I saw God today

Updated with video!

So, when I originally started this blog, the goal was document all the live events of 2011. While I've been tempted to write about politics or other things that strike my fancy, I've tried to stick to that. I've had a couple of variances when I wrote blogs to remember my grandfather and grandmother, but other than that, it's been all live events all the time.

Today's blog is going to be a little different, because I did something so awesome and amazing yesterday, it must be documented.

I went sky diving yesterday. Yes, you read that correctly. The girl that is terrified of planes not only got in one, but willing accelerated to 114,000 feet and jumped out a freakin' plane.

How did this come to be? A friend of mine, Tim, from work jumps every weekend. He refers to it as stress relief and he absolutely loves it. For the last few weeks, he's been trying to talk me into doing it and I have flat out refused. I did, however, agree to go watch him jump yesterday and that's how this all began.

I watched him do a jump and was intrigued. It did take me an hour or two more of watching others and having him walk through every step for me to agree. I finally, in an uncharacteristic moment of impulse, agreed and handed over my credit card.

Because I didn't have a reservation, that lead to four hours of waiting for a plane which was definitely the most stressful part. I watched a training video which reminded me that I had signed a waiver. "Sky diving is a dangerous sport. It can kill or injure you. The waiver you just signed means that you or your family cannot sue in the event of death or injury, even if it's a result of our negligence." Awesome.

I met my instructor Andrew, and got geared up. I got to wear a medium sized suit, which was purple, so I knew it was meant to be! Tim made an arrangement to be on the plane with me, and I am glad because I am not sure I could do that without someone I know beside me.

Before I knew what I was doing, my plane had arrived and it was time to board. With his hand on my back, I boarded the plan with Andrew and Tim, along with about 10 other skydivers. This, to me, was the most stressful part as the plane kept getting higher and higher. I watched my indicator to see how high we were and really started to question my sanity. I hate heights. I hate planes. What am I doing?

At about 12,000 feet, Andrew strapped himself onto me and we got ready to go. In the video they shot, I look pretty calm. Everyone else on the plane was pretty quiet and calm and that helped me stay quiet and calm, although Tim did tell me later once we got on the plane he thought that would be the moment I backed out.

Before I knew it, people started jumping out of the plane. Then it was mine and Andrew's turn. I would like to say I prayed and made my peace with God, but honestly, I was just focused on what was happening next. And then like that, we were off!

I know it sounds incredibly corny and cliche, but I have never in my life felt so alive. Everything was so vivid and colorful. After about 10 seconds of holding my breath, I was breathing air so pure and refreshing, it was intoxicating. The sun was starting to set in Chester, South Carolina and it was beautiful. God was closer than He's ever been.

As we passed through the clouds, the ground started to come into focus. Once Andrew pulled our parachute, there was such peace. Everything was quiet. There wasn't a sound to be heard. And I was just flying.

Landing, to me, was the funnest part. Andrew asked me to pull up my legs and knees to bring us to the ground. It was amazingly gentle and fun. We just glided onto the ground. "So," Tim asked. "Do you want to do it again?"

The answer is yes.

Me, with Tim, who talked me into this craziness.

And finally: The video

An additional video taken from Tim's perspective. Watch as Mr. Crazy climbs onto the side of the plane! You can also see my awesome videographer Terry

How I keep winning Comedy Zone tickets

The last time I was at the Lake Norman Comedy Zone, I filled out a comment card, which apparently won me some free tickets to the Paul Hooper show.

I invited my friends Frank and Alisa, along with my friend Tammy, to enjoy the show. We enjoyed a great dinner downstairs at the Galway Hooker (mmmm: calamari!) and then headed upstairs to enjoy the show.

Alysia Wood was the opening act and she was hilarious. Sometimes, it was like she was in my head!

Paul Hooper, a Charlotte native, was the main act. He tells you from the very beginning that he is an angry little dude and he is-but it is hilarious. I think Alisa put it best when she said, “There were things that made you so uncomfortable, you felt like you shouldn’t laugh, but you did because it was hilarious.”

All in all, it was a great evening. And guess what? I found out yesterday that I won tickets AGAIN to the N.C. Music Factory Comedy Zone uptown, so I will be going with some friends to check out Tammy Piscatelli. Alisa won some tickets for Sept. 1, so I will be back that week and I am also going to see Flavor Flav on August 27, so I think the Comedy Zone is becoming my Cheers.

That moment when anything is possible

There is nothing that I love more than a night game at the Panthers stadium in uptown Charlotte. My friends Frank and Alisa treated me to the pre-season game this past Saturday against the NY Giants. We hopped the light rail to the Epicenter for dinner at Wild Wing Café and then headed to the stadium. Everything was going great until the sky opened up and it started to pour. We spent the first half of the game in the rain, but that didn’t matter to me.

I was so ready for football. Right before kickoff, I told my friends how much I love those last seconds before that first kickoff. In that second, anything is possible. The Panthers could have a winning season! We could win the NFC South! Or maybe even the NFC! Or go to the Super Bowl!

I always like to take a deep breath in that moment and think about the football season to come. This year, especially because of the lockout, any team could go all the way. The possibilities are endless.

Then the first kick was off and the reality of our new team, under a new coach, was born. There were a lot of things I saw that I liked and a lot of things that I did not like. Cam Newton is definitely a lot better under pressure than Clausen, but he has a lot of work to do when it comes to accuracy. Armanti Edwards certainly stepped up to the plate.

Finally, after the first half the rain stopped and the most beautiful sky and weather took over uptown Charlotte. The Panthers secured a victory and the possibilities for this team remain endless.

Alegria: A joyful experience

Alegria is the Spanish word for joy. A Cirque du Soleil show is always a joy.

This is my second Cirque du Soleil show. I thoroughly enjoyed their Totem show earlier this year in Concord. Alegria was at the Bobcats arena in uptown Charlotte last night. It was a great event, although I do think I prefer the Grand Chapiteau (Big tent) shows like Totem.

Cirque's website says there are eight key characteristics that make up who they are.

1. Imaginary worlds
2. Dance
3. Daring
4. Dexterity
5. Grace
6. Art forms from around the world
7. Acting
8. Acrobatic performance

What do you get when you combine these eight things? An awesome show! Alegria has been touring for 17 years and it is no surprise. The show was lead by a princess-like figure in a beautiful, sparkling dress who sang her heart out throughout the entire show. The show is all about power and how humans deal with and express power throughout history.

There was a lot of audience interaction throughout the show. Audience members were brought on stage to dance and one even used the flexible bars for a jump rope. The people sitting on the floor were not only brought out to dance, but were also covered in papier-mache. I wouldn't have minded the snow, but I would have minded the clowns making me dance with them, so I was glad to be a few rows up. I am not terrified of clowns, but I have seen It and I have no desire to slow dance with that!

Performers from all over the world performed a series of death-defying stunts with flaming knives, trapezes and trampolines. One set of contortionists did things that I did not think were humanly possible.

A Cirque production is so aesthetically beautiful, it's hard to take it all in sometimes. As I walked back outside and into a (still hot at 10 p.m.) uptown Charlotte, everything still felt sort of magical.

Mr. Shue, NKOTBSB, pelvic thrusts, puking and a close encounter with AJ McLean

As you may know, last night was one of my most highly-anticipated resolution events, the New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys (NKOTBSB).

Elizabeth and I dressed in our awesome outfits and headed to the Greensboro Coliseum. Little did we realize, we were not as committed to the NKOTBSB experience as others. Quite a few people dressed in head-to-toe 80s attire. One girl sewed her old NKOTB sleeping bag together to make a skirt.

The opening act was Midnight Red. Yeah, so let's move on to the second opening act! Matthew Morrison from Glee performed a few songs. He did a great job. Mr. Shue can dance! He did a performance of Kanye West's Gold Digger that brought down the house. He also did a dance montage to an original song, "Don't Stop Dancing" that incorporate dance moves from Gene Kelly, Michael Jackson and Patrick Swayze. You can check that one out on YouTube if you're interested.

Before the main act, three stalls had to be shut down in the bathroom because of puking. I don't know if people were that drunk or just that excited! Either way, that's a definite party foul.

A random girl came over to tell Elizabeth and me that the Backstreet Boys always come in

to the audience into section 112 to sing and that we should be ready, as we were sitting in 112, for a special appearance.

Finally, it was time for NKOTBSB to take to the stage. After one of the longest introductory videos ever and some fireworks, both groups came out together to the melody from Cold Play's Viva la Vida. Together, both groups sang a compilation of a few of their songs.

Then it was time for New Kids on the Block! They sang some of their more recent songs, like Summertime. Then the Backstreet Boys returned to sing some of their newer stuff.

And then the boys from Boston were back! They started out with The Right Stuff, so we knew that it was finally time for our old school favorites!

Throughout the evening, the two bands swapped the stage to take turns singing their favorites. While all the guys (like all of us) are definitely looking older, some things never change. Donnie is still ripped and can rip off a wife-beater in about 2.5 seconds. Jordan still hits those high notes and Joey is still adorable.

All of the guys seemed to determined to grab their crotches or thrust their pelvises as much as possible in each song. At one point, Joey was basically pole dancing on the mike stand. Elizabeth said it got old, but I enjoyed every second of that!

The guys really played to the audience. The New Kids went out into the audience and sang "Please Don't Go Girl" to audience members that were a bit higher up. The Backstreet Boys pulled four girls on stage to serenade them individually. They all signed autographs throughout the show and threw their sweaty discarded clothes to the crowd.

At some point during all the excitement, another girl puked directly behind us. The effort to clean that up and block traffic coming through seemed like a covert military operation.

And then, the moment we had been prepared for arrived. About five feet from where we were sitting, AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys was escorted out and worked his way through the crowd to sing. I managed to get a couple of not-so-great videos. You can barely see him, but here they are. FYI: That is not us screaming. We're more NKOTB than BSB girls. This, of course, caused absolute mayhem and chaos. A little girl was even pushed, making (understandably) her mother ready to fight.

The boys returned to the stage and finished the show. It was great. Both bands did a great job. Some of the best numbers incorporated both groups. Their finale encore performance was Backstreet's Back and Hanging Tough. Elizabeth and I danced and danced and had a great time. This show was worth the wait!

Why NKOTB will be awesome (Alternate Title: When Ran Met EE)

I was somewhere in the range of 8-10. My mother and I can't seem to remember exactly the time frame we are talking about.

It was an exciting period in my life. I had every single New Kids on the Block album, on cassette, on my person at all times. I slept on top of my bed in a NKOTB sleeping bag. I sang my freakin' heart out, without a single tune in key, of course. I had a NKOTB lunch box, t-shirts and of course some really freakin' awful hair. (Pictured here with my NKTOB sleeping bag)

The most exciting thing that happened, however is when my mom and her (still) best friend Luanne surprised me and Luanne's daughter Danielle with tickets to New Kids on the Block!

This was my first concert and I got to see my future husband (Jordan) perform? Amazing! We went to the amphitheater in Raleigh. I am not sure what I was expecting, but somehow in my state of euphoria, I imagined an intimate candlelit setting where Jordan would propose, (Not sure where my mom would be during this intimate encounter) I would leave town and travel the world.

Well, what really happened was we went to a crowded venue with thousands of screaming girls. And I mean, screaming. And even though I loved NKOTB so, even Danny, I couldn't imagine SCREAMING. Were these girls barbarians? Then, they started throwing their bras and panties on the stage and I got real nervous. What the heck was going on?

So, honestly, I remember the performance of You Got It (The Right Stuff) because it was my favorite and they rocked it out, but I do not have strong memories of the rest of the show because I was busy being terrified. Why was everyone screaming?

My mother and Luanne proceeded to JOKE about throwing their panties and were yelling out, "Jordan, we want your dads!" Of course they would never really throw their panties, but I was not mortified and terrified. I think at one point I began physically shaking.

After I recovered from the post-traumatic stress, I began to love NKOTB again. My love for Jordan turned into a love for Donnie and then Joey. What can I say, I was fickle.

And then, just like that, NKOTB broke up. They became sort of a joke. I grew more mature and I moved on to my Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews and then eventually, that's right ,Britney and Christina phase!

But the kids from the block always held a special place in my heart. And in a little over a week, I get to join one of my best friends in the world for a NKOTB show!

Which brings me to the second part of this post, my love for Elizabeth, EE. Because if this sounds kind of like a love letter, it is.

I met EE in Dr. Beverly Christopher's Freshman English 101 class. There was a really obnoxious girl in there who wouldn't ever just SHUT UP. At one point, when I was rolling my eyes, EE was rolling hers too. In that moment, our eyes met and a forever friendship was born.

I like to tell people, "Our friendship has been going strong for 11 years!" And then EE likes to add (because it's true) "With a year and a half or so of hiatus."

So, 11 years strong, with a year or so of hiatus. While the reasons of said hiatus are the business of EE and me, the hiatus happened and we missed each other. So, in early February of 2009, EE and I reconnected on Facebook and then we started talking on the phone. And e-mailing. And calling.

And in August of 2009, an adorably pregnant Elizabeth met up with me and Misty for a steak at Outback Steakhouse in Charlotte and the forever friendship was reborn.

Just like that, we picked up like we'd never left off. EE was still hilarious, caring and warm, everything I'd missed during our hiatus. She was pregnant with Tyler so our friendship became one where I got to be a part of such a joyous experience in her life. I attended her baby shower and one week later, super cute and 8 months pregnant, she came to Charlotte for my 28th birthday party.

When Tyler arrived, I was in Greensboro within a few days holding this little bundle of joy that looked so much like EE. Eight days after he was born, his Baptist Aunt Randi had the absolute honor of participating in his Jewish bris, one of the most beautiful ceremonies I have ever seen.

Over the last three years, EE and I have started a new forever friendship, one that has to factor in mommyhood and a job that keeps me pretty busy. But we make it work. Because ever since that day in English class, we knew we would be forever friends.

A couple of months ago, EE literally stood beside me, along with some other awesome friends, when we had a graveside service for Nana. I was so nervous and my friends helped me through it. And when she told me a few months ago she was pregnant again, I squealed for joy.

And when I see her next weekend, I am going to joyfully rub her tummy and let him/her know Aunt Randi is here!

And then after that, Ran and EE are going to hit the town and go see New Kids on the Block. Because after the past 11 years, you only do something special like that with those forever friends.

The Fun Factory

Last night, I went to the NC Music Factory, a new entertainment complex right outside of uptown Charlotte.

A few weeks ago, Groupon had a great deal: $20 for six tickets to the new Charlotte Comedy Zone.

Armed with some awesome friends, we started our evening at a German restaurant, VBGB. I had a delicious pretzel!

Then we headed over to Wet Willie's, a frozen daiquiri bar, that was pretty fun and delicious. At the Comedy Zone, the opening act was Danny Niblock. He was followed by Josh Phillips, who I thought was hilarious. He had a lot of jokes about the South, and Walmart, so I could relate.

The main act was Grandma Lee, a 77 year-old comedian. Apparently, she is famous from the Jenny Jones Show, (That's right, Jenny freakin' Jones. Hello, 90s.) America's Got Talent and Last Comic Standing. She was pretty funny, although I definitely enjoyed the introductory comedians more.

The new Comedy Zone is a pretty cool facility. It's sort of in a basement, so it has this nice underground feel to it. The server we had was great. They are sort of like ninjas running around in the dark. I will definitely be back!

After the show, we made a return to Wet Willie's. What a fun place!

My next event is in two weeks, New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys in Greensboro!