B-A-Y-L-O-R

Baylor NCAA Games! I had some fun times watching our men battle their way through the Round of 32 and Sweet 16 and their final game in the Elite 8! I watched the Round of 32 game in New Jersey of all places! There are 5 people from my old community group still in the Tri-State area and 3 of us are Baylor Bears and 2 are Colorado Buffalo. Since we were playing each other, it made sense to watch together! Two of the girls have moved to New Jersey and one has a 4-month-old - her husband was also out of town for a conference, so there was no way she was bringing baby into the city late at night alone. So, we opted to go to her place instead! The 3 New Yorkers (myself, Kim, and Jen) only slightly regretted the fact that we obligated ourselves to travel by train to NJ on St. Patrick's Day. I was really glad St. Patty's fell on a weekend this year because I didn't have to battle all the crazy rif-raf around my office building. TONS of people come in from New Jersey, Long Island, and the Outer Boro's to watch the parade and drink all day long. It's a loud, disgusting mess. And, we were riding with that disgusting mess back to their home on the train for 1.5 hours. By the time we got to our destination, our train conductor had blood all over his shirt from breaking up a fight and Kim had practically participated in a threesome when some girl came and sat in the lap of the guy sitting next to Kim and they proceeded to make-out like crazy. Seriously obnoxious people the whole way there! Luckily, the ride back into the city was much more calm. AND, we had a great time catching up with our Jersey girls, Erin & Erin! Plus, Baylor won - woot!

I watched the Sweet 16 game at Stacy's apartment along with Mindy and Christina and her friend in from Oklahoma. Another fun night with pizza and catching-up and another win!

For the Elite 8 game on Sunday, Kim and I just met at a bar near church because I had a meeting that was starting right about the time the game would be ending. We ate lunch and cheered on our Bears. We lost the game in the 1st half, but luckily the score got a little better in the 2nd. I didn't expect that we would beat Kentucky (I actually have them winning the whole thing in my bracket!), so I wasn't too disappointed.  Super proud we made it to the Elite 8!

Now we're cheering on our Lady Bears in the Final 4 and after that we get to see RGIII take the NFL Draft by storm. Definitely the best year in sports for Baylor in my lifetime thus far. Maybe our bad luck curse is finally over! But I don't want to jinx it, so I'll state for the record that I fully expect career ending injuries, murders of teammates, coaching scandals, and anything else that could possibly go wrong.... next year.

Sic 'em!

Spain! Madrid - Day 2, Part 2!

I know you're all sitting on pins & needles waiting to find out what our big adventure was for Part 2 of Day 2 in Spain.  I suppose I've left you hanging for long enough.

Bullfighting!!  It was definitely a highlight of the whole trip!  The first fight was a little shocking (even though we were well aware of how it would end), but after that it was quite entertaining!  They do six full fights each evening and it lasted a couple of hours.  The arena was filled with mostly locals and it was fun to be surrounded by them at an event that is so cultural to that country.  They were SO into it and it was really quite interesting to watch.  I've got TONS of pictures from the night.  (WARNING : the bull dies).

Plaza de Toros was really beautiful and huge

There was an opening ceremony of sorts to get the evening started

Tons & tons of Spaniards were there

On the way in, we had a confusing interaction with 

the concession stand seller and I thought I ended

up with a bottle of water.  Turns out Aquarius

is more of a carbonated lemon drink, but it was tasty

(not nearly as good as Lemon Fanta, though)!

The whole process of the bullfight is fascinating...

once you get over how really horrible it is

It starts with a group of men in amazing costumes and bright socks

with bright capes

They tease the bull mercilessly and sometimes have to run out of

harm's way and hide behind crevices in the ring wall

Next come the fighters on horses with swords.

The cape guys attempt to draw the bull near to 

the horses and the man on the horse stabs

the bull with the sword

You could see that the horse fighter went for

the bull in the exact same spot near his neck

each time.  Everything was extremely

methodical and planned out.  There was definitely

a plan and purpose for each fighter and each move

Next, one fighter pulls out these sword type things and goes

after the bull.  See the man in the fancy pink costume with

no cape holding 2 white things?   Those are his weapons.

The cape guys draw the bull towards the weapon holder and he

stabs the bull.  The weapons are left hanging, inserted in the bull.

This happens a couple of times - here you can see the

bull already has 2 weapons hanging from him and

another fighter is about to stab him with 2 more.

The fighter has to stab and RUN!

More RUNNING after a successful stab

The poor bull has now been worn down by the fighters with capes

and stabbed multiple times and is bleeding.  But, that's not all.

By this time, the bull would start to struggle.  He

was worn out and moving slowly and sometimes

had trouble even standing up.  This is when the real

Bullfighter (the Matador) with the RED cape comes out.

The Matador carries a small sword and has one goal -

to strike the bull in a certain spot right between the eyes

that causes the bull to die immediately.  Once the fighter

is in the correct position to hit the right spot, it all happens very quickly.

Trying to draw the bull nearer

I couldn't believe I captured this - I had no

idea the bull would run this guy over!!

It happened to this same Matador twice -

guess he wasn't very good?!  The Matador

finished his fight, but then they had to carry him

out of the ring, so I guess his 2 run-ins really hurt!

As soon as the bull is pierced with that last sword, he falls immediately

And they parade the poor, beaten bull out of the ring

If you look closely in this next picture, you can see a few people are waving white flags.

This seemed to be some method of voting.  After the last fight, the crowd went CRAZY

and everyone was waving their white flags.

Also, after the last fight when the crowd was going crazy with their white flags,

they were also turning towards and yelling at the people in the box seats

directly above our seats.  We tried to ask around, but there were only 2 good English

speakers near us and they also had no clue.  From what the semi-English speaking man

next to me said, it was the President sitting in the box and he gets to make the

decision as to the winner.  The crowd was appealing to him with their choice

of the final fighter, but apparently the President chose no one that night.  We still

aren't completely sure and we have no idea who this President was...the President of

this fight?  The President of all bullfighting?  The President of SPAIN?!

After bullfighting, we went to a restaurant, Casa Minga, that was

a bit off the beaten path, but was totally worth the trek.  It

was an Asturian (another region of Spain) restaurant and

they pretty much just served chicken and cider.

They also told us we needed to get the salad, which wasn't very good, but

the chicken and the cider were SO yummy!  And it was a neat little

restaurant.  We really enjoyed it! 

Lots & lots of cider!

Weekend Review - Sunday

On Sunday morning, I was back in the theatre district before 9am!  Mindy and I were on a mission to get tickets to see Sutton Foster's last performance in Anything Goes.  We tried to get Rush tickets at 10am, but were about 3 people too far back in line.  But, that put us 1st in the Cancellation line.  This line is for people who call and cancel their tickets and then the theatre re-sells them to people like us. We had to wait in line outside (and it was kind of cold!) until about 11:45, but then they got a bunch of cancellations and we scored 4th row, center seats!!  Plus, with Mindy's student ID (for her acting classes), we got them for 1/2 off.  Mindy had a good theory about the cancellations - hotels probably get tickets to every show and then cancel at the last minute.


We had a couple of hours to spare, so we went to John's Pizzeria for lunch-really good New York pizza - yum!  Then, it was back to the theatre for the show.  This was one of the very best Broadway experiences I have ever had!  Because it was Sutton's last day, all her biggest fans came out.  The energy of both the audience and the cast was out-of-control...in a good way!  When Sutton first walked on to the stage, she got seriously huge applause.  It's normal for big celebrities to get applause when they walk on stage, but this went on and on and on.  This happened a few times throughout the show - where the audience clapped at normal times, but wouldn't stop!


Sutton and Joel Grey (Jennifer Grey's dad!), the lead male role, clearly had so much fun at this show.  They both looked like they were about to burst into laughter in a few different scenes.  It was clear that they were having a lot of fun!  After one of Sutton's big scenes, she got a very long standing ovation...in the middle of the show!  I cannot say I have ever seen this happen before. Every time the audience would go wild, she looked so overwhelmed by it - even looked like she teared up a couple of times (I could tell because I was on the FOURTH row, remember!?).  She would try to get us to stop clapping by holding up her hands or something.  It was unreal.  Plus, the show was just really good!  It's a classic Broadway musical...fun songs (a few that anyone would recognize), great singing, dancing and silly humor.  


After the performance, the cast took their normal bows to another standing ovation and then Joel Grey got us to sit back down.  He gave a little tribute to Sutton that was so sweet.  He mentioned how he has worked with many wonderful stars... Bebe Neuwirth, Liza Minelli, Kristin Chenoweth - to name a few.  But, he said he didn't love any of them as much as he loved Sutton.  So Sweet!!  Sutton had tears, her family who was on stage had tears, I had tears, Mindy had tears!  Then, Joel and the whole cast sang a cute song they had written for Sutton.  It was really neat to see all this happen.  I would definitely try to see a final performance again!


After the show, I was heading towards the subway and there was a TV show being taped in the street.  I hung around long enough to find out that it was  Pilot for an HBO show called Newsroom.  I saw Aaron Sorkin doing his directing thing and Jeff Daniels doing his acting thing (at the time, I thought he was Uncle Joey from Full House, but that's Dave Coulier...is it just me or do these 2 look exactly alike?!)

Jeff Daniels

Dave Coulier

My Pic of Jeff Daniels

Aaron Sorkin

After stalking the TV set for a while, I went on my way.  My final stop for the weekend was Laduree...one of my new favorite places in the city!  Laduree is a store that got its start in Paris selling macarons and they have finally hit the states!  Macarons have been popping up all over the city....I guess their the new cupcake?  Laduree ships their macarons straight from Paris every single day.  And they are delightful!!  My co-worker, Tamara's birthday was on Monday and she had recently shared with me her love for macarons, so I wanted to pick up some of NYC's best for her to try!  (And let's not lie...I got a few for myself, too.  The vanilla and carmel are my favorites so far.)

Such a fantastic weekend.  I need to be more intentional about getting out and doing New Yorky things every weekend!

Weekend Review - Saturday

Saturday morning, I woke up and whipped up a fruit salad and then went to Claire's for a lovely brunch with Ema and Ryann.  Claire always out does herself and this was no exception!  We had delicious bacon wrapped poached eggs, chocolate chip scones, and bread with goat cheese and lemon chutney served with Mimosas and some hot tea (Mariage Freres..my favorite, but in a flavor I've never had before).  The four of us sat around the table for close to 3 hours just catching-up and had so much fun!  We hope to make this a monthly thing.

I was able to take a lovely walk in Central Park on Saturday afternoon.  The weather this winter has been so crazy (in a good, but starting to weird me out kind of way).

Then, Saturday evening I met Rosella and Alejandra to see the new Broadway musical, Once, based on the movie of the same name.  It was really good!  The music is fantastic and the whole cast is on stage the entire show and they all can sing and play 1 or more instruments.  I really love the songs in the show and have been listening to the Broadway soundtrack a lot!  Afterwards, we wanted to get a small bite to eat or a drink and we randomly ended up at McDonald's!  (I know - the horror!).  But, we saw their ad for Shamrock Shakes and we were curious and then we realized that combining the Irish play with Shamrock Shakes would make quite a theme for the evening, so there was no turning back then. And the shakes were pretty good - minty deliciousness!

Weekend Review - Friday

This past weekend was definitely one for the blog!  It was such a wonderful, New Yorky weekend.  I love those!  Seems I have a lot to say about it, so I'm breaking it down by day!  It gets better and better, so hold-out for Saturday and Sundays posts!

Friday night, I went over to Roosevelt Island after work.  I've been over to the Island that's in the middle of the East River, just off of Manhattan, but I'd never been in a home there before.  My friend, Mary, had some of the ladies from our Bible Study over to her apartment for dinner.  Roosevelt Island is kind of a quirky place.  It's easy to get there - just 1 stop outside Manhattan on the subway or you can take the tram over the East River.  It is just 3 or 4 subway stops from my office, so it was super quick for me.  Life seems much more slow-paced over there and there is not nearly as much to do or shops or restaurants - but you're still so close to it all!  It feels a bit sketchy, too - at least at night.  But, Mary's apartment was lovely and it was such a fun and refreshing night!  Mary is the wife of a man on staff at my church.  They are really the only people their age in our church - they have 3 grown children and 2 grandchildren.  I really like having them around and it has been a blessing to have Mary join our study this semester.  There were a few other girls there on Friday who I haven't yet had the chance to get to know very well so this was a great opportunity.  Mary made us yummy soup and salad and sweet potatoes.  Do you know that I've never had a baked sweet potato?  I've tried sweet potato casseroles before and I don't usually like them, so I always assumed I didn't like sweet potatoes.  But, I loved these!!  So good.  We spent the rest of the evening - about 5 hours! - just chatting.  We laughed SO much!  And Mary and her husband have a get-to-know you game they always play when they have company over so we played the game.  Basically you write 3 things down on a paper that are unique about yourself, the papers get all mixed up and then we all have to guess who is who.  I put down that my high school mascot was a Kewpie, I once hit 2 parked cars in 1 day, and I took 6 years of Spanish.  Most of the ladies had NO idea what a kewpie is, and I always love re-telling my story of the day I hit 2 parked cars (and threw-up in a 3rd!  NOT kidding!!).  At the end of the night, several of us took the tram back to Manhattan - so fun!  I'd never taken it at night and the views of the city lights were just gorgeous!

To Add to Your Prayer List

My last post about movies ended with an Iranian movie.  Iran makes me think of a man who really needs your prayers.  His name is Yousef Nadarkhani.  You may have seen his story on the news as the media has started to pick-up on it more recently.  Yousef is a husband, a father, a pastor and, most importantly, a follower of Christ.  His refusal to deny Christ as his Savior has led the Iranian courts to order that he be executed.  He could save his life by simply saying he doesn't follow Jesus.  But, He won't do that.

I can't help but to tear up when thinking about this man who is facing death, this family who is facing the loss of their husband & dad, and his church who are facing the loss of their pastor.  And I tear up even more when I think of this man who loves Our Lord more than any of that.  When we read the stories of Paul and Peter and other martyrs in the Bible, we don't think much about it happening today.  But, it does...much more than we ever hear about.  

To me, this is such a very real, literal, and present-day picture of what God calls us to do in Mark 8:34-38.  Oh, to deny myself so that I can have all that He wishes to bestow on me!  To lose MY life, so that I can live the life HE planned for me.  I pray to make that choice every minute of every day, no matter what earthly things it may cost me...He is more, He is better, He is all.

Please pray for Yousef.  Pray for the Iranian officials.  Pray for circumstances to change.  Pray for God to be glorified through Yousef's life and then through his death, whenever that may come.  I am thankful to know that God CAN work to soften the hearts of the Iranian officials so that they would overturn this.  (Heck, His powerful hand could even cause an earthquake to cause those prison doors to swing open).  But, I am also thankful that I know that God is sovereign and always loving and always working all things together for our good and according to His plans and purposes.  While it is my desire and the desire of many to see Yousef remain with his family on earth for much longer, I trust my God whose ways are always higher than mine.

Best Picture Noms - Week 2!

Did you watch the Oscars?!  I was hit with some crazy virus last week and had trouble getting over it.  I ended up going to bed early that night and have watched the show throughout this week to catch-up!  Total bummer.  But, I did make it to the second Saturday of the Best Picture Showcase.  I didn't love the movies this week as much as I did the first week.  But, it was still a blast and I didn't HATE any of the movies as much as I hated Tree of Life!  This week, I was joined by Hillary, Stacy, Rosella, and Mindy.  Here's my recap :

Hugo - It was okay.  Didn't love it, but it was entertaining.  And the special digital stuff/3D was neat.  At times, it was just a bit too slow of a movie for me.

The Help - I already saw this back in the fall.  I had thought I might go to the gym during this movie since I'd already seen it, but after the virus attack, I was in no shape to get back to the gym yet.  I really liked this movie, even the second time around!  It's such a good story and the cast as a whole is excellent.  Not that she was the star of this movie, but I just love Emma Stone more and more.  And I loved her red dress on Oscar night!

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - I think my hopes were too high for this one.  I love a movie that really makes you FEEL.  Any feeling, really.  Happy or sad or on-edge or scared - I don't care.  I just want a story that engages me to the point that I'm so wrapped up in it to really feel some emotions.  I expected that from this movie. I mean, it's about the very worst day in my very most favorite place in the world.  It should have been so very sad.  And it was definitely sad, but it just didn't draw me in to the point where I really felt much.  The story of 9/11 is so powerful and this movie just seemed to lack that power.  I didn't tear up once (two of my friends did, though).  I had more tears in War Horse and in The Descendants, which didn't make sense to me.  I think my expectation for tears was set too high.

The Artist - I was so nervous about this movie!  I just knew ADD would get the best of me or that I'd fall asleep.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Not that I loved this movie, but it was really cute and enjoyable and I didn't get bored at all!

Midnight in Paris - This was my second time to see this movie and I am glad I gave it a second chance. I don't deal well with fantasy.  It's just too....fake.  When I saw this the first time, I went in knowing absolutely nothing about it.  So, when Owen Wilson's character started being transported to the '20's, I thought it was just plain dumb.  But, going in knowing this was what would happen made it more enjoyable for me.  It's a cute story and the 2nd time I even felt like maybe it could really happen (I know it can't...but on occasion I am able to use my imagination in a movie!!)

Besides the Best Picture noms, I didn't see nearly as many of the other nominated movies this year.  But I did see some and I have to say that overall I was just so impressed with movies this year!  Here are some others I saw....

My Week With Marilyn - Mom and I saw it at Christmas.  I loved it.  Loved the story, loved Michelle Williams.

Beginners - I saw this quite some time ago and I don't remember much about it, except that I didn't really care for it.

Albert Nobbs - I did not expect to like this movie nearly as much as I did.  This story was well-told and the actresses were very good.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Of course, it wasn't nearly as good as the book, but I liked it okay.  Stacy went with me and she had not read the book and was quite confused!  They did leave out pretty significant parts.

Jane Eyre - My book club went to see this a long time ago.  It was our book one month, but I decided I didn't care to take on that book.  I also had low-expectations for the movie...just not the genre I typically like.  But, I loved this!!  My book club girls did not though.  Kind of funny how it worked like that!

The Ides of March - I really liked this movie about a Presidential candidate (George Clooney), but the ending was super anti-climatic.

Margin Call - I found this movie about the world of business and finance super interesting.  I feel like a total nerd admitting that, but it was actually super suspenseful to me and I love suspense!

I saw 2 of the foreign film noms :

In Darkness - a Polish film about WWII.  It was a pretty tough and sad movie to watch, but it was good and told the story of some Jewish people who hid in the sewer system.

A Separation - I liked this Iranian movie okay, but did not love it.  I probably liked In Darkness better, but I knew this was the favorite to win the Oscar and it did win.

Spain! Madrid - Day 2, Part 1!

After a good night's sleep, we were ready for our first FULL day in Madrid!  We started our day at La Mallorquina on Puerta Sol (yet another of the many plazas in Madrid).  It was a diner type place that was very busy with lots of locals coming in and out.  I had read that it is a great place for breakfast and especially for their ensaimada pastries.  Of course we had to try one of those (I wasn't super impressed though).  But, I LOVED my egg & cheese sandwich thing.  Isn't it cute?

From breakfast, we strolled down Calle Arenal....a pedestrian only street known for its shopping.  We went in our first Camper shoe store here (they're all over Spain).  They have very unique shoes that are quite pricey (we have at least 1 store in NYC now), but interesting to look at.

Streets like this are what I loved about Madrid.

Narrow and windy and colorful!

Our next big destination was the Palacio Real.  The Palace was huge and neat to see, but they didn't allow pictures inside - boo!  

This is from the outside before we entered the Palace grounds.

I couldn't even fit the whole thing within my camera frame - it's huge!

One wing of the palace

Another building on the Palace grounds

 The courtyard once we were inside

The views from the palace were beautiful!

There is so much green surrounding Madrid!

I did get one photo inside the palace in the entryway 

before I realized we weren't supposed to take any.

Scandalous!

Our very favorite parts of the palace were the armory and the pharmacy.  These spaces were huge and had so many interesting things to look at!  I loved all the interesting bottles in the pharmacy and they had so, so many different medications and treatments.  I also enjoyed seeing the throne room (talk about royalty!) and the porcelain room where the walls and ceiling were made entirely of porcelain -amazing!!

From the palace, we went to Plaza de Colon because we had some important tickets to pick up near there for our activity later that evening.  This Plaza had a big statue of Columbus.

After we picked up our tickets, we walked through the streets of the Salmanca neighborhood.   We strolled down Calle de Serrano and popped in some of the fancy shops there - to me, this was like 5th Avenue in NYC.  My biggest (maybe only?) regret of this trip is that I didn't buy a Longchamp Le Pliage Bag while we were shopping.  We went into the Longchamp store and I could not believe how cheap the bags were there (less than 1/2 what they cost in the US).  I debated getting one, but it was only the 2nd day of the trip and I told myself we'd see other Longchamp stores, so I had time to think about it.  Well, we didn't see another Longchamp store the rest of the trip.  Darn!

We also wandered to La Paz market, hoping to pick up lunch there.  Unfortunately, most of the booths there were closed for siesta.  (While the idea of siesta sounds quite nice, it's actually a huge pain when you're not used to it!!)

Just a random street intersection in Madrid...but so gorgeous, right?!

It's okay that the market was closed because we ended up at a little place called Mallorca (a nod to the island where we'd end our trip!!).  We LOVED this place!!  They had little mini sandwiches and beautiful pastries.  We were able to get lunch to-go and take it to the beautiful Retiro Park which was just across the street.

They wrapped up our food so cute!

And I was super excited to see a vendor selling Lemon Fanta

as we entered the park.  Lemon Fanta is soooo good and you cannot

get it in the USA.  I have to say, though, that Greece has

better Lemon Fanta than Spain did.

After a leisurely lunch, we decided to tour the park.  Retiro park is absolutely fabulous.  I loved it.  There was so much green and many flowers.  There pretty little winding paths through lightly wooded areas.

The lake with rowboats was gorgeous and was my favorite part of the park!

We saw the Crystal Palace which was so pretty with a pond out back

The rose garden was enormous and so very beautiful!

We literally stopped to smell the roses!

We could have spent a lot more time in the Rose Garden and much more time in Retiro Park.  Alas, we needed to head home to put on warmer clothes for our evening activity.  More on that in my Day 2, Part 2 post!