BACKLOGGED

My apologies for a helter-skelter last two months on the blog front, but April and May have whirled by me faster than a speeding taxi through a cross walk. Moving to the new apartment, decorating the new apartment, gazing at the spring flowers, starting a new job, going on two trips, and playing hostess to a few visitors - and that's not even to mention the distraction of the New Kids on the Block reunion! - I haven't exactly had time to write down all that's happened, as it has happened!

So, if you will, please take a few minutes to scroll back to the beginning of April and peruse the posts! I have a rule of posting everything in chronological order, so when the event actually happened and when I actually get it posted are two very different times! Even if you've seen a post before, scroll on past it because I've probably added something in the last week that happened prior to the post you've seen.  

So, hunt around - Gabe and Julie, especially - and see what new posts you find!

Seeing Sex IN the City

I’d be lying if I said I didn't watch Sex and the City before I moved to New York and let it paint an even more fabulous and exciting ideal of the city than I already had dreamed up in my mind. Now I never watched the originals on HBO or got the full series pink box collection like SOME people I know (you know who you are, ladies!), but I have been known to stay up and keep myself from nodding off in order to watch the back-to-back episodes on TBS from 11 to midnight. I knew the girls’ experiences would not be mine, and I saw the flaw in reality of Carrie’s huge apartment and vast shoe collection on a tiny salary, but still, I loved seeing the city all around them and dreamed of walking the same streets.

This interest in the show, combined with my love for anything that creates a crowd or frenzy, had me looking forward to the NYC premiere and the opening of the movie for weeks!

Thanks for sharing your city with me, Carrie! Julie and I walked through Times Square before heading over to Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday night for the NYC premiere.

The red carpet scene at Radio City before the ladies arrived for the premiere. I got my feel of frenzy after about an hour - too many people, too muggy, too rainy - so we left and headed to the theater for our Broadway show.

The marquee reads "New Line Cinema presents the U.S. premiere of Sex and the City"!! After our show, we walked back to Radio City and joined just a few other fans waiting in front of the theater - the movie was still playing inside, so we decided just to wait and see if we saw any action when the movie was over.

And, yep! we did! Julie with David Eigenberg, the actor who plays Miranda's husband Steve. By the time the movie was over, a small throng had gathered around us. I won't bore you with the blurry pictures of famous folks exiting the theater - The Donald and Melania, Regis Philbin and his wife, Project Runway's Christian Siriano.

Rebecca and Julie with SJP. The sign says "U.S. PREMIERE TONIGHT exclusively at Radio City Music Hall".

Still on our quest to see one of the "girls", Julie and I hoofed it over to the after party at the Museum of Modern Art. And, of course, the girls were already inside, but we did see Jennifer Hudson (above) arriving at the after party.

We decided to call it a night when we found ourselves peeking through screens into the courtyard of MoMA, watching the party-goers mix and mingle, as we pitifully stood on the outside looking in. Carrie wouldn't stand for such exclusion, so we wouldn't either!

You've not really visited until I've walked you to death

The location: New York City subway, on the 6 train
The time: 2 PM Monday, day three of visit
The characters:
"Julie", visiting her younger sister in New York City
"Rebecca", happy to have her sister there for the first time since she moved A YEAR AGO

The background: After a (shall we say) turbulent trip to New York City in 2003 in which our darling characters fought so much they divorced as sisters in the South Street Seaport (fights mainly due to "Rebecca's" packed-to-the-gills, stick to the times, "does everyone have their printed copy?", Excel-formatted, color-coded sight-seeing schedule...and the characters' low tolerance for hunger, cold and differences of opinion), "Rebecca" has decided to take a low-key approach to her role as NYC hostess/tour guide for "Julie" in order to make every attempt of keeping the peace.

The scene unfolds as the two sisters find seats on the subway train and gratefully sit down to rest their legs for a few minutes as they ride.

Rebecca: (letting out a long breath) ah!
Julie: It feels good to sit down.
Rebecca: mmhmmm.
silence
Rebecca: Don't you just love the 6 line better than the N/R?
Julie: Yeah, it does seem newer.
silence
Rebecca: I'm getting hungry again.
Julie: I have a granola bar in my purse.
Rebecca: No. I'll just wait a bit.
silence - watching other riders on the train
Rebecca: Sooo...what's been your favorite thing so far?
Julie: Um, I don't know. (Shrugging shoulders) It's all been fun.
Rebecca: Yeah, it has, hasn't it. (Nodding in agreement and beginning to beam with satisfaction thinking "I am a good hostess!")
Julie: (In passing) I don't really feel like I've seen that much.
Rebecca: (Takes a second to process.) (Blank stare, eyes widen, mouth opens, eyebrows arch, neck juts forward) You don't feel like you what?
Julie: I mean, it just doesn't feel like we've done a lot. (Sincerely) But I'm having fun!
Rebecca: (Indignant anyway) We've been all over the city! And you don't feel like you've done a lot?!
Julie: No, we have done a lot-
Rebecca: (Cutting her off, and counting the list on her fingers) You've seen my neighborhood, we've visited Jane and my old apartment, we walked to the East River, we toured my old streets, we've eaten at my favorite Alice's Tea Cup and picnicked in Central Park, we've seen the Boathouse, Bethesda Fountain, Sheep's Meadow, played the Big Piano at FAO Schwartz.(Barely pausing to take a breath) We've been to Times Square and Broadway and Rockefeller Center. We've gone to the Flatiron Building, my beloved Madison Square Park, Macy's and Herald Square - we've even done laundry at the Laundro-Mat and toured my grocery store! What do you mean we haven't done a lot!
Julie: I'm saying we have done a lot, okay! I guess it just doesn't feel so...pressured. Like last time.
Rebecca: Oh, well you've got a point there. And we haven't killed each other yet.

Editor's note: I am happy to report the five-day trip continued peacefully with no catastrophic fights or hair pulling.

Julie's "I don't feel like I've really seen anything" photo tour of New York:

On the roof of my old apartment, near Empire State Building, at Rockefeller Center.


Tea and scones at Alice's, picnic in Central Park, pretty scenery at Bethesda Fountain.

Fleet Week sailors, fun in Central Park, styling on Park Avenue.

At the Flat Iron Building, The Bitter End - a family tradition, purse-shopping in Chinatown.

Drinks at 230 5th roof top bar, visiting the Statue of Liberty, walking on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I'm connected!

You are looking at the proud new owner of a MacBook Pro! Seems more like a proud new parent actually - the whole first night of ownership I kept waking up wanting to "check" on it, and in the morning the first thing I did was run look at it and play with it! I'll admit the first few times I left the apartment with it sitting there looking at me, I hesitated. I had to make sure it was "okay" and even asked if it needed anything. I really did!

It's the strangest feeling to be a computer moocher no more! In college I used school or friends' computers, at home I used Daddy's computer, at work I used my work computer, and in New York I used sweet Cameron's or Emily's (thanks again, girls!). So, in practicality, I never really needed one, but in actuality...! Now I can't believe it when I hear the words coming out of my mouth, "Oh, you can use MY computer," or "Hold on, I can look it up on MY computer" or "Hmmm...it's 2 AM, I think I'll get on MY computer just because I can!"

I can't wait to become a MacBook Pro pro by going to training classes at the super cool NYC Apple stores, and here's to hoping my new connection to the world will lead to timelier blog posts!

Caps off to the Yankee's!

When I moved here last June, my dad mentioned he would like to have a New York Yankee's baseball hat. Surprising news, since the only baseball hats he wears say Alabama Crimson Tide. It couldn't be an adjustable hat, it had to be the real thing, so I set out after work one day on a quest to find his particular size hat in classic Yankee's navy and white. After a day or so of walking the streets to pop in souvenir stores, only to find adjustable hats in a wide variety of very un-classic colors, I finally found the official Yankee's merchandise store over on 59th and Madison. Hallelujah! I picked the size hat Daddy needed, wrote a cute message to him inside the cap, and mailed it to Birmingham to surprise him in time for Father's Day.

On the night I knew Daddy was opening his Father's Day gifts, I got a picture message on my cell phone from Julie - it was of Daddy, with the non-adjustable hat perched on his head looking like it would be a better fit for a 12 year old boy! He thanked me for the surprise, said he liked the message I wrote, and promptly mailed the hat back to me - said I could keep it (well, couldn't return it with my personalized message!), and please buy him another one.

To avoid another sizing fiasco, I had Mama measure his head, then I did some math with a sales guy at the Yankee's store trying to figure out which size would fit. Wouldn't you know it - the perfect size for his head was no longer produced! After several calls to Daddy, having the sales guy try it on for fit, and even trying it on myself, "Okay Daddy, I can fit two fingers in the space between my head and the hat!", we finally decided to go with the hat one size bigger instead of one size smaller than his now non-existent perfect fit.

I made sure not to write anything in the cap this time - just in case a return was in order - and mailed it on to Birmingham. I waited anxiously until the next picture message came, this time directly from my dad. The message was surprising in several ways: 1. He took the picture himself, 2. He sent the PIX message himself - had no idea he knew how to do that!, and 3. The hat was too big - he has a really big head! His message with the picture said, "A little big". Let me just say, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry - it was so pitifully cute! I have to figure out how to get pictures from my cell phone to my computer; I still have the message from him saved on my phone almost a year later, and it still makes me laugh to look at it!

After one more round of mail it back to New York, return to store, fuss over size options, and mail back to Birmingham, Daddy finally got a hat that fits, well, fits good enough, and I have my souvenir of the whole experience, with a sweet little caption in the cap, "Daddy, I love you! Rebecca - NYC 2007".

The original Father's Day Yankees hat finally gets its game debut at the New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles game tonight during the final season at Yankee Stadium.

Having fun with the law

Rather than letting a big fat law book weigh us down as we traipsed around the city today, we decided to have some fun with the law by photographing Damion "studying" all over the city - by the ferris wheel in Toys R Us, in the middle of Times Square, at a sidewalk cafe in Soho, in front of a theatre on Broadway.



This is my favorite picture of the day, as Rupert Gee from the Hello Deli - made famous on the Late Show with David Letterman - gives Damion a few tips for the bar review he begins Monday!

In lights

My mother e-mailed this picture to me today that came from a yard in Mountain Brook, AL. She said the girl was embarrassed to death to come home from the University of Alabama to find this sign in front of her parent's house. All I can say is: Deb, I feel your pain.

I know my dad is probably ticked that he never thought to do something like this during my years as the Crimsonette Captain in the Million Dollar Band. Instead, he attached speakers to the top of his Suburban and would roll up to the band practice field on game day mornings with "Yea Alabama" blaring. I'd be standing at silent attention - with the 300 other band members - and hear the elephant stomp then roar that precedes the "da-da-duh-da-da" preamble of the fight song, and think, "Oh God, save me now." Everyone knew the peppy speaker music meant "here comes Rebecca's dad." His ill-timed arrival was once so bad as to prompt band director Kathryn Scott - who, all things considered, always loved me - to stop the rehearsal and make an announcement from her tower podium that there can be no band music projected onto the field other than what is coming from the band members' instruments, (note her eyes darting to me and resting in a short, albeit deadly, glare). I wanted to die.

But my dad's most infamous point of pride was his video camera. If someone's reputation can precede him, then my dad's video camera was that. Friends would squeal "am I on a Mummert movie?!" and band members who stood near me on the field would say if they ever lost their pictures, they could just call Mr. Mummert for a full lifetime video of their performances with the band. Daddy videoed practice, getting ready, the pep rally on the Quad, marching to the stadium, even running to their stadium seats to be ready to film the pre-game show and halftime performance. He didn't miss a beat (and honestly, I was furious if he did!)

I didn't realize the extent to which others had recognized my dad's devotion to my involvement with the Million Dollar Band until Halloween of my Senior year. The band usually dressed up for practice on the day of Halloween, and the costumes were always very creative and over the top. This particular Halloween I arrived at the band field for practice and several of the Crimsonettes were miffed because the piccolo section (all girls except one guy) had come dressed as Crimsonettes - big hair, red lipstick, stuffed bras, and they were even acting like us by walking in little groups doing laps around the band field, something we did every day before practice. I laughed and just hoped they didn't really make fun of us, and then I said, "Oh gosh - don't tell me Bradley dressed like a Crimsonette too?!" We all laughed thinking of him dolled up in a wig and sequins. When the piccolos came over to declare the peaceful intentions of their mocking costumes, they were beaming to unveil the crowning glory of their Crimsonette replica - the pseudo Crimsonettes parted to reveal Bradley holding a video camera to his face and wearing a pin that said "Rebecca's dad". I laughed until my cheeks were sore and my sides hurt, and I knew my dad would be so proud to know his persona was now iconic.

One more week...

...until I'm hangin tough with the five bad brothers from the Beantown land!

I about fainted when Emily and I spotted this in Times Square!

"...one is silver, the other gold"

After hanging up from an hour-long phone conversation with my lovely Cheryl from Crimsonettes in college (and still having more to talk about!) because I was on my way to meet my dear Annie from high school who was in town from Los Angeles, I was reminded of the words of a poem I first learned around the age of 10 when my family moved from Muscle Shoals to Birmingham:

Make new friends
but keep the old;
one is silver,
the other gold.

Considering I was devastated to be moving away from all my friends, the song provided absolutely zero comfort to me as my mother explained what the words meant. "My life is over!" I wailed, as only a 10 year old can.

But tonight the song reminds me of how thankful I am for all the friends in my life, from all different stages. It's funny how each new layer makes the previous layer golden. What a blessing it is to turn a friend into gold, and I'm blessed enough to have a whole pot!