May (and last 2 entries in April)

Kristin got here around 11:30 Friday night, and we hung out for a while before going to sleep (late night number 1).

Saturday morning we had breakfast at Ess-a-Bagel before heading up to The Met to see the Arms and Armour exhibit (it was nice to find someone who wanted to see it as well). It actually wasn't really exciting though; it was mainly new pieces of the same stuff already in their collection. We looked around at a couple other exhibits as well. Then she went to do a few things and I went home to supposedly study (which I didn't wind up doing).

Saturday night, we had dinner at Otabe. Robyn had asked if I wanted to join her at the Rock Albers show, and I told her I'd ask Kristin to see if she was interested. She decided she was, but while we were having dinner, Robyn called to say the show was surprisingly sold out, so Kristin and I had a leisurely dinner and then went to a few bars. We went to Peculier Pub (absolutely amazing selection of beer) and Panchito's in the Village and then headed uptown to Potion Lounge and Mod before calling it a night (late night number 2).

Today we went to Norma's for breakfast (yum as usual) and then did a little shopping (once again, I found nothing). Then Kristin left and I watched last week's SFU and started studying for my test.

So, it was a busy weekend and now I'm pretty tired. Hopefully I'll get to bed early tonight- as long as I don't get a second wind later on, I should be able to do it.

SFU stuff:
- I enjoyed the paintball scenes more on the second viewing
- Billy's back!!!
- loved the pyramid scene
-and there were some really good lines- like when David thought the threesome rule about only kissing each other might be rude to the 3rd guy involved, and I'm sorry but I found one of Arthur's lines hilarious, maybe it was the tone, but when he was telling Ruth about his violin playing days and that the violin that his roommate broke was hand carved by his Uncle Gunter before he died of polio, I cracked up all 3 times I watched that scene
- some scenes felt like they were cut off and could have gone somewhere- that's the problem with having too many characters on a show
- next episode looks intense- can't wait

Decided to read some of the SFU community boards last night and saw that many people are way more obsessed than I am with this show.

I got a B+ on my Restoration paper- quite surprised.

And in other school news, I think I did about the same as the last 2 times on my human development test yesterday.

And some more school news, I have to remember to register for summer classes on May 7 and fall classes on May 16. But first, I need to figure out what I want to take (need to talk to the theatre advisor too).

I talked to Rebecca last night and she's coming either May 16 or 19 and checking out May 22.

Need to figure out how many guest sheets and towels I have and where they are so I can figure out how much laundry I'll have to do over the next few weeks.

I couldn't find a decent fare for Lugano at the end of May, so I guess I'll be skipping that. And I don't know about future trips. The problem is that school really gets in the way of travelling for work. I knew this would be a small problem, but I think the problem is bigger than I realise. I'll have to talk to Paula and Harvey about it this week.

Speaking of Paula and Harvey, they should be arriving soon.

They've been doing construction on 57th St. for the past month. Wish they would finish soon.

Last night was "Long Day's Journey". The acting was wonderful but unfortunately, it was more of an audio performance for me. I could barely see anything. First, my eyes have a difficult time seeing with theatrical lighting with my contacts, and with my glasses is 50 times worse. Second, the man in front of me took up a ton of room and moved his head around (even though he was in the first row and didn't have to see around anyone) a lot which made sure I couldn't see most of the stage. Third, it was staged so almost the entire show took place centre stage, all I saw was the man's head and shoulders in front of me. It was over 4 hours (would have been slightly less if intermissions didn't drag longer than they needed to be)- must be absolutely exhausting to do that show, especially for the Wednesday and Saturday night performances since those are matinee days. I saw it on a Wednesday night and they looked great- quite impressed was I. One of the ushers was ridiculously obnoxious. There was a guy with his feet up against the side of the stage (no where near any lights or wires). The usher yelled at him (she could have at least asked him nicely). Then another woman leaned against the stage for a second. The usher yelled at her and then complained about her when walking away. I understand the need to keep all electrical equipment in place, but she didn't have to be so obnoxious about it- no reason to be on a power trip.

Today was fairly uneventful. Went to classes, had the annoyingly long break in between said classes (only 2 more weeks and 1 days of finals), finished cleaning up the apartment, met Paula and Harvey at the Four Seasons, Neil joined us shortly after I arrived and we had Shun Lee, then Neil and I came back here and I am now typing my May 1st entry. Well, all days can't be action packed (thank goodness they're not all action packed).

Yesterday was a fabulous day professionally but a not-so-great day physically. I was running to answer a phone since no one else seemed to want to answer it, and I ran into the corner of a marble wall. Of course the corner was right at knee level. It was my good knee, which I guess is a good thing since it would have made my right knee worse than it already is. Today it's still bothering me a bit, but at least it's not a serious injury. I was supposed to go pick up a computer this afternoon but instead am able to have it brought to me (which is great since I really didn't feel like going out today).

The jackhammering on 57th St. every weekend is getting ridiculous. Lovely sound to wake up to in the morning.

And this morning I woke up singing the ShopRite commercial ("always fresh and always for less, ShopRite")- heaven help me.

I have a lot to do today but the only thing I feel like doing is work. I'll just save everything else (haircut, mail, cleaning, paper, email...) for tomorrow. That means I'll be blowing Robyn off tomorrow, but hopefully we can find a time to get together soon.

Interesting NYC theatre stat:
The 2001�02 season attracted an uncommonly high number of very affluent theatregoers. The average household income reported was $105,000, compared to $93,000 reported last season.
That's pretty damn high for an average. And I figured people with very high incomes would be too busy to bother filling out a theatre survey.

I won tickets to one of Pittsburgh CLO's summer shows (I'll have to see which show fits into my road trip soon so I can reserve tickets). I have to wonder if everyone who entered the contest won tickets... maybe not. I just can't believe I won.

I wore my contacts for most of the day yesterday. The right eye is still bothering me and was slightly irritated by the contact which bothers me. I'll keep trying to wear the contacts most of the day for a few days, and if it's still a problem, I'll call Dr. Billig.

Talked to Eytan and Marcell yesterday- nice catching up with them. And I finally got an email from Brie the other day. Life's been really rough for her recently. Maybe there's a chance I'll have time to visit for a few days when I'm out west.

I cut my hair this morning. It's slightly below chin length. I like it.

Now I need to clean and go through a ton of mail. Then maybe I'll deal with email that's been sitting in my inbox for far too long. And in between those things, I'll do some work.

My knee is feeling almost perfect today. I'm so lucky.

- It's so nice to see Taylor again.
- And interesting that the funeral service is not at the Fisher home.
- Holy cow those were some nice lines written for Russell and Olivier.
- Okay, Arthur and the socks is a bit much but he is indeed a fascinating character- how he's so confident talking about non-intimate things and then when Ruth brings up intimacy, he doesn't know how to find the right words to sound polite. I think he's the first new character I like as much if not more than the Fishers.
- I like the way David took over at the funeral.
- When did Ruth get so impolite and moody?
- Now that I warmed up to the Ruth/Arthur relationship, they're causing a riff? Hopefully it's not a complete break.
- Ah, the truth comes out about Russell and Olivier (figured that would happen in this episode).
- And why is Claire so pissed? I didn't think it would be a big deal like she's making it. Maybe she's jealous.
- Nice to see that people on TV have cellular service problems as well.
- The dance instructors were seriously scary.
- Nice scene with Billy and Brenda watching Nathaniel and Isabel- I like that the video was all magical and nice rather than the realistic book and that it bothered Billy (it would have bothered me too- it's the problem I have with Disney).
- I really like the way Brenda explains the difference between fact and feelings.
- But whoa, it's one thing suggesting incest but another thing having Billy actually kiss Brenda. I think I've only been shocked once before from a scene in a movie or TV show (don't remember what it was right now). I really didn't expect Billy to kiss Brenda at that moment.
- Good for Claire for being strong and not backing down with Russell.
- Quite an emotional time for all the Fishers, except David- is he going to break down before the end of the episode?
- Well, David did have an extremely powerful scene with Keith and Keith's father.
- Nice to see Nate rockin' out while Mommy's away- especially after all the heavy, depressing, emotional, shocking stuff.
- Uh-oh, Brenda showed up.
- Was Patrick the one last week who said he didn't like the bar scene? If so, I think I'd like to see a Patrick/David relationship.
- I love Ruth/Claire scenes. They are always so wonderful.
- I can relate to Claire. I used to put up with "pathetic losers" too when I was 19. But thankfully I grew out of that- hopefully she will too.
- Rico needs to stop being in denial.
- Oh, I've been where Brenda's been (a motel in your own town). What a sad place to be.
- Lovely ending montage.
- But is that last scene with Nate really a preminition? Is Lisa really going to be out his life?
Oh my fucking God! I know I don't usually use such language, but Jesus Christ, this show is so incredible! How can it be so perfect? It's almost scary. I sort of want to watch this episode again now, but I'll save it for maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. So sad that there are only 3 weeks left. I think I might rent the first 2 seasons during the off months to remember the progression and so I don't have to have it completely out of my life. Yep, I'm obsessed.

Oh, my eye has only bothered me a few times today and I've had my contacts in since this morning. I'm going to go take them out now though.

I was thinking about not going to classes today, but I decided to go to theatre and skip human development. I'm so glad I went to the theatre class! She told us that Hunter students could possibly get free tickets to opening night of "Long Day's Journey into Night". We can try to get them at the theatre around 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. I'm gonna go for it. Why not? Tickets to an opening night performance? How often can someone not connected do that? I wish I could recognise people since it would be interesting to see who will be there. So I figured I'd get there early and if there isn't a line yet, I'll go wander around Times Sqaure (I really hate this area and wish I didn't have to spend so much time wandering around there). I'll also bring a book to read while waiting. And I'll carry my dress, shoes, and contacts (so I can hopefully see a little better, I did finally get the left one out this morning) and find somewhere to change if I get a ticket. I figured it's all worth it even if I get a seat in the mezzanine since I barely saw anything from the second row and still enjoyed the performance. If I have time, maybe I'll find somewhere to buy little binoculars. I've never done that before. Oh, yes I have. When I saw "Mamma Mia" in London, I splurged for the binolculars in the seats since I was sitting so far back. It was fun to use them on and off. I've never seen anyone use them here, but maybe they do. I've been fortunate enough to hardly ever sit far enough away to see people using them. And am I upset for using my basketball pool money to buy a ticket when I can maybe see it for free? Not really. There's a chance I won't get a ticket and I sort of did want to see it again when I left the theatre the other night but wouldn't pay to see it again. Anyway, wish me luck on getting a ticket.

Our theatre professor also told us about auditions for The Angel Project at Lincoln Center. If I wasn't so darn busy, I'd actually audition for it. Why not? An easy non-speaking role for which you make $300 a week and have something that would look neat on your resume? Oh well, I still am curious about the project and would love to see/do it this summer.

This morning I finished up some work before going to class. I was going to spend the rest of the day working on my Restoration paper but deciding to go to the theatre class messed up my schedule. Instead I found other ways to be productive today. After class, I went to Mailboxes Etc. to Fed Ex out stuff for work and I cleaned the apartment (except for taking out the trash because, big surprise, the trash shute is locked). I also started looking into options for soundproofing my windows- there was a ridiculous amount of traffic last night (unusual for a Sunday which really made it bother me) and it was traffic that woke me up this morning an hour before my alarm was set to go off. I've had enough! And of course, as I was typing this, I heard a dozen cars honking and 2 really loud sirens.

I decided to try blow-drying my hair tonight so I could look slightly better than normal tomorrow night. I think I did a better job than when I tried it a few weeks ago since my hair is shorter now, but I remember trying to blow-dry it once or twice when it was shorter and not having any luck. It certainly doesn't look like it does when they do it at a hair salon or even as good as most people manage to do theirs, but it looks good enough.

I was planning on watching SFU again tonight but it's getting late and I need to get up early to get stuff done if I'm going to spend the rest of the day in Times Square being unproductive. If I get most of my paper done during the day on Wednesday (doubtful), I'll watch SFU that night, if not, I'll watch it Sunday evening before that night's episode.

In checking Long Day's Journey on Broadway, I learned that they have 7 performances a week. They don't have a Wednesday matinee, so when I saw the performance Wednesday night, they did not have a matinee that afternoon. But for folks seeing the show Saturday night after the Saturday matinee, perhaps they're seeing exhausted actors and the show might drag a bit.

I don't think I've mentioned this recently- I love not having to own a car.

The past few nights as I'm trying to fall asleep, part of me remembers moods and locations of the previous night's dreams. Wish I could remember more; they feel comforting.

A few things I forgot to mention last night:
I found a temporary solution to not having a working CD burner- the computer I borrowed for a job has one. Now I just need to find the time to burn some CDs before I have to give the computer back (don't know when that is, but I'll wait for them to contact me rather than ask and remind them that I have it).
And, the neighbour next to me was playing their music loudly the other day. I hope this isn't a new trend. I had enough of noisy neighbours after having the ones above me in Phoenix for about 2 years. Besides, traffic noise is enough, I don't need noisy neighbours on top of that. I really wish I could tune out sound better. But I probably shouldn't complain about my good hearing. With my terrible eyesight, it's nice to have at least one strong sense. Of course, I do have some hearing trouble, but it's minor.

It's drizzling today. Hope it's not like this all day. Other than the weather, I'm looking forward to today but am not getting my hopes up about getting a ticket.

Yesterday was a very New York day.

It started when I was waiting for the bus. I saw a cab on the opposite side of the street with the ad at the top of it stating, "This cab is not real." I couldn't see it clearly enough to know if it said anything else, so I don't know what the ad was for. As I tried to read it more carefully, a bus pulled up next to it. They both stopped at the light. As the light turned green, I hoped it would either speed ahead or pull behind so I could see what else the ad said. But the cab vanished. It was no longer on the street. I don't see where it could have gone. Was it really not real? Was it my imagination? No, my imagination is not that imaginative.

Then while riding the bus down 7th Ave., I saw 2 very New York things: the filming of something (really wish I could know what I'm looking at when I see filming going on), and the Naked Cowboy entertaining.

Then I got some coffee and a muffin at Starbucks (because it's right across the street from the theatre, if there was something else I could have gone to quickly, I would have gone there) and went to sit outside the Plymouth Theatre with my copy of "The Additional Michael Frayn". I people watched (everyone was from NYU and Columbia, no one else was from Hunter- big surprise), read my hilarious book and laughed out loud several times, and occasionally got "Tug Boat" from "Thou Shalt Not" in my head (guess that will happen every time I'm near the Plymouth). And at 3:00 (I arrived around 12:30) I got a ticket for opening night!

I had a quick lunch at Cafe Edison. It was practically empty. There was one other guy sitting alone and then another man by himself came in. It turns out they knew each other from the Dallas Shakespeare Festival and hadn't seen each other in 25 years. It was fun listening to their conversation. I think the guy who came in was a somewhat famous actor, but of course I had no clue who he was.

After lunch, I went to the Marriott to change. A convention was just finishing up so the restroom was crowded- not a fun place to change. Then I went up to The View, which is their revolving lounge on the 48th floor. I love views and didn't care if I felt like a tourist. It was actually a nice time. There were hardly any people there, so it almost felt like I had the place to myself. It was nice and peaceful having a glass of champagne and looking at the city from an angle I almost never have.

Heading back to the Plymouth, I encountered all the celebrity and camera crews stuff. It really was exciting to go into a theatre with everyone dressed up and chatting with each other. Even though I was just an observer, it was exciting.

The show itself was incredible! The pace was a bit faster than the preview I saw, but with super long intermissions and I think some little things were added towards the end, it still ran 4 hours and 15 minutes. The cast is absolutely amazing and, along with the everyone else involved in the production, succeeded in pleasing everyone. I haven't heard one negative thing about the show yet- not even people arguing about little things. And I'm 99.9% sure Vanessa Redgrave will get the TONY for Best Actress.

I could actually see better from the 3rd to last row in the mezzanine than from my second row orchestra seat. Didn't even need the little binoculars I bought (they'll come in handy one day). I think being able to see the performance made it even better.

I was sitting in between 2 typical theatre students- talking only about theatre and theatre classes the entire time while waiting for tickets and at the theatre. They both were crying during the last scene.

But did they not have enough opening night playbills for everyone? Us lowly people up in the mezzanine just had regular playbills.

And who in the theatre world was there? Well, the guy next to me saw Arthur Miller; that's all I know. I saw Martha Stewart being hounded by camera crews when trying to leave the theatre. Someone near me pointed her out to someone else, otherwise I wouldn't have known it was her. Guess a paparazzi job is not for me.

Yesterday I wore my contacts from about 4:30-11:30 and my eyes didn't hurt at all (and didn't even need eyedrops, which was good since I forgot to bring them with me) and I was able to get the contacts out right away like usual.

So yesterday was a really amazing day. Guess when I have bad days (like today), I should remind myself of how good yesterday was so I remember that good things can happen.

But today has not been good. I don't have an internship for the summer, so I signed up for 2 classes this afternoon for the summer (math and intro to film). I was in a bad mood about the lack of internship and couldn't focus on my paper (still haven't really done anything with it, guess I'll be working on it when Brian and Rebecca are here and will try to ignore the fun they will be having). I could have done some work today but decided against the job since I thought it was more important to work on my paper, so now that I haven't done that, I'm upset I didn't do the job. There were some other little things too, not worth mentioning. I'll try to do a bit more with the paper tonight, but I think I'm also going to watch last week's SFU to escape from the day (perfect day to watch it again).

Tomorrow will be busy. I need to talk to the theatre advisor in the morning about the theatre and stage management class offered in the fall and ask her if she has any suggestions about how to miss a week of classes in the fall when I'm in Bangkok and probably Switzerland. I'm 90% sure I'll only take the management class (unless I find out something tomorrow that makes it sound like something I don't want to take) and spend the rest of the time working. School will always be available, the work is available now. I really feel like I need to make that a priority right now. I may be upset that I still don't have my degree a couple of years from now, but I'll just have to remind myself that this is what I felt was the best decision. Anyway, after talking to the advisor, I have my theatre class. Then I need to run some errands and probably eat something during my break. Then I'll go check to see if the grades for the last human development test is up on the board outside her office before the class. Then I'll get home, straighten the apartment a little, and then Brian and Rebecca will be here around 9:00.

And as for the paper, I'm just not in the frame of mind to work on it tonight. It will get done. It doesn't have to be perfect. I can work on it Friday morning/early afternoon, Saturday afternoon, and finish it up on Sunday and/or Tuesday. So since I have time to work on it later, I'm allowing myself to procrastinate rather than force myself to think about a topic that is so far back in my brain I can barely find it.

Instead I will try to relax (I've been uptight about the chaos-in-professional-life thing most of the day) and watch SFU for my escape (like I mentioned earlier).

And in thinking more about the lack of internship, I realised I could have more time for a road trip since there's not much work available in the summer months anyway. Maybe I will be able to visit Matt & Brie in Phoenix for a day or two.

Oh, and I found out last week but couldn't write about it until now- Michelle's pregnant. Steven will have a little brother or sister in October (I think that's what Jon said). I can't believe she wants to go through it all again after the complications she had with Steven, but I guess that isn't a factor for her. Jon's happy because he's still following his master plan for life. Sometimes I wish I had a strong master plan that I wouldn't question every so often... but I told myself I wouldn't think about this anymore tonight.

I talked to the theatre advisor this morning, and she wasn't able to tell me much about the theatre and stage management class but she did say you would learn about all aspects of stage management (gee, really?). It's a new class and they don't have anyone to teach it yet, so they don't know what it will be like. I'm going to sign up for it though (praying it's not filled by the time I can register, which is a week from tomorrow). Then I'll sign up for one more class- not sure what yet, but I'm leaning towards Social Psychology since it's one of the only non-writing intensive classes available. I hate this new "writing intensive" thing. I don't think having more writing assignments for each class is the solution for making sure people with a college degree can write properly. Those people who care will learn how to write properly and don't need extra assignments and those people who don't care will not bother to learn and remember how to write properly no matter how many assignments are given. The people who steal other people's papers will continue to do that. The people who know how to write will just start hating it after they've reached their limit on writing papers (which I have, some time ago).

And in other school-related news, I got an 89% on my last human development test. Since she drops the lowest test score and I've gotten Bs on all my tests, I'm thinking of skipping the last test. Why bother taking it?

And I guess all I have is school-related news today. Can't think of anything else interesting to mention.

And now that I've listened to an album that makes me want to go to sleep, I need to straighten the apartment before Brian and Rebecca get here.

Last night Brian and Rebecca arrived and we went to Serendipity for dessert. That place is really not worth it, but oh well. Then Rebecca went to sleep and Brian and I went to Pig N' Whistle for a drink or two.

I really don't have anything else to say but would like a few more minutes before I look at my paper again. I really don't appreciate all her comments on my first draft. She asks a few questions that are obviously stated in my paper and don't know how she wants me to make it more clear. I suppose I could have went to her office this past week to ask her, but too late now. I think I'll just ignore those questions and focus on the bigger ones. I just want to get it over with so I don't have to think about it anymore.

Brian's awake now. Think I'll go see what his plans are besides going to pick up our tickets this afternoon for Bill Mahr tonight.

I didn't get anywhere on my paper on Friday but basically finished it on Saturday. There's still a big part that she wanted me to add that I didn't add- I'll look around a little more to try to find some information, but I'll probably just leave it as it is and leave out all the stuff she wants on Charles II and the plays displaying his power since there doesn't seem to be much information on the subject.

Friday afternoon Brian and I went to see an African dance performance at Hunter. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. A few dancers stood out, especially Kaori- she's gorgeous to watch. It did make me miss it, even though I was never good at African dance. That's the only reason I went- because I wasn't good at it. If it had been a modern performance, I wouldn't have gone- that would have been too depressing.

Bill Mahr was excellent! I wasn't completely thrilled with the idea of listening to political rants on a Friday night, but he was perfect. A rational thinking man- love it!

But he had a bit on women's obsession with diamonds and it bothered me a bit. It bothered me that 99% of men think that 100% of women love diamonds and jewelry and that's obviously not true. I'm not fond of jewelry in general, and I really don't like diamonds at all. I don't like that people who do get to know me still assume I would like jewelry just because I'm female since that means they're not paying attention to who I am.

And on a related subject, I'm missing most typical female qualities. Yesterday Brian and Rebecca went to see "Take Me Out", and when they were telling me about it, they mentioned the shower scene. Rebecca enjoyed it and assumed I would have as well since I guess most women would have enjoyed it. But I didn't enjoy it. I don't enjoy looking at naked men; I'd much rather look at naked women.

Anyway, after Bill Mahr, we went to Trust for dinner- great food, LOUD sound system.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at Norma's (I haven't met anyone yet who didn't love this place). Then I came back here to work on my paper while Brian and Rebecca saw "Take Me Out".

Saturday evening I met them up at Hanratty's- nice place, although a bit out of the way. Then we walked across the park and down to H & H so they could get some bagels to take home.

We made it to the theatre to see "Lifex3" about 10 minutes before it started. Although, I wouldn't have minded if we missed the entire thing (except for the fact that they paid for the 3 tickets). It was like watching an unoriginal sitcom 3 times in a row. It might have been okay on tv, but it didn't work in the theatre. And the obnoxious woman next to me kept telling her boyfriend all the obvious things about the show, as if no one else realised what was going on. I HATE people like that! Oh well, Brian and Rebecca enjoyed it.

Then we had a drink at Rue 57 (it was pretty empty for a Saturday night- I'm assuming it's the economic times and not the boycotting of French restaurants). We didn't stay long since they had to leave early this morning. Instead, we came back here and watched half of "Groundhog Day"- guess we wanted to keep in the theme of repetative stories. But "Groundhog Day" is an excellent movie whereas "Lifex3" was far from excellent.

Random comment: I really do like "Jack Straw"- reminds me of road trips and makes me look forward to my upcoming one. It doesn't feel real yet, but it will once it gets closer to July.

This morning I decided to go out to get some takeout from somewhere and came across the street fair on Lex. I really don't understand why they don't just have 1 block of a street fair since every block after the first one is a repeat (guess repetativeness is the theme of the weekend). But I was glad it was out there since I could get a crepe and a bubble tea for breakfast and for once I actually bought something. I got a bright turquoise and grey silk shirt that's perfect for a summer evening.

Now I should start being productive.

Tonight is Robyn's show at Danny's.

I trimmed a little more of my hair this afternoon; it's almost to where I'd like it.

Not having a class in the afternoon really adds a tremendous amount to my day. I'm happy with my B in human development and even happier that I can get a B without having to go to the last week of classes or take anymore tests. Wish she taught other classes that I haven't taken already.

Last night I found a great deal on Avis for this summer. It works out to be $35/day (never seen it that low in New York). So I reserved a car. The trip still doesn't feel real though.

I'm thinking about going to see "The Matrix Reloaded" on Thursday afternoon. I should probably buy a ticket now. I'm 90% sure I want to go, so I should buy the ticket and make it 99.9%. Think I'll bring a brownie to have after class and then see the 1:00 show.

Okay, I got the ticket. Looking forward to it (though I still wish America's views didn't make them wait this long to release it, but at least we don't have to wait long for the 3rd one- it's being released in November). And I think I'll watch the first one tomorrow to refresh my memory as to why I liked it so much.

I tried to sleep in a bit this morning but emergency vehicles were making that difficult all morning. I kept trying to go back to sleep but every time the sirens woke me up, I felt worse and worse. I guess I'm just meant to sleep in anymore. At home, traffic wakes me up. In hotels, housekeeping and/or other hotel guests wake me up. I bet I could sleep in one day when I stay with Josh this summer. I'm hoping so anyway.

I love being reminded that there are still nice strangers out there. Some nice guy took the time to read on this site that I was looking for a copy of "Making Love in a Subaru" and sent me an MP3 of it yesterday. Very excited to have it and even more excited that it came from someone I don't even know.

People are really getting specific in their web searches. I mean, I still get "young naked women" and the like, but I also get some interesting things. I was looking through some of my site statistics last night and found several interesting things. I'll list all the latest in July (my yearly tradition) but just like listing a few now:
- o'looneys restaurantmanhattan ny
- minetta's tavern in the village
- maryvale castle photos
- interlocken switzerland cyber cafe
- bill pullman's performance the goat
- distance from lisbon portugal to seville spain
- pictures of weird reflections

I've had "I Could Write a Book" from "Pal Joey" in my head today.

Robyn's show last night was fun. I enjoyed her new songs a lot and can't wait to hear the recordings of them.

When I got home last night, I decided I would start burning CDs. It wound up being more hassle than it was worth. I lost an extremely difficult to find MP3 ("Maybe God's a Woman Too" from "Thing Called Love", sung by Samatha Mathis- if there are anymore kind strangers out there with this, I'd really appreciate a copy), but I finally got things together and made a CD. Would have done more but realised I couldn't find anymore blank disks- wasn't worth taking the time to look for more than 5 minutes. Plus, I was tired of the method I had to use- copy files from computer to zip disk, remove zip drive from my computer and transfer to other computer, copy the files from the zip disk to CD-R, record, repeat (and of course I had all these little problems, so I had to transfer the zip drive between computers several times before finally having a finished product). I'll do some more another time.

I decided to just turn in my Restoration paper without including all the Charles II stuff. It's good enough. Even if I get a bad grade, she's only counting the better of the 2 grades, and my first draft was a B+, which is great. And if I get a C+ or better on the final (which I should be able to do even though it's a ridiculous amount of difficult material and it's just not sinking in yet), I should get a B for the semester.

I've been productive personally (not professionally, except for slightly editing my paper) today. I worked out for the first time in ages (if you don't walking all over the city almost daily), cleaned most of the apartment, and started going through the mail (when I realised there were no bills immediately due, I decided to put off dealing with it for now).

Think I'll watch SFU again tonight.

I have my last theatre class in the morning (and I have to get there early to print out my paper). Then I'm going to see "The Matrix Reloaded". Then I have to go down to pick up tickets for the evening's performance of Bill Mahr (yes, I want to see it again, and no, I wouldn't have actually done it unless it was another free ticket). Then I'll look around Housing Works and the other thrift shops since I'll be in the area (even though I doubt I'll find anything as usual). Then I'll find somewhere to start studying for my theatre final and get a bite to eat before seeing Bill Mahr.

But even though I've felt sort of lousy all day, I managed to put away all the clothes, finish straightening the apartment, and work out (as well as do a little work and go to class this morning).

I've been having fun learning how to play Mahjong Solitaire, but I think I've been playing a bit too much as I'm playing it in my head when I'm trying to fall asleep.

I got to school early and actually got a computer right away, so I printed out my paper and had time to start looking over my theatre notes. Then after class, I had coffee and a pot brownie and went to go see "The Matrix Reloaded".

The movie was better than I had expected it to be, but it definitely wasn't as good as the first one. Still, it had some interesting things to say and some great fight scenes. The freeway scene went on entirely too long, and I tried not to watch all of it since I really can't handle watching car crashes. I saw one or two crashes and was not happy. I'm glad I don't have to drive for a little while. And I didn't mind the "to be continued" ending since the 3rd one is coming out in November. I do want to see this one again though to see if I can understand a few things, and it turns out I'll be doing that tomorrow (more on that later).

Halfway through the movie, I started feeling stoned and it just kept getting stronger throughout the afternoon. After the movie, I went down to the Audience Extras office to pick up the Bill Mahr ticket. I had to pee badly, so I looked for a place to do that before getting the tickets (I had to get the tickets by 5:00 and it was 4:00 by the time I got down to the area). I finally found a little French cafe. I have no idea what it was called, but it was somewhere on Lex around 25th St. I placed my order (a roll and a latte, not too time consuming to make or to eat which was good since I didn't want Audience Extras to close before I got there). The guy working there told me to go upstairs, which I did after using the restroom. I wasn't really hungry but figured I should buy something there since I used their facilities. Well, I waited about 10 minutes and then went downstairs to see what was going on. The guy said he would be up soon, so I went back upstairs. I waited another 10 minutes (remember, all I ordered was a roll and a latte) before giving up. I just wound up leaving since I couldn't find the guy to cancel my order. Also remember, I was really stoned at this point, so this event seemed more surreal than it normally would have.

Anyway, I got the Bill Mahr ticket with no problem, and then I started walking around to find somewhere to study for a couple of hours. I passed by some taxi company on Lex, where there were about 6 cabs parked on the block, and got the little music in my head from "The Wiz", I think it's the part right before where we meet the Tin Man (with the grafitti/run-down-city scenery)- when they kept trying to get a taxi but they kept going off duty. I tried to take a picture but I thought I was at the end of the roll and tried to take out the film and put in a new roll, but the roll wasn't finished. I've never done this before and am a little upset. I need to call or take it to a camera place and ask them if there's a chance to save the roll in there.

After the camera incident, I found a little coffee shop and had some iced tea. I was still too stoned to study, so I sat there enjoying the moment and started making a list of music I wanted to bring on my road trip.

Then I realised that I was sort of hungry (even though I had gone to several establishments that serve food, I still hadn't actually eaten anything) and still had an hour and a half before the show started, so I went to Caffe Cielo for my favourite gnocchi in the city. The hostess didn't recognise me this time. Maybe because I haven't been there in a while or maybe because of my haircut (the former seems more likely)

I still got to the theatre early, so I was looking at the stuff they were selling and bought the Bill Mahr book as a present for Harvey (I think I'll give it to him a month early since I don't know where he'll be on or around his birthday and it'll be more fun giving it to him in person than mailing it). I'm going to see him tomorrow, which I'll explain more about later.

Bill Mahr was excellent again. I now heard everything he had to say (the sound was much better last night than the previous show I saw) and got to think about all the issues more since I already knew all the punchlines and didn't have to pay as much attention to them. I'm so glad I got to go again.

Sometime around the beginning of the show, I started to feel less stoned and by the end of the show, I was still slightly stoned but also a little tired. I'd been out since 9:00 AM (got home at 10:30), been all over the city, and being stoned makes my brain work harder since there are so many interesting things to think about. I had so much time to think (on the bus, walking up and down Lexington, at the coffee shop, during dinner...) and thought about so many interesting things which I now can't remember, and I was too stoned to bother writing non-stop for several hours. I had some really cool ideas too. Maybe one day I'll remember to carry a tape recorder with me everywhere I go just in case. But then my purse will really be heavy with all of the electronics I keep in it.

When I got home, creepy doorman was there. Haven't seen him in a while- I actually thought he didn't work here anymore. He noticed my haircut and said it looked nice. That didn't bother me as much as it used to. He's actually very efficient at his job, which is more than I can say for many people in the services industry.

I was tired enough to get in bed around midnight and fall asleep shortly after. And I tried to sleep in this morning but traffic did not want me to do that. I woke up and fell back to sleep around 20 times and finally gave up and started my day.

And what a productive day it has been so far. I was hyper and had a great workout (need to find the time to do that more often). I did some work. I registered for fall classes (stage management and social psychology- both on Monday and Thursday afternoon & evening- finally a convenient schedule with no breaks in between). I'm starting to get organised with arranging my Bangkok trip (need to talk to Neil before I book anything though to double check the dates I'll need to be there). Now I just need to start studying for my theatre final- there's really an extreme amount of information and she said it would be a longer test with longer essays since we have 2 hours instead of the 50 minutes we had for the midterm.

Tomorrow Paula and Harvey are coming up for the day. Harvey wants to see "The Matrix Reloaded" and tomorrow is a perfect day for him to do that. So, of course I said I would go with him. It means I'll have to cancel plans with Robyn once again (which I really feel bad about doing), but we rescheduled for the following Saturday which should work perfectly for me since I have nothing else planned for then and it's unlikely anything will come up. After the movie, we'll have dinner at Artisanal (convenient to the train station) before they head home.

For the past week, every time I check the weather, it's between 55-57�F no matter what time of day it is or how sunny or cloudy it is.

Okay, time to get started on the studying.

For now, I'm going to kick back and watch the past few GHs that I haven't seen from this week. Hope Mr. Davies is on at least one of the episodes. Doubt he's down the street right now at Radio City for the Daytime Emmy Awards. Hey Neil, if he was there, would you go stalk him with me? Just kidding, I'm no stalker.

But watching this awards show allowed me to see Grover (and other characters) from Sesame Street and hear songs from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (and I remembered them all).

Well, "The Matrix Reloaded" was good again. All the religion stuff was freaking me out, but if that's just the way the architect wanted the Matrix to be because humans love religion, then that makes sense. I was able to miss almost the entire freeway scene since I sort of knew what was coming and when, so that made me happier (after being in some car accidents, I really hate watching them). Harvey basically felt the same way about the movie as I did. Glad he got to see it.

We met Paula for dinner at Artisanal. The place was busy! Nice to see a French restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter) so busy, especially on a Saturday around 6:00.

Jon called this morning to figure out when we could see a Yankees game this summer. Well, conveniently Boston is here on Memorial day, and we're both free that weekend so that's when we're going! It's ideal for me. Jon just wants to see a game at Yankee Stadium, and while I'd be happy just to go to a game (since I didn't get to go at all last year), I'd really appreciate getting to see my favourite team.

So they're all coming up next Saturday and leaving Monday evening. I'll hang out with Steven (who finally started walking about a month ago) while Jon and Michelle go to see a show (seeing a show was how he convinced Michelle to come up next weekend).

My sheets are probably sick of the washing machine with all the visitors I've been having. Rebecca and her father are coming either tomorrow or Monday and leaving Thursday, Jon, Michelle, and Steven are coming the following Saturday and leaving Monday, and then Paula and Harvey are coming the following weekend. So much for some quiet weekends alone for the last 2 SFUs. I'm upset enough that the season is almost over. The fact that I can't have my traditional Sundays for the last 2 weeks makes me even more sad. Ridiculous, but true.

I've gotten really cynical lately and am having trouble finding the good in anything outside some of my family and friends. I feel like my eyes have been opened to the real power of the media recently. I've always realised that advertising is what drives this country, but I don't think I realised the full extent of it. You can't escape it, it's in EVERYTHING around us, and I find it disgusting. And I wish more people questioned the media more, but I guess that's asking for the impossible.

Somehow a zip disk wound up in my jacket pocket this evening. I did not put it in there. If it didn't have my handwriting on it, I would have been really freaked out, especially after seeing "The Matrix Reloaded".

I'm kind of exhausted right now. I'm going to relax for a bit and then hope the exhaustion continues so I can fall asleep early. I was planning on studying a bit tonight, but I just am too tired right now. Hopefully it'll all sink in tomorrow. Ideally, I'll learn enough about everything to do a decent job on everything rather than knowing certain things really well and other things not at all- then my essays will be worthless. My main concern is looking like I don't know anything. I don't know why I care so much. Everyone's entitled to mess up on an exam once in a while. And like I mentioned before, even if I get a C on the final, I should still get a B for the semester.

I think I'm going to cut my hair some more tomorrow as a study break.

And it's official (as official as things can be in this world)- I'll be going to Bangkok in October. Haven't done any of the travel arrangements yet, but I'll be doing that soon. Just need to figure out what I want to see on my few days off and then I can figure out how I'll organise the trip.

Fortunately, I did manage to get out of bed early this morning. I went out on this freezing, blustery day in May so I could study in a comfortable coffeehouse. I decided to go to DTUT since it was the closest. I got some of their crappy coffee and proceeded to study in one of their comfortable chairs. I got off to a good start, and then the music they were playing went from happy music to depressing music and I began to get depressed. I tried to ignore the music, but I'm terrible at ignoring sound (as proven by the misery I was in last night because of the traffic), so eventually I just left. I went to the Comfort Diner but didn't stay there long either since it's wasn't what people hyped it up to be (quite the opposite). But I do still feel like I learned enough to come home and take a break. I'll get back to studying in an hour or so.

Oh, but before I came home, I went to a shop near me that sells cameras and asked what I should do with the roll of film currently in my camera. He said that I shouldn't take anymore pictures on the roll and just develop what's there (those pictures should be fine since they didn't get exposed). I didn't want to get them developed there since I didn't trust the place, but I'll look for another place on Tuesday.

And I think I'll be feeling confident about the theatre material to watch SFU tonight. Although part of me thinks I'm fooling myself into thinking I know enough when I really don't know that much at all.

Rebecca and her father are arriving tomorrow afternoon and we're going to see Jesse Harris (along with her brother and his girlfriend) tomorrow night.

Now I'm going to goof off for 2 whole hours before SFU (and save getting the apartment organised for my guests until tomorrow and save everything else that's important for sometime next week)!

Starting to get excited about SFU.

I was just smoking a bowl and drinking some water. A bit of smoke went into the water bottle, and I finally figured out what Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" was about- a bong. Brilliant, aren't I? Okay, so I'm a little slow.

And I meant to mention this earlier but, I've been enjoying reading interviews with the writers and directors of SFU that they have on the website.

About tonight's show:
- Oh my God, what an intense "cold open".
- Ah, Claire and David are starting off with normal, middle class, American days.

- The blonde woman's face looks like Brenda's.
- But don't believe me, I'm not good at the obseriving thing. Rachel Griffiths also reminds me of Carrie-Ann Moss.
- Interesting that human life is the theme of the show. That's one of the things I've been thinking about recently- in relation to what most Americans think about the issue.
- Why is Ruth suggesting marriage?
- Frances Conroy is a fantastic actress.
- I'm glad Claire has someone to go with her to the doctor's.
- Wow, I'm really glad they showed the abortion scene. It was interesting to watch.
- George published with University of Maryland press- cool.
- Okay, now Ruth doesn't want to rush into marriage.
- I like that George didn't want to have his picture on the book jacket.
- It's nice to see Claire and Brenda bonding.
- I'm definitely going to need to watch this episode again.
- Aw, I get to see Grover twice in one week- Nate's watching Sesame Street with Maya.
- Wow! Nate and blonde chick- that was... wow.
- Oh yeah, I forgot about Rico's family. It was kind of nice having one episode without them. At least it was only for a minute or two.
- Nate's clock and my clock just had the exact same time. I love when directors (or whoever) do little things like that.
- Nice scene with David breaking up with Keith.
- Great last scene with Nate.
- Oh wow, I won't have to wait to watch the season finale on a Tuesday. It's not on next week (which is when Jon & Michelle will be up here) and the last episode will be the week after that (I think Paula & Harvey will be going home that morning). It's the night before summer classes start, and what a perfect way to spend the last school-free evening until the middle of July- watching an intense and complicated (the preview looked complicated anyway) season finale.

And I forgot to mention earlier- I cut my hair some more today (about another inch or two). Now it's the way I wanted it to be. I like it.

I got to sleep much later than I wanted to, but convinced myself that it was okay since I wasn't tired and couldn't have fallen asleep any earlier. Fortunately, I woke up about 15 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, and I was fairly awake.

I didn't study very much yet. I'm in between thinking I know enough and I don't know enough. Every time I look at my notes, I keep thinking that I know everything, but then when I put my notes away, I feel like I won't know enough to write a fair amount on any one thing. So now I'm taking a break from it. I'll get ready when I finish this entry, leave a little early, go get a smoothie, and go study some more up at school. I'm hoping other people will get there a little early as well so I can listen to people talking. Usually listening to people reviewing the material helps me remember it more (I really am an auditory learner). Can't wait until this afternoon when I don't have to think about school until June 2.

Now I just hope I have time when I get home to clean up the apartment before Rebecca gets here. It would be nice to have a little bit of time to relax after my final, but I don't think that will happen. Perhaps I can relax for a few hours one other day this week when Rebecca's here. I'll at least have some alone time when she's at her brother's graduation. And I did have around 2 relaxing hours last night, so I shouldn't be complaining.

At some point this week, I should make time to try some shopping. Ick.

I just figured out something I didn't like about "The Matrix Reloaded"- it was too much like a video game. I know the Wachowski brothers are big gamers and they make video games to go along with the movies, but I think they focused too much on those kinds of scenes.

When I got to the classroom this morning, Katie noticed that I cut my hair some more; she's very observant. I didn't think it was that noticeable.

It took me almost a half an hour to get from the lobby of my building to my apartment this afternoon. One elevator was being painted or something (although the person working on it must have been at lunch since the elevator was open at the lobby with a bunch of tools and cans of paint in it and no one in sight- you would think they would allow people to use it when no painting is currently going on). The other elevator, for some reason, was stopping for a full minute at each floor on its way down with no one in it. It was somewhere around the 26th floor when I arrived. By the time it got to the lobby (after it went down to and came back from the basement for no reason, of course), a small impatient crowd had gathered.

Now I'm home and have started cleaning the apartment- just taking a little break.

Rebecca should be arriving around 4:30.

Walking back to the subway, I saw another cab with the "This cab is not real" advertisement. I got up close enough to see that the ad was for "The Matrix Reloaded"- of course, I should have realised that. I still would like to know what happened to the first cab I saw with that ad- it couldn't have just disappeared, could it? (insert dramatic music and commercial break here)

We got back around 1:00 and Rebecca's father left around 2:00. Paula and Harvey were going to call me around 3:00 (to tell me they made it to their hotel in Paris safely), so I figured since I wasn't tired, I'd just stay up for their call. They called around 3:45, and I didn't fall asleep for a little while after that. Fortunately, I got to sleep in!!!!!!! I guess it was gloomy and quiet enough for me to sleep late. Plus, I think that if I'm getting to sleep that late, it's easier for me to sleep in since I'm in such a deep sleep that noise won't wake me up. It was the phone that finally woke me up today, and I'm glad it did since I didn't want to sleep the entire day.

This is why I can't analyse my dreams:
I was wearing a Jethro Tull t-shirt to sleep in last night. In my dream, I was walking on a somewhat crowded street, and I passed a man (who looked like someone at the Jesse Harris show last night) walking with a baby stroller and talking to a friend about Jethro Tull. I made sure he saw my t-shirt, and he smiled.
There isn't anything to analyse. My shirt in the dream was the shirt I was currently wearing and the guy I saw was a guy I saw at the show last night. I never have those dreams with symbolism or anything like that.

Today feels like a Friday.

I spent the day feeling very relaxed. I talked to Rebecca for a bit while burning CDs. Then we went to get some bagels, and I stopped at a camera store to have them finish rewinding my film in their dark room. And as I was putting in a new roll, I figured out why I had the problem to begin with. The battery is dead. So tomorrow I'll try to remember to get a new battery, and then I'll be all set.

I also got a ticket for "Boobs! The Musical" for tomorrow night. Looking forward to it but am hoping it's not quite as campy as the pictures I've seen of it make it look like it will be. I was going to see if Marcell wanted to join me since the theatre is a few blocks from her apartment, but she wasn't home when I called. I didn't feel like waiting to hear back from her to get the tickets (I thought there was a chance they'd give away all the free ones before I got around to making a reservation), so I just got the one for myself.

Now Rebecca's at part one of her brother's graduation, and I'm using this time to get some things done. I'm really terrible at being productive when people are staying with me. Even if I'm not actually doing anything with them, if they're not being productive, I have trouble making myself be productive. Fortunately, this week isn't a busy one for me. But normally, for my productivity's sake, it's better for my visitors to spend as much time as possible away from my apartment doing something that doesn't interest me.

I feel so strange today. It's a combination of not being on my regular "routine" (not a routine exactly, but I live differently when people stay with me), sleeping late, and not having anything that needs to be done anytime in the very near future. Like I said earlier, today feels like a Friday. I know it's not. And when I look at the clock, I can see that it's evening, but I don't feel like it is. I don't feel like it's any specific time actually.

I remembered part of my dream when I first woke up at 7:30, but I decided I could go back to sleep for a bit and now don't remember anything about any dreams.

I had Blur's "Boys and Girls" in my head earlier today (haven't heard that song in years).

Rebecca has been out all day doing family stuff, which means I had an entire day to be productive. Was I productive? Somewhat. But I'm still very relaxed. I know I've said it many times, but thought I should once more- when I don't have school to think about, life is much more relaxing.

And I'm happy to know that Paula and Harvey are having a relaxing time in France right now.

Tonight is "Boobs! The Musical". Think I'll grab a bite to eat at Alice's Tea Cup before the show.

I kind of want to see Gigantic (the They Might Be Giants documentary). I just emailed Jennifer to see if she wants to join me on Friday. I'd like to see it Friday since the director and producer will be there to talk about it. They will be there Saturday as well and the two Johns will be there Sunday and Monday, but Jon and Michelle will be staying with me then so it wouldn't really be convenient to see it on any of those days. But if I don't get to see it at all, that's fine too.

Rebecca's father wound up staying here last night so he wouldn't have to leave Jonathan's early this morning to help Rebecca get to the airport. They left around 9:30, and now I have 2 days to get ready for my next guests. This is really becoming a routine for me. But I really don't mind. I like having people here, it's just the laundry and cleaning that gets to me sometimes.

I've been having fun burning CDs. It's great to be able to make mixes again.

Another gloomy, freezing day today. I'm actually happy that it's gloomy. Perfect day for catching up on some GHs and last week's SFU.

I'm going to see Gigantic tomorrow night with Jennifer- looking forward to that. May is definitely a social month for me.

I also coloured my hair this morning. And the other day I got some red conditioner at Ricky's, so I'll try that on Sunday and see if it works.

I still need to clean the apartment, but I'll do that tomorrow morning before Jon & Michelle get here.

Tonight is Gigantic with Jennifer, but first, a few more hours of work (I've had quite a bit of work today).

I meant to mention this the other day. More and more people seem to be marrying and then living apart from each other. I guess it's mainly Ivy League/professional types that are doing this. Last year, Daniel and Naomi got married. Naomi is continuing to live in Baltimore while getting a Masters at Peobody and Daniel is doing his medical residency with the Navy Medical Center in Bethesda. The other night, Rebecca ran into friends from college at Dawat (small world). They're currently married and living in New Jersey, but before moving to New Jersey, one was in Chicago and one was in India (both doing some kind of graduate work). Kaori, a girl who was in 2 of my theatre classes, got married to a man when they were living in Japan. They both moved here for her husband's job. Her husband's job is moving him to France soon and she got accepted to a dance school in upstate New York. Don't know what their plans are for the near future. Rebecca's friend, Rose, is getting married tomorrow. Gary, the man she is marrying, got a job in Northhampton, MA and Rose got a job somewhere in Pennsylvania. They will be living apart for a while. My question is, why bother getting married? Why not just wait until they can settle down somewhere together? Is that even possible when working in a specialised field? Can 2 people in different fields manage to be in the same city at the same time? I guess most professional people marry other professional people and all of them put their careers first. They must look at marriage as something to have during their downtime at work and understand if their spouses downtime doesn't coinside with their downtime too often.

Is it me, or do New York Times articles seem less innovative/interesting/informative since their recent scandals?

So, last night was fun. Gigantic was a quirky documentary that fit the band well. Jennifer was in 2 parts of it, the show that they kept showing throughout and the show at Tower Records at the end (I think I saw her at the end). I liked how they didn't make a big deal that their album came out on September 11th. The producers answered some questions after it was over, and someone actually asked why they stopped the documentary on September 10th. They said that they had already planned on ending it there and didn't want to add anything extra and wind up sentimentalising anything that happened after. Now I'm really looking forward to their "Apollo 18" show at Joe's Pub (Jennifer has tickets and said I could have one). And I should look into their later albums since I left off with "Apollo 18" (I tried listening to "John Henry" a few times but never got into it).

The city was quiet last night- somewhat empty trains during rush hour, no big crowd at the movie, fewer honking horns last night... Are people out of town for Memorial Day weekend even though the weather is supposed to be crappy at all nearby locations? Maybe people flew down to Florida to escape the cold?

Speaking of cold (here comes another weather related comment), it was FREEZING last night. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt with a heavy sweater, and when the wind picked up, I thought having a winter coat would have been nice. A winter coat? On May 23? What is this global warming I keep hearing about?

There were armed guards at the subway stations last night. Guess we're still on orange terror alert. I really hate this colour system. Bill Mahr had a nice bit on that when he talked about acting differently depending on the colour of the day. And then he went on about how it was like a weather forcast, "Well, we're on full orange today, tapering off to yellow by this evening...".

It was fun to be back in my old neighbourhood last night. Every time I've been back since I lived there (only 2-3 times, I think), the neighbourhood made me feel cozy. There were a lot of places that I remember from 10 years ago that are still around- Big Enchilada, Japonica, that little bagel place that I used to like...). I know I say this a lot, but I really should go down to the Village and LES more often. There are so many fun, non-mainstream places down there, unlike my "neighbourhood". I did just find a little take-out bakery/cafe type place near me that's open on Saturday (it's kind of crappy but is at least open). I got a danish and some iced tea that I'll hopefully eat later this afternoon if I ever get hungry. I found the place after I finished up a few little errands this morning- have to remember it for next time.

Oh, last night I saw the sign that my uptown 6 train subway entrance is closed because of the "Future Headquarters of Bloomberg" building construction until March 2004. Kind of frustrating, especially in bad weather.

Yesterday on my way out, my doorman asked how I was, and I said I was fine. He said he wished he could say the same and that life was so hard but assumed you had to get through it somehow. How was I supposed to respond to that? I just nodded and mumbled some sort of agreement. Guess he was having a bad day. I don't usually get people randomly telling me something depressing like that. Paula does though- people recognise instantly that she'll give them a sympathetic ear and possibly advise if the conversation gets that far.

I finished cleaning up the apartment this morning and can now relax until Jon & Michelle get here. I hope they get here before I have to leave to meet Robyn just so they don't have to get settled in and find everything by themselves. When they had to stay here by themselves last summer because I was out of town, they slept in my room rather than the spare room (with clean sheets and towels) because "my room was cooler". It was cooler because I left the A/C on by accident (I usually remember to turn them all off before I head out of town). If they had taken the time to notice the heating/cooling unit in the spare room and living room, they would have figured out that they could adjust the temperature rather than sleep in my messy room.

Looking forward to the weekend. This afternoon/early evening I'll meet Robyn (hopefully it won't feel too rushed), tonight Jon, Michelle, Steven, and I are having the usual dinner with Brian (Michelle's cousin)- don't know when and where yet, tomorrow I get to hang out with Steven while Jon & Michelle go see a show, and Monday is the Yankees/Red Sox game (where I'll actually be routing for the Yankees to win since it would be exciting to see Roger Clemens get his 300th win).

It was nice getting together with Robyn yesterday. We had coffee at Caffee Med and she told me her good news- 2 months of working on a cruise ship. Those ship gigs really seem like a great deal- nice room, good food, tons of great travel, and of course you get paid to perform. So she'll be gone for the quiet summer months and will be back in the fall when things pick back up again- perfect situation. She has one more show here in June before she leaves. I might try to go, especially if I can find someone to join me.

After coffee, I came back here and waited for Brian (Michelle's cousin) to show up. Then Michelle's cousin, Trisha (she's gone out with us once or twice before), met all of us at Angelo's (I wouldn't make an effort to go back there). After we came back here and put Steven to bed, they all went out for dessert, and I stayed here (still wasn't hungry- I barely ate my soup at dinner).

Today Jon's waiting in line at TKTS and Michelle took Steven, I think, to the Natural History Museum. They were going to do the kids show at the planetarium, but they couldn't get ready this morning in time to do that. So they'll see a show this afternoon and I'll hang out with Steven. Don't know what's going on after that.

It's great having visitors when I don't have any papers to write.

Just saw that it's supposed to be rainy tomorrow. Should make for a lovely afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Guess this will be a start-and-finish-the-entry-with-the-topic-of-weather day.

This Bloomberg Tower site has some interesting information! I like following the progress of a building- never done that before.

Jon & Michelle saw "42nd Street" Sunday afternoon and liked it (they're not really picky). Steven was great while they were gone- he's a rather complacent one. We walked down 2nd to try to find somewhere for dinner, and they decided on Mimi's. I don't recommend that place- rude service, lousy food, and super-annoying piano man. Then we came back here, put Steven to bed, and watched "Fish Called Wanda" (that really is a great movie).

When we woke up Monday, it was pouring. It was pouring until around 1:00 when Jon & I decided to head up to Yankee Stadium since it was the main reason for their trip and we should at least go in case by some strange chance, there actually was a game. We got there around 1:45 and found out that they indeed would play! The game started around 2:45 and it didn't rain again until around the 8th inning (we left after the 6th when the Sox were up 8-3). What luck! And our seats weren't as bad as the seating chart made them look (that's backwards, aren't the seats usually worse?), so even I could see fairly well. It was freezing though; I had 2 cups of their crappy coffee, but I don't think they warmed me up much. I was wearing a warm shirt and leather jacket, but I was cold- especially when it was windy (which was most of the time). But the game was so much fun! I hadn't been to a baseball game since 2001, so it was long overdue. Now I want to go again soon (especially if it's a good matchup). The group behind us were the classic Yankee fans, amplified. They were SO OBNOXIOUS AND LOUD!! But sometimes even I found them funny, so it was kind of fun sitting in front of them. Jon & I just made sure not to let it slip who our favourite teams are. Oh, and Roger Clemens did not get his 300th win- the Red Sox won, 8-4.

Steven watched "Wiggles Dance Party" a bit while he was here, and I had some of those songs stuck in my head all day yesterday. Not my favourite.

I was reading something about ABCs new fall shows and REALLY don't like the idea of the new show "Threat Matrix". I really have a problem with Disney companies (like ABC) in general.

Recently I've been repeating conversations I've had with the same people. I hope this doesn't become more common- I don't want to get senile yet.

I have a new theory as to why my cordless phone doesn't stay charged very well. The phone barely touches the charger in the cradle. I need to find something that will hold the phone down against the charger easily but hopefully won't be too much hassle. Anyone have any suggestions before I start thinking about it myself?

This morning I decided to get someone else working on finding flights to Bangkok for me since every time I check, the fares have drastically gone up. They should be getting back to me this afternoon. If they don't, I'll call them tomorrow or the next day; I'm not in a rush. But I did decide on the dates. I'll leave here on the 1st of October and return the 14th. I'll stay in Bangkok the entire time and explore the city and do day trips to non-urban areas on my days off. Very excited!

I'm not worrying about how this trip will effect the school semester until I know more about my classes. I actually don't think it will be too bad though. Missing 3 classes in a row won't be great, but it shouldn't be too difficult to catch up. I'm only signed up for 2 classes- the psych class is a lecture class so hopefully it won't have too many papers, and stage management shouldn't have papers (it will probably have a lot of work, but I'm assuming it will be stuff I can bring to Bangkok with me). I shouldn't get my hopes up too much though since this is Hunter, and everything about Hunter is more difficult than it needs to be.

I'm so glad this isn't a hectic day. I don't have anything that absolutely needs to be finished by today, so I can take my time doing things and take rest breaks along the way. I love being able to have a day like this after guests leave. And they left the apartment looking very neat, so I'll just have laundry to do later. I think I'll even watch a movie tonight (seriously this time).

I'm about to watch "Eyes Wide Shut", but I was just wondering if anyone can answer a question for me. Why was this movie so controversial?

I hate seeing Claratin commercials right after seeing an anti-drug commercial.

I booked my flight to Bangkok. Well, I haven't gotten the email confirmation yet (which I'll look into tomorrow if I haven't heard by then), but close enough. Can't wait to research fun things to do there.

I can procrastinate and not clean the apartment one more day. Tomorrow I have to clean things up since Paula and Harvey are coming up on Friday (I think).

I've still been looking at the world differently these days. I think a lot about history and how people lived at different times. I think about mainstream culture and about how so much of it bothers me. I think about how few people I know who aren't completely (or almost completely) wrapped up in mainstream culture. I think about how things are made (entertainment, products, relationships...). It's refreshing to look at everything differently even if it can be a bit confusing at times in terms of thinking about how to live life.

But for tonight, I plan on having another relaxing night. I could get used to this!

Another person sent me an MP3 of "Making Love in a Subaru" yesterday. Strange that I hear nothing for a few months, and then hear 2 people within a week of each other.

The apartment is clean (minus a few odds and ends that I need to put away at some point today). But even with all the beds I've made in my life, I'm still not very good at it. My sheets are never tucked in right and my pillow cases are almost always crooked. And when I fold sheets and blankets, it always looks messy. I guess it's just one of my weak points (as are most things domestic).

I caught up on about half of the personal email I've received this past week. Why do I not hear from people for months and then everyone writes within the same week?

I started looking into hotels for Bangkok (which reminds me, I have to go call to find out why I didn't receive the confirmation for my flight- okay, I just called and she said that she hasn't sent it yet), and the convention centre is confusing me. I can't figure out where it is and if it's easily accessible to public transportation. I guess we can take cabs every day if there isn't any public transportation, but I'm assuming they would have the convention centre conveniently located to transportation. There are plenty of nice, inexpensive hotels- I'll finish looking into that later and then let Neil make the decision since he cares more about the room than I do (all I care about is that it's quiet, which I'll just have to hope it is).

The more I prepare for this trip, the more excited I get. But I really should be thinking more about some of the details for my road trip since that comes first. But I want my road trip to be as unplanned as possible. The problem is that when I stay with people, I need to give them dates, so I can't just wander around without paying attention to the dates and time. I'm not thinking about any of this today though.

Paula and Harvey are coming up tomorrow around noon and leaving on Saturday (don't know when). Harvey's working tomorrow night, so Paula and I will find somewhere fun for dinner.

One thing I will do in planning for my road trip is to burn some CDs this weekend.

Two nights ago I remembered that I hadn't had an occular migraine in a while. Last night I got one. I have to stop thinking about such things. Fortunately, it only lasted a little under an hour.

Last night I missed the NRV. I feel like it's been a while since I've missed it though, so I guess it was time. Maybe it had something to do with hearing from Andy the other day.

I called the office to talk to Jeffrey about hotels in Bangkok, and Kim answered the phone. I forgot she was working there part time now. Who hasn't worked there at one point or another? Anyway, he told me of a few possible hotels, and if I can't find a good deal online, his wife can try to book it through her company in Bangkok since it could be cheaper that way. The convention centre is far from Bangkok (about a 30 minute ride without traffic, but there will be traffic), but I'd rather stay in the city since it will be more convenient for the days off, and Neil would rather stay in the city since the hotels are nicer. So I'll talk to Neil later today and see what he wants to do.

Harvey was using my phone all day, so I decided it was a good day to see a movie. I probably should have tried some clothes shopping instead, but I felt like being bad (I feel like I haven't been in a productive mood in a while, but I'm okay with that). So I went to see "A Mighty Wind" (so glad it was playing down the street from me). I liked a lot of it, but it still wasn't as entertaining as "Waiting for Guffman".

Tonight, I'm going to dinner at 212 Restaurant with Paula. Looking forward to finally trying that place.

And I don't really want to end with a comment about the weather again, but I will anyway. It's now getting rather dark outside, as if we're going to get a storm soon. But we probably won't. It will probably be dark and hazy and then when the sun sets (I just realised that I haven't seen a sunset in AGES), it will be really dark and hazy. I'm still hoping for a thunderstorm (although it won't be fun walking to the restaurant when it's pouring).

One of my grades is finally posted. I actually got an A- in World Theatre II. I guess I did well enough on the final. I know I got a B in Human Development, but the grade isn't posted yet (the instructor was always a little late).

Dinner last night at 212 Restaurant was nice- good food, good drinks, good company. After, we stopped in for a drink at Opia (nothing special).

I plan on starting the complicated process of burning some more CDs today (so lucky that I still have this extra computer). Of course it would be easier to get a CD burner to use with my own computer, but for now, transfering files from my computer to the other ones via zip disk will have to do. It's certainly better than nothing. I can't wait to have all my road trip music. The other day I downloaded songs with all the states I'll be going through in the title (Utah, Colorado, Nebraska...), and I already have some songs on CD with state titles (Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio...).

I think I'll also deal with the mail today while watching yesterday's GH.

I should also probably straighten the apartment today and call to get some 420 (I still feel somewhat weird with the current guy for some reason, but it's worth it).

I realised last night that since Neil and I will be sharing a hotel room in Bangkok, I could leave most of my stuff in that room and do a convenient overnight trip to somewhere interesting. Cambodia, Vietnam, haven't figured out where yet. I'll look into it sometime in the next month. Maybe I'll start looking into it tomorrow (which is the next month). Sounds like a nice, relaxing Sunday activity.

I can't believe tomorrow is the SFU season finale. Fortunately, I have plans the following Sunday (They Might Be Giants concert), so I won't feel a void in my Sunday night. By the Sunday after that one, I should be over the void.

Going out Sunday June 8th means I'll miss watching the TONYs for the 3 year in a row. I really don't care about missing this year though. In my opinion, except for "Long Day's Journey into Night" and maybe a few other decent productions that I can't think of off the top of my head, this theatre season has been pretty unexciting and most of the "big stars" don't interest me (Bernadette Peters, Harvey Fierstein...), so I won't care about missing their speeches.

Okay, time to go hook up the other computer and start making interesting CDs (I plan on doing a jazz compilation, a Broadway compilation, a cheesy 80s music compilation, and if I have any free CD-Rs left, I'll do some other sort of compilation.

Just checked, I have 4 CD-Rs, so I'll do 1 random mix of stuff. Oh, but wait, I wanted to do the state CD. Guess I'll have to buy some more CD-Rs soon.

Oh, and it's another cool, cloudy, and gloomy day in the city. I really hope I find something else to write about later today since I don't want the last thing in my May 2003 journal to be about the crappy weather.

I had fun burning CDs this afternoon. Can't wait until more CR-Rs arrive.

I think I might watch a movie tonight.

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