Road Trip

I will have to do my final book club assessment after the holidays. Just in time for all y’all to be redeeming your Amazon and B&N gift cards, right?

For now we’re in the final 24-hour stretch before heading up to a Pennsylvania/Jersey holiday. I just did a bit of online gifting and will pick up the few remaining things I need to get between 5pm today and 3pm tomorrow. C has to stay at the show he is understudying for until after the first big group scene, and then (presumably) we will hit the road. Unless someone is out. But we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.

I had a great day and a half in NY. Wednesday was pretty well packed—I met my brother at Manhattan Theater Club, saw THE RECEPTIONIST (which I really dug), went with him and his director friend to Vinyl and ate veggie dumplings, then darted downtown for beer and ridiculous amounts of fried bar food with my friend Josh, then back up to Playwright’s to see DORIS TO DARLENE. It was a lovely, sparkling, touching play, but I found myself getting very frustrated with the turntable-dependant staging. That said, PH’s seats remain the most comfortable I’ve ever experienced, and I do so enjoy that space. Afterwards I ate green beans and caught up with dear Laura, then headed back to Queens. The next day I went out to Brooklyn to visit T, who is unfortunately assigned to bed rest (actually, home rest) as she waits out the last month of her pregnancy. We got super cheap manicures around the corner from her brownstone, and ate generous portions of Middle Eastern food. The place we got out nails done also offered $5 eyebrow waxes and a $10 bikini wax. As I sat with my hands underneath the dryer, my male Korean manicurist shouting into his cell phone at the front of the store all the while, I had to think, *There are some things where cheaper is not necessarily better. I think that bikini waxes fit into that category.*

In what other cases am I suspect of ridiculously cheap prices? Haircuts. Ceviche. Umbrellas. Motel Rooms.

Anyhow, the holiday will hopefully be a pleasant and peaceful one, and I wish the same for all of you. It will be an en masse gathering of my mother’s family on Xmas Eve, and most of those folks plus my brother and his girlfriend on Xmas day. C will be meeting everyone for the very first time, parental units included. He seems much less daunted by this plan than I am. It will also be the first large gathering of family since my aunt’s death. I believe all of the brothers and sisters save for one will be at dinner on the 24th. Here’s hoping we are able to find the joy in this reunion.

So. Happy Holidays. To everyone. And to all a good night!