December 31, 2008

It's New Year's Eve, and I'm going to Leland's house tonight so I won't get another chance to post in 2008, so I'm taking the opportunity now.  I still have a lot to write about re: the end of my time at The Public and in NYC, but for now I have just a few things to say.

First of all, I ran into one of my teachers from 7th grade in the Ralph's parking lot today.  Crazy.

Today I also tried to go to the post office, but the doors were literally locked.  I got there JUST after 4:00 PM, and on the door it said they closed at 5:30 Monday through Friday.  But the doors were locked.  It listed holidays, and today was not one of them, so, thanks Post Office for being a jerk.  But I went to the nearby Kinko's and Fed-Ex'ed what I needed to send, and the guy there was nice, I didn't have to wait in a long line, and it was pretty cheap, so I'm not that upset.

Finally, is there like a law somewhere that states that all 7/11s have to be super sketchy?  I was driving in Westwood today, which is the area of Los Angeles near UCLA and is a pretty nice, clean area, and I passed the 7/11 and it just looked so sketchy.  Is it in the franchise agreement that the location has to be the seediest lot on the block?

New (Old) Photos

So yesterday I went to Harvard-Westlake and hung out with Mr. O'Malley for a little while and got some CDs of my old photo projects from the backup files O'Malley keeps, since I'd lost my own backups when my external hard drive fell on its head.  One of the CDs didn't work, but on the one that did work were some portraits I took with the digital Hasselblaad (nicest camera I will ever use) in the photo studio last year of my friend Sarah, Jordan, Laura, Catie, and Angela, which I've put up on facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015939&l=a2f33&id=1063440464

You don't even need to log in to facebook to look at them, although if you're my facebook friend I always love photo comments, haha (clearly I am not above begging).

Book List

So, I'm still trying to make sense of what NY meant to me and how I feel about moving back to LA (not so great right now), but in the meantime I'll share the list of books I've read so far on gap year and some thoughts.

Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett

-  Very funny, usual discworld stuff from Terry Pratchett.  My enjoyment was also heightened by my prior investigation into/infatuation with ancient Egyptian history in my early years, since this is highly mocked (in a loving way) in this book.

The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

-  I wrote a previous blog post about this, but I adored this book.  It was wonderful.

The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan

-  nice little thriller, the basis for the movie and play of the same name.  However, those two are very loosely based on this book.

Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney

-  I thought this was going to be more about NYC drug culture in the '80s, but it was more about one guy and his dissatisfaction with his life and stuff.  It was good, though.  And a quick read.

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

-  This prompted SO much thought, my goodness.  It describes a world controlled, not by fear like in 1984 (George Orwell was a colleague/I think a student of Huxley's), but by genetic predestination and euphoria-inducing drugs.  It's pretty good, and, like I said, very thought-provoking.

Brave New World Revisited, by Aldous Huxley

-  Huxley discusses why the world of Brave New World is still feasible 20 years after its publication, in the '50s.  He discusses how he didn't include nuclear technology in the book and wishes he did, as well as ways in which he thinks we can avoid the future of Brave New World.  I took a lot of notes in the margins in this book, since quite a few of his ideas are pretty outdated, and I want to write more about that at some point, but not right now (especially since I don't know exactly where the book is at the moment...)

Stiff, by Mary Roach

-  This is a book about cadavers.  Quite a good book, actually, although the first half, when discussing the more direct scientific uses of cadavers, is better than the second, which gets a bit metaphysical.  I'm also pretty morbid, so... yeah.

Just After Sunset, by Stephen King

- As much as his novels (well, mostly the recent ones, but really anything since like Misery) are quite self-indulgent, he's still a great story teller and the short story form really helps him stay focused.  I was so happy to see that he had a new book of short stories out when I found this at the airport.

The Mayor of Castro Street, by Randy Shilts

-  This book was AMAZING.  It's a biography of Harvey Milk and it's so inspiring.  It tapped into the part of me that, in the sixth grade, wanted to join the Peace Corps or save the world or something like that.  Harvey Milk has a lot in common with Barack Obama, actually.  Both were charismatic leaders who changed the face of politics.  Also, Milk's stump speech was called the "Hope Speech" since it revolved around the message that life is always worth living because there is always hope.  And Milk relied on grassroots volunteers, and had his swearing-in outside because he knew so many people would want to see it, much like Obama had his convention speech in a football stadium for increased capacity.

The Tales of Beadle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling

-  I had to, for completeness.  Not amazing, not incredibly disappointing.  Obviously a must for Harry Potter fans and those of us who have grown up with those books.

So... yeah... that's what I've been up to, at least reading-wise.

Last Day

So this is probably my last blog post ever from The Public Theater. I'm incredibly sad to be leaving this office. New York I won't miss, but working at The Public has been amazing. And I mean, where else do you have experiences like this? Yesterday I had to scoot around Tony Kushner in the hallway in order to get to my boss' office, on top of which, said boss is also a very well-regarded director. Crazy. And the people I've met here are all incredibly kind and supportive.

And I'm writing this from reception, my last day as a sexy secretary as well.

This is depressing. I'm sure I'll write much more about this tonight or tomorrow on the plane, but I'm just sad to be leaving.

What the...?!

I just found this article and it's crazy. There was an episode of "Monk" about this, and probably many others. Check it out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/11/actor-slits-throat

Road Show - Take Two

I went to see Road Show again tonight with Zoe.  They've changed a lot since the dress rehearsal, which was the last time I saw it.  They even added a new song to help establish the relationship between the two brothers/main characters.  I talked to Michael Cerveris afterwards and he said that the new song was added a week before the opened, so that's pretty intense for the two men to learn and everything.  There were some props added that gave it a little more sparkle, but it still wasn't amazing.  The music is good, very Sondheim-y, but I just can't get over how similar to Assassains some of the themes are!  But that's my own problem so... yeah.  Like I said, we talked to Michael Cerveris afterwards for a few minutes.  Once again he was very nice, and looks so different offstage than on!  He asked me if I was an actress/singer person, which I guess is fair since I work in a theater.  He isn't the first person to ask me that recently either.  That guy Isaac I met while flying home for Thanksgiving also asked me if I was an actress (although I think that's because I looked vaguely familiar).  Anyway, maybe I give off actress vibes?  Also, apparently Zoe's NYC-based voice teacher coached Michael Cerveris for something at some point.  The voice teacher was at the show tonight but didn't stick around afterwards so I'm not sure exactly what the connection is.  But yeah, they know each other somehow.  Anyway, it's pretty much my bed time so good night everybody!

Oh Yeah

So here is something interesting(ish) I forgot to mention in my post about last Thursday:

Before going in to The 39 Steps I wandered over to Rockefeller center to take some pictures of the tree (up online here), and I popped into the J. Crew store to look for a Christmas gift for my friend.  I didn't find a gift, but I did see a woman getting taken out of the store/handcuffed by policemen.  She was probably shoplifting.  Some girls in the store were talking about it amongst themselves and they said she was kinda standing in the corner doing god knows what/acting sketchy, so yeah I'm guessing shoplifting.

Today was not the most exciting day at work, I was just working on my usual stuff.  But at the end of the day there was a meet-and-greet (like I've mentioned before), and this time it was for Mandy Patinkin's concert series.  He's rotating three concerts, one featuring yiddish songs, one featuring general Broadway music, and one featuring the Sondheim songbook.  I'm going to the Sondheim one this Thursday.  Anyway, there was sadly no food at this meet-and-greet (although that was probably good, since I was about to leave for dinner), but we all circled up and introduced ourselves.  Apparently the last time Mandy Patinkin performed at The Public was 20 years ago.  He gave this speech to the assembled staff people that was very heartfelt, mostly about his friendship with Joe Papp (founder of The Public).  It was pretty cool.

After that it was time to go so I walked up to Union Square and met up with Madeleine.  We went to dinner at an NYU dining hall and the food was surprisingly good and the space very nice.  It was fun.  We also saw some of her friends I'd met before, and some new people I met tonight.  Also cool.

So I have stuff to do and I'm watching House, so I'll catch you all later!

By the Way, Racism

So in my last post I talked about going to see The 39 Steps on Broadway last Thursday. Well I forgot to write about this incident:

The family behind me all had their cell phones start ringing one after the other during the first act, and it was INCREDIBLY annoying. Finally, the girl sitting next to me turned around and hissed "Shut your phone!" at them. The family seemed to be trying to turn their phones off (I hope so, anyway, and they should have at least been silent to begin with), but then one of them got a text message and it made a noise again. The girl next to me turned to the friend she was with and said about the family, who happened to be Indian, "They're either stupid or about to blow us up."

I was so appalled by this I don't even want to start. I mean, yeah, they were really, really obnoxious with their cell phones and I was pissed, but really, lady? Seriously?

Monday, Monday

It's really weird to sit here and think about how this is my last week at The Public. It's been really busy lately, with Holiday Cards, Education Task Force research, and a host of other activities, but I have a little down time now as I wait to hear back from people about various things, so I'll give a little update. Except I feel like I have a lot to write about right now, so maybe kind of a longish update...

Since I'm leaving New York so soon, I've been trying to cram as much theater as possible into my last 2 weeks.  Last Thursday I saw The 39 Steps, which is a 4-person tongue-in-cheek stage version of the Alfred Hitchcock movie, which in turn is based on a book. However, having read the book I can say with some authority that the play and movie bear little resemblance to the book except in the following ways:
- character names
- the moors of Scotland
- bad guy with a distinctive physical feature that allows the main character to recognize him
- murder in the main characters apartment of the character who tells him about the:
- plot of international intrigue
- the phrase "The 39 Steps," which, in the book, refers to actual steps, which in the play/movie it refers to a spy organization
I am a lover of both Alfred Hitchcock movies (I once threw a Hitchcock-themed pool party) and British comedy, so I went into this with EXTREMELY high expectations. In that regard, it was a bit disappointing, but, that being said, it was still silly and a lot of fun.

After the show I grabbed some take out dinner from Junior's Deli, which is a great restaurant. I got this chocolate cake that was awesome. The guy behind the counter tried to send the other guy there to get my chicken tenders so he (the first guy) could talk (flirt) with me, which I was really hoping wouldn't happen, and it didn't. He was like "can you go get those chicken tenders for me?" and the other guy just went "uh, no." So the first guy got kinda mad, hinting VERY strongly that he wanted to NOT get the chicken tenders, but eventually he got so forceful and realized he was embarrassing himself so he got the chicken tenders himself. He did say something to me that I found hilarious/am so happy about. He went "you're not from around here, are you?" and when I said "no," he said "I could tell because you apologize." This other lady had been in the take out area, and while I was getting a straw for my Coke I'd sorta been in her way so, as is my custom, I apologized like five times for being in her way. I just love that New Yorkers recognize me as not one of them by my politeness/apologetic nature. This guy I was on a plane with from NYC to L.A. also recognized me as a Californian. He asked, "So are you from New York or Los Angeles?" and when I responded "L.A.," he said "yeah, you seem too relaxed to be from New York."

Anyway, trying to get home after getting my take out food, I opted to wait in the taxi line at the Marriott Marquis hotel, as has become my habit. Even though it's still a long wait to get a cab there, at least there's a heat lamp and a roof. I think at least 4 people got out of the line from immediately behind me, though. I met an attractive couple a bit older than me, the guy looked like either a successful business man or an actor who plays a successful business man. His wife was blonde and had a vague sense of plastic surgery to her face. They looked kinda familiar, so I'm leaning toward the "actor" option, but maybe they just have familiar faces.

I ended up sharing a cab with this older couple from Georgia, who weren't exactly going in the same direction as me but I only really realized that when we were already in the cab. When we got to their destination (which was first), the meter read a bit under $7, so they pulled out $8.00, and promptly gave it... to the cab driver. He didn't stop the meter, and the situation made me uneasy, but they were innocent Georgians who probably voted for McCain so I tried to suppress my internal anger at this not-so-smart move. Which was well founded, since when we got to my apartment the cab driver stopped the meter (it was a bit over $12), and I said "well... they gave you eight dollars..." and he said "those eight dollars don't count." While I tend to be a bit door-matty in my day-to-day dealings, I've slowly grown a New York backbone while I've been here and I wasn't going to have some cab driver rob me for going somewhere in the opposite direction of my apartment from Times Square. So I responded "What?" in a tone that indicated I would have none of those shenanigans, thank you very much. He said, "fine, give me seven dollars," which is what I was planning on giving him in the first place (although after he tried to blatantly rob me I was less happy at the tip he was getting), so I gave him the money and that was the end of that.

Friday was a pretty interesting day. I hope I can remember. I've been (trying to) keep a journal but last week was really busy so that's fallen way behind as well. I thought I'd have that education meeting I'd been doing so much research for lately, but it was postponed. So I got to go to a reading by this playwright named Rinne Groff. I'd scanned work by this playwright before, and for some reason I'd assumed they were written by a man (not that I read many of the plays, and none in their entirety...), but she's definitely a woman, and fairly young (or at least young-looking) at that. I'm really glad I went to this reading. To loyal followers who read my post about Anne Frank and the Meyer Levin play, this is particularly interesting. Since I was already fascinated with the story, I was SO excited when the play turned out to be a pseudo-fictionalized version of that story! The names were changed, as a literary device a la Levin's book Compulsion, a loosely fictionalized version of the Leopold & Loeb murders. And, also relevant to my blog post, the reading even had a moment talking about Holocaust denial and conspiracy theorists who believe Anne Frank did not write that diary.
(Anne Frank post is here)

That afternoon I delivered a script to an actor for Jess, another intern who is working on a reading of Craig Lucas' The Singing Forest (also Holocaust-related). The actor lives in the Gramercy Park area, where I'd never been before, so that was interesting. I had to take it over, vs. sending it through a messenger company, because this actor was the only one who needed a script delivered but didn't have a doorman. Jess was too busy to take it. The apartment building looked like the set of a movie about a struggling actor living in NYC. The halls were lit with dim fluorescent lights and the whitewash was peeling off the walls. The actor himself was very cute, long-haired and blonde, wearing an Urban Outfitters/American Apparel-style striped sweater. He seemed very nice and mild-mannered. I think he thought I was Jess, since he said "I'll see you later." I was on my way out and he didn't seem like he wanted to get into a whole discussion about anything, so I just said "yeah, ok," and left.

As I walked back to the subway station I walked through a sidewalk Christmas tree stand. This is something that I LOVE about New York. I'm walking down the street and I smell pine all around me and it's wonderful. I also passed this old man feeding pigeons, which I found very endearing even though usually pigeons make me upset.

Friday night I was planning on going to the Met Museum, since I haven't been this whole time I've been living in NYC, but I was at work pretty late so I didn't do that. Saturday morning I flew home to surprise Leland at his jazz concert (he guessed the surprise, but it was still a nice thing and the concert was really great). The only reason I'm sad I went home this weekend is because it's like teasing myself - I got to be in sunny wonderful L.A., and then I had to go back to FREEZING NYC. Although now that I'm leaving I'm realizing a lot of stuff that I'll miss about NYC. But on the plane I spilled some water on the side of my leg and I was terrified that my pants would freeze to my leg if I had to wait for too long in the taxi line. But I didn't, which was good.

Today I went to lunch with my dad's college friend/Public Theater board member and we went to this cute asian-y place called Republic that was good food and fast service and it was a nice little lunch.

Anyway, work beckons, and it's my last week so I need to finish this stuff pronto! So yeah, that's my epic post for the week (probably for a while).

Baby, it's Cold... Inside...

I'm currently sitting in the literary/artistic/Joe's Pub intern office in a sweater, scarf, and full winter coat. I was wearing mittens earlier (the flippy kind that double as fingerless gloves), but I took those off. I even wish I'd worn my earmuffs today! Seriously, the intern office is like 10 degrees colder than the hallway, and we're only seperated from that hallway by a couple of bookcases that form an entrance to our little area. I think it's that there's this piece of paper blocking the AC from getting out in our area, but earlier it fell off so Deborah and I fixed it, but air can still get out the top/it's starting to fall off again. That's a really lame description, but I didn't bring my camera today so it'll have to suffice.

I was thinking about seeing Road Show again tonight, since I haven't seen it since the dress rehearsal, and maybe trying to talk to Michael Cerveris again, but I think I have too much stuff to do once I get home. :( Today has a post-show "talkback," so I wanted to go, but I don't have a ticket yet and it's probably sold out anyway, plus the previously mentioned too much stuff to do, so I'm thinking I won't go.

Anyway, I'm writing right now because the laptop they give me to work on Monday-Wednesday (Thursday and Friday Deborah isn't here so I use her computer) has gotten progressively slower and more evil over the months I've been using it, so it's taking forever to open the holiday card address list that I'm working on. I might go help Niegel stuff envelopes since this computer is being such a pain in the ass. It also likes to kick me off the Public Theater network every once in a while, so I have to close everything I'm working on and re-synchronize. And it happens pretty often. I'd go to IT about it, but I'm only here for less than 2 more weeks so it's not really worth it.

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Last Wednesday was the first time in a while I've flown out of JFK airport and something horrible hasn't happened to me that day.  Hooray!  I was in business class because we'd booked it enough in advance that business class wasn't too many miles, so I got good food and a comfy seat.  I met this guy named Isaac who was sitting next to me.  He's about two years out of USC where he majored in business, and he and his friends founded a nonprofit called Save the Brain, which raises money for brain tumor research.  He commutes back and forth between L.A. and NYC about once a month.  He thought I looked familiar, asking me if I was an actress, but we might have just commuted on the same flight before.  Anway, I got in early and went home and slept which was AMAZING!!

I had to get up early on Thursday (well... early-ish) to make pies.  My mom made pumpkin and this weird pudding/cool whip/pumpkin filling pie, while I made pecan, chocolate pecan, apple, and dutch apple.  I felt very much like my hero, The Piemaker on Pushing Daisies.  For dinner we went to my friend Jayson's house (yes, the same Jayson that stayed with me here in NYC).

Friday night I went to Leland's house for "leftovers night," this thing his family hosts where everyone brings over and shares their Thanksgiving leftovers.  We, of course, brought TONS of pie.  It was a lot of fun and I got to see Leland and a bunch of other friends which was great.

Saturday was boring and stressful, then Sunday afternoon I flew back to NYC.  Today at work I saw a reading of a play called Agunah, which was written by this woman named Karen who works at The Public.  It was mostly about Orthodox Judaism.

And tonight I finished something super stressful, so that's a big load off my shoulders.  Yay!

Friends!

Ok, Thanksgiving update to follow, but right now I want to tell you about the links on the side of my page.  They're links to blogs by my friends who are also on gap years and they're all really interesting:

Becca is traveling with a program called Thinking Beyond Borders, and they spend about a month in a country doing some form of community service before a week of enrichment/fun, then they go to another country.  So far they've been to Costa Rica, Peru, China, and Cambodia.

David and Jaime are traveling together.  They're traveling to different countries with different service programs.  Right now I think they're still in Russia, and I know they're also going to at least Australia, New Zealand, and China.

Zack worked on the Obama campaign for most of the fall in Ohio, and now he is traveling to China and after that he will be going to Bolivia.  He no longer uses his blogger account, however, so you can catch up on him via his livejournal.

Elliot is working with children in Chile, I think for the whole year.

Busy Weekend... Almost Thanksgiving!

I'm at work. I finished up what I had left to do on the spreadsheet for the holiday cards, and now I'm just waiting to hear back about some addresses, which I probably won't even hear back on today anyway. So I'm probably going to leave soon, and the day ends at 2:00 today anyway, but I'll stick about for a little while. I'm just getting a little antsy about getting to be home for 4 days! (even though I'll be really busy) AND I get to bake pie tomorrow, which I'm excited for since baking is one of my favorite things!

But anyway, I'll wrap up the story of this weekend and Emily and Kali's visit.

Saturday Emily and Kali saw "13" and "Spring Awakening," and I hung out by myself while they did those and met them by the stage doors to take pictures. Between shows we wandered to Rockefeller Center, contemplated skating, but decided against it since it was expensive and would have taken a long time. We had dinner at Junior's deli, which was great, and for dessert Emily had this specialty of theirs which is Devil's Food Cheesecake, which is basically a 2-layer Devil's Food cake with chocolate icing on top of cheesecake. I don't like cheesecake, but I had some of the Devil's Food and it was INCREDIBLE! I had a black & white cookie for dessert, and I gave some to Kali and it was her first black & white and she enjoyed it so I'm glad (I know the number of "and"s in that sentence is gross). But my god, that devil's food cake... wow.

Sunday morning they went to coffee with our friend Amy from high school and then out to tea with Emily's cousin at Alice's Tea Cup, then they went to the North Face store to get a jacket for Kali. I slept in and went to Bloomingdale's with my mom for brunch and half-hearted Christmas dress shopping. Emily, Kali and I met up around 2:00 at the Central Park Zoo, where I was dismayed to learn that I'd left my camera battery charging in the apartment! But the zoo was fun. We watched them feeding sea lions, seals, and penguins, and saw the polar bears which Emily in particular was jazzed about. We spent a long time in the rain forest exhibit, more out of the desire to be warm (it's tropical animals, hence WARM building), less out of love of the rainforest animals. Although I enjoyed the bats, the birds were colorful, and we saw some crazy awesome frogs and lizards and such. Water snakes are creepy as hell.

Then we went back to the apartment and got the camera battery, and returned to the park for a brief photo shoot (because I am nothing if not a photography addict). The pictures are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/applegalette

They left Sunday afternoon a little after 4:00, then my parents and I went to the opening night of "White Christmas." This is one of my family's favorite Christmas movies. There was one really weird moment at the beginning where the main guy started singing the title song and, although it sounded good, I just kinda found it really jarring that he sounded nothing like Bing Crosby. Bing's voice is so distinctive, and that song is so iconic, I guess it was just a visceral reaction. Also, and this is a cultural/generational reaction, at first I was kinda thrown by the fact that these two super successful Broadway/performing stars (the two main male characters) had been in the army, since that's not the type of guy you associate with being in the army, but then I realized it was WWII, which a) had a draft and b) had incredible popular support, so pretty much everyone from most walks of life either enlisted or was drafted. But it was the first time that I'd really NOTICED the influence on my thought processes by the culture I've grown up in.

The desserts at the party were AMAZING. Since it was "White Christmas," all the desserts were white (sugar cookies, nutty cookies covered in powdered sugar, cheesecake, and, most importantly, white chocolate mousse). The chocolate mousse was so good, I had at least 3 (probably actually 4) of the little cups. And with the last one I had a cup of hot chocolate, and I discovered the amazingness of dipping the spoonful of white chocolate mousse in the hot chocolate before eating it. Wonderful. Writing about it right now makes me crave it...

But I get to bake pies tomorrow so hooray! I think I'm gonna leave here in 10 or so minutes so... yay! Thanksgiving!

Frozen Fingers!

Tonight my friend Emily and her friend Kali from college at Case Western showed up to stay with me. (And by "showed up" I mean this was planned about a month in advance). We decided to order in both pizza and Chinese food (twice as delicious!), then we watched the new episode of my cousin's show ("The Suite Life on Deck"), then we went out to the Empire State Building. It was EMPTY, which was wonderful! :) We walked right through up to the ticket counter, and tried to purchase youth tickets (12-17, and $2 cheaper than regular tickets). The lady demanded ID. She started accusing us of stuff. I didn't HAVE ID on me, otherwise I would have presented my old student ID and gotten the discount.
(My high school ID just says "2008" on it, indicating my year of graduation, but it could easily indicate the year it was issued). The lady kept demanding ID and being mean about it, and saying that we shouldn't say we're youth when we're not and that three "youths" shouldn't be walking around alone that late at night. First of all, if tomorrow is my 18th birthday, today I'm youth, tomorrow I'm not, but I change just about not at all as a person. Also, if I'm younger I'm less likely to have ID than if I'm older, since I can't get a driver's license and, although almost every school does now, not EVERY school gives an ID. Whatever. We made it to the top:
And then we went outside, where it was WINDY and COLD, especially since it's 86 stories up!I stupidly did not wear gloves.
The picture above is me cringing in pain after coming inside. My hands were so cold it actually hurt to warm them up!
Mirror picture! With lovely NYC lights in the background.
And, of course, our visit concluded with the obligatory trip to the gift shop! (we purchased nothing, of course, but did have some fun in there!)

Tomorrow is our Times Square adventure. Huzzah!

It's Beginning to Feel...

Last night I walked out of The Public, looked around, and saw a very impressive display of Christmas lights to the south. Instant smile. This morning as I was leaving my apartment building I saw some guys stringing lights up on the trees by the curb. It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I love it. It's also finally getting really cold, which is amazing (although it can get uncomfy for a California girl like me!). To me winter is what New York is supposed to be!

One of the other interns in our little intern office just called her boss on the phone to ask her a quesiton. I could hear both halves of the conversation just sitting here, since the offices are so open and close together. I found that amusing.

My friend Emily and her friend Kali from college and coming to visit me this weekend. It'll probably be exhausting, but fun. And it'll be good to pass the time this weekend until I get to go HOME next Wednesday for Thanksgiving (not that I don't go home ALL THE TIME, but it feels great every time I do!).

Road Show Party

Last night was the opening night party for Road Show, the new/revamped Sondheim show I've mentioned before that's playing at The Public. Interns and lower level staff weren't invited to the actual show, since the theater is pretty small, but I met up with my fellow interns (and their plus ones; I was unable to find a plus one that didn't have rehearsal that night) and hung out at the party. I finally formally met Michael Cerveris! I went up to him, introduced myself ("Hi, I'm Annie, we've microwaved together"), and he seemed pleased to be meeting me and remembered our microwave encounters. Success at not being shy and awkard on my part.

We also talked to John Doyle for a few seconds, just to congratulate him, but he got whisked away before we could get into any kind of real conversation.

The party was in a venue kinda the opposite of the venue for the Billy Elliott party (part warehouse, part castle, all cavernous). This was in the Union Square ballroom, which is big enough for a decent-sized party, but by no means an enormous venue. It's more... bar-mitzvah sized, less on the Grand Ball scale. Unless you know someone who's had an extremely lavish bar-mitzvah.

Today was a pretty normal work day (scanning, a little bit of filing). Oh! No, I remember feeling like this was a particularly good day in little ways, like finding a Metro Card with $7.00 on it in my coat pocket, and having some really good chicken tenders at this diner a few blocks from work, and just little stuff like that. I've also scored big on the free merch this week at work, first getting a Road Show opening night special thermos thing, then a Native Theater Festival notebook for working on that.

Now I have to finish my book and head off to bed (probably the earliest I'll have gone to sleep in a while, not gonna lie).

Airport Excitement

Dear Anyone who has ever called Kate Winslet "fat" or "full-figured,"

That is a load of bunk.  I saw her at the airport today (she and her 3-person entourage cut in front of me right before I was going to get my ID checked in security so she wouldn't get too harrassed by the stalkerazzi.  One of her people apologized kinda blushing, and even she kinda turned around and went "this is so ridiculous" as they were being let into line in front of me.)  She's very petite and beautiful.  I read the new "Vanity Fair" with her on the cover during my flight to L.A. for the weekend, so it was weird that she of all people would be the one I'd run into at the airport.

Also, I went to Harvard-Westlake and saw "Into the Woods" last night, which was good.  I also saw the new James Bond movie ("Quantum of Solace"), which was not so good.

Native Theater Festival

Right now the Public is putting on their Native Theater Festival, which they started last year.  It features plays by Native American (American Indian?) playwrights, panels on different topics relating to Native American art, especially in theater, and tonight there was a special concert by Martha Redbone in Joe's Pub.  This festival has been in the planning phase the entire time I've been at The Public, and even longer, and it's weird that it's finally happening.

Today we had to make 5 extra welcome packets for some of the artists and other festival people, so Deborah (the other literary intern) and I had to go out and get five subway maps.  The problem is, the guys in the subway kiosks will only give you one map at a time.  So we each went to the uptown and downtown stations right near work, then I ran into Boram Lee walking down the street near the uptown station.  She went to Harvard-Westlake with me, and now goes to NYU.  It was super random to run into her, but not unpleasant.  We said "hey" and the usual pleasantries, then I asked her to go down into the uptown subway station and get me one more map (for a total of 5 - 3 from me and 2 from Deborah).  Boram did that for me, which was really nice of her, and I couldn't find Deborah when I came out of the station so I went back to the office.  But when I got back it turned out that Deborah had gone to a station about a block away to get a third map of her own, so we had an extra map!

Later in the day Lisa (my boss), Jess (Artistic Intern), Cate (Literary Fellow - as in she has a fellowship), and I had to go downstairs to meet the caterer and set up for the reception that marks the start of the festival.  The caterer was really late getting to the theater, because she was working another event in Newark, NJ earlier in the evening, so Lisa got a little stressed.  But Juliet (the caterer) got there in time and it all worked out.  Jess, Cate, Lisa and I had to work as the cater waiters for the event since Juliet only brought a bartender (not her fault, it was our budget, etc.).  What I mean by that is we had to wear all black, then stand in the corner and pretty much do nothing except occasionally throw away empty cups and discarded napkins left on the tables.  And help with set up/clean up.  At first Lisa had dictated that we couldn't eat the food, except for the occasional grape or piece of cheese we swiped while no one was looking, to maintain professionalism, but later in the evening she repealed that ban.  Thank GOD, since I hadn't eaten beforehand (bad call) and I was STARVING!!!  There were some delicious chicken skewers that I ate on some of the bread that was supposed to go with cheese, like a little chicken sandwich.  And I had one amazing strawberry!

We (the interns/temporary cater waiters and I) met this actor named Chaske, who is in one of the readings and on one of the panels.  I think Jess met other people but I didn't (I might have been too busy eating).  This guy looked super young, like our age (I say "our" but my fellow interns are actually all much older than I -- at least 4 years -- since they've all graduated from college already and I haven't even started), but he talked about being in school (i.e. college) in NYC when there were still hookers and drugs and strip clubs, etc., all over Times Square (late 80s/early 90s) and how he watched it all change, which indicates that he's older than he looks.  I think it would have been really cool to see that transition, though. 

Going back upstairs after the reception to put a bowl away and get my coat, I saw John Doyle also going upstairs.  I held a door open for me, he smiled at me like he knew me (!!!), and asked how I was (as he was passing, so obviously he didn't really care, but I still responded briefly and asked him how he was doing to which he responded "fine").  That was pretty cool.

Then Deborah and I split a cab home, because she lives across the street from me and the subway late at night is super creepy.  Especially since Deborah told us a story this morning about some serial subway rapist who operates on trains running from Union Square to Astoria.  Not fun.

Bad Day?

Ok, so, I've had a lot of good days that ended badly (like this past Thursday and Halloween), but today was a day that started out terrible (really busy at work + really really tired... which isn't being helped by me staying up WAY too late right now) and ended pretty well. I was trudging to the door at the end of the day literally falling asleep on my feet and I walk past this guy who looks familiar... I try to check it out casually, and it's Mandy Patinkin lounging on the couch in the reception area and talking to someone (I don't remember who)!! Mandy Patinkin is awesome! He's doing some concerts at The Public this fall and I'm really excited to go to them! Then I had dinner with my Aunt Linda which was surprisingly fun and VERY delicious (we ate at this restaurant called Island on Madison between 93rd and 92nd).

I got there a bit early, and asked if I could wait at the bar. After I didn't order anything, the girl manning the bar got snippy with me and kinda forced me into getting a table. I was STARVING and I was sitting there staring at my bread roll frantically drinking the coke I felt pressured into ordering wishing for Aunt Linda to show up. But then she did and it was all good. The roll was excellent, then I had apple/butternut squash soup which was very warm (GREAT on such a cold night) and had little apple chunks in it which were delicious, a hamburger as my main course (also excellent, every once in a while an expensive burger is worth it. And this one was only moderately expensive, as opposed to the $20 burger at the Marriott Marquis hotel restaurant in the 8th floor lobby), and then we shared a warm brownie with vanilla gelato on top for dessert -- AMAZING. I definitely recommend this restaurant if you want an upscale but still fairly casual night out.

Bed time.

Photographs!

So update: I now have all my pictures from my gap year (minus specifically facebook-genred L.A. pictures) up here: http://picasaweb.google.com/applegalette

Even if you're my facebook friend, there are some unseen "gems" in there. And if you take a look, maybe some commentary?

Jayson - Day Two

Today after finally waking up I dragged Jayson to Cafe Luka, this coffee shop a little over a block from my apartment, for brunch.  Brunch was unexciting, then we took a cab to the Natural History Museum.

We went to see this exhibit called "Lizards and Snakes Alive!" which I thought included petting of lizards and snakes, but alas did not.  We had a lot of fun taking pictures of the lizards, especially trying to catch the blue-tongued skink with its blue tongue sticking out (we only managed to get one really blurry photo of this event despite MANY pictures of the skink).  Then the camera battery died.  :(

We finished touring the lizard exhibit, then found an outlet in one of the main museum hallways and plugged the camera battery in to charge.  This museum guy came up to us to give us a survey.  He asked where we were from, and when we said L.A. he mentioned all the political stuff that's going on there and the crime rate going up because of that.  Jayson made some joke about how all the gangs have gone into hiding because they're afraid of all the protests and the guy just lost it.  Then we took the survey, which was about an exhibit they're thinking of installing about insects and spiders.  Some of it actually sounded pretty cool, and as much as I love the museum it really could use something new and exciting.

After the museum we walked back to the apartment through Central Park.  All I can say is I wish I'd gone to Central Park a thousand other times while I've been here.  I've only really been in the park in the winter (and this past summer to see "Hair"), but it is absolutely GORGEOUS in the fall.  It helped that today had absolutely amazing light and I was on a picture taking spree.  I'm not posting pictures here because it's SUCH a pain in the ass but I'll link to a website where you can find all my photography at the end of this post.

We made it back to the apartment to get Jayson's bag and discovered that he had to HURRY to get to Penn station in time for his train.  He made it, but he told me over the phone that he'd left his iPod in his cab and had to chase after it to get the iPod back.

After Jayson left I went back to the park to check out this traveling art installation that is on its last day in NYC.  It features work by different artists inspired by the Chanel quilted handbag, and travels in this really cool space-pod looking venue.  It's going to major international fashion capitols.

Unfortunately, they were out of tickets (which are free) and, like I said, this is the last day, so I couldn't get in.  I was a little bummed but I did check out the outside of it, which was pretty cool, and took some more pictures in the park.

Now I'm back at the apartment eating and relaxing and I'll probably work for a little bit before I go to bed but... we'll see.  I need to get a good night's sleep so I'll at least try to go to bed early.

PHOTOGRAPHY: http://picasaweb.google.com/AppleGalette 

A Couple of Squares

Last night my flight was delayed significantly because first the flight crew was late getting in from their previous flight, and then the plane was missing a medical kit so that had to be replaced.  So I got in really late, and then sat on the couch vegging and watching TV.  At 3:00 AM the Disney Channel movie "Brink!" came on.  This was bad, since I wanted to go to bed and "Brink!" is my absolute favorite Disney Channel/TV movie of all time.  I watched the beginning of it, but decided to go to bed since I needed rest and TiVO'd the movie for future viewing.

This morning I got to sleep in a bit, which was AMAZING, then I went to Union Square to meet up with Nicole and Matthew, who were having lunch with Matthew's friend Peter, an NYU student.  I also went to return a book to Barnes & Noble (the extra cash was a big relief for my fraught nerves).  So, Matthew, Nicole, and Peter come into the Barnes & Noble after a quite extensive waiting period, and it turns out that Matthew's church friend Peter is this guy who came on the Harvard-Westlake Edinburgh trip in 2005 (he went to New Roads, but the wife of the program head, Mr. Schrode, was a teacher of his).

We hung out in the book signing/readings area of the B&N because there were a whole bunch of chairs there which was nice, especially since it was raining out.  Then Matthew and Nicole headed back to Princeton, Peter headed back to NYU, and I headed back to my apartment.

I hung out in my apartment for a bit, watched about half of "Brink!," then my friend Jayson called.  He was touring the NBC studios with a group from his school, UPenn, and is staying in my apartment tonight.  He called to let me know he was done with his tour, but it was much earlier than I'd expected him to call.  I headed out and walked to Bloomingdales to return a bra (mostly for the money but also because I'd come to the conclusion that it was unnecessary and I didn't need it for anything specific at the moment since I don't wear a lot of strapless dresses), then tried to take the N or R to Times Square to meet Jayson at Rockefeller Center.  However, the N and R are all weird for a week or so, and I ended up taking the 4 to Grand Central and then the S to Times Square.

I walked to Rock Center, met up with Jayson, and we walked around Times Square for a bit.  We tried to get in for dinner at Bubba Gump, but the line was 45 min. and nowhere else was much better, so we went to the Marriott Marquis hotel and hung out in their lounge thing (and had to buy two VERY expensive glasses of coke to do that!) for a while.  Then we rode the awesome glass elevator up and down (one of my favorite Times Square activities, as sad as that sounds, although Jayson conceded that it was pretty fun -- "like a ride").

We went back to Bubba Gump and the wait was still 40 minutes long, so as a joke (which we'd been talking about in the lounge thing) I go "does it help if my dad helped found the restaurant?"  This is actually true, while my dad was working at Paramount he helped found the Bubba Gump restaurant chain and then acted as chairman.  You can read about it on his wikipedia page HERE.  Apparently, it did help, since they let us go right up.  I'm still laughing about it a little.

Then we wandered around Times Square a little, exploring the Toys R Us, the M&Ms store, and the Hershey's store.  Once again, I got hit on by some guy passing stuff out in Times Square.  This time, he asked "are you two together?" to which we replied "no!!!," then he offered me his arm and said "you can go with me then."  I said, "Sorry, I have a boyfriend," but he then asked what I was doing hanging out with Jayson.  We both virtually simultaneously responded "brother!"  Then we came back to the apartment and now we're watching a rerun of Saturday Night Live hosted by James Franco (whom Jayson did not know of until tonight).

(Another note, Jayson got sucked into a debate on Prop 8 by someone at Penn who is offended by the idea of gay unions being called "marriage."  He tried to persuade Jayson to how offensive this is by appealing to his Judaism (since clearly only Christians have marriages), and asking him how it would feel if gay marriages were called "bar mitzvahs."  The ridiculousness of this argument is not even worth discussing, but I find it hilarious so I felt like sharing.)

Election Night Adventure

ELECTION 2008

So, The Public did a competition with a theater in Florida for who could drink the most cups of free Starbucks coffee on election day.  Alas, we lost 43 to 44 (although it was very symbolic that they had 44 when we elected the 44th President)
I first went to Times Square, because my mom had told me there was viewing going on there.  Half was sponsored by ABC (the south half) and half by CNN (the north half, which is shown in the picture above.  Please also note Santa Claus).  There were a ton of people there, and, since it IS New York after all, a TON of Obama support in the crowds.
These kids (and one more kid and some adult supervisors) were giving out Obama Victory Mix-CDs -- and this was at like 8pm eastern time!
There were a lot of guys out selling Obama/McCain/Palin condoms (as I noted on Facebook, clearly no one wants Joe Biden on their penis).  Each set of guys or individual guy was selling them at a different price though...

One guy in Times Square (no one in the picture above, this is a different story) came up to me trying to give me a postcard ad thing.  Then he started hitting on me, and then he tried to sell me weed.  I tried to get a picture of him but he made me uncomfortable so I didn't stick around for too long trying to get a good shot.  The picture wasn't very good so I didn't put it up here, but the guy was pretty sketch.
There were also premature Obama victory stickers all over the place.
Outside of Fox they were taping election coverage, and I ran into it on my way to Rockefeller Center.
Rockefeller Center was the home of the MSNBC election plaza, and it was AMAZING.
I saw this guy and he looked pretty familiar so I started taking picture of him, and then it hit me that he was named Casey and I'd met him at that cocktail party for the New Musical Festival I went to a few weeks back.  So I went up to him and he kinda-sorta remembered me and it was nice and awkie so I went away.
They had a map on the ice rink and they would paint in the states red or blue when they were called for McCain or Obama.  I could barely see it, but I did manage to get this shot of the east coast.  I thought this was amazing, though.
They had these ribbon-looking bolts of cloth hung from placards that said "Obama" and "McCain" and then signs saying "270" on each side of the building.  As electoral votes were called for either candidate, the fabric thingy would move up in proportion.  Obama's got HUGE cheers for upward movement, while McCain's got tepid cheers mixed with boos.

Next I took a cab to Union Square, where people were having a drum circle/parachute party under a giant American flag.  It was awesome.  I went up to a Filene's that overlooks the square to get this shot.  Then I went to my friend Madeleine's dorm room at NYU to watch more results come in with her, her roommates, and her friends (all democratically inclined, of course).  We were anxiously awaiting 11:00 eastern, and when it came:
Obama is announced the winner on MSNBC!!!
Much celebration occurred...
...and Madeleine was moved so much she teared up a little, as did many around the world.  It was a really emotional campaign and a really great moment in history, so I understand how many people would be moved to tears.  After McCain's very gracious concession speech and Obama's characteristically eloquent acceptance, Madeleine & co. went to bed from what I understand, while I went out to Union Square again to join the celebration.
It was basically a riot, except everyone was really happy so I don't know what the good word that implies the same level of emotional gathering as a riot is...
People were using all kinds of things to make noise, and chanting "YES WE CAN/YES WE DID," "USA, USA," and singing the national anthem.  My friend Siena got a little emotional telling me about chanting "USA" with Obama supporters at Harvard after the win, saying that she was so moved being able to finally chant the name of her country with true pride.
There was a LOT of American-flag apparel and OBAMA supportive clothing and banners, of course.

And people (and puppies!) were being lifted above the crowd of revelers!

Some guys started climbing on lampposts and knocked one down...
Then this guy went up there (his near foot is resting on the bar from which the above broken lamp fell), waving the American Flag in our very own "Les Mis" moment... until the cops got concerned... (see the lamp on the left of the picture that's about to fall?  That was the concern, as well as messing around with private property)

The guy was led away by cops and taken away in the cop car.  This is pretty much when I decided I should go home soon.
People came streaming into the square witht he brand new issues of the Daily News announcing the new President!!
Fancy old people for Obama!
These nice people took this for me so I have a picture of me actually there at an (yes, AN) historic moment!

I Hate JFK Airport

So, a week ago I lose my driver's license, and now this happens (I promise my next post will be the story of election night, since at least I thought it was interesting, but I need to get this out there first):

I get to the airport in the cab, but the cab thingy rejects my debit card. Mind you, I bought lunch with the same card earlier in the day so I am not expecting this. I do not have any cash. I start freaking out and try the card a couple more times. No luck. The cab driver starts freaking out at me and yelling that he has to call the police because I'm trying to rob him. I start crying. I get out 50 Scottish pounds from my wallet, which I have from the Edinburgh trip over a year ago and have kept in case of emergency. I tell the cab driver that I need to go inside to exchange the money, but I will leave him my passport as collateral. He does not understand this, despite the fact that he is the first American cab driver I have had in New York since pretty much the first cab ride I ever took in New York. He starts yelling that I am going to run away and not pay the fare, so he has to get the police. I try to explain to him that I have the money, I just need to exchange it and I will leave my passport with him. Again, he seems to fail to understand that we're at an airport and I cannot travel without my passport, so obviously I will have to come back. By this point I am hyperventilating. The cab driver yells to a security guard/possibly sky cap guy to get the police. The guy is really really nice and takes me to go get the money exchanged. He tries to comfort me, telling me that some people just want to make you feel shitty (not in those exact words, of course). I say "I thought I still had American money" to him, implying that I was traveling to Scotland, so he doesn't think I'm a giant freak. I don't know why I'm compelled to lie like this all the time, since the situation was pretty much out of my control from the beginning. I pay the $45 fare and even tip the guy $5 because it's what you do in New York. Even though that's less than the normal tip (15% is standard), I wish I hadn't given him anything at all because he made me so upest. I go through airport security in tears, and go into a bathroom near my gate and start completely bawling because I'm so worked up at that point.

My plane is delayed leaving, and then we're delayed on the runway as well. I finally get to Boston but take the wrong shuttle bus so I have to double back to get the bus that will take me to the Red Line to Harvard. The Boston subway system is so much less sketchy than the New York subway system. The stations and trains are much nicer and cleaner, and I felt completely safe taking the subway even though it was midnight, which is NOT true in New York.

I stayed with Siena, and it was good to see her and her roommates at Harvard are really nice. The leaves are still changing and falling and it was beautiful. It was also a little rainy, and the smell of wet fallen leaves reminds me of being 1-4 years old living in Bronxville. I met with Jack Megan, head of the Office for the Arts, and he was really nice. Then Siena's mom took us to lunch and I had my first hamburger in over a month.

After that Siena and I ended up hanging out in her dorm for a little while just catching up and relaxing. Then I took the T (Boston code for public transportation, mostly the subway) to Carolyn at Tufts, and she took me for hot chocolate and we caught up and it was really nice because I always love hanging out with Carolyn. She's in two shows at Tufts right now as supporting leads, of course since she's really talented, and I wish I could go up to see her production of "Urinetown," but it goes up on a weekend I'll be in L.A.

Despite the horrendous start, it was a pretty pleasant trip overall, and at work right now I'm working on some research for Barry and his Education task force he's part of at The Public, which is SO much more exciting than the scanning project, (although some of the scripts I'm working on are really interesting), but I still can't wait to go home next weekend.

Two Sad Things

a) Michael Crichton died yesterday. As flawed as his views on global warming were revealed to be (at least as he put them in "State of Fear"), he was inexplicably one of my absolute favorite writers. Michael Crichton is what Dan Brown and Robin Cook can only achieve in their wildest fantasies. I read "Jurassic Park" for the first time in sixth grade and fell in love with this man's writing. Not all his books were amazing, especially the later works ("Prey"), but that is more than made up for by "Jurassic Park," its sequel, "Timeline," "Airframe," the list goes on... Although the movies weren't always great ("Timeline"), sometimes they were classics ("Jurassic Park"), and I think it's sad that his life ended at the same time his television show ("E.R.," which he helped create and continued to produce for its run) is coming to its own end. Michael Crichton's daughter was one year ahead of me at Harvard-Westlake and we were friendly aquaintences until she switched schools. I ran into her with her father at the "Timeline" premiere and he seemed like a very nice and intelligent (well, obviously) man.

b) I'm still sickened by the blatant denial of civil rights to gay people this country has decided is the right course of action. The adoption ban in Arkansas is the most disgusting piece of legislation, but the marriage bans are still incredibly offensive. My sister is friends with these two girls, twins, and over the summer my family went to the wedding of their mothers, which I believe I went into in my last post on this subject. Well, apparently at least one of those girls showed up to school yesterday and was in tears for most of the day. I can't imagine that anyone could see this and not be moved (I didn't see it, but I know the girl and I can imagine it and it makes me really sad and angry that people who profess to be in favor of "family values" would destroy her family like this. I mean, it's not like her parents are splitting up or anything, but their destroying the legal bond her parents made and as a consequence rendering their emotional bond as secondary to "normal" people). I'm also still angry at the girl I know who voted for the marriage ban in Florida (which needed 60% of the vote to change their state constitution and received 62%). Arizona is less personal but still really offensive. At least California was the closest of all these, but it's still horrible that it passed.

Yesterday this guy I did a summer program with in 2007 sent me a facebook IM asking what Prop 8 was (it was in my facebook status). I told him, and he said that he thought gay marriage was morally wrong but did not believe that the government should force one group's beliefs on the entire state (or, god forbid, the country). He also said that integration of people with different backgrounds and beliefs is really important to this country. I have to admit, I was little surprised by this. He is from Kansas, and is very religious and conservative. Although it makes me sad that he views homosexuality as being wrong, I'm heartened that I know someone who, even though he disagrees with the moral issue, can still understand that legislation like this is a complete violation of civil rights.

But seriously, I'm so mad I could puke.

I'm trying to get my anger out about this issue in this post, so that in the next I can put up some pictures and (attempt to) tell the narrative of my incredible election night exerience. This didn't end up being the rant I expected it to be, probably since thinking about Michael Crichton being dead was very sad and thus put me in a more somber state of mind, but at least I got to air some more of my grievances. I hear there are going to be a lot of protests, but I'm not going home for over a week so they'll probably have quieted down by the time I get back to L.A. If not, you know where you'll find me!

Prop 8 Passes

Honestly, as excited as I am about President Obama, I can't help but feel intense anger right now because of the anti-gay sentiments expressed by voters in various states, especially in California. California, Florida, and Arizona now all have explicit anti-gay-marriage laws and state constitutional amendments in place, which sickens me. What sickens me even more is that in Arkansas a ballot measure was passed that banned gay couples from adopting children. What the fuck?!

The Florida and Arizona measures were up this year (update on previous info I had here), and both have passed by wide margins (wider in FL), and someone I'm close with voted in favor of it in Florida which saddens me. If she's reading this now I know she probably doesn't appreciate that comment, but I'm OK with that since moral issues are an important part of a personal relationship and I feel very strongly about this.

I don't yet know of anyone I'm friends with in California who voted in favor of Prop 8, and I hope I don't find any. The first wedding I ever attended (only so far) was between two women who had been together for 30 years (longer than my own parents!) and have two daughters that are great friends of my sister. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I actually teared up a little bit when their friends told the story of the 30-year relationship and the road to this ceremony. It was really beautiful and I'm so glad that was my first wedding, even though it no longer counts as legal.

And in response to all those people who have decided that gay marriage ruins the sanctity of marriage, I think we should have a boycott of the institution of marriage in a protest against denying gay rights. I know few people will follow through on this (if this is still an issue when I want to get married, which at least certainly won't be during Obama's first term, I don't know if even I'll be able to follow through on it, but hopefully I will), but I think if even in the short-term the number of marriages went down at least noticeably if not significantly it would be a great protest.