So I took myself to see a matinee on Broadway, something I think I can do just any old time because I live in New York, but of course I can’t because I do my day to day living in New York.

So, since this was likely to be my last free Wednesday afternoon, because now that the Citywide FIRST Lego League Championship is over, that particular after school program will go down to once a week and that once a week is most likely to be Thursday.  This was my daughters 3rd year on her elementary school’s FLL team.  Every year I tell myself; after tourist season I will take myself on up to Times Square of a Wednesday afternoon and get myself a half-price ticket to a Broadway show.  Every year I put it off week after week until I realize that this may be my very last Wednesday chance and then I do it, just the once.  Even at half price the tickets are expensive and even if it’s just one afternoon there are lots of other things I could or should do with my Wednesday afternoons.

Last year, on my last “free” Wednesday afternoon, after meeting my husband for lunch in mid-town I took myself the two blocks to Times Square and got a ticket to the play Angela Lansbury was in at a theatre so close it could be seen from TKTS booth which was an important consideration, since it was already 1:55 pm.  This year I did essentially the same thing, again choosing the show with Angela Lansbury in it;  A Little Night Music also starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Leigh Ann Larkin (who played “Dainty June” in Gypsy) was also in it.  She go to sing “The Miller’s Son”.  Her “Petra” was a continuation of the same story of the young woman she played in Gypsy, who must acquiesce like a child in her day to day work, as a Vaudeville  performer or as a ladies maid, when she is in reality a woman of passion and substance.  That could be an interesting piece…

Several of the singers had colds.  So does everyone else in New York City.  I still enjoyed their performances.

But, what I really left the theatre with was Stephen Sondheim’s music and the story.  I don’t know how much of what I saw and continue to think about was Sondheim and how much was the original inspiration for the musical, Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night.  (I’ll put it into my Netflix queue and find out.)

So…

Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel has again delayed its first performance at New York’s Beacon Theatre. The new vaudeville show, which had already postponed its start date from February 25 to March 17, will now begin performances on April 29.  In the bar after the New York Downtown Clown Revue on Monday night, I was talking to another clown who was saying there had been a big audition for the show recently.  The new opening night is six weeks away, that’s a whole rehearsal process.  I wonder if they are starting over from scratch.  I wonder if (as opposed to Bergman and Sondheim) they put the cart before the horse and tried to put up a show before they had a story.

I didn’t do anything Irish and green even though I am.

At the STRAND bookstore in Union Square I bought “Wake Up” by Catholic/Buddhist Jack Kerouac and a book on writing by Joyce Carol Oates, also raised Catholic.

Because it might be the last Wednesday I don’t have to pick up My Kid until 5:30, I felt inclined to see a Broadway matinee because I could and maybe next week I cannot.

I saw Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Langsbury.  I saw a summer stock production of the musical when I was in high school.  Apparently I missed a lot when I saw it before.

A relative e-mailed me a St. Patrick’s Day prayer that mentioned God 8 times and Christ 15 times.

I was raised Catholic.

The Husband didn’t put My Kid to bed on time.  She was still awake when I got home after the show and post show socializing late last night.  Needless to say, this mornings get-up-get-ready-get-out-the-door routine was fraught.

I will miss the NEW YORK DOWNTOWN CLOWN REVUE–somewhere I regularly go without My Kid…

SUCCESS!!!

When will I learn that the less I do the funnier I am?

…the less I TRY…

So many people, that I know, came up to me afterwards and told me they didn’t recognize me until at least halfway through the show.

Strangers complimented me on staying in that particular character through out the whole show.

I had such a clear idea of what I wanted to do right down to the acrylic glue-on nails and I stuck to my vision until I got all the pieces together.

3:45 am.  The first time I woke up in the night afraid that we had overslept.

6:00 am the alarm went off.  It felt like 5:00 am because it would have been 5:00 am if this were not the designated “spring forward” Daylight Savings Time.

Shower.  Dress.  Consume instant coffee.  Make banana smoothie for breakfast and sack lunch for My Kid.

7:00 am (which really feels like because yesterday it would have been 6:00 am) our family of 3 leaves the apartment and walks to nearest subway station.

No one riding the train at this hour is wearing high heels or fashionable clothing.

One woman in a uniform of manual labor rants at the stop and starting of the train accusing the driver of “smoking crack”.

It’s really early in the morning.

Pennsylvania Station.

Jacob Javits Convention Center.

First Lego League.

City wide robotics tournament.

8:00 am teams go to their assigned “pit” location.

8:30 am my kid is ready to got with the others to give their presentation on subway track fire prevention to the judges.

Sitting,

Walking,

Talking to other parents,

Attempting to read the Sunday Times,

Gathering to watch the two and a half minute robot competitions,

Five times.

The cavernous grey concrete convention center has terrible acoustics and fewer food choices than a 7-11 convenience store.

At the end of the day, due to snafu, My Kid’s team leaves the convention center without participation medals

The low point of the day.

On the way to dinner, two fruitless quick searches through stores looking for a particular item for a clown character.

Korean dumplings on 32nd Street, Mandoo Bar.

The world is looking up.

Home for homework.

Hannah Montana

Please can we please go to bed?

After I bought my wiglet in Fulton Mall, for my appearance, Monday, at the Downtown Clown Revue, I had a wave of fear that I might offend someone even though I am not ambitious about my performance and I’m not going to say anything. I’m just presenting a character sketch.

I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond shopping for hangers for a closet purging and organizational project when I saw the kind of broom and dustpan I need for my  Downtown Clown appearance.

At the health food store instead of purchasing my usual Brain Child or Hip Mama magazines I bought Shambhala Sun.

What’s up with that?

Well… there was this article that looked interesting; about mindful housework…  ”Karen Maezen Miler on how the domestic practice of ancient Zen masters can lead us to intimate encounters with our own lives.”

Well here’s hoping.

I was in Times Square this afternoon and since I had some time before I had to make my way back to Brooklyn to pick up My Kid after school, I decided to go to the drugstore to buy the eyeshadow and press on fingernails that I will wear Monday night in the New York Downtown Clown Revue.