I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha

As soon as I saw that the Shakespeare Theatre in downtown D.C. was going to have Man of La Mancha there, I knew I was going to go. And go I did!

I loved it! Don Quixote, Sancho and Aldonza were awesome! They were strong singers and played their parts well. (Well everyone played their parts well, but the main characters are most important, in my opinion.)

There were a few uncomfortable parts (but were an important part of the show) and overall the show was awesome! I really like Don Quixote and his child-like innocence and goodness and how he changes the people around him for the better.

If you've never heard the music from Man of La Mancha, you should listen to it. The Impossible Dream, of course, is awesome, but I also like the song Man of La Mancha, Dulcinea, The Dubbing, and I could pretty much name all of the songs, so you should just listen to all of it. :)  

Thanks Shakespeare Theatre for putting on such a good show! 

P.S. The man who played the Padre in the show was a doppleganger of Mark Ruffalo. I was sitting in the 4th row from the front, so I could see clearly and I totally thought it was Mark Ruffalo at first. I also really liked his character; he was good too!

Randomness

I was looking at pictures on my phone recently from the past month or so and wanted to share some of them. 

I love to bake and I especially like to bake cookies. In this picture, it is chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough. If anyone ever needs or wants cookies, I will be more than happy to make you some. :) Although I will make any kind of cookies, the kinds I make the most are peanut butter chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, crazy craisin cookies, and Nate's best ever chocolate chips cookies.

I have owned my car for over two years now and I recently took him to get his first real car wash. I know it's pathetic that it has taken me this long, but it's better late than never. Right?! :)

One day I got a flyer on my car for a burger place near my brother's house in Leesburg. I've been meaning to go to it for a long time and I finally went there. This was the burger and I will say that I really enjoyed it and would go back again for another one and I have pretty high expectations for burgers.

Last year I went to Jack's Beer and Burger Joint in Harrisonburg with my nephew and got a really good burger there that I now compare all burgers from specialty burger joints to. So the fact that I would be willing to go back to this place is saying a lot.

About a month or so ago my sister, Lara, and her family returned from Spencer's Make-a-Wish trip to New Zealand. They all loved the trip and thought it was amazing and were grateful to Make-a-Wish for making it happen! About a week or two after they got back, Make-a-Wish had a fundraiser walk at a nearby shopping center and they, of course, decided to join the walk and invited others to join also. Our team consisted of me, my sister, Lara, my brother-in-law, Glen, and their kiddos, Cami, Emma, Adam, and Ellie and one of my co-workers was an honorary member. (Spence couldn't make it because he's at school).

I think there was a good turn out for the walk. I would say there were at least 100 people there, all on various teams. We could not have asked for a better evening for the walk too. Both the days before and after the walk were not very pleasant, but that night the weather was perfect. The walk was lovely and it was for a good cause!

I know this post is very random, but I wanted to share these pictures and stories for when I eventually print out my blog for myself.

NYC

So Kristina,Tom, Andrew and Madeline were in town from California at the beginning of this month. Kristina wanted to go to NYC while they were here and they invited me to come along and I decided I would join them. I rode up separately from Kristina and the kiddos, since they wanted to get there earlier and I didn't want to miss work.

(As a side note, I highly recommend not leaving on a 5:45 bus on a Thursday evening (or probably any weeknight for that matter), because you will hit rush hour traffic, no matter which direction you're going. But I made it to NYC by 11:55 that night and made it on the midnight bus to Secaucas, NJ, where we were staying.)

Friday morning we went to the 9/11 memorial, which I had never been to before and I really liked it. I think they did a beautiful job with it. We didn't go into the museum, but the grounds and memorial were nice.

 The Freedom Tower.

The names of all of the people who died in the 9/11/2001 attacks as well as the attack of 1993 on the World Trade Centers were etched on the memorial. As I mentioned earlier, I felt like the memorial was beautiful and well done.

 I like this picture of Madeline and I looking up at the Freedom Tower. (This was not a posed shot.)

After the 9/11 Memorial, we hopped on the subway to Times Square and walked around there for awhile. Andrew, Madeline and I went into Toys R Us while Kristina ran a short errand and then we met up again and started walking toward Central Park. I like this shot of us in Times Square!

We made it to Central Park. We walked around a bit and found a playground for the kiddos to play on. At this point, we had walked quite a bit and the Andrew and Madeline were getting tired. Kristina and the kiddos went back to the hotel while I stayed in the city and ended up being by myself the rest of the evening.

After we parted ways, I made my way back to Times Square to the TKTS booth and bought myself a discount ticket for an evening show.

I had some time to spare after I bought my ticket and I wasn't sure what to do, because I wasn't expecting to have free time. I called a family member and they suggested I go to the New York Public Library.

To the library, I went. I loved it! I had never been before and it was really cool! I liked the architecture of the building. I liked the art in the building whether on the ceiling or on the walls and I liked the exhibits.

The main entrance of the library.

After the library, I went to Grand Central Station, which I also had never been to before. I also really liked this! The architecture and art were awesome but I also liked people watching there.

Grand Central Station. After I finished here, it was about time to eat and then go to my show.

I ate somewhere that I don't recall and then I went to see On the Town. I liked it. I thought the music and dancing were fun and very well done, but I wasn't a huge fan of the storyline.

Overall I had a fun trip to NYC and got to see some new things! Thanks Kristina and family for letting me join you on this short trip!