’ll be going back to it any time soon. It was a spiritually taxing experience but soooooooo beautiful, go see it for yourself. The folks who created it put a lot of love into it but, I in all of my incorporeal beliefs, couldn’t help but wonder if I was taking in some seismic, beyond-this-life, kind of energy. And with that said, I don’t have time to start hearing and seeing spirits in New York or Texas. That’s not in my ministry. Since I legit sat there thinking I was turning to the little boy from 6th Sense, I asked to move to the next location and the nausea instantly stopped.

Next on the tour was Battery Park. I’d seen the famous hood on television and it wasn’t too far off from where we were so I was excited to stop in, and cherry on top, I got to see the lady of the hour. I’ve always dreamed of seeing the Statue of Liberty and let me tell you, even from a distance she’s beautiful. I needed to see her, especially during these times when so many people try to challenge our freedoms but I won’t even go there right now. Just enjoy the picture.

So hours of adventuring passed and I finally made it back to my room. My room was fabulous by the way and I’m so glad I chose to stay in a hotel near everything. I was absolutely worn out. I’m not made for that life but it was cool. I called up my friend who I grew up with and as soon as she got off work, we went to this amazing spot called Tonic. Now, I wasn’t expecting a gourmet meal but let me tell you, I was so happy in the depths of my soul. It was on point. Thank you Brittany, you made a wonderful suggestion girl!

Lots of girl talk and catching up ensued throughout the remainder of the evening. I felt so grateful to just be in the presence of friends.

The rest is on deck for later. Night! <3

-D.Wright

A few thoughts while on my plane ride…

This week, I decided to do something completely insane and totally out of my character.

For the first time in my life, I decided to hop on a plane to New York (a city I’ve never been to), alone and during one of the biggest events of the year – the Grammy Awards.

Initially I had a partner in crime who was set to take New York by storm with me. We purchased our tickets months ago for a steal but after a cluster of roadblocks and set backs, she decided to skip out on what could could potentially be a bomb of a trip. I don’t mean a good bomb either. I probably shouldn’t be typing this while on a plane but it’s legitimately what I’m thinking while heading into one of the most intimidating places I’ve heard of in America. Just know all the signs pointed to a big fat no.

Something kept tugging at me though, it said “Go, you don’t want to miss this.” The last time I heard that voice, my car was saved from torrential flooding. This intuition wasn’t met without some opposition though. I went down a tunnel of terrible “what ifs” that included worst case scenarios like being robbed, getting lost a la Home-Alone-style and without a Talkboy to record my last of days, being completely solo for four days, and all kinds of other crazy things I’m sure I could handle because I’m adulting got-dog-it. I’m a real adult, ok?!

Thank God I had a couple loving gnats in my ear who threatened me for about an hour with the consequences of not taking healthy risks. They wished me all the blessings I could handle as I traveled and encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and to be less of a wet blanket. Hi Whitney and Angela, you guys suck but I appreciate you both :-). I honestly thought Angela would surely slap me at some point, but a couple of her classic f-bombs and encouragement set me straight. I figured I should listen. I mustered up the courage to reach out to some of my long time friends and committed myself to my first ever adventure, well kind of.

My New York friends gave me wonderful perspective, offered up their homes and even their networks while I hung out in the Big Apple. I’m so appreciative to know selfless and supportive people but even after those exchanges, I still looked for an out. Then I told my dad what I was about to do and he simply asked “how are you getting to the airport?” And just like that, I had a ride to the airport and I knew there was no turning back, there was no out. I was going to New York. No lie y’all, I was a little shocked because this was the same man I generally would have to book out a few weeks with to get a ride! He has his own service, where he does this for a living so I thought I was going to be Ubering my butt to BushIntercontinental! I sat there dumbfounded like “Alright God, are you sure?” but I knew the answer. I was supposed to be on this trip. I mean come on! I even found a hotel room in Times Square for a reasonable rate 5 hours before my flight (thanks De)!

Man…I’m sitting here on this plane even now in disbelief as I type but yeah, I booked a place just to help balance out my anxieties. I’m not quite ready for an Airbnb situation in an overwhelming city so since I decided getting a hotel would help with my new experience. Next time I think I’ll try Airbnb or a friend’s house though, especially because I don’t anticipate making a solo trip back at the last minute any time soon.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have something to report back. Just know, today this whole thing feels right. I know I’m moving in the right direction and there’s nothing more fulfilling than knowing that you’re actively taking steps to changing the course of your life.

More to come later. <3

-D.Wright