Mid-November Update

Busy Lizzie. Lots has happened since I last posted.

Greg came to visit last weekend. We had a blast. He arrived around 10:30 on Friday night. I had fallen asleep reading and awakened to a kiss. He's good! ;-)

We had a delightfully low-key weekend. After a pizza lunch on Saturday we went for a walk through Central Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We stopped in the 70's to see the Frick Collection, (a small museum) which was interesting, then continued all the way to the bottom of the park. We went over to Saks to look at Christmas cards, then Greg gave me a tour of the New York Yacht Club's Midtown clubhouse. (Which, incidentally, is where we will be staying on our wedding night!)

After walking for over three hours without sitting, we decided to take the subway back uptown. Somewhere in the course of conversation I learned that Greg has never seen "What's Up, Doc?", which is one of my favorite old movies. We stopped at Blockbuster, (oh, the incompetence we encountered there!) but sadly they only had DVDs... no "What's Up, Doc?" We wound up renting "Cocktail" instead, then picking up some groceries around the corner.

We had a really nice, low-key evening. We made dinner at my apartment (yummy fajitas) and watched half of the movie before calling it a night. I think I'm turning into my Mother- I fall asleep in the middle of movies all the time now, just like she does!

On Sunday, Greg took me to breakfast at The Barking Dog; a cute little restaurant downstairs from my apartment. We watched the rest of "Cocktail," and I had a great time frustrating Greg by guessing the various twists in the movie. (Sorry, but '80s movies are predictable!!) :-)

The Christmas card hunt hadn't been very successful on Saturday, so we ventured into the drizzly Sunday afternoon to try again. It didn't take us long to run out of patience shopping- it was wet and we weren't finding anything, but going back uptown didn't make sense, as Greg had to leave for the airport in about two hours. The solution: use the internet at my office!

Surprisingly enough, we weren't the only people in on a Sunday- there were a few people there working on a new business pitch. Greg got to meet Audrey, our EVP, after two years of missing her by a few minutes. I like Audrey- it's nice to work for a person who enjoys what she does, does it well, and genuinely cares about the people who work for her. Anyway, we finally found cards we like, and I'm hoping we can get a discount on them through a certain sister!

After we left the office, I went with Greg to Penn Station, where he was catching a train to the airport. It's always easier saying 'goodbye' when I know I'm going to see him again in a week and a half! He got on the train, and I headed up to Juilliard for rehearsal.

The first part of rehearsal was for a small subset of the choir, so when Courtney came in a bit later, she told me that Greg had sent her a message asking me to call him when we were on break. I checked my phone when the conductor was working with another section and found two messages. The first read "You got your wish. My flight was cancelled. Can I spend one more night with you?" The second said "I'm at Lincoln Center. Give me a call when you get this." Well! I put down my music, left my bag, and left the room! I actually sprinted through the halls of Juilliard's third floor as I called Greg- he was at the Barnes and Noble across the street! Hooray! He met me on the corner of 66th and Broadway, and I would swear that the people around us must have thought I hadn't seen him in months! (I was a little happy!)

Greg sat through the last hour of our rehearsal, the only noteworthy part of which was that our conductor lost her voice in the middle of the rehearsal. Judy is a very, um, well, she has a strong personality, and she talks, um, yells alot. Well, at the beginning of the rehearsal, I had been talking with one of my fellow sopranos about "Once Upon A Mattress." For those of you who know the show, it was as if a mouse had devoured the hawk! (Let's see- who would get that? My parents, Allie, Keith, Jamie, Ellen, and Kate. No... no, wait... Kate never saw Theatre Workshop's shows- she only went if she was playing in the pit! :-P ) Anyway, I don't know if I would have made that connection if I hadn't been talking about the show a few hours earlier, but it was fantastic: the "Queen" COULD NOT SPEAK! She was actually using pantomime to talk to the choir!! Ha!!

After rehearsal, Courtney's fiance Tyler drove us all back uptown. I may have been in a fantastic mood, but Greg was (understandably) upset about the flight. I made an easy dinner for the two of us and we went to bed early. He left my apartment at about 3:30 the next morning to catch a 6:00 flight back to Charleston. Poor guy- travel is tough enough when everything goes as planned, but twice as draining when flights get cancelled- you can't help but wind up frustrated and tired.

Last but not least in the Greg section of this post: my fiance has fantastic taste in jewelry. We celebrated my birthday a little late this year, but it was worth the wait- he gave me a beautiful white gold necklace with a blue topaz- my birth stone. It's very, very pretty, and I absolutely adore it!

Whew! All that for two little days! Yeah- sorry about that! Here's the rest of the update:

I sang in a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall on Monday night. The cool part: I was on stage with Marvin Hamlisch, Liza Minelli, Maureen McGovern, Judy Collins and some other famous people. Oh, and the New York Pops. The lame part: our call was at 7:30, we warmed up at 7:45, we went on stage at 9:00, we STARTED singing at 10:15, and we left the stage at 10:45. Yeah- it was what my Dad would call a long walk for a short drink. How is it that charity events ALWAYS wind up being PAINFULLY long?!

Teresa, J.J., Mom and I saw "A Chorus Line" last week- whee!!!! My ticket was a birthday from Teresa and Hap. (How cool is it to have in-laws-to-be that can find the perfect birthday gift!) The show was really well done- they've recreated the show exactly as it was performed 30 years ago! I've read a lot about "Chorus Line" over the years, and it was so cool to finally see it performed live! I thought I was an expert on the show, but there was music there I didn't even know existed!! After the show, Teresa and J.J. were really sweet/patient and waited with me outside the stage door. I'm really glad we stayed- most of the cast signed my program! It was a really fun night- very special!

We've booked the band for the wedding, but photographers and florists are still up in the air. Yikes- we're getting down to the wire! I tried on my dress a few weeks ago, and my first real fitting is this Saturday morning, followed by a meeting with ANOTHER photographer.

I'm starting to get ready to move back to New Rochelle. I'm hoping to move by the end of the year, maybe even before Christmas, but we'll see.

I think that's about it. T-minus five months to the wedding, and work has been super busy, so who knows if I'll be able to post more regularly than I have recently, but I'll try. Hugs to all!

At The Beginning Of The Second Quarter

Quarter of a century, that is. At least it will be at 10:00 tonight. So yeah.

My big plans for the day include client meetings, then rehearsal and drinks with a few friends. Works for me!

So I went out with Courtney and Josh last night. We had dinner before the show at this little Italian place that Josh found... great entrees for about $10! It was unseasonably warm in the city last night, so we actually were able to eat outside- an unexpected treat. Josh treated me to dinner as a birthday gift, and I had the best pumpkin ravioli I've had in a while.

We left the restaurant and headed to the Ethyl Barrymore Theatre to see Company. This is the second Sondheim musical to be revived in recent years without a pit orchestra. The actors play all the instruments on stage during the show, frequently playing a wind instrument between lyrics! I think the best example of this was the trio of three girlfriends singing "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" as all three played saxophones. I know it sounds really, really odd, but it worked! One of them actually sang and danced while playing the sax with a flute under her arm! Ah, modern American musical theatre. Oh, and our seats were front row center- we actually got spat on by actors at times- it was pretty wild! Josh, who's a Sondheim fanatic, was practically giddy the whole time, which was fun.

On the way back from the theatre, I discovered that I've accomplished something for the first time in my life: I have actually walked through my favorite boots. Yes folks, you can actually see black nylon through the sole of my shoe. I'm planning on having them resoled this weekend, because as I said, they are my favorite boots, and I can't bear to see them die! And yes, I'm planning to get new shoes. Phooey.

Think that's it for news... dinner, show, boots, birthday... yup, that's about it for now. Happy November!

Boo!

Happy Halloween!!!


I'm usually a major Halloween enthusiast, but not so much this year for some reason. I wore an orange shirt to work today, but that's about. I didn't even remember my Halloween socks! (Which is a shame- Lynn gave me a great pair a year or two ago!)

The one (partial) exception to my Halloween apathy is in regard to Jack O' Lanterns. I say partial because I carved four last year (yes, four- one for my parents, one for my grandparents, one for Mary and Carl and one for myself!) This year I only carved two: my parents' and Mary and Carl's.

So, last year I was on a carving frenzy and wanted to carve more pumpkins than I had front steps, so I spread the love. I carved sailboat silhouettes into a small pumpkin, which I took over to the Olsson's house. I put it on their back porch, lit it, rang the bell, and drove off just as Mary got to the door. The Boat O' Lantern was such a hit (once they figured out who left them a treat) that I decided to do another this year. Again, a hit.

The real work of art this year though was the one for my parents. I used Grandpa P.'s chisels and other random tools from his collection to truly carve (rather than cut out) a design. It took me about six hours from first lid cut to candle light, but it worked out really well! There are only a few very small places where the design is cut all the way through the pumpkin, resulting in a cool translucent effect. Chiseling the design also allowed design elements that regular carving doesn't, such as polka dots.


I guess the reason that I'm not enthused about Halloween (or the day after, for that matter) is that I've just been busy as anything lately. I haven't had time to arrange anything for Halloween or my birthday- it's been all wedding, all the time. Which isn't a bad thing, it just puts other things on standby.

So, I'm not dressing up tonight. Instead, Courtney, Josh and I are going to try for standing room tickets for Company, which is in previews at the Barrymore. We haven't seen a show together for a while, so it should be a fun night. Our client is going to be in the office tomorrow, and we have rehearsal at night, so post-Halloween celebrations will consist of drinks after choir. Festivities will continue for a while, though, so I'm not getting shafted. I'm having dinner with my parents on Friday, then Teresa is taking me to see A Chorus Line on the 8th with J.J. and Mom. My favorite birthday gift will arrive on the 10th- Greg is coming to visit for the first time since starting Nuke School. It will have been six weeks between visits, and I miss him like crazy, so that's what I'm looking forward to most.

Anyway, Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good night!

Whew!

I've been really, crazy busy lately, with no time to post. So, here's the update!

I worked until midnight last Thursday night- which actually wasn't that bad. I can get a lot done when I don't have meetings and conference calls and e-mails coming in. Friday was a long day because of my late night the day before, but Greg had a long day, too. When he was leaving Annapolis to drive up to New York, another driver pulled out of a parking space without looking and backed into Greg's passenger side door. The damage is only cosmetic, but it's a hassle- especially since Greg is moving early next week!

Greg finally arrived at my parents' house at about 10:00 pm. After some pasta and caffeine, we got back in the car, this time with me in the driver's seat. We drove up to Albany that night, arriving at the hotel around 1:00 am.

Saturday morning we were up at 7:30 am to attend a Pre-Cana class in Albany. I mentioned several posts ago that finding a place to fulfill our Pre-Cana requirements was very difficult, mainly because there was only one weekend between August and the wedding that it was possible for us to go. I looked everywhere from Boston to Albany to Pittsburgh to Richmond and finally found a one-day class that worked.

Pre-Cana wasn't nearly as painful as we had expected. We were pretty sure the topics would include Natural Family Planning, Natural Family Planning, Natural Family Planning, a few minutes on Conflict Resolution, and Natural Family Planning. To our pleasant surprise, there was a reasonable amount of time spent on Conflict Resolution, and even more on finances (budgeting, managing student loans and credit card debt, etc. Thank God neither Greg or I have any credit card debt!) Natural Family Planning was discussed a bit, but really only for about 20 minutes at the end of the day.

We left Albany around 3:00 pm and drove back down to New Rochelle. We fit in a quick (and much needed!) nap before hopping a train into the city.

We had a quick dinner at Grand Central before heading to the Snapple Theatre to see "The Fantasticks." Oh, I love that show! My parents took me to see it on my 16th birthday, (with Allie, my grandparents and friends Kate, Ellen and Jamie,) and I just loved it.

The story is about a boy and a girl (who do have names, but are primarily referred to as "the boy" and "the girl") who fall in love, but must grow up a bit before their love can grow from a childhood infatuation into a deeper, more meaningful love. The show played at the Sullivan Street Playhouse from 1960 to 2002 and holds the record for the longest running musical in the world. (It is the longest running show in the US, and the second longest running show in the world. That record is held by the production of "The Mousetrap" that has been running in London since 1952. For those arguing that Les Miz holds the long-run record in the states, realize that The Fantasticks ran Off-Broadway, which, incidentally, is a distinction based on capacity, not geography. Off-Broadway theatres have between 100 and 499 seats.)

The show is charmingly simple, with an eight member cast, a piano and a harp. The set is minimal, consisting of a low 4' x 8' platform, some poles, two trunks, a bench, one or two black boxes, a chair, and a painted bed sheet for a curtain. Oh- and a moon. That's it. There isn't really a stage; most of the action takes place on the floor, on the same level as the audience. Charmingly simple.

Well, Greg had never seen the show, and I was hugely excited to see it again with him. I knew that our tickets were for really good seats, (A105-106) but I don't think I had mentioned it to Greg. He was very surprised when we sat down literally front row, center. "How did you get these seats?!" :-D We were right in the action- there were literally times that I uncrossed my legs to avoid kicking an actor!

The characters in "The Fantasticks" occasionally address the audience directly, and Greg and I were spoken to directly more than once. "El Gallo" even gestured at the two of us when we were holding hands during a monologue:

El Gallo: (describing the scene where two lovers will meet in secret)

You wonder how these things begin. Well, this begins with a glen. It begins with a season which, for want of a better word we may as well call- September. It begins in a forest where the woodchucks woo, and the leaves wax green, and vines intertwine like lovers; try to see it. Not with your eyes, for they are wise, but see it with your ears: the cool green breathing of the leaves. And hear it with the inside of your hand: the soundless sound of shadows flicking light. Celebrate sensation. Recall that secret place. You've been there, you remember: That special place where once- Just once- in your crowded sunlit lifetime, you hid away in shadow from the tyranny of time. That spot beside the clover where someone's hand held your hand and love was sweeter than the berries, or the honey, or the stinging taste of mint. It is September- before a rainfall- a perfect time to be in love.

I think the most special parts of the show, though, was that "Thomas Bruce" was playing "The Old Actor." If you read his bio in the Playbill, this is what you will see:

THOMAS BRUCE (Henry) originated the role of Henry in the original Sullivan Street Playhouse production of The Fantasticks. This is his first appearance on the New York stage since December 1960.

Naturally, this had the audience buzzing about how neat it was to see the actor who originated the role in this famous show. What most of them didn't know, though, was that "Thomas Bruce" is a stage name. His real name is Tom Jones, and he wrote the book and lyrics for the show. I, of course, being the theatre nerd that I am, knew this before we walked into the theatre, and was absolutely giddy with excitement. (No, seriously- actually giddy.) He was just, well, fantastic! He was hysterical, and it was truly special to see him recreating this role after over 45 years.

After the show, Greg very patiently waited with me at the stage door to meet Tom Jones. We were the only people left there when he came out. I thanked him sincerely for both the show and the performance, and told him that the show had been very special to me since I first saw it eight years ago. As he was signing my book of "The Fantasticks" (yes, I have a book with the history of the show and the full script), he said "you waited all this time just to see me?" "Yes!" I don't know whose smile was bigger. It was a really nice experience that he probably won't remember, but I always will.

We left the theatre at 10:30 and headed down to the East Village to meet up with the Branford crowd. After searching for the bar for a little over an hour, we finally found them in an old speakeasy- very cool. We spent about two hours there, drinking wine and mixed drinks out of teacups! There was a book case next to where we were standing that was being guarded by a large bouncer- we eventually learned that it was the door to a back room. There was even a rumor that Scarlett Johansson and Jake Gyllenhaal were there while we were.

So, after a very long Thursday, a very long Friday, and a very long Saturday (I mean really- Pre-Cana in Albany, then a show, then a bar in the Village! Yeesh!), we slept in on Sunday. Which is not to say that Sunday wasn't ridiculously productive, too!

Greg and I had breakfast in the city, then my Mom picked us up at the train after church. The three of us headed straight to Rye to taste wedding cake samples. We decided on white cake with a layer of lemon curd and a layer of chocolate ganache. Seriously yummy. So, we've picked a flavor- the design will be decided some time this winter.

After cake, we went back to the house to wait for John Tucker; a family friend in the jewelry biz. We selected a yellow gold millgrain ring for Greg's wedding band. :-D

After cake and ring were checked off the list, we headed down to the Yacht Club for a drink on the porch with my Mom. Dad and Allie eventually came in off the water, then it was home for Pork Chops. Mmm mmm good.

Greg left for Annapolis after dinner, and I headed into the city to pass out at my apartment. I really can't believe how much we did this weekend- Pre-Cana, "The Fantasticks", picked a wedding cake, and picked a wedding band for Greg. It was a really productive weekend!

I'll write more soon, as I had a special visit last night from one of my very best friends, but this post is already inordinately long, and I need to get back to work! Ta!