The Nutcracker

At the Lincoln Center

Second NYC Celeb Sighting

On our way to Reiki class this morning, Kristen and I stopped into Dunkin Donuts real quick to warm up and grab some coffee.  As we were sitting there, Tim Gunn (Project Runway) strolled on it for some coffee.  I figured he was a Starbucks coffee snob like every other celeb, but I guess not.  Fabulous.

Radio City Christmas Spectacular

Which truly is, in fact, spectacular.

Wintuk

I have wanted to see a live Cirque du Soleil performance for years now.  Their new show, "Wintuk", is showing at Madison Square Garden, which seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally see them! Kristen has seen one show before, but it was the mature (read: naked people) performance, "Zumanity".  Oh, and she saw it with her parents...so it was basically the most awkward experience of her life (though I'd love for us to go together at some point, haha).

Wintuk was awesome!  I cannot believe the stunts some of these people do! Their athleticism is astounding!  Most of the acts start out pretty basic and gradually build to this ridiculously crazy routine...so you start off going, "Okay, that's cool" but by the end you're thinking, "OMG! Is he really gonna do that?!"  Amazing. The show was full up spunk and high energy.  Definitely worth the money and I can't wait to see more Cirque du Soleil performances!!!

Oleanna

Kristen and I went to see "Oleanna" tonight.  Neither of us knew much about it, but I really enjoy both Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman.  Normally I prefer musicals to stage plays, but I hadn't seen any plays on Broadway at all, so I figured- why not?  Overall the experience was ...interesting.  The play was somewhat difficult to follow, particularly in the first act, but as emotions heightened it became much more intriguing.  By the end of the show I was still happy I'd bought the tickets.

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First NYC celeb sighting

Kristen saw Miss J (from America's Next Top Model) walking into the Herald Square Victoria's Secret today! Very exciting.

Phantom of the Opera

When I was a pre-teen, I was lucky enough to travel to Toronto with my Girl Scout troop.  We did a bunch of things, but most notably (for me) was our trip to see "Phantom of the Opera."  It was my first broadway show and I was absolutely mesmerized.  I instantly fell in love with the show and by the time we left the theater, I vowed to learn all the songs. We walked back to the hotel and I sang as much of the music as I could remember.  I was consumed with joy.

Upon moving to NYC, I assumed we'd probably be seeing several shows since Manhattan is so close.  Our first broadway adventure as residents was to the TKTS booth (naturally) where we voted to buy "Phantom" tickets.  Kristen had never seen the show before and I was very excited to see it again.  It was wonderful! I didn't understand the story as much as a child, but in my maturity- I was able to really capture the romance, making the show that much more enjoyable.  It was a lovely evening at the theater.

Strawberry Fields

If you've met either Kristen or myself, you probably know that we're huge Beatles fans.  So its only natural that one of the first things we'd do after moving is visit Strawberry Fields.  John Lennon is my favorite Beatle and we both have great respect for the work he did for world peace.  Lennon and Yoko Ono were both forward thinkers way ahead of their time who weren't afraid to move outside the box and ruffle some feathers in the name of what they believed in.  It was truly an honor to visit the memorial and also to see the Dakota, where Lennon lived in NYC.

Central Park

For all the times I've been to NYC, I've never been to Central Park, but of course have always wanted to visit.  So after the parade ended, we decided to venture uptown for an Autumn stroll.  Its amazing to walk in and be surrounded by beautiful landscaping amidst a city of such chaos.  When you look around, it seems like your average park, but if you look up- you're surrounded by skyscrapers.  Its surreal.  Right now its chock full of trees with multi-colored autumn leaves.  There are plenty of paths to walk, jog, or bike and no shortage of New Yorkers doing so.  The Wollman skating rink is already open and we also stopped into the cafe for a quick lunch.  At this point the Zoo and Carousel are closed, but we'll just have to come back when its warmer! We were able to capture some wonderful photos:

Ticker Tape Parade

Seeing how the Yankees won the World Series (hooray!), NYC threw its infamous ticker tape parade.  Although Kristen is a Mets fan (wtf?) I have always been a Yanks fan so we trudged up to Manhattan at some ungodly hour to secure a good spot on the sidelines.  We were not alone.  When we first stepped onto Wall Street, the crowd wasn't too awful but within a half hour it was filling up fast.  We managed to decide on a location directly across from a Duane Reade (a drugstore).  Normally that would most likely mean nothing, but in the case of this parade, it turned out to be significant....

Since most companies generally do not use actual ticker tape anymore, people have gotten more creative on what they throw out their respective office buildings.  Most shredded up a bunch of paper to create something resembling ticker tape.  I'd guess the majority of pay roll for the day went to employees standing over shredders, filling bins full to the brim to toss out the windows. 

Apparently the spectators on the ground felt a bit jealous of all this fun, so they went into Duane Reade and bought an obnoxious amount of toilet paper.  Needless to say, the entire street was covered in TP within minutes.  Sanitation definitely had their work cut out!! But they were so caught up in celebration, they joined in on the sillyness and threw back stray rolls for the crowd to keep on tossing.  It was a morning filled with lots of giddy New Yorkers :)

And of course we got to see the majority of notable Yank players  (and Jay-Z.  Random.) as they cruised along in their super pimped out floats.  It was awesome.

Where's Thing 2?

Our first adventure as official NYC residents was the annual Halloween Parade.  It's an evening parade full of crazy costumes and floats.  We saw some of the most creative costumes imaginable and the common recognizable ensembles as well.  We even rode the train next to an alarmingly tall "Gumby."  Unfortunately, the majority of our viewing was spent in the rain.  More annoying than the rain, however, was the high amount of irritable New Yorkers huddle under umbrellas, unintentionally (or intentionally) poking and dripping water on each other while desperately trying to weave around said umbrellas to actually SEE the parade.  Luckily we were already in the front so it wasn't as miserable for us as others.

Seeing how we had moved in less than 24 hours before the parade, we hadn't planned on wearing costumes.  But upon unpacking our clothes, we realized we had matching shirts I'd picked up in Universal Studios a few years back.  I purchased a shirt for Kristen that says "Thing 1" and in an attempt to be clever, bought myself one that says "Thing 3."  It worked for the overall effect of being somewhat "in costume" but we spent a large part of the evening listening to random people asking "Where's thing 2?" 
Kristen's side note: I thought we could come up with something really creative and horrible about Thing 2, but alas it was not to be.

Despite everything, it was a pretty fun adventure!

Goodbye, Albany

Well today is the day!  After a LOT of packing/selling/donating the ridiculous amount of things we own, we're finally moving out.  Living in Albany was an interesting adventure- full of some wonderful events (like Kristen and I meeting, for example) and some exceptionally shitty times (like...well, pretty much all this past year).  Regardless, this rowdy student-centric city served its purpose and for that, it will always have a small piece of our hearts.  Sort of.

One more visit to NYC as tourists

My Mom had to go down to NYC for a School Board Conference this week, so Kristen and I decided to head down with a car load of stuff to drop off at her parents house. We went into Manhattan both days to see my parents, who rarely get to NYC. It was a lot of fun! We wandered around Times Square and had dinner at Applebee's the first night and once my Mom got out of meetings the second day, we ran around the Theatre District, scrounging for tickets. We tried the "Wicked" lottery, but didnt get tickets. It was a fun experience though and my first lotto attempt. Then we tried a few more shows and finally voted on "Next to Normal", which is not your run-of-the-mill Broadway spectacle, but a good show nonetheless. We all enjoyed it and I'm glad I was able to experience NYC one last time as a tourist :)

Benefit for the Craven Family

Unfortunately, my cousin Traci died on September 6th of the swine flu. She was pregnant and the doctors delivered her fourth child, Calli Marie, who survived. The family decided to organize a benefit in Syracuse to raise some money for the kids and to help out Gary (Traci's husband). They sold stuff like T-shirts and bumper stickers as well as held a silent auction and raffles. I'm glad they did it, but it was a painful day overall. I miss Traci every day.

^my cousin Ashley with her new son Ryan^

^Kristen and Britt^

^Britt and I^

RENT: The Broadway Tour

Tonight we went to see the musical "RENT." Three of the original cast members were in the performance including Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal (2 people Kristen loves very much). The show was absolutely amazing! I was concerned that the capital region audience wouldn't be able to fully appreciate the RENT experience, but I was wrong! There were all ages and races scattered across the theatre, new fans and old RENTheads alike. They were full of energy and totally got into the show. Kristen just about peed her pants, she was so excited! Our assigned seats were in the very last row, but we'd planned to move up about 10 minutes into the show. I thought perhaps we'd be the only ones doing that since I've never seen people move up except while in NYC, but Kristen assured me that RENT fans just don't give a shit. And she was correct about that. As soon as the show began, about 100 people stood up and rushed forward to grab better seats. I will admit that I was impressed! We ended up about 20 rows closer! It was definitely a great show and we're both glad we were able to see Anthony and Adam :)

Visitors and a Movie

Travis and Britt decided to pay us a visit. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for them to see why we complain of boredom here in Albany. Luckily, however, we're all very funny people who are entertaining so we had a good time. They got here super early on Monday and passed out almost immediately. I had crap to do so I didn't even get home until about 2, at which point we went to Crossgates to eat, say hi to Kristen, and shop. I bought Travis his very first dorm room posters :)

We were hoping to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" in IMAX/3-D, but it doesn't open until Wednesday so that was a fail. Instead, we decided to see "The Ugly Truth" which was actually pretty good! It was strange to see Gerard Butler as a goofy jackass, but he does it well. Katherine Heigl is 10x less annoying when she's NOT playing Isobel Stevens, so I quite enjoyed her, too. We took them to P.F. Chang's for dinner, so they could experience the wondrous place that we adore

Art/Craft Fair

Our hotel had a bunch of magazines and brochures about the Syracuse area, which I decided to peruse. Upon doing so, I discovered that there was an Art/Craft Fair in downtown Syracuse on Sunday. Kristen and I love artsy stuff and are hoping to decorate our apartment with a unique east-meets-west, hippie, bohemian, indie theme. So we figured we'd go on a search for the perfect handmade accessories for our new place. The fair was actually pretty big and there were many interesting and fascinating artisans. We were able to find a frame, lamp, and vase that totally flow with our vibe. Then we discovered a hip boutique called "Boom-Babies" and snatched up some cute earrings. It was hot as hell, but well worth it. Plus they had latrines that were decorated on the inside (something I'm pretty sure we'll never see again). It was ridiculous. And we loved it. Here's a pic:

Rosamund Gifford Zoo

Since we were already in the Syracuse area, we decided to venture on over to the Zoo.......

Sterling Rennaissance Festival

Kristen somehow managed to land a weekend off, so we decided to go to the Sterling Rennaissance Festival on Saturday............

Hotel California

Last night Kristen and I went to the "Alive at Five" concert here in Albany. Its basically a free concert series that the city sponsors every Thursday. The main performer was an Eagles tribute band, appropriately named Hotel California, and it was actually pretty cool. It was not as cool as Rain, but a respectable tribute band nonetheless. I'd also like to point out that I wore my Rain T-Shirt to the Hotel California concert (which was unplanned- I just happen to have it on). I hope they didnt find that offensive, haha.

Since it was supposed to storm, they moved the main stage down underneath the 787 overpass, off Broadway along the Hudson.

There were your normal vendors (meaning we were able to get fried dough! win!), beer tents, cops on horses, and a floating hot dog stand- which was fascinating enough to snap a picture of. At first I thought it was weird, but I quickly registered what a brilliant idea it in fact truly is. There's even a little table with a signature striped umbrella.

Amazing.

"Alive at Five" is apparently a pretty big deal here in Albany, and one of the rare things to do that is cheap and actually fun. We were both pleased with ourselves for taking the opportunity to experience it before we say our final farewell to the capital region. Now we just need to go on an AquaDuck Tour and see something at The Egg....