A Godly Day in the City

Lisa and I at Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum with Elton John!

Last weekend, the holiest weekend of the year (Easter weekend), my religion professor, spiritual adept, mental training mentor, and dear friend Lisa Sargese and I spent the entire day in New York City. I absolutely LOVE going to the city, even if it's just to walk around and window shop, it's one of my favorite things to do and I don't do it as often as I used to. We decided after hearing the song Beautiful City at my uncle's Last Supper Dinner, we wanted to go see the show Godspell on Broadway and actually HEAR Hunter Parrish in person sing the song.

But Lisa had pulled a "Trento" and planned out an itinerary for the day! #I'mRubbingOffOnHer #It'sScary #SamePageDifferentParagraphs. LOL! The biggest surprise and thrill for me was our first stop to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum which is something I've been wanting to do since the new year began! We drove in and parked on 50th St. Now I want you all to remember that we had to do A LOT of walking. And remember, Lisa is trying out not one, but TWO brand new knees! And we are preparing for a trip in Disney when we go to Florida this summer. So this is AWESOME practice for her. I told her "Think of it as your brown belt test!"

We walked from 50th down to 42nd. Then up two blocks here, down two blocks there, and Lisa walked the whole thing, no complaining, no problem. And it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day! Not one cloud in the sky, blue sky, and sun sun sun! We walked into Madam Tussaud's and we walked the ENTIRE thing. Lisa was on her feet for most of the day and I was so proud of her! She did better than I think she thought she could do. But I knew she'd be fine.

ME and Lucille Ball, a legend!

We of course played around the whole time. We were there for a couple of hours. We took pictures with EVERY SINGLE WAX FIGURE! But of course we each had our priorities too. Everyone who knows me knows of my obsession with Lucille Ball. And Lisa and I are in LOVE with Lady Gaga. I had to see the pope of Barbara Walters. And we were just plain silly! I grabbed my crotch next to Michael Jackson, Lisa screamed in Helen Keller's ear, we just had a fun time being silly! And it was sooooo much fun!

Lisa with THE Lady Gaga

After playing around in the wax museum, we walked all the up to 53rd St and then down a few more blocks to St.Thomas's for the Vigil Easter Mass, and to see one of Lisa's all time most favorite choirs. The church was absolutely beautiful! The architecture was exquisite! The statues around the church reminded me of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame! And the mass was wonderful as well. I would like to come back next year as well for the Vigil Mass.

But I was also happy to come to this church because I knew that St Thomas's Church in the city had a great deal of meaning for Lisa. She used to always come with one of her former mentors. And every time she was at this church, she can remember a different time of her life where she sat sitting in this very church praying to God for help in her life. She remembers praying to God for better health, being in this church wishing she was better in her life, not well enough to walk, was in a wheel chair and could not stand, and now here she was WALKING into the church, able to kneel if she desired, and I knew it was such a big deal for her and I was grateful to be there with her for this moment.

Being as grateful as I was, I thought an essential oil would be appropriate. Of course I didn't have Myrrh which would have been appropriate for Easter Vigil Mass, but I did think of an even more appropriate oil for the occasion: Gratitude. I put it in Lisa's hand without showing it, and after inhaling, she looked at it, and turned with a small smile of understanding and agreement of YES. Now mind you! This is the first time in almost four hours Lisa got to sit. She was on her feet all this time and walked several NYC blocks! She was passing her brown belt test with flying colors! I know Disney is going to be a cinch!

Lisa walked almost 30 city blocks total for the day and was on her feet for almost four hours! Take that naysayers!

 Then we left the mass to go back down to 50th to the Circle in the Square Theatre to see Godspell on Broadway, which was the catalyst for this trip! We were giddy like two little children. Godspell was a very appropriate play before Easter I think! We walked in, and I have never been to a circular Broadway theatre. There not a bad seat in the house! But it also wasn't a packed theatre. We put our names in for a drawing to have a backstage tour and meet some of the cast afterwards, and of course I got my keychain souvenir and bought Lisa a CD by Hunter Parrish.

Hunter played Jesus in the play and the entire play was so well done. I really enjoyed it, and am always surprised what Broadway plays can get away with when it comes to politics and religion. At the beginning of the play, however, Lisa said jokingly in a serious tone "Hunter Parrish better sing that song to me!" Well lo and behold! When the time came toward the end of the second Act, Hunter Parrish began singing Beautiful City and walked in our direction and was looking RIGHT AT LISA! How could I miss this moment! So I illegally took out my camera to take a few picture (seven) of Hunter singing to Lisa, how could I not!? BUUUUT...that's against the rules, and it is not a packed theatre and I was caught! The Stage manager made me delete all seven pictures right in front of her. Once again, I've made my mark somewhere in the world! I tried Lisa!!!!

It was an absolutely fantastic day! It was a Godly day! I had so much fun with Lisa and I was so proud of her walking ability and just having such good company overall! Here is the song beautiful city sung by Hunter Parrish himself, and just imagine him looking straight at Lisa since I don't have a picture of it!!:

The Reverend and the business owner--high class! LOL!

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO