More fun in the big city!

Man, my vacation was hectic and went way too fast :)!

Spent the first week of it in our condo in Vegas, where we had a family reunion with my grandmother and my sis (wooo!). Didn't really do much except eat, took a load of silly photos at the Valley of Fire park and flower shows in Bellagio. Only walked 1/2 of the strip once, because a day got wasted by sis getting sick >:(. And of course, buffet in Paris where I managed not to eat the whole dessert area like I did last time.

After leaving Vegas (having to get up at 3 am for the flight) and landing in NYC many hours later, saw an Ionesco play called Exit the King on Broadway (with Susan Sarandon, Geoffrey Rush, Lauren Ambrose) which was possibly not the best choice to end a long day. Not only was it dark and slightly depressing although there were a few funny bits in the first half, the second half was full of dragging monologues and esoteric dialogue which put everyone to sleep. We were in the 4th row from stage and in front of us this lady started snoring, and her friend with her gave her a huge elbow nudge, to which the sleeping lady jumped a foot in her chair and everyone behind her started snickering right in the middle of this death epiphany by Geoffrey Rush. Man, that was a head-banger.



Then Saturday we saw Blithe Spirit (Rupert everett, Angela Lansbury) and it was fantastic. The whole play is so witty and funny and Lansbury yet again is great at playing eccentric characters. Ate at Sardi's which was lovely and atmosphere is fantastic with all those actors' caricatures. Then we saw the Ibsen play, Hedda Gabler (Mary Louise Parker), and I wish we'd reversed the order of seeing these two because while well-performed, it was quite dark and bleek. I'll also try to avoid the American Airlines theater (roundtree) in the future because if you sit on the right side, it's adjacent to some alleyway in times square and you can hear all the immature teenage passerbys and lorries honking horns.

Sunday, we spent basically the whole day shopping at Woodbury Commons. Obviously spent loads of money and were wrecked by the end of it! We'd been up til 4 am the night before as we couldn't sleep, but somehow we managed to plod through the piles of clothes and Coach bags!

Monday, my friend from Ireland came and so we had a nice easy day of it, met up with a couple friends at my local bar and we managed to seriously bore my sis and my friend with all the medicine talk. I really need to find more non-medical friends!

Tuesday was the museum day and we raced through the Guggenheim, Metropolitan and Natural History museums. Man, that was a whirlwind and I won't be back to those for awhile! Think i might buy membership to the Met museum and just sit in the conservatory to read. Then Bubba Gumps for dinner in Times Square, which was a lot of fun and loads of silly pictures ;).

Wednesday we saw West Side Story on Broadway, which was good. This production is different because they've sung some of the songs in Spanish. I think that concept is interesting, but at the same time, I didn't like spending 120 dollars on tickets to not understand what they were saying. The lead guy of the jets started the opening song off key though he corrected himself. And the men weren't quite macho enough, in my opinion - i mean, i know west side story has some ballet style dance in it, but perhaps a little too effeminate casting. Good singing from the leads though.

That night, we went to the Knicks game, which was really exciting in the end even though now I can't remember who won...I think the Knicks did. They came out really strongly, but then let it go in the 2nd quarter and had to play catch up. My friend caught one of those tshirts that they shoot into the crowd, heh!

Thursday we drove to the Bronx Botanical Gardens which was nice (my Irish mate is into botany and all) and took silly photos of cacti and orchids. Had a nice chat before driving her to the airport. And then on the way back from JFK, got completely lost (in the dark) with my sis needing to pee really badly. Finally got the GPS working (woo for GPS!) and made it back before she had an "accident" in the car.

Friday we got TKTS to see 39 steps, which was hilarious. Very creative as 4 people play multiple parts. I love the theater!

Saturday, woke up early to stand in the TKTS line again hoping to see In the Heights (but it wasn't out yet) and then we met up with a couple high school friends (awesome!) for brunch in Greenwich. It's always nice catching up. Saw Reasons to be Pretty (Piper Perabo, Steven Pasquale even though neither of those two are the lead characters) which was interesting as you watched how a minor comment spirals into a huge life event, and was mildly amusing. A little too much cursing for me though. Then, my sis was curious about August: Osage county so we went back to the TKTS line and got tickets, and it was brilliant. Very funny watching this dysfunctional but normal ? family with most social taboos worked in! we were way up in the mezzanine though, so some parts were a little hard to hear. I'm just making notes for myself for other performances i try to see in the same theaters. I definitely have become a very avid theater-goer!

Then after getting very little sleep, Viv left for LaGuardia at like 5 am . :( . Damn, I wish we were at the stage in our lives where we could get the big house / apartment together like we always planned. We've been apart for nearly 8 years now after spending every single day together and I thought I'd welcome the change (and I have to some degree), but now I at least want her around to do stuff with, since my social network is still in Ireland .

Then this past Tuesday, I took myself to see the new Durang play (Why torture is wrong) mainly because I wanted to see Laura Benanti act again (I saw her in Gypsy). It was definitely interesting, made a few funny jabs, and the actress who plays the mother is hilarious! I think some roles had a little overacting going on, but I just find there's something very engaging about Ms. Benanti that's captivating. I spent the rest of the vacation downloading and watching episodes of True Blood, I'm not really certain why!

I've been feeling pretty down lately, which is something new for me. I've never felt this way before, and it's not pleasant, especially when I'm supposed to be on vacation relaxing! Maybe it's because my twin left. I just feel like there's something really missing in my life, I'm not enjoying my work and it's not exciting me to go into work. I like the idea of being a doctor, and I like acquiring the skills. But it's not a culmination for me, I don't feel like I have achieved anything. It's funny how people measure success as they grow older. Some would think I've done a lot and am a very successful individual at this age, and I thought I would feel that way too. But I don't...I want something more and I'm not sure what that something is.

Maybe it's the fact that to get to this point, I was involved in so many things and now those have just been cut out due to work committments, and I don't like my life just being medicine. I'd love to get into more creative endeavors, I think at the very least I'll start a little writing again (even though my thoughts are so jumbled I feel I don't know where to begin). But right now I'm questioning my life / career choice, and if I had to opt differently, I wonder what it would have been like to pursue one of the possibilities I was thinking of when I was 18 to be a musician / performing artist, although that would have been the less stable route. Although if I didn't do medicine, I never would have gone overseas to Trinity and met my wonderful friends there. Maybe I have too many unrealistic ambitions, but I still feel like a young kid who wants to get out there and do everything and make a mark in the world!