Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas Cheer & Looking to the New Year

Though I somewhat bemoaned the disappearance of holidays, and Christmas specifically, in my last blog entry, I definitely had quite a bit of Christmas cheer this December (even if it wasn't on Christmas day).

So here's a post to capture all that happened this December, including a bit of Christmas cheer.

During the first break (the first week of December), I achieved a goal I set for myself: to run a half-marathon!


I ran it in 2:03:54, and am definitely pleased with my performance, especially considering it was my first time ever having run that far!

Then we went on tour for five days to play Christmas shows in Maryland and Georgia. A pretty uneventful five days, but touring nonetheless.

And then came the most wonderful vacation: 4 days in New York City! I flew up to the city, which I've only been to once previously, to spend some time hanging out with some old friends and seeing all sorts of incredible performances. Here's my trip in some pictures and captions.

With Phil, one of my two roommates from the Killington Music Festival in 2007, with whom I stayed while in NYC.

At Cirque du Soleil's "Wintuk" at Madison Square Garden. Alicia Enstrom, a former violinist in Barrage, is the violinist for this show--and the only musician who makes an appearance onstage!

The view into the audience from Alicia's "pit" box (the pit orchestra is located above the audience on both sides of the theatre).

With Alicia in her make-up during intermission!

With Alicia, Hidayat, and Annette at a coffee shop somewhere in Manhattan.

The Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center.

With my friend Matt after seeing "Hansel & Gretl" at the Met.

With Travers, my friend and roommate from two scholarship programs I attended in high school. I hadn't seen Travers in nearly 6 years!

The Christmas tree (from Arizona!) at Rockefeller Center!

For my final day there, the third roommate from Killington, Ryan, came down from Connecticut for a complete roommate reunion! It was by sheer luck that the three of us were grouped together at Killington for 6 weeks because we all just happened to be 20 at the time. They were basically the most wonderful random roommates anyone could ask for, so this roommate reunion had been in discussion for quite some time.

After stopping by Rockefeller Center, the three of us went to Serendipity III to have their world-famous "frozen hot chocolate."

Ryan is, as you can tell, quite excited by his drink.

Phil was the only one to successfully finish the entire drink.

I got about 3/4 of the way through and immediately went into a food coma. Defeat.

All in all, it was an incredibly amazing December, marked by lots of fun and time with friends and family.

-----

We just finished a week of shows at the Lyric Theatre in Stuart, FL, run by John Loesser, son of Frank Loesser, the famous Broadway composer, director, and playwright (perhaps most famously, "Guys and Dolls"). It's been wonderful being down here in Stuart again--the crew, the intimate facility, and the audiences have all been absolutely fantastic.

Tomorrow, January 1st, 2010, we'll be kicking off the new decade by flying to Amsterdam for a month-long tour in the Netherlands and Belgium. I can't wait!

Have a safe and happy New Year's!

...and this concludes my final post...for the decade.

1 comment:

Allyson & Jere said...

So much fun, thanks for sharing.