On June 7th, 2011, Dayna's dad came into town to spend some time with her and to celebrate his birthday. He very, VERY generously bought us all tickets to a New York Yankees baseball game!!! I had never been to one before, and it was such a "New York" thing to do! We started the afternoon at Think Coffee, where we met Dayna and her dad for some beers. David, Dayna's dad, came up with the brilliant idea that we put our 2nd beer in a coffee cup and take it "to-go" on the subway up to the stadium, which is ALL the way in the Bronx! For the rest of the night, we all kept asking each other who wanted "more coffee"....too funny!

The game was super exciting, it was Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox....definitely a very heated crowd! I'm not a huge baseball fan either way, so I wore yellow and stayed very neutral. We mostly enjoyed Bud Light and talked to each other about life, since baseball games are pretty long and relatively uneventful. In the picture, there's Cameran, Sean, Dayna, me, and Dayna's friend Lewis. SO MUCH FUN. What a great way to spend a Tuesday.

Now that New York has warmed up, I have found myself in a much more consistent gleeful state. Everything is happy, every day is awesome, and I am so lucky to be in such an exciting, vibrant city with so many people that I love. I hope I can hold on to this feeling even when the weather starts to cool down.

And Basquiat Continues...

I was invited to perform yet ANOTHER time with Red Blisset, Paul Stancato, and the Basquiat crew. We performed at John Forslund's "Bound For Broadway", the same showcase that I started in! This whole thing has come so beautifully full circle. Well, almost!

Sunday, May 29th, Memorial Day Weekend, and yet STILL a sold out house! John is so talented....I don't know how he does it! We performed "Tom Song", "Mudd Club", and new piece that we had all just learned two days earlier, "Come Back". "Come Back" is really cool because it uses phrases and lyrics from some of the other songs we were familiar with. And then, since the lovely Miss Felicia Finley hosted the show, we ended it with her single, "Closin' Time", which is the number where I get to sing under her! She told me in person after the rehearsal, "I really want to feature you in the song, so you should really sing out more! I think we really mesh well together, so just go balls out, girl!"

She really is fantastic. Such a fun lady and what an incredible spirit! I hope she becomes someone who can act as a little bit of a mentor to me. I've already learned alot from her by just WATCHING her interact with other people. She has a huge personality and is definitely an individual, but she also can totally command the attention of a room. And also by being nice and polite! Amazing.

I hope they keep inviting me back! This Basquiat project is totally inspiring....and I am so fortunate to have stumbled across it!