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Jeff and I gave up access to in-building laundry when we moved to our new apartment (the old dorm had a laundry room right next to my office and I could wash clothes during my office hours). We’ve been taking our laundry out to a Wash-n-Fold place around the corner, but it’s a little expensive and sometimes the clothes haven’t gotten completely clean.

We’re looking to get a washer/dryer combo unit for our kitchen — we have the taps to connect to, but not the height to get a stacked unit. After a lot of research, it looks like we’ll be going with the Malber WD1000 (probably bought through A M Royal so I can avoid the NYC sales tax).

I just need to check with my Super about setting up the drainage hose this week and then we’ll go ahead and order.

Update: After one 5 minute phone call, it should be delivered Wednesday or Thursday.

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It’s time once again to set the clocks backs for Daylight Savings Time on Sunday morning at 2am. I’m already feeling pretty gloomy with it getting dark as early as it does, and now it will be a whole hour earlier. I am so not a creature of the night.

At least I can look forward to Cher’s annual appearance on the posters I hang up around my dorm.

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This past weekend, Jeff and I went with some friends to check out a new collection of location-specific art installations in a vacant meatpacking warehouse located at the southern end of the High Line.

Quite bizarre. We had to sign a wavier upon entering because the building is technically condemned. I was really creeped out by the dancer performing William Forsythe’s dance piece, who seemed a little irked when Jon started playing with all the pendula hanging from the ceiling. But Leandro Erlich’s illuminated doors were haunting in a good way.

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I’ve gone on a bit of a theatre binge over the past month or two. Here are the shows I’ve seen:

• Sweeney Todd: Done as a reenactment in a mental instituion with only 10 actors, who also play all the instruments (Patti Lupone plays a mean tuba). The reduced orchestrations actually sound fantastic and I can’t wait for the cast recording.
• In My Life: It may not be the new Carrie (which Jeff saw), but it’s earned a place in the next revision of Ken Mandelbaum’s book. Heaven as a bank of filing cabinets? Dancing skeletons? Brain tumors? It’s a shame, because the romantic couple (a musician with Tourette’s syndrome and a flakey woman who works for the Village Voice who “meet cute”) were adorable. I saw understudy Courtney Balan, who seems a better match for the material than what I saw of the lead in rehearsal footage.
• On the 20th Century: I’ve loved this show since I did it in college, so I splurged for a ticket to this one-night-only Actors Fund concert production. Mike and Jere were there too.
• Silence! the musical: The hit of this year’s Fringe Festival. We also went to The Sounds of SILENCE! and Other Inappropriate Show Tunes concert, where Tyler Maynard brought down the house doing Liza doing “Somewhere that’s Green.”
• 4 shows at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, which is kind of like Sundance for musicals.
  • But I’m a Cheerleader: This show will definitely see a future. Bright and fun. RuPaul, who was in the film, sat 3 seats over from us.
  • The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde: Some nice tunes, but no dramatic engine.
  • Reluctant Pilgrim: a Side-by-Side-by-Stephen Schwartz revue. With the “popular”-ity of Wicked, I bet colleges and theatre groups across the country will want to do this revue.
  • Plane Crazy: I really wanted to like this new show, because I’ve been following the writer’s blog; but it wasn’t really to my taste. But she’s definitely talented.
• The Great American Trailer Park Musical - Jeff and I saw this in previews and thought it an enjoyable piece of fluff. Apparently it went through a lot of rewrites before opening. I just watched the video clips on the website and it sounds like the orchestations were changed.
• Slut-A Musical: Jeff left at intermission and I stayed to see if there’d be more jaw-dropping production numbers like “The H.M.S. Donkey Balls.” The show committed an even greater sin by having a completely boring second act.
• Joy: The token “straight” play of the bunch. Pretty standard gay-romantic comedy fare, featuring Ben “Dell Dude” Curtis.

And this Sunday is See What I Wanna See, the new Michael John Lachiusa musical.

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My mom and her friends just called because one of their daughters is going to be in her school’s homecoming court. They were trying to teach her — but couldn’t remember — the “beauty queen wave” I had taught them last summer when they visited New York (for the record, it’s “elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist, pearls, sash, special wave”).

I wonder if my mom ever thought I was straight.

6 comments |

I’ve seen a number of film shoots on my street and in the surrounding neighborhood (Washington Square Park) since we’ve moved here to W 8th St.

The whole street is blanketed with “No Parking” signs for Monday, indicating that a new romantic musical comedy (using Beatles songs) directed by Julie Taymor will be filming. I saw a couple of guys yesterday doing test shots of the New York Studio School across the street from our apartment, so I’m wondering if that will be the specific location filmed.

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Two years ago, Jeff and I met for the first time (I’m rather embarassed now that the post references going on a date with another guy). I had read Jeff’s blog before moving to NYC and after realizing that he was friends with Mike, I emailed him and that led to our meeting for coffee (I didn’t show up in Jeff’s blog until a week later).

I had this conception that moving to NYC meant playing it fast and loose with the dating scene, so it took me a while to realize we were going steady. Then Jeff kept staying over more and more days in a row and soon we were pretty much living together. Finally, when I moved this summer, Jeff gave up his apartment and officially moved in with me.

It’s hard to think back to how my life was before I moved to NYC and how I thought I’d never have a boyfriend, let alone a soulmate. But now it’s tough to think about a future without Jeff.

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