Wow. I think Hannie may get the award for the longest running "birthday season". We like to make birthdays more than just the day itself, but she took it to the max.
The crowning moment of the season was the chance to see Sara Bareilles in concert. Sara is Johannah's favorite recording artist (not a surprise, considering their voices are in the same range and sound very much alike), and I was thrilled to see that she was touring the East Coast over Johannah's birthday. We had our pick of cities--Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and NYC--but the NYC concert was being held in Radio City Music Hall. Never having been there, I was sold on the venue and bought the tickets.
It was a Wednesday, but the concert wasn't until 8 p.m. NYC is a four hour drive, so I sent Hannah to seminary and school in the morning. I picked her up around noon, and we were off!
(I interject a selfish note here. It brought back a lot of fond memories of Anna, Ethan's ex-girlfriend, who I would frequently visit in NYC when she was studying at Juilliard. I miss Anna, and I wish she would have kept me as a friend.)
Unbeknownst to me, the cheap parking I had reserved was only blocks from Times Square, and Radio City Music Hall. Great for walking, but a nightmare to get to. That darn island of Manhattan--it's never easy to get around. Once we got parked though, we headed straight for dinner.
We had a lot of choices, and I'm not sure we've ever headed into the city without visiting the Hard Rock Cafe there, but Hannah wanted Shake Shack. One of her favorite foods of all time is a good old-fashioned hamburger, and from what she said, Shake Shack has the best. I hadn't been there, so I was totally game.
Oh my gosh, pure deliciousness. Really, that hamburger was so tasty!
And by the way, my daughter is pretty much drop-dead gorgeous. In fact, I am getting very tired of every young man checking her out as we pass by. People would stare at freakishly tall Mark for very different reasons :-)
We went to the M&M store too, a place that Hannah wanted to visit. We didn't even bother with any of the merchandise--we've been there, done that. We headed straight for the M&M dispensers! Hmmm, I know it sounds crazy but no where are M&Ms as fresh as from the M&M store. We each got a pound of them--dark chocolate, milk chocolate and pretzel M&Ms.
We then started walking toward RCMH. We were a bit early, so we headed into Jamba Juice (I know, I know, Hannah and I love to eat....) and sat outside in Times Square on a bench.
When we finally showed up at the venue, we saw the sign, "NO FOOD OR DRINK". Umm, excuse me, there was no way I was dumping our two pounds of chocolate! So, we managed to squeeze one bag in my very skinny purse (and cover it all up), and the other pound went in a jacket pocket. Seriously, I had the mother load of "womanly hips", although they were very lopsided hips :-) When the dude used his stick to probe my purse, I was sure he was going to find the bag, but no. I guess I didn't look enough like a terrorist :-)
We were a bit disappointed to not find a concert t-shirt that we liked. We waited for the concert to begin and headed in.
When I bought the tickets, turns out I bought the absolute last two tickets. While they were on the same level, and the same side of the auditorium, they were not together. So, while the very stupid/stale warm-up band was playing, I sat by Hannie, waiting for the ticket holders to bump me out of their seats. When they showed up, I just moved to the other side of Hannie. And by some miracle, the people who had bought the tickets on the other side never showed up! So, Hannie and I got to sit together the entire night.
The music was amazing. Her dialogue in between wasn't so amazing, and I wondered why she felt like she needed to entertain at all with speaking. Her music stands on its own for being really creative and beautiful. Hannah knew every word to every song, and the song wouldn't be more than two seconds in, and she would know it. I was glad she got to see Sara in concert, and I'm glad I got to go with her.
Okay, birthday season is over.
The crowning moment of the season was the chance to see Sara Bareilles in concert. Sara is Johannah's favorite recording artist (not a surprise, considering their voices are in the same range and sound very much alike), and I was thrilled to see that she was touring the East Coast over Johannah's birthday. We had our pick of cities--Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and NYC--but the NYC concert was being held in Radio City Music Hall. Never having been there, I was sold on the venue and bought the tickets.
It was a Wednesday, but the concert wasn't until 8 p.m. NYC is a four hour drive, so I sent Hannah to seminary and school in the morning. I picked her up around noon, and we were off!
(I interject a selfish note here. It brought back a lot of fond memories of Anna, Ethan's ex-girlfriend, who I would frequently visit in NYC when she was studying at Juilliard. I miss Anna, and I wish she would have kept me as a friend.)
Unbeknownst to me, the cheap parking I had reserved was only blocks from Times Square, and Radio City Music Hall. Great for walking, but a nightmare to get to. That darn island of Manhattan--it's never easy to get around. Once we got parked though, we headed straight for dinner.
We had a lot of choices, and I'm not sure we've ever headed into the city without visiting the Hard Rock Cafe there, but Hannah wanted Shake Shack. One of her favorite foods of all time is a good old-fashioned hamburger, and from what she said, Shake Shack has the best. I hadn't been there, so I was totally game.
Oh my gosh, pure deliciousness. Really, that hamburger was so tasty!
And by the way, my daughter is pretty much drop-dead gorgeous. In fact, I am getting very tired of every young man checking her out as we pass by. People would stare at freakishly tall Mark for very different reasons :-)We went to the M&M store too, a place that Hannah wanted to visit. We didn't even bother with any of the merchandise--we've been there, done that. We headed straight for the M&M dispensers! Hmmm, I know it sounds crazy but no where are M&Ms as fresh as from the M&M store. We each got a pound of them--dark chocolate, milk chocolate and pretzel M&Ms.
We then started walking toward RCMH. We were a bit early, so we headed into Jamba Juice (I know, I know, Hannah and I love to eat....) and sat outside in Times Square on a bench.
When we finally showed up at the venue, we saw the sign, "NO FOOD OR DRINK". Umm, excuse me, there was no way I was dumping our two pounds of chocolate! So, we managed to squeeze one bag in my very skinny purse (and cover it all up), and the other pound went in a jacket pocket. Seriously, I had the mother load of "womanly hips", although they were very lopsided hips :-) When the dude used his stick to probe my purse, I was sure he was going to find the bag, but no. I guess I didn't look enough like a terrorist :-)
We were a bit disappointed to not find a concert t-shirt that we liked. We waited for the concert to begin and headed in.
When I bought the tickets, turns out I bought the absolute last two tickets. While they were on the same level, and the same side of the auditorium, they were not together. So, while the very stupid/stale warm-up band was playing, I sat by Hannie, waiting for the ticket holders to bump me out of their seats. When they showed up, I just moved to the other side of Hannie. And by some miracle, the people who had bought the tickets on the other side never showed up! So, Hannie and I got to sit together the entire night.The music was amazing. Her dialogue in between wasn't so amazing, and I wondered why she felt like she needed to entertain at all with speaking. Her music stands on its own for being really creative and beautiful. Hannah knew every word to every song, and the song wouldn't be more than two seconds in, and she would know it. I was glad she got to see Sara in concert, and I'm glad I got to go with her.
Okay, birthday season is over.
I love it that you were hiding M & Ms.
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