wheee....

[mandolin]

You know, I should be working on my lecture exercises, but if I keep doing what I should be doing, this will never get posted. Heck, I should have been in bed 20 minutes ago.

First off:

So, my first day of class was Thursday - Data Communications and Networking, which is the first class I'm taking while I try to get a feel for things. I wisely showed up 20 minutes early. Got to room 227 to find a note that indicated that the class was moved to LH8 (Lecture Hall 8). My reaction: "Where the hell is Lecture Hall 8??"

Fortunately, it was in the same building, so I still made it in early with text and notebook in hand.

The good news:

Professor seems nice, not unreasonable, with office hours that I can make. The grading scheme seems pretty even - not everything is riding on one exam.

There is no final exam.

We have 5 assignments, 2 exams, and the assignments are meant to prepare us for the exams. Basically, if we study the material and do the assignments, we should be prepared for the exams - my prof doesn't believe in throwing in random obscure crap we didn't cover.

It's a double-numbered course: 10 grad students and 25 undergrads. Which means I may have a chance to find my footing before things get crazy. Maybe. And the undergrads (not us) have a percent of their grade depending on their participation.

The bad news:

35% of my grade depends on the group project.

Each group has to be LED by one grad student and the rest are undergrads. The grad students must pick topics by the 30th.

Which means I have to organize a group and be IN CHARGE. Me. Organized. In charge. Yeep.

*sigh* To be honest, it's better than I expected. The group project itself just bugs me - the being in charge part, that is. Oy. At least, from my experience, undergrads who take double-numbered courses aren't the type to blow off the projects. (And maybe I'll just get one do-nothing.) Here's hoping.

Day 2 additions: Prof is nice, but she's pretty incomprehensible. I may be spending much of tomorrow morning and the weekend soliciting help to make sense of the exercises (which will help me with the assignment). Oy. Doesn't help that she's having a sub teach the class tomorrow.



Now, something more interesting... Saturday, Mom and I took the bus up to NYC to see "The Boy From Oz" on Broadway.

Now we did a lot of wandering around that morning, but I resisted going into shops (even Midtown Comics) for a simple reason: I'd managed to lose $80 before we got into town.

How? Well, I was too embarrassed to admit it at the time, but due to the checkbook fiasco I had a lot of cash taken from the ATM. I stuffed $80 into my bra and put another 20 into my wallet.

We got to the park and ride just as the Hunt Valley motor coach pulled up - shortly after 7:40 a.m. As the bus was heading down the road, I checked my bra - the money was gone. I don't know how it fell out, but somewhere between Mom's car and the bus it did. Dammit. So, consequently, I was trying to avoid spending cash prior to the show.

Got a text message from bktheirregular while in the tunnel, and after a few blocks of miscommunication (who was supposed to meet who again?) we met up in front of the Toys R' Us. Since it was only a little after 10 am, we had time to kill and just wandered several blocks - we went past Madison Square Garden, where the RNC signs were still posted (Mom and I took pics for posterity), and passed the Hotel Pennsylvania, where G2003 was held. We also found the New Yorker, the hotel where G1998 was held (which is the last time I saw mtgat - I need to get out to Chicago on a weekend you're not working!)

After a lot of wandering around, hemming and hawing, and eventually just trying to find a sit-down deli, we settled on a place not too far from the New Yorker. With lunch out of the way and more time to kill before the 2 pm show, we walked back to Broadway, popped into the Times Square Information Center, and then wandered back to the Imperial Theater, stopping at the Broadway Inn to get some information. (Nice little B&B near Broadway that looked worth checking out.

(Mom, you were NOT dragging us around. I didn't really have a clue where to wander off to, and didn't want to play cellphone tag if it got down to the wire.)

It was 12:30 when we approached the theater and got a purely accidental pre-show.

There was a small crowd waiting by the stage door - waiting for Hugh Jackman to show up. Now thanks to irenak, I knew he signed autographs after the show, but it never occurred to me we'd catch him coming in the theater. In retrospect, I should have passed him SOMETHING to sign, since the crowd was (relatively) small enough to have managed. We got some good photos - and Bruce, please send me yours! - and it was just cool to see him out there.

Especially how well he handled it. Man, even with security there, the way some fans could potentially behave... that takes a lot of guts. There weren't any screaming tackling crazies, fortunately, just the usual silliness. "We love you, Hugh!" some guys yelled from across the street, prompting laughter and a wave from Hugh. It looked like he disappeared for a second, but that's because he was bending down to pick up his son - and his wife was leaning out of the stage door. "He wanted to see you," she said.

We went around to the front entrance of the theater after that to get in the already-growing line, and I had to say goodbye to BK. (I'd have smuggled you in the theater with us, Bruce, but the security there was tighter than Gathering security and I doubt I'd have succeeded.)


Okay. Now the show itself. We had good seats, lower mezzanine and to the left, but still, I was glad I had my binoculars, just because.

Most of what irenak said about the show back in July is true: since the music puts together existing songs Peter Allen wrote to fit each part of the story, the plot is understandably patchwork and tends to jump around. Although even with my iffy hearing, the musical numbers were fairly clear; the only sound issue - technical or actor-induced - was when Stephanie Block's mic started acting up during "She Loves To Hear the Music."

The supporting cast was really good, and I swear I've seen Jarrod Emick (Greg) somewhere before. He may have been in the production of Miss Saigon I saw back in school, but I don't know.

But of course this is a play that relies on a fabulous male lead, and Jackman certainly qualifies. He sings wonderfully, he ad-libs to audience weirdness without blinking an eye, and yes, he is incredibly hot. It was so much fun to watch him, I just couldn't sneak out a minute early to get to the stage door - that would have meant missing the ending number. I bought two programs - one for myself and one for Mom - but since the post-show crowd was so big, I couldn't get anything signed.


So after the show, Mom and I went in search of food - using the rationale that while we weren't hungry yet, we would be at 9 pm when the bus pulled in. We stumbled across Carve, a really nice sandwich shop with very nice people (when I came back to buy a new drink after dropping mine on the concrete, they didn't charge me for it). We did get on the bus at 6, and settled in for a dull trip home. There was a movie playing on the TV screen behind the driver, and as the previews rolled, Mom mentioned being curious about Hidalgo, which I had yet to see either.

...Guess what the movie turned out to be. Despite the nonstop-talking women across the aisle, we finally got to see it. Ha!

So, yes, Saturday was quite fun. And darn it, I need to go to bed NOW...

(P.S. Found out that someone bought tickets for the last performance - this Sunday - and paid $700 for a ticket. When she couldn't go, she sold it on eBay for $900. Suddenly, shelling out $100 a ticket seems like a serious discount.)

Comments

[celli]

Jarrod Emick was indeed in Miss Saigon. Also Damn Yankees and a couple of TV shows and movies. (He's from SD, so it's always on the news when he gets a new gig. *g*)