Lots of big news this weekend. On Thursday I had a second interview for a job that I applied for at the end of January and got a phone call four hours later offering me the position! It's part-time and something that I'm going to try to do in addition to working at the bookshop, but it'll be a more interesting workday then what I'm currently doing and will be a return to my publishing roots. I'm excited!

Then Friday I found out that a play of mine was accepted to the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska. Which means that I have a "professional" excuse to go to Alaska for a week in June. Have been researching flights and housing (Valdez is as a friend put it "the land of oilmen", so the housing is very sparse) and getting very excited about the possibility. 


Have been cramming in Oscar movies over the past few days. I saw Hugo on Friday morning and Moneyball on Friday night and last night McG and I saw The Iron Lady (the 7:35 showing was sold out, which is the strangest thing ever). I liked it a lot more than I expected to, given the reviews I read. Hugo was cute and really gorgeous, Moneyball was good, but I think I preferred the book.

Today brunch with KD, followed by Richard III at BAM with SE. I love Brooklyn Sundays!

Life has been very busy in the past few weeks. Hanover was amazing. The workshop was so productive, the play turned out great  and everyone had a good time. We're gearing up to start a theatre company and make it official. I love the creativity and commitment that D breeds in its alums. And hope that we can take advantage of that.

I got back late on the 12th and was put in charge of putting together our New York Fringe application, which was due on Valentine's Day. After getting a money order 45 minutes before the application was due and walking it down to the Fringe's office (which I also did last year), I headed off to my first NYU screenwriting class. On the walk over, I had a call from someone at Juilliard inviting me to come in for a "chat." I managed to sit through my class (it's fun, but I realized tonight that I'm taking a night school class and laughed at myself*) and then called my parents with the good news. Headed up to McG's apartment for some late night fondue and wine with her and Lyon. Had a job interview on Thursday morning for a publishing gig I should hear back about tomorrow. And this weekend was a mix of downtime and hedonism and spring cleaning. Which is to say, practically perfect.

Had the interview this morning and it went well, will know more information in a month. Until then, I still have my spreadsheet of other playwriting opportunities to dedicate myself to. And my upcoming trip to Greece with Boxa and Vin. Yippee!

*Tonight's NYU class was hilarious. Everyone was waiting around outside because it's school vacation week and no one told NYU (or no one told the teachers) that we weren't allowed to use the space. Luckily one of my classmates works at the med school and we borrowed a class room there for the night. Everyone else's classes just disbanded. 

Tomorrow I'm off to Hanover for a week of theater-making. I'm super excited but also a little nervous. We had a reading of the current draft of my play on Monday night with our director skyping in from Chicago and I've been trying to research/rewrite over the past week. Our lead actress dropped out at the last minute (last Sunday), but we've secured a new one who should be excellent and slightly less dramatic. And because of the change we've been able to make her part more interesting and specific.

My back has been kind of sore and stiff this past week and I'm not sure if it's from exercise (I've started lifting again/may have pulled something in bikram) or something else. Luckily my father is something of a back pain expert, so I should be able to get some advice, if not a diagnosis.

CT's in town so we're getting the old New York crew together for a night on the town. In fact, I should probably get dressed... Guests are arriving momentarily. And leggings and a ratty sweater are probably not entirely appropriate.

It's the end of January, which means I can stop drinking once a week (yay!). There haven't been too many occasions when I wish I could have been able to drink, but a lot when I could have just had alcohol by default (ie, there have been at least five times this month that I've been at a bar or restaurant or apartment and the people with me have been drinking and I have chosen not to drink). I'm not sure if it helped my productivity. It definitely improved my gym-going regimen and I also appear to have lost about 5 pounds. This could be the bikram, or the not drinking. It's a little annoying because all my clothes look a little baggy on me. I do look a lot more fit in a sports bra and spandex shorts though. Which will be helpful in Hanover next week... or not.

Tonight at work we had an event for a playwright that I admire a great deal. He's writing big epic political plays when everyone else is navel-gazing and he's doing it with humor and class. I talked to him briefly, told him that I saw his play after arriving on the red eye and that I didn't fall asleep once. But that I did fall asleep that night when I saw Michael Gambon in Krapp's Last Tape. He laughed. I love when I make successful playwrights laugh with my anecdotes about their work. After that, I headed down to the village for a delicious Restaurant Week dinner with Lyon and friends. It was at one of the "most romantic restaurants in New York" and was very decadent. I think dessert was our favorite course (I had a Maple Ice Cream Sundae with bacon-infused chocolate sauce and kettle corn) and we all left feeling very satisfied. Ah New York!

In June 2007 (as a callow 23 year old) I made the following list of things to accomplish in 5 years, bolded items in mint green have been accomplished, with editorial notes in the parentheses:

Professionally:

In or having finished an MFA program (I applied to programs in 2010 and was not accepted, I plan to reapply in the upcoming year...)

Having made money for my writing (I have made money for my dramaturgical work, does that count?)

Write at least one full-length play a year (I've done this, full-length plays include: Fee, Midnight Clear, Sezze Sun, and The Tutor, working on my fifth) 

A production in New York or London (1 month+ run) (technically I have not had a one month run, but two 3-week runs and a fringe show)

2 or 3 directors I like working with (this used to scare me a lot. it doesn't anymore, which is nice)

Something published (a monologue of mine will be published in an upcoming Best of 2012 monologue book)

An agent (this eludes me still)

Exploring other mediums (novel, screenplay, teleplay) (I've started two novels and written a first draft of a screenplay, that counts as exploring, right?)

Teaching? (i love the question mark here)

Personally:

Learn a new language (unless you count British English, this was not accomplished)

Have a pet (seriously, a pet? what was I thinking??)

Be in (or have been in) a healthy long-term relationship (does 3 months count as long-term? didn't think so. i've been in a number of unhealthy short-term relationships though!)

Exercise/maintain weight (flying colors! am in better shape now than in June 2007. suck it 23 year old me!)

Volunteer or some sort of charity work (hmm... I ran road races for charity? two birds one stone? nope, still kinda selfish)

Travel to at least 10 new countries (so far only six: Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bahamas, Switzerland)

Spend a month backpacking through Europe or somewhere before grad school or next major commitment (what a fucking dilettante I was back then! shoot me. though it would have helped me get my 10 new countries)

Drive cross-country (this is not at all hard and something I could actually do before June 2012, I've flown across the country only twice since 2007, but let's remember that 2 of those years I lived in London.)

Five more months to get some of these things done!!

In keeping with my New Year's resolution kick, this article from the Times was interesting. It's true that if you actually write down your resolutions and let people know what they are, you're much more likely to follow them. I think by spreading mine out with different deadlines throughout the year I've made them easier to follow. The easiest resolution I made and kept was not taking sugar in tea and coffee. I made it in 2007 and still only put sugar in hot beverages once in a blue moon. As I recall, another classmate was doing it as a way to lose weight and I just hopped on the bandwagon. Like they say, doing things in pairs totally works!

10 days into January and so far I'm doing ok with the New Year's resolutions. Which I suppose shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Did two bikram classes last week (dragged McG to one on Saturday) and have booked two for next week. I like booking classes online, it forces me to actually go.

Friday night I saw Wit with my brother and his gf. I hadn't seen or read it, so it was a very pleasant surprise. It's a smart show with some interesting things to say about both poetry and the state of health care (my kind of play). And Cynthia Nixon was great.

Saturday was "drinking night" last week and it was super fun. Lyon and SE and I went to the Aires concert at Lincoln Center and the afterparty at the Empire Hotel. I felt a little old at the afterparty (though we weren't the oldest!), but the huge swelling of D pride I felt while watching Aires old and young sing Dartmouth Undying and Hanover Winter Song was well worth it. I did not talk to my Aires crush. Because apparently my fear of crushes does not stop when they are 7 years younger than me.

Sunday I watched two episodes of Greek and then hung out exclusively in Brooklyn. Met up with NC to catch up and then we got lunch with a friend from London and her friend from high school at a super cute cafe in Brooklyn Heights. After lunch we wandered around Cobble Hill (love wandering around with an urban planner, even though I did get a little irritable when I had to pee) and then I headed over to Park Slope for Downton Abbey and delicious treats with J.  The next morning I started to look at real estate in Brooklyn Heights. And then remembered that I like being able to walk home from places in Manhattan.

Part of the drinking less resolution is a productivity thing. I always feel obligated to do something social in New York and because I have so much writing to do this month, I thought it would make a difference if I explicitly said I wouldn't drink. Unfortunately, I've still been hanging out with other people drinking, which doesn't help me write any. Tonight I went to the library, took out lots of books about lesbians and then headed home. I don't write well at home at night. Must figure out where/when I do write well. I am, after all, a writer.

This morning I finished reading The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides and its general relevance to my life has had me thinking. For those who haven't/won't read it, it's about a collegiate love triangle in the mid-1980s: a young woman who loves her Austen and [George] Eliot and her two "suitors," the charismatic bipolar scientist and the soulful drifting searcher who happen to both study literary theory (ok Eugenides, did you read my moleskine before writing this?). Having dated or sought after guys with these qualities more often than not (and not particularly warming to theory as much as plot and prose), I lapped up the book in long hour+ reading sessions. It reminded me of college, of the confusion of post-college life, the yearning for someone that you're convinced is perfect for you. I found myself identifying with different characters in different ways and thinking about what I've done and how it could have been better or worse (luckily, I usually look back and think it could have been worse).

As you might imagine from the title, marriage and "coupling" are important aspects of the book. At this very single period of my life, I don't often think about marriage in a tangible way. My step-aunt (is that even a thing?) asked me over Thanksgiving if I want kids and I said, I wasn't sure. I say I'm not sure because I don't know the circumstances under which I would have kids. Who would their father be? Where would they live? Would they have a good life? If I can't answer those questions, then I don't see how I can answer the first. For many friends in my cohort, these things are much more tangible. Many of my friends have been blessed with partners who love them and treat them well and are, from all outward appearances, completely devoted to them. And there are moments when all I feel for them is envy. I find things about their partners to dislike and criticize and harp on. I assume that the bad things that happened to me will happen to them. The alcohol problem will turn into a cheating problem, the stubborn elitism will turn into disdain, the immaturity will turn into carelessness. Out of my brother and I, he was always the cynical one. Now I'm perceived as hardened and cynical by him and most likely my parents. I used to think that changed when I moved to London. I blamed it on being surrounded by English people. I think now it happened earlier than that. It happened when the possibility of a fairy tale ended. When I realized that all the things that I could say to someone or could be said to me could lose their meaning. And when I never really found anything resembling it again.

Every year, my family watches White Christmas on or around Christmas. This year was no exception and I took particular note of the relationship between Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Bob (Bing Crosby). Betty thinks of men as knights on white steeds and a misunderstanding causes Bob to fall off his in her eyes. Because it's a movie, he rights himself and it all ends ok (I apologize if this spoils the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it). And not that I should be garnering life philosophy from a movie musical from 1954, but I wonder if rather than being cynical or envious, I should just appreciate that my friends, who are not unlike me, are lucky enough to have found someone willing to get back on their steeds or stay up there to begin with. And hope that some day I'll be mature and fortunate enough to allow someone to do the same.