The Best of Times is Now

Live theater - the purest form of art.  Seeing incredibly talented people put themselves out there like that, so raw and vulnerable, risking mistakes at any minute, pursuing their passions...it really makes you think about what it is that you are waking up and doing every day.

Wild and precious - I love it.

I was in Manhattan right after Christmas.  Is there any better place in the world at Christmastime?  I don't care if it's cliche.  The windows all decked out on 5th Avenue.  The tree at Rockefeller Center.  Ice skating in Central Park.  I love New York at any time of the year, but the streets of New York amidst snowflakes are especially surreal and spectacular.

Being in that city, for me, is the most energizing experience.  Everywhere I turn I'm surrounded by inspiration - beautiful architecture, eclectic shops, completely random restaurants, the constant energy and hum of traffic, people walking down the street wearing everything from haute couture to safety pins.  The trash piled up on the curb.  The smell of street vendors burning nuts.  I feel like I have electric plugs coming out of my body and they plug into everything around me.

This particular visit was even more inspirational for me.  We arrived in the middle of a blizzard and determined that the best way to pass some time while the city dealt with 16" of snow was to go see a matinee.  Thus began the most phenomenal three days of live theater I have ever experienced.

Avenue Q was like an IV of awesomeness injected directly into my veins.  Watching Muppet-like puppets sing about "What do you do with a BA in English?" "What's my purpose?" "Everyone's a little bit racist" "The internet is for porn" "Schadenfreude" and "You can be as loud as the hell you want when you're making love" really made my day.  Yes, I am their perfect target demographic:  I did really well in high school and college where there were more clearly defined roles and goals, now what?  The acting was superb, and my brother and I had a blast.  I left singing the song, "It's Only For Now," which has become my new go to repeat-over-and-over-to-calm-down mantra.

The next night was truly an unbeatable experience.  I should preface this by highlighting the fact that I am a huge dork and absolutely love the show Frasier.  Kelsey Grammar was headlining La Cage Aux Folles.  So when my dad surprised us with not just front row, but front table [ohmyGod I can touch the stage] seats, I was like a little girl wide-eyed with wonder seeing Mickey Mouse in person.  For those of you not familiar with the play, it's The Birdcage.  Playing opposite Kelsey Grammar, oh just Douglas Hodge, the Tony-Award winner for Best Actor...I thought I'd died and gone to acting Heaven.  Not only did Kelsey Grammar eye fuck the shit out of me throughout the play [OK, so that may have been going both ways] but during one particular performance, Douglas Hodge actually held my hand and sang to me - it was the closest to being on Broadway I will ever be.

Finally my dad surprised us with tickets to La Bete.  [Don't worry, I'd never heard of it either.]  The entire play is written in iambic pentameter with a dazzling cast of Patsy from Ab Fab, and my all-time favorite actor, David Hyde Pierce.  As starry-eyed as I was to see particularly the latter live on stage, it was Mark Rylance who blew me away with upwards of a 30 minute soliloquy.  After two solid hours of nerd nirvana, we waited at the stage door for the cast and found each member to be incredibly gracious and unassuming.  What struck me the most was after witnessing the most amazing feat of memorization I have ever seen, Mark Rylance simply walked off into the night with his backpack - just another person walking down the street.

Huge difference.

When I was younger and used to run through my parents' neighborhood, I would think of all of the things that went on in their house that no one would ever know about and wonder what all went on in other peoples' houses.  Same thing when I fly, looking down at house after house.  How do you stand out from that?  Today, my answer is through our passions and our own personal art.  Tomorrow I might say by wearing a lot of hot pink.

Did I mention that my brother's investor came through which means he can not only hire me full-time, but wants to make me majority owner of his landscaping company?  I would be responsible for government landscaping acquisitions as well as all of the daily operations management.  Working with/for my brother, owning my own company, being my own boss, bringing my dog to work...I think that may just be what I want to do with my one wild and precious life.  I'm simultaneously excited and scared shitless, which makes me think I might be on the right track.