So as I mentioned, my sister and her boyfriend fiance are in town.
We have been hanging out some, and having a good time together. I really like him a lot and I couldn't be happier for them over their engagement.
We also got to go shopping together. Let me tell you, I love taking people shopping when they let me help pick things out for them. And I'm good at it, too. I can tell what will look good on someone and I give pretty damn good fashion advice, if I may say so myself (remind me to tell you the story about helping my boss prepare for the formal gala at some point).
Anyhow, sister's fiance needed a new black suit, and we were in Barney's. Sister wanted him to look at suits there, and so did he. And they were on sale. I said, "OK, fine, try them on, but don't buy anything until I take you to this other store."
Said other store was Sym's. I have sung the praises of Sym's before, and now I got to teach said lesson to sister and future brother-in-law.
It was funny, though, in the men's department. Sister kept pulling out all these suits which, while they were lovely, were not what FBIL had described as what he was looking for. Know also that FBIL is an ADA (Assistant District Attorney, not Americans with Disabilities Act, mind you), so he needs power-lawyer suits that don't break the bank.
After Sister pulled out the umpteenth light brown tweed suit, I figured I had some explaining to do.
"Sister, that's not really a lawyer suit."
"What kind of suit is it?"
"Um... it's an accountant suit."
"It is? Oh, ok."
I pulled out a couple more lawyer suits and thrust them at FBIL.
And then she pulled out another one... a dark grey with some funky pin-stripes.
"How about this one?" she asked.
"Architect suit," quoth I.
At this point, another guy -- a total stranger -- in the department decided that HE had to ask for my advice too. He pulled down a suit (one my sister had suggested for FBIL that I promptly rejected) and said, "what about this one?"
I said, "What do you do, sir?"
He replied that he was a "Health Care Administrator."
"Go for it!" I approved.
We ultimately found two lawyer suits for less than one suit would have cost at Barney's.
Damn, I'm good. I should probably start charging.
So not only was yesterday just a simply gorgeous day - one of the most beautiful ever, at least this year - it was also a momentous occasion in my family.
My sister got engaged to be married! And she asked me to be a bridesmaid.
Whee... I think I'm going to see if my other sister (who is also the other bridesmaid) agrees that a bachelorette weekend for the three of us in Las Vegas is in order!
It's not like I did anything particularly strenuous, sadly. I took a walk, about a mile and a half, I carried some groceries, ran an errand, came home, ate some of said groceries, watched TV, and knitted.
And even though I had slept 10 hours last night, and even though I didn't wake up until almost noon, at shortly after 5:00pm, I was so tired I had to take a nap.
And I napped for almost three hours.
I don't feel sick; I have no idea what caused this irrational need to napping. The fact that I was up yesterday from 6am until about 2am should have been offset by sleeping til noon, yes?
Maybe my groceries were laced with Ambien.
So mostly lately, I've been at work. It's been, as I probably have mentioned, pretty stressful. The hotel has been really busy as of late - the kind of busy we used to have before September, 2001. Which was also the time before the mass layoffs. Sadly, they have not hired back all the people who have been laid off, so there are less people doing just as much work as there ever was. It's keeping us all on our toes.
The personal life has been a bit more fun lately, though! Two real live men have agreed (at least in principle) to have dinner with me. One was someone who I met at the big party on Monday night. At the after-party, I got to cop a pretty damn good feel of his (pretty damn great) ass, which was rather exciting! He got a bit drunk, though, but it was all good. Hopefully it'll be even more good the next time. We shall see.
Yesterday was one of my days off this week. Today is not. Yes, I have split days this week; that's rather unpleasant, but what can you do. I'm working 8-5, after which I am heading over to Lincoln Center (probably during some lovely rain, it seems), to see the American Ballet Theatre do some rather lovely Balanchine stuff. It should be really nice. I don't know a lot about ballet, but I am learning as I go, and I do so enjoy looking at the hot guys in tights, so it's all good.
I'm sure there are more things I could think of to tell you but it's 6:30am and I have to go shower and find some coffee. Need coffee... coffee...
So I can't usually tell work stories, but I figure I will for this one, although I'm changing the names to protect the hotel guests...
There's a guest in the hotel, and he's titled, as frequently happens. This one is a count. And it just so happens that he's going to the theatre tonight.
"Q Street?" he asks, not entirely remembering the name of the show.
I convince him that it's "Avenue Q." He agrees, and asks me to make a reservation for him to have dinner after the show.
So I call the restaurant, and say, "The Count would like to come after the theatre."
"Which show is he coming from," the reservationist asks, as they usually do, because they all know what time the customer will arrive after the show.
"Avenue Q," I inform her.
"What the heck is an Italian Count doing seeing 'Avenue Q'?" she asks.
Quick on my feet, I put on my best accent and recite:
"I-a see-a one puppet... I-a see-a two puppet..."
We both started laughing so hard...
There's a teacher in a small Texas town. She asks her class how many of
them are Bush fans.
Not really knowing what a Bush fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raise their hands except one boy, Johnny.
The teacher asks Johnny why he has decided to be different. Johnny says, "I'm not a Bush fan."
The teacher says, "Why aren't you a Bush fan?"
Johnny says, "I'm a John Kerry fan."
The teacher asks why he's a John Kerry fan.
The boy says, "Well, my mom's a John Kerry fan, and my Dad's a John Kerry fan, so I'm a John Kerry fan!"
The teacher is kind of angry, because this is Texas, so she says, "What if your Mom was a moron, and your dad was an idiot, what would that make you?"
Johnny says, "That would make me a Bush fan."
Well, I'll be horizontal soon enough.
So here's the deal: I worked on Tuesday from 3pm until 2am. I was off on Wednesday. I slept til about noon. I then found out that I was going to have to work today (Thursday). So I went to bed last night at 9:30 but couldn't really sleep -- not well until about 3am, and when the alarm went off at 5:30, you can bet I wasn't a happy camper. But I worked again today from 7am to 5pm (yes, 11 hours of overtime this week at time and a half pays for something coming up in the blog entry...)
Trouble was, I had dinner plans that sort of involved running by the dry cleaner next door to the apartment, picking up my suit and putting it on before going to eat. Well, since I got out from work an hour later than anticipated, I didn't really have time for that, but I wasn't really dressed for dinner. I ran over to the Gap to see if they had anything fun and cheap, and while they did, it wasn't what I was looking for. So I went to Sym's. Sym's is awesome. Manhattanites, do you know it? It's a great discount clothing store on 54th at Park. I got a beautiful Givenchy cashmere blend (but 75% cashmere) sportcoat for $129. Including tax. Yes, the OT pays for that. And I really like it. It's a lovely sportcoat, and I needed a sportcoat anyhow. (It's an interesting ochre-y color, in case you care.)
Then I got fitted for a dinner jacket (rental) for a party I'm going to on Monday. Remember last year's masked ball? This year's theme is "Prom Night." So I'm wearing a white dinner jacket, just like I did to my prom. And I have a real live girl date. Should be fun!
After that, I grabbed a venti soy hazelnut latte at Starbucks (I know it's evil but it was better than falling asleep at dinner). Next I putzed around the Virgin Mega-store and Colony Records for a little bit before having dinner at Oceo, a new(ish) restaurant on 49th Street. It was fun. I dined with a colleague, and his lover showed up just after we ordered (we'd spent a good hour at the bar, discussing, among other things, the glory and wonder that is TiVo. This may sound odd, but my favorite thing about the restaurant was their glassware (Baccarat). The waiter had a nice perky ass, too, which didn't hurt. The food was good, but my lobster was a tad over-done. Otherwise it was lovely. Have you ever tried Magellan Gin (it's blue and delicious!)?
Then, tired but hopefully optimistic after a double espresso, I walked down 8th Avenue to 37th Street and the Zipper Theatre to see "Here Lies Jenny."
And right as I walked up to the theatre, who emerged from her Town Car but good ole Ann Reinking!!! Now, you may not know this, but I sat next to Miss R. at the final preview performance of "Fosse." So I said, "Gosh, I know you..." and she (appeared to have) remembered me. And she had to wait in line after me, which was kind of surreal. I gave her my card and told her that if she ever needs any concierging, to give me a call. We had a really nice (albeit short) chat.
The show, you ask? Well, Bebe is a wonderful performer. The show doesn't exactly have a story. It's sort of like a staged Kurt Weill cabaret with dance. And sort of like a master-class in being Bebe. All of which is fabulous. I started to get a little tired at the end, but well, I've been up since 5:30am. I think I can be forgiven at least a little bit.
I'll say this much: If you're a Bebe Neuwirth fan, go see it. If you're a Kurt Weill fan, go see it. If you're dull and boring, stay home. If you're gay and cute and single and like what you've been reading here (and you live within reasonable distance!), drop me a line or ask me why I'm not reading your blog.
And that's that for tonight!
I got up early this morning: 5:30am. Why?
Because I was IMing with a colleague yesterday. He's sick as a dog and can't work today. So I volunteered to work his 7am shift for him.
Mind you that I already had a number of things planned for today: a 6:00pm tuxedo fitting, an 8:00pm dinner, and the 11:00pm performance of Bebe Neuwirth's new show, "Here Lies Jenny."
I think I'm going to need a lot of coffee...
In other news, how did I score higher on google for John Tartaglia than the Internet Broadway Database does?
What the fuck!?!??! An Elvis musical? This is the last thing that Broadway needs. I am so upset that Broadway has devolved from land of wonderful, amazing theatre and music into a cheesy world of tourists and bottom lines.
There are great song writers out there, but they're not producing their work on the scale it needs to be to develop them into the song-writers they are, and the Broadway musical as we know it is really dying. If not dead.
Millie was written by committee. "The Boy from Oz" is a tired rehash of nothing new, led by a movie star. "Caroline, or Change" isn't going to last because it's not entertaining the way that Broadway of old was.
It's a shame that it's gotten too expensive to produce a show.
Argh, I'm just upset abou this and I can't even write coherently... but hopefully you have at least a clue what I mean...
So someone at work stands to get a (minor) promotion. I didn't really even want it.
Then my boss took me aside last night to tell me that I wasn't getting it. And I hadn't even wanted it.
And yet, somehow, I was disappointed that I didn't get it.
Isn't that weird?
Anyhow, nothing too exciting going on. I will say, I was disappointed that a lot of shows I really enjoyed from the recent TV season have been cancelled -- particularly "Whoopi" and "Married to the Kellys." I was also sad about "It's All Relative," but as I have said before about that show, after NBC started to run "Scrubs" opposite it, in that 9:30pm slot on Tuesdays, well, "Scrubs" won for me, so I guess I can't complain too much about "It's All Relative." Although I'd marry Christopher Seiber well before I'd marry Zach Braff. But I'd take either one on a trip to Massachusetts, if they'd only ask...
With Festive Mood, Gay Weddings begin in Massachusetts
Hip Hip Hooray!
Hip Hip Hooray!
Hip Hip Hooray!
My eyes started to well up while reading it...
...until I got to the part about that imbecile, the "Rev." Fred Phelps and his dozen or so protesters from Kansas. This is the man, my friends, who protests at Matthew Shephard's funeral. This is an evil, evil man. I will have a big party the day he dies.
In the meantime, I wish I could be at the big party in Boston today, and I send my sincerest congratulations (and a toaster) to each and every one of the couples who were married today.
So I was told by a friend (actually, a former professor from my alma mater, who I visited with when I was in Texas) that eHarmony is a great online dating service, largely because it's not just about hooking up but about relationship minded people. And she said she thought she knew some gay guys who had used it.
Well, she was wrong.
Check out the part of their FAQ about Same Sex dating. "eHarmony's research has only examined heterosexual relationships."
Rat bastards.
Granted, we have our own online dating sites, but do any of them ever seem like anything for finding more than Mr. Right Now?
(Now do you wonder why I'm single?)
This is turning out, as I write it, to be a long, sad, depressing blog entry. Read if it you like, but don't say I didn't warn you. After all, if I can't be honest in my blog, where the fuck can I?:
So I saw "The Normal Heart" again at the Public this evening. It's such an angry, powerful play. It makes me be mad at myself for all the stuff I haven't done.
It makes me angry at myself for how alone I am. It makes me depressed about the fact that I am alone. Yes, I have some friends, I have a lot more work "friends" than I have real friends. I can count the "real" ones on one hand, and have fingers left over.
Wow, can we see anyone typing in this room who needs therapy? I know I should seek it out, but I have a problem with it. I'm not 100% sure why. I mean, my dad is a psychiatrist, so I understand that there's not a stigma against therapy. I've been in therapy before, and I've been on Prozac. It wasn't terrible, aside from the fact that I'd be horny as hell and couldn't get hard to save my life. Not that I had anyone to worry about being horny with...
It's been over 2 years since I actually kissed someone I wanted to kiss. Yes, I've done the air kisses, and the kisses with a couple of "tricks" (pretty much in sex clubs. God forbid I should have the luck to actually pick someone up who would want to go home with me...) but it's not the same as kissing someone you care about; kissing someone you really want to be kissed by.
I'm not sure I've ever really been in love. I thought I was probably in love once, a long time ago. I was in college. I met this amazing guy and feel head over heels for him. Trouble is, it turned out he was seeing three or four other guys at the same time. He told me he was going to leave them all and be with me, but he didn't. I was so upset. And very naive, too. The thing that made it harder to deal with was the fact that about one month after our last conversation, his roommate (and another ex-lover) called me to tell me that he was dead; the memorial service would be held at blah blah blah church and so on. And the memorial service never talked about the guy I knew; the guy I loved. It was for him, but it was all about someone I'd never even met. You can bet that didn't help matters.
The next guy I dated seriously was a sweetheart; he was an undergrad, and I was in grad school at the time. We had a great time together. Great meals, fun conversations, awesome sex. I could have married him, I think. Trouble was, after a couple months he decided that he wasn't ready to be in a committed anything, didn't want to be tied down, wanted to play the field and the gay scene (he was relatively newly out of the closet.... learned that lesson). So I figured, well, what can I do? And I let him go. About a week after he left me, he started dating this other guy who he was with for four or five years. He's since left that guy and gotten married to another guy (who I met; he's really nice) and, last I heard, was moving to Tuscon.
Did these boyfriend-gone-bad situations help foster a fear of intimacy? I don't know. The last time I felt serious about a guy who appeared to feel serious back towards me, I flipped. Yes, this was a few years ago, too. He was nice, he was cute, he had a good job (he was an assistant artistic director of a local theatre company, how cool is that?). Trouble is, I flipped out. I decided that he had bad breath (I don't think he did; I really am not sure), and I used it as a fact to justify dumping him which I did shortly after (perhaps even on the train back from) a two or three day trip we had taken together to Washington. As far as I can tell, that's the only time I ever got to be the dump-er.
Then I started doing the gym thing hard core. I decided that the social pressures of the NYC gay scene were too much about having a body I didn't have. So I got it. Well, I never got the abs, but I got pretty damn close to being damn hot. And I could get laid really easily. And it was fun. A lot of fun. But no one ever wanted me for me. They just cared about the package. And that's no fun.
So I got burned out on the exercise and I've gained most if not all of the weight back. And I'm terribly depressed about that. And I'm one of those people who eats when he gets depressed, which doesn't help.
It's not that I'm shy. I'm pretty affable. I'm smart; I care about people a lot. I just can't let anyone in close. I don't know... I just feel like I have all this potential that I haven't lived up to, and even if they can't, I think that guys can sense it about me. And that it's got to be a turn-off. And when you combine that with the tummy, well... it's not a fun package at all.
Sometimes I have suicidal thoughts. I know that I would never act on these impulses, but sometimes they go through my brain. Tonight, after the play, depressed as hell, waiting on the subway platform, I thought, what's to stop me from jumping in front of the 6 train... I didn't, as you can see. I don't think it would be fair to my parents and my sisters and my co-workers. And there are things in life that I really enjoy and look forward to: fine dining, good theatre and opera, travel. It's just that when I was little, it never occurred to me that I'd be going to these things all my adult life on my own. Sure, from time to time I get to borrow someone else's husband, or I find an acquaintence who wants to come with, but I always thought I deserved to have a husband of my own.
I've dreamed about him for so long, but as each day goes by, I become less and less convinced that I'll ever get to meet him. And less and less convinced that anyone out there would actually want me. I don't know why; I have so much good stuff to offer. I guess there's just a lot of baggage that I'm not sure why anyone would want to have to carry it through the airport of life...
Damn mail-person...
I was happily sleeping (yes, at 1:30pm) and heard a buzz on my door buzzer. So I got up, groggily wondering who the hell it was, to press the button. At which time, whoever had been pressing the door buzzed more and longer, which isn't supposed to happen. Kept buzzing and buzzing and buzzing.
I put some pants on, threw on a shirt and pair of shoes, and went down to see what the fuck was going on.
It was the stupid mail-wench (not PC, but that's how I felt about it at the moment), with my TLA delivery. Hooray for 5.1 remastered "Sweeney Todd."
Speaking of Sondheim musicals, I saw "Assassins" last night at Studio 54. It was well done, well acted, well put together, and so forth. But what the hell? Watching it, my only question was, why the fuck do these people merit having a musical written about themselves? How many other musicals are there where you aren't really allowed to even like a single character in the show? Even in tragic opera, there's usually someone you're allowed to hate, but at the same time, there's supposed to be someone you feel sympathy for, too. Faust sells his soul because he cares too much, so you can sort of like him. I can't come up with another play where you're really not able to like any of the main characters.
And the asssassins?
These guys are just fuckin' insane.
Granted, there are some funny scenes and a few good laughs, but mostly, the reactions were awkward, rooted in tension or in enthusiasm for the performers -- but never once (in my opinion) in sympathy for a character. And you need that sort of connection to have riveting theatre.
I think it's very telling that there was no standing ovation at the end of the evening. Any of you have any better ideas as to why this is good theatre?
Paid for by the Friends of Avenue Q Committee to win the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical.
So brilliant.
Well, one of the joyous experiences of my recent trip to Texas involved alcohol. Obscene, extreme amounts of alcohol. A night which rivaled my most drinking-est undergraduate days (or nights).
A night which began with wine at dinner, progressed to margaritas, tequila shots, and lots and lots of beer. Dark, delicious Texas beer.
We spent most of the evening at this very touristy "Dueling Pianos" bar called Howl at the Moon. Has anyone ever been someplace like this? It's very silly but tons of fun and so you forget about those smart concepts like how much you are supposed to drink. And you end up drinking beer. Lots and lots of beer. Beer which goes down like water...
...and comes up like bad salmon.
Yup, I worshipped the porcelain goddess. Now, I haven't been puke-drunk since New Year's, 1998. So maybe I was due? But it was not the most pleasant experience. Although there was a moment of supreme amusment (yes, amusement from puking) when I realized that the toilet seat in my San Antonio hotel room was made by a company called Church. So not only was I worshipping the Porcelain Goddess; she was a true Church!
Anyhow, the hangover the next morning was NOT pleasant, and everyone was very amused by my hangover. I was so glad to provide a laugh... Except I had to tell them to be quiet...
I'm better now, though! Mostly because for the entire remaining four days in Texas, I merely had two margaritas.
So for me, I'd say the biggest surprise about the Tony Nominations was that John Cariani was nominated for his perfomance as Motel the Tailor. Like Mike, I'm sad that Ann Harada didn't get nominated, but I really thought that there was nothing deserving about Cariani's performance. I thought he was frenetic and crazed and didn't fit in with the general sensibility of the production.
I'm also rather amused (but not at all surprised) that Puffy didn't get nominated while both his co-stars (Ms. Rashad, and one of my perennial faves, Miss Audra) did. Wait til the Public Editor gets his hands on that topic.
I'm thrilled that John Tartaglia and Stephanie D'Abruzzo were both recognized for their work in "Avenue Q" although I agree, again, with Mike, that Rick Lyon needs to be recognized for his contribution to the show (does the "Best Musical" nomination cover that?). Perhaps their needs to be a "Best Puppets" category...
Anyhow, if "Bombay Dreams" can get three nominations, what does this mean about the state of Broadway in general?
On to other topics: Yes, I'm back from Texas. I had a great time. I know I should feel compelled to blog about it, but I just haven't gotten there yet. I will. I promise, I will. I was going to last night, but I decided to enter all the business cards I got into my PDA, and you can bet that took a while, and after that, well, I didn't feel like typing anymore.
I'm seeing "Assassins" on Wednesday, hooray. And "The Normal Heart" for the second time on Thursday. I'm not entirely sure I'm up to it, but I'll take my box of kleenex and sob away. And I'm rather excited about "Here Lies Jenny" which I am going to see next week.
So that's that, and I'll try and think of some more clever things to tell you about. Soon. Promise...
Yes, indeed, everything is bigger here. Except for prices.
All you can eat BBQ, which is what I had for dinner, at a fabulous spot here in Austin called County Line on the Lake. Suffice it to say that this place alone is worth the trip. Anyhow, it's all you can eat, and with a pint of Shiner Bock, which is a beer that is extremely hard to find outside of Texas but is one of the only beers I actually enjoy drinking, and with a tip for the (cute) waiter, the bill was $27. And I was stuffed. Cole Slaw, Potato Salad, Beans, Ribs, Brisket and Sausage... Mmmmmm...
Anyhow, the trip has been an amazing journey down memory lane - both culinarily and on a very personal level, as well. I lived in Texas from 1990 until 1997 (at school but I count it as "life"), in Houston and Austin, which are the two ciities I've been in the past few days. It's very strange and on some levels, quite sad. When I lived here, I never imagined that I would have the life I have today in NYC. It's not that I'm not happy with where I am professionally; it's just that I thought I'd probably be working in the arts - specifically in opera -- and so it's quite strange to be so far removed from that. Yes, I see a lot of opera (including a mediocre production of "Turandot" in Houston on Friday), but it's not the same as being backstage, as saying "Gosh, I think this is a fabulous idea" or "Wouldn't it make more sense to do it this way?" I miss that.
I miss being young, on some levels. Yes, with youth came its inherent stupidity and naivete but damn, there's something to be said for that. And it was a lot easier to get laid. And damn there are a lot of hotties here in Texas! I feel rather intimidated and inspired to get back on the diet plan in a big way... although I'm enjoying the Texas food just a bit too much to start back on the diet right away. Fajitas are just too rare in NYC to pass these up. I'll start jogging next week. No, really...
Anyhow, I probably have a lot more things to say about the trip, and I know I have a lot of things to say about our government (Did anyone read that article on Scalia in today's Times? (Sorry for not linking directly to the article) I just can't stand him...)
But I have a nice hotel room and I'm going to go enjoy it for a bit while I try to decide if I am going to go out tonight and not get laid again...