How Free Must Be Her Dreams

(Todays lyrics brought to you by Jack Hein, who got me a Bob Dylan album for my birthday. Thanks beeb!!)

Hey-o!

Long time, eh? Let’s get you all up to speed!

Boston was marvelous, though I was reminded how passionately I loathe drunk college students en mass. We had fun seeing people, attending the party and watching the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

The Next week went by pretty quickly. I had a fundraising event the morning of Saturday the 23^rd so I spent most of my time at work preparing for that. The event went very well, and afterwards, I got to pick up my family from the train station! The Hein’s were officially in Bridgeport!!!

I adored having my family out here. Not only was it marvelous to see them (and hug them a few thousand times!), but it was so great to share this life with them—show them where I live and work and play, introduce them to my housemates, take them to church with me, etc. I love the life I am living out here. I love Bridgeport and Connecticut and the North East. It was so special to share it with them.

Saturday, after showing them our house I took them on a little walk around my neighborhood and showed them around. Then they met Meghan and Hannah (Sophie was in Detroit) and were introduced to our record collection (my dad especially loved that part!). I took them to dinner at a great pizza place in town and then we spent the evening at home.

Sunday we went out for brunch, walked around Downtown Bridgeport and then I took them to the church I’ve been going to! This was especially fun to share with them. Everyone was just as friendly and welcoming as they were the first time I went, and the music and sermon were wonderful and lively. It was really special to have them there with me. After church we went down to the beach and walked out to a little lighthouse (fun fact: my housemates and I have never actually made it out to the lighthouse, despite many attempts. It’s kind of become a house joke). We picked up pizza on our way home and had dinner and a quiet evening with my housemates.

On Monday they came and visited me at work. I got to give them a tour of the Taylor Center, introduce them to my supervisor and show them where I do all of my programs and so forth. They went shopping and visited the zoo by my house (Connecticut’s only zoo, kind of a big deal J ) for the rest of the day and then picked me up from work when I was done. Monday was my turn to cook dinner, so I made one of my new favorite recipes (courtesy of Hannah!)—enchiladas! They were very well received, if I do say so myself. I’ve really loved cooking this year, and I spend an almost ridiculous portion of my time in the kitchen, so it was really special to share that aspect of my life with my family as well.

Tuesday morning we headed up the coast to New Haven to visit Yale! It was perfect, I’m going, that’s it.

After our tour we had lunch at Louis’ Lunch, the birthplace of the hamburger (delicious, for the record), visited the Yale Art Museum (They had Degas. Yale is actually, actually perfect) and then headed back down to Bridgeport to catch a train into New York City! After a brief (and totally planned) tour of the Brooklyn subway system we got to our hotel, settled in and then found a really great little Italian restaurant called Campo De Fiori for dinner. Fun fact, I’ve been to the real Campo De Fiori in Rome, and it is beautiful.

Wednesday was our first full day in the city! We headed in to Manhattan in the morning and saw a few sights before meeting up with Sophie (who’s flight had conveniently gotten in that morning) for brunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. The wait staff sing to you, the food is delicious, all in all it was pretty great. And I’m really glad it worked out that my family got to meet Sophie as well! We walked Sophie up to Central Park, swung by to wave hello to Fordham and then headed down to the Nederlander Theater for our first Broadway show—Newsies!!

I’m moving to Broadway. Please forward my mail.

No but really. It was stunning. They show was great, the dancing was breathtaking and the actors were just…just…there are no words. Corey Cott as Jack Kelly is just perfection. If you get a chance to see it, do. I had chills the entire time. I’m not joking.

After the show Jack and I waited by the stage door and got to meet and take pictures with a bunch of the cast (including Jess from So You Think You Can Dance!!) and get them to sign our playbills! It was just marvelous.

We walked around a bit more, got some hotdogs for dinner and then headed back to Brooklyn for the night! We needed to, you see, because Thursday morning Jack Hein got us up at the absolute crack of dawn to go to stand in the crowd at Good Morning America. Which I admit was pretty fun once I got some coffee. Once GMA was finished we hoped on a subway and headed all the way down to the tip of Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty and Battery Park. After that we made our way up to the 9/11 Memorial. It was intense, and I had a lot of emotions I didn’t expect or plan for and I would suggest seeing it.

We had Bagels for lunch and then went “shopping” in SoHo. I say “shopping” because those prices were insane. Who can afford that nonsense? But Jack had a lot of fun! We walked up through Greenwich Village and then walked along the Highline (a park made on top of old train tracks) for a while. We had a nice dinner at Hard Rock that evening, which felt wonderful after all the walking we did all day!

Friday morning we Took a nice stroll through Central Park and then visited the Met! We all know the Met is my favorite, so I was one happy camper. After the Met we swung by Balto for a quick visit and then headed down to Union Square to meet Jack’s friend Emily for a delicious lunch at a nice Italian restaurant. She showed us around down by NYU for a bit and then we all walked up towards Times Square together, chatting and taking in the city. There’s no better city to wander in!

After saying goodbye to Emily I took them to my favorite dollar pizza place for a great, JVC budget friendly, dinner and then we headed down to the Imperial Theater to see Matthew Broderick in Nice Work If You Can Get It! The show was a ton of fun and Matthew was hilarious! It was a great way to end our trip together!

Saturday morning we said goodbye (which, for the record, was not so much fun) and then I caught a shuttle back into Manhattan, dropped my bag off at my friend Christina’s place and then headed down to the Theatre District. You see, I had a mission. My very favorite stage actor (Matt Doyle) is currently the lead in Book of Mormon, and I was dying to see it. BOM is Broadway’s must see show right now, so tickets are rather out of budget for me. But there was still a chance! After waiting in line, trying and failing the lottery, and waiting in line some more I held in my hand a beautiful thing—a standing room ticket for the show!! I wolfed down a hotdog from a nearby stand (I was starving, hadn’t eaten all day, bit of a problem) and then headed in to the theatre and took my place. I got to stand right behind the back row of the main floor, which was an incredible view of the stage! The lights dimmed, the house got quiet, and then Matt Doyle was center stage and everything was quite blissful and perfect.

The show was great. Matt was sublime, the rest of the cast was fantastic, the show itself is hilarious, and I had the most marvelous time. The most marvelous time. After the show I waited by the stage door and met a bunch of the cast. And then the door opened and there he was. Matt Doyle in the flesh. I got a picture and an autograph and I got to tell him how wonderful he was in the show. And he was the absolute nicest person you ever did meet. It was a great day for Aimee Hein.

You must understand, I’ve loved Matt Doyle for many years. It has been a huge dream of mine to see him on Broadway. And I got to do not only that but also meet him after. I was one excited Aimee.

!!!!!!!!

You know it is going to be a good night when it begins with the words “So…how attached are you to sleep?” Christina and I went to some really great divey punk rock bars, grab some late night pizza, wandered around Columbia’s gorgeous campus and grabbed some fries and milk shakes at Tom’s Restaurant (used as Monk’s Cafe in Seinfeld) and then poured into bed at 6:30am…only to wake up at 8 so Christina could get to work and I could catch my train. This made about 5 hours of sleep between Friday Morning and Sunday night. I have no regrets.

I drug myself home, watched 2 different versions of Les Mis (the new movie and the 25^th Anniversary Concert—both of which I got for my Birthday/Easter from my family!), maybe started hallucinating a bit, and then passed out on my living room couch and slept until morning.

Best New York trip so far? I’d say so!

At this point we have now entered a sacred period in time known commonly as Baseball Season. The world once more makes sense.

Saturday April 6^th it was our turn to host a JV party! As we don’t have an official holiday we are responsible for, we decided to celebrate something everyone can get behind—moustaches!! Our stache bash was a wonderful success and we had a grand time!

On Friday April 12^th we celebrated my birthday! We went to Mac Daddy’s, a really great mac and cheese bar in Fairfield (because yum), and my housemates had called ahead and asked them to make the hot dog slices in my mac and cheese look like a baseball! I felt pretty special. The Twins happened to be playing the Mets that weekend, so we were also able to go to a bar and watch the game that night! We lost, quite badly, but it was such a treat to actually get to watch a game out here. It was a very special birthday and I went to bed feeling pretty blessed. I even got to skype with my family for a long time the next day!

On Saturday April 27^th we had our big Healthy Kids Day event at the Y. Healthy Kids Day is a nation wide YMCA event that celebrates and promotes healthy lifestyles and habits. We had a bunch of different health professionals from the community step up booths, played games, had the fire truck visit, had a bounce house, had a garden expo for the kids to plant flowers, and raffled off some great prizes! The weather was gorgeous, we had a couple hundred people attend and the day was a great success! We’re really pleased with how it turned out.

After we cleaned up the event I met up with Hannah and Meghan at the train station and we set off to Scranton PA (by way of Manhattan to hitch a ride with some New York JVs) for their JV party! It was quite a blast, as JV parties are inclined to be.

May 3^rd through the 6^th we were in Weston Mass for a silent retreat. We spent about two days in silence, and while the retreat was a bit too specifically catholic for some of our tastes, it was a great opportunity to reflect, pray, rest and rejuvenate. I enjoyed the silence, and it was great to really catch up with everyone on Sunday night after we broke the silence. JVs are awesome people.

Last Weekend Hannah and I went into New York again. I’m not going to be this close forever, got to soak it up wile I can, right? J We visited the Museum of Modern Art, had drinks with some of her college friends, went to the Met and the Museum of Natural History, had tea and scones at Alice’s Tea Cup and saw Silence, and off-boradway musical parody of Silence of the Lambs. It was kind of hilarious; we had a marvelous time.

Last night we volunteered at a fundraiser for Sophie’s work and then caught Gatsby at 6 dollar Supper Tuesdays! It was stunning. Like, just beautiful. I highly recommend it. I know I highly recommend a lot of things, but really. Go see it. I wasn’t sure I’d like it because I hate the book (I know, I’m one of like 3 crazy people in the world who feel that way), but I absolutely loved the movie. Causing me to utter words I never have and never thought I would: the movie was better than the book. Blasphemy, I know.

Other than that, work has been good. Tax Season ended, meaning it was time to tackle the next project I know next to nothing about—vegetable gardening. Josh and I are also busy planning our summer Teen Achievers program, so I’m pretty excited about that!

Hannah and I have begun studying for the GRE. Its intimidating stuff, especially the math, but I have big Yale sized dreams. I’ll need a good score, and I am bound and determined. And so far it’s been fun to get back in to studying and learning. I’ve missed it. Because I am crazy, and I’m pretty sure I was born for the specific purpose of being a student.

I’ve also started a bit of job searching for next year! Prayers would be very appreciated, if you are so inclined.

I cannot believe it’s been 9 months already. It’s now been over a year since I graduated college. I’m 23. Where has the time gone?? What a ride life is, eh?

I love you all and I hope you’re doing well!

Aimee