NYU Law Graduation

I didn't think the day would ever come (at least I hoped it wouldn't) that Bryant graduated from NYU in their Taxation LLM program.

I think I've posted about it before, but NYU is the number one law school in the country for Tax Law. If you don't believe me, check the rankings here.

The world's longest graduation ceremony (seriously--FOUR HOURS) was held at the theater at Madison Square Garden on May 22nd. 

The ceremony was actually really good. The speakers did an excellent job and the President of the University was hilarious and really fun to listen to. He actually had his daughter graduating that day, which made most of the audience say, "Awwwww!" when he told us.

I found Bryant in the program, so I guess he actually made it!

 You thought I was exaggerating about the four hour thing?

NO. 

10:30 AM-2:30 PM

Just ask Garrett:

The school had about 400 people graduating with their JD, then about 400 graduating with their LLM.

(I've had a lot of people ask me what the difference is: A Juris Doctorate is a typical three year law degree. A LLM is a Masters of Law in a particular area--Taxation, International, Corporate, etc. I guess the best way to think of it is like going to dental school, then going to one more year of school to become an orthodontist.)

To make the ceremony even more unbearable, if a graduate had received a scholarship then they had a person representing the scholarship donor do the hooding. It took FOREVER.

THEN they had graduates who were Legacy students have their family member do the hooding.

That's all well and good if their parent/grandparent/sibling graduated, but when we started getting into the cousins/in-laws/step-siblings, that's where I drew the line.

But at the 3.5 hour mark, they finally made it to Bryant!!

Here he is shaking the Law School Dean's hand

(Every time I hear this song now I get SUPER sad and miss New York a lot!)

Look at that little Scholar! 

(and his goofy hat that he HATED)

We were all starving to death, so we went to Madison Square Park for our celebratory lunch at Shake Shack

That afternoon there was a reception being held at the law school at Washington Square Park, so we headed down there after eating.

I'm incredibly proud of my little guy!

 That night we got tickets to see Les Miserables on Broadway.

 The theater was super tiny, and had one little bathroom for the entire place.

Since we were in Times Square (where happiness goes to die) we opted for Junior's Cheesecake.

 Once I had my Egg Cream to drink and my Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake, all was right in the world.

Congratulations again to Bryant on his amazing accomplishment!

(I'm super proud of you!) 

Coney Island

On Saturday, April 19th, I again convinced Bryant to do something he didn't really want to do.

(He's a good man.)

This time the item on my agenda was CONEY ISLAND!!!

We don't exactly live close to Coney Island. Well, we DO in Utah terms of distance (15 miles), but that can be a LIFETIME on the subway. And by LIFETIME I mean a little over an hour each way.

But we did survive the commute and finally arrived!

This is the location of the 

"July Fourth International Hot Dog Eating Championship."

(It's as gross as it sounds.)

Here are some stats for you:

(I think Joey Chestnut and Sonya Thomas are going to die of a heart attack.)

We arrived at the boardwalk:

Inside the Brooklyn Beach Shop Bryant was able to get some Saltwater Taffy 

(also known as 'old people candy'.)

and I bought myself this creepy looking glass:

We were walking out on the beach when this pudgy, adorable little kid came shuffling up to us and said, "Hi!...The water is FRRRREEEEEZING. Bye!"

And off he went!

(Below you can see him in the distance behind Bry)

My number one goal was to ride The Cyclone Roller Coaster

(I can now say I've ridden the same ride as Beyonce.)

 After we rode The Cyclone we opted for some delicious food:

 I can't get over how creepy that guys face is.

 Before we ventured back home I insisted that we get a hot dog from Nathan's.

(Tradition, right?)

 I was obviously more excited about the food than Bryant was.

 Coney Island was a BLAST and I'm super excited to go back there when Bryant's parents come out at the end of the month!

Billy Joel Concert

I love Billy Joel.

A LOT.

I mean look at that handsome devil:

AND he somehow convinced Christie Brinkley to marry him, so...he's pretty awesome

So what better time to see one of the most famous New Yorkers perform than when Bryant and I are living in New York City?

Billy Joel has been doing a sort of "artist in residence" monthly concert series at Madison Square Garden. 

I begged and pleaded and finally convinced Bryant to take me to the April 18th show.

This was hanging on the wall inside Madison Square Garden.

 After the attacks on September 11, 2001, there was a benefit concert held.

This ticket was signed by:

President Bill Clinton, Governor George Pataki, and Major Rudy Giuliani.

Gavin DeGraw was the opening act

Paige met him once before they both flew to Europe. I sent her a video of him from the concert and she had no idea who he was. BOO to you, Paige!

After Gavin DeGraw performed we had to sit around for a while until Billy Joel finally came out

 He finally started!!

This was the setlist:

I looove Uptown Girl.

The music video kills me:

Thanks again to my sweetheart Bryant for tolerating the show with me!