New York City Birthday Day 1

I had a SPECTACULAR 40th birthday! My mom and I went to New York City and crammed in as much tourist sites as possible. The weather was chilly but not unbearable which I am very grateful for. One of my coldest moments happened in New York City on New Years in 2001, in the middle of Time Square. This visit was a bit warmer.

Last time I went to NYC, it was December 2001, three months after 9/11. The city was still in shambles, there was debris in the streets and a thin layer of ash coated some of the city. The parking meters were melted and broken and ground zero looked like a construction site haunted by a solemn spirit. One of the first places my mom and I visited was the Memorial. It was breath taking. Absolutely.

Freedom Tower

Skylight of the World Trade Center

Freedom Tower

Our first day was spent on a hop-on hop-off bus tour. I highly recommend utilizing these tours in any city. You get to see a lot and learn about it and someone else does the driving.

  Here is the Wall Street Bull, aka Charging Bull. It's a little hard to see through the bus rails.

Trinity Church

It's near the 9/11 Memorial. The first time I saw Ground Zero, I had to stand in a line that wrapped through the streets and passed by this church. It has an old Gothic cemetery on the grounds.

 The Washington Bridge

 Macy's

 Smith and Wollensky Steakhouse

 Flags at Rockefeller Center

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 Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center pre-lighting ceremony

Madison Square Garden

 NO SOUP FOR YOU!

 LDS Temple

 The Apollo

 The Metropolitan. Can you just see Blair eating yogurt on the steps?

 Carnegie Hall

Susan "Concrete Jungle" B.

Forget Me Not

Here's what's happening. I have been given an assignment, a research paper, a argumentative research paper. I am debating the question: Should mothers be discouraged from entering their daughters into beauty pageants? First of all, I love watching Toddlers and Tiaras. It's like a train wreck. I can't stop watching it. It's my guilty pleasure. This paper is going to drive me to drinking. It is the bane of my existence. I have written and re-written it 3 times and tomorrow I am going for a fourth. My first draft, my professor told me I sounded like a journalist (thank you) and my 3rd round, I had Shahida read through it and she too said I write like a journalist. I am glad I picked the right major.I watched the Relief Society Woman's Conference a couple of weeks ago and Elder Uchdorf gave that talk about Forget Me Not flowers. The next day, I was basking in the sun at the park and when I was walking to go back home I found Forget Me Not flowers! I was so excited!
Friday night I went to another boat party. It was freezing! But I met a few nice people and had a good time.

Saturday I went into to Central London to see a play called Decade. Brilliant! It was a big pill to swallow. It's about 9/11 and covers the last ten years since it happened. First, when you enter the venue, they send you through "security" like you're at an airport. You walk through a metal detector and they had 6 desk set up (3 on each side). "Cops" were sitting behind the desks and someone would tell you which desk to go to, to be questioned. While I was standing in line, I watch a lady being frisked. It was intense. The cool thing about the play was, the seating was set up to resemble Windows On The World. It was the restaurant at the top of one of the towers. There is a small octagon shaped stage in the middle of the room, and they have booths set up around the perimeter. The show really utilized the whole room. I have to admit, I choked up more than once during the production. They portrayed people that were in the towers and what happened after it got hit. Intense. There of course was a whole story line to follow, but this is getting kinda long. So I sat at a table with 3 other people. An older couple and then another older gentleman. At the intermission, we swapped 9/11 stories about where we were when it happened. The 3 of them were British and it didn't occur to me that the other side of the world was as affected as the U.S. I really hope they take that production to the U.S. Awesome. I had dinner with Alyssa before the play and we saw a good photo op. See below.
I got a few compliments on my hat. While I was on the train the man across from me said my hat was 'cute' and then gave me a thumbs up while repeating, 'very cute'. Then again at the play the woman I sat next too said the same thing. I was feeling a little self conscious about it when I first went out because I don't normally wear hats. By the end of the night though, I owned that hat. I wasn't wearing the hat, the hat was wearing me.

Susan 'I will never forget' B.