Live from Times Square
a little bit of info, excerpted from a letter to Miss Laura "Spencey" Spence

So, the skinny of the Big Apple. I've been eating like it's my job and seen lots of Broadway shows. At last count, we saw NINE (the musical re-telling of Fellini's 8 1/2 -- vomit!), GYPSY (with Miss Bernadette Peters who was so sick I thought she was going to fall down and die at the beginning of the 2nd act, but pulled it out like the diva she is), 42ND STREET (for the umpteenth time -- LOVE IT!!!), SALOME (a reading of Oscar Wilde's send-up to Euripides-esque plays with Marisa Tomei, Al Pacino, Dianne Wiest and David Strathair -- slow as Southern molasses)... I think that's it (haha). We're going to see ZANNA DON'T, this off-B'way show with a former Angel from RENT; in it, the whole world is gay -- of course, I love it! I've already seen it once, so good! And we're going to see something called FROG AND TOAD tomorrow; it's nominated for a Best Musical Tony, but I'm not sure exactly what it's about. We also went to these tap awards and saw all these famous tappers and an art opening of one of those tapper's boyfriend. We even saw Baby's dad from DIRTY DANCING at NINE. It's been celebalicious here in New York.

It's the mooooost wonderful time of the year

Writing to you all directly from New York City. On a trip with the two biggest money-spenders I have ever (and possibly will ever know): my mom and her traveling companion Lee Moncus. It is madness, my friends, madness -- but I'll keep 'em because it sometimes benefits me.

So, the long and short of it: I finally finished school (though the semester did go by incredibly quickly) and came home for a couple of days of R&R, but not so much R&R happened since I had to do errands, pack up for New York and do the requisite bar-bonding with the kids from the Brook. That didn't end up the way I wanted it to, that's for sure... It was good, though, and I had my first Long Island Ice Tea -- gettin' ready for senior year, awhaw!

And what about New York? Two words: Fleet Week! I'm living the Carrie Bradshaw dream. I even got my picture taken with a couple of sailors (and some totally random guy who decided to jump in and get his dirty mitts on me). Though I would wager that Carrie wouldn't be dorky and touristy enough to actually get her photo taken with a sailor -- she'd just sleep with one -- but diff'rent strokes...

Took a lesson with the choreographer of 42nd Street yesterday courtesy of la mia mamma. He even asked me to come to front and center since I got the choreography and most of the others didn't -- granted, the others were a bunch of old ladies, but it was a compliment nonetheless.

And who did we see at Joe Allen (restaurant) last night? None other than Mr. Al Pacino. (And I totally was rubber-necking to see when I almost walked into some woman -- whoops!)

The rest of the week is going to be a flurry. The highlight for me, I think, is going to be going back to see Zanna Don't with my dear Jai Rodriguez, but who knows, there's still a lot in store for us.

So, I'm gettin' nice and fat during these many days in the city so that I can look excellent in my dress for the Ball of Roses. Oh well, Maalox diet for me...

I, however, must retire now because I'm tired and distracted by hotel TV. Hopefully I'll get inspired to write some more at another time. Hasta...