I'm flying home....

yay!!!!! I get to go home tomorrow! I'm so excited. I keep checking on my flight's progress....oh yeah, it hasn't left yet! Flight #9 out of JFK coming to SFO! Yippee! Okay, until then...I'll catch you up on the last few days.

Sunday was my fun day with Jenny H. I just love my new friend....she is the one that was my roommate on the women's retreat. She is an opera-singing, zoo-loving, splenda-eating kindred-spirit-to-be, I think, and I really love the time I get to spend with her. I walked to church (soooooooo early, daylights saving, ouch) and as I was in the heart of WASP-land (Madison and 70s) a man rolled by in his S series Benz and yelled, "What the hell? Is it 7 or 8?" in a super-sweet NY accent. I yelled back, "8!" with authority before realizing it was really nearing 9. You'd think the priviledged rich would make sure their butlers would keep them informed about these things.
Church was great although a bit uncoventional because the printer had sent last weeks' programs by mistake. It definitely threw everyone for a loop since Redeemer is a program-heavy sort of service. Because we have no facility or hymnals of any sort, we rely on the programs for the music and text to the songs, not to mention readings and announcements. As Tim K said, "The first Christians were able to worship without modern printing presses."
I met some fun new people in the coffee hour including a modern visual artist who is interested in moving to CA.
Jenny and I went to a mid-town diner for a yummy, yummy brunch where we ordered exactly the same-thing, of course! We killed some time and had fun trying on makeup at Sephora before heading to Drowsy Chaperone to put our names in the $25 ticket lottery. Most Broadway shows have a rush or lottery policy where they reserve a certain amount of seats in the front row for a much-discounted price. Unfortunately Jenny and I weren't the only ones with the great idea of a Sunday matinee so we did not win the lottery. :( But, with Jenny's friend John who had a Drowsy ticket in hand, we walked to the TKTS booth to see what our options were for some half-price tickets. The trick with the TKTS booth is that they only offer such tickets from the premium price level and so you end up paying $50-60. I wanted to see Grey Gardens with Christine Ebersole, which was really the only one that seemed splurge-worthy but Jenny really wanted to see Spelling Bee. Since I had seen it twice in SF, I felt $50 was a lot for that one....but then the best thing happened! A kid that had too much luck won the lotteries at both Spelling Bee and Drowsy Chaperone and needed to sell his Spelling Bee tickets. So, we ended up with 2nd row seats to Spelling Bee at the Circle in the Square Theatre...such a cool space, and AMAZING to be so close up! I loved the show and it was totally different from the SF production. I really missed James and Betsy in their roles but I still think it is the most fun and zany and sweet show and it was great to see Jenny's reaction. We lingered a bit afterwards and got to see all the stars on their way out in street make-up. The girl who played Olive was working a dress with jeans and tennies look...love it!
John met us afterwards and the three of us headed uptown to Alice's Tea Cup to meet their friend Hanneliese who I had heard so much about! There was no room for us at Alice's table and so instead we went to "the bread of the day" French bakery-place with the worst service ever for a little soup and chatter. I was totally beat by the end of such an exciting and early-starting day and unfortunately started feeling under the weather again in my walk across the park.

Monday was a sick day. :( I slept in and didn't really do much all day. I have nothing great to report. I gave myself time to feel better and did some grocery shopping. I hated it. Really.

Tuesday was another sick day but it turned for the better. I slept in again with a scratchy throat but got up early enough to run to Trader Joes in record time and do some errands before hitting the library. I spent about 4 hours there, researching musicals and listening to scores. I fell in love with Donna Murphy, famous in my heart for her role as the ballet teacher in "Center Stage" but rightly famous as an amazing singing-actress. I loved her in "Wonderful Town!" I hope I'll get to see her live someday soon. After my library fun I went over to the Jennings for Bible Study and had a wonderful time connecting with a few of the ladies that I think are amazing godly women in prayer time. Adrienne had made us a wonderful recreation of one of our order-in favorites: The Chicken Rice bowl with arugula from Pita Grill. Yummers! We watched "American Idol" and I decided that some people don't deserve to go to Devachan and have their curls worked....um, Sunjaya?

Wednesday, today, was a great day! I decided to go for some auditions at the Equity Center but was so sure I wasn't get to sing. Miracle of miracles, I was typed in for an Equity Chorus Call for Surflight Theatre in NJ and got to sing! My first time singing in the Equity builiding...I still can't really believe it. The singing went well and I felt like I just owned my legit-ness and didn't apologize for it in ways I had been in earlier auditions. They seemed to really enjoy all 16 bars even though I didn't get asked to stay and dance! Baby steps! Lauri Beth from the Gym was VERY complimentary of the new hair and that made me very giddy and excited. I even got a compliment from a girl I didn't know who said she had wanted to tell me how amazing my hair looked! I know, I'm totally building this up way too much, for those of you I'm about to see! :)
One of my non-Eq friends Thalia was checking in on the EMC list status for another call and invited me to go grab a salad with her. She is a fun girl and I enjoy her humor! The weather was amazing today! My unlimited metro card ran out yesterday so I decided I would walk the 50+ blocks and 5 avenues home! It was a great day for people-watching on Madison Ave but I definitely broke a sweat. I ended up taking my first run in Central Park, around the Reservoir. It's a pretty easy and beautiful run, perfect for amateurs like me! I came home and took a shampoo-less shower and I have to say the curls are doing their best non-friendliness work yet...so exciting! We just bid adieu to Eric, Sarah, and Jon who all came over for a delicous dinner that Sarah and Adrienne fixed...whole-wheat pasta with a roasted red-pepper and feta sauce as well as Adrienne's famous palmitos salad. Yum, yum. We enjoyed poking fun at ANTM as well as wondering how Brandon got kicked off of AI. Argh. I hate that "Vote for the Worst" website. Lame. Okay, I should really go to sleep...I'm going to have a fun adventure getting to the airport tomorrow....trains and trams, oh my!