Noodles & Company

Went out on Saturday night to this great Chinese restaurant called Republic by Union Square. It was a pretty nice restaurant and reasonably affordable for NY standards. I haven't had good Chinese food in awhile so it was nice to go out and try something that I wouldn't normally have and I actually enjoyed it so that was a plus.

I had the Chicken Pad Thai, Brittnee had the Spicy Coconut Chicken, and Irasema had Salmon.

I am so white....I do not see the sun enough by the time it is Summer I am going to be transparent!

Brittnee trying to eat with chopsticks....she couldn't do it!

 

After eating we went to Rockefeller Center very random I know and not even close to Union Square. Anyway, we had lots of fun watching people ice skate.We didn't intend to stay there for almost an hour watching people, but we did. I highly recommend doing this if you are extremely bored and want to have a lot of laughs. That is one of the great things about living in NYC the people watching is AMAZING because there is such a random/unique set of people here. The ice skating rink was filled with every demographic and we tried to guess what was going on in their lives and who were couples. So much fun! Good times.

Such a poser.

My rug has arrived!!!

 This is my Christmas present, but it was on back order so I didn't get it until last week. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!! Now the floor isn't bare anymore. All we need now is a TV and we will be complete. I got it at Rosenberry Rooms which has the cutest stuff and the best rugs for a decent price that I could find and I looked and looked.

Live with Regis and Kelly... Again

Brittnee and I were able to go see Regis and Kelly again!! I called a couple of weeks ago and put my name on the list for tickets if anyone canceled. We did standby with Justin Bieber and I really didn't want to do it again. I also didn't think we would get in if we tried stand by this time because it is Josh Groban and standing outside for three hours just didn't sound appealing especially when we just did it. I got the call around 5:30PM saying that they had two tickets available because someone canceled! It was seriously the best Valentine's Day present I could get.

Regis and Kelly doing the trivia game. All I have to say is that no one can replace Regis he is seriously just a naturally funny person and I know that he will be missed when he leaves the show. During the commercials Regis and Gillman were the entertainment, so we didn't die of boredom.

The first guest was Jeff Probst the host of Survivor. All I have to say about him is that he is HOT in person. That show really plays down how hot he is with the crappy outfits and hats he has to wear.

Regis and Kelly is doing this new segment for Valentine's Day where everyday they have a different love story on. Let's just say this couple met during the Holocaust and it was a real tear jerker. I hope they win they were the cutest couple and so tiny.

My husband performed two songs! One for the show and he also sang another just the audience that was there and I was able to record both performances. He is amazing and his voice is beautiful live. I LOVE him. Brittnee pointed out to me this is the third time we have seen him since we have been here. First we went to his CD signing at Barnes & Noble and we also saw him at the tree lighting. I am a LITTLE obsessed.

He is a geek I know, but I still love him.

 

 

Performing 'If I Walk Away'

 Performing 'Galileo'

And yes I do know where he lives when he comes to NYC.

Wardrobe change...

So, we got to the ABC Studios around 7:30 and they don't let you in until 15 minutes before the show starts. Well, while we were in line they told us that they were filming two extra segments and we would need to stay an extra thirty to forty minutes. They wouldn't tell us who the guests were, but it was fun to be there for longer because the show seems so short and sweet while you are there and you just want it to last a little bit longer.

The first guest that they had on was January Jones who is in Mad Men. She was on the show promoting her new movie 'Unknown', with Liam Neeson.  After watching the clip I might actually go see this show because it looks different and might actually make me think. While watching the clip I was already trying to figure out what the twist was.

Another wardrobe change....

The last person that we were able to see was Emily Blunt. She was promoting her new movie 'Adjustment Bureau', with Matt Damon. They showed a clip of this one as well and I am more intrigued by 'Unknown' I have a feeling this one will be will be action packed which there is nothing wrong with that, but I just don't think the plot of the film will be as interesting as January Jones new movie.

HEART Attack...

 

The picture above is my view on love yet I am sure there is many people that would disagree so here is a sonnet from Shakespeare. I had to memorize this sonnet when I was in high school for my humanities class and I never have forgotten it. 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impedimets. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempest and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved, 

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare

 

So for a Relief Society activity we were suppose to make cards for people for Valentine's Day. I really didn't have anyone I wanted to make a card for. Sorry mom I just wasn't feeling it this year. Anyway, I decided to give our door a heart attack instead. I think it is cute and I have many received compliments on it, so I am quite proud of myself! Next year I will go crazy and have the whole door full of hearts.

Downtown

Today we went Downtown to play with some great girls! We really had no idea what we were going to do, so we walked around and explored the area because we haven't been Downtown much. We decided to eat at Pete's Tavern near NYU it serves Italian food and let's just say the decor inside is very interesting and eclectic, but the food is really good!

This is the narrowest house in NYC. It is 9 1/2 feet wide and 42 feet long, and was built in 1873 during the smallpox epidemic in the alleyway between 75 and 77 Bedford Street.

Do you see it? It is tiny! I don't know how someone could live in such a narrow space.

I would say it is less than a half more like a third.

Compared to the houses around it this place is tiny...

We also went to Strand Book Store near Union Square. It sells new, old, rare, and out of print books. They have enough books within the store to stretch 18 miles.... It is really fun to walk around and look at old books they have. We had fun in the kids section and found these scary puppets. I don't know what mother would let their child have one of these they would give me nightmares if I was young! They remind me of something from Monster's Inc.

Live with Regis and Kelly!

Yesterday Brittnee told me that Justin Bieber was going to be on Regis and Kelly and she wanted to go. I was like sure why not! I honestly didn't think we would get in it is Justin Bieber and he has a lot of crazy fans. For his book signing in NYC people camped out for three days and over 2,000 people showed up for a chance to see him. I thought there would be a lot of people in the standby line and we wouldn't be able to get in but...

We got in line at 6:20 anyway and it was FREEZING and we stayed frozen for almost three hours waiting to see if we would even be able to see the show. I think that is one of the reasons why there wasn't as many people in standby as there usually is as well as most people that would want to see Beiber are suppose to be in school, so we were able to see a live show. 

We were 18th and 19th in line and we were one of the last people that they let in. I actually got to sit in a seat and Brittnee sat on the stairs. All I have to say is that there were a lot of crying girls around who weren't able to get in and lots of girls in the audience that pretty much just screamed during the commercial breaks.

Justin is showing Regis and Kelly how to do the dougie it is apparently a type of dance move. I don't know why you can't hear them talking, but seeing all of them dancing is the funny part.
 

He was on the show promoting his new movie Never Say Never.

 Justin Bieber taking a picture with Regis, Kelly, and his grandfather.

The set is really small and it really doesn't fit many people. I still can't believe we were able to get in and see a show on such short notice! I love living in NYC!

NYC Opera - La Traviata

The MET

 I got to go The Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center last week. This is the first time I have gone in almost two years, so I was long overdue. I saw La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi with my friend    Isha. She is an amazing opera singer and I was glad to be able to spend some time with her. Anyway I have seen this Opera before in Utah and out of all the Opera's I have seen this one was by far my favorite even though I haven't seen that many, so I was excited to see it again in NYC.  

Right when you walk into the building there is this beautiful chandelier that is stunning. There is 49,000 pieces of Swarovski crystal that hang on rods and apparently costs more than a million dollars!

If you go downstairs there is rows and rows of opera singers from previous performances. The one thing that I like about Opera is that most people who sing aren't beautiful especially, but they have beautiful voices and what they look like doesn't matter as long as they can fill that Opera house with their voice.

I love the costumes of these characters.

 

La Traviata is sung in Italian, so everybody has a translation screen in front of them.

This La Traviata performance was different from the one I saw in Utah because they put a modern/contemporary feel to the set. The set is half a clock and really didn't change much from this original concept. On the far right they have an large clock that represents the mortality of the main character Violetta. She has tb and is dying slowly, so throughout the performance you always have a view of the clock. I enjoyed the modern aspects of this stage for the first Act, but by the second and third act I really thought it could have been done differently and with more emotion because it felt very cold to me. So, I just shut my eyes and listened to the music which is amazing!!! Blew my mind. All of the three main characters voices were spectacular and I could of listened to them all night.

Like most Opera's I have seen this one of course starts with love and ends in death. The hardest part about watching and enjoying these performances is making sure I don't think they are real and get too caught up in the characters or I become a basket case. There never seems to be a happy ending just like life I guess you just get through it and hope for the best!