A new Mrs. Smyth!

This happened yesterday:

"We're happily married in paradise aka Kauai!" - Heidi

Surprise! My darling brother got married!

Before you ask: Yes, my family knew about it. Aaron and Heidi decided a while ago to "elope" rather than plan a traditional wedding (I put elope in quotations because, as I said, it wasn't a secret), and to go by themselves so that family and friends wouldn't feel pressured to take a trip they couldn't afford. They have been keeping us posted on their travel plans, and we even knew what time the ceremony would take place. I got a text with a photo before they posted it on Facebook. It pays to be the sister of the groom :)

You all know that Aaron has always been special to me. He has been my wingman, confidant, advisor, travel buddy, punching bag (I'm not proud of it, but it's true), and example. Heidi is strong, smart, informed, gorgeous, talented, fun, and kind. I am thrilled that Aaron found her; Heidi complements him so well! Neither are perfect, yet they support and love each other for who they are. They give me hope that there may be somebody as right for me. I love Heidi. I love the way she treats my brother, I love the way he treats her, and I am glad to have her as my newest sister!

I think it's very fitting they were married on a beach in Hawaii. Aaron and Heidi both love to travel and always seem to find the funnest ways to do it. Don't they look gorgeous? Aaron promised they arranged for a photographer and videographer (and even a guitar player); I can't wait to see all the photos and footage when they get home! Meanwhile, their parents are planning a party in June so we can celebrate with them. Happy occasions should ALWAYS be celebrated!

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Smyth*! I love you!

*I don't know if Heidi will change her last name, and I don't know if she won't. We'll find out, won't we?

My first business trip!

I've been a working professional for over ten years, and I finally got to take my first business trip! I work at a software company large enough to have offices all over the world, so I've grown used to having relationships based solely on e-mail, video chat, and telephone. Back in November, I mentioned to my boss, Judy, that I'd like someday to meet everyone face-to-face. I'm the only writer in Salt Lake; sometimes it gets lonely. Judy's response was that she wanted the same thing and was planning a workshop/conference to accomplish just that!

I flew to New York City first some fun with friends and to see the Broadway shows. I'm glad I did the fun part first, 'cause I was exhausted by the end. I was almost disappointed I couldn't go home...

...The day I spent travelling from New York City to Washington D.C. did NOT get me pumped up for the business part of the trip. I packed the night before so I could get up early and have plenty of time to find Pennsylvania Station and board the train to D.C. I was sad to say good-bye to Kristen and Theresa. Kristen reviewed the subway map with me to help me figure out how to get there. That didn't keep me from getting my suitcase stuck in the turnstile (I'd managed to keep my purse and computer bag free), forcing me to back out and buy another ticket because the machine wouldn't let me use my unlimited pass again (it was trying to keep me from letting multiple people in with one pass). Then I got on the wrong train and ended up in Queens. Then I walked a block on the wrong direction looking for my connecting train. Then I had to ask a bunch of people where the Amtrak trains were. I made it safely to the train, and panicked when they started listing a bunch of stops that didn't include D.C. I asked the lady next to me where we were headed, and burst into tears when she said "Newport, Virginia." Turns out, it was a commuter train that made a lot of stops, including Washington D.C. What can I say? I was tired! Next time I take a train I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing and hopefully enjoy it more.

Isn't Union Station lovely? It was so grand and spacious!

I decided to forgo the underground in D.C. since I just wanted to get to my hotel, so I hailed a taxi to take me to the suburb where my hotel was located. Of course I got a driver who wasn't familiar with the suburb. We tried to use my GPS to find it, but I kept losing the signal. After an hour and $80 we finally made it.

At least I got a lovely drive-by of the Washington Memorial!

The Lincoln Memorial

I wasn't prepared for my accommodations in Virginia. I'd claimed the rollaway bed in our tiny room in NYC. My room in Virginia was definitely a suite, complete with couch and a t.v. that swiveled to face either the couch or the king-sized bed. Hooray! More hotel rooms like this, please!

The hotel was in the middle of a green, leafy nowhere, so I had to walk at least a mile to find some food (tired and hungry is a bad combo for me). Thank goodness for Pei Wei. I ate there on Monday AND Tuesday night because I couldn't find anything else. It was pretty cool to watch t.v. again. I haven't had cable in several years, and I forgot how nice it is to watch programs in real time!

I'd planned my New York trip before Judy confirmed the final dates for the workshop, so I arrived a day early. On Tuesday, I worked from my hotel room and ate french toast for breakfast and lunch. It's my favorite! I very much appreciate my company for my extra night in the hotel.

Wednesday and Thursday were the main event: the workshop that gave all of the writers in the company (except the four in India and the one in England) an excuse to all meet each other. My office is the furthest west; except for one writer in Mexico, everyone else is on the East coast. It was so great to meet everyone in person! I've been with the company for four years, and we merged with another two years ago, but I'd never met any of them -- not even my boss -- face-to-face (the man who hired me was in the Salt Lake office, but he was let go a few years ago). It was great to see their faces and hear their voices and feel like I actually know them, rather than being some creepy voyeur who gets e-mails about their work and personal lives but otherwise isn't involved in their lives.

The workshop was great. We learned techniques for improving our documentation so that it's more useful to the clients. My boss was kind of amazed at how eager we all were at the end to go home and apply all we'd learned. We were excited to chop up the doc and delete as many screenshots as possible!

One of the exercises involved us splitting in to groups and using
a set of instructions to put together a Lego tow truck.
I posted this photo on Instagram. My favorite response was:
"Oh, wow. That looks like a terrible accident. Is that guy ok?"
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

We had dinner together Wednesday night at Ozzie's, an Italian place my boss likes. I thought it a little funny that I was one of a handful to not order an alcoholic beverage, but I got a lecture because I ordered a Diet Coke :P I know aspartame is bad, but I was on vacation!

Yes, I ate two donuts.
I am ashamed.

Thursday morning, we invited some of the other local employees for a party my boss called "Doc 'n' Donuts": a chance for them to meet some of the writers they work with. The people working on my current projects are all based in Salt Lake City, like me, but my boss did introduce me to someone I might need to know for a future project. It's always nice to be included!

I admit that I spent about half of the meet and greet catching up on e-mails from
my SLC co-workers. Thankfully, my trip East didn't put me too far behind.

By Thursday night, we were all stuffed to the gills with food*, and those who lived close enough to drive home were ready to leave. The plan for the handful of us out-of-towners who weren't going home until Friday or later was for Judy to drive us into Washington D.C. and see the monuments on The Mall at night. Judy had some work to finish up, so the rest of us dropped our stuff off at our rooms and took a shuttle to a local strip mall to find some dinner. My companions were really nice and let me pick the vendor because I really, really wanted a sandwich from Potbelly. I didn't care that I'd had one in New York the week before. I don't have Potbelly in my hometown so I was going to take advantage while I could! The local ahead of me in line was adamant that I get the "Wreck" sandwich. I love the Italian, but I took a chance on the Wreck anyway. It was delicious. So, now I'm going to conclude that everything there is delicious. My coworkers liked their choices, too, thank goodness. I always worry when I recommend something or someplace that the other folks won't like it. Lucked out this time!

  

About that time, Judy called to let us know that she had at least an hour of work to do and then would need dinner, and with the traffic in the city we wouldn't get to the Mall until a ridiculously late hour. We told her not to worry about it. The hotel shuttle was no longer running, so we wandered around the strip mall for a little bit, and then walked the 2.5 miles back to our hotel. As I said, the area was gorgeous and green, and fairly warm. The highways all had sidewalks, and I was in good company. It was a nice, peaceful way to spend the evening. We arrived back at the hotel just as the sky officially became dark, then sat around and chatted for a bit before calling it a night.

Elizabeth, Elias, Tina, and me.
I am sad that I didn't get a photo with Judy, or one of the entire group at the conference,
but these three folks were awfully nice!

I slept in a tiny bit on Friday morning, but still was up in time to finish packing and eat the fancy hotel buffet breakfast before my taxi whisked me away to the airport.

Just as I was boarding the plane and starting to feel sad that the adventure was over, I spotted this guy's hat:

"God is Good all the Time"

I have to say that I agree!

So, there you have it: my big event in May. For a long time, I thought in terms of "before my East coast trip" and "after my East coast trip." Now that it's after, I'm going to have to start planning something else to look forward to!

*They brought out new food for every break, and a huge lunch both days. I didn't notice the effects of the rich food on my body while in NYC because I walked all day, but eating and sitting in meetings in Virginia about did me in. I gained several pounds :P

New York City day 2: Aladdin, The Frick Mansion, and Central Park

It didn't take long for us to notice that Pharrell Williams's song "Happy"* was playing everywhere. We ended up making it the anthem for the trip.

We slept in on our second day. It seemed the right thing to do, considering we hadn't slept much the night before. We planned to take it easy in the morning, and then head to Patsy's pizza for brunch, because who doesn't love delicious white pizza at 11 a.m.? (Well, Kristen and Theresa didn't know yet that they would. They trusted me a lot!)

But first we had to take a photo in the ultra-comfortable chairs in the hotel lounge

Larissa (the woman who introduced me to Patsy's in the first place) posted her recipe for white pizza on her blog. Try it. It's amazeballs. We ate the entire pie and wished there were more.

Note that I folded my pizza in half lengthwise before eating, like New Yorkers do ;)

At one point, we were looking at a
display and I said, "I think they're fake."
Theresa's response was, "What? Cake?"

Since it was about 20 steps away from Patsy's, we stopped in at Dylan's Candy Bar. I don't think my companions were prepared for just how much candy this store holds. All kinds: chocolate, gum, hard candy, taffy, pez, ice cream... and in all different flavors and themes. I should have bought more than one chocolate frog. I briefly considered buying the Star Trek: The Next Generation 25th anniversary pez collection. There was a display for The Wizard of Oz movie's 75th Anniversary, and I bought my mom a dark chocolate bar (with the Wicked Witch on the front); it wasn't until I came home I realized I could have bought her all of the characters and we could have just used the wrappers to cover a block of wood or something so she could use it in her WoO display at home -- whoops! Kristen and Theresa bought a few more goodies for their families. When the cashier told Theresa that her over $25 purchase qualified her for a free gift -- an ice cream cone cupcake kit (including four plastic cones to bake the cupcakes in) -- Kristen went back for a few more things so she could get one, too :) Those ladies love to bake!

Did I mention that Theresa has a cake-making and decorating business? One of her designs -- a specially requested pooping pony cake -- was even featured on Cake Wrecks. She's kind of a big deal.

As we were leaving, the cashier said "Have a sweet day!"

Theresa: "Do they make you say that?"

Cashier: "No." We all laughed.

Bloomingdales was just around the corner. We intended to just poke our heads in, and instead were seduced by all of the pretty clothes, hats, and jewelry (but not the make-up or fragrance sections, where we dodged all the salespeople). We ended up looking around at every floor. We each found at least one formal gown that gave us pause. This was mine:

So pretty!!

Kristen: "How come there are not girl mannekins? Or girlequins?"

I think we were on level 6 when Kristen finally said, "There's another level? What else is there to sell?" I replied, "Groceries."
Turns out, it was the baby and kids clothes section.

It's a miracle I didn't buy anything. Just took a photo of this bag.

We window shopped for so long that we worked up an appetite again, and stopped in Magnolia Bakery, which is also inside Bloomingdales.

We're trying not to worry that there's a
Grade Pending sign on the window.

I got the famous banana pudding for everyone to try.
It's really good, but there was too much cake and not
enough pudding in it for me. Theresa bought the
cupcake of the day: pistachio with pistachio
frosting. Kristen had the key lime cheesecake.
They were all delicious.

About this time, the cloudy sky opened up and the rains descended. We'd all planned for this and brought umbrellas, so our walk back to the hotel to drop off our booty wasn't too bad, and neither was the walk to the Frick mansion (in spite of the wind blowing my umbrella inside out twice -- whoops again!).

I hadn't heard of the Frick Collection before this trip, but Kristen found it on a website for Top 10 Places to See in NYC, so we gave it a shot. We thought it would be a big, nicely furnished house. It was, but it turns out businessman Henry Clay Frick was an avid art collector. He built several rooms for the express purpose of displaying his art, and had a lot of beautiful pieces, including paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Monet, Francois Boucher, and James MacNeill Whistler, Hans Holbein's Sir Thomas More portrait, Gilbert Stuart's George Washington portrait, and the sculpture Hercules and the Hydra. They also provided walkie-talkies for a free walking tour, so we knew what we were looking at in each room. I'm not always a fan of museums, but this one was pretty cool, and small enough we could see everything in two or three hours.

We were only allowed to take photographs in the Garden Courtyard. Such a pretty house!!

We'd hoped that the rain would let up by the time we finished looking around the museum. Alas, it did not. So, our jaunt through Central Park was kind of short. We did manage to find the 

Bethesda fountain and courtyard. The last time I came to NYC it was on a bright, sunny day. It was kind of fun to see it in another light this time!

In spite of the wet and the mud (and my soaked-through Toms), I climbed one of the rock formations. Felt good to make it to the top!

It was a relief to make it to the Subway station and head back to Times Square.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Kristen was the Subway guru.
I don't know how we would have survived without her!

Brief stop in the Cake Boss cafe (we returned on the last day to purchase sweets)

It was a soup and bread kind of day. Hooray for Dean & Deluca!

Kristen and Theresa and I split up for our shows that night. Kristen and Theresa hoofed it over to see Dulé Hill in After Midnight. I, on the other hand, jogged over to the New Amsterdam Theatre for Disney's Aladdin.

I know what you're thinking: Another Disney musical? Well, yes. I was curious to see how they adapted the animated movie for the stage, and I'd heard a lot of good things about James Monroe Iglehart, the actor who played the Genie. Plus, Jonathan Freeman, the actor who played Jafar, also voiced the character in the movie!

For the most part, I was happy with the changes. They decided to only let the Genie do magic, so Jafar ended up as a regular evil politician. The animal sidekicks (Abu the monkey, Iago the parrot, and Rajah the tiger) were all replaced with human characters. In the case of Abu, Aladdin had three distinctive friends to hang out with. It wasn't an entirely successful idea, but I loved their boy-bandish introduction song, and another song where the three friends set out to rescue Aladdin while dancing in slow motion (while the rest of the cast remained in regular speed).

I happened to be there on a night when Aladdin's understudy, Joshua Dela Cruz, performed the role. He looked younger than Courtney Reed's Jasmine, but otherwise I didn't mind -- he was great, and she was as beautiful and wilfull as I'd hoped. The costumes were fantastic, and I was kind of amazed at how much they were able to do with as few actors as they had in the cast. I read somewhere that the ensemble had 40 costume changes during "Prince Ali." Crazy. Other than that, that particular number was a little underwhelming. I loved Jasmine's pink wedding ensemble in the end.

"A Friend Like Me" was the opposite of underwhelming. James Monroe Iglehart KILLED that number! He had a blast, so it was easy for me to have fun, too. The stage lit up whenever he appeared. A lot of people whine that he can't possibly be as good as Robin Williams, but Iglehart made the role his own and I have no complaints. I was thrilled when he won the Tony for Featured Actor in a Musical, because he deserved it -- he didn't hold anything back in his performance. The show was much better than it might have been without him.

It was a miracle that I managed to find Theresa and Kristen after our shows ended. We had a vague plan of meeting at one of the stores on Times Square, but when I finished my show I saw a text from them saying their show had ended early (no intermission) and they were waiting for Dulé Hill so Kristen could get a poster signed for her daughter. The clouds had opened up again and it was raining worse than it had the entire rest of the day. I was walking in what I thought was the right direction, when I heard Theresa's and Kristen's voices! I turned in time to see them disappear into the crowd going to opposite direction. I yelled, "I know those voices!" and chased them down. We were all thrilled we'd managed to find each other! The weather wasn't conducive to hanging out outside, so we decided to get some cheesecake and call it a night. I couldn't remember where Larissa had recommended we go for cheesecake, so I asked a random guy on the street who was trying to sell tickets to a comedy club. He said Juniors is the best place in NYC, and it was right around the corner (as luck would have it, I found out later that was Larissa's recommendation, too)! We bought an entire raspberry swirl cheesecake and schlepped it back to our room to eat while we watched The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon -- it was the episode I'd hoped and failed to get tickets to, but I got to watch it anyway :)

Stay tuned for a report on day 3 and day 4.
For a recap of my first day in NYC, see this post.

*For your listening pleasure:

New York City day 1: Matilda and Bullets Over Broadway

When my boss told me that she wanted to fly me out East for a business trip, I immediately started making plans to go to New York City and see as many Broadway plays as I could fit in. During the intervening six months, I updated my "Broadway Wish List" countless times. It was a relief when I finally got the dates of the business part and could start planning the fun part. Plays I'd desperately wanted to see -- Big Fish, Waiting for Godot/No Man's Land -- closed, and Laura Osnes left Cinderella. Broadway in America announced that Once is coming to Salt Lake City next year, so that freed up another slot for my trip. It was very difficult to choose, and for the most part I'm thrilled with the plays I saw! I even created the hashtag #sixplaysfourdays to help track the trip on Instagram!

Since she mentioned she had never been to NYC before, I invited my friend Theresa, and we invited her fun friend Kristen as well. I met Kristen once before the trip, and it was soon obvious that we would all get along famously -- we're all pretty laid back, and they shared my main goal of seeing as much theatre as possible. Whatever else we did/saw/ate would be frosting.

Note: I make no apologizes for being long-winded. A lot of people have asked about the trip, so I'm going to be thorough! Wooooot!

We flew overnight* and in spite of a tornado warning during our layover in North Carolina, we made it to NYC at 10:30 a.m, found a taxi, and headed to our hotel to drop off our luggage. President Obama was in town that morning to dedicate the new 9/11 Memorial; we passed his motorcade on its way to the airport.

Me, Kristen, and Theresa in a taxi!
The driver was cliche and yelled at a lot of pedestrians,
but he knew where he was going and we didn't die!

Kristen proved to be our subway guru. The concierge at the hotel gave us a map of the city and subways, and she never failed to get us where we needed to go. We bought an unlimited week-long "Metrocard" (good for all public transport) and high-tailed it to our 1 p.m. matinee of Matilda. We made it with 15 minutes to spare. Good thing we didn't dawdle, and Kristen was such a savant!

Lexington Avenue - 53rd Street -- our home station

The Sam S. Shubert Theatre

I was more than a little honored to sit with Theresa during her first Broadway play (we bought our tickets before we invited Kristen, so she sat separately). This was the play I was the most excited about prior to the trip. I love the Roald Dahl book and the musical soundtrack, and I've heard glowing reviews from nearly everyone I know who had seen it. The story is about a very smart little girl who loves to read and is neglected by her parents (the opening number is quite poignant, with bratty children being called "miracles" by their indulgent parents, at the same time Matilda is born to self-involved and neglectful parents). When she starts school, her teacher, Miss Honey, recognizes how remarkable Matilda is, but the Headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, takes an almost-immediate dislike.


The great reviews were NOT exaggerated. I can't say enough good things about this show. The set was gorgeous, the music was fun, the dancing was incredible, the characters and story-telling were mind-blowing... all of these things could be said about all of the plays I saw, I suppose. The emotional impact of Matilda is what has stayed with me even till now. I'd forgotten just how hilariously awful Matilda's parents were, and it was such a breath of fresh air anytime we saw her interact with adults who valued her. The little girl who played Matilda was brilliantly funny and intense when needed, and everyone else played their parts to perfection. I wanted to hug Miss Honey and librarian Mrs. Phelps and Matilda's best friend Lavender, smack the parents, and was truly horrified by Miss Trunchbull. I was blown away in the second act at the realization of just how evil Miss Trunchbull really was, when a Matilda tells is followed by Miss Trunchbull's entrance in a red spotlight and blaring of horns. I knew how the story ends, but it was still nerve-wrecking to reach that point, and then I celebrated with the rest of the kids when they won the day! When it was over, I almost wanted to cancel all of my other show tickets and see this one five more times.

My only complaint was that I didn't anticipate that the matinee audience would be dominated by school groups. I don't think most of those kids go to the theatre often, and they had terrible manners. The worst was at the end of intermission. The second act starts simply with Mr. Wormwood (Matilda's dad and my favorite character) entering the stage, and launching into an anti-reading diatribe, followed by a truly brilliant song (during which his dim-witted son plays the ukulele...badly). I guess since there was no Entract, the kids or the teachers didn't realize the show was starting, so they talked through the entire thing: monologue AND song. I was so annoyed!! I'm pretty lucky that my parents exposed me to all kinds of performance art during my childhood. I should not be so judgmental about kids whose parents have other priorities.

I bought a magnet and a t-shirt from the gift shop before we headed outside. In true groupie fashion, we waited outside the stage door for autographs and photos. I'm disappointed I didn't see Christopher Sieber (Miss Trunchbull) or Paige Brady (Matilda). Ah well. Doesn't mean they were any less remarkable!

Lesli Margherita (second from left) played Mrs. Wormwood, Matilda's tarantella-dancing mother

Jennifer Bowles (second from left) played The Acrobat, and Matt Harrington played Mr. Wormwood

We waited quite a while for the other stars, but finally hunger claimed us and we made our way to the Shake Shack for dinner (we hadn't eaten since about 8 a.m.).

Darn good burgers, fries, and shakes. My malt could have been maltier ;)

We headed back to our hotel, the Renaissance New York Hotel 57, to unpack and freshen up a bit. Our room was tiny, but had plenty of closet space and a fairly large bathroom. It was decorated pretty posh. We weren't breaking the bank, but it was a nice space to call home. From our window on the 16th floor we had a great view of the flags at Bloomingdale's!

View from the room

At about 6, we were thinking about grabbing a snack before heading to Bullets Over Broadway, which I thought was at 8. I gave everyone their ticket... and then Kristen realized the start time was 7 p.m.! We booked it back to Times Square and once again arrived just in time for call. For the rest of the trip, Kristen and Theresa checked and double-checked the show times for every play. Sheesh, you make one mistake! Haha!

I counted 72 steps up to our balcony seats. That's a lot of stairs!

"Gangsters should always tap."

Bullets Over Broadway was a lot of fun. It's based on a Woody Allen movie set in the 1920s where a playwright goes through a lot of trouble (from the mob, the actors, and his girlfriend) to get his play produced on Broadway. The main reason I wanted to see it was that it starred Zach Braff. Sadly, he wasn't the best thing about the play, but that may be because his character wasn't particularly likeable. My favorite character ended up being the villain (I was not prepared for him to suddenly turn bad), and the second favorite was a classless moll who couldn't act to save her life -- that's the character description, not a commentary on the delightful actress. The tap dancing was wonderful, and the songs were old classics like "Ain't I Good to You." I question the choice to end with "Yes, We Have No Bananas" but the whole ending fell flat for me, so it could have been worse! It was typical Broadway fare: fun, upbeat, a lot of dancing and gorgeous chorus girls. Not a lot of substance. I might have liked it more if I hadn't seen Matilda first. It was fine, but I kind of wished after that I'd seen Beautiful instead. Oh well.

Since the play started and ended earlier than we expected and we still had a little energy, we spent some time walking around Times Square. We stopped at the Hershey's Store and a convenient gift shop so Theresa and Kristen could get their families' souvenirs out of the way.

Macadamia nut kisses and Cadbury chocolate with almonds -- yummmmmmmm!

Something for everyone, as long as they heart New York.

Lastly, since it was around the corner and a few blocks from our hotel, we stopped at Sprinkles Cupcake ATM.

To no one's surprise, I chose chocolate cake with chocolate frosting ;)

We walked past Bloomingdale's on our way home, and admired the beautiful displays dedicated to the plays nominated for Best Musical Play Tonys.

Aladdin.
We decided they are showing costumes and contemporary fashions that echo the play's vibe (hence the red dress).

Hot ticket A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.

We ate the cupcakes in bed, reviewed some options for the next day, and called it a night shortly after midnight. 

Stay tuned for a recap of days two, three, and four!

*I had been really worried that I'd be so tired from the all-night flight that I'd sleep through Matilda, but that didn't seem to be a problem -- I was too excited! I might have shut my eyes for a minute during Bullets Over Broadway but I don't think I missed anything major (I hope).