"Catch a boat to England, baby, maybe to Spain. Wherever I have gone, wherever I've been and gone, wherever I have gone the blues have run the game." ~jackson frank

I survived the first few days of school, but it wasn't easy. A five-hour happy hour on Friday helped me unwind. For about the first hour it was just Lauren and me, and then some former teachers from our school joined us. It was nice to see them again.

I saw A Steady Rain on Broadway this weekend. It's a two-person cast, and those two people are Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, so that alone gives it quite an appeal. I'm not surprised the whole run is nearly sold out already, even though it just started previews on Thursday. Unfortunately the play isn't that great. The acting is very good, the background sets are very impressive, but it's just not that well-written. John Crowley is the director and Scott Pask is the scenic designer; I loved their work on The Pillowman (one of my favorite plays), and they did a good job with this play as well, but there's only so much you can do with the material.

The stage door was a mess. There were SO many people there. I had a really good spot, and then they moved one barricade and that screwed it up for me. I ended up with bad pictures. Here are two of them, though:


I hate it when people go to the stage door without seeing the show. I was one of the first people out of the theatre, and there was already a crowd outside. If you want an autograph, you should have to buy a ticket. It's not fair to the people who actually paid to see the show.

Margaret Atwood is my favorite author. I collect her books. In anticipation of the release of her newest novel, The Year of the Flood, I reread Oryx and Crake. I don't think The Year of the Flood is exactly a sequel to Oryx and Crake, but they're related. They share some characters. So I needed to revisit Oryx and Crake. And I was reminded of how much I love it. It's such a good book; it's definitely one of her best. I think it's interesting that it's her only novel with a male protagonist, because it works; I feel like I can really see inside Snowman's head. It's funny and heartbreaking and terrifying and just wonderfully written. I highly recommend it.

The Year of the Flood is coming out at the end of this month, but my friend Lauren's roommate's boyfriend got an advance copy, and Lauren is being kind enough to lend it to me (I've lent her all of my Margaret Atwood books in the past). Hopefully I can start it on Monday.