New York, Day 2; The Necklace and The Met

This morning...one of the most amazing things that has ever happened in my life happened. We were checking out of our hotel room at the Crowne Plaza and I saw that two women were coming near to us. One was a manager named Mary, and the other who worked as a chamber maid whose name was Catalina. As they came towards us I struck up a conversation with them in Spanish and the happiness that was so evident on their faces permeated the hall. The Spanish neural-clusters in my brain opened and I was able to speak it so clearly with them...it was amazing to me. Mary said that if I needed anything, ANYTHING at all, to just give her a call. The thing that I will never forget though, was as we were taking the last load to the elevator, Catalina came back through the hall, and I started speaking to her again, in Spanish. My Aunt was there, too, and as Catalina and I were talking, I noticed the necklace around her neck and how gorgeous it was, and I thought I would compliment her on it (man I can't even think about it with out tearing up...) "Que LINDO!!!" I said. "Te lo doy!!" She said and began to take the necklace off of her neck..."No! NO! NO! Por favor, NO!" But she would not take no for an answer. Fortunately, I had an extra one of my CDs with me and I pulled it out of my purse, "Pues, esto es para ti! Esto es mi cd, yo soy una cantera operatica, para ti." "Tu sobrina tiene una alma bella" she said to my Aunt, and then I handed her my CD.
People...you would think that I had given her the keys to a new car the way she reacted when I gave her that CD. Catalina held it to her chest, did a ballerina twirl like a beautiful little girl and literally danced down the hallway with it and disappeared around the corner. COMPLETELY dumbfounded, I waited in front of the elevator doors and just cried. I will remember that moment, for as long as I live.

The necklace.


All because I spoke their language.

All because I spoke their language.

You know, many of you have heard me say that I feel like the best gift that you can give someone is to speak to them in their own language...but...now I feel, I truly believe that speaking to someone in their own language...is the deepest act of love.


*LATER*
I went to the Upper East Side to stay with an apartment of girls from my church. One them was a ballerina in the American Ballet Theater Company which performs at the Metropolitan Opera and she had an extra ticket that she was not going to use as it was her night off, so she gave it to me. So I got to go back to my old place, the Met, where I worked as an usher for a year. And yes, that is where I saved Placido Domingo.

These pictures are so illegal it's not even funny. Again...I hope you enjoy them.

Man, I remember these...

I am so obsessed with clowns...dangit, I know.

Caruso. One of my absolute heros of all time. Do you know, one of the things that he was famous for was going out on the balcony of his hotel room, or of the Opera House that he was performing in, and he would sing from the balcony to the people down below who were too poor to afford a ticket to go into the Opera house to see him. They called him, the "Singer for the People." I love that. I love that so much I cannot even explain.