New York, New York!

My dear friend and cousin Camas just married the love of her life in New York. It was a lovely wedding, set in a quietly preserved garden in Central Park. While the weather had us all wondering whether it would be as great as it sounded in theory (it was raining right up to about an hour before after being extremely hot all week!), it wound up being absolutely perfect. The rain cooled the air temperature by about 10 degrees, filled the bird bath in the fountain, bringing birds and their songs for background music. It left a beautiful golden light filtering through spots in the clouds and a smell of cleanness in the air. 

And I will say this: God answers prayers! The rain cleared up just at the right time, and the reprieve lasted just long enough for the ceremony and pictures of friends and family with the bride and groom as well as a handful more after we all dispersed to go to the reception. Apparently, being the last to leave the scene, Camas and Matthias, dressed in full wedding attire were left huddling under a hot dog stand when the deluge started back up. I had no idea until after the reception as neither of them were any worse for the wear!

I can't wait to see the wedding pictures. She hired a brilliant photographer, Jen Huang, to shoot the wedding. I love her style. 

Derek snagged this shot of me during the ceremony. I'm so happy for you both!

We've been needing updated cousin shots. I sure hope Jen got some good ones cause oh boy. We look great-- just a wee bit fuzzy. 

Camas, you are simply stunning. So beautiful inside and out. I'm honored to be able to have shared this beautiful day with you. I love you as a sister.

Doesn't my hair look AWESOME? Camas's friend/hairdresser did it and I LOVED it. It looked so cute the next day, too, when I took all the pin curls out. 

I wasn't sure what to do myself-- I wanted great pictures, but at the same time didn't want to interfere with the true professional at work. Further, I didn't quite know whether that was a faux pas to take personal photos during the ceremony. So. Derek got out the camera and snapped a few, for which I am grateful. Unfortunately, in my quest to learn some new features on my camera and get better at using them, I'd changed the focusing to back button focusing (yeah, now I'm getting to the point where I'd have to explain my stuff to non-photographers! Booyah!). Derek is used to shutter focusing. So we were left with several out-of-focus, blurry shots. While on the one hand it makes me happy that I'm increasing in my knowledge enough that I can't just hand my camera over to anyone and expect the same quality from them as myself, it also (as seen here) gets in the way at times. I tried to do this hazy vintage-y edit on some of them as well. I'm still unsure whether I like it or not. I think it looks good on the pics that are sharply in focus, but the ones that aren't... I'm afraid it just looks like bad photography.

Meanwhile, the rest of our 4 days in New York were spent well-- at least we enjoyed them. Whether or not we maximized our site-seeing time is debatable. I don't think we got to bed before 2:30--ever. Despite the melatonin Camas thoughtfully gave us.

Wednesday we got in at 4:30, got to our hotel around 6:30/7 after trying to figure out the best way to get there like a local (we flew into Jersey), went to 5 Napkin Burger for the best burgers and the most amazing chocolate peanut butter milkshake (deja vu anyone? I think I posted about that last time I went to NY). It was even better than I remembered. Then we stopped in late to say hi to Camas before heading back to our hotel to crash. Seriously, it was like 8:30 our time. 

Thursday I got up early to meet Camas for a Barry's Bootcamp workout that kicked my butt and left me in pain for the rest of the week. Good pain. Following that I grabbed a fantastic, cheap mani-pedi ($25!), had Derek meet me and then on to Vive la Crepe! for a delicious and light lunch. Derek got dark chocolate with strawberries while I enjoyed a savory goat cheese, spinach, mushroom and tomato crepe. Then we met up with Camas again briefly before heading back out to check out MoMA. 

On our way there, we stumbled upon Rockefeller Center,

and Time Square, where we discovered we were on a giant screen. 

I really honestly think I was one of, if not the first person to notice the giant screen. Tell you what though. I pointed at that thing and within a matter of seconds not only did everyone else notice, everyone within a 2 block radius seemed to have materialized to do really original things, like point at themselves and take pictures of the screen. Even the vodka company advertising its wares noted how original we all were. 

Next stop, MoMA. 

Single Adult Admission: $25.

Admission for Active Duty Military members: FREE.

Love it. 

So. Modern art, huh. Well, when we walked into the bottom floor, I was pretty unimpressed. Social and political statements? Yes. Art? Well, no. In my humble opinion, art requires a degree of skill and should be based around creating something original-- not destroying another person's original creation that required skill. Or littering candy wrappers in large areas of the floor, no matter how organized you try to make it look.  Frankly, I was embarrassed for our generation of "artists". 

Although, Derek's favorites were found on this floor. Though the word "favorite" is rather tongue in cheek here. The top and middle left being the ones that made him "feel". 

Somehow we were unaware that Starry Night made it's home here and Derek was delighted to find it on the top floor. That made it all worthwhile. And while the first floor did little to wow us, the following floors each offered more, one after another until we were able to leave quite satisfied. A number of pieces had varying degrees of effect on me, from making me think, to causing me to reexamine previously held ideas, to stunning me with skill, creativity and beauty, even to visceral emotional reactions. 

The sculpture below was one I found interesting-- it was described as depicting the relationship and communication between men and women. Think about that for a while. 

This one just made me happy. And dork that I am, I couldn't help myself. 

So original.

After finishing at MoMA, we went out to a delightful little Thai restaurant called Topaz Thai and enjoyed some fantastic curries before our Broadway show that night. We got to see Anything Goes-- it was SO fun! We were both pretty tired from the late night before, so during the slower parts and the ballads found ourselves nodding off, BUT. The big song and dance numbers were fantastic. So much energy and talent, and although I've heard much of the music, I'd never seen it-- I loved the story. Fantastic and well worth the experience. 

TO BE CONTINUED