Yesterday. October 8th, 2008...a date I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Forgive me already, because words are not ever going to be enough to describe what I saw yesterday.

I was going to the matinee show, and it started at 2. I was so paranoid that I would somehow forget or even LOSE my glasses that I put them on as I was walking along to take the subway. I did not take them off my face! (I sort of need them so see, but I don’t usually wear them). I took the subway to Times Square and got to the theatre.

It was wild even SEEING their names on the wall at the theatre, that they were starring in this play. I was just STARING at it, still almost unbelieving it was true, that these two were in this play together and I was going to see it. I got there at one and so I had lots of time to stare at it.

I was in the fourth row in the center. It was a VERY good seat, I was very happy with it. And so... Oh, where to BEGIN with what came across my eyes yesterday...!! Let me attempt to get across what I saw and what I felt...

Kate Mulgrew came onto the stage within the first few minutes and I almost died; she just...walked out from the wing and was onstage. It was HER, she was just THERE; I could NOT believe that she was like ten feet away from me. OMFG, this is CAPTAIN JANEWAY, PEOPLE!!!!!! She was soooo completely gorgeous, her hair the perfect shade of honey blonde and put up in a loose bun with curls...EXACTLY like Janeway wore. She wore a black dress and a black coat, with glasses on a chain around her neck, and black heels. She has the most beautiful legs I’ve ever seen...she’s not even tall (5’5”) but they’re just PERFECT. Oh, and when she spoke in her cat-like voice...when she smiled...she was SO Kate Mulgrew/Janeway...through and through, the one and only. Her eyes sparkled_. I could see the expressions on her face. She just took my breath away. She was just THERE, onstage in front of me, it was amazing!

So, Kate Mulgrew as the Magistrate...the role was PERFECT for her. It wasn’t much of a stretch from Janeway to this...a leadership role, I guess...and she played it with her own special brand elegance and sophistication...what you just EXPECT from Kate Mulgrew. When she moved she was graceful, and she virtually took up the whole stage with her presence...I UNDERSTAND what that means now. She was so good.

By contrast, Carolyn McCormick’s role was wildly different than anything else I’ve seen her in...Olivet exudes dignity and gentleness (a lot like Captain Janeway, actually) but in this role she played a slightly hysterical 70’s housewife, the boy’s mother. She did SO well though, she was SO different and believable! It was just wild... She displayed such a range of emotions that you’d NEVER see from Olivet... From excited, laughing, mournful, crying, angry and screaming... I was floored. She was SO GOOD!!! And she’s so incredibly beautiful... The moment she came onstage I just couldn’t believe it was HER. She was supposed to be a housewife, and she was wearing a flowing green-and-purple flowered skirt and light green tank top with a mauve sweater, and black flat shoes, at times bare feet. Her hair was pulled back in a clip, at other times she had a headband on. That hairstyle took NO work...but it was perfect. I’ve never been able to find out exactly what height Carolyn McCormick is, but the woman is TALL... The actress who played Claire Kincaid was 5’8” and when she stood with Olivet, Olivet was like a head taller. She is so slender too, so lithe and graceful. That you can’t really_ tell from L&O because she’s usually wearing suits, but you really_ could onstage. A fair amount of the time she was running around and she was just really_ light on her feet. At one point she was supposed to be crying and fighting her husband, and she was just like...bent in half_. Just...really, really_ graceful and flexible for someone her age...early 50’s. She was just...stunning in every way. Every second she was onstage I was just totally entranced. This was the woman who’s played Olivet for like 15 years...a character who subconsciously shaped so much of my life.

At one point, they were onstage TOGETHER and that was the best thing in the world. I always thought they looked alike, they remind me so much of each other, there are definitely similarities, but side-by-side they don’t look that much alike.

Umm, seeing Harry Potter and Elizabeth Olivet rolling around the stage together (they were pretending to be at the beach)? Yeah, LIKE NOTHING ELSE!!!! Seriously, it was unbelievable!!!

The play itself...it was good. I’m not exactly a Broadway expert, but I liked it. I was totally shocked that there was nudity in it...like 100% TOTAL nudity! The Harry Potter kid was literally RUNNING AROUND ON THE STAGE naked. Then I understood perhaps why there were so many gay guys in the audience...

The umm...curtain call? is that when they stand together and bow? was awesome, too... It was so great to see Carolyn McCormick smiling...REALLY smiling, since you don’t really see that on L&O. The audience was TOTALLY clapping and excited when Kate Mulgrew came to the center of the stage, and she looked so humble and lovely. They all looked happy and like they LIKED being in the play and were happy people appreciated them. It was_ beautiful_.

All in all, I was just blown away, totally. Totally entranced by both of them. I seriously will NEVER be able to get over the fact that I saw Carolyn McCormick and Kate Mulgrew in a play, TOGETHER. TOGETHER!!! It feels like everything in the universe lined up for this...

kiki_fan187, I seriously owe you the world. A playbill and souvenir will have to do... LOL, I chased down a seater-person and begged him for a second playbill “for my friend in Northern Ireland who’s going to university and just can’t make it here right now!”...I was going to give you mine if I only got one, but I was hoping to get one for both of us. He gave it to me and said, “Just put it in your bag!” and I did and thanked him profusely.

Anyway, I left the theatre and I didn’t know what I was going to do next. I was just so stunned by what I’d just seen, and I just wanted to think about it, and so I just walked... I ended up at 34th St., one of my favorite places in NY. I listened to “Sarai Qui” as I walked along and just felt like the luckiest person ever, just so_ happy. I felt so calm, and so...at home. I was wearing black Lululemon pants and a lavender blouse with a white cami under it and a black sweater over it and my mary janes and still_ my glasses... The weather was sunny-cloudy and the sun was getting ready to go down for the day... It was marvelous, I will never_ forget that time. October 8th, 2008. Just looking at the date...it almost glows to me.

In other news...there is other news??? ...It feels like I never left! Everything is the same, really. I felt weirdly self-conscious coming here from JFK...weird pulling the suitcase along...I had an EGO about the fact that “I’m not a tourist!” I’m not a New Yorker...that’s supposed to take ten years and I wouldn’t feel like one anyway, I defintely feel like I have a west coast...soul, or something. I just...am what I am, a person who’s LIVED in NYC. NOT a tourist, thanks. I don’t need map...it’s all in my head and I’ve walked a thousand miles on these streets.

It was the FUNNIEST thing when the guy at the hostel desk took my ID. I handed over my driver’s license, and he was just...STARING at it. He looked at me, then looked at it again, and finally I realized it still had my Lexington Ave address on it! I’m like, “Oh...I used to live here!” ROFL though...I should’ve just told him that I was tired of the east side and wanted a change of scenery!

The hostel is good...hostels are such a great thing. The only thing about this time...I somehow got put in a co-ed dorm, which I initially wasn’t too thrilled with, but I have an awesome view of Amsterdam Ave. so I decided to be like, whatever... We’re all adults. Everyone has been really nice so far; that’s the best thing about hostelling, meeting other travellers. Everyone is so liberal and friendly. Except, ugh...as of today there there is like a 50-year-old couple in the room...theoretically, whatever, but I ALWAYS find that older people at a hostel are SUCH a frickin’ pain... They get annoyed by people’s stuff all over (normal things like suitcases on the floor), they want to close the window because it’s “noisy” (umm what WERE you expecting, this is New York City?!) and they want to go to bed early and are ANNOYED that no one else wants to turn out the lights until eleven...even though the rule is lights out at eleven, they just think they should be able to turn them out earlier because they want to. These ones are already complaining that they have to share outlets to charge their cell phones. WTF... All I can say is...anyone should be able to come to a hostel, but *when in Rome*, people... It’s a HOSTEL, you knew that. If you don’t like it, get your own personal hotel room. *snark* And BTW, get creative, get SMART...I brought a 3-way plug with me so I only need one plug to charge all my things at once. Oh yeah, and the young guys I’ll change in front of, but this older dude...I think not!

I’m just slightly...out of sorts being on the West Side! I honest to god once upon a time thought I liked the west side better and in fact hoped I’d get put on the Upper West Side when I moved here... Now, for the life of me I have NO idea why!! There is only one subway line up here and out of here... It seems that everything I liked was SO accessible from the east side (the Brooklyn Bridge, Southgate at the Reservoir, all of midtown, the villages, downtown...even Soho, which I don’t love that much). It was ALL so easy to get to from the east side. Anyway, I don’t want to complain, I love all of NYC, but it really floored me how much my perception had changed. The west side DOES have Fairway going for it, and Riverside Park. And if I come here again, I’ll be happy ANYWHERE I’m put, I know that. It’s just...weird. And it has been easier once I remembered that the 2/3 go to Chambers St. and Park Place.

My favorite things have been, not surprisingly, running around the Reservoir and across the Brooklyn Bridge, walking around, and going to the H&Ms. All I’ve bought is PANTIES...for friends at home as well as as a whole whack of LJ friends... evil_leela, laika_came_home, deliriums_fish, greenovalfruit, dreammeanyway, englishstrawbie, addyit ...sheesh...I need a 12-step program... It’s sooooo much fun, though! I’m so glad you guys understand me!! Oh, if you’re from Europe it wasn’t H&M of course, it was Victoria’s Secret. There I found salvation...you see I’m a a freak of nature and my bra size doesn’t technically EXIST. 33C...yeah. I have to get a 32C...sometimes_ I can compensate with a 34B (34C’s are too loose, and a loose bra is HORRIBLE), and they are SO HARD to find, but they HAD them!! So I was happy about that, but they said certain styles fit small and they still didn’t fit, I was so mad, then this woman next to me said, “Try this one”...it was a Dream Angels 32D, the in the store, and no one knew how it got there, they figured it was an online return, but it was the BEST BRA I’VE EVER TRIED ON IN MY LIFE. Umm, I’m definitely not a D, I don’t know why it was so perfect, but it was. Seriously! Fitting bras make for serious happiness to me... I ordered two more online because I am so thrilled to actually have one that is tight enough around but the cup doesn’t do that awful double-boob look. I went back there a few times, and decided I’d had enough when I found myself being slightly snarky with the overly cheerful salegirl... Not snarky, but kind of sarcastic... She was one of those overly pushy “girlfriend” type...hai, we’re not girlfriends...and she’s like, “So, are we trying on bras today?!!!” when she could CLEARLY see I didn’t have any bras in my hand... I’m like, “We might be, if we carried my size!” She’s like, “What size are you, hon?” and I told her, and that was IT. END OF DISCUSSION! Oh yeah, and since then I’ve found some nice green/khacki/beige/no color, really corderoy pants and umm...I just want to say “finstickad”...navy cardigan. Both from H&M, of course. I want to marry H&M. Yeah, so clearly, not much of anything has changed with me!

Hmm...it’s not been so long I’ve been gone that I’m really looking at everythng and remembering it...it really does feel like I’ve just been gone for a weekend or something! I am however, remembering so many of the little things that made me happy...not that I forgot them, but they become so much clearer_ when I’m back, somehow. And Sarah Brightman’s Symphony album has helped it along... For me that album was BORN in NYC, and I listened to “Gothica”, “Fleurs Du Mal”, “Symphony”, “Sarai Qui”, and “Let it Rain” just ENDLESSLY since I got it. “Fleurs Du Mal”...I close my eyes and SEE the Manhattan skyline at night from the Brooklyn Bridge, even when I’m at home. A certain part of “Symphony” holds every magical part of life on Lexington Avenue to me. For the first several days of the road trip home, I constantly skipped over “Let it Rain” because I was afraid to listen to it...it took days before I figured I could listen to it without crying. And “Sarai Qui”, it’s always_ been my favorite. I am so lucky that album came out when I was in NYC...it became my “soundtrack” to life here. And it reminds me of how I wouldn’t change a thing... “Tu sarai sempre qui”... those will be the words of the year when I do that year-end meme thing.

Anyway. I’m glad to be back, even though I’m still thinking of all I have to do to my apt. at home. I saw a most excellent black cabinet at Wal-Mart in Seattle, and it would be perfect to put all my VCR tapes and DVDs in. I hope it will fit in my car on the way back...I’m not thinking it will :(

I figure I still want to come back here to work next year. I’m SO torn...I also want to do San Francisco and Austin, and I find it odd that I have this AMAZING opportunity in life and I’m apparently going to just...keep coming back to one city?! On the other hand, why NOT do exactly what I want to do? Maybe 6 months in NYC next year, 3 at home, then SF and Austin a year from next spring? Who knows... I just know I’m not done travelling yet.

Again...I’m so incredibly happy I saw that play!!! My life is now totally complete...

I’m going to go out in awhile, and then meet up with apophantic tonight in Brooklyn. LOL, we were going to first meet up on Tuesday and watch SVU! I thought that would’ve been sooooo funny! (But don’t worry apophantic, it was just that, it would’ve just been FUNNY. Like...it looks like I’m trying to rack up LJ friends I’ve watched SVU with, or something.) Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing apophantic because she is a really cool person to talk to and we have so many of the same political views, and she’s funny! I’m bringing her panties and Cdn narcotics...seems to be my specialty... Tomorrow I’m going to meet up with my friend Jillian who I worked with at Beth Israel... She’s one of the few non-travel-nurse friends I met while I was here...pretty much the only one I actively kept in contact with. She was a care aide who’d just finished nursing school, and by now she’s working as an RN. She’s someone that I just really hit it off with.

apophantic, I’ll see you soon! Can’t wait!