Jersey Boys

If there was one show that I've wanted to see on Broadway, its been Jersey Boys.

But it happens to be one of the most popular shows in the City and tickets are difficult to come by and ridiculously expensive when they do... So when I got a call from Andrea saying she had two free tickets to Jersey Boys that night and did I want to go...

Um, YES!?

Heather Ferguson, in my ward, is IN Jersey Boys and has been since it opened on Broadway. She never gets reduced tickets, let alone free tickets, but the planets aligned, and she had extra tickets and Andrea heard about it, and we got them.

The show was awesome. Heather was great. And those songs will get in your head and stay stuck there until you pry them out with a crow-bar... but you won't want to because they are so much fun. See, Jersey Boys is the story of Franky Valli and the Four Seasons, (Sherry Baby, Walk Like a Man, Can't Take My Eyes Off of You...) singers of some of the catchiest music of all time.

Oh, and afterwards... Heather met us at the stage door and we got to go back stage. BACKSTAGE. I got to stand on a Broadway stage.

How cool is that?! I know, I know, I'm totally geeking out here. But seriously. Who gets to do that? It's like Heavenly Father is up there saying, "Ok, let's make all of your dreams come true."

Thank you Heather. Thank you Andrea. Thank you very much.

It's the pinstripes

I am not a "sports" person, I have never been a "sports" person. That was always my sister Melissa's territory. I played my 12 years of soccer (sometimes grumpily), put in a short stint at tennis, swimming, cross country and golf... but I certainly never took an interest in following professional sports. And I barely tolerated with good humor the protracted dinner-table discussions about water-polo and softball. I am a book person, and I have always been a book person.

And so one of the more suprising, even shocking, developments to arise out of my time in New York is my new-found passion for the Yankees. Now let's not get carried away here, notice I did not say baseball, I said the Yankees. I don't follow any other teams (unless they are playing the Red Sox), but when I got to the city and took one look at those pinstripes it was love.

And can I just say? There is NOTHING so fun as taking off work on a week-day to go to a game, eat hot dogs and cheer for the best team in all of sports.

Hall of Legends...

The new stadium is beautiful...

Johnny Damon!

Me and Niels, in full uniform...

Thank goodness my favorite Yankees fan has lots of extra vacation days saved up!

I'm a little teapot

The other day when I walked out of my apartment to head out for work, there was a tiny teapot sitting in the stairwell.

...???

You just can't make this stuff up.

Frankly, its the Wright thing to do...

Pun intended.

Last Saturday, I teamed with my long-time-meant-to-be-good-friend Amanda to conquer one of my few remaining NYC Must Do's... a visit to the Guggenheim. And what better time to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's curious construction that during the last weekend of the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit!

Looking up at the ramp...

Contraband pictures of some of Wright's designs (I got scolded by the guard for taking these)...

Amanda and me...

The High Line

From the High Line Blog: "The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side. It was built in the 1930's to remove dangerous trains from Manhattan's streets. No trains have run on it since 1980. Friends of the High Lind formed in 1999 when the historic structure was under threat of demolition. FHL;s misison is to preserve the structure for reuse as an elevated public open space. Construction began in spring 2006."

I had heard about the High Line from several friends and was interested to check it out. They've done a BEAUTIFUL job with the design and landscaping. We only walked through a small part of it, but I plan on going back to walk the whole thing.

Kevin and me.

(Again family, as discussed in detail, we are JUST FRIENDS.)

Ribbit

Any time I take a cab up Central Park West we drive past the American Museum of Natural History, made famous by Ben Stiller, Teddy Roosevelt and that cheeky little monkey.

Aside from being HUGE, and a generally rad place to visit, they also have special exhibits to tantalize a return visit from the every-day New Yorker. One of these exhibits that caught my eye was the frogs... which I am told are back by popular demand.

This is an exhibit of live frogs in little aquariums with accompanying explanations about where they are from and what they eat and how the little gold ones can kill you just by looking at them. Seriously.

So, like usual, I shanghai'd Kheaven into going with me to see the frogs. There were many Bud-Wise-Er jokes thrown about. And it was awesome.

Why is it that they pretty ones are the most poisonous?


Isn't he cute?

These ones had really sticky fingers...

I got a huge kick out of these funky looking 'Monkey Frogs"...

AND, down stairs where I had never been before I discovered this room which houses a GINORMOUS replica of a Blue Whale...

GINORMOUS.

Rock On

Rock climbing! In the City! Yes, you can do EVERYTHING here.

I've been wanting to do this FOREVER. So Kheaven and I just went ahead and did it...

I love the 80's, Part 3

Tainted Love was back at BB Kings and you better believe we were there, front and center, in all our neon splatter painted and crimped out glory.

They sang, we sang along. I lost my voice. Good times all around.

Melissa, Kheaven and me...


Melissa, Amy and Matt...


Jane and Jane...


Jane and Amanda...


Jane, Me, Amanda, Jane...


Set list...


Somehow, the keyboard guy ended up in a pink wig....

And the somehow that wig ended up on Amy, who ended up on stage...

Bass player... (love the mullet)

Lead guitar... (this guy is seriously good)

Me and the MB...

Kheaven, Andrea, Me...

Good times. Always.

Philharmonic in the Park

Every summer the New York Philharmonic Orchestra plays on the great lawn in Central Park. It is a famous event, and I knew it would be popular, but I never imagined it would draw a crowd like this...



That picture was taken by the first set of speaker towers, there were two more sets of speaker towers, not to mention all of the people sitting beneath the trees along the edge. This is a seriously big deal.

To make things even more interesting, cell phone service is not to be had in the middle of the great lawn... so good luck finding your friends who went to save space early.

Luckily for me, Kristin came out and found me and led me back to the group. Gotta love that girl.



Hooray for New York in the summertime.

The Mural

So there is a giant white board in Melissa's office, and since I am a frequenter of Melissa's office, I often leave little notes, messages or pictures on the white board.

One day, in the spirit of summertime and out of a desperate longing for vacation, I drew a pair of palm trees. The next day I added some water, and then the next day the sunshine. And then every other day or so when I walked by I added something else. Until eventually I turned Melissa's white board into a full on mural beach scene out of a spring break movie...



It's the little things that make going to work so much fun.

Intrepid

There is a giant aircraft carrier that sits in the Hudson River near 42nd St. It is a museum that I've been meaning to check out for quite some time... and by quite some time I mean a year.

So a few weeks ago I finally did, along with everyone's favorite Aussie...

That's a big boat...


The "Top Gun" Room...


All planes on deck...


That does NOT look comfortable...

Stealth plane. Awesome.

Happy Birthday Nielsy.