Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Avenue Q

Megan Kinney is here for a month, and it's been so great; not only because it's been a while since I've seen her, but she's also gotten me into gear to actually do things. We went to MoMA on Saturday, did the Sex and the City tour Sunday, wander around and try new restaurants, and last night we went to a musical via "rush tickets." Basically, you enter your name into a lottery and they pull 6 names and those people get the front row seats for $20 plus a $1.50 facility fee (I'm not sure if the price varies for the show). It's great because it's affordable. She was the one who stood in line since I had to work, but she said the cheapest tickets that night were $66!

Avenue Q was my life in a musical. It's about a kid who just graduated from college and moved to New York and lives in a burough that isn't Manhattan because it's affordable. The whole time he is trying to find his purpose in life. It was hilarious. The show uses puppets and you would think that would be really weird, but after a while you hardly notice/the actors' faces match the puppets' so you want to watch them both.

After the show Megan and I got on the train and the guy across from us started talking to us and he goes "Weren't you two at the show tonight?" It was one of the leads from the show!! He lives a stop away from me on the train so we talked until I got off. I was telling him that I just graduated and I live in Queens and the show is so much like my life and he said "I graduated nine years ago and I still live in Queens." It's nice to know that even people on Broadway live out here. He only works three hours a day, six days a week which I found interesting. They don't do any rehearsals.

Vegas on Saturday! Ahhh! The moment of truth!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

High of 68

Who knew I would ever say that the 50s and 60s are hot?!?! Coming from Florida, 50 or 60 is a cold snap. It's 55 right now and the high is 68 today and it's BEAUTIFUL outside. Yes, you still might want a light jacket because it isn't summer, but it feels like a spring day, not the beginning of January! Last night Joanne and I went to dinner and we couldn't even wear our jackets because we were getting hot in them and one woman stepped outside and said to her friend "It's so hot." It seems like in Florida this would feel cold to me, but maybe a thirty degree drop in temperature will do that. Unfortunately, this is a temporary phase. It was in the high 50s yesterday (although Robert went out yesterday to explore the city and said it was a high of 62), today is 68, and tomorrow is in the high 50s...then it goes back down. Oh well, I'm enjoying it while I can.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Holiday Hangover

This is what my dad called it today when I spoke to him. I felt like I had weeks off, even though I really only had 7 days off work and was gone for 11 days. So, you can imagine the feeling I had returning to work today after that much time off.

My vacation was great! I left on the 21st and, of course, both my flights were delayed so I didn't get back until late. We woke up early the next morning and drove to Atlanta where we stayed with my aunt, then woke up early again the next morning and did a caravan to my grandmother's in Illinois. We stayed there until Saturday and then drove back to my aunt's and stayed the night. On Sunday we drove back to Tampa and then I left Monday to get back for New Year's Eve. The vacation, as I expected, went by way too fast! However, I think I'm going to be going back to Tampa the weekend of March 14th since the bridal shower for my friend (I'm in her wedding) is that weekend AND it's my brother's 18th birthday, so it gives me something to put on my radar so I'm not totally down about missing my family.

I also have Vegas in 3 weeks to look forward to!!

New Year's was a lot of fun! Cooper, Janet, Matt, and I met up for dinner at 8 at City Lobster. Security was so tight we had to stand in line to be let on to the street because it was closed to vehicles and pedestrians. We had to show them our reservation and then get "wanded" with a metal detector and have our bags searched. Getting into my office to see the ball drop was so much easier I was shocked. I figured it would take convincing and a long time to get there. The view was perfect! The only thing we couldn't see was the front of the 2008 sign that lights up when the ball drops. We could see the back, though, haha. It was somewhat anticlimactic in that I looked over and realized the ball was already dropping (they don't countdown to that). We watched it go down and then some fireworks went off and that was it. We did hear Carrie Underwood performing and I'm sure we heard others, but we weren't listening. After that we went to a party. The next day we watched the disappointing Gators game and that was the end of my vacation.

Happy New Year to whoever reads this blog!