ever have a moment that's just magical?

While cleaning out my desk last week -- we moved from the 20th floor to the 30th this week -- I found a photo that brought back a magical memory.

the young lady in the photo, as you may have guessed, is my daughter Becca.

the young man will be recognized by fans of American Idol.

yes, that's Anthony Federov, former top ten contestant on Idol.

there's a whole story that goes with the photo.

Becca celebrated her 15th birthday on July 8, 2007. She had a birthday celebration before her actual birthday.

I posted about it on my message board, The Nesting Ground. Here's what I wrote:

so Becca decided to make her 15th birthday a "girls night out". there were 15 of us -- my two sisters and I chaperoned 12 teenage girls -- Becca, Jen, Jen's friend Crystal and 8 of Becca's closest friends.

I'm sure you can read 12 different versions of this story if you read facebook or myspace, because of of the girls had a wonderful evening and couldn't wait to tell everyone else about it.

we asked all the girls to meet at our house, where Becca served chips and dip and entertained her friends on the back deck. then we loaded up the cars -- two minivans I rented for the occasion -- and drove into Manhattan. when we got into the cars I had the urge to say something "cute" like "Cinderella, your carriage awaits", because when Becca was a toddler she used to kick off her shoes in the car and I would make a "Cinderella" joke. but I refrained from goofy comments.

we parked the cars in a garage on 45th street, right near the marriot Marquis. our first destination was John's Pizza we ordered pizza and sodas and garlic bread and salads. yum! and the waiter brought a dessert with a candle in it for Becca in honor of her birthday.

then we walked uptown. my "Cinderella" joke came back to haunt me then. Becca was wearing these lovely gold mettalic shoes, they had a 2 inch chunky heel. somehow she managed to break the heel of her shoe. my sisters dashed over to the M&M store on 49th street and bought her a pair of flip flops.

the rest of us went to 50th street to the snapple theater center. snapple theater info and more info this is a great little theater complex, in the theater district but considered "off Broadway" because of the size of the house -- each theater in the complex seats under 400 people. by the way, the restroom graffitti is a whole bunch of those "snapple real facts" like you get in the bottlecaps.

our destination was the the Jerry Orbach theater. fitting, as the show we saw was the fantasticks -- Orbach was the first to play El Gallo when the show opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in 1960 (it ran until 2002, and was revived at the snapple in 2006.) we had really really good seats. we were sitting in the first and second rows. right next to the orchestra pit.

this is a sweet little romantic comedy, with the emphasis on "comedy". the show opens with El gallo singing the signature song "Try to Remember".

all of the girls we brought to the theater are Broadway fans. in fact, Crystal is going to major in theater in college in September, Emily takes acting and voice lessons, etc., so we thought they'd love the play.

but the "bonus" of course, was Anthony Federov, former American Idol contestant, in the roll of The Boy. every one of the girls in our party swore Anthony was looking right at her while he was singing. and then Jen became part of the show! she was sitting in the front row, on the aisle. at one point El Gallo dropped his hat into her lap. then he asked her to return the hat. Crystal told Jen "throw it to him!" she did, but the hat landed at his feet. he quipped "You must pitch for the Yankees."

after the show, the girls decided to wait for Federov at the stage door. it was well worth the wait, Federov made Becca feel like Cinderella at the ball. he signed autographs and took pictures with all the girls. then he KISSED Becca. and he SANG to her -- "Happy Birthday Rebecca", Jen taped the audio on her phone and Erica did a video on her phone, which Erica is going to post on her facebook.

afterwards I thanked him for making Becca's night so special.(Lord help me, now what do I do for Jen's birthday in November? )

of course, all the girls loved Becca's M&M footwear, so we had to stop at the M&M store on our way back to the garage. and I had to run across the street to the Hershey Store. I bought some Hershey Kisses. we stopped at the Marriot Marquis (nicest public ladies' room in the theater district.) and that's when I gave Becca the chocolate and called it "birthday Kisses" (yeah, I know, too cute.)

then we piled into the cars and drove home.

Becca told me "this was the best birthday ever!"