I started 2012 by writing a mission statement. I’ve memorized my mission statement and will say that 20 days into the month of January, I’ve been doing a pretty good job living up to it.

Despite only being 20 days into the new year, the year has already taken a very interesting turn.

I am very excited to see what this new year will bring.

Hard to believe it’s been 7 years.  I was just a young 24-year-old kid when America was under attack.  I remember every detail of that day vividly.  I woke up in the morning just like every other work day.  I drove north on Route 93 just like I had been doing all summer.  Just as I hit Somerville and the Schraft’s building, Howard Stern and the gang broke the news of the plane hitting the first tower.  They, and most of the Western world, thought it was just an accident, so they treated it lightly.  By the time I reached my office, the second plane had struck and the world knew it was no accident.  We all changed that day.  It was my generation’s JFK and RFK rolled into one.  I’ll never forget where I was, who I was with, who I called, and what I did that day.  It was all a blur, but it’s remained crystal clear in my memory.  I ended 9/11/01 by driving straight to my precinct voting station and voting in that year’s local primaries.  It was my way of using citizenry to not let the terrorists win.  Each year, on each successive anniversary of 9/11, we cope a little better, we get a little bit more normal, we get on with our lives as usual, but we always remember.  Here’s to hoping that we’ll always remember, but we’ll always remember to not let the terrorists win.

Besides the flurry of packing that was done over the weekend, we actually managed to get out of our house for a little bit and head into the city for a weekend adventure with my dad and his girlfriend. Considering that I’m not working in the city, this is (most likely) one of my last trips over the river to the Big Apple.

The four of us ventured over to the South Street Seaport district of Manhattan to see the The Bodies Exhibition. The exhibit was extremely interesting: a collection of dissected human bodies and explanations of each body part. The bodies are sliced at different levels to see how the different muscles or organs connect together and function as a unit.

Overall the entire exhibit was very educational learning (and seeing) each body part it’s functions, potential diseases and how it interacts with the other organs to create a complete system. Personally, I think my favorite part was the circulatory system — but I don’t really want to spoil the exhibit for anyone.

I’d highly recommend taking an afternoon and checking this out. It was a great experience and very cool to see the human body dissected in this way. It was very well done, and I wouldn’t say that it was disgusting at all. They ease you into the experience, making it a little bit easier to get accustomed to the idea that these are real bodies you’re looking at.

Two recommendations:
1. Bail on the audio tour — while they often come in handy, we felt that the information available at each display was often covered (and then some) by the text accompanying each exhibit.
2. Buy your tickets in advance – You can buy your tickets online and they will be held at Will Call. We probably saved ourselves at an hour by not having to wait in line, and I urge you to do the same!

Just last night, Miss Possible and I ventured into the city to go to a show with one of her co-workers and a few friends. We got the invite last week, but I neglected to read through the description — didn’t really matter, I knew we’d have a good time. The show was called “Madame: A comeback from abroad” featuring the “puppet” shown to the right.

I knew I recognized this character from the get-go, but couldn’t place her. Turns out, she used to be on Hollywood Squares as well as Solid Gold. Perhaps you remember her? In any event, it’s actually an interesting story. The original Puppeteer, Wayland Flowers, passed away in 1988 of AIDS and so too went Madame. Eighteen years later, the Flowers estate decided to revive the character and held try-outs for various puppeteers to take over. Joe Kovacs was chosen, and thus began the revived life of Madame.

The show was extraordinarily entertaining. Despite not really being a ventriliquist, after a few brief minutes you soon forget that he is even there and get fully engrossed in Madame’s character. She’s a feisty, bitter and perverse old woman with a ton of great one-liners. Overall, we had a fantastic time at this performance, and unfortunately is the last one on the series for Madame. She’s off touring for a while around the country, but will probably be back sometime. We definitely recommend checking her out, as the show was fantastic.