We just got back from Spamalot, which was pretty good. It was a little weird - going to an “official Broadway” show was really not that different from a lot of other theater I’ve seen. Yes, it was well-produced, and there was a lot of technical accuracy and energy that is missing from smaller or slightly shoddy theaters, but it was not a different experience, if that makes sense. Still well worth the money, though, and I’m looking forward to Ave Q on Saturday afternoon. (I have all of tomorrow open, and am going to find a couple of smaller things to go see, which will be awesome.)
Re: the trip from Islip in - it was stupidly easy. I mean, ridiculously so. Machines that gave me clear directions on ticket purchase, good signage, and a very peaceful train ride into the city. Getting from Penn to Grand Central was a little harder, but only because I hadn’t prepared to have to switch lines. Once I’d ridden a train or two and made subway transfers once, it was totally easy. To put that in perspective, I have ridden buses twice, and that’s the full sum of my mass transit experience. I shied away from Atlanta subways because they are so poorly labelled and confusing, and NYC’s have been quite easy all the way around.
On that score, two things of note: have $5 handy for the shuttle from Islip to Ronkonkoma. They show up every hour, and are clearly labelled. Two: have a clear plan for navigating the subway system when you get into Penn. It’s not terribly hard, but knowing in advance which line you’re getting on makes it much easier. Hello Again, if you’d like the longer version, let me know - it’s pretty damned mundane and pointless, even for here. 
Weirdly enough, the city feels a lot like every other big city I’ve seen in America… just… well, bigger! Heh. Everything is taller, and brighter - but it’s not nearly as busy as I expected, and it’s much easier to get around than I thought it would be. I haven’t ventured far from my base of operations much yet - that will be tomorrow and Saturday during the day - but what I have seen has been both impressive and not really surprising.
The weirdest thing is riding in a subway car by myself and thinking “this is when the music comes on in the horror movie and the people in the audience start screaming for me to turn around or something.” If that’s the scariest it gets, I could stroll around here for weeks without being fazed.
D_Odds - you haven’t run me down in the street yet, so I assume that I haven’t gotten sufficiently in your way yet. I’ll keep an eye out for a guy with his head down, looking late for something and annoyed… I may run out of fingers to count on before I get to the end of the block, though, so you’re probably okay. 
(Contrarily, if you see a chubby girl in a purple suede jacket gawping at things and laughing a lot, that’s probably me. Feel free to body check me on the way by - it’ll be a Real NY Experience ™!) I have taken a fair amount of care to stay well to the right on sidewalks and escalators, which has been pretty effective - and forcibly hauling my beloved husband out of the path of traffic when he stops to stare at something.
“You see those people? Those are the people we fuckin’ hated in Nashville - dumb, in the way, need to get hit by a truck. Don’t be those people!”
I am having fun. I cannot wait to come back, and I haven’t even left yet!
