Thankful Day!

Long time, no blog. And I apologize, for the approximately two (one?) of you who wait with bated breath. Haha.

This weekend the Voigts Took Manhattan by a windstorm. South Pacific was seen, the Museum of Natural History was visited and Kelly was reunited with the people who are required to love her.

And, more importantly, I hailed a cab. Twice. SCORE.

I am writing this post in between filling out my Program and Seminar Evaluation forms. BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. Seriously. Feels like I have homework again. And different than the fun theatre and acting homework that I get at Strasberg.

Point of the story: I am looking for any excuse to distract myself. And it's been a while since I've updated you on my life.

Last week began with another trip to the Upright Citizen's Brigade, which became the best part of my adult life. I saw Amy Poehler perform improv, and Seth Myers touched me. I have never been happier. Seriously.

The week before Thanksgiving was busy at Strasberg. And I'm not sure why.

Wait, scratch that. I know exactly why.

Because Anna Strasberg wanted a Thanksgiving party, for which there was ACTUAL turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing. None of which I ate. Though I provided the pumpkin muffins, and it was agreed that they were a smash. (I feel like there's a really terrible pun there, but I got nothin'.)

Nicholas and I also saw Wishful Drinking, which was AMAZING. Carrie Fisher, talking about her experience as Leia, her experience with being bipolar and her experience with Hollywood Inbreeding. A guaranteed HIGH-larious show. Carrie Fisher was hysterical and she also did the show barefoot.

That right there. That's my dream. Be hysterical and barefoot. Often at the same time.

And then my family arrived! Such fun, such laughs! We had a marvelous time. I was a tourist in my own town, which was fab.

Wednesday: Arrival of the Michigan Voigts. The night before their arrival, my sleep was punctuated by dreams that followed a general theme of me answering my phone and hearing, "Hey Kel, we thought we'd surprise you early at work, and we got off the train at the wrong stop. That sign says 'The Bronx' and some guy just offered us crack..." TERRIFYING. But they made it to Manhattan in one piece (well, three...) and we dined together. Allie saw Times Square for the first time the way it was meant to be seen for the first time...at night. And she experience her first Jamba Juice. She declared a Peanut Butter Moo'd to be delicious. Although, unfortunately Nick and my Jamba dealer, Jesus, was not working, so Al didn't get to meet him.

Thursday: Thanksgiving! I LOVE holidays! We woke up SUPER early to get to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade; we left 305 at about 6:30 in the morning and were three rows in on 42nd St. and 7th Ave. LEGIT. And trying to stay away from my serious bias, I still say the Detroit Parade is better. (This is just like that time we saw the Fourth of July fireworks in Washington DC and the Detroit fireworks were better.) The balloons were really cool and GIANT and I got some awesome pictures, but there wasn't a Briefcase Brigade. SAD. But one day I will walk in this parade dressed as an egg on a tricycle. For no particular reason. Actually, I already have the costume so...

Thanksgiving dinner was also a rousing success, which is good because if it hadn't been, it would have been my fault because I planned it. But it was delish. And the snooty person who answered the phone when I made reservations was not there. Which is good, because I might have kicked him in the shins.

Friday: A bus tour was taken! And it was so fun! I had no idea. I need to get out of my little box of Midtown more often, because we took the downtown loop tour and I saw so many things I had never seen before. I heard someone say the other day, "Why would you voluntarily spend time above 14th St.?" And I might actually agree.

Friday night we saw South Pacific. It was PERFECT. They just don't write musicals like that anymore. Kelli O'Hara was a DREAM as Nellie and the whole production was absolutely marvelous. Even the people in the show who were slightly less than stellar (coughcoughCablecoughcough) - I was willing to forgive them because the rest of the show excellent. LOVED IT.

Saturday: A knee sprain on the part of my mother early in the morn put a damper on this day right quick, but we still managed to have fun with the uptown loop of the hop on/hop off bus tour. I managed to go above 66th St.! Hooray! I made it all the way up to Harlem and the Apollo Theatre. So far uptown! Look at me, takin' the town by a storm.

And then we headed over to North Bergen, NJ: The Restaurant Capital of the East Coast. Except NOT. We drove around for approximately 39823759187 hours before finding an Applebee's. I actually FELL ASLEEP during this process. That's how difficult it was to find a restaurant that wasn't an IHOP or something that doubled as a crackhouse once it got dark.

All in all, it was a successful visit. I had a super lot of fun. Except for the part where the fam was leaving and my mom said, "See you in three weeks, love you."

!!! <-- You are meant to regard this as that motion that I do where I flail my hands and look upset, confused, defiant and slightly indignant all at once.

Three weeks??? Where did the time go? I am NOT ready to go home. I am excited to see my friends and family and for Christmas and everything, but I want to do that for a while, and then move back to Manhattan. I can't wait two more years to be back here!

So I've decided to just deny that I'm going home for an extended period of time. Denial - not just a river in Egypt.

Yesterday, we also saw arguably the worst Broadway show EVER: After Miss Julie. Sienna Miller was so terrible that I want her to take the part of her bio that says, "Studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute" OUT. She was abysmal. Atrocious. A blight on the theatre community.

And there was basically nothing redeeming about the production. I could literally tear it apart, because it was awful. It was an hour and a half, and I walked out thinking it was at least three hours of my life down the drain.

Sum of my life: busy. And some of my classes end next week, which is CRAZY. I don't want it to end! I love my classes, and I love my teachers and I love Strasberg. But all good things come to an end. Sad news.

But I'll be back home soon, brimming with stories and Christmas cheer. Hooray!

Love, Kelly