Monday Night: Beyonce concert! It was awesome!! I cannot get over how lucky I am to get free tickets to all these incredible concerts that I would never think of going to otherwise. Beyonce was exceptional. She put on a fantastic show. She sang a little of everything - songs off her new album, songs from Destiny's Child days, a song from Dream Girls, etc.... She has an incredible voice but is so fun and funny. Even her band and dancers looked like they were having a blast the entire show (2 full hours). I took my friend Sarah and was glad that she was SO excited to go. I've known Sarah from church for 2.5 years, but we have been hanging out more & more and I really like getting to know her better! My co-worker, Tamara, (one of my staff...I love my 2 staff!) was there and it was our first time to be in the suite together, so that was fun.
Tuesday Night: Tuesday was just regular CG time. We've gotten in a bad habit of just having a social night and no sermon discussion or prayer time. I'm missing that - I really, really need that time of encouragement from fellow believers. We're planning to take the month of July off, so I'm hoping we can get serious again after that. All the CG's at church have all become prayer discussion groups, but I think my group thrives more from doing some sort of book study, so I need to bring up the idea of doing something like that again.
Wednesday Night: Hoboken for the Old 97's Concert. My friend, Jessica, has taken me to many Old 97's shows all over central Texas and the Hill Country. I figured out that the first one she took me too was the summer of 1999...10 years ago - wow!!! I was excited to see them on the East Coast! I just wish Jessica could have been there as it was my first show without her. When I found out they were coming, I immediately asked my friend, Lucy, to go because I'd learned that she and Jessica have similar music tastes. Lucy was totally on board. She works in the financial district and there is a ferry that leaves from behind her office and goes to Hoboken, a town right across the river in New Jersey. I met her down there - it was beautiful along the river and the ferry ride was fun! I had been to Hoboken for a BBQ a couple of years ago, but this was my first time to go to downtown Hoboken. I loved it! It has a small town feel, but there are people out and about everywhere - like NYC. Many of the restaurants are BYOB, so we went to a wine store and got a bottle of wine and took it to a Cuban restaurant where we had dinner outside. It was awesome!! I'd love to go back to Hoboken to experience it during the day some Saturday - it looked like they have some cute shops. The Old 97's show was very different than any I've seen. First off, it was in an extremely tiny venue, which I was pretty excited about when we got there. You couldn't not be close to the stage. But, as I looked around, I was surprised to see so many older people in the audience. Seriously, many, many 70-year-old men were there. Lucy says that's how all shows are in New Jersey - weird. There were some young people there, of course, but the ratio was not what I would've expected. We went to their 4th of 4 shows in Hoboken last week. I got worried when Rhett (the lead singer) announced that there had better be a lot of really huge fans in the audience because they had used up all their good songs in the previous 3 shows and were doing no repeats. There was a cute, nice girl standing next to me for a while (5 foot transplant from Texas...I let her stand in front of me, Jessica!), so we chatted and she exclaimed that this was her very favorite band and she, too was worried about what was about to take place. Then The Old 97's proceeded to play a bunch of songs I had never heard of and that they hadn't played in years. There was one song that they had to restart 3-times because they couldn't get it right and they admitted it was because they had played it so few times many years ago. They apologized at least 3 times throughout the show for playing stuff most of us had never heard. They seemed to think it was hilarious, which actually made me irate. I think they played 2 songs I recognized. There are several songs that I feel like they play at every show and they didn't play the majority of those. It was disappointing - I should have asked for my money back since they basically admitted it was a crock. (Sorry for the long rant)! Hoboken was lovely, though!
-- Thursday night: I had no plans. It was around 5:00 that I heard that Michael Jackson had been sent to the hospital and I alerted some of my co-workers. One guy stayed on top of all the news websites, so we heard about the death right when TMZ first posted it (he was subsequently teased pretty badly for getting his news from TMZ). I was SHOCKED. I don't know why it shocked me so much, but it did. All I wanted to do was get home and to the TV. I know there are much sadder, more important things going on in the world, but Michael Jackson is so huge! And it was just so unexpected. For some reason, I get really interested in these kinds of news stories. I had been expecting to catch a special on Farrah Fawcett that night...I was kind of sad for her that her death got trumped that day. Anyway, I am not a huge music person (which may seem contradictory to the fact that I went to 2 concerts last week), but it's just not a hobby or something that I've ever wanted to invest much time or money in. But, as I thought about him, I realized that I have a lot of Michael Jackson memories:
-- Cheerleading camp in 2nd grade with the Kewpie cheerleaders where we learned a dance to "Beat It".
-- Standing in the Sub Shop (or maybe what restaurant was in that weird bldg first) waiting for our order, while being mesmerized by watching the "Thriller" video.
-- Practicing the Moonwalk in our basement.
-- Singing "We are the World" with choir in junior high
-- Watching the "Black or White" video over, and over, and over. I was never big into music videos, so this is probably the only one that I ever watched repeatedly.
-- Buying the Jackson 5 CD and listening to it over and over in my car. The Jackson 5 music is probably my favorite out of all his stuff. I love the MoTown stuff!
Someone I know mentioned that his death is for our generation what Elvis' death was for our parents'. One of my co-workers is already convinced he's not really dead. Are we going to spend the rest of our lives hearing about MJ sightings?!?! Too funny.
-- Friday: People at work never go out to lunch together, but a group decided to get the gang together and go on Friday. It was basically all the Managers, Directors, and VP's in accounting & finance. They are a fun group! It was nice to have a long lunch and Mary, one of the VP's, picked up the tab! That night, I went to a going-away party for a guy who has been pretty involved in Baylor alum stuff. I don't know him too well, but wanted to go and catch up with some other people I hadn't seen in a while. We had dinner at Hill Country, which is a restaurant I've been wanting to check out since it opened 2 years ago. It is owned by a guy who moved up from The Hill Country (area in Texas near Austin) and they are known by us Texans for having some Texas goodies shipped up, like Blue Bell Ice cream!! I actually wasn't that impressed, but the mac & cheese was really good. I passed on Ice Cream since they only had vanilla and chocolate and my favorite Blue Bell, ever since I was really little, has always been Cookies 'n Cream.
-- Saturday night I had two birthday parties. I organized a little dinner for my friend Danise's birthday. She wanted to go to Serendipity, so I made reservations and it turned out great. There were 6 of us there from church and it was a group I don't hang around to much, so it was nice to spend time with them. The food was yummy as always. I tried the Mint Frozen Hot Chocolate for the first time and I must admit that it does rival the Peanut Butter version. It was delish!
Kira, Katy, Danise, Susan, Joy, Treeny
Joy, Treeny, Kira...Kira is hilarious, don't know if you can see her expression in this photo. She is a great
person to have around - always has you rolling!
Danise (B-day girl) and I
Kira (she's one of the girls I know who was an extra in Duplicity) & Katy (she and I were both Pi Phis
at Baylor...just a few years apart)
Danise & I and our yummy Mint Frozen Hot Chocolate
Kira & Katy got the regular one
The whole gang downstairs with the
Kira & Katy got the regular oneThe whole gang downstairs with the Tiffany lamps in the background
My second birthday party on Saturday night was for Jackie. Joy was going too and we invited Danise to come along. It was over at the Boat Basin on the West Side. The Boat Basin is a fabulous casual restaurant right on the Hudson River. It was the perfect night to be there! I only stayed about an hour and then walked home for the night.
-- Sunday: In the morning I babysat the kiddos at church. I was with the babies and there was a 6-week old there for her first time. I held her for the entire hour and a half. She was absolutely precious!! I attended the morning service then ran home for a sandwich and made it to Broadway for a 3:00 play. August: Osage County was having their very last performance and because I loved it so much the first time I saw it, I wanted to see it one more time. Also, Phylicia Rashad was added to the cast since I saw it and I had wanted to see her in it. It was still so good the 2nd time. All the actors are brilliant. I still love the set that looks like a huge dollhouse. I just think this is a great play, even though it is 3 hours long! It was neat to be at the closing performance of a show, too. They were just really pumped up. They also got the longest standing ovation I've ever seen and instead of us taking pictures of them (which isn't allowed anyway), they were taking pictures of us - it was really cute!
I am, honestly, exhausted after such a busy week, but am looking forward to a 3.5 day weekend and what appears to be a much less busy week.
2 comments:
Study idea: If you want something somewhat intense, anything by John Bevere is great - I am leading a ladies study in Bait of Satan right now, personally I'm doing his Driven By Eternity - wow, that's an eye opening one. Just throwing those out there!
Wish I could have gone to the Old 97's with you! The shows aren't as good now that they live in different cities. I wonder what songs they played. I wonder if they were old/rare ones I would like... Maybe there's a set list posted somewhere.
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