10-20-13

I had a very fun weekend this weekend.  My oldest brother, Brad, was in NYC for a conference.  He works at BYU in the sound and lighting department and professionally he is a sound designer.  Anyway, since he was in town with his wife we decided to meet up and do something fun.  

Friday afternoon we drove into the city and took the subway down to the 911 memorial.  I don’t know if you ever went down there, but it was a little bit of a let-down for me.  I guess I was hoping for something inspiring, but instead it was a bit depressing.  Two big holes where there used to be the Twin Towers.  I appreciate that they want to remember those that died during that tragic event, but I suppose I wish they celebrated their lives, instead of their deaths.  Regardless, it was a beautiful day and spending time with family is never a waste of time!  

After our visit to the memorial we went back to Midtown to stand in line for the lottery for “Newsies.”  In case you don’t know, the lottery for a Broadway show entails putting your name in a bucket then waiting to see if they pick yours to get discounted seats.  Typically these seats are ones that while close, have some sort of disturbance in the line of sight of the stage.  We went to try the lottery for my brother and sister-in-law.  We figured 4 people had a greater chance than 2 to win tickets.  Steve was the 4th name they pulled out of the bucket (he could choose 1 or 2 tickets).  But why stop there?  We decided that if another of our names was called, I would stay and send Steve home to relieve our babysitter.  (He’s not nearly as big a fan of Broadway as I am.)   It got down to the very last name with just one ticket left… and boo- no luck.  The gal thought about it and decided she really wanted 2 tickets, so she was about to refuse it when my SIL Brandalee called out, “I’ll buy if from you!”  And the girl agreed!  So hooray!!!!  A ticket for me!  We went to Junior’s for some amazing burgers then with a big kiss I sent Steve home and we went to the theater.  I was raised listening to live music, so being in a theater with extremely talented actors/singers was heavenly.  The show was awesome, my seat was close (with a speaker only partly blocking part of my side view) and it was wonderful.  I love Broadway!  

I just barely missed the earlier train, so didn’t get back to Garrison until after 1am, but it was all completely worth it.  Plus, it was my first time at Grand Central Station and that was pretty cool.  Such an enjoyable day with Steve, Brad and Brandalee.   

Saturday we watched the Army and BYU games.  As I was looking for goodies to pull out, I realized that I didn’t have any Oreo cookies on hand.  That NEVER would have happened last year with my band of cadets!  I really, really miss those boys. But I'm also extremely proud of them for going out and serving the Lord for the next two years.  My kids keep asking if we’ll see them again, and I assure them that somehow or some way we’ll make it happen.