Bucket list item - BIG CHECK!

Right before we left on our trip for Thanksgiving, I got to do something very near and dear to my heart.  Five awesome girlfriends and I went to NYC solely for the purpose to see Billy Joel play at Madison Square Garden.  He has been doing this residency where he plays once a month at MSG and will continue doing so until he stops selling out.  It's been going on now for 2 years!  We made it to performance #23 and he has recently announced new dates for 2016.

We had a great 24 hours.  There is something so cool about seeing Billy Joel play at this venue.  Beyond being an amazing performer (my absolute fave!), he played for 2.5 hours straight - without one break.  He did 28 songs!  A few of the songs he gave the audience two choices and let us pick which we'd want to hear.

Our seats were pretty wild.  We got these skywalk seats that were high above the entire Madison Square Garden.  In fact, we were parallel to the jumbotron.  There was no one in front of us and no one behind us.  It was like our own box, complete with plexiglass keeping us from falling over the ledge.  These seats were so neat!  We had a fantastic view and it was so cool to see all the action below us.  I really loved these seats and would pick them again.

The funniest part of the evening came when we walked back into our hotel (It was a Hampton Inn near MSG) and Beth identified former Gov. O'Malley near the entrance.  She told us it was him and we didn't believe her.   He was alone in the elevator and as we entered, I said to him, "Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like Gov. O'Malley?"   O'Mally replies with, "That's because I am him."   Without hesitation Tara says, "Why the F--- are you staying here at a Hampton Inn?"   OMG!  I still can't believe she said that to him.  The former Governor said he needed an inexpensive place to spend the night and he has an appearance on Morning Joe the next morning.  He was a very nice guy and incredibly accommodating on our request to take a selfie with him.  We actually forgot to get off on our floor and ended up going up and down on the elevator a few times.  It was very funny.

The whole time we were in NYC felt so surreal.  It was an idea that had been tossed around many moons ago.  We somehow convinced all of our husbands to do double duty and take over in our absence.  There were 4 of us that the Thanksgiving lunch at our kid's schools ended up falling on the Thursday we were gone.  We didn't know this was the date that would get chosen until just 1 month prior.  All the husbands rearranged their schedules and made it to the lunches.

I know I can't do things like this all the time, so it makes it very special when it does happen.  What a great city! What a great night!  What a great concert!  What a great group of girlfriends!