Halloween + play

So, although I didn't feel like it, I went out on Halloween night in Manhattan. How could I not? I live in the Village where most of the celebration happens anyway, and I heard people party all night this particular night (even though it was a Wednesday). There is a parade up 6th Ave which isn't far from where I live. So after I got home from work I slightly dressed up (red Chinese top, boots, chopsticks in my hair, and black lipstick - using Mary's trick of eyeliner), and went out on the town. I got there an hour after the parade actually started, but it didn't seem to matter. My street, Christopher street was blocked off anyway - closed to traffic. And people were already out in force in all sorts of costumes. Wonderwoman was a popular costume. Of course, guys dressing up as beautiful women was plentiful in my neighborhood. Then there were the winged creatures, and the traditional dark figures of Halloween. But boy were people out in force and crazy. There was no way to cross 6th, and cops were swarming around the area anyway doing crowd control. They were doing that on 7th Ave. too. So there was a huge swarm of people actually on 6th when I got there. I did stop at a cart to get a skewer of chicken :-). But wow - people brought carts to stand on so they could see the parade, so as a short individual several rows back it was really hard to see. I wandered around for awhile trying to figure out how to see and looking at people in the process :-). Took some pictures of crazy costumes. Then I finally wiggled into a spot where I could see the parade. I took some pictures - will try to post the best ones, but it was really hard for the pictures to turn out well. It was dark, so I tried flash, but it would illuminate the people's heads in front of me instead of the parade things 30 feet away. But I got some good pictures. There were some fantastic floats - people on stilts and bands and groups with ghosts or birds or some theme held up high on sticks. There were trucks that held a whole bunch of people - or a band playing. One such band was "Witches in Bikinis" - there were like 6 girls in bikinis singing, each had a different color on and a matching wig of hair :-). Of course there were the requisite very skimpily dressed people. Saw several Austin Powers. My favorite was the few groups of people impersonating subway cars :-). Several robots. Saw a really neat peacock person. And some people even had their dogs dressed up walking with them - one was a lion. Saw an atlas, many pope/bishops, Mr. Incredible, a keg, many ladybugs, several people dressed up as a penis, jedi, very cool adam and eve costumes, Gi Joe and a gigantic hand (I wasn't sure about that one), saw lego men which were awesome. There was a good one of George Bush that had a toilet seat around his neck with a sign saying "Sewage W. Bush, after he talks, then you flush". I actually finally got to the barrier that held people away from the street. There was a cop in the street right in front of us making sure people didn't hop the barrier and cross the street. I don't know what the problem with that was - a lot of the parade was just people walking in costumes. So we played tricks on Mr. Cop and snuck people through :-). That was funny. So basically general madness and huge crowds - all out for fun and for dressing up. After awhile (standing there over 2 hours) I decided to bail. I met up with Mo (softball guy) who had a really hard time crossing 6th (he lives on the East side, me on the West). But he finally found me and we walked through the west side to my neighborhood, passing more characters and just huge numbers of people along the way. It was about 10:30 at this point. We hit huge crowds around 7th Ave and had to push our way through to cross. Crazy. We went to my local bar that I really like - The Otheroom. It's small and neighborhoody and has good beer and wine. There of course there were people in costume - saw a penguin (reminded me of the Linux penguin), and a guy walked in who was a shower - literally had metal bars around his head from which hung a white shower curtain. I kept wondering if he had clothes on underneath :-). We had a beer or 2 then decided to bail because we are lame and it was a school night :-). But walking around Hudson at 12:15am there were still huge crowds out, bars were full, the streets were full of people - no change. This city really never sleeps! I heard it'd be crazy. Bars close around 4am and I have no doubt many people stayed out that late that night. Altho surprisingly they didn't keep me up outside my window. Nice. It was a nice Halloween - I'm glad I got to experience the craziness even if I wasn't that into it myself!

Thursday was fun. Ramon, carpool guy, wanted to come home early from work unexpectedly. So we left around 4:15 and got back around 5:30 (traffic - ugh). He was stressed out about work and asked if I wanted to hang out before my show at 8. So I suggested dinner because I'm trying to stay away from too many beer calories. So we went to a favorite restaurant of his - a fish place called Pearl's Oyster Bar (I think). It was a cute little restaurant - really fresh seafood. I like the fact that menus here are little and they have specials written on a chalkboard nearby. So this place was pretty nice, but informal with really good service and good food. We both got a bowl of clam chowder (with smoked bacon - yum). And the tables came already set with oyster crackers which I thought was funny. Then Ramon got grilled bass and I got a lobster roll on his recommendation. I thought I'd just get fish, but I hadn't had this before, and he said this was really common in Maine and this restaurant did it awesomely. He said it used to be that lobster were really cheap so this was really common to get on the street - mostly poor people ate it, and they gave it to prisoners. But it was on a toasted bun, and lumps of lobster perfectly cooked were pilled high on it with light sauce - some mayo perhaps? I don't know, but it was slightly rich and wonderfully delicious :-). Ramon actually offered to pay! Feel bad because he's already driving me to work everyday (altho I buy gas), but was honored for the offer. Nice guy. Fun to have friends from every different realm of life. So we parted and I went to my off-Broadway play at the Acorn Theater!

The play was called "Things We Want" and directed by Ethan Hawke (but unfortunately he wasn't there). There were 3 brothers dealing with their issues in the play, then 1 neighbor girl - that's it. It was a small theater too, so we were close to the stage which was fun. I knew 2 of the guys in it - one is a famous midget and the other is the son in "Little Miss Sunshine" (movie). So basically the play is set in the home the 3 brothers grew up in, but their parents both killed themselves in the house, and the brothers are now grown and dealing with life. 2 are alcoholics, and the 3rd is always dealing with women problems and perpetually heartbroken and wanting to sulk. I like the themes, and tho it was a bit dark, was very funny. I liked the characters, but I felt it could've been better acted. Plus, although the play had some neat themes, it seemed to just end. What's up with that - is that a new popular way to end stories? Because it urks me. I wondered what the point of it was... But I was still glad I saw the play. Pretty fun. Although I think I'll wait awhile to see more plays - you can get an overload, especially if you don't know the quality of the play you are getting. So walked my 3 miles home :-). It was a chilly night, but not too bad.

Got up early today to exercise - went biking at 8:30am! And let me tell you was that a stupid idea. Apparently it's windy EVERY time I want to go biking. I guess it doesn't help that I bike along the river. But it can just bite through you, and it makes my eyes water. I had my fingerless biking gloves on, but then my fingers were freezing, and my toes too. But I did warm up as I go, but my face got more and more chapped. I ended up going up to my old neighborhood again - 95th St., then turned around. The way back was WAY better - fantastic! I booked it and went (I felt) twice as fast as when I was fighting the wind. Or maybe the wind had abated, but it was way more fun and slightly warmer :-). So proud of myself for that. Then I got ready, and went to my favorite neighborhood coffee shop (yay!) that had now perfected their apple-pumpkin bread. Stayed there an hour before I took off to find the bus to ride down to Maryland to visit Christine!