Happy birthday, Sesame Street!

Yesterday, I was present at this temporary street naming ceremony. Yup, in honor of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, New York temporarily has an actual Sesame Street. And the City of New York has declared today Sesame Street Day.

The best thing about yesterday was seeing Big Bird in person for the first time. I was face-to-face with the puppeteer, and later saw the Muppet itself. My heart stopped. I wanted to throw my arms around him and couldn't look at anything else. (Well, that's why kids like him so much. You can't look away from an 8-foot-2 bright yellow bird with those wide, curious eyes!) Fun Big Bird fact: His feathers are double-dyed to achieve the correct rich yellow. Anyway, the NYPD stopped traffic on Broadway so Big Bird (and us Sesame employees) could cross the street to stand on the steps of Lincoln Center and sing "Sunny Days" and "Sing" for all the news crews.

I also LOVED that Fran Brill, the woman who puppeteers Zoe, heard a little girl in the crowd cry "Zoe! Zoe!" and brought the puppet over to give the girl a kiss.

Yeah, that was a cool Monday at work!