the new york post

Despite having Internet access at the hotel, and thinking I might post while there, between our various Manhattan activities and resting up between them I just didn't end up doing so. Of course, that also meant I came home to dozens of spam emails and thousands (!) of unread blog entries from the blogs I regularly read via Bloglines. I'm still not caught up on the latter.

This is about the weekend, though. And it simply was amazing. The worst part of the weekend was the trip home last night: with reservations for the 6:00 bus, we arrived at the Port Authority terminal just before 5:30, so we were told we could go ahead and take one that was just then scheduled to leave. We went ahead and put our luggage in the cargo hold before discovering that the only two remaining seats were at opposite ends of the bus, so we weren't able to sit together. But that's really the worst thing I can say about the weekend, though, by far.

Also frustrating, though much less significantly, was that the museums all seemed to be between exhibits: the Cooper-Hewitt only had a single room open, but still were charging the full entry fee, so we bypassed the exhibit for its gift shop. We then hit the Guggenheim, where the top two floors were closed, but we paid the half-price admission to see parts of the permanent collection as well as a wonderful exhibition of works by Kandinsky and Klee, which turn out to be shared favorites of ours. Additionally, there was a range of Picassos demonstrating his versatility (both in the permanent collection and in an exhibit focusing on Umberto Boccioni) as well as Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), a particular favorite of mine that Jeff hadn't seen at all and for which I'd never seen the original.

Friday night we went to the Rufus Wainwright concert, where we had incredible seats three rows from the stage. Unfortunately, a speaker on the stage edge blocked my view of everything from the neck down when Rufus was seated at the piano; fortunately, he also did a few numbers standing up, on guitar, where my view of him was clear. As wonderful as I found his concert last fall in Washington, this one was better; he was in better voice and the overall energy seemed higher. Teddy and Martha were missing this time around, and I missed their backing vocals (though Martha did come out to do a duet with Rufus as one of his encores), but the last-minute addition of the wickedly funny drag cabaret act of Kiki and Herb as a second opening act--and a Rufus-Kiki duet during the show--was a FABulous laugh-til-I-cried surprise.

Saturday afternoon we saw Wicked, a Broadway musical that seems to be getting lukewarm reports from the critics but an enthusiastic reception from the audience. Jeff and I had been listening to the soundtrack for several weeks, which we've both quite liked, but even so I wasn't prepared for just how much I was going to enjoy the show. This show was the entertainment highlight of my weekend, and I really want to go see it again; our tickets were in the next-to-last row of the orchestra, and I'd like to sit closer since there's so much going on in terms of facial expressions and body language, especially in Kristin Chenowith's inspired Glinda the Good.

Sunday morning we had brunch with the bloggers--themselves a newly dating couple--behind Tin Man and Hit or Miss. You really can't imagine a cuter pair, or better suited for one another. They're really adorable, I definitely enjoyed meeting them and chatting with them over brunch, and I also loved their recommendation of the sweet potato fries at the homsetyle restaurant where we met, the Chat 'n' Chew (by the way, Matt, their web site does list a new location at 470 6th Avenue, so I wasn't imagining things after all).

Sunday evening we had terrific seats for Avenue Q, another wonderful, fun new musical on Broadway. John Tartaglia (who I just discovered is a blogger): Jeff and I both are in love with you, or at least something approximate. You were fantastic!

Yesterday we did a little shopping, hitting the bluefly.com warehouse "everything for $25" sale (though it would have been a drag queen's wet dream, with some incredible dresses, there was woefully little in men's wear, and nothing in my size) and the Barney's warehouse sale, where Jeff did luck out on a couple of cashmere sweaters and a beautiful embroidered shirt.

Beyond that, we did a fair amount of walking the neighborhoods, primarily Chelsea and the Village, and hit a few art galleries on Saturday evening. Otherwise, we made frequent and very good use of our penthouse hotel room, nudge, nudge, wink, wink... demonstrating the truth of a Jay Mohr standup routine we'd recently seen on Comedy Central in which he noted that there's something about arriving at--and paying large sums of money for--a hotel room that just makes you want to have lots of sex.

An exhausting but really wonderfully fun-filled weekend. I had such a great time in Manhattan with Jeff, and I'm also continually rediscovering that I'm so much in love, and so lucky to be loved in return by someone so wonderful. I know it's perhaps a little sickening but, hey, I'm way past due for this, so indulge me.