One year ago today

Yes, this time last year I was arriving in NYC in time for the Oscars at the start of a 31 day vacation. That month was the most relaxing and fun month I think I have ever spent and it was also the time that ultimately led to my 90 day search for work and to where I am today. While I was in NYC on vacation, a few chance conversations and connections made me stop and think about everything I was doing with my life and where I ultimately wanted to be. That I want to live in NYC is something that I have wanted for a long time but spending such a large chunk of time there really brought it home. In the last weekend I was there, which coincidentally was Easter Sunday, I went to see the second preview of the revival of A Streetcar Named Desire at Studio 54 and then I met one of my dearest friends for dinner. We ended up spending the rest of the evening together, going back to his apartment in Chelsea to watch Desperate Housewives and eat ice cream. I remember VERY clearly thinking the following "Ok this, I want this. I want to be able to hang out with friends until late and then just wander out to the subway and get home". See, in London, the subway is shit. It takes forever to get anywhere and it closes at midnight (11pm on a Sunday). So Easter Sunday was the deciding day for me.

I had an absolute blast and what was so amazing to me was in that month I lived like a crazy person, seeing a truckload of Broadway shows, movies, eating out for every meal pretty much, buying clothes, DVDs and CDs and I managed to spend $3000. Which is a fairly low figure, I think. I saw Dar Williams in concert at the Allen Room which was glorious. I saw La Cage Aux Folles, Dessa Rose, Light In The Piazza, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Pillowman, Wicked, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Doubt, Spamalot, The Golden Age, Steel Magnolias, Little Women, Streetcar Named Desire, 700 Sundays, All Shook Up, Glass Menagerie, Twelve Angry Men and Altar Boyz. Crazy huh?

But I also met some great people and made some wonderful friends. Without them, I would never have been able to go back for the 90 days and I would certainly never have gotten through those 90 days. The biggest surprise of the vacation was meeting and making friends with Eric. All the people I met in NYC I had been talking to online over at Broadwayworld. Eric was also on that site but he and I had never spoken. He tagged along one day to dinner with a bunch of BWW people. We somehow ended up sat next to each other and the rest is history. He's a diamond. With great hair and a cute dog, see?



Anyway, I just wanted to wax nostalgic about my month in NYC but I also didn't want to get TOO reflective about it all, otherwise I'd depress myself. I do need to mention that not only did I see Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? but thanks to another dear friend who worked on that show, I attended the opening night AND the after party. That's why I had to buy clothes, you see. I had to get me some glad rags for mixing with the hoi polloi.

I'll end by saying I am so looking forward to when it stops being a vacation and starts resembling my life.