Birthday with the Stars

Hello again everyone!  Things are getting incredibly busy out here, so blogging may be a bit sporadic just for a bit.

Last weekend (the weekend of the 6th-7th) I had my Object Care class in the city once again.  This time, we were meeting first at the American Museum of Natural History.  This is one of my favorite museums and I was really excited to get to go behind the scenes at this place.  We met with a paleontological researcher and preparator, who didn't know much about museum professions, but were incredibly eager to show us tons and tons of dinosaur bones.  I think everyone in the class instantly became an 8 year old again (I know I did).  Not to toot my own horn, but I also got to show off some of my osteological knowledge by identifying bones and siding them.  I was hoping after that they would instantly offer me a job, but that didn't happen :D.

After the AMNH, we all trooped up to St. John the Divine, which has an excellent textile conservation studio attached to the massive cathedral.  The pieces they showed us that they were working on were quite impressive, but textiles just don't thrill the way dinosaur bones do.  Once we were done, everyone got back on the Subway to head to Penn Station and home.

But not me!  Because I wanted something special to do for my birthday and it was on a regular weekday with school and work, I decided to treat myself to a Broadway show the Saturday before.  So, after class, I hung around in the city before my show.  I had dinner at O'Flaherty's, which is a family favorite pub in the Theatre district.  After dinner I headed to the theatre.

I was seeing 'Elling' which starred Denis O'Hare (Broadway's Assassins, HBO's TruBlood) and Brendan Fraser (The Mummy, Gods and Monsters).  Jennifer Coolidge (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) was also in it and I happened to literally run into her before the show.  'Elling' was a great play and I'm glad that I didn't know a thing about it before I went to see it.  The play was really funny and I enjoyed every minute.  After the show, I waited by the stage door and got to meet both Brendan Fraser and Denis O'Hare, which was the highlight of my time out here. 

The next day, I went right back into NYC to watch the New York City Marathon and have a wonderful dinner with Mark and Katherine again.  It was a beautiful day for the marathon and I got to see the Chilean miner who was running.  After marathon watching for a bit, we went back and had a great dinner.  I didn't stay too long, since the night before I hadn't gotten back into South Orange until 1:30 and I desperately needed a good night's sleep.

Tuesday was my 23rd birthday (which felt more un-birthday this year).  I had work and then class that night so there wasn't any time to do anything else special and I felt I had technically celebrated that Saturday.  When I got to class, I found that my friend Stephanie had made a pan of brownies for me and this then encouraged the whole class to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me!  So that was a nice little surprise that made the day feel more like my actual birthday. 

Other than this, the rest of the week and this weekend have been mostly school and work.  I've been spending any free evenings I have completing papers and other little assignments for classes.  I want to thank all of you who sent birthday greetings to me, either e-mail, Facebook or a card in the mail. 

That's all the news for now! Talk to you next edition!

XOXO,
K