NYC & NYE

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And now, on to the entry



Sometimes I hate standing still.

To be honest, I'm never very good at it (thank you, ADHD). I feel a constant need to fidget, move, dance... Staying in one place doesn't appeal to me.

I've loved having this break from work for awhile. It's nice to remember who you are when you're not scheduled to be anywhere. Schedule-less, other plans start to form in my nebular life. (I wanted to write "nebulaic", but according to spellcheck and a search on Google, "nebular" is the correct form. Go figure.)

My family decided to take a trip into New York City for the day on Saturday. I went along, somewhat begrudgingly. When I was younger, I had a love affair with Manhattan. I thought it was magical somehow. I thought I belonged there. That feeling has waned. Now when I walk through Times Square, I see a tourist attraction. Maybe it's just because I live in Chicago, but New York seems sort of fake to me now. I've become less enchanted with it. Not that there's anything wrong with New York; it just isn't want I wanted it to be.

We elected to see a Broadway show while we were in town. After a great deal of debate over what show we should see (and, it seemed, no one being 100% happy with the chosen show... the joys of compromise), we ended up getting tickets to The Farnsworth Invention. It's the first non-musical I've ever seen on Broadway (as my family generally gravitates toward spectacle), which means I can cross something else off of my list of things to do before I die ("see a play on Broadway": check!). And, I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I found it to be entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking. And I got a little emotional near the end of the play. I don't think the rest of my family got quite as much out of it as I did, but I don't think there's any way they could have. My brothers aren't ever going to appreciate theatre the way I do. My father was still disappointed that we hadn't gone to see Cyrano de Bergerac (which, actually, three of us voted for, but we didn't see due to a misunderstanding of who-wanted-what), so nothing was going to completely please him. And my mother... I think she just really wanted to go see something big and shiny like Mamma Mia! for the fourth time, which this play most definitely was not. Ah well. I loved it. And as the resident actor of the family, I like to think that my opinion matters most in this case. Or maybe not.

While in the city, we also went on a hunt for Pinkberry, which my brother and I had read about online and wanted to experience firsthand. Pinkberry is a sort of frozen dessert (I don't know if it's a frozen yogurt or ice cream or what... I'm not even sure it's dairy). It comes in two flavors: "Pinkberry" (Pinkberry-flavored Pinkberry ingredients list: "straw, rasp, blue, blackberries, & pinkberry"... what the heck a pinkberry is, I still don't know) and "Green Tea" ("green tea & pinkberry", which my dad preferred but the rest of us were repulsed by). It was a good experience. My mother described the icy mystery treat as "frozen yogurt crossed with lemon Italian ice". Frighteningly addictive. I got mine with blueberries. One of my brothers got his with diced mango and Cap'n Crunch, which I thought was an intriguing combination. My other brother referred to it as "Crackberry", saying that one of his classmates spent a good portion of her internship at an advertising agency retrieving Pinkberry for the models.

One other thrilling thing happened in the city. In November, I bought a lovely hat that I adored. I brought it to Connecticut for Thanksgiving, and then promptly lost it upon my return to Chicago (perhaps even in the airport... I don't remember it making it back to my apartment). Today, my brother spotted an identical hat on the table of a street vendor. I happily plunked down another $10 payment to replace my missing headpiece (I'm horrible at bartering... I probably should've tried to talk him down to $8). I'm thrilled. I hope the original hat is very happy, wherever it has ended up. And I hope that if I ever cross paths with it again, it won't be too resentful of its doppelgänger.

So that was New York.

And now, for the New Year.

After a great deal of debate over whether it could, should, or would happen, I found a way to get to Michigan for New Year's Eve, and I'm ecstatic about it. I'll only be in town for a brief whisper of a stay (so I won't be able to see most of the people I love there... sorry guys!), but that's enough for me. It's more than I thought I'd get.

There's a familiarity that I long for.
There are people that I crave.
There are things that need to be said.
And there are some things that can only be sorted out in person.

Sorry for being cryptic, but there's not much else I can say about it until it happens. Or doesn't.

To recycle an emotion from Sondheim that I find myself quoting repeatedly, I feel "excited; well, excited AND scared."

I think it'll be a good trip.


May you never stand still for too long.

~A~


P.S. Favorite "Apples-to-Apples" play of the night: I won "Feminine" with "Feminists". HA! Awesome. Also, my dad won "Insulting" with "Helen Keller", proving the versatility of the card.