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).