let's hear it for new york

alicia keys said it best in her recent song.... "Let's hear it for Newwwww Yooooork."

but maybe the beatles said it best when they said "I get by with a little help from my friends."

I spent Valentines Day weekend with two of the most wonderful girls in the whole world.
It was a whirlwind weekend full of laughs, confused moments in the subway, the mandatory trip to Saks Fifth Avenue (CEH's mecca), hilarious cab rides, and a place called the Boom Boom Room. There were moments reminiscent of You've Got Mail, strolling the streets of the Upper East Side with people who truly know you, yet love you just the same.

I will always remember one of them (we won't say who) falling asleep literally on top of me in a cab after too much wine. I will remember feeling the sugar rush after the world's best hot chocolate at a table next to Tom Hanks. We went backstage with Glinda from Wicked for approximately four and a half minutes - and it was AWESOME. Best thing ever. I've spent my life
a) pretending I would someday make it on Broadway
b) memorizing the soundtrack of Wicked
c) imagining I am actually Glinda the Good Witch. Kappa Rush 2005 anyone? Oh right. Perhaps I wasn't imagining it after all.

Anyways, it was incredible. My mom (and grandmother) were so thoughtful to plan in advance to get tickets and connect me with a distant relative who happens to actually be Glinda on Broadway and has memorized the soundtrack of Wicked because well, that. is. her. JOB. (She is, needlesstosay, my hero.)

Walking with Paige, Princess of Manhattan, to work, seeing her office, grabbing coffee and journaling nearby, was a dream come true. Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, most of the time on the phone with my mom attempting to plan out the next few years of my life based on recent events on the career front. Snow covered the ground below, clung to parts of the infamous bridge, lady liberty glittered in the distance. It felt as if I was living a movie. As I reached Brooklyn and turned around to make my way back to the island, I could see the New York Life building, and though I've never been inside of it, that building has shaped my life in huge ways. I thought about all the times I had traveled to NYC before - the very first time with my family for a New York Life event. (It was the summer my brother and I were both ten. "Oh you're twins! And you're precious." Nope, we're not twins actually, and that kid-my brother-is definitely not precious.)

Church with Paige on Sunday night was awesome, too. Her church is in a beautiful old building, the music was awesome, her minister on fire. I loved it, and it was the perfect end to a perfect Valentine's date with Minty. (We weren't even that annoyed with the third wheel, Caitlin, who is so anti-love and anti-happiness. Oh wait. Is she anti-love or very much pro-love? I forget. Either way, I love you, hodge podge.)
Anyways, there is a quote that I stole from another blog, that says this:
"She dreamed, lulled by the train, of getting off at heaven, or New York City, whichever she came to first."

I didn't get off the train yet, but that brief stop in New York City, with marvelous, loving, loyal friends?
It was a glimpse of Heaven, to be sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljg6iYubgA

buzz lightyear! to infinity

i like to think my brother has always done what i tell him to do. i'm older, wiser, and the better looking of the two of us. well, i'm at least older.

so i found out my brother's "special" friend (there was a time in which i was not allowed to call her his girlfriend) made my brother dress up last halloween as a six-foot tall buzz lightyear.

i immediately told him i would let him know when and why he would dress up as buzz lightyear for my class.

so he came, in january, when we studied letter S as our letter of the week. "S is for SUPERHERO!" we chanted all week. "S says sss sss sssuper hero!"

I prepped them on wednesday and thursday that if they were good and worked hard, a super hero would come to OUR class on Friday.

Then came Gentch. So willing, so hilarious as buzz lightyear. He even came for both classes! Annoying to get dressed and drive to my school twice, but he did. Their faces and reactions were AWESOME and we still talk about it every now and then. There's one little boy in my class who has buzzlightyear shoes, buzz tshirts, buzz pajamas, and a buzz lunchbox he brings (even though he eats lunch from the school cafeteria.) i thought he was going to burst with excitement when buzz walked in the room.

i can't post all my pictures but here's a few. Thanks, G man. You're the best buzzlightyear ever!

(i particularly liked when the morning class kept asking "is spiderman your friend? is batman your friend? is power ranger your friend?" gentry was like YES. i know ALL of them. and i can fly. and learning is cool.