I got to go see Muse and U2 in concert in New Jersey very unexpectedly!
I know! Mere days after posting the Muse video, there I was, among almost 100 thousand people, singing and cheering my voice hoarse. Things like this don’t happen to me, people. Do you know “that” person, you know, the one that you are slightly jealous of and are like, “why doesn’t that ever happen to me? very grrr.” and then realize that I’m always doing that about others and now it happened to ME. Now, if I was the person you thought of in a jealous manner I’m sad for you. Seriously, I just said this NEVER happens to people like me, so live vicariously through me if you must, but envy me, do not.
Ben called me Tuesday morning from Connecticut on his business trip and told me to pack my bags, I was flying to New York. I almost didn’t want to go. It was too sudden… but he had worked out child care and THIS NEVER HAPPENS TO PEOPLE LIKE ME SO I HAD TO CARPE DIEM, DANGIT! I drove to Tulsa hours later, got myself successfully on 2 flights and there I was for the first time ever, breathing in the Big Apple air and loving it even as I choked from the smog. As we drove from Queens into Manhattan, I was reeling like a little country mouse. The sheer size of everything! I gaped and awed, jumping like a child on Christmas Day when I saw streets like Park Ave. and Broadway. My face pressed against the glass trying to see the buildings… we drove through the Lincoln tunnel and I took pictures. Everything was so interesting.
The concert was indescribable. Need I say more? U2 and Muse. It was a spiritual experience. The way it felt, the music, the lights and the sound of thousands upon thousands singing the lyrics to Beautiful Day without any music… Wow. Super Wow.
I went back to Connecticut and spent the night, then got up early and caught the train to Grand Central. Ben was busy the rest of the week so I went to spend the next few days in the city with my friend. I felt self-impressed and posh, sitting there on that train like I did it every day. I am so cool. Esther met me and we surreally stared at each other, both in shock that I was actually there. We took another train back to Hell’s Kitchen where she lived and I babbled about the trains upon trains everyfreakingwhere. I tried to tone it down to be nonchalant but my eyes took it all in.
I could write forever now. About all I saw and experienced, but it’d be a 20 page post and I’d loose everyone. So, instead, I’ll put in list format the best of the best:
-Time Square at night.
-Watching a wedding near the fountain in Central Park, then right after having an Indian girl run up to us exclaiming her boyfriend just proposed and would we take some pictures? Beautiful. Central Park itself.
-The weather. Blue skies, warmer temperatures with cool breeze that made sight seeing perfection.
-Do I need to mention the U2 and Muse concert again? 
-Seeing a Broadway show in the freaking beautiful New Amsterdam theater.
-gourmet cheese tasting in Greenwich village.
-vegetable dumplings in Chinatown.
-walking across the Brooklyn bridge at night.
-seeing Constantine from American Idol outside his theater. He was close to me. Relatively. My first celebrity sighting…
-My first falafel, Crumbs cupcake and New York Pizza.
-Seeing the Statue of Liberty from the Empire State Building. Pretty much ALL the view from there. It was a perfect day for sightseeing.
