Day 19: Nants ingonyama bagithi baba (here comes a lion!)

Hey there adoring fans (Jim Ferris and Erin Maguire)!

As you all know, I’ve failed twice at the lottery for Wicked.  It’s been very hard on me.  I mean, I know that there’s an election coming up, and some people have been devastated by a storm, but can’t a girl just get a little break with her bucket list for the end of the world?  All I want to do is to go see a fun Broadway show (for under $30) where the powers of good and evil are tested.  Where the protagonist wants something different than what her life has handed her.  A show where there are jovial sidekicks with with a charming song and dance number that doesn’t really further the plot in any way but just brings a smile to your face and for 6 and a half minutes and allows you to forget about the main character’s struggles.

Well, yesterday, my prayers were answered!  No, I didn’t get to see Wicked.  I got free tickets to see…

THE LION KING ON BROADWAY!

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, The Lion King gave it’s cast members 2 free tix for friends to come see the Sunday matinee performance.  And lucky for me, I have a wonderful friend who’s hubby is in the show (thanks Erin!).   Now, to be fair, if you look back to Day 4: The Apocalypse Takes Oraganizing, you’ll notice that seeing The Lion King was something I wanted to get done in the event that the world doesn’t end.  It is wedged right between “Pay off Credit Card”, and “Papsmear”.

To Do…after December 22, 2012

It’s not that I didn’t want to see Lion King, it just wasn’t something I thought I could get in amongst my other goals (Grey’s Anatomy is taking up an awful lot of time) before the EOW.

But, lucky me!  I’m so thankful I was blessed with these tickets because I absolutely loved this show!!  I mean, I’ve seen the opening number performed on the Tony’s (for you non musical theatre nerds, the Tony’s are like the Oscars for Broadway Musicals.   Or for you hipster teenagers, they’re like the MTV movie awards)…(I am pretty sure there aren’t any hipster teenagers reading this blog).  When little Rafiki jumped on stage and started wailing to us in African my eyes started welling up.  Halfway through Circle of Life when the giraffes entered the stage was when my first tear fell, and by the time the rhinoceros’, elephants, and zebras started to walk down the aisles through the audience I was in full on snot-running ugly cry (I should probably let you know that I’m in that lovely womanly time where I have to leave the room when the Sarah Mclachlan ASPCA commercials come on the TV or else I’ll end up like that depression medication commercial where the umbrella has eyballs…so it’s only natural that I be moved by dancing animal puppets).  The show was awesome and I’m so glad I got to see it before December 21st when Scar and his evil laughing hyenas rule us all (or nothing happens and we’re all still here chilling with Mufasa).

Here we are after the show.  Me, Jim Ferris (standby for all 3 white guys in the show), and my buddy Rebecca.

Plus we got to donate to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS which is an amazing organization that is donating a portion of it’s proceeds to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

(Hint: I’m the one on the left)

Day 10: The booger of the sea…

Hello adoring fans (this one’s for you Mary Trotter)!

So, yesterday, my goal was to see the Broadway Musical Wicked!  Which turned out to be (as the kids call it) an Epic Fail, due to the 300 Japanese foreign exchange students that showed up at the lottery drawing….which lowered our stupid odds of getting picked, which almost ruined my blog for today…whatever…I’m over it.   So… instead we went to PJ Clarke’s on the East Side (after having 3 margaritas and a shot of some fancy kind of tequila…I couldn’t tell you the name….they all taste like dirty old man armpits to me) to suck down….MY VERY FIRST RAW OYSTER!

Upon arrival at PJ Clarke’s, we met 2 very nice gentlemen at the bar, Mark and  John, who were both pro’s at eating oysters, and they graciously invited us to their table for a tutorial on how it’s done (and they paid!).  Before watching my (first ever!) video blog below, let me introduce you to our new friends…

We’ve got Mark (a divorce lawyer from Florida), John (Mark’s friend, also a divorce lawyer from Florida who is upset about the size of New York Local Oysters and supports Obama) my gal pal Becca Pace (my awesome personal trainer friend who’s tiny pea head always gives my giant chubby head low self esteem in pictures), and then there’s me (giant chubby head).

And here it is folks…

what we’ve all been waiting for…

something I’ve always wanted to try…

my first ever raw oyster!

And then I went back for seconds…

Still kind of grossed out, I’m more accustomed to trying to get loogies out of my body…not putting them in…

 Then I got the hang of it!

Sort of…

Cheers to new friends and Oysters, or as I now fondly call them…The Boogers of the Sea!