Elvis (Kinda) Lives!

The best kind of Christmas presents for my parents are experiences.  Stuff is great, but they've had enough of stuff for the most part, so my brother decided we should see Elvis.  He's a BB King's guru, so I put all my Christmas faith in him that we'd see a good show.  Not only would we see Elvis, but we'd also get brunch, and I'm a big fan of brunch. 

I'm not a big fan of crowded trains, however, and for some reason, the train from Jamaica to Penn was almost unboardable.  One reason was that everyone in the tri-state area was traveling on that one particular train with luggage.  The other reason was that many of those travelers did not know how to move down the aisles, and so they stayed tightly packed where the doors were.  You know, where people attempt to get on the train.  Eddie and I left my parents at one car and we jammed ourselves into another.  Once the doors closed, we got situated pretty well.  Some poor kid was crammed between me and some large person with a large suitcase as his dad stood across from him, caught between a couple.

It was hot.  I was under some sort of vent, so my face was cool, but everything else was sweaty.  The kid told his dad he was thirsty.  The dad somehow bent down to grab water from his backpack without hitting into anyone too much.  Then the kid started leaning on me all weird.

Oh, wait, not leaning.  The kid was passing out.  Fainting right there.  The dad dropped the sack and lunged for him while I braced him against my hip so he would slide straight down on his butt.  Then he woke up.  The couple surrounding the dad asked if he wanted water, but the dad already had it.

I always always always carry snacks with me.  Except for that one day. I told Eddie--I wish I had a snack for him.  Eddie was like, I was going to ask if you did.  Nope, no snacks for the fainting boy. 

We all shifted so that the kid was sitting next to his dad for the rest of the ride, and he was pretty content chugging down the bottle of water.  When the doors opened, we met up with my parents and found that their ride was not as eventful.

Taking the subway to Times Square was not eventful either.  I mean, there were people singing and dancing and chanting and yelling, but no one was passing out on top of me.  We walked to the club and met up with my brother, and we were able to go in right away.  He showed us all the upcoming acts listed on the walls, and we saw that the guy from The Voice would be playing there soon.  Ooh, we watch that show.  We are so on top of pop culture.

We ate brunch while the room filled up.  It wasn't cramped as I thought it would be, and I fell in love with my sandwich.  As we ate, Eddie caught first sight of Elvis.

Elvis has a cell phone.

Later on, Elvis ditched the cell phone for some fancy duds.  The entrance was interesting because the music was louder than the actual introduction, but we knew the lady was yelling something about Elvis coming to the stage.  And did he ever.

He sang Elvis tunes.  He sang non-Elvis tunes.  He could carry a tune.  Women were fawning over him.  During one song, he was wearing a scarf and gave it away.  Women then lined up to get scarves. 

Between sets, he would talk to us, and he was really funny, especially when one woman from France was talking over him and he called her out and she had no idea what was going on, and for the rest of the show, he kept referencing France and she had no clue because she spoke very little English, but she, too, got a scarf.

I did not get a scarf.  I was content with my napkin.

Go ahead.  Tell me what that is.

Additionally, I was more than content with how the show wrapped up.  Though Elvis (aka Gene DiNapoli) refused a lot of requests because the band hadn't had enough time to learn the gamut of Elvis songs throughout time, he did play "Suspicious Minds," which is my favorite Elvis song ever.  More importantly, my mom and dad enjoyed it.  They were bopping around in their chairs.  My dad was clapping off-beat.  My mom was whooping after every song.  My brother, Eddie, and I enjoyed it, but the two of them were like over the moon enjoying it.  It was as close as we could get to getting them tickets to see Elvis himself, so I'd say it was a Christmas gift done good.