He Died of Thirst in Magical Realism

After getting back from Finland, we've been trying to stay on an earlier and more consistent schedule. The night we got back, we went to sleep nice and early and the next morning, we woke up before 8am which is unheard for us on a Saturday.

We got up, had breakfast, did masses of laundry, I finished weeding out my closets/dresser and A took everything to Salvation Army, then we went to the gym for our usual rowing class and the library after that. Went home, took a nap, then got dressed to go see Hedwig & the Angry Inch on Broadway.

I had really high hopes for Hedwig as I love the movie, love John Cameron Mitchell and Neal Patrick Harris is always great. Usually when I am too excited for something it turns out to be terrible but I didn't think they could go too far wrong with this one. But it ended up being just so-so...it wasn't terrible, NPH did a nice job, solid singing, above average dancing and his body looked incredible, but to me it just didn't capture the original spirit of Hedwig, or JCM.

The songs were the same and those were great, but all the dialogue and everything was updated to be more "modern" and was almost all kind of mean-spirited and snarky, played mostly for camp value. The movie, even so many iterations during/after the original live shows, had a sweetness along with the rawness and grit, and this show didn't give me that. The Yitzhak role seemed to be expanded, and was played by Shannon Conley, from Lez Zeppelin and apparently a ton of anime, who was great. (I actually didn't realize until I googled to find her bio that she was the understudy - she did an awesome job and it seemed like a lot of people were there to see her specifically.) The audience was pretty crazy actually, many people seemed to treat it like a rock concert, waving arms/screaming their heads off for NPH or whenever a favored song came on. Random.

We got up early again on Sunday, went to the early rowing class, then to a zillion open houses, Sunday Funday at Ninth Ward, an awesome New Orleans style bar. From there we went straight out to see "The Wolf of Wall Street." at one of our fave Sunday night places. I love Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio and was really interested in this movie given that I worked on Wall Street around the same time period, but it was so awful. It was like a longer, less glamourous remake of Boiler Room.

The rest of the week is kind of a blur, I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday afternoon, worked out Monday and Wednesday, and had a quick in/out trip to Washington DC on Thursday. We had an off site meeting at Chelsea Piers on Friday, and I had dinner with my team after. We worked out and goofed off most of the weekend. We made an offer on a cute two-bedroom in the East Village and were outbid, but the seller broker said we would be the backup, I said yeah right.

Last week was kind of a struggle...I just felt kind of annoyed with everything. Didn't work out until Wednesday but then had a few great workouts in a row. Went to sushi with A on Thursday night and then out for a glass of wine. At home we stayed up way too late and I worked from home on Friday when I got one zillion annoying data requests.

I got everything done just before I had to leave for my mani-pedi appt, and then when I was just about to hit save/send, my Excel FROZE. So bad, this was like 3 hours of work about to be lost. I futzed with it until I had to leave, finally left it ran out the door like a bat outta hell. Got on the train, ran for my connection and the slid through the doors right as they were closing. I was going to make it! Until I realized I had gotten on the wrong train and we were going express to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall. Arrrrgh. I went up out of the station to call the nail place and cancel, blah.

Since I was on the East Side anyway, I went up to A's office, browsed a bit, then took the subway home with him. On the way home we stopped at the drugstore, picked up my prescription, and bought pizza and candy corn. It was just that kind of day. At home the Excel document had magically unfrozen (Hallelujah!), I sent it out and enjoyed the pizza, candy, and online television in full sloth. A fell asleep and I compulsively straightened the house, sorted laundry, then shopped online for 1.5 hours before going to bed myself.

Got up just after 8am on Saturday, did laundry, got groceries, had (non-boozy) brunch outdoors at Philip Marie (it was soooo nice out!). Headed up to the usual rowing class, then ran back from Columbus Circle down the West Side Highway. It felt like ass but we sorely need to get back into running. Got showered up and I headed up to get my hair cut and highlighted. A went for a haircut at a different place and we met up at El Cid for $3 rose sangria - gotta love it.

They had complimentary olives and we also ordered some serrano ham and manchego cheese plate. Yum yum. Went home, got changed and headed downtown to finally see The Grand Budapest Hotel. So good! I love a lush, colorful, symmetrical confection of a movie so this was completely satisfying for me.

After the movie we walked home from Battery Park City, stopping in for a drink at Decoy under RedFarm (awesome place!), then heading next door for pinball and a "Miss Piggy" Aperol Spritz at Swine. People there were super wasted (like, making out in booths, puking wasted) so we moved on after a drink and headed home. On the way up we passed by a local place that seems to switch owners a lot, and realized it had been transformed from a frumpy Italian joint into a sleek/trendy Eithiopian restaurant/lounge! I was thrilled at this unexpected transformation so we popped into Injera for one last beer and lots of water. We met the owner/staff, and I am really looking forward to going back for dinner soon!

Yesterday morning we woke up at 11am, made breakfast and iced-green tea and headed out for some open houses. Walked all over town to hit like 8 places with breaks for iced-coffee drinking, shopping, and Crocodile Lounge pizza eating. Went to yoga class, saw one of my analysts there, room was super-hot so while not a vigorous class, I was still sweating. Still so nice to slip on flip flops and walk home in tanktop/leggings rather than put on coat/scarf/etc.

A made a nice salad with lettuce, avocado, tofu chunks and carrots, and we showered before heading out to see the Mad Men final season premiere! I thought it was promising...so sad that this is the last season. Even when not much is going on plotwise I just love how beautiful/stylized everything is, I could watch it for hours.

After the movie we went to late dinner at Blue Ribbon. We had oysters, I had a scallop special with cauliflower puree and tomato and A had barbequed ribs. He had a beer, I had a "Sullivan Street Cocktail" and we shared creme brulee for dessert. Yum.

Walked home a bit after midnight and woke up way too early this morning. Trying desperately to focus with breaks for writing this and listening to Lana DelRey's "West Coast" on repeat like a loon. Happy Monday!