Originally posted on August 24, 2019
This is more of a fun post and less of an update… but I wanted to talk about something kind of strange that NYC has brought to me.
I wrote a blog about my first visit to New York City EVER in June… so, not that long ago. My mom and I made a 5 day trip just to see the city and do some tourist-y things since I already knew I wanted to make the move to pursue my career. While we were there, my mom got us tickets to be in the audience for an episode of the talk show Live with Kelly and Ryan. When you get to be on a talk show like Live with Kelly and Ryan, they don’t release who their guests on the show will be until a few days before they air. So, we had our tickets confirmed and were kinda confused by the information they were sending us and eventually (the day of the taping) realized that what we were going to be in the audience for NOT a live taping, but a 4th of July special. They encouraged people to wear patriotic garb which, we did not pack for, but nonetheless, they gave us some red, white and blue paraphernalia to wear for the taping.
This also meant that we had no idea who the guests were going to be until they arrived on the set during the taping since it wasn’t a live show. The firsts guests came in for their 4th of July interview and it was Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo… which if you don’t know is the core cast of the hit Netflix TV show Stranger Things. The much anticipated 3rd season of the Netflix show Stranger Things was released on the 4th of July this year… so, it was obviously promoted on the episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan that we were on!
Flashback! Everyone in my family had been kept up with Stranger Things on Netflix, except for my dad. It was a show that I had watched and loved. The groundbreaking characters and use of 80’s nostalgia were interesting and fresh and I had to introduce my mom to it, so after I had watched seasons 1 & 2, I made her sit with me and watch it, again. I was not alive in the 80’s, so there were definitely ideas/trends/props from the show that were foreign to me, but it was exciting to share the show with my mom knowing that there were aspects that she could relate to that I couldn’t necessarily understand but still enjoy! It was a really fun way to bond and share something I loved with my mom. It helped us relate through a medium that meant a lot to me (Netflix, popular show) and an era that struck home for her (the fabulous 1980’s). And my brothers knew their way around Netflix and binged it just like me, but separately…
Back to the day of the taping… My mom and I were seated on the front row during the taping which meant that when the guests came onto the set we got to high-five them as they came in. Say WHAT?! When we heard Ryan Seacrest announce that the young boys of Strangers Things were about to run onto the set and that we were going to get to high-five them, my mom and I looked at each other and smiled and gasped like we were 14-year old girls who heard that the Jonas Brothers were about to sing just for us (to be fair I’m 22 and I would faint if that happened)! It was a special thing that was ours on a special trip that was ours! Strange, right?!
We were so excited to take pictures and send them to my younger brothers to show them how cool we were and we told my dad to go ahead and record the Live with Kelly and Ryan 4th of July special to watch on the big day! Of course the day came of the 4th of July Special and we watched it in hopes that my mom and I would both get a little screen time. Which we did!
And since the episode aired on the 4th of July, it also meant that season 3 of Stranger Things was on Netflix and ready to watch. And since I would be moving from home to NYC in a month from then, we found time to all sit down together and try to watch an episode a night (the goal) to watch through the show together. Yes, we even invited my dad who at this point only knew that the boys we saw on Live with Kelly and Ryan were in the show. So, we made it a nightly ritual. We were all caught up with the show, expect for my dad as previously stated, but we thought he’d still enjoy it… and enjoy it, he did. He had a MILLION questions about things that were happening and we often had to pause and explain things. (A blessing of Netflix and the present day… you couldn’t just “pause it” in the 80’s!) But even so, he really enjoyed it. To the point that he would be on his way home from work and I knew he was almost home because I’d get a text reading, “S3 E5” and I knew that was my cue to queue up the next episode of the show! Now… we didn’t exactly watch only one episode a night… That is the blessing and curse of streaming services that drop a full season of good television on you at a time! Sometimes you can’t help but binge!! Even more heartbreaking… the season is only 8 episodes which means that we got through it really quickly.
The day we watched the season 3 finale my dad had 2 big questions… “Can I watch seasons 1 & 2 now?” and “So, when is season 4 coming out?” I really enjoyed watching this show with my parents. I got to re-watch it all again but with someone who hasn’t seen it before. I thoroughly enjoy when you get to anticipate the twists and turns and watch the someone else’s reactions and be like, “I know! Crazy, right?!” I loved getting to do that my last month home before my move. And it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t visited NYC with my mom and had that special experience with her. It was really special to share something like that, a show that connects us in such an remarkable way. I’ve now seen the show 3 times and I canNOT wait for season 4 so that I can text/call my mom and dad as we watch it together.
But the stranger things only begin there… My 3rd week in NYC, I’m out on the town with friends. We’re bar hopping and enjoying the city. Playing bingo at dive bars and winning free drinks in a nice side of Manhattan and getting caught in the rain… literally a downpour without umbrellas when we’re 100 feet from the place we’re going… Already a fun night and proof that I’m getting used to the city and I have people to take it on with. That’s when an even STRANGER THING happens… we’re walking down a fairly empty street searching for a bar that one of my friends wants to go to and I see 2 people get out of a black suburban… and I get a good look and non-chalantly say, “You’re Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dwyer.” (Her name is Natalia Dyer, but like I said, we were winning free bingo drinks!) Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer are 2 more primary cast members of the show Stranger Things and my first celebrity street sighting since moving to NYC.
Charlie said, “I can’t believe you know our names!” in his surprising British accent (and also writing this feels kind of silly because I definitely said Natalia’s last name wrong). I also knew Charlie was British but it’s still kind of shocking to hear when you know him primarily for an American TV show in which he uses an American accent. I, of course, stop and look at them and I’m thinking, “Of course I know your names?!” but all I can think to squeak out to them is, “… I’m so proud of you and your work.” Could I make it anymore obvious that I’m an actress? I knew who they were by their real names and not their character names and I said I was proud of them?? A little bit embarrassing but I was really excited! I immediately texted the family group chat about the incident and my mom assumed that I’d won too many bingo drinks and imagined the whole thing and my dad wanted pictures but I did not take any… I was already feeling pretty foolish about the encounter but how crazy is that?! Strange encounters in New York City that give me that little connection to home. Watching and talking about that show with my family were some of my favorite memories at home before I moved and I got to keep that connection and feel at home with the cast of Stranger Things. I’ve now met 5 member of the core cast of that show and that is a really strange way to feel connected to home! I promise I won’t make another ~*stange(r)*~ pun, but I’m definitely getting some blessings in disguise to show me that this is where I’m meant to be and home can be anywhere.
P.S. Another fun memory at home was getting my family to play, what I thought, was a really fun game but maybe that’s just because I was freakishly good at it… It was a card game in a set of card games we had called “Who am I?” Where the reader takes the card and starts reading facts about a famous person written on the card. The card usually reads from the most obscure facts to the more well known. So it would say something like… She was born in Wandsworth, London on February 23, 1983. as the first fact…. then something like, she’s an English-American actress…then, a few more obscure tidbits then the last clue would be something like, she plays Mary Poppins in the film Mary Poppins Returns. The person would be Emily Blunt, but the sooner you answer the more likely you win the round before everyone gets the more obvious clues. I’ll say that there were a lot of actors in the card set so, I happened to know a lot of names. I pretty much kicked everyone’s butt at the game and kinda got teased for it in the days afterward for knowing so many names like a crazy person. I bring this up because that strange skill really came in handy when I was able to call out television actors by their real names on the streets of New York!!!
XOXO,
Texas Jess
Jessica Tanner 
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