Best Visit to the West Side (or "The Most Thumbnails Ever")

Saturday morning so many Mormons came out to see the Angel Moroni statue up close before it was put up on the new Manhattan Temple. Wait, I probably need to explain that sentence to readers who either aren't Mormon or are Mormon but don't live in New York City. A temple (consider it "super church", or a cathedral as opposed to a church, that sort of distinction, more or less) was opened in Manhattan during the summer. Most temples have a golden statue of the Angel Moroni on top, and now the New York temple has one too. The hoisting of the statue was a complete non-event in that the people at church were like "Hey, want to see the statue before it goes up on the building?" and hundreds of people were like, "Yeah, that sounds fun." So now, when you walk by the Temple (at Columbus [or is it Broadway?] and, I don't know, 60-something [across from Lincoln Center, more or less]) and look up at the angel on top of the spire, you can be all, "Hey, I watched that go up."

When I got there I took some pictures of the statue before getting in line for an upclose view like everyone else.



Then I got up close and had my picture taken a few times (by Mala) and then took Mala's picture because, hey, she earned it. (Also, I take full responsibility for the lack of flash in these photos.)




Then I saw this girl, and she looked really familiar, and at first I thought it was someone famous, but then I realized it was "just" Ashlee Cook, who used to be my neighbor in Provo. (Oddly enough, she lives in DC now. Just wait for my next post if you don't know why that's odd.) As you can see in that third photo, I'm something like more than a foot taller than Ashlee, but I take full responsibility for that. Fun Fact: Around the apartment in Provo we used to call Ashlee "A-Dot." I don't know why. But it was a good nickname.



Ashlee was visiting Rebecca (perhaps you remember her from the spelling bee) and I had a few pictures with Rebecca. In this first one, I thought Rebecca was making a crazy face, too. And in the next one, I thought I'd try to be really serious.



Then I crossed the street to get a good view of the angel going up, and there I saw a totally awesome old man. And I saw Laura Young (that's Cedric pointing). And my classmate, Chris Moon, with his wife. And we all watched the angel go up.



Once all the excitement died down, I went to get some breakfast a Starbucks with Bryant. Bryant had a bagel and a juice. I had a rootbeer and a bagel. Because I had a big day ahead of me. (Stay tuned, yo.)