1 WEEK

Top of the Rock and maybe an NBC tour! There are few breath taking places in the world left, one is at the top of the rock, another is anywhere with my mom. Can't wait to see what breathless plus breathless makes!

8 days!

BROADWAY!!!

I am going to try and drag mom to West Side Story... Addams Family...

Scottsboro Boys ...and maybe just maybe Next to Normal. That last show is a little heavy, so we will see how emotionaly stable she is that day!!!

Just a few more years and she will be coming to see my show on the ol' broad way!

9 days!

In two weeks mom and I will be live at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!!! We will probably go see the lights at Macy's that day. Some of my friends from school have family coming in so I think we will meet up with them. The parade started in 1924, it is the second oldest Thanksgiving Day parade in America, and this year we will be there!! Turkey Lurky tim momma (that's from the Broadway Show Promises, Promises that is staring Kristin Chenoweth, the wonderful woman I got to sing for almost 3 months ago now)!

MOM is coming in 10 days!!

So in honor of my mom's visit I will be posting 10 different things on our to do list!

First on the list is CENTRAL PARK... classic, I know.

Mom and I will probably go take some headshots one day when the weather is good. This is the fountain by my side of the park!

So excited for you to come mom!!! We are going to have so much fun

Camera!!!

So the blog is going to get updated as soon as I get my camera shipped to me. I had a really great idea today. I am going to make a movie, a new hobby of mine, about my first year of living in New York. Then when I see famous people at events, which I often do, I can go up to them and tell them that I am making a documentary about my first year in New York City and they will love me and be in my video. So if anyone has an extra flip camera or video camera they want to donate to the cause, I would appreciate that. If not I will just have to wait until I get another job, ya, another, waiting to hear from Starbucks and maybe working the consession at Shubert Theatres, but then I will be able to update the blog better!!!! I LOVE SCHOOL AND THIS CITY!!!!!!!!

Cotton

Today I stumbled on to my most important moment thus far.

I found an art installation under the Highline Park.



The subject matter was cotton.

It startled me to see it, however I wasn't scared and I wasn't in love. No one else was there. Bails made benches and I sat alone. I dug my fingers in and instantly realized why you were upset when I took the replica decorations off of sisters shelf. I hope they are still there. The burlap and the metal wrapped around felt like prison and I longed for a field. The living cotton plants against the worn brick buildings in strangling black pots shared my desire. They told me so in their weeping. There was a tangible stripping of my entire being, and I could feel it filling Papa's pride in self-employment, and Mamaw's desire to get out, to go to art school. It was the first time I understood them both. I could hear "Cotton Tail Over" on the c.b. radio. Through the crackle and the friction of the car I could distinguish that the people saying it were unaware of the privilege they were experiencing. I wish I would have known you as a child. I started to sing "We are standing on Holy Ground/and I know that there are angels all around" but those were the only lines I could recall; the silence of the city sang the rest. There was nothing religious in it, only the spirituality felt when music runs up your arm like the chills and down your spine like sweat.

I didn't stay long. I don't know why I had to leave; maybe because I was so far from home, I became aware of the dawn ending the day (as it used to do), or the fear that someone would find me stealing the dry stalks with the cotton still clinging. I was going to like and say "I am a writer and I need to take this home!" but then I realized that wasn't a lie, and you wouldn't be afraid to just take it. As I walked down the street it was as if the cotton stalks were holding my hand like an ol' familiar friend. Much older. I felt as if no one else in the world could understand me in that moment, not even the South.

When I got on the train, a kid was reading his son's story about a girl in class who gave a boy a bloody nose. Only you would understand. The boy said something I couldn't quite decipher, and the dad told him, "That's not true"! That's how I knew he was a kid, because everything his son said was true, as is usually the case. I suddenly wondered where everyone around me was from. The local is a dieing crop. I wondered if they knew where they were from, as I do.

This Package Came with Matching Best Friends!

I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS IN THE WORLD!!!

So if you get a hankerin' to do something like my wonderful friends amber and ashley did! Go right ahead. Amber is...well Amber! Ashley is an inspiration to everyone around her. Just kidding Amber, you are one of the most loyal friends and anyone who spends time with you is blessed by you! My favorite part was the card addressed to "Future Mr. Chenoweth"!!!

Seriously...mail me groceries:

Clayton Jones

232 E 74th St Apt 5B

New York NY 10021

Check out their blogs for Ashley's inspirational fight with lukemia and Amber's random thoughts on life! Thanks yall!

It's Raining Hard: amber-denae.blogspot.com

Ashley's Amazing Story: caringbridge.com/visit/ashleyhenley