I'll steal your honey like I stole your bike

My, world wide web activity has been down the last few days. Did you enjoy your three day weekend? I had a smashing last few days--the big news is that I'm finally back in Boston! I did the math, and I've only slept 8 of the last 30 nights in my own bed. I've had quite the last four weeks, but there's something comforting about your own bed.

In previous posts, I raved about the lush beauty that is Oregon. Take at right for an example. In the nine days I was in town, it rained only two mornings. The rest of the time was blue skies and gorgeous weather. But no more talk of Oregon or Boston. Let's discuss what I did over the true weekend.

After flying all day Friday (with delayed flights and mechanical trouble of course) I rolled into my house at 9:30, unpacked one bag and repacked it with clothes for my weekend in NYC. Unwound while watching the Grey's finale (I kind of loved it) and finally turned the lights off at 1am. Got up at 530am, dressed and had Julie picked up by 545. I had no idea it's that light that early. I don't make it my business to get up in the 7's usually, let alone the 5's. Our plan was to drive at off-hours to avoid holiday traffic. It worked like a charm!

We needed to pack as much into our two days as possible, so I guided the quickest, fullest tour possible. For as fast as I generally move, even I was surprised with how much we got done.

Our drive was quick, and we were parked and wandering around the Financial District at 930am. I'm pretty sure I have never been up that early and going in the city. The streets were so quiet! Over the course of the next two days, highlights included shopping, the diamond district, battery park, the Staten Island ferry, grand central station, Rockefeller center, Radio City music hall, a movie, amazing food in window seats overlooking Times Square, a constant craving for Coke Zero, and asking questions to each other about sailors.

Sailors? Yup. It was "Fleet Week" in New York City, so thousands of men and women in uniform were doing their own sight-seeing and posing for pictures. You couldn't take too many steps without seeing tourists asking for photos. Julie and I had so many questions and observations about the sailors--but we never actually talked to one.

We did see quite the number of them karaoke however. Friday night, we found ourselves in this sweet karaoke club in the heart of Times Square. (Complete with background singers/dancers.) We got in before the cover charge went into effect and stumbled upon quite a few sailors having a grand ole time. FNL fans perk up. There was a sailor who kept singing (courtesy of the USS Richmond) who looked exactly like Matt Saracen on stage. I knew he looked familiar, but it took me through "Somebody Told Me" and "YMCA" to figure out the resemblance. Julie (late to the FNL game, but appreciated nonetheless) also agreed with me, and we snickered about it for quite awhile. Or maybe the whole night.

After quite a bit of dancing and singing along, we're somewhat close to leaving when guess what happens? Sailor Saracen grabs my hand and saddles right on up. It's like my true TV-meets-reality moment. He doesn't even say anything to Ju, just shoves his camera in her hand. Just call me Julie Taylor. For the record, that is not my hand on his shoulder, it's his Landry behind us. After our photo was taken, Saracen had some choice and somewhat slurred comments for me; but boozed or not, it's nice to feel appreciated by the male species. Thanks Matty; you made my night. I'm hoping Julie will post about her Flow Rider admirer. (I'll admit that he doesn't look so Saracen-esk in the upclose photo, but from the stage the resemblance was uncanny.)



My Broadway tickets lotto streak continues! We managed to win four tickets to see Hairspray at the Saturday matinee. I'd seen it before but love love loved it, and was itching to see it again. Joe and Jamar came with, and boy were our seats right in the action. Like two feet from the action. The orchestra's subwoofer was at our feet; we felt every note of the soundtrack for several hours afterward. One of the highlights? Link Larkin was played by none other than Ashley Parker Angel. You remember that hit group O-Town's awesome song "All or Nothing", right? No? Do you remember his hit MTV reality show "There and Back"? Sigh. I guess I do know/remember too much about has-beens. Nonetheless, he was really pretty great as Link. And Norm from Cheers was Edna Turnblad (Tracy's mom and the role played by John Travolta in the movie). Motormouth Mabel and Seaweed were also played by quasi-famous people. All in all, it was quite the delightful afternoon. Especially when Penny's mom had to squeeze in front of us in the front row and put Joe on the spot with funny accusations of inappropriate behavior. The only time any of us will be on Broadway, that's for sure.

I just love New York. I can't help it. A two day trip was actually a pretty fantastic way to get it done. We drove home from 1130-3am last night and avoided holiday traffic yet again. Just before leaving, we enjoyed a piece of pizza and a Coke Zero on the Upper West Side. The moment was fairly perfect; the whole weekend was much the same way--the cherry on top would probably be that LFO hit "Summertime" was the first song that played when we turned on the radio. Our remaining weekend wish was to hear "In This Club" and "Please Don't Stop the Music" before we switched from radio music. Within 15 minutes, both played, we sang along, giggled, and shifted mental gears in heading home.

Back to the real world tomorrow!