So once again, I took the bus down from Boston. This time, I had a travel companion in the form of Melissa (VanHanFan) who had come down from NH. We had a good time chatting about Luke, Noah, Van, Jake....and not all that much else on the way down.

The bus made good time, and we arrived in NYC at 2:45. Melissa hadn't been to the city before, and while I'm no expert, having now been three times in 5 weeks, I'm starting to get my old knowledge of it back, so we wandered around to site see...Times Square, Rockefeller Center, St. Patricks, NY Public Library, Central Park, and perhaps the most important landmark...the Marriot Marquis! While in Times Square we were stopped by someone from Weight Watchers to share our most ridiculous diet stories which would be put up on a jumbotron in the Square with our photo. Melissa discussed the "no-eating" diet, and the woman totally went along with my thoroughly made up "gum-only" diet. We did not get to see if we really ended up on the jumbotron. Then we headed back to meet the crew for dinner.

We were a smidge late for our 5 o'clock dinner at Dallas BBQ just off Times Square near the Port Authority. Laura, Renee (with her fetching new hairstyle), Lisa and Christian were already there when we arrived. Shirphie showed up just a moment after us. We were seated, and Lisa started things off right by ordering a Texas Style Strawberry Daquiri. Since she'd suggested the restaurant, I trusted her judgement and got the same. That was a high quality beverage and lasted the whole meal...not generally the case for me! Impressive. Conversation weaved in and out of various Nuke topics. After we were done, we paid the check, had a ridiculous surplus of money (a sure indicator that you're eating with good people) and then headed to Port Authority to meet Josh.

Josh seemed to walk out right on time, so we were on our way back to New World Stages. We passed some of the groups previous haunts, like the Olympic Diner, and the Vanmark Starbucks on 8th between 49th and 50th.

Christian had an extra seat right in the front row, and we came to a general consensus that Melissa should take it since she hadn't been to the show yet, and most of the rest of us had all had the chance to sit close before. Shirphie and Josh took their seats, and Laura, Renee, Lisa and I took our seats in Row H and scanned the crowd for celebrities. The girls spotted Mario Cantone, and while he was lovely, that was about it.

Just before show-time, an usher came to our section and asked if there was a group of four that wanted to move to the front row. You have never seen four people who barely know each other react with such simultaneous precision. All four of our hands went up and I think we all yelled "We'll go!" in harmony. I feel this was karma because we had generously suggested Melissa have a front row seat. The theater gods paid us back. This is my fourth time seeing the show, and with my newly upgraded front row seat, I've seen it in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th row.

When Charles Busch came out, he received an extended ovation from the crowd, hamming it up the whole time. It was really nice. You could tell from that point on that the crowd was really on board for the performance.

At the time in previous performances when pretty much ALL of us have mistakenly thought Van was coming out, only to be disappointed when it was Tony Parker, this time we were prepared, and all four of us looked at each other and whispered "Not Van!".

When Van did come on stage, he was pretty much perfect as usual. The jeans from the first costume were riding low as usual, and during his coming out scene on the chair, Van was directly in front of us. Lisa and Laura definitely had the giggles...but we all had a great view.

When Van pulled the "fall" out of his hair, his own hair stood straight up...he looked sort of like a rooster. This hadn't happened during any of the previous performances I've seen, and Tony Parker, when reacting, definitely made a different facial expression to refelect how crazy Van's hair looked. It was cute. Van somehow managed to fix it during about 5 seconds off stage, and his hair looked perfect when he came back out. So jealous of his hair.

At one point, Edie bumped the chair nearest us a bit too hard, and a button fell of of it. Lisa immediately made eyes to the rest of us to try to grab the button, but the opportunity was not really presenting itself.

When the show ended, the crowd held off on the Standing O, which gave us the perfect opportunity to give our now customary Van standing ovation. Melissa joined in, as did Christian. the rest of the audience followed suit shortly thereafter, and stayed standing through Charles' short speech at the end, where he once again mentioned the Oklahoma marching band and then talked about being ready for a rest and happy to have other projects in the works. He thanked the cast and the crew, producers, director, etc. After the cast left the stage, with just Charles waving from the window, I saw my chance and grabbed the button from the chair.

I shall frame it and bring it to the luncheon as a relic we may all venerate!

We headed outside still looking for celebrities, seeing Mario Cantone again, but still not really anyone else. While we were waiting to see Van, Shirphie spotted Sarah Jessica Parker coming out from backstage...but didn't quite get to us in time for the rest of us to see her.

We could see Van backstage, but it was beginning to look like we might not get to see him, since they were having a cast party. However, not long after Van came out and came directly over to us, saying that while they were having a little party, he didn't want to keep us waiting. Guh. So sweet.

He once again recognized Lisa right away. She got an autograph for Scott. People pointed out that he was wearing the Henry Davis t-shirt, and Josh even attempted to translate it for Van when he admitted he didn't know what it meant (and didn't even really remember it was the Henry Davis t-shirt). Van suggested we all check out the Sherri Davis vids.

Renee got her picture taken (since she had a new hairdo), as did Laura (since her first one was a polaroid). Van basically did the justifying for us, mentioning that it would be a different picture because this time he didn't have a hat on. Melissa and Josh, being the two members of our crew who hadn't seen the show before (and both just jumped on board with Nuke within the last week or so!!) each got their pics with Van, as did Christian. Once we were on a roll, we pretty much decided we all would, so I got a fresh pic with Van. The group were all recreating the moment from last week when Van was looking for me to thank me for the comic I gave him...saying my name over and over like Van did. And that jogged his memory...as he put his arm around me he was like "Oh...the Avengers!" and I was like "Right!". He remembered me! Double guh. Shirphie got her pic taken, too.

Not sure of the exact order here, but in between photos and autographs, Renee represented for the lesbians on the board, and Shirphie asked how Van liked the food from last week. He said he liked the fudge, and then went on for about 30 seconds about how good Jammi's cinnamon bread was, complete with dramatic hand gestures displaying how he tried to have a little but just ate it all. We started to say goodbye, but I pointed out Lisa still hadn't gotten her fresh picture. So she did...losing her bet (she'd also already talked to Van). Who didn't see that coming?

Van once again started to leave, and talk turned to seeing him again at the lunch, to which he said "definitely". He mentioned that he wanted a longer line than Henry and Vienna, and we assured him that was almost a guarantee.

Van started to say goodbye, but we stopped him one last time. I gave him a copy of the group photo from last week (forgetting Roger had said he'd send him one), and Melissa gave him some Green Tea gum. Lisa and a couple others from our group mentioned to Van to thank Charles for a great show. Van finally said goodbye and went backstage, and a moment later Charles popped out and called us over. Lisa started to thank him for the great performance, and he asked us if we were "Van's friends". Guh again.

Charles was also very gracious, signing autographs and taking photos with most of us.

We headed out into the rain to work our way home. Melissa and I were a little nervous as we'd heard that Greyhound had suspended service because of the weather, but it turned out our bus was the last to be leaving, and we managed to actually get on an earlier bus. Still, snow slowed us down some and it was another really long day. But well worth it!! I can't believe it went as smoothly as it did all over again, and Van was as gracious and generous as he had been last week...and even more relaxed and comfortable.