Nothing like a little drama...

So you want to know what I've been spending a lot of my time with lately? Opera. Yes - opera. Last year I worked at Carnegie Hall and I was able to see several concerts there. I am currently working for the Metropolitan Opera and have seen a lot of opera. Before I started working there I had a friend who took me all the time, so this little opera affair has been going on for most of 2009. A significant difference between going to a concert at a venue like Carnegie Hall and seeing an opera is the amount of time that it takes. You can go to Carnegie and be out in an hour and a half. An opera is just getting started at an hour and a half! Attending an opera requires an entire evening - it is an event. Which is great! But, it does take up a chunk of time.

Now, I would say the average opera clocks in at around 3 hours. That includes an intermission where you can walk around, mingle, show off your fancy earrings and eat an over-priced cookie. Some operas are a little longer, some a little shorter. But there is this special phenomenon that happens every now and then called the Ring Cycle. I don't want to get into it too much, BUT basically, for those who don't know, Wagner wrote this series of operas (4) that make up the cycle. These operas take huge orchestras (HUGE - he even created instruments specifically for this thing!) and require major productions and are performed (usually) within the span of a week. AND they are much longer than "regular" operas. The Met is currently in the midst of Ring season. This happens every few years - people flock from all over the world to spend night after night at the opera house watching these performances. The first one is only about 2 1/2 hours long and they increase until the last one is a whopping 6 hours long. Ring fans are a breed of their own. These are serious fans. You'd have to be, right? In order to devote about 15 hours to one opera? In one week? Yes, it is broken into four nights, but it's really one huge story. Think Lord of the Rings, opera style. Everyone knows some of the Ring. Click on this to be reminded:


If you are not a serious Wagner fan, the only reason you would put yourself through all this madness is that you are either curious or crazy - or some combination of the three. Anyway - the whole reason I am blabbing about Wagner and Ring Cycle is that today I accomplished the task of watching the entire final opera. All 6 hours of it! Yikes! It was the final dress rehearsal before the Saturday opening performance and they gave us tickets. I was only going to go to the first act (11:00-1:00), but got sucked in and didn't end up leaving until the final curtain at 5:15. Wow. It was pretty amazing and I can add that to my list to say "I've done it". It was great and so epic - the end of the world kind of a thing. But 6 hours! Come on! And just in case you are wondering, I have also seen the first two operas of the cycle. Missed the third, but it will come around again and I will probably catch it just so I can insanely claim to have seen the entire Ring Cycle.

Enough. I leave you with a picture taken 4 years ago. I was visiting New York and had my picture taken in front of the opera house. I had no idea what was to come - I hadn't even been in the building yet...

Wacky Weather

We have had the strangest weather lately. It's up and down and all over the place. Hot, cold, rain, and shine all in one day. Forget "one day" - try one hour! It doesn't know what it wants to do! No surprise that I am cheering on the sun and the warm, but it's a struggle. The most confusing times are when it is cloudy, but really bright. How exactly does that happen? I feel so strange - walking down the street squinting, wishing I had my sunglasses, when it is completely overcast. Hmm...who knows. Anyway, we had a few beautiful days over the weekend and I actually had one afternoon off where the weather was nice and I was able to sit outside and enjoy it. I was introduced to a place downtown that is very different from my everyday New York. I almost feel like I am in a different city when I am there. There are some nice cobblestone streets by the water where I can sit at the outside tables and have a nice lunch. Afterwards I can go for a stroll or a bike ride in a little park with the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River behind me. An afternoon like that is exactly what I need every now and then to refresh and reset in all the madness of daily life.

Speaking of refresh and reset - I am excited about a little trip I will soon be taking. In just a couple of weeks I will fly down to Florida for Stacy and Jared's graduation. I am looking forward to seeing them and the rest of the family that will make it down. I will only be there for a couple of days, but it will be a nice change of scenery. I plan to take an empty suitcase to fill with Florida sunshine to bring back to New York. If I can bottle up enough I will share. Otherwise I will have to be selfish and keep it in my apartment for myself.

Extreme Inbox

I wonder if anyone else has ever experienced an out-of-control inbox? I just had a huge cleansing session with my hotmail inbox. I have a couple of email accounts. One I use more for business stuff and the other that is more family stuff. I tend to not erase messages very often... or ever. Is that bad? Am I taking up too much space out there in the cyber world? I guess not, because even with the 485 unread messages and the billion read messages still there I was only using a small portion of my allotment. But seriously... 485 UNREAD messages? What is the point of that? It's not that I blow off important emails or ignore people. These are mostly emails from stores trying to get me in to the latest sale or my bank telling me my account statement is ready. Anyway, I am so proud of myself because after donating a nice half hour of my life and going through the inbox I am down to 75 unread messages! Yay! I would have deleted more, but I couldn't find them. Haha - yes, that is bad, but I didn't have the patience to click "next page" forever and try to find where they are hidden. Besides, having a few unread messages makes me feel special when I sign in - there is always something there waiting for me!

For shame, for shame.

Well, here it is - beyond mid-March and I have to admit.... I have been horribly bad at keeping my New Year's resolution. Shamefully bad, embarrassingly sinful, I must say. Almost as if calling it a "New Year's resolution" put a curse on it and made my little goal completely unobtainable. I guess that is what resolutions are for, right? They are made to be broken. Does ANYONE ever keep a NY Res? Seriously? How many diets go out the door; gym memberships unused? Well, my pots and pans have remained empty. Shame on me. All the "cooking at home" I had intended to do... didn't happen. A few times it happened. I've made a few breakfasts, made a couple of lasagnas, and thrown together some sandwiches along the way - but those fabulous cookbooks and magazines are pretty much just sitting around looking fabulous and not much more.

Today I thought I would try to break the curse by mixing up a pot of chili. Maybe it is wishful thinking, but I imagine that very soon it will be so warm out that I won't really want a big bowl of soup. This chili doesn't take many ingredients or too much effort, which is nice. I was able to make it while I did the laundry (I know, I am being extremely productive today). I don't know why I don't do something like chili more often because now I have the leftovers for later in the week when I need a quick lunch before work. At one point in my life leftovers seemed unappetizing but now that life is so busy they are wonderful! Especially the kind I can take on the road with me. Perfect. I should learn my lesson and cook more so I have more leftovers!

Originally I was going to go off in this post about knives. But now I don't think I will talk about how the more knives I have used the more I realize that I am a knife snob. How a bad knife is really worthless. In fact, it is more than worthless...it takes up time and effort - stealing precious moments and happiness from life. I thought about that as I sawed away on an onion this afternoon with the "whatever knife I could find in the drawer". I have my own set of knives that I keep in my room, but I didn't feel that I had the time to go search for them. Looking back, maybe the time I would have spent searching would have been equal to the time spent sawing and resawing that onion. Plus I would have had the satisfaction of cutting cleanly and quickly through the vegetable. Maybe I have learned my lesson. But my question is, why do so many people have so many bad knives??? Where do these come from and why are they in nearly every apartment I have stayed in? What about quality of life? Oh - but I wasn't going to get into the knife rant. Oops.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Don't get pinched!

If there was grass in New York I would go search for a four-leaf clover and get myself some good luck...but the park is the only place I might be able to do that and someone's dog probably already ate it. No luck there.... I'll have to go search for a leprechaun instead. I bet we have a few of those running around here. Most likely down in the village. I'd guess that would be the place to find a nice little leprechaun. Or maybe Times Square, but I try to keep my distance from that place. I'm afraid with the current economy the pot of gold might be a little lighter this year anyway. Or maybe they will opt for silver this year. Ho hum...

waiting for the Q

Slow internet, Fast world

I did NOT, in fact, blow away as the previous post and my lack of blogging may have suggested. I have been very busy lately and my internet connection is SO SLOW that it takes me nearly a year to check my email. My bedroom is far away from the wireless router in the apartment I stay in and I just barely get an itty-bitty signal. This is a little annoying when I am paying rent on an apartment that offers "high-speed wireless internet included!".
I am now looking for another apartment. I feel like I am constantly on the move - I have been in 8 different places since I moved to New York last year. That's pretty crazy.... but most were for good reasons... I was the cat/apartment sitter! Now that I want to find a more stable/permanent place it is really difficult. Living in New York is, oh, not exactly cheap, or inexpensive, or even affordable. It becomes a bit of a rat race to find that "perfect" apartment and then to find that "perfect" job to afford the apartment. As I said, always on the move. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the right place will show up just in time. Even more so, I am keeping my fingers crossed that this blog will actually post before I turn 30. Cheers!

she's blowin' away!

Dear weather.com,
I am getting really tired of this:And I do NOT like that March 1, 3, and 4th is supposed to be:

and

Let's move on already!
Thanks,
Megan

Day of Birth

My birthday was earlier this week. Those things just keep coming up, don't they? I remember when I was a kid I always looked forward to my birthday. I could not wait to get a year older! Plus the excitement of having a birthday and getting to have cake and ice cream was great! It kind of looses it's flair as I get older, but I still do everything I can to have a fun day.
Last year I posted reasons why I do enjoy my birthday. I would say they are pretty much the same this year. Last year I got to spend the birthday with Dad. I wish we could have been together this year, but instead I got to share the day with Ben. I still can't get over the fact of how many people I share my birthday with. I wonder if this is common. Do other people have friends and family members with the same birthday? Seriously, I have NEVER had a birthday where I wasn't around someone else whose birthday it was. Well, maybe once I did in Tallahassee. I think so, but 1 out of 28... that's crazy.

Well, this year Ben and I hung out and celebrated our day. We didn't have to work, so we went to a movie in the middle of the day and then met some people for dinner. We had dinner/dessert at this place called Max Brenner. I don't even know how to begin telling you about Max Brenner. It's main dish is chocolate. It's a bit of a chocolate factory. They have pipes running across the ceiling and down the walls of the restaurant that are pumping chocolate around. White chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate. They have an amazing menu of chocolate drinks, desserts, as well as real food. Some of the real food doesn't include chocolate... but some does! They have more versions of hot chocolate than you know what to do with. When you walk into Max Brenner you are hit with the deep, rich smell of the chocolate being made there. Oh my.... sometimes when I walk by I want to pop in for just a second to take in a big breath of chocolately air. The atmosphere of the place is really nice too... it's kind of dark and energetic which makes it like a chocolate factory for grown-ups. Appropriate place for a grown-up birthday, right???

Anyway - the group of us that went split a few different plates of regular food, which was delicious, we had some chocolate drinks, and then split a chocolate pizza for desert! The waiter even put a few candles in it for the b-day! Oh my - this "pizza" was just amazing. The menu describes it as warm thin pastry topped with double melted chocolate chunks, melted marshmallows, and candied hazelnut crunchy bits. We, of course, got it with a side of sliced banana to add to the flavor explosion. Mmmm.... mouth watering just thinking about it. I need to go back some other time to try the waffles topped with fruits, ice cream, and chocolate. Or the chocolate fondue at the table beside us looked fun and delicious too. Okay, I'm going to stop drooling. But you should seriously go over to their website and take a look through the menu. Some very nice pictures and descriptions over there.

Union Square

Just a random New York photo.

Good old Val

Well, it is February the 14th. The day that someone decided was the day of love. If you have been on my blog recently, you probably know that I am not having too much of a party today. If Stacy was here with me, you can probably guess what we would be doing. But, to those who observe the holiday, best wishes to you!
Excluding all the romantic mushiness and overblown, overpriced, overly tacky heart shaped everything in every store - I send my love to those out there who I love on different levels such as friends and family.
I will leave you with a photo from my archives of a little kitty valentine. Enjoy your day!

Wishful thinking

Okay, I have seriously had enough of the cold weather. I am not even joking. Yes, it has been warmer the past couple of days and I think tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, but I just have to rant for a minute because I know this warmth is only here to tease me. I will get used to it (in the two days I get it) and then BAM! The tide will turn and I will freeze again. I am tired of wearing three layers of clothes, then scarves, hats, heavy coats, extra socks, gloves, etc. I like jeans and sweaters, so we really don't need to jump straight into the blazing stinky sweaty summer yet, but come on! It get's cold here...a biting cold where the wind gusts down the gray streets, sweeping trash past your feet into the curbs... good stuff.
Bring on the sunshine. Bring on the warmth. Bring on the flowers.