Last Tuesday night was a free concert in the Park with the New York Philharmonic. I am not sure what they performed because we were pretty far out and everyone was talking around us. It was really cool, though. I know for next time that I am supposed to bring cheese and crackers and wine. Oh yeah, and I am supposed to light candles on my picnic blanket … Psyche! When you have 8 padgillion people walking around trying to find a place to sit, let’s not add fire to the mix, mmkay? So the real rules for concerts in the park are 1) Get there early 2) Bring a blanket and 3) Enjoy the music and fireworks at the end. That, my friends, makes for a superb night in New York. 

I am all moved into my new apartment. It is such a nice apartment, I can’t even believe it. It is in a great area – meaning I don’t have the fear of being shot. It is about a half a block away from Central Park on 84^th and close to the Museum of Natural History. It is also the neighborhood where Meg Ryan lived in You’ve Got Mail.  It has high ceilings, wood floors, a washing machine and dryer, and it decorated so nice. My favorite part of the apartment is the one brick wall in the kitchen. It’s just so cool; very New York. It is, however, on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator. This meant I had to carry 60 pound bags up five flights of steps (including the front stoop). I felt like Robert Redford on Barefoot in the Park. It really isn’t that bad, though, it was just rough that day because it was totally hot and humid and, of course, the huge bags.

 

I do have one concern about my apartment. Whether it is serious or not is your call … I think I am living with Grandma Stewart. There it is. I said it. The girl who owns the apartment (well, really her dad owns it) is 31 and possibly the most controlling, clean freak, OCD person I have ever seen in my life. After I had pretty much moved into the room, I walked in to find my roommate up on my top bunk furiously trying to put a fitted sheet on the bed. Just try to picture a little 5 ft 6 in, 110 lbs girl trying to put a fitted sheet on a bunk bed. I swear I was watching Grandma … perhaps with a plunger trying to unclog the disposal (Krissy, you know what I’m talking about). I told her I could do it, but she just responded by saying that it was ok because she had done it for all the other roommates. It was just totally bizarre because she didn’t ask if I had bedding or anything, she just put her own sheets and blanket on my bed. There are just a lot of weird things like that going on all over the place. If you would like more information, you can reach me by my cellular telephone. Who knows, though, we could become best friends.

 

Friday, June 13^th, was our mandatory work party at Six Flags: Great Adventure. I know what you are thinking, “Care, do you really ever work?” And the answer is yes. I have decided that media people get tons of presents and things like days at Six Flags because media is not that cool. I know there are aspects that are really cool, but I think most people get stuck in the not-cool stuff.

 

Anyway, Six Flags was super fun. It was weird to see work people outside of work. It was most surprising to see how early people start drinking when they have the opportunity. Actually, my favorite line of the day took place during lunch when some of the people we were with decided to get some drinks around lunch time: Guy whose name I have forgotten, “Do you guys want to get a beer?” Me, “No, that’s ok.” My boss, “You don’t drink, right?” Me, “Right.” Guy whose name I don’t remember, “Oh, well I think they serve wine.” Is this the caliber of people I am working with? I just want to know his rationale behind this statement. Anyway, I thought the exchange was pretty funny.

 

So I have decided that Six Flags is pretty much the same everywhere. I will say that the New Jersey one got extra points because it was cleaner and you didn’t have to walk up mountains to get to rides. They did have the craziest ride I have ever seen in my life called Kingda Ka. The ride is about 20 seconds long and it is a lot like Magic Mountain’s Superman except that instead of going down back-first, you turn around at the top and go straight down face-first. I have never been so scared to ride a roller coaster in my life. I kept thinking about how Jessi would react to the sight of Kingda Ka, at which point I would laugh and laugh. J

 

 There was another version of Superman in New Jersey that was really cool because you were actually riding on your stomach. I didn’t know how they were going to pull it off, but it was really cool and so so fun. You sit in the roller coaster like normal but then, opposite of what happens on X, you are tilted forward so you are looking at the ground. There is extra padding on the ride, too, so your chest isn’t smooshed against the bars, so it is totally comfortable. I was in my superman stance the whole ride – one hand ahead with the other fist on my waist – until I couldn’t hold it anymore, which is the precise moment that the picture was taken. What a joke!

Many of you have heard of Gray’s Papaya and their deliciously cheap hot dogs. Well, you all heard right. They are cheap and delicious. Right now they have the recession special, which is two hot dogs and a drink for $3.50 and the regular price of a hot dog is $1.50. This is, in fact, the cheapest food you will find in New York City. They keep it simple by only offering sauerkraut and onions as toppings. And, of course, there is ketchup and mustard. They only have specialty drinks like pina colada, banana daiquiri, some pineapple drink, papaya … something and other delicious drinks.

A couple weekends ago was our Philadelphia excursion. We spent only Saturday there because who wants to pay for a hotel? Not I. And it is only a two hour drive, so it wasn’t too bad.

 

So Philly was cool. It had a totally different feeling than Boston, which was a little disappointing. The comparison I have come up with for Boston and Philadelphia is that Boston felt like the Church owned parts of Nauvoo and Philadelphia felt like the Church of Christ owned parts. Everything just felt dirty and cheaper in Philadelphia. I will say that my opinion could be distorted because of how hot it was in Philadelphia that day. There is no way I could be totally happy in such weather.

 

There were a lot of really cool things in Philadelphia. Philly cheese steak is pretty delicious – something I have been avoiding for most of life. At the risk of sounding like Rob, steak and cheese should not be that close together, but it was so so good. Let this be a lesson to you, Rob.

 

After we had our Philly cheese steaks we were trying to decide what we wanted to do. Some wanted to go shopping, but the rest of us responded with “There are better things to see in Philly.” We proceeded to go back to the visitor’s center to watch a video and then do something totally awesome. About 5 minutes into the movie, we (Mike, Eric, and I) were asleep. We were sitting on the front row bench and woke up as the credits rolled. We knew we had to figure out what we were going to do quick, otherwise we were going to be stuck in the theater all day. The next thing we knew we were sprawled across the front row of the theater, totally asleep for the next hour. Eric thought it was a little too hot, so his nap took place in a window sill. So we pretty much looked like first-day bums – you know, because we weren’t dirty yet. Yep, there are better things to see in Philadelphia. J          

 

We accidentally went to Philly on Flag Day, which was really cool because that is where Betsy Ross’ house is. There were all kinds of flags displayed and it was cool to see all of the different variations. Just to give you an example of how everything in Philadelphia felt cheap, for some reason there was a carousel horse and a putting green in front of Betsy Ross’ house. Why would that ever be there? Maybe golf and carousel riding were her other passions outside of flag making.

 

Also, if you think you can see Benjamin Franklin’s grave for free, you are dead wrong. Sure $2 wasn’t going to break the bank, but it was going to break my will to go into the cemetery to take a picture. Could’ve sworn this was a free country!

 

Speaking of freedom, we saw the Liberty Bell. It was full of all kinds of liberty. Actually, it was really nice because it was in an air conditioned building. That can make any bell 10X better.

 

Independence hall was the best part of the trip. Also air conditioned. That can make any hall 10X better. It was super cool to see the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. I really don’t know how they met in that place with no air conditioning and with all kinds of layers of clothing. Did it really have to be signed in the middle of the summer? Come on! But would we really want to have parades and fireworks in the winter? I think not. Thank you, forefathers, for thinking ahead.

Every Wednesday at the world famous Apollo Theater is Amateur Night. Here are some of the greats Amateur Night winners: Mary J. Blige, Brandy, P Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Keith Sweat (yep), Fugees, among many others. I promise we did not see anyone of this caliber the night we went.

 

Being in the heart of Harlem, you could say our group of white BYU students was in the minority. And you better believe there were a lot of jokes at our expense, but they were funny, so it was ok.

 

Amateur Night is pretty much American Idol on a much smaller scale. The best part is that while the people are performing, the audience gets to decide who stays and who is kicked off the stage by The Executioner – who is just a crazy tap-dancing guy who pushes people off stage when the boos are loud enough. I know it sounds horrible what with all of the booing and an executioner, but it is really one of the funnest (I know, not a word) things I have done here. But it goes both ways; if you like someone, you cheer really loud and then if you don’t like someone, you boo. And let me tell you, it gets pretty wild in there. There were big booing and cheering battles that I was sure would end in bloodshed, but we all came out unscathed, just about 10% blacker. J

 

The best part was when they started calling random people up to participate in their Soul Train dance off.  For those of you who know Billy, you know that he will volunteer for anything, no matter what. So of course he found his way to the Apollo stage. I don’t think the people in Harlem have seen anything so white in their lives. Billy proceeded to do his signature break dancing and standing-worm move and it was pure genius! The host was so impressed by such unknown moves that he tried to do them himself, only to find that only a pure-bread white boy could move that way. And I am proud to announce that Billy was in the top three. It was really one of the best things I have ever seen in my life and now he can say that he danced on the world famous Apollo stage.

 

In conclusion, if any of you are in New York, you must go to the Apollo for Amateur Night (7:30 Wednesdays). It will change your life.

Tuesday night was our BYU excursion to the Empire State Building. So it is pretty huge, or something like that. It is hard to tell when you are in the city how huge it really is because everything is tall, but it is really totally gigantic.

 

To get to the top, it takes two separate elevator trips. The first one goes up to like the 60^th floor and then you change elevators to go up to the top (I think 86 floors – I could be wrong). The thing that stunk was that it was totally windy and overcast and you couldn’t really see anything. And we went at about 7:30, so it wasn’t really dark yet either. So the pictures won’t blow your mind as I had hoped they would.

Saturday was our trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was stinking hot, but the breeze on the ferries made it a little more bearable.

 

If I have learned anything from Hollywood, it is that the Stach-o-Lib is totally huge. Some of you may be under this impression as well; especially those of you who have a fondness for Ghost Busters 2 and Splash. However, this is not the case. It is much smaller than I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it was great. Just smaller than expected

 

Ellis Island was interesting. I don’t know if I can really describe the feeling there. You would think that it be all joyful and hopeful, celebrating everyone’s arrival to America, but it’s not. It was more depressing than anything. A lot of the museum talks about the all the prejudice that came as a result of the huge numbers of immigrants. And all of the persecution that took place in other countries that made people come to America (the Holocaust). It just didn’t seem like there was much to be happy about during that time. And the building was restored to what it would have looked like in the first quarter of the 20^th Century and it hurt to know that people were held there before they were able to enter the country. It was such a cold and depressing place.

 

I will say that I am so thankful that I wasn’t the one who had to go through it. I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it through.

So it’s hot here. How hot you ask? Really hot. Yesterday it was around 95 degrees with who knows how much humidity. You might even say it was 100% humidity because it ended up raining in the late afternoon.  I guess it hasn’t been this hot this early in the last 10 years. What makes this experience better is that my dorm doesn’t have air conditioning. In fact, there is only one floor in the International House that does. My Sunday nap was ended when I woke up totally soaked.

 

Luckily the subway cars are air conditioned. I never thought there would be a time when I never wanted to leave a subway car, but today I realized it was possible. As soon as the train doors open you walk out into the sickest feeling ever. There is no circulation in the station, which makes for a lovely mixture of the normal smell of the station and everyone’s sweat. So you run to get out of the station, only to find that outside is just at hot, just a little less stinky. Then you have to walk a few more blocks to get into you air conditioned building. Luckily, this journey doesn’t have to be repeated for another nine hours.

 

So yesterday was my first taste of the deathly heat in NYC. I had just woken up from my Sunday nap from extreme heat at 5 p.m. I had no idea what was going on – as most of you can imagine that have seen me wake up from anything – but my confusion and disorientation were amplified by my boiling brains. But I forged ahead and got ready to go downtown to my soon to be apartment to pay for the rest of the summer.

 

Melissa and I started on our way to the subway as gross as can be from sweaty naps. But it didn’t really matter because we would continue to sweat to and from the apartment. We found refuge in the subway car, but were kicked in the face with heat and humidity upon leaving the car. We walked to the apartment, paid our rent – looking lovely – and started back to the subway.

 

As we walked to the station, I thought, “I wish it would just rain right now to relieve this heat.” Right then it felt like a bird pooped on my head. I didn’t look up for fear that a bird had actually pooped on me. But then the rain came. I have never seen rain come to hard and so fast in my life. It felt so good, I couldn’t even believe it. Melissa and I soaked up the rain, with hands in the air as if to thank the heavens for such a blessing. So we walked the block to the station in the rain. We were completely soaked walking into the station. I’m talking wringing out my hair kind of wet. There was no dry place on me. And all of this in a matter of about three minutes.

 

When we walked down into the station people were just standing in the stairwell looking up at the rain. I thought they were all wimps for not walking out into the rain. But then I realized they just knew how things work in New York; it was only going to last for probably another minute and then they could be on their dry way. And they were totally right. When we got home, totally soaked, no one even knew it had rained, so we just looked crazy. Yeah, we looked pretty sweet at dinner.

 

Last night was Mormon night at Carnegie Hall. The performance was by the BYU Chamber Orchestra. This is by far the best thing I have done in New York. It was absolutely amazing. The inside was beautiful but you aren’t allowed to take pictures, so here is a lovely one from the world wide web.

 

The evening went something like this. I hadn’t looked at the program before the performance because there were better things to do like watch youtube videos using the hall’s wifi, so didn’t know the treat I was in for. The first piece started and within approximately two seconds I knew what it was and knew that I would be crying. It was Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. I am not sure why I lost it so early or why it was so touching to me hearing it this time, but there was no hope for me. I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t listened to Copland (one of my favorites) since my senior recital or if it was the underlying feeling of regret for not playing the flute as much as I want to. But then I thought, “Life with band kids is no life at all!” and I crossed that reason off my list and decided that it had to be the power of Copland. Either way, the music was incredible.

 

After Appalachian Spring they performed K. Newell Dayley’s A Perfect Brightness of Hope … also beautiful. The soprano soloist had one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. The show ended with Rossini’s Overture to La gazza ladra and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. Great, as well. However, the best was yet to come.

 

The conductor came back out after the standing ovation and said, “You will know this one.” At first I had no idea what they were playing and was sure the conductor had lied to us all when the tune of Where Can I Turn for Peace became clear. Any tears that hadn’t come out in the first piece were coming out in buckets now. It was the most beautiful arrange I have ever heard of that hymn. It was so pure and simple, but was so powerful. I was almost disappointed when people clapped at the end of the song and broke the silence.

 

I definitely needed to be there last night. I don’t know how long it has been since I have truly appreciated beautiful music. It was the perfect escape from the rush and chaos of the city. And it is always good to be reminded where we can turn for peace.