no phantom in this opera

theme song: think of me - from the phantom of the opera sound track
bleature: broadway vs. the opera
for chritsmas, i gave laurie two tickets to tan dun's first emperor, an opera featuring placido domingo. after putting on the approprite attire, on another cold and blustry night, we headed out to the lincoln center's metropolitan opera house in the upper west side of manhattan for the 8pm curtain. we arrived to a crowd definitely dressed to impress, no jeans, a strictly black tie affair. below is a picture i snapped of the opera house

if you thought that the outside was impressive, the inside was awe inspiring as well, we were the first ones in.

laurie and i then settled into our box seats...

and awaited the openning curtain.

the show was impressive. this being our first opera, and after attending numerous broadway shows, we didn't know what to expect. the show was intense and dramatic. the singing was amazing. if you've ever seen the phantom on broadway, then you've heard christine perform think of me, her opera song. the song's impressive considering the wide range of vocals that she utilizes, and to be at the opera and have the performers continually display that talent, was very impressive.

and the story. in a story about war, betrayl, love and of course, tragedy, there was always something to keep your interest. there was always some twist or dramatic moment that would keep you on the edge of you seat. domingo was impressive, and was even kind enough to pose for this picture at the end of the show. and my bleature. i'm a big fan of the opera, however, i've seen to many good broadway shows, so broadway has it. however, in regards to the first emperor, overall, good show.

ny life

blog theme song: such great heights - the postal service
bleature: my indulgence

so this is ny. union square, the neigborhood square for laurie and i. after being here for 3 months, now that were all settled in, the novely of this place has worn off and now, it's just home. for the past 3 months we've done a lot and have had a great time. anyone who's been reading this blog at one time or another has probably thought, wow, they must be having so much fun. the place is still terrific no doubt, but just like all of you we still wake up in the morning and put on one pant leg at a time. let me give you a run down on what we've been up to, what ny life is like.

in ny, we still have to deal with the mundane chores of everyday life. we shop for groceries (thanks to everyone for the tj's gift cards, they've been money!!). and if you ever thought that your tj's was crowded, it's nothing compared to ny's. this is at a normal time the line wraps around the entire store, all the way along the cerael isle on the left past the dairy section in the back and up through the produce section opposite from the cereal section...

we even have to clean every now and then but...

we still get out, to enjoy the lights of broadway that ny has to offer.

in ny, you have to get use to crowds. there's always something to do, but at the same time, there's always so many people so everybody is always doing something. since there's so much to do we try to do a lot of it, but at the same time since there's so many people always doing everything, we stay in and end up..
consuming a healthly dose of hardball (and reruns of scrubs, both my indulgences. i know, boring) ...
and a healthy dose of ichat (and some sweets)...

what else has been happening? well, this past week, winter finally came to ny, sure it flurried for about 5 minutes about two weeks ago, but this past week was the first time that we woke up to a blanket of snow that covered the square.

although snow isn't always welcomed by the seasoned ny'ers, it made me smile

when the snow starts to fall, it's easy to get complacent and not take advantage of all that the city has to offer. when the snow does start to fall, it's a good time to take advantage of all the museums. so first, we hit up the natural history museum. for those of you that enjoy science and technology (read: nerd) you'll love this muesum. just watch out for the billions of kids running around and the parents with strollers who'll hit you without giving it a second thought.

we also hit up the lower east side tenament museum. for all you history buffs out there, this place is for you. the museum is actually an 1860's walk up apartment restored to reflect the way that immigrants lived during the 1860's through the early 1930's. the keen observer will notice the technological advances throughout the years. the tour guide gave us a great perspective on what life was like for a new immigrant during those times. although it was tough, the community was a great provider of services for the new families helping them adjust to life in the new land. however it begs the question, was it tougher back then for immigrants to make it than today? sure we have our luxries today but in today's dog eat dog world it's still tough.

After the Holidays

NYE, 2006

We went home to San Francisco for 2 weeks to spend Christmas and New Years, but NOW WE'RE BACK IN NYC!
Ah, it's SO HARD to get back into the groove after the holidays. I started my FIRST DAY OF WORK the day after I got back from San Francisco. BOY O BOY was it hard. My brain has been on vacation for the last 4 months, so it was basically in shock the first 2 days of my new job.

LAURIE'S NEW JOB:
I got a job at a design studio called: The Abelson Company. Here's the website if you want to check out what kind of work they do: www.abelsonco.com. The studio has a total of 4 people, the owner, a project manager, and 2 designers. I will be taking over for one of the designers who will be on maternity leave next month. The studio has been around for 10 years and currently focuses on projects that help the community. Perks about the job: it's a 10 minute walk from our apartment, there aren't crazy hours like most design studios have, and the people who work there are super friendly.

SO CLOSE!!

On Wednesday morning I saw my first snow fall in NYC. It was so beautiful, even though it only snowed for about 10 minutes and then melted away, leaving the city as if it had never snowed at all. About an hour later, we smell smoke and hear fire engines (we don't think anything of it since we hear fire engines all the time). The smell gets stronger and we look out the window below to see a fire below us in the next building!!! We can see firefighters breaking through the roof below. The studio is on the top floor of the building (12th floor). We evacuate and are told by the building manager that we're the last ones to leave the building. HELLOOOO, was anyone going to tell us that there was a fire going on next door????

Tuesday night we met up with Renne, an old friend from SF. She works in the fashion industry and was out here on business. We had dinner at a trendy restaurant named 'employees only' and thanks to her expense account, it helped finance our $500 dinner. After dinner we headed out to St. Mark's Square to grab a couple of drinks at Angel Share. Renee and I got the party started by having one to many lycee martini's while Mike stuck with the Irish Whiskey. Since it was Renee's birthday, we continued to buy her shots but she held up like a trooper smiling for the picture above. She wanted to rage, so we raged NY style staying out till 4am, not bad for a Tuesday night.