a thursday in new york. part 2.

After lunch we split up. Clin had a great deal for our evening show and headed to the box office to purchase tickets. I ran back to the hotel to drop off a bag and make sure our room was switched. Good thing I went back because they forgot (shocker!) to take care of our room switch. New room keys, awesome room, beautiful smell, and we met back up at Letterman.

Here we are in the standby line. There was a group of about 40 waiting for standby. And a HUGE line to get in. (Side note: we were pretty poorly dressed compared to those who had tickets. That alone should have excluded us from getting in.) We were told that we had to wait in line until all seats were filled and then they would fill only the empty seats.

That is when we learned that John McCain was on the show and we thought we had noooooo chance of getting in.

After an hour of waiting for everyone to get wanded by major, MAJOR security, we got in. We were the last 2 let in. I'm serious. We. Got. In. Balcony seats. And while Letterman's head was hidden by prompters, I had a great view of his hands. Fun, fun, fun. This is what I noted:

• The base player was crazy. But very entertaining.
• They actually allowed for the commercial breaks.
• Letterman took off his suit coat every time they went to break.
• His mug was refilled half way though the taping, McCain's was not.
• Letterman did not talk with McCain during the commercial breaks; instead he was surrounded by the same 3 people (I assumed they were writers).
• And I could tell that Dave was saving the Gordon Liddy line until right before the commercial break. I liked that part.
• I'm glad that Letterman was tough on McCain. It made the show interesting.

Oh, and the musical guest was Ne-Yo. He had awesome white shoes.

Here's a clip of the show. Fast forward through the commercials at the beginning. Oh, and the people laughing? That's us.



After supping on the delightful combination of entertainment and politics, we headed south to our Broadway show - 13. I love the composer/lyricist, Jason Robert Brown. Haven't heard of him? You need to fix that. Like now.

So 13 is about thirteen year olds. The script itself feels very......thirteen. The music is the best part about it. Oh, and the actors are extremely likeable. No one in the cast is older than 17, and even the band is 18 or younger. Overall fun. And I kept thinking, imagine if you had a class of high school students this talented. The world as we know it might end.

To give you a taste, here is a promo that was on MTV news.

Celebrity Sighting #1 - Jason Robert Brown and His Wife and Daughter were in the audience that night. They walked right by us. The second Clin realized who we were sharing the room with, he perked up like a pigeon. (Do pigeons perk? If not, please replace with the perking animal of your choice.) And while I tried to explain that he already had his signature and a picture with him (Mr. Brown came to the Utah Theatre Association Conference a couple of years ago and we stalked him then.), Clin heard not a word. He was out of his seat and getting the signature for the program which he can now frame and hang on the drama room wall. Mr Brown you are very gracious. Thank you.

SideNote - I keep thinking, many families had brought their own children to see the show. But like I said, it is very thirteen. In. Every. Way. Would I bring even my thirteen year old? Clin - would you?

We were out of there by 8:30. That's right. No intermission and 7:00 PM start equals early out. So we did what anyone would do. Eat!

Clin had a hankering for Mexican. We tried Rosa Mexicano. $14 guacamole. What? But they make it at your table. You get to see what is in front of you. And it was a lot. A. Lot. Here's our demonstration.

We shared an entree of mole that was pretty good. The waiter, again, seemed disappointed because we didn't order drinks or two entrees. But we ordered an appetizer the size of an entree. What do you expect? I didn't get a picture of our meal, but I would say it's no better than what we can find in Utah. Nothing out of the ordinary or special. It did taste good.

And the day ended. Happy. Excited. Crashing to the sounds of Letterman on the TV.