My five favorite photos!

I'm finally joining up with Momfessionals Andrea today for my first Show and Tell Tuesday of 2017.  Today's prompt, five favorite photos is right up my alley.  I love photos.  I think I get that from my mom who has stacks and stacks of photo albums going back almost 40 years.  These days, she has stacks and stacks of Shutterfly books.  Me...I too, have a bunch of photo albums, boxes of photos, and document my life daily on Insta!  I've even posted about my five favorite photos of ME here!  Today, I'm just sharing some of my all time faves...of me and the people I love! It probably illustrates this solitary life!  (Explanations are above each pic)


This is the most recent picture in the bunch, but this is definitely one of my faves.  Quite simply, it's my family!  The freakin' wild, crazy, ridiculous crew that we are.  And, of course, me being the loner, with no family of my own, I'm smack-dab between my mom and dad!!  Ugh.....lolololol

November 2016

This is the best picture ever of the "original 6"!  We were celebrating Happy Heart Day for my dad, and doing our usual photo shoot thing, when Billy, my oldest nephew, hit us all with the super soaker!  We were all blindsided...and the fact that my brother-in-law-Sean got this action shot is classic!

August 2015

This one is a favorite of my bestie and I! Over 30 years of friendship has yielded thousands of photos.  But this past summer when we went to see Garth Brooks and sat in the rain for hours, we were getting punchy!  And this fun photo was the result. (this is our concert photo pose!)  Garth was a bucket list item for both of us!  So glad to have this girl to check things off the life list with!

July 2016

There are so many wonderful pictures of each of my sisters and I, but this one is just had to share today!  This picture is one of my favorites simply because it's irreplaceable.  And one of the best days. This is me and my oldest sister Tara, on top of the World Trade Center, about 2 weeks before the towers fell in 2001.  Read more about our trip and this picture here!

August 2001

And last but not least... a favorite of all my nieces and nephews! How can I not include them...they have my heart.   Love them all and the wonderful humans they are becoming.  Nothing in the world makes me happier than being Aunt Katie (sometimes Aunt Beastie) to these littles...and the bonus kiddos in my life!!

Choosing 5 was just too hard ....

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek into my little world!  Have a great Tuesday!!

Show and Tell / #TBT: My Favorite Blog Posts!

Linking up with Andrea @ Momfessionals for a fun Show and Tell Tuesday!  I thought it was the perfect fit for my # TBT post!!  Today's topic is My Favorite Blog Posts!  I'm reaching into the Archives for this one!! It's funny to me how some posts I love and others don't respond that well to them.  But then others I was not confident about were bigger "hits" then anticipated!  These posts are some of my favorites I've written!

My very first post ever is really high on the list of faves!  I'm not really sure why.  Maybe just because I actually did it...I actually started this blog, journaling and documenting my life!  It has been four years since the first post.  I am proud of what the blog has become and what I have done with it. Read my first post here!

My Solitary Life Posts are definitely faves and so much fun to write...

You Might Live a Solitary Life if...

You Might Live a Solitary Life if... {2nd installment}

Solitary Life 101

I teamed up with my fellow librarian Leslie to celebrate friendship day last summer.  I introduced you to a great book and my best friend, Mel!  It is a definite fave!

An Ode to Besties

I have a day job as a teacher-librarian, so occasionally you'll see my teacher life creep into the blog! These are some of my favorite teacher-themed posts!

I am a Teacher 

Love is...

You Might be a teacher if...

Para-para-para-dise

Sometimes you'll see my family on the blog as well.  A recap of Happy Heart Day, my mom's surprise birth bash, and the Cookies and Cocktails tradition that my sisters and I have are some favorite posts featuring my family.

A past Show and Tell Tuesday post is a top too!!  My Mixed Tape was so much fun to put together and took me back to the days of my youth!!

See a few more popular posts here!

This was another fun post to write!!  Have a great Thursday!!

My Mixed Tape: The Soundtrack of My Life

Today's Show and Tell Tuesday is a super fun topic! My Mixed Tape: The soundtrack of My Life...so far!!  There are so many songs I absolutely love and many that take me back in time, so I had a great time narrowing down songs to include!  Actually, it's more the artists that define times in my life rather than the songs...

K-K-K-Katie, My Beautiful Lady
I remember my grandfather singing this to me when I was little!  It's super old...from the 1900's.  The best version of it I found was this...but my grandpa's version was way better!!

Hats Off to Larry
When I was little my dad had a jukebox.  I danced around our den to that damn jukebox ALL the time.  The jukebox had a lot of oldies.  My favorite was Hats off to Larry...probably because I LOVED a guy named Larry!  He was in his 20's, I was 6 or 7!  HA!  Every single time, I imagined I was singing to him...hahahaha!

Any song by Debbie Gibson defines my young 80's self.  When I was seven I saw her in concert, third row, center at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and it was AMAZING...LOL  I was a dancer and a singer when I was little!!  I would blast the music and dance around my room for hours!!  From her very first album, to her last...I loved it all.  I actually met her a few years ago, and she signed my Out of the Blue Tape cover. I swear, when I met her I was seven again!!  I was a total fan girl!!  It kinda makes me cringe thinking back on it!!  My absolute favorite song of hers was called We Could Be Together. It was off the Electric Youth album.  I had a dance and everything.  I am pretty sure my sister and bestie were sick of hearing that song, the amount of times I had it on replay!!

My Tape signed...eeekkkkk!!

Part of Your World- The Little Mermaid
This one you just have to BELT OUT!  And this was the only song, that after singing, my bestie told me I had a good voice!  HA!  I will never forget that compliment as long as I live!!

I was also a big fan of the boy bands!  First New Kids in the 80's, the Backstreet Boys, and 98* in the 90's but the biggest piece of my heart goes to the boys of *NSYNC...two fifths of whom were on my Beloved MMC!! My bestie and I loved *NSYNC so much we saw them in concert twice in one week, during the summer of '99.  I recall losing my voice!!  I followed them from the very beginning all the way to the end!  And I love all of Justin's solo stuff, but I'll admit my heart broke a little when they broke up!!  So many of their songs are my favorites...Tearin' up My Heart is definitely up there!!
And they do an awesome cover of Christopher Cross' Sailing, too! #jussaying #atleastithinkso


Every year in college is defined by an artist that we listened to more than any other!

Freshman year it'd have to be Fleetwood Mac....Landslide is my absolute fave from them. BTW...Love the Dixie  Chicks version of Landslide too!!

Sophomore year for me was all about BRUCE!!!  Thunder Road was my JAM!! I played it on the jukebox at Bishops (our Bar!) every night I was there from sophomore year through senior year!!   I still love Bruce to this day and fully intend on seeing him in concert before I die!!

Junior Year was U2.  They released the album All that You Can't Leave Behind that year and the song Stuck in a Moment was pretty much my theme song then!!  There were a lot of moments in college I felt stuck in! They were all fun though!

I'd have to say that during all 4 years in college Billy Joel was a mainstay in our house.  As far as he goes, the catholic school girl in me will always love Only the Good Die Young and This is a Time to Remember was my HS Junior Prom Song...I liked that prom way more than I did the senior prom so when I hear that, I'm back at prom again....with my two dates!  Is there a better lyric for high school than "These are the days to hold unto cause we won't all though we'll want to"??   I think not!!  I wrote about the time my bestie and I saw Billy Joel's Last Play at Shea as a day I'd relive again {here} for a Show and Tell Tuesdays last year!!

And speaking of Billy Joel, Shameless, written by Billy Joel and sung by Garth Brooks will forever be my all time favorite song.  It's my secret wedding song. I'm holding out for the guy who'll sing Shameless to me!!  (Yes...I do realize I'm living in a dream world!)

The song that defined about 4 Memorial Day Irish Festivals camping, a bunch of St. Patrick's Day parades in NYC and a million unforgettable memories made with my cousins following college was by the band Sullivan's Jack.  Miles to Go...I just love it.  And I love the new Irish tunes that bring me closer to my heritage.  I know my cousins all love Rebel Song (my second fave), but for me Miles to Go was it...it just makes me wanna jig!!  

Sull Jack Groupies at the Reunion Show 2015

And how could I not include my Kenny on the soundtrack of my life!?!  There are so many I love but I would have to sat that two that define me right now are Never Wanted Nothing More and Beer in Mexico.  You might remember I wrote a little bit about Never Wanted Nothing More during the Quote Challenge.  A lot of times it's the lyrics that I find a little piece of myself in.  In Beer in Mexico there's a line that says,

"Maybe I'll settle down, get married or stay single and stay free, which road I'll travel is still a mystery to me....so I'll just sit right here, have another beer in Mexico do my best to waste another day, sit right here and have another beer in Mexico, let warm the air melt these blues away.....  

Who knows what will happen to me or where my life will go.  I'm gonna leave it in God's hands and until he gives me a sign to help me figure it out, I might as well enjoy myself...with a few beers!  ;)

As for my current place and time, I'm not sure there's a song that defines me....maybe All the Single Ladies!?!  LOL... just kidding!!  That's pretty much it for me!!  

I can not tell you the fun I had putting this together!!  I listened  to old songs on YouTube and danced around my living room.  Who knew all the lyrics would come back to me so quickly!! HAHAHAHA...if you want to hear one or all of these song head to YouTube!  I created a playlist here!

Have a great Tuesday!!  I can't wait to read about everyone's mixed tapes!!  

Home is Where the Heart is

I was really excited that today Show and Tell Tuesdays at Momfessionals is all about sharing my hometown with you!  Last Spring, the Style Me Bloggers (now the gals of The Blended Blog!)  got together and shared the same.  Today's post is a little bit of an update since then!  Here's a little peek into this place I call home...  

If you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you've read about my adventures in buying a home and my solitary life in this new (or at least new to me!) town.  A big reason I began blogging was to document my living alone for the first time.  Read my first ever post here!

It's rare that I leave my little 3 mile radius.(LOL...but really though!!) I live in walking distance of the school that I work at, the train station, and right down the road from Main Street!  (I just love that I live in a town with an actual Main Street!!) It works for me!!!  And my town is so much fun!! Lots of shopping, restaurants, concerts, the Beach, and the Great South Bay! I've blogged about some fun things I've done in town here and here.  It really is one of my favorite places and just pretty perfect for me!!!

But since I know not many people will know my town itself, I thought I'd tell you more about this Island that I live on instead!! Long Island may ring a bell for some of you.  When people hear Long Island, lots think of the Hamptons (Thank you Kardashians and Revenge!).  I DO NOT live there...

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I've lived on Long Island in the state of New York for my entire life. Long Island is that "fish-like shape that hangs off of New York on a map!  And YES, Deena we are actually an island...surrounded by water on all sides.  We stretch out into the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Long Island Sound on the other.  Long Island is so large and overpopulated with 8 million people that, we could be our very own state...we are bigger than many states actually!!  Even larger than the countries of Ireland and Jamaica, too!

Long Island consists of four counties, from West to East. Brooklyn, Queens Nassau and Suffolk. Because Brooklyn and Queens are considered boroughs of New York City, a lot of people just count Long Island as Nassau and Suffolk.  And  Montauk Point truly is THE END.

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Long Island has beautiful beaches both on the North Shore and the South Shore.  I live on the South Shore.  Our beaches are smooth.  The North Shore is more rocky. There are 150 beaches on the Island, including Fire Island...just a short ferry ride away.

Jones Beach is in Nassau County, further west, from where I live, but it's a  place I visit in the summer for both sun and fun.  The Theatre at Jones Beach is the only concert venue right on the beach.  When I saw Kenny Chesney there a few years ago, high tide came right up under the stage and all the people in the first row sections got soaked.  Kenny said he had never seen anything like it. I went to a bunch of concerts there last summer and it's always a lot of fun.
There is also smaller outdoor amphitheater further out east where lots of my country faves play!  The summer of 2014 was a summer of concerts at both venues and I thought to myself numerous times, how lucky I was to live in a place that had such great outdoor spaces.  I went to tons of shows at both venues and had a blast. Read more about that here!

Long Island is very historical, too.  The homes of President Roosevelt, Poet Walt Whitman, painter Jackson Pollack and the Vanderbilt Family are here.  The Long Island Children's Museum, Old Bethpage Restoration Village and the Long Island Aquarium, Planetarium and the Long Island Game Farm are super fun and educational places to visit. We also have our own AAA baseball team, the Long Island Ducks.  There Stadium is 15 minutes from me!! Ok, the teacher in me is coming out...

Long Island has a number of wineries on the North Fork and the South Fork.  It is fun to spend the day wine tasting and listening to music at the different wineries in the summer.  The number of Craft Beer breweries on the Island has grown too!!  Blue Point is probably the most widely known, but there are breweries in Oyster Bay, Greenport, Riverhead and Montauk, just to name a few.  My town alone boasts 2!!  My Bestie and I had a great time at the Oyster Bay Brewery last summer!  You can read all about it here!


For me, Long Island really is an ideal place to live.  It's home...simple as that!! Come Visit Soon!! :)

Katie

High School Me...EEEKKKKKK!!

OK I'm jumping on the bandwagon!!  And joining Andrea at Momfessionals to Show & Tell you a little bit about me in high school!

 This is gonna be hard because I have THE WORST memory!!!! But I can pinpoint some great times!  {And maybe some not so great times...but I'm gonna skip right over those!!}

My high school memories are confined to this box!

I went to a very small, all-girls high school!  We were sometimes dubbed the country club of high schools.  It was a private Catholic School with grades Pre-K through 12.  Actually my bestie Mel went there all her life.  I just went to the high school.  Numerous times throughout my four years I heard "I can't believe you go to my school Kate"!

 The high school was small.  My sisters all went to a huge school with over 500 kids in each class.  That was not for me!! Mine was an elite school steeped in tradition.  Like the sophomore sleepover {which I didn't attend...thanks Ker!} The Junior-Senior Supper, the Senior Stairs and the Junior Moose Room! We had classes like Humanities, PBM, and Christian Family Living. We had Stations, not Homerooms and Mods, instead of Periods!

over 200 acres of beauty and hallowed halls

I graduated with 53 girls.  So everyone knew everyone!  And we were all friends, but groups still formed.  Many of the girls I still keep in touch with via Facebook, and am enjoying seeing where they are in their lives right now, but mostly I just keep in constant contact and see Mel and Kerri regularly.  Good thing they're blog-approved!!  :)


In high school I didn't do sports (obviously!) but was on the yearbook my Senior Year and was a Regina Teen.  My school was the Academy of St. Joseph...run by the Sisters of St. Joseph.  Our campus housed a nursing home for retired nuns, and the Regina Teens were basically Candy Stripers at the home after school.  So I did that a few years.  I was traumatized I think.  But sometimes it was cute.   I was also part of Play Crew, Spirit Week committees, a photography club for a short time and a member of Student Service.

Some highlights of high school...wish I knew where more pictures were!!

Dances, Sweet Sixteens and Proms

 Father-Daughter Dances (we always went to the diner after!) ,Winter Formals, Random Friday Night Dances with boys from the all-boy schools.  The Cotton-Eyed Joe!!  It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right!  I went to big elaborate Sweet Sixteens and others that were just fun sleepovers like my own!  And had a great time at them all!!

Just for Fun...This was the invitation to my Sweet Sixteen!

I had a better time at the Junior Prom than I did at the Senior Prom.  I went with a friend's brother, and my friend went with her brother's friend.  But she kind of ditched him...so I like to say that I had two dates!  HA!  And I had a blast with both of them.

Mel and I at Junior Prom!

Christian Family Living.  During this course we went and played with and had Pre-Kindergarten buddies.  I think this is what cemented me being a teacher.  I loved my buddy!  SCOTT...two T's are better than one!! (the lower school was co-ed!) Oh and we played with lummi sticks!!!  We LOVED that!!

Off-Campus Days were fun too!  That's when we went into New York City and saw Broadway shows.  I saw Miss Saigon, Smokey Joe's Cafe, and Rent.  Rent was my fave.  We met Wilson Cruz after the show.  He was on My So-Called Life which was big during that time and one of my fave shows!

That's his autograph!!  HA!













Senior Year we went to Grad Night in Disney World.  This is when they closed down the park and graduating classes from all over the U.S. have the park to themselves overnight.  The flight home was the most memorable of the trip.  Our plane dropped 10,000 feet in mid-air (in a split second!) and I thought perhaps I might die!  Pretty much a real-life Tower of Terror scenario!!

Spirit Weeks each year were a lot of fun!  filled with skits and dance routines...I remember being part of the freshman year skit.  If I was a rich girl...nananahahahahahnaa


Some of my favorite assignments: Does including this make me a geek!?!

The Wedding Project for CFL.  We had to plan our wedding from soup to nuts! Like guest list, song list...everything! And present it to the class.  I'd be married to Jonathan Jackson (Lucky on General Hospital at the time- Avery Barkley on Nashville now!) by now if my dream wedding came true!  LOL...clearly it was an all-girls school!! And apparently my wedding song would be "I Finally Found Someone" by Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams from the movie The Mirror has Two Faces. (I don't even remember ever seeing that movie!)  If I ever do get married I might have to keep that!!  HA!!

Precis of Wall Street: We watched the movie with Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas and totally analyzed every bit of it!  Then we wrote about it.  The last line of my precis said...the Mo' Money you come across, the Mo' problems you see!  I think I got an A-  I was a Biggie Fan!

Another favorite project was a final religion project we did where we had to talk about five things we valued, five favorite quotes and five favorite bible verses. All put together in a tiny little marble notebook. I still have it!!  I also loved going to mass in our beautiful chapel.

I'll never forget losing a friend and classmate the summer before our Junior year!  It really bonded us as a class and let us all know how fast life can change!

Random Fun Facts:
In high school I probably watched Clueless 150 times, saw 100 Lifetime movies and ate buckets of raw cookie dough. I was still a Girl Scout. During our 4 years, a nun went from a Sr. to a Miss :)
Our lockers were big...we would all sit in them every morning and do HW before heading up to class!  I discovered that I hated cigarettes (thank God!!) and was obsessed with *NSYNC. My love of country music began.  I feel like we bowled a lot! I never dated!  I got such a low score on my first try at the SAT's my dad told me to have a great time at community college!  hahahahahaha (I laughed then too...don't worry!!  And I went AWAY to college!)  My Chem teacher called me at home to tell me I passed the regents! The school song is forever in my memory!!

My senior picture and quote from the yearbook:

This picture...ugh!!  It was an ugly 4 years!!

My page from my family in the yearbook senior year!

Sadly our school has now closed it's doors!  But I was able to go to the final celebration in 2009.  And was so glad I did!!  For a school that operated since 1856, it was extremely bittersweet.

Kerri, Me and Mel on Graduation Day on the Senior Stairs! We only wore the typical cap and gown for the Graduation Mass.  Graduation Day each girl wore a floor-length white gown and white gloves, and walked down the aisle carrying roses. {I remember being SO sick at graduation with a fever and the shakes! Booooo...}

On the Senior Stairs one last time!
2009 right before the school shut its doors.

I'm glad I decided to do this!  But I'm also glad these days are in the past!!

Show and Tell Tuesdays: Vacation Memories!

Back today linking up with Andrea at Momfessionals for Show and Tell Tuesdays.  Today we're telling about our favorite vacation.  This is really hard for me.  I love traveling.  I used to do so much more traveling before I had this mortgage to pay!!  I've gone on countless family vacations to North Carolina over the years, lots of cruises to the Caribbean with my bestie. To Disney a few times and Spring Break here and there in college.  It's really hard to narrow it down!! So here's a few of my favorite vacations!

Family Vacations to North Carolina:
In 1988, my family started renting a beach house on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina at a place called Emerald Isle.  It was pure heaven!!!  Back then it was not too well known, and not very crowded.  Pretty perfect!  We went there for years and years and years and I loved it.  Each year, our crowd got bigger and it made it that much more fun.  These past few years though we've gone to the Outer Banks.  It's about three hours closer.  (Still a 10 hour drive, but that better than 13!  Ha!!)  These days just my family alone fills up the house!!  We've come a long way since 1988!

Caribbean Cruising:
I've been on lots of cruises. I started going on cruises after college.  They were affordable on my measly catholic school teacher salary (especially when you go during hurricane season!) and lots of fun.  Ironically, my favorite days cruising are the super relaxing days at sea!  It's really hard to beat a beautiful day, laying out on the top deck, looking out and seeing nothing but beautiful, blue water. But I've done lots of awesome exscursions too!  Swam with dolphins, para-sailed, swam with sea otters, zip-lined in Belize.  took a Mexican cooking class (where the margs flowed like water!). Such awesome stuff!!   Actually one of my best vacations was when I went on the Mexican Rivera cruise out of Cali!  We broke the bank that trip!!  Went out to California a few days before the ship set sail! Stayed in West Hollywood and toured Hollywood Blvd in a red convertible, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Disneyland...the whole nine!! So fun!!

High above Labadee!

Nashville:  One of my favorite places ever!!  I love country music and one day my bestie and I just decided we would go to the CMA festival, the 4 day music festival they have each June for fans.  We got an awesome deal for the event, so we jumped on it.  That trip was a lot of fun, but it was the hottest June ever there and we pretty much died.  Like the sun was down and it was still 100 degrees.  So the next time we went in April, and that was more bearable.  The CMA trip was packed with so much to do, when we went in April, we basically did the touristy things, went to bars and listened to music...pretty perfect! Oh and we took a road trip to Dollywood!!  It was further from Nashville than we thought (and a different time zone!) but it was so much fun!  And we ended our long day with Sonic!!  My first Sonic (and only so far) experience ever!!  I will return to Nashville one of these days!!

Disney World:
Just wanted to end with a little funny!!
Is it bad that I've been to Disney so many times and loved it each time, but my favorite was probably when I was 8 or 10. My whole family got to go with my dad on a business trip. We probably stayed in one of the nicest hotels I ever remember staying in The Lake Buena Vista something.  At that hotel they had the BEST waffle cones ever!!!!!!!  I got one every night!!  I wanna say my that 10 year old self  thought they were free, but they probably weren't.  I know that probably pretty pathetic that my favorite part of that trip were those waffle cones, but that seriously was the best ice cream I've ever tasted!!

I just love traveling...it's one of my favorites!!  I hope to travel somewhere in 2015....
Can't wait to read about everyone's travels!!

My favorite room!

Linking up today for another edition of Show and Tell Tuesdays with Andrea at Momfessionals! Today we're supposed to show you our favorite room in the house!  This is a little tricky for me! In Condo living, the kitchen and living space are all connected!  So I'm just gonna go ahead and call my favorite room in the house the Great Room!

This is pretty much how it is...

Looking out from my kitchen into the living room, one would probably say, the living room is in front of the kitchen, technically speaking but It's all one room!  LOL

Now if you're a regular reader, you know I DO NOT Cook, but I gotta say I just LOVE my little kitchen.  I love the wide counter tops and my deep sink. Eating alone most of the time, I sit at the counter more than at my kitchen table.  My favorite feature in my kitchen though is probably the collection of wine cork holders I have above my cabinets!  It makes it really "homey" I feel!

My living room area is also a fave.  Living this solitary life I do, I spend the most time in here.  I don't spend too much time in my bedroom, because I feel like it's far away (if that makes sense!)  Honestly, I just sleep there!  HA!  I like spending most of my time in the living area because it's spacious and open!  I have a comfy couch that I watch TV on, work on my blog on, and read on! 

These chevron chairs might be my favorite things in the room!

Last year I participated in Andrea's What's On Series where I went into more detail about what's on the walls of this space too!  Check it out {here}!  This is where I've decorated most and can show off a bit of who I am in the house to visitors.

I like that the great room is a space where everyone who visits can spend time, be comfortable and enjoy!  And because it's just me here, I can do the same when I'm alone!  I hope you enjoyed a little taste of my home! 

Until next time....

Show and Tell Tuesdays!

Today is Show and Tell Tuesdays with Andrea @ Momfessionals.  I didn't Link-up the last time because it was all about organizational tips and tricks!!  Of those, I have NONE!  But I learned a lot from the ladies who linked up.  But today I'm back!   It's a super, fun and thought provoking topic!

Groundhog Day: A day you'd like to live over and over again.

I had to think about it because I've had so many good days in my life!!  There have also been many I'd like to forget!!  HA! (And because I have the worst memory, I am sure there are even some great days I've forgotten!)  I've never been married, so I can't relive a wedding day.  I've never had a child, so I can't relive that.  Instead I thought about me...when was a day that I had some of the most fun or a day that I was most at peace being me!

I love traveling and Cozumel, Mexico is one of my favorite places.  I love the beach there. Sitting my ass in a hammock among the trees and feeling the sun on my face, with just my headphones on or a book in my hand,  is pretty awesome.  But I can and have relived that.  A few times actually!  And know I'll go back someday.

Instead, I thought I'd go with something that,  even though I'd like to live it over again, I can't because it was really was a once in a lifetime!!

The day/night that I'd like to live over again is July 18th, 2008.  This was the night that Billy Joel played the last ever show at Shea Stadium before it was torn down.  It was billed as the Last Play at Shea. AND I WAS THERE!  ON THE FIELD!

My bestie and I are pretty damn serious when it comes to our shows!  I remember that this show was announced and we knew we wanted tickets.  We tried and tried but failed.  Mel was pretty confident though that because the tickets sold out in like under a minute, another show would be added...and she was right!  So all those folks who bought their tickets for the Last Play at Shea on Wednesday night, July 16th, were not actually at the last show!!  The VERY LAST Play at Shea was that Friday!

Me, Mel and her friend Olson were all online and on the phone before the show even went on sale. Olson was the first one to score tickets.  On the field...in Section A, so we scooped those puppies up!!

The day of the show we headed into the city and got there early enough that it was still light out.  When they let us in, we explored the field and stadium!!  So fun.

Mel and I before the show started

Taking selfies before taking selfies was cool!!  

I was on the field at Shea once before, believe it or not, when I was really young.  My friend from grade school and I created a poster for a contest and were able to circle the field with it.  I don't remember as much from that day, but it was in the Daryl Strawberry Era and our poster had all these people in the stands with Strawberry Heads.  My friend was a really great artist!  I do remember her doing most of the work, but it was pretty awesome that she picked me to go with her that day!!

Back to the Billy Joel Show....
As you can imagine, it was pretty insane!!!  We have seen Billy a few times but this was absolutely epic!!  This being the last show ever at Shea, it had to be!  Not only did we see Billy, we saw Steven Tyler and Roger Daltry (I wasn't as familiar with him I'll admit!)

AND GARTH BROOKS!!  For country music lovers like us, he was the ultimate!   Woo Hoo!! Now I know Shameless is technically Billy's song, but it's my favorite Garth song, EVER!!  When a man sings Shameless to me, then and only then will I know he's THE ONE. (Hence the reason I'm still waiting! HA!!).  But having Garth there singing Shameless with Billy Joel can not be beat!

But the fun didn't stop there....Tony Bennett was there, oh and just SIR PAUL MACCARTNEY!!! who made it there in the nick of time, from jolly ol' England! Police escort, planes swirling overhead, the whole nine!
The Beatles played the first concert ever at Shea, it was just right that he was there to play the last!!  The show actually ended with the Beatles classic, Let It Be!!  Both Crazy insane and beautiful!

Shea Stadium was torn down and CitiField was built across the way! Paul McCartney actually played the new stadium's first concert after it opened almost exactly a year to the day of the Last Play at Shea. And Billy Joel joined him on stage.  Mel and I didn't attend that show, but we have been to a show at CitiField...Dave Matthews Band and Zac Brown Band...not quite as epic!! But still fun!!

It's nothing that can be repeated for me...that feeling of being there in that place on that night!!  And I know I'll see Billy Joel again eventually, but that night indeed, was one in a million.

They actually ended up making DVD of the show Which I don't have but I probably should consider it, huh?!?

Have a great day!