This last Sunday I worked at an expo for which I volunteered last fall. It's apparently the biggest entertainment expo in the country, and it takes place every six months in Times Square. I needed to be there at 6 AM and I worked for over twelve hours, not leaving until after 7 PM. It was one of the longest days of my life, and by the end, I felt like I was about to crack. Over 5,000 people came because there was an open casting call for Broadway musicals, so it was just an intense day with lots of crazy stage moms and people asking questions that I couldn't answer. My job was to be a moderator in one of the workshop rooms, so I introduced the speakers and led question-answer time for classes about "Getting TV Thin" etc. (Step one: eat kale and collard greens daily and drink 16 ounces of water immediately after you wake up.) It was a trip. At least I got paid.

Anyway, I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep from that. I went to a party the night before (not the smartest idea, I know, but I had to see old MTC friends). Plus this week has been crazy at work for the most part. We have a lot of money coming in and a lot of events coming up, so I have a lot of balls simultaneously in the air. Ah well, keeps me busy.

Last Thursday I went to the final dress rehearsal for our upcoming musical, Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. It was absolutely amazing. I've never been more proud to say I work at Roundabout than I was that night. It's about the life of impressionist painter George Seurat and his famous painting here: http://anglee.org/proj/MagicBrush/pics/Seurat_SundayAfternoonOnTheIslandOfGrandJatte.jpg

It's the first Broadway revival of it, and the production came over from London. The director is also an animator, so the whole set is animated against huge white walls, creating stunning visual effects. And the people in the painting are characters in the play. Anjanette is going to see it with me when she's in town next week (woot!), and I can't wait to see it again.

I finally got tickets to see an opera at the Met. And my first Met opera is one of my faves: Otello by Verdi, with Renee Fleming singing. For those of you that don't know, that's a big deal. We're in the balcony, but it should still be incredible. That's not until the beginning of March, however.

I'm definitely feeling music-starved. It's been getting worse and worse over these past couple weeks. I was thinking about this on my commute this morning: this is longest I've gone in my life (after I knew better) without some form of active music. It's been a part of my existence since I was six on an almost daily basis, and I haven't really sang that much or played or anything (with a few exceptions) since I came to New York.

It's just so difficult to find places to practice, means to practice, and I haven't really been rolling in dough, so I can't afford lessons. I'm trying to brainstorm things I can do to fix this situation, and I'm thinking about trying to get back into a choir or renting a piano or something. And then maybe lessons will somehow come out of that. It's just driving me a bit crazy.

I must be off, because I have some dishes to do before we start dinner. They all arrived unharmed, by the way!

Hallelujah for Martin Luther King, Jr. Aside from the obvious reasons for his greatness, it was excellent having a 3-day weekend. After semi-crazy nights on Friday and Saturday (one of which included seeing the monster movie Cloverfield on its opening night in the front row) I spent Sunday and Monday without hardly leaving the apartment.

This weekend I learned:

1) Don't see a Blair-Witchy-style shaky camera movie about monsters ravaging the streets in which you live on one of the biggest cinema screens in New York in the front row after two martinis.

2) My roommate is one of the top 5 greatest cooks I know (at least of people our age).

3) Wood floors in winter in NY pick up an amount of dust that would make your head spin.

So, yes, we cleaned out apartment top to bottom yesterday. It looks great, and I was confused as to who inhabited it when I came home from work tonight.

Sunday night we (and by we, I mean Alex) made a ridiculous 4 course meal and we stayed in and had movie night because it was below zero. I ran out to get wine and ice cream and I literally got a brain freeze just from walking down the street. I'm not going to go into more detail about the meal now because it will make me sad that I'm not eating it tonight.

I went shopping on Saturday to get some work clothes and I didn't end up spending an arm and a leg because I went to H&M. And I got some new Levi's that were surprisingly cheap. I've decided to give myself two paychecks of living without a budget before I sit down and actually make one. Not that I'm flying to Dubai tomorrow or anything (I would, but I don't have any vacation days yet...jk).

A gym membership is toward the top of my list of expenses I have to allow myself. I've been shopping around for one, and the closest one in Queens is fairly nearby. However, it's a Bally Total Fitness and I went to visit the other day, and that's definitely a bust. It was semi-disgusting, packed, and they sat me down in a dim office and employed shady used-car-salesmen tactics to try and get me to join. No thank you.

Therefore, I think I will end up being one of those people that works out near work. A lot of people at Roundabout go over lunch or after work, and that seems to be a fairly decent arrangement. Plus, there are quite a few gyms close to work from which to choose. Cleaner gyms. And hopefully not more expensive...

My first opening night at Roundabout was awesome! It was in one of the ballrooms at the Marriott Marquis. It's surrounded by full-length windows overlooking Times Square, which is actually kind of pretty at night when you aren't experiencing it from the street. I got to "table guard" for the cast, which means standing by their tables and making sure lowly people don't steal their seats. In the process of doing that, I talked to Blythe Danner! She came up to me and asked me where certain people were sitting, because I had a master list. She's very sweet. I was tempted to ask her why Gwenyth was in the hospital (the hot tabloid gossip that day), but I tactfully refrained.

Thanks, Anj, again for sending me those dishes. They arrived today, but I haven't opened the box yet. I'm going to do that now.

Here are some pictures of the new art I got as a Christmas gift for the apartment. It's called Spitzen in Bogen by abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky. Now when you walk in the front door, it looks like someone lives here!

I'm sitting here anxiously awaiting the New Hampshire results on CNN. 39% Clinton, 37% Obama. Hopefully he can pull through in the college towns that have yet to announce their results. Give me some good news, Anderson!

I finished Day 2 of my new job at Roundabout today. It's going to be really great. I love the people I'm working with, and they are very helpful in easing me into the new environment. While Roundabout is considered a main competitor of MTC, they are really quite different. Overall, the office environment at RTC is more formal. My desk is really nice: wraparound dark wood with a flat screen computer. It was even all already stocked with all the bells and whistles of office supplies.

On my first day, my two bosses, Julie and Corey, took me to lunch at a little cafe. It was a lot of fun, and it really helped me get a better feel for the company. Corey even gave me a gift...a bunch of stuff to keep around my desk to keep me healthy (hand sanitizer, Emergen-C, etc).

Tonight I worked my first night event. Our upcoming show, The 39 Steps, is based on a story made famous by the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. It opens next week, and as a perk for the board and patrons, we held a private screening of the film at a small, old-fashioned theatre in Columbus Circle. While the event was similar to the night events at MTC, it will be nice to only have to work about 3 nights a month instead of 3 nights a week.

This last week was nice and very relaxing. I made a list of a bunch of things I was going to get done and then failed to complete a great majority of them. That's fine by me though...it was good to just slack off for a few days.

Alex's twin Colin stayed with us from the 1st to the 6th, so he was here for a majority of my break. Alex still had to work during the days, so Colin and I hung out and went around the city and met up with Alex at night. We had a really good time, and it was funny to learn about Colin and Alex's differences (there are many).

By the way, it's January 8th and it's 67 degrees??

P.S. Sorry I didn't write for about a month, but I've hung out with all you guys since then, right?