Week #11: Chevy Chase, Bikram, Broadway, and disappointing burgers

I'm going to get right to the meat of the week, starting with Sunday night. We went to the free show of UCB again and...CHEVY CHASE WAS IN THE SHOW!! Yes, THE Chevy Chase from classics like National Lampoon's Vacation (including Christmas Vacation, Vegas Vacation, etc.), Funny Farm, and so on and so forth. I could hardly believe it when they announced him and he burst through the curtain--very exciting! He was absolutely insane and ridiculous. He seemed almost a bit senile, or perhaps he was just taking advantage of the fact that he's Chevy Chase and therefore he can say and do whatever he wants. Either way, there were a lot of moments when I put my hand over my mouth in a "Wow I can't believe he just said/did that" fashion. Oh Chevy Chase, you crazy man... Lisa and Fallon got to sit by him too...lucky lucky.

Waiting for UCB with our tickets...the beast is coming!

Monday I decided to enter the Next to Normal lottery on a whim, and I won! The show was incredible--great music, excellent singing and acting, compelling storyline, and best of all, it's an original musical. Most of the musicals nowadays seem to either fall under the category of revival or adapted from a movie...not that that's always so horrible, but I enjoy seeing that people are still courageous enough to put original stories out there. The only not-as-good thing was that Alice Ripley, the lead in the show, was out for the night, but I thought her understudy, Jessica Phillips, was quite good, so my disappointment was short-lived. I wouldn't mind seeing the show again so I can compare performances and because the show was SO GOOD.

I've seen four Broadway shows now during this semester, but there are still so many more I'd like to see! The next two on my list are Ragtime (just opened) and Bye Bye Birdie with John Stamos as Albert (which is Dick Van Dyke's character in the movie, if you've seen it). I mean, who wouldn't want to see Uncle Jesse from Full House dancing around singing "Put on a Happy Face?" I think it could either be wonderfully awesome or completely terrible--possibly both at the same time...

I also tried Shake Shack earlier this week. Shake Shack is a burger place in Madison Square Garden that is kind of a mini legend around here apparently. On nice days it can create a long line with a 1-2 hour wait from what I hear. I was in the area after work so I checked it out, and there was virtually no line, so I got a burger. I think this is one of those "mostly hype" situations. The burger was good but certainly not the best I've had, and it was pretty small for almost $5. Oh well, it's always trial and error around here.

Tuesday I went to another Bikram Yoga session with a few girls from the house. I forgot how tortuous it was. In fact, I still forget how tortuous it was. It's as if I go into a trance, and I don't remember the details of the class very clearly. I do remember that I didn't have to rest at all this time, and after the class I was on a HUGE natural high. It was almost frightening. I was mildly skeptical at first, but I really do think there's something to this whole Bikram thing. During the past few days, despite the sun setting in mid-afternoon, I've been in an oddly good mood and had more energy than usual. Coincidence? Perhaps. But I think not. Also, it's been harder to eat junk food without feeling sick afterwards...I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing yet ;-)

Thursday I had my City Year interview. It was pretty laid back, but I got a good vibe from it. I might be hearing back from them as soon as 2 1/2 weeks from now, so we'll see how it goes! If I get accepted, then I'll have a decision to make by January 5th. Oh life decisions...

Yesterday (Friday) I went with Kellie, Kelly and Ries to "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind," which is a show by the "neo-futurists" that tries to do 30 short plays in 60 minutes. I actually saw the show (with different short plays of course) five years ago on my first trip to New York with Xavier's thespian troupe. It was in a much less sketchy location this time around, but the show was just as high-quality. Surprisingly, the show was both very funny and also quite thought-provoking, a very cool combination. I'm not sure if it was that way five years ago too or if the significance was just lost on me at 17-years-old. Either way, it was a great, great show.

Today was a typical press day at UDP. There were a lot of volunteers, and someone brought pumpkin pie so we had a mini Thanksgiving feast on the press table, UDP style. Haha. I'm also learning about the frustrations of printing books. The other day I spent almost 2 hours putting book "guts" (the inside pages) into covers, but it turns out the covers were cut 1/16th of an inch too short, so we had to "un-nest" all the guts today. Soo.... those 2 hours were reallllly well spent. That's just the way it works sometimes though!

Well, now I need to go and scrounge up some dinner from the little bit of groceries I have left (potatoes, carrots and oatmeal I believe...). Coming soon to a blog near you: my account of the Tyra Show and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade! Oh yeah, it'll be good times ;-) Have a happy thanksgiving everyone!!