Trip to New York City was Incredible

I recently wrote about my sister and I winning a radio contest from "Cities 97." We won a free trip to go hear John Mayer's new album, "Born and Raised." This is my follow-up story to share our incredible experience.

Going to New York City for the first time was a gift in itself but being invited to a private listening party to hear John Mayer's new album, was icing on the cake.

We took a taxi to the party on May 16 at about 6:15PM as we needed to be to the "Electric Lady Studio" by 7:00PM. We unfortunately got a taxi driver that didn't speak good English and he took us in circles for the about a forty minutes. My sister, who I named 'Samantha' on the trip (the gal from Sex in the City) was dealing with the situation with the taxi driver. When the driver asked my sister for the address for about the third time and followed with, "where is this place?"- My sister firmly pointed out that we were from Minnesota and he was from New York. When it was obvious this man was totally clueless and lost, sis rolled down the window and asked a passerby on the street if she could quickly Google "Electric Lady Studio" and point us in the right direction. Thank goodness Laura thought to do this because that's the only reason we made it to our important destination.

We were a little worried about being late because they asked winners to be there promptly at 7:00PM. We were pleasantly surprised to get a personal greeting when we arrived. The gal from promotions was at the front door and said, "Hi, you must be the twins from the twin cities?. We apologized for being late and told her the taxi driver wasn't familiar with the Greenwich area. She reassured us  it wasn't a problem, we hadn't missed much, and led us upstairs. She pointed out the bar and said to help ourselves to wine, water or soda. We each poured a glass of white wine and walked to to the studio room.

We were handed a book of John's songs from the album as we sat in the back of the room. As I looked around the room, I noticed that people seemed pretty nervous. How can you sit so seriously when their playing John Mayer tunes over the speakers. The acoustics in this studio were amazing and I couldn't help but sway to the music. Laura and I were softly singing along to the lyrics in the book and moving to the beat. As a forty-nine year old cancer survivor, I make every moment count and was taking it all in.

Once every song from John's album played, it was time to meet John. He must have come through a secret back door, because the next thing we knew, he was standing in front of us, center stage. It was surreal to see John in the flesh.

John talked about what inspired his new album and then took questions from his fans. Being John Mayer fans and strong extroverts, Laura and I had no problem asking him a couple questions. After the Q and A was over, they lined people up to get their photo with John. During our photo with him, he was told we were twins, and he said, "cool, hi twinners." I thought it was such a cute comment and was impressed he was so personable.

After the listening party, some of the winners gathered outside the studio and talked. It was fun hearing where people traveled from. There were 15 winners from different states, and each winner could bring one friend or spouse. Eventually, we all went our separate ways to check out the night life in Greenwich Village. Laura and I headed to a well known Jazz club a few blocks away.

The trip to New York City was pure magic and an experience we will never forget. Please enjoy some pictures from our adventure.

Camera man setting up

John answering questions

Band @ 'The Garage Jazz Club'

Front door of Studio

Posing with John