Showing posts with label Ricky Martin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ricky Martin. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Evita & The Big Apple

My mom & I have ALWAYS wanted to go to New York. Always!

 We also LOVE Ricky Martin. One of us more than the other. One of us may or may not have cried like a baby when she met him 5 years ago. One of us has seen him in concert at least 5 times.  One of us smiles just thinking of him or listening to his music.





Soooo... when he announced a couple years ago that we was going to star in Evita on Broadway, we immediately wanted to go. New York. Ricky Martin. What could be better?? 

We kinda talked about it. Brian said we should go. Why not?

Then I got pregnant with Reese and the dream went out the window. Who was going to stay with Jaxon and a baby? 

Fast forward to 2 months ago. Brian surprised us with a trip to NYC to see Evita!!!! He VOLUNTEERED to stay with the kids, gave us his rapid rewards airline tickets and used his Hilton points to score us a room. All I had to do was buy the the Evita tickets and plan our adventures in the City. 

Since the purpose of this trip was to see Ricky, I'll start my NYC posts with him. Can I just tell you, I have never heard a play audience erupt in applause the way this audience did when Ricky stepped on stage for the first time. It was incredible. I mean, can you blame people?? 
Headed to the show!

OMG!!! I can hardly believe it!




Love you Ricky!

Not exactly sure what is going on with the lighting. 

Ricky is the on the right.

Final bow. Ricky is in the middle



That adventure was this past weekend. It began at 6:00 am Thursday morning and ended at 2:00 am Monday morning. It was a whirlwind and a dream come true. New York is simply amazing. And Ricky? Well, he can do no wrong. I love him. He is beautiful and extremely talented. We were blown away by his performance as Che. Absolutely perfect. 




Enough about Ricky. 

That day we were extremely busy. We bought tickets on a Hop On/Hop Off Double Decker bus. For us it was the perfect way to see the 'must sees' of NYC. I took hundreds of pictures. Most of them of buildings and random things. I won't bore you with all of them.


Sadly, we did not see Tim Gunn or Heidi Klum walk out. 



Empire State Building


Tiles for America. School kids made tiles to hang to show support for 9/11

Soho?

Little Italy. My favorite



China Town. Not my fave

World Trade Tower 1


St. Paul's Church









This cracked me up. "NYC: Where People Have More to Talk About than Their Kids."

Jill Zarin is on the Real Housewives of NYC. Didn't see her either.



That concludes day one of our vacay to NYC. Stay tuned for Day two & three.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Here We Go Again!!

So Ami has done it again... she has peer pressured me to do 31 (did you know May had 31 days Ami??) blogs a 31 days. But, she and I are not alone. Our friend Jen will also be joining us for the ride. ( I believe it may have been her idea.) My first response to Ami was, "I don't really have time to blog every day." Then I thought for a second and said, "Who am I kiddin?!? I don't even have a job!" Well actually I do, but it takes me all of one hour a day. More on that on a slow blog day.


So let's begin May with a Bang! Or Livin' La Vida Loca. Oh yes, Friends, Brian & I went to see my FAVORITE singer... Ricky Martin!!! Say what you will about him, but I love him. I've loved him since I was 6 and I will love him until I am 106. He is beautiful and has a beautiful voice. Love him!



Before I tell you about our concert, let's go down memory lane.



A few years ago, 6 years to be exact, the local radio station announced that Ricky would be coming to town and they were inviting listeners to come meet him. Well, you know who jumped on that bandwagon! I emailed the DJs, cute picture of me attached and everything, and crossed my fingers. Well, the next day they called me! In my classroom! Not exactly sure what they said, but I remember walking into Ami's classroom, which conviniently happened to be 1 step from mine and telling (shieking probably) her Johnjay and Rich were calling about my letter. I also remember we had to sing a little of Livin' La Vida Loca. On the radio. With EVERYONE listening. I don't even know how many phone calls Brian & I got wondering if it was me on the radio.


So the next day, my mom & I went to the radio station to meet the love of my life. Yes, I feel that strongly. :) Oh and did I mention it was my 27th birthday??? Best. Birthday. EVER!



So what do I do when I get close to Ricky? I start crying. Hysterically. Like those girls on the Ed Sullivan Show when The Beatles were on. Yeah. Well, my blubbering helped because he gave me extra kisses and called me linda (pretty in Spanish), at this point, we had told him that we were also from Puerto Rico and had been fans since Menudo and he signed my Coqui (Puerto Rican symbol). I was in heaven! I even was in the newspaper!



So fast forward 6 years several concerts later and he was back in Albuquerque! I bought us tickets back in January and then had to book flights for Brian & me once we found out we were moving. There was no way I was missing a chance to see Ricky, even if I have seen him 4 other times.


Before the show we met up with some of our friends at the hotel bar where he was performing.



Michelle, Me & Jana


When Brian & I drove up to the venue, we saw his tour buses and the band was rehearsing. I stopped to watch for a bit, hoping to get a glimpse of Ricky, but some security lady shooed me away. I mean what harm could I do just watching? I also saw his dancers in the lobby and was this close to stopping them, but what would I say, "Can you get me backstage? I LOVE him!" Weirdo.



The view from the 9th floor. Notice the tour buses?



Lynn, being, well, Lynn.
Flying my colors at the concert!
Can I tell how many people asked me where I got my flag, or if they were selling flags? Uh, I got it in PR. it's authentic. People were bummed. Waiting for the concert.

See the girl behind us? At some point during the show she starts SCREAMING at her boyfriend, "What the F is wrong with you?!?! What the F is wrong with you?!?! You promised me!!!" She was in his face YELLING. I kept looking back and poor thing was crying the rest of the show.


Let the show begin! He played for 1 1/2 hours straight. There was no talking, no lag time. It was song after song after song. Oh and the dancing. And oh how I danced! And yelled. And sang. I had a blast! Brian had a blast too. Even he said it was the best concert he had ever been too. I have never seen a crowd like this at an Albuquerque concert. We went to our fair share of concerts while we lived there and the audience, frankly, were duds. They sit the whole time and don't even fill the arena. Well, this time was different. The crowd was electric and the venue was packed! They still sat for a fair amount, but danced too. Which the sitting was good for me, because I stood the whole time and got a perfect view.


One for my many favorite things about Ricky, is how much he loves his little island. Every show I've ever been to, he always pays homage to Puerto Rico. This time was no different. He had a slide show of beautiful pictures from the island and invited everyone to visit one day. And throughout the show he would give a shout out to PR.



Dancing my ass off! I haven't danced like this is years!