Bills, bills, bills. I hate the end of the month when all the bills come due. Especially the rent. Might as well be driving down the highway at 100mph while throwing fistfuls of money out the window.

Working year-round and not having a summer vacation is beginning to take it's toll. I cannot wait for the weekend, just so I might sleep without having to hear the wretched screeching of my alarm clock.

In other random (but interesting news), I visited the Target store that opened up at the Atlantic Center Mall for the first time today. It's just like any other Target, only, closer than Manhattan, and they have a Starbucks inside. You can't beat that folks. I plan to spend lots of time and hard-earned cash there in the upcoming weeks. They have flannel sheets too. Just in time for winter. Sigh.

The weatherman advised that we start packing up our summer clothes, and pulling out the fall wardrobe. Didn't we just pull out the bathing suits last week? I will never get used to this screwed up Northeastern weather. Give me sunshining Florida anytime over the frigid winters of NYC.

Where have I been, young lady! The answer is, a little bit of everywhere, and a few places that were in-between.

As you may have noticed in the last post, Michelle, a fellow saxophone player from college, was visiting this weekend. I played tour guide again and showed her all over the city. We wandered in Time Square, we saw the Statue of Liberty, we walked upon water at South Street Seaport (on the large ship named Peking), and we even hiked through China Town, Little Italy, and over the Manhattan Bridge. I even maneuvered us down Wall Street, where we saw the NY Stock Exchange and the Trump Building. You're fired.

But the best part of the entire trip, in my humble opinion, was the trip to 42nd Street, where we watched the musical, 42nd Street! I cannot explain the amazing feeling that surged through my veins as the conductor rose on his podium above the pit, announcing the beginning of the show. The red curtain lifted slowly, and what seemed to be a myriad of colored shoes began to dance about the shining stage. Too much went on for me to relate, for it would not seem anywhere near as exciting by you simply reading it here. I still experience the intoxicating perfume of the theater each time I hold the program to my face. I pray it never looses that smell, for I will always associate it with my very first trip to Broadway. And Oh! What a trip it turned out to be!



Shirley Jones (The Partridge Family) and her son, David Cassidy, held two of the leading roles in the musical. Shirley played Dorothy Brock, the washed-up singer/dancer who tries to manipulate David Cassidy (Julian Marsh) into giving her the lead role of his musical (Pretty Lady). It almost works, until Nadine Isenegger (playing Peggy Sawyer) comes along and steals the show. The costumes were incredible, especially the dress Peggy wears at the end of the performance, a blue gown shimmering like so many blue sapphires beneath the stage lights. It was an experience I will never forget.



I think I'm going to send emails to all of my old professors and ask that, since they are my teachers for life, that they contribute a monthly allowance to Ticketmaster in my name, so that I might see every show on Broadway there is to see. Keep your fingers crossed.

Busy busy girl. Michelle, my friend from college, will be visiting this weekend. She arrives tomorrow, and will return to Florida on Monday. We'll have a grand old time.

In other news, I finally met the elusive Goose tonight. He is the missing link in the Team Brooklyn lineup, it seems. He seems to be the one who keeps everyone out of trouble.

More pictures from the whirlwind NYC tour part II to come this weekend. Stick around folks, it's going to be a wild ride.

Have you any idea how many questions I ask in one day? I suppose I should write them all down just to show you the repetitive statements I make to children all day long.  Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head.
 
Do we run in the classroom?
Why did you hit her? 
How would you feel if someone pushed you? No?
What did I say about kicking the garbage on the street?
How many times do I have to tell you to sit down?
Where are you going?
Are you supposed to be touching that?
Is that yours?
Did you ask to use that?
Do you have to use the bathroom?
Where is your paper? (which is followed by) Why did you put it in the cubby?
Do you want time out?
Would you like more juice?
Do you need help opening your milk?
Can you tie your own shoe laces?
Did you wash your hands?
Did you flush the toilet?
What's in your mouth?
What did I tell you about eating food off of the floor?
Where are your sheets?
Did you hear me when I called you? (followed by) Then why didn't you come?
Are you listening?
Why did you put sand in his hair?
When are you going to learn to behave?
Do you act like this at your house?
Where did you learn that word?
Do you understand what no means?
 
There are so many more, but I think you've had enough. I know I have.

CONGRATULATIONS BUBBA AND ASHLIE


"Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me. To see reality--not as we expect it to be but as it is--is to see that unless we live for each other and in and through each other, we do not really live very satisfactorily; that there can really be life only where there really is, in just this sense, love."
-- Frederick Buechner

I love you little brother. Love your big sister.

Oh
CRASH!

my
BASH!

it’s
BANG!

the
ZANG!

fourth
WHOOSH!

of
BAROOM

July
WHEW!

How about a little Shel Silverstein poetry for you tonight? The above image is linked to a movie file of the Macy's fireworks display over NYC. I shot the footage while standing on the roof of my apartment building here in Brooklyn. Go ahead, click it! Make my day! (For a little added excitement, you can change the filename from fireworks2.mov to fireworks1.mov when the window opens for an extra video if you so desire.)