Rhode Island

Monica took me to Rhode Island this weekend!  It was a pretty whirlwind trip, but so much fun!

We went so that I could finally meet her friend from college (who is awesome!).  Her and her fiancé picked us up Friday night and we went out to a local pub called Bar Louie for dinner and drinks.

Train Buddies!

The Rhode Island skyline at night

Then on Saturday we went with Emily to her wedding dress fitting but before we did that we got to have breakfast at her family's Guatemalan restaurant.  It was so yummy!  I don't think I've ever actually eaten Guatemalan food before, and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

The dress came from a store called Vows in Boston.  It's actually featured in a show on TLC called I Found the Gown.  Though I've been told by my reality TV guru (aka Kari) that Say Yes to the Dress is better.  The seamstress the company works with and recommends is also featured in the show and she's the woman who the dress fitting was with.  She was very no nonsense but definitely seemed extremely competent and was fun to watch her with all the different brides (she was running late).

Saturday night Monica and I had a low key evening playing games and eating pizza.  But we did go for a walk around the neighborhood (I have to get my steps in after all).  All in all it was a fun trip!

Look at this cool treehouse!

If/Then

If a show comes to Broadway and especially if it has an amazing cast, Then I will want to see it!

The show If/Then is a new show starring Idina Menzel and Anthony Rapp (of Rent fame) and I saw it last night.  The quick summary is that I really loved the show.  Basically it's about a a woman at a crossroads in her life.  If she goes one way, one story happens, and if she goes a different way her life is completely different.  So throughout the show she's living two different lives (in one she's Liz, in the other Beth).  It was really fascinating how they switched between one timeline to the other, yet always keeping the consistency of the story flowing.

The music was really amazing, and of course the acting and singing was also amazing.  It was just really different than your standard musical in the execution.  The set was fairly bare, but set pieces moved in and out quickly and the ceiling was also a mirror that would come down and show you what was on the floor of the stage.  For example, during one song you see a map of the NYC subway system in lights on the floor.  That was the other fun thing, a majority of the songs were about NY and it was fun to be able to understand all of the references.

Here's a look at the show!

Bridges of Madison County and Easter!

Happy Easter!

My easter weekend has been relatively low key, but still quite enjoyable.  Work was pretty slow on Friday because both the Canadian and UK offices were closed.  Then on Saturday I met up with Seth and we went wandering around Brooklyn.  The weather was actually starting to warm up, so we were able to take a long walk around Prospect Park.  We walked close to 3 miles!

Entrance to the park

Somebody lost their kite in the trees

After walking around all day I was tired!  So when Sunday rolled around I wanted to take it pretty easy.  Kari made hot cross buns for breakfast, which was quite yummy.  It was my idea to dye the frosting green!

After relaxing some more, we headed out to see a show.  Kari and I had been wanting to see Bridges of Madison County before it closes (we think the end must be near for this show).  It had Kelli O'Hara and Hunter Foster in it, who are two actors I really like and who are super talented.  Plus, the music was done by the same guy who did The Last Five Years (which I really enjoyed).

The show was pretty interesting.  The music in it was really pretty, but I'm not sure what I thought about the plot.  Now, I've never read the book or seen the movie so I really can't compare, but I just thought the plot left a lot to be desired.  I still don't really know how to describe the plot except that a woman has an affair with a passing by photographer (there to photograph the covered bridges) and then has to decide whether or not to leave her family to go with him.



After the show we came back to make dinner!  A good end to a good weekend :)

Upright Citizens Brigade

Wednesday night I was able to experience my very first every show at the Upright Citizens Brigade!  UCB is a comedy club where they do a lot of improv and sketch shows and they also hold classes.  A lot of famous actors (particularly SNL alums) got their start performing at UCB so you never know who's going to show up.

In this particular case, my coworker knew there was a good show coming up so some of us from work went!  The show is hosted by Mike Birbiglia (a comedian I've actually heard of!) He's generally a stand up comedian but I guess he likes to dabble in improv.  The format of the show is he talks to the audience about their day, then might tell a short story of his own, and then his back up improvers and him improv a little scene that's related to whatever they were just talking about.  The other fun surprise was that one of the improvers was Cristin Miloti!  She was the actress who played the mother on How I Met your Mother as well as starring in the original broadway cast of Once.

We were even sitting in the front row so I could see everything and was inches away from the performers!

We then stayed to see another short 1/2 hour sketch show called Billy Joel, Sketches from an Italian Restaurant.  It was a sketch show all based on the music of Billy Joel and was really funny and silly.

I've just realized it's much harder to write about improv than it is about a musical!  Far less pictures and video exist :)

Mom and Daughter Days!

It all started when I realized I had some vacation days that I had to take before the end of March otherwise I would lose them.  Then I realized I had guaranteed tickets to see the Rachael Ray show being filmed but since it films in the middle of the day I couldn't really find anyone to go with me.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for my mom to come visit!  Also because I really wanted her to come see Cinderella starring Fran Drescher too.  Long story short, she came to visit and we had excellent adventures!

The first day she was here (Wednesday) was our day to see Cinderella.  We had actually already seen this show the last time my mom was visiting, but we both really wanted to see Fran Drescher perform, having loved her for a long time in The Nanny.  

The show was just as great as I expected it to be.  Fran played the evil stepmother and wore some of the most fantastic outfits!  Basically it was a lot of fun.

Here's Fran as the wicked stepmother!

Thursday was Rachel Ray day.  I had guaranteed tickets which meant that we didn't have to wait in a giant line or get there super early.  We got to go in ahead of everyone else waiting in line as well.  The taping itself was pretty fun although watching her cook all the food made me hungry!  Some of the audience got to try some of the snacks, but we were too far over to get anything.  We did get some freebies though!  Even when it's some ridiculous gadget you'll probably never use in your life, it's still fun to get something for free!

The show that we saw taped won't air until sometime in July, but they did do part of a segment from a show that aired this past Monday.  It ended up being the Vice President of the United States skyping in!  He was pretty funny to watch and my dad got a good shot of the screen where you can see us :)

After the show, even though we were pretty tired, we thought we'd try our hand at the lottery for Matilda.  Unfortunately we didn't get our names pulled, but we were kept amused by an 8 year old boy and his mother who we were chatting with while we were waiting for names to be drawn.  When they found out I lived and worked in NYC the little boy looked up at me astonished and said "You have a job already?  How old are you!?"  It was pretty hysterical.  So I countered with "I'm 26 years old, can you believe it?"  He thought for a second, and replied with "My mother is only 2 years older than you!"  Then, turning to his mother, "You can get that big in only 2 years??"  Needless to say, the three of us were cracking up.  Their names ended up getting called so we were glad they were able to see the show.

On Friday it was time for our Sex and the City bus tour.  This is something my mom has been wanting to do forever and we both really really enjoyed it.  The tour guide was great and we got to see parts of the city that I normally wouldn't hang around in since they are so far from my apartment.

In the subway!

Central Park Selfie

Tina at the Plaza!

I should be a bus model clearly

On the bus

They played clips from the show while we were on the bus

There was a little rain but not too bad

Pizza stop!

Mom holding the pizza before we got back on the bus

Cupcakes - an important part of any tour

Cosmos - also an important part of any tour

Outside the bar

I was just really amused at this empty window front

After the tour we ended up wandering around, which included going into the Bryant Park public library.  I got to show my mom the cool exhibits and we had a nice time walking around.

Saturday was pretty gross so we just hung around the apartment and then had dinner with my cousin down in the east village which was fun.  On Sunday, though, we thought we'd try again for Matilda, just for fun.  And not only was my mom's name drawn, mine was too!  So we ended up taking Kari and Seth with us.

I'm really glad I got to see the show.  I've been wanting to see it since I saw a clip from the Olivier Awards (the London version of the Tonys).  It was really cute and the kids in the show were ridiculously talented!

I think I may have posted this before because I think it's so cute but here's a video sneak of the show!



And here's the song "Naughty" sung by all 4 Matildas from the original London cast.



I couldn't have asked for a better long weekend with my amazing mom!