defying gravity is a WICKED good time

Happy Thursday! If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s post - “a special london edition nerd alert” - you can click here to catch up! Also, if you didn’t get the chance to cast your free daily vote for me to be the next #MaximCoverGirl, you can click here to vote or click here to read about why it’s important to me (and then vote!). You can vote once every twenty-four hours, and I’d be so grateful for your support! Voting for round 2 ends tonight, so I’d love your support to make it through to round 3! Click here to vote! If you’re all caught up on the London travels thus far, well then buckle in, kiddos! We’re continuing our virtual tour of Londontown!

After walking through Westminster Palace, gazing at the wonder that is the London Eye, and being slightly bummed out I didn’t get to truly take in all the glory that is Big Ben, I found my way to a restaurant called Bill’s to grab a bite to eat. I admit that I did not do enough research prior to dining, so I happened to pick something close to the night’s main event. The food was good and served me well in a pinch, but next time I’m in London I’ll definitely look forward to more recommendations from friends. After grabbing a quick bite at Bill’s, I made my way over to a quaint café to grab an espresso and indulge in a cannoli. I believe the café is now called Coffee Addict, so check it out! Right after I finished my espresso and a bit of my cannoli, I headed across the street to see... Wicked! at the Apollo Victoria Theatre!!

The pre-show anticipation was almost too much for me to handle, especially given my decision to have an espresso. I was ready to go the moment the building’s doors opened, being welcomed into a lobby decorated in various shades of green and black. Having sung along to the soundtrack for years, interpretive danced to “Defying Gravity” with my closest girlfriends and some of my musical improv friends (couldn’t say reenact because I’d never seen the show!), crying over “For Good” with one of my best friends from college at graduation, and “Dancing Through Life” on the "Popular" streets of Dublin with some of my fellow Masters, you could say I was pretty pumped to finally see a show whose soundtrack had meant so much to me in so many different ways.

It did not disappoint. From the moment I walked into the highly-merchandised green-and-black lobby to the moment I saw the map on the stage curtain in front of me to witnessing a show-stopping rendition of “Defying Gravity” to the very moment the show ended in a way I did not expect, I was on the edge of my seat, reminding myself repeatedly to breathe. It was as if I were holding my breath so that I wouldn’t miss a single word, a single note, a single gesture, a single meaning of what the performance had to present to me that night. I laughed, I wiped away tears, I wore a beaming smile no one could miss. It was truly as if nobody in all of Oz, no wizard that there is or was, was ever gonna bring me down. If you haven’t seen Wicked, please do once the world gets back to a place of live theatre being okay to go see. I truly believe that live performance is so important and worth funding, and even though I’d listened to the soundtrack for years, all the lyrics and words took on new meaning when I saw the story that accompanied them. Those types of moments feel more and more rare nowadays, and they are worth encouraging and growing.

Have you ever experienced something you’d built up in your head that did not disappoint you but actually exceeded your expectations? Please let me know! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been getting a lot of really great, fun-to-read stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe from all different chapters of my life (and from people I don’t know *yet*)! The other stories of people’s travels that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about the crazy stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! Especially during this time of uncertainty and pandemic, it's important to surround yourself with things and people (via video chats) that bring you joy; we're all in this together. I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

And please, I know the world is in a strange place right now, but I would really appreciate your daily vote for me to be Maxim Cover Girl 2020. Click here to vote! Voting for round two ends tonight, Thursday June 11th, and I would really appreciate your help and support as I continue to try and become the next #MaximCoverGirl by moving ahead into round 3! Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):

1. Won't you join me?

2. grateful for starbucks and sandymount strand

3. Once Upon a December in the National Gallery

4. plant a smooch for that gift of gab

5. may the 4th be with you: Dingle style

6. cinco de mayo: the best Mexican food in Dublin

7. pizza in roma

8. mussolini’s window and the philosophers’ metro stop

9. father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife

10. it's the vatican, not the vatican't

11. spoiler alert: i did not lose my hand

12. more pizza and gelato and Neptune, oh my