Howdy!  I finally got my pictures together and got some time to myself, so I thought I’d share the past couple of weeks with you!  I had to get stuff ready to lead discussion this week at school and had a paper due, and I’m still dealing with this hacking cough thing, so I buckled down and focused on what I needed to do (that, and I’ve been ODing on tv since we got DISH Network and I have channels now!!  Brain Atrophy, let’s begin!!)

So, here we are at the airport, me and Katie:

Saturday, we saw a show:)….and it was awesome…over-the-top, fun, everything a musical in New York should be!

Sunday, we went to Ground Zero, which was probably the most important thing I did.  When we entered the gallery, it was just as though it had happened yesterday.  I won’t post a lot of the pictures, but this one gripped me:

At the end of the gallery, there was a room with a table and these cards where you could share your thoughts.  They were posted all over the room.  Here’s what I wrote:

Monday morning, we walked Central Park.  We ended up reading the dedications on the park benches for most of the walk.  Here was one of my favorites:

Here are Katie and I with the promo poster for the concert; let me tell you that the experience of preparing for and singing in Carnegie Hall was surreal.  Saturday, we had eight hours of rehearsal, broken into two sessions with a lunch break.  It was like being in a very detailed, advanced music class.  The director threw technical elements at us, and there was a diction coach who taught us different ways to pronounce the words we were singing so that it would come across correctly to the listeners in Carnegie Hall.  On Monday, we had a four hour dress rehearsal before the actual concert.

The concert hall was incredible.  I don’t have any pictures because of Union Rules…the only one who could take pictures in Carnegie Hall was the union photographer.  We’re supposed to get them emailed to us at some point, so I’ll post those once we have them.  Suffice it to say that it was beautiful.  Melinda Doolittle was so nice and adorable, and Travis Cottrell was great, too.  I really feel blessed to have gotten to do this.

Last weekend was pumpkin carving time with the BFFs…here are the boys, being silly as usual:

Shannon’s pumpkin:

My pumpkin:

Joey and James actually carved two sides of the same HUGE pumpkin.  Here’s James’s side:

And Joey’s side:

Joey’s feeling pretty sick right now, so we’re hoping that he’ll start to feel better because we’re planning to hang out with James and Shannon tonight and I’m making a special meal as part of The Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program!!

Here’s a super-spooky Kins-shot for you.  Happy Halloween!!