No other road, no other way, no day but today

Yesterday was our trip to New York City to see Rent. Our timing was beautiful... when we arrived in the city and parked, we had exactly enough time to hustle down to Grand Central Terminal to meet our friend Brandon for lunch. (Of course, we had to walk in the rain, and let's just say that me sharing an umbrella with a person who is a foot taller than me is pretty much pointless.) We managed to find a seat in the food court, and after we ate, Brandon had some time to spare before he had to be back in his class. It was not enough time to really do much, so we wandered around Grand Central a little, and then outside. The rain had stopped at the point, so we moseyed around Bryant Park, caught a glimpse of the Nederlander Theater where Rent would be (we weren't looking for it, but there it was), and then Tony and I walked Brandon back toward the building where his class was.

We arrived at the Nederlander Theatre at about 1:20 (the show started at 2), and there was a line down the block and well around the corner. I remember reading somewhere that people like to line up way before the show starts--it's like some kind of tradition, I guess. Anyway, it's a good thing it wasn't raining. Our seats were in the balcony, just a few rows from the back, but again, the theaters in NYC are so small that there are really no bad seats. And Tony had an aisle seat, which he prefers because of his long legs. So I did a good job with seat selection.

The show started with Mark running out on stage, and as soon as he appeared, the crowd went wild. He spoke a few lines, Roger joined him for a few short clips, and then the rest of the cast came running on stage. And I mean they were literally running. This show was so full of energy, it was unreal. And every single cast member was amazing--they blew me away. I'm so used to the original cast--not only from the soundtrack but also from the movie (6 out of the 8 main characters reprised their roles for the movie version), that I was worried I would be disappointed with a different cast--or at the very least, comparing them way too much. But like I said, I was amazed. From the very first song ("Rent"), I was stunned by the quality of Mark's and Roger's voices. The whole show was incredible, and yes, I cried more than once. Tony loved it too--even more than the movie. It's definitely a show I would see again. It was different from other shows I've seen--for example, the musicians sit on stage instead of in an orchestra pit (OK, that's a really minor example, but anyway). But the passion and energy that flows through the entire production is just fantastic.

After the show, we walked about a block to go to dinner--ESPN Zone (Tony's choice). This is where he and Josh hung out last time we were in NYC, while Mary and I saw The Little Mermaid. While we were waiting for our food, Brandon called. He was due to take a train out of the city at 5:40, but they had already delayed it 3 times, and he was worried it would keep getting delayed. We had offered him a ride home a few weeks ago, when we first made our plans to go to the city, but he thought a train would be faster and easier for him. Tony told him the offer was still good, so Brandon walked from Penn Station to Times Square to join us and hitch a ride home.

We hit some traffic leaving the city, and the rainy weather made travel a little slower, but we still managed to get Brandon home a good half-hour or more than he would have gotten home had he taken the train (and that's assuming it didn't get further delayed). We didn't get to my parents' to get Ari until after 10, and then we sat around chatting for a while and didn't get home until about 11:30. So I am definitely dragging today, but it was all worth it.

In other news, we are now the proud owners of an 8GB iPod Nano. Apparently, these sell for over $200, usually around $250. And we got it for... (are you ready?)... $50. A guy that drives cars part-time with Tony found it in a car and offered it to Tony. (When they repo cars, they are allowed to keep whatever the owners are careless enough to leave inside. Tony's gotten some pretty cool stuff in the past, but nothing tops this.) It also came with an FM transmitter which allows you to play it through your car stereo (you tune the radio to a static-y station, set the transmitter to the same station, and voila)--and that device alone is worth $75. Tony had to buy earphones for it, but that's it. He spent a good while on Tuesday night playing with, and transferring a ton of music onto it. Of course, we have no user manual for it, so it was a lot of trial and error. But luckily we already had a lot of our CDs ripped onto our computer, which made it easy to transfer them to the iPod. We have over 900 songs on the iPod and it's not even half full. It was so fun to have it for the car ride to NYC yesterday--of course we listened to the Rent soundtrack, and then other miscellaneous songs. It's so nice to be able to listen to any song you want without fumbling for a CD and having to change CDs.

The funny thing is, I was *thisclose* to getting an iPod with my Christmas money, but I held off. And now, I'm really glad I didn't. I mean, fine, then I'd have my own, but whatever. I'm sure I can convince Tony to share with me. And even better... my new car stereo is actually set up where you can plug the iPod right into it--so I wouldn't need the FM transmitter like Tony does. This, of course, makes Tony very jealous, and he's said he wishes he'd put the new stereo in his car and given me his old one. Sorry, sucker.

In other news, I am eagerly awaiting news from my brother Dave (or from my mom after she's heard from my brother) regarding Match Day. He's graduating med school in a couple months, and in December/January, he did a ton of interviews for residency programs. Well, today is the day he finds out where he's going to be doing both his preliminary year (one year) and his residency (specializing in his choice of Radiology). They call it "Match Day" because after all his interviews, he ranked all the places (first choice, second choice, etc.), and they in turn have ranked him. So if one of the places he chose also chose him, that's a match. (I know that's a really horrible explanation, but bear with me--this stuff is confusing.) He knows he has been matched somewhere (I guess there's a small chance that sometimes a student won't be matched anywhere, so he's past that hurdle)--today is the day he finds out where. All the places he interviewed are within a 2-hour radius of my parents and Jess's parents (and us!), so Dave and Jess will definitely be close by--the question is, how close? The suspense is killing me, so I can only imagine how much worse it is for Dave and Jess. I can't believe my little brother is going to be a real, live doctor.

Random Ari story... I was carrying Ari out to the car this morning, and she kept saying "Daddy" over and over again. I told her Daddy was sleeping, and immediately, she put her finger to her lips and said "Shhh." I just taught her that only 2 days ago, but it wasn't in the context of someone sleeping (I was trying to show her how to sneak up on Daddy, and telling her she needed to be quiet). She is such a smart little cookie... sometimes, I think she is too smart. I foresee a lot of devious plotting in her future.