I need a vacation from my vacation...
Man, as if blasting through the final week leading up to the time off wasn't draining enough. Chrisolkwanzuka is always like having to move my apartment in one night: lots of heavy lifting. Went to pick up li'l bro at Newark Saturday morning (that's two weeks ago), and found, when I arrived at the terminal, that the flight, according to the monitors, was 'landing'. "Great", I thought, I'm right on time! Early, even. Til the monitors kept reading 'landing' for an entire hour, and I eventually went to the ticket counter, and asked about the obvious error. Tix agent informed me that li'l bro's flt had taken an emergency divert to Denver due to someone havin a heart attack on the plane, and would be in fully 2hrs later than expected. Hooray. Immediately following we brunched with one of his close friends in Soho, at the same place we had brunched with other friends of his a year earlier, and somewhere to which I swear I'm never returning. After that, it was full tilt boogie to da folks' place where there was quite a repast, and unfortunately, due to the extremes of travel and early mornings, we crashed on the floor, summarily missing out on one night of debauchery with Philth.
All was not lost, however, as we managed to find our way into a production of "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish, and I'm in Therapy". For anyone that suffers this particular malady, you will recognize immediately the validity of the following statement:
(Young child studying the human reproductive system for the first time, to Jewish grandmother):"Granma, do all animals have testicles?"
GM: "No, just the octopus."
That night, we made it down to da bar to meet up with his roomate Jeff, Jeff's sister, and cousin, as well as Ricky Boom-Boom (one of li'l bro's high school buddies now residing in Bk - hisssss!!!) where everything turned out pretty normal. Well, for the bar anyway.
And the beat goes on.
Wintuk was fabulous, I'd only ever seen the Cirque on video, and MSG turned out to be a pretty good venue for them, even though it's clear they're much more accustomed to playing an entirely different kind of space.
XXX-mas day was spent at my aunt's new abode way out in the Styx upstate. She's ecstatic about the fact that she now has a farm house with acres of land where she can paint endless watercolor landscapes, but, call me somewhat jaded, but I feel awfully skittish if the only thing for miles around is a Quick Check and a gas station. Yeesh. (for those unititiate, 'Quick Check' is the New Jersey version of a 7 Eleven, or something similar, which has begun to invade upstate NY. More on the political correctness of this later).
Li'l bro and I spent an unmentionable amount of time putting the house in order in preparation for tattooing, which unfortunately never came to pass, though, I've resolved to take the time in February to venture out to Califas, and make up for lost time.
Friday was Les Miserables (they're all gonna be out of a job in a couple of weeks!) and I can't say that I've seen another piece of theater that was so impressive since Ms. Saigon a decade ago. Perhaps La Boheme (same city, same time period, different section), but I think that there was something interesting the fact that this particular cast was noticeably young. Grokking the entirety of the presentation is still a bit difficult, but, I'm working on it.
Afterwards was dinner at the posh Becco, which, for a midtown theater district establishment was moderately priced. I would recommend that everyone who has the means try this place out, and order the neverending pasta dish. Yummmmm. Afterwards was drinks with some cousins that I only ever managed to see about once a year, and some other interesting folk at a place called the Irish Rogue. Normally, I don't shun Irish pubs, in fact, as budoka can attest, we've spent a goodly amount of time in several different ones. However, this particular one may forever be put on my 'do not revisit' list. Bad dj, no donut, unfriendlies (except for those in our crew), and various other unsavory elements. Not to mention expensive drinks. Blech.
The following morning found us back at the grandfolks' place for yet more food, and a long goodbye with Santo Mincho. Today was the first day back to work, and boy was I not ready.
Hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season, report in so I know y'all are still alive!
Feliz Año Nuevo, looking forward to seeing many of you in the near future!
Oh yea, Phoenecians, it looks like April this year. You've been warned.