Makeover America

Rita, the GM's Assistant at work wanted to know if I'd like to go to Macy's today to see Makeover America, with Clinton Kelly from TLC's What Not to Wear. Ummmm . . . . YES!!! He's going across the country, selecting 15 women from each area, taking them shopping at Macy's and making them over. I happened to sit next to a lady whose daughter, Blair, had been selected for a makeover. Clinton shows the before photo, talks about each woman's challenges, then the "new" woman struts the runway in her Macy's outfit. Blair's challenge was that she is a 23 year old plus size young woman, having a really hard time dressing like she's 23. The stylists put her in a gorgeous purple empire waist dress with tights and boots. New hair, new makeup - she looked fabulous! Her mother was so proud! And Clinton is as adorable up close as he is on TV. What a fun afternoon!

Happy Birthday, Jenna!!!

Dear Jenna,

October 15th, 1989, 2:31 a.m., you made your debut. What a beautiful baby you were! And what a beautiful young woman you've become. I'm so proud to be your Mama. There have been times when it hasn't always been easy to be your Mom (your Junior High years were challenging), but I've ALWAYS been proud of you. ALWAYS. You are smart, funny, talented and stunningly beautiful. I look at you and just can't believe (to borrow a phrase from one of our favorite shows) that I made you from scratch. I can't help but think, "Dang - I did something right!!!" :)

I love you so much, Jenna. Happy, happy birthday.

Love you forever,

Mom

New York, Sunday

This is our last day in New York, and our plans are jam packed. Unfortunately, it rained all day long. Not a huge deal - but when you're from Arizona, you don't have rain gear. Yes we had trench coats and umbrellas, but not waterproof footwear. The first stop on our agenda was the Statue of Liberty. Because I'm kind of sick this way: what kind of bird leaves droppings so large they look like they've been left by a small dog? Seriously!! I've never seen such huge piles of bird doo! There should really be a warning when you get close to the statue - if one of those fell on you, it would leave a mark!!!

OK, moving on. We had planned to visit the World Trade Center site, but decided to leave that out. Instead, we headed to Soho. Still raining, a LOT. We wandered around Soho for awhile, then decided we'd hang out in a sports bar, have some lunch and dry out.

From here we headed to Union Square - we wanted to visit my all time favorite shoe store: DSW. Yes - they have them here, but this was in New York . . . and in this store they have designer shoes . . . right out in the open where the general population can get to them. Look what they had . . . . Jimmy Choos!!! They leave them unattended, no sirens go off when you go near them. I SOOOO wanted to try them on . . . I want to know what makes them $800! Are they really that much better? BUT - it's been raining, I don't have proper rain gear and my jeans are soaking wet. It would be disrespectful to try them on under those conditions. (I did touch them all, though!!!)

Back to the hotel to get ready for our next show. We're going to the Orpheum theater to see Stomp! Stomp is one of my all time favorite things. And to see it in New York!! I'm really excited about this. The Orpheum theater is fairly small - but every seat was filled. We were in the third row - close enough to make eye contact with the performers. It never disappoints. Once again, I loved it!

The very last thing on our list for our New York adventure was a little restaurant I'd read about called S'Mac (www.smacnyc.com). A restaurant devoted to macaroni and cheese - 12 different kinds of macaroni and cheese. Jenna had the All American, I had the Napoletana. ONE of us liked it!! I refrained from actually licking the skillet clean - it was DELICIOUS!!!

We fly home on Monday. It went by so fast! I'm sorry it's over. I had the best time. I loved it all and I'm so thankful I got to spend this time with my Baby Girl.

New York, Saturday

This day was all about SHOPPING!!! First on my list of priorities: the NYC Harley store - Marlon needed a shirt.


Then we stopped at New York and Company, Victoria's Secret, Dooney & Bourke, Sephora . . . . and then of course, the Coach store. You didn't think we would pass it up, did you?




Do you see how excited I was to be going to the Coach store? And while we were there we HAD to purchase . . .


wait for it . . . . . . . the Commemorative Handbags!!! Oh like you didn't guess. You KNEW that was gonna happen!!! And these styles were introduced the day we arrived in New York. Fate? I think so!!


We also had to find Grand Central Station. We changed subway cars at Grand Central Station - but underground it looked like all of the other subway stops - we wanted to see the GRAND part of the station that you see in the movies. It didn't disappoint. It really was grand.

Back to the hotel - ordered room service for dinner this day - shopping is exhausting!! Then it was back out again to see "Wicked". If you haven't heard of it, it's the story of Oz - before Dorothy got there. It's how the Good Witch and The Wicked Witch knew each other. It's hilarious - and will make you look at the Wizard of Oz in a whole new way. Favorite song: Popular. You're gonna be Pop-U-Lar. Loved it!!!

New York, Friday

BIG plans for today!!! Starting with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Doesn't Jenna look tiny sitting on the steps? We headed to the right and started in the Egyptian wing.

This is the Temple of Dendur. I don't know who Dendur is, or why he has a temple. We're not real big on actually READING all of the descriptions. We came, we saw, we took pictures of what we liked and moved on. Oh . . . and NO Flash Photography. We made that mistake . . . a couple of times. Ooops.

Admit it, you glanced at the statue over there --->
and thought, "I wonder who she's texting?" That's EXACTLY what WE thought, too!!! OK, we're not serious museum goers. And?!!

From the Egyptian wing, we wandered upstairs to the European paintings. Maybe it's just me, but these painters have some anger issues. A lot of death and stabbings depicted. And boobs! Everywhere, women with their boobs hanging out. I don't know how it was then, but nowadays we have laws about letting your ta ta's hang out.


Next stop: Central Park.

This is the view from Belvedere Castle. It comes in handy to travel with your own supermodel. (Go ahead, Jenna, roll your eyes at me. You're gorgeous!)






From Central Park to Times Square. Crazy place!!! Almost sensory overload with everything going on. Giant TV screens, traffic, people, shops, food. Police officers everywhere. When you take out your camera for pictures, you immediately label yourself a tourist and are surrounded by people trying to sell you tickets. Tickets to a comedy show, a sight-seeing tour, whatever.

From here we headed to Macy's at Herald's Square. Of course we had to go there. The store is HUGE!!! At least two city blocks and 9 stories. Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at the Habana Room - the Latin restaurant in the hotel. Jenna had Ropa Vieja - isn't it pretty?!! I had Chicken Chino Latino. It was really, really good. No pictures, though - chicken on the bone really isn't attractive once you start cutting into it, know what I mean?

Last item on today's agenda: Phantom of the Opera. I'll just say it was FABULOUS! A Broadway show!!! I'm STILL ecstatic to be here.

New York, Thursday

We're on the plane, going to New York! I was so excited, I could hardly stand myself. Brief layover in Chicago, then on to the Big Apple. Whoo hoooo!!!

We had a car pick us up at the airport - doesn't that sound fancy? I could have booked Super Shuttle for $32, or the car for $35. Which option would you have chosen? Yep - the car. The driver's name was Mazhran. I couldn't understand a word he said, but he was very nice and got us to the hotel in one piece. You have to be very brave to drive in New York City.

My beautiful daughter, with her amazing hotel connections, booked us into the Radisson Lexington. It's a "petite" room - and they mean "petite". Enough room for a desk, a nightstand and the bed. You need to inform the other person in the room when you need to move from one place to the other - you can't both move at the same time. I never did find out what this was, but looking out the hotel window, there was a kitchen below us.

Kitchen . . . food . . . mmmmm, we were HUNGRY. Across the street from the hotel was a pizza place. Almost every seat was filled with a police officer - the pizza had to be good - AND nobody will mug us, right? The pizza WAS good!! Jenna had her favorite pepperoni - I tried the spicy chicken. Yumm.

Next stop was the subway to buy two week long passes. We took the subway "Uptown" to the stop closest to the Empire State Building. The pictures don't do it justice - it was gorgeous! I'm really glad we got to see it at night.

So far, New York has been just like you see on TV. People everywhere, lots of traffic and lots of cabs. Tiny store fronts wedged next to each other. One might be a liquor store, next to a restaurant, next to a flower stand, with a supermodel. By now it's midnight, and one of us is tired. It's back on the subway, back to the hotel to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow. I can hardly believe I'm finally here!