Stuck in Winter

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Not much has been going on since then other than I just finished my first paper in my return to school. Four weeks down, two years, ten months, and three weeks to go! Still now word on when I'll be seeing Drowsey or Sweeney, or Les Miz, my companion is being characteristically stubborn about discussing dates. While I'm kind of frustrated that we're seeing all the shows for the second (or fifth) time when there are so many good new shows going on (Augusta and Columbinus in particular), it's important to at least show up for Drowsey and Sweeney to show the producers that there is an audience in Chicago for Broadway shows and we deserve to be more than an afterthought in their touring plans. Plus, there's still Nine at Porchlight to look forward to this spring and I'll make sure we get to that.

I finished my monthly allotment of downloads and listend to Andrea Burns' solo CD yesterday, what a fabulous album!!! It really lifted my mood out of the winter blahs. I actually like it better than Victoria Clark's, which is a pretty tall order. Hopefully she'll get a Tony nod for In The Heights, she certainly deserves it, although I'm firmly routing for Jackie Hoffman to win. I also finally listened to Seesaw and enjoyed it, although wasn't overwhelmed. I'm not a huge Cy fan other than City of Angels and On the Twentieth Century, but it definitely had its moments. I started on Lauren Kennedy and will finish her up when my downloads refresh and then go for David Yazbek's solo CD and the Gone Missing cast recording.

Speaking of winter blahs, when is it going to be over? All my clients last week were talking about how this endless weather is making them depressed and that just made me more depressed myself. I looked up weekend getaways to Vegas, but Bette is wrapping up this week and won't be back until fall, and Cher doesn't start until May, by which time hopefully the weather here will at least be out of freezing temperatures. Plus, a two day getaway, leaving Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday costs as much as our three day getaway for Liza last year, and more if we want convenient times, which makes it seem like we're getting ripped off if we go now, which would not do much for improving my mood. New York isn't looking possible in the near future, my companion doesn't have any work-related reasons to go and we're trying to save our points as well as my vacation time for Europe. Plus, the weather there would be just as bad as here, I can still feel the cold in my bones from last March's trip. So, I'm trying to survive as best I can, hopefully a few shows and dinners out here can at least make it feel like I'm on vacation without the New York prices.