I love New York - Day Two and Three

Two more days have passed, and OH BOY... what a city.

Sunday began with a church service I will not soon forget. We visited the Manhattan 8th Young Single Adult ward at 12:30, located on the 3rd floor of the building, directly under the Manhattan Temple. A choir was seated in the choir seats, and I thought, "Wow, they have a HUGE ward choir!" but as the meeting progressed, I learned that this was the Sterling Singers, from Salt Lake City, visiting the big apple to sing for the saints in New York. They sang a prelude song... and the sixty-some singers sounded more like this:

And, as the opening song began, with the amazingly talented members of that ward singing behind me, and the choir in front of me... It was like hearing angels. Seriously. It sounded like there were a thousand of us there, and that we had practiced for months. The entire meeting was just as incredible, with beautiful music punctuated by the spoken word.

So, without going too deep into it, I just have to say that there is something to be said of sacred music. Whether "sacred" to you means the hymns at church, or whether it's music that makes you feel connected with something that is bigger than yourself... There is nothing quite like the soul-to-soul connection that is made through good music. Really good music.

Anyway, enough of that.

The rest of the day was spent with my little sister, exploring the streets of Manhattan. I took Randee to Forever 21 to buy school clothes, and we had shopping success... Next, we had our hearts set on going to Urban Outfitters*, but ran into a little obstacle... It began to rain. We were dressed in normal clothing, no coats, and no umbrellas. We were also lost. We consulted Google Maps on my phone, my mom via-cell phone, but before we found the darned store, we were wet and cold. Randee had purchased a hat at Forever 21, but I was without help in the middle of a soggy day.

Anyway, long story short, we found the store. Luckily, Urban Outfitters had a wide variety of very cute, very over-priced hats, and I indulged. However, a hat was not enough to shield me from ALL the rain, and by the time we met Mom at Ruby Foo's for dinner (a place I HIGHLY recommend), we were soaked to the bone, and freezing cold. Luckily, the food was mmm mmm TASTY! Of course, as with any good Asian meal, our dinner concluded with a fortune cookie. And, because mine applied to my life in SO many ways, I had to take a picture:

It says "Do your best to make it happen." It's funny how a silly cookie, given to me by chance, could speak to me in many ways. However, because I'm currently still "in" the situation of which I speak, I'll hold my tongue until I can say more.

(You're dying to know, aren't you??)

Ok, I will say this: Someday in the future, remind me to tell you the story of mid-July to mid-August, 2007. Buuuut I won't get into it. :)

Let's see, where was I? Ok, today (Monday), Mom surprised us with tickets to TRL (Total Request Live) on MTV. I was on the show two years ago with my friend Chelsi (we met Ashlee Simpson, Nick Cannon and John Legend), but of course, it was fun to go again with my little sister. The funny part was, my sister and I didn't really know much about the celebrity co-hosts, Aly and AJ, or about Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls, who was premiering her first video as a solo artist. They were all beautiful women, though... I'm sure you agree...







So even though we weren't the biggest of fans, it was a good time. And hey, we were on TV!!

The rest of the day was a little disappointing, with mediocre Thai food and another soggy afternoon. We will, however have more adventures to come in the next three days. We still have more sight seeing to do, and we're seeing Grease on Broadway on Wednesday! Keep on reading!


*(Ok, so we went shopping on the Sabbath. No apologies or excuses here. We're on vacation. I know, I know...)