Unexpected

The aforementioned ceiling at Hudson Yards

When I was in NYC last weekend, trucking through the city in 95 degree heat attempting to get to the MegaBus stop on time - even though the bus was ultimately 30 minutes late - the Bestie said something that surprised me.  At the time, I was attempting to take a photo with my phone of the ceiling of Hudson Yards subway stop on the escalator while also trying to juggle my luggage.  She said "I'm always surprised by your ability to find pretty stuff everywhere we go."  She was being fairly sarcastic when she said this, mostly because I looked just a wee bit ridiculous and my only excuse was that the ceiling was pretty.  But I've since taken it to heart, and decided that that's something I really like about myself.  

I like that I can find beauty and fun in the unexpected.  After all the best part of travel is the surprises you find along the way.  So in that vain, these are my favorite shots of the unexpected from this past NYC trip. After all, New York in the summer is always unexpected and surprising.

Wouldn't you just love to walk out this door everyday?

Street art right on the street

Look at the cool workmanship on these overhangs - so pretty!

For some reason this doorway was tiled over

It must be said, I have a thing for cool doors

I also have a thing for street art

A super cute garden in Chelsea - I should have taken a better picture of the sign too.  It said something about buzzing off and refraining from picking - the flowers for looking not for taking.

Scandalous

I never really got into the Criminal Minds thing - it's too dark and too violent.  But I do know Thomas Gibson because he used to be on Chicago Hope, so to say I've been fascinated by the story of his firing last week, is an understatement.  I sort of hate myself for being riveted by such a scandalous story, but oh well, here I am.  As the story goes, he was first suspended then fired for allegedly kicking a writer on set.

What first got my attention is the kick itself.  Whose first instinct is to kick?  Don't most men punch first?  Now, I'm more focused on the aftermath.  His former costar Shemar Moore is saying his firing is "karma."  What the heck does that mean?  We need more information people!  And lastly, Thomas Gibson has now lawyered up.  How exactly does he see that going?  "Sure, I kicked you, but you shouldn't have fired me for it. I'm famous."  The way Hollywood goes, that'll probably work.

It's all so strange! And yet I'm reading about the darn story at least once a day since it happened... Maybe I'll stick to books from now on - All the drama, none of the scandal.

Thoughts on Harry Potter 2.0

So I wasn't even going to read it.  I was going to wait to see the show - hopefully I'll be in England some time next year - and be surprised by it.  But then Costco had a great sale and the book was all anyone could talk about.  And basically here we are and it's been finished over the course of the last 24 hours.  So what did I think?

If you'd asked me about it last night, after I had put it down after reading about 80 pages, I would have said - Ehh.  I didn't like the play format.  I read plays all the time, but for some reason this material was difficult to read in that format.  However, now that it's through, my mind has changed.  It was marvelous!  I just loved having another Harry Potter story to read after all these years.  It was a lovely story that included almost all of the beloved characters while keeping the heart and the humor that the original books had.  

That's not to say that I don't have bones to pick.  One being that I'm still not crazy for the play format.  It would have been awesome if it was written in novel format, if for no other reason than it would have been a much more involved story.  The second issue I have is a question.  Who in the world is the kid on the front of the book?  I could guess one of 2 characters, neither one is a blondish kid about 10 years old.  

Last but not least, is more of a pondering rather than a bone to pick.  How on earth did the directors and production people manage to pull off the insane amount of magic and scenery changes?  This performance must cost a fortune, which is why I'm guessing they chose to run it in rep.  2 shows means twice the ticket sales.  Even knowing that, I'm still ridiculously excited to somehow get tickets to see it, because let's face it, it's another Harry Potter when we had heard there wouldn't be any more.  Who wouldn't be excited?

Friday Five

1. Yay Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky!  Go Maryland!

2. I haven't the foggiest idea why Michael Phelps decided to name his son Boomer, however he is just about the cutest thing ever!  Those headphones are bigger than he is!

3. I was googling a bit yesterday trying to see if the Robber Bridegroom CD had been released yet, and happened upon Steven Pasquale singing "On the Streets of Dublin" from "A Man of No Importance."  And now I'm pretty much obsessed.  It's such a great song and he's just so talented!  I'm so crazy for it, that through a bit more googling I discovered this show is playing in Oxford MD currently and I now have tickets to it.
           

4. Is anyone up for a trip to NOLA in October?  Because seriously, a whole festival of Beignets?  I feel like that's just even more heavenly than NOLA is in my head!

5. This is my favorite photo that I took in NYC this past weekend.  It is in fact of my feet and a water stain on the sidewalk, but I happen to think it's perfect!  Sometimes, it's the little things...

Baltimore Sports Fun

It must be said, it's a very good time for sports in Baltimore.  I mean, I may be a bit biased, it's usually pretty good between the Orioles and the Ravens.  However this year, we have the added bonus of Olympics to watch.  You just gotta love Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky! We Marylanders definitely do!

I read an article earlier this week that said if Maryland had been a country, we would be second place for Olympic gold medals.  How awesome is that!?  I'm not sure what it is about the city of Baltimore that makes great swimmers, but I'm assuming it's something in the water. (See what I did there? : )  The fact that Michael and Katie have been kicking butt has been super fun to watch, if only to give the state of Maryland some good press for a change.  

My favorite part in all of it was seeing Michael Phelps getting his medal on Tuesday evening. During the National Anthem, he cracked up during the "Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave..." part.  If you're not a Baltimorean you may not know why that was cute. Since Baltimore's baseball team is the "O's", the "Oh!" is almost always yelled loudly. Apparently his friends did that in the stands which made him laugh.  I love it! 

And with all the Olympic coverage you may have missed the Orioles doing pretty darn well. Of course, they're currently making a liar out of me in their road-trip games.  But when they're home they tend to play pretty awesome-ly.  And then of course, you have the whole reason I decided to write this post tonight, after a LONG summer - it's FINALLY FOOTBALL SEASON!!  Woohoo!

And while I'm super excited about having a Ravens game tonight, I'd be much happier if they weren't currently down by 3...

Two Show Sunday

Apparently, in some NYC theatres, there are 2 show times on Sunday.  How have I never known this before?  Because of this fact, my Sunday in the Big Apple was so much more exciting than it could have been!

Matinee: An Act of God starring Sean Hayes

I had seen this basically one man show about 2 years ago when Jim Parsons was playing God and had fallen in love with it.  I laughed so hard I cried, and missed a few of the jokes because I was laughing so much at the other jokes.  It's really unbelievably funny.  The premise is simple - God's come down, taken over the body of a beloved TV actor and plans to share his 10 Commandments 2.0 with the world.  For the next 1.5 hours that's what he does, perfectly and hilariously!

This time around, it was still very, very funny, but the show was made up of pretty much the same jokes.  Don't get me wrong, if it ain't broke, I wouldn't fix it either, but because I had seen it once, they weren't as surprising. Though the added bonus of a few digs at Donald Trump was met with some very happy applause.  Sean Hayes was just as funny as Jim Parsons.  I'm fairly certain he's Jack - the character he played flawlessly in Will and Grace - in real life too.  I kept expecting him to say "Just God!" (Oh, I crack myself up!)  He was perfect in the part and nailed all the great lines, and I can't be 100% sure, but I'm fairly certain he even went off book a bit and still managed to be laugh out loud funny.  I have a feeling I'll be using "wrath management issues" in general conversation for the foreseeable future.  Definitely 5 stars in my book!

Evening Show: School of Rock starring Sierra Boggess

If you've ever seen School of Rock with Jack Black, this show is the exact same premise, only this time it has the added benefit of being written and produced by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber - which, you know, makes everything better.  This was a last minute addition, seeing as we only had 3-4 shows to choose from since most everyone goes dark on Sunday nights.  

It sounded slightly intriguing, but I definitely wasn't super excited to see it.  It was just a show to see to pass the time.  Oh how wrong I was!  This show was outstanding!  I've never been so impressed by a group of actors in all my life.  As you may guess from the title, the cast is full of kids learning and playing rock music.  In this case, every one of the kids played their own instrument and sang their hearts out.  In other words, they blew the roof off the place!  They definitely deserved their standing ovation at the end of the performance.  

The main adult characters were fantastic too.  You could tell they were having a blast and were just as inspired by the kids as the audience was.  What I loved even more than the music and the kids, was the message - You're part of the band. No matter how weird, or different you may think you are, you're part of a group. There's always someone that's going to accept you for being who you are, which is so awesome for the kids in the audience and in the cast to hear.   Also, the song "Stick it to the Man" has been stuck in my head for days so I suppose that message spoke to me on some level as well : )

Trivia Tuesday

~ According to City Paper, which I decided to read after I realized I had absolutely nothing to add to the first 9 questions (didn't know a single answer), I should cut a lock of my hair, put it in an envelope, recite an incantation over it for 5 nights, then burn it while reciting another incantation, then all my dreams will come true.  Also, I'm the only one that actually had homework in her horoscope.  Everyone else just got the usual horoscope schtick, meanwhile I'm having to learn witchcraft and wizadry,

~ Watching Michael Phelps win his 20th Gold Medal in a bar in Baltimore with 50 other people all screaming for him, is pretty darn exciting - so much more so than watching it alone on the sofa.  Though, why'd he have to act so arrogant after he won?  It would have been much nicer had he been just a bit gracious.

~ Blondie and Dagwood have 2 children in the comics: Alexander and Cookie.  The audio clue for this one was a song by Blondie which was pretty darn clever.  Though I misinterpreted the audio clue to mean Family Circus - One Way or Another could have referred to Billy's path when he was looking for something.  Luckily, the team stopped listening to me after I got the 3rd question wrong of the evening.

~ A team full of music-lovers and we answered none of the 5 half-time questions correctly on 2000s music.  Does that speak ill of our music knowledge or the music of that time?  I'll let you decide.

~ Most people on the team didn't know that the singer was singing the word "Doctor" in the song "Doctor My Eyes."  You'd think that one would be pretty self-explanatory.

~ Doc Rivers is the head of the LA Clippers. Pete Docter, who I swore was someone if not the head of the LA Clippers (who we also went with because it was the only answer we could come up with) is actually the screenwriter for Inside Out.  Why the heck do I know who the screenwriter for Inside Out is?  I didn't even like that movie...

~ David Brent is the name of Ricky Gervais' character in the British version of The Office.  This was the very first question I knew the answer of all evening - it was the 20th question just to give you a frame of reference on how very bad my night was.

~ Meryl Streep was nominated for her first Oscar for The Deer Hunter.  This is not the movie in which she posits that "maybe a dingo ate my baby."  Also, I still don't know what movie she says that in.