Terra Incognita

all day long i'll have good luck
I found a penny this morning. I picked it up.

meanwhile...in mid-missouri...
My family is in New York City without me. Here's the Cliffs Notes version of my mom's phone call last night:

Mom: Hi Erica!
Erica: Hey! What a coincidence! Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind" just came on my iTunes. How appropriate!
M: Talk about coincidence! We saw him open the Tonys Sunday night!
E: Get out!
M: We were walking by Central Park and saw something going on and the policeman we asked told us that Billy Joel was about to perform an opening show for the Tonys, so we went there and five minutes after, his car pulled up, he got out and played for 15 minutes, talked a bit and then left. We were right there near the front!
E: No way! How cool! Megan and I probably just missed seeing you on t.v. We saw Hugh Jackman open the Tonys onstage, but missed the whole red carpet stuff. But I did see you at the Today Show!
M: You did?! Ally and I got up at 5:30 for that! Afterward we got to shake hands with Al Roker and Ann Curry.
E: No! They're my favorite people on Today! I love Ann Curry!
M: Ann [they're on a first name basis now, of course, my mom and Mrs. Curry. ;)] is so nice. She really took time to talk with people. Matt Lauer didn't talk to anyone and Katie Courric was on location interviewing Hillary Clinton in Washington.
E: Wow. How neat!
M: Monday night Ally and I saw RENT and last night we went to The Lion King. It was amazing! We also went to the Met and I saw my Renoirs and Monets and VanGoghs that I love.
E: Oooh!!!! Theatre! And Impressionists! I miss good art!
M: Oh! And we saw Barbara Walters! She was getting out of the car outside her apartment as we were passing by. Oh! And when we were at the Today Show, we turned around and Ally says, "Look, Mom, there's Joey from 'NSync!" And there he was! So I took a picture!!! I don't think he even saw me take it!
E: HAHAHA!
M: So we've had quite the sightings here. I know you really wanted to come with us, so I thought I'd call and let you now how much fun we were having. How's Columbia?

Thanks, Mom. Columbia's quite the cultural Mecca, thank you very much. New York pales in comparison. It's not like it's the city I've wanted to visit the most for years and years (besides Paris which I crossed off my list after middle school). I've had a couple of celebrity sightings myself. I see Stuart Polansky about twice a week. So ha!