What a day!

Actually I started out irritated because Dee insisted on sleeping late. I’m sorry but sleeping until ten or later is not what one should be doing when you’re in new York City! The city comes alive so much earlier than that!

So I got up and dressed and went for a walk. First I went to Starbucks to get my coffee and my Krispy Kreme donut. It was an overload of caffeine and sugar. It was just wonderful.

The morning was overcast and very very hot and humid. There was a slight breeze every now and then, but it didn’t help all that much.

I took my coffee and walked up to 52nd Street (it’s only about four blocks) so I could try to get tickets to see the Music Man. We wanted to go tomorrow night and I also wanted to get tickets for Thanksgiving when my mother and brother and I will be here.

I was early, so I had to wait about fifteen minutes. A line slowly started to form and I was chatting with the folks behind me, a family from New haven, and the two little boys who were in second and third grades. I’d been standing there for a while and a woman comes barging up in front of me and tries to open the door.

So I said, "its not open yet".

She looks at me, stunned, then with disgusted glances around and says, "Don’t tell me there’s a line!"

I answered yes, and she said "But I NEED tickets!" Then skulked off to the end of the line. I had to laugh, there were probably only about eight people in this line.

I successfully snagged tickets and then started walking back to the hotel.

I decided to take a different route and wandered down some streets that I’d never seen before. Even though it was quite hot I found it pleasant to walk around.

When I got back to the hotel it was almost eleven and Dee was dressed. She looked like a slob, wearing a knit skirt and top,big, clunky, dirty -looking sneakers and socks.

now I’m no fashion plate, but I do dress well and try to minimize the "fat" look as much as I can. I was wearing a black skort and a loose, but tailored looking top that was mostly black but had tropical flowers on it. I know I look good in this outfit because I have friends who covet it and get compliments on it whenever I wear it.

I hate fat people who make themselves look fat.

So we set out, and went to check out the street vendors who sell scarves and bracelets. We both wanted scarves, but I was going to wait until I was sure I’d found what I wanted. And these guys wouldn’t dicker at all.

Dee wanted lunch, so we went to Sbarro to get something to eat. I only had iced tea.

By the time lunch was done we needed to go and pick up our tickets and head to the theater.

I truly can’t find words that will accurately describe Lion King.

I started weeping before they were two verses into the opening number, which is "Circle of Life". There is a huge bright re-orange sun on stage, and Rafiki starts singing. The animals start answering and then start coming onto the stage and through the audience. These costumes and the entire concept are just magnificent!

The elephant is not two people in a costume, but one person IN EACH LEG! The gazelles are on the head of an actor and on the actors’ arms as well, so it really looks like a herd.

Pride rock starts winding its way out of the stage and just grows and grows, then the lions climb it so Rafiki can present Simba to the animals that have gathered.

I was cheering and bawling at the same time.

The entire show was the most visually stunning thing I’ve ever seen. The mind that went into the concepts of how the animals should look and how the costumes needed to be executed must be just incredible.

There were so many examples. The grass of the savanna was worn on the heads of actors, and puppets of the lions would bounce along the top of them. The skirts of the actors in this scene were made of something that swayed to look like grass blowing in the breeze.

To show there was a drought all they did was take a circle of blue silk and put it in the center of the stage, then they slowly pulled it through a small hole in the center of the stage to show how the water was evaporating. Really simple, but so memorable.

The show was just riveting. Of course I knew the story and the music, but it didn’t take anything away from the wonder of the production. There were so many clever things that I’d never seen before.

It was so well worth the money!

By the time we got out of that show (it’s almost three hours long) we had just about enough time to go back to the hotel and change for dinner and the evening show.

We had dinner reservations as "The View" which is a revolving restaurant at the top of the Marriott Marquis. This was part of the package we’d booked.

This was a fairly elegant restaurant. I was dressed in a black and white dress. Dee wore one of our chorus costumes. It’s nice but I think it was too much. She also wore her clunky sneakers with it, which really made it look awful.

Dinner was part of a fixed menu, but we were able to order Prime Rib. This is not something I usually get, so it was a treat. Dinner included salad, entrée, coffee and dessert.

I sort of liked the rotating restaurant. I enjoyed the changing view, but it began to get to me after a while. You’re not supposed to notice the spinning, but let me tell you, after about a half-hour I noticed the spinning! I was afraid that I was going to get ill, but I didn’t.

Dinner was nice, but the dessert presentations were the most memorable. There was a mousse that had a chocolate form of dancer’s legs sticking from it. Then there was a swan that was made of meringue and marzipan. We both ended up with some sort of a chocolate cake that had a white chocolate comedy/tragedy mask as part of it.

It was quite good.

The theater we were going to was across the street, so we didn’t have to get a cab. (Hooray!)

Once again it was a wonderful show.

I knew the story and was basically familiar with the music, but I was downright overwhelmed again.

The voices of the three leads are just wonderful. I knew that the music was great, and enjoyed the cast recording, but the true quality of the voices wasn’t captured in the recording.

There was one song, called "My Strongest Suit" that really cracked me up. I’d like to see if we could get a copy of it for the chorus. One of the lyrics is "I’d rather wear a barrel than conservative apparel, dress has always been my strongest suit"!

The first act ended with a song that was like a Gospel song called "The Gods love Nubia". It raised goose bumps on my arms and brought tears to my eyes.

This show also had enormous visual appeal.

It had a particularly clever set that was a painted cloth. It had mostly sunset colors in it, but when they manipulated it, it could become a long length of the Nile, or a shorter spot by the shore.

It was so cleverly done.

There was also some really great choreography in a couple of the numbers.

I cried at the ending, even though it wasn’t totally sad.

This was a wonderful show. I’d go and see it again.

Two fabulous shows and two standing ovations. I love it when I’m so swept into a show that I don’t even notice how much time has passed.

After the show we went to the Virgin Megastore to look at CDs and get something to drink. Dee can’t even walk through a CD store without having to sit and rest.

We got back to the hotel at about midnight and watched some tv. Much to my horror Dee decided she wasn’t going to shower or do her hair, just "wash up". Give me a break! We’d both been sweating like pigs, and she has hot flashes as well, so she starts to stink.

I’m sorry, but in this kind of weather it would be appropriate to be taking two showers a day, not skipping one!

I am having a really hard time with this. I notice all smells and it really starts to make me feel sick. I don’t know how to approach this but it’s downright gross.

I couldn’t get her to commit to doing anything tomorrow, and I made multiple suggestions. I think she’s afraid that she’ll have to get up early again.

So I’ll just get up and go for a walk to get my coffee and Krispy Kreme.