Not being with my family on Christmas Day was pretty rough, I'm not going to lie. BUT if I had to be anywhere in the world (and not with my family) New York is definitely where I'd want to be.
Our friend Sean came for a quick visit right before Christmas. It was really fun catching up with him and showing him around this awesome city. He was able to see a lot of excellent theatre and really get a feel for what this city has to offer. Kelsey and I tagged along to a few shows: Cymbeline put on by Fiasco Theater at the Barrow Street Theater AND Seminar on Broadway with Alan Rickman. Sean and I put our names into the lottery for tickets to see Book of Mormon (and for a split second thought we won when the guy said "And from the great state of California...") but were not among the lucky 14 names called.
Cymbeline: I truly enjoyed this production. It was performed with only 6 actors and was hilarious!! The plot of Cymbeline is not the clearest plot line of Master Shakespeare's plays but this company did a fantastic job of making the text accessible, the plot clear, and they were very smart about the comedy in the text. If you have a chance to see it before it closes on January 15th I HIGHLY recommend it! Student rush tickets are only $20.
Seminar: So back when I had a job I thought I wasn't going to be able to see this with Sean and Kelsey. Thankfully I was able to get a discount ticket (and FINALLY redeem my birthday present from my parents! Thanks Mama and Papa Michaels!!!) for the show. When I purchased my ticket I thought I would be sitting one row behind where Sean and Kelsey would be sitting, but when I picked up my ticket at the box office I found myself sitting in the 4th row from the stage!! I was so close to the genius that is Alan Rickman that if he had be vigorously speaking at the edge of the stage his spit particles would have landed on me. It sounds a little gross writing it right now, but it was GLORIOUS!! The writing wasn't the greatest, but the acting was phenomenal! Again, if you find yourself able to see the show, do it!
Christmas Eve was spent busily elfing for stocking stuffers and gifts for Kelsey and Domonique and everything felt like an epic adventure. I went on an adventure to find ugly Christmas sweaters/sweatshirts but ended up with ugly Christmas PJs and socks instead. Then there was the adventure to find wrapping paper that wasn't in a 3-pack (because lets be honest, I don't need that much wrapping paper) and ended up grabbing the last single roll at a Rite Aid on the Upper Westside.... It was exhausting! But then Kelsey and I started what could be one of the best new Christmas-Eve-away-from-home traditions ever: wearing ugly Christmas pajamas, enjoying a meal of homemade mac-n-cheese, salad, and wine while watching Love Actually and then a cup of hot chocolate and A Christmas Story. Twas a wonderful night before Christmas.
Christmas Day started off with cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate/coffee. Then Kelsey and I opened our stockings that we had gotten for each other. I had filled hers with Crayola markers, a friendship bracelet, Rolos, little cans of Diet Coke and a box of Cheez-its. She had filled mine with a silver sequined scarf, adorable silver flats, beautiful earrings that matched, and a "Peace Love New York" key chain. Then we exchanged our gifts to each other/from our families. Kelsey got me a HUGE penguin stuffed animal (he can stand up by himself and is almost 2 feet tall) which I named Wesley Watson Windsor III. Yes, he's part of the British royal family, he is an emperor penguin after all. My family and I got Kelsey tickets to any Broadway show of her choosing. Kelsey's family got us a really nice bottle of HBC sherry. Neither of us are really sure what sherry is but we are quite excited to try it! We both got to Skype with our families and open presents virtually which was pretty awesome. When I was home and we did our Modern Family-esque early Christmas I opened the few presents I had (my plane ticket home was my big gift this year and was by far the best present ever) and the gifts that I had gotten for my family. But my mom had surprised me with one more gift to open on Christmas Day. She had ordered me Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp. Now, y'all know how much I love Marcel. This book is the cutest thing ever! And the best part is that Jenny Slate (who voices Marcel in the videos) recorded reading the book as Marcel. It's freaking adorable and cheered me right up after I stopped Skyping with my family. Domonique came over around 2:30 and we exchanged gifts. Kelsey and I got her some sweet ugly Christmas pjs and made her a stocking filled with Christmas socks, earrings, Sour Patch Kids, and a candy cane filled with Reese's. She got us these awesome arm warmers that are super warm, made us some DELICIOUS chocolate chip and butterscotch cookies, and Daniel (her boyfriend) got us some soaps that smell AMAZING. It was really great catching up with Dom and spending the afternoon with my little NYC family. Around 4:30 we all headed to Brooklyn: Dom to spend Hanukkah with Daniel and his family, Kelsey and I to spend Christmas dinner with Kelsey's classmate Kyle and his family who had come to visit from Louisiana. His mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew rented an apartment for the week and had prepared a scrumptious Christmas dinner with turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a vegetable medley that was to die for! It was so much fun getting to know his family. They are the nicest people to invite us and Velson (another one of Kelsey's classmates) over for dinner and now we all want to go visit them in Louisiana soon!!
The next few days were pretty lazy: mainly spent cleaning up the apartment in preparation for Kelsey's sister Leah's arrival, looking for monologues, ordering business cards, and trying to figure out what my next employment move is going to be...
And then I got sick. Not just "oh I don't feel great but I can push through it," but so sick I was completely laid out for a week. Fever, cough, runny nose, exhausted... and no matter what meds I took nothing helped. I was able to muster up enough energy to go see the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular with Kelsey and Leah. Radio City Music Hall is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!
Gorgeous!
The chandelier in the lobby!
I spent my first New Years Eve in NYC in my apartment, bundled up, watching the shenanigans that were happening literally at the end of my block :( Not the way I would have liked to ring in 2012 but if the New Year started off this crappy it can only go up from there, right? Right! It was pretty cool though, right before midnight I opened our window and when midnight hit confetti from Times Square came flying through the window. That was fun.
On Monday Dom helped me get to the urgent care doctors office to get me on some antibiotics so I could get better. As soon as the doctor looked in my ear she almost jumped back and said "woah!" Guess I had a pretty gnarly ear infection going on in there and thats why I was so sick. I haven't had an ear infection since I was a youngster and my ears didn't hurt but she said there was a ton of fluid and whatnot. She prescribed a z-pac (my favorite!) and off to Duane Reade we went! Turns out they don't take my health insurance anymore but they gave me a killer discount because I clearly needed the meds ASAP and didn't know they didn't cover me. With antibiotics and Pedialyte in hand I almost skipped home I was so happy that I would be feeling better soon. Lo and behold by Tuesday I was feeling SO much better! Not fully recovered but well on my way.
Kelsey and Leah headed home to the west coast on Wednesday. And it's been very quiet here. I'm excited to get back to work demoing to get away from the apartment. I don't know if I'd ever be able to live by myself, I am not a fan of it and it's been less than a week. I'd definitely get a dog or two haha
I'm not really sure what this year has in store. I'm hoping for the best but in all honesty I'm just trying to keep my head above water. It's a pancake year. And you always throw the first one out :)
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