Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder
Hey everyone! i'm only my first month into this thing and i've already turned into the worst blogger ever. but it's really not my fault! a couple of weeks ago i started feeling poorly. i thought i was coming down with a cold. this led to 2 days of missed workouts which aggravated me beyond belief (now i don't know what i had because i really do have a bad cold as i type). on top of that things at work decided to go absolutely crazy so i had no time to even think about anything else. during these two weeks though, some good things have happened. first as my previous entry shows, i had a visit from my old friend chris sestser of fort smith, ar. we, along with the rest of the pricing crew and our legal representative shaun, all had many crazy adventures back in the day in the fort. i haven't seen chris in a few years and he is now married with the most adorable 3 year old ever, named Allie. having a daughter hasn't aged chris a bit though. he still looks, sounds and pretty much acts the same. it always amazes me how with some people you can pick right back up from when you left off - whether it was a week ago or three years ago. most of my friends live far away, but luckily we have this type of connection. anyway, chris, thomas and i went to rhumba in boulder to trade stories, hear about all my other old friends in the fort and enjoy some cuban food. it was all good.
the other good thing that happened was my whirlwind trip to new york city! i managed to catch a really cheap last minute flite on jetblue airlines. it's one of the newer ones that miraculously flies out of denver (we don't get southwest here). on the flite everyone has their own leather seat, plenty of legroom and best of all satellite tv! i planned on spending the 3.5 hours reading or knitting but instead i watched an old ep of battlestar gallactica (the new one is soooooo much better) and then the made for tv movie of mia farrow's story. boy did she have a life! i was enthralled and we touched down before i knew it. the thing about new york is, your first glimpse of the skyline can't help but take your breath away. it worked its wonders on me once again.
i arrived this past thursday and met cyd at whole foods. it's a new store that opened up in union square. ok, if you think boulder's whole foods is busy - think again. this place was absolutely nuts - plus it's THREE stories! i could not believe it. it's a great looking store and i don't know where all these people shopped before it arrived. cyd had to work late so i dropped off my bag and walked to the theatre to see my first play. along my walk, i realized i was on 14th street between 6th and 7th avenues. this is meaningful because my dad had told me a few days before that that was the location of my grandfather's shop. i picked up my trusty cell phone, called my dad and sure enough, he said the address was 116 e 14th street and i was standing right in front of the doorway. using trusty cellphone, i snapped a pic for posterity. the shop is long gone, but the address is still there and i'm sure sam kurtz was happy for the visit. i felt like this had to be a great omen for the rest of my trip.
the first play i saw was called "orson's shadow", as in orson welles. it's a hypothetical take on what could have happened when welles, laurence olivier, olivier's fiancee joan plowright, and the critic kenneth tynan all got together to put on a play in london. the play was amazing - i adored the subject matter, it felt like you were eavesdropping on all of these legends at work. and best of all there was a visit from olivier's estranged wife, vivien leigh. due to my obsession with gwtw (see first blog entry), i was familiar with the history here so it made all the interaction especially interesting for me. leigh was a major manic/depressive and practically drove olivier nuts with her. though he finally divorced her, she remained the central figure in his life until she died of tb. anyway, the major theme of the play was how all these hugely talented egos had past their primes. leigh would always be remembered as scarlett, welles for citizen kane, etc. the performances were wonderful, funny, at times heartbreaking and spot on. i sat next to this old couple during the play. at intermission, the man told me first that i reminded him of a vegas show girl he knew in the 60s (given that i'd left my boa at home, i wasn't sure how to respond to this) and then that as a student at columbia in the 50s he saw a play a week and one of those was antony and cleopatra starring none other than leigh and olivier. he said they were brilliant. i've never been so jealous!
ok, i'm being pretty long winded here, so all for now. i'll continue with stories from my trip tomorrow. i don't think i'll ever top meeting matthew mcconaughey a couple of weeks ago, but as you'll see in my next entry i did see one famous face in nyc.
-sunday
the other good thing that happened was my whirlwind trip to new york city! i managed to catch a really cheap last minute flite on jetblue airlines. it's one of the newer ones that miraculously flies out of denver (we don't get southwest here). on the flite everyone has their own leather seat, plenty of legroom and best of all satellite tv! i planned on spending the 3.5 hours reading or knitting but instead i watched an old ep of battlestar gallactica (the new one is soooooo much better) and then the made for tv movie of mia farrow's story. boy did she have a life! i was enthralled and we touched down before i knew it. the thing about new york is, your first glimpse of the skyline can't help but take your breath away. it worked its wonders on me once again.
i arrived this past thursday and met cyd at whole foods. it's a new store that opened up in union square. ok, if you think boulder's whole foods is busy - think again. this place was absolutely nuts - plus it's THREE stories! i could not believe it. it's a great looking store and i don't know where all these people shopped before it arrived. cyd had to work late so i dropped off my bag and walked to the theatre to see my first play. along my walk, i realized i was on 14th street between 6th and 7th avenues. this is meaningful because my dad had told me a few days before that that was the location of my grandfather's shop. i picked up my trusty cell phone, called my dad and sure enough, he said the address was 116 e 14th street and i was standing right in front of the doorway. using trusty cellphone, i snapped a pic for posterity. the shop is long gone, but the address is still there and i'm sure sam kurtz was happy for the visit. i felt like this had to be a great omen for the rest of my trip.
the first play i saw was called "orson's shadow", as in orson welles. it's a hypothetical take on what could have happened when welles, laurence olivier, olivier's fiancee joan plowright, and the critic kenneth tynan all got together to put on a play in london. the play was amazing - i adored the subject matter, it felt like you were eavesdropping on all of these legends at work. and best of all there was a visit from olivier's estranged wife, vivien leigh. due to my obsession with gwtw (see first blog entry), i was familiar with the history here so it made all the interaction especially interesting for me. leigh was a major manic/depressive and practically drove olivier nuts with her. though he finally divorced her, she remained the central figure in his life until she died of tb. anyway, the major theme of the play was how all these hugely talented egos had past their primes. leigh would always be remembered as scarlett, welles for citizen kane, etc. the performances were wonderful, funny, at times heartbreaking and spot on. i sat next to this old couple during the play. at intermission, the man told me first that i reminded him of a vegas show girl he knew in the 60s (given that i'd left my boa at home, i wasn't sure how to respond to this) and then that as a student at columbia in the 50s he saw a play a week and one of those was antony and cleopatra starring none other than leigh and olivier. he said they were brilliant. i've never been so jealous!
ok, i'm being pretty long winded here, so all for now. i'll continue with stories from my trip tomorrow. i don't think i'll ever top meeting matthew mcconaughey a couple of weeks ago, but as you'll see in my next entry i did see one famous face in nyc.
-sunday
posted by Sunday at
2:47 PM
2 Comments:
So what is the "Absense makes the heart grow fonder" part? Did you miss me? :)
By
Thomas Cook, at 4/05/2005 9:07 PM
So, who but you could meet an old couple at a play who had actually seen a play starring Olieva (sic) and Leigh? That was worth the price of admission. Is the pun your own? I love it! mom
By
Anonymous, at 4/07/2005 2:36 PM
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