Betty Buckley sang "Memory"! and more from Ravinia

It was the perfect night for a concert - lovely, crisp, cool enough for a light jacket but warm enough for a picnic (including an order of parmesan garlic fries) near Ravinia's lush lawn. As opposed to Alpine Valley where we had to practically hose ourselves down with bug spray, there was not an insect to be found at Ravinia (the SuperSecret Mosquito Shield (TM) at work again!).

I had bought these tickets fairly late (as soon as I'd found out that I could buy them on their own and not as part of the trio series) and yet... we were in the 4th row, center section. Pretty much ideal seats. I felt bad though, because there were some people who had front row tickets and were, for some reason, surprised? by this? "Oh, no," they said, backing away. "This is too close." (WTF? How do you buy front row tickets and THEN realize they were too close? It gives you a seating chart online, even...) and so those gorgeous front row seats went unoccupied. I hope Betty didn't mind.

Anyway, whatever. Betty was fabulous! It was my first time seeing her and I loved it! She mixed it up with a lot of song styles - some of her signatures (1776, Sunset Boulevard, Meadowlark) and some other standards, jazz, stuff from her new album, stuff from her 1967 album... all delivered with some background to the song, some funny stories, and that voice. Wow.

Highlights - her greeting to us after "As if we never said goodbye" - she gave a big shout out to the people on the lawn (since we were in the Martin, they could not actually see her) and then refered to the Ravinia crowd as being "hip" but I think she was just being nice. "Hip replacement" more like.

"Meadowlark" - she said she auditioned for The Baker's Wife 9 times and didn't get cast. Then she said she sang it for a while and then "retired" the song. Mmmmhmmm, no more details there, wise move there as she was aware that she was worshipping in the house of Kauffman and there would be no jokes at the expense of certain other divas... She also imparted words of wisdom granted to her by her therapist after the loss of this role. "It cost me thousands of dollars," she said, but she was giving it to us as an added bonus: "GET OVER IT." (makes me wonder about The Baker's Wife, as I believe it landed Patti in some significant therapy sessions as well... If they could stand to be in the same room with each other, I bet they would have many interesting stories to share that would be better than any kind of therapy...

Moving on... "The Dysfunctional Family Medley" - "Children and Art" the witch's song from "Into the Woods" and the song from "Carrie"

Betty shared with us that she was in the new film "The Happening" and she said that M. Night Shyamalan "intended" it to be "a B movie" a tribute to movies in the style of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Really? Well, in that case, it did its job well. Nice way to CYA there, M. She urged everyone to see it and said something or other that it was the number one movie internationally. Bless her heart.

"Old friends" by Paul Simon that moved into "Unchained Melody" which she started a capella and totally blew me away. She could have sung the whole song that way, and it would have been awesome.

And, finally.... her encore was "Memory" from Cats. Let me just give some background here - Cats was the first show I ever saw. I loved it. It was my first cast album and I listened to it every day for a very very long time (yes, you may mock me now, it's fine, but in my own defense, I was like in junior high. My teachers though thought I was a total genius because I could 'recite' Eliot. Came in handy whenever we were studying poetry, let me tell you.). So to hear her sing it, live and in person, was unbelieveable.

Betty graciously thanked people from the stage, not only her band, but the production crew at Ravinia, her own sound and light people and her assistant. So I must take a cue from her and send thank you shout outs to my personal Diva Advisors, who have taught me everything I know: Sarah and Kari. You have not yet steered me wrong.

Ravinia tonight!

Betty Buckley at the Martin Theater... tonight 8:00.

It's my first time seeing Ms. Betty. I am excited.

More tomorrow...

Pop! Goes My Heart

From the movie "Music & Lyrics" - So bad it is good. Trust me.

Is it a place, or a... state of mind?

Yesterday was Jane's birthday, and she is now a very old lady. Not, however, as old as me, but still. We started out the evening by blindfolding her, as is our traditional birthday surprise custom (and believe me, watching people's reactions in their cars as they clocked her in the passenger seat wearing a blindfold was lots and lots of fun.)



We began the evening by crossing the border into Wisconsin where we had dinner at the Brat Stop in Kenosha. (I know, right? We are such great friends! Cheese curds and brats? What more could a girl ask for on her 29th birthday!) But no, the real surprise is where we went after dinner. Despite our promises to leave her in a field or drop her off at the University of Lawsonomy, we actually went to Alpine Valleyin Bumbleville, Wisconsin (or East Troy, even) to see some dude named Jack Johnson

Alpine Valley is a big huge outdoor venue - like Ravinia on steroids and lots of beer. It was really kind of overwhelming, with (drunk) people everywhere. Like, everywhere. I'm okay with being in crowds, but this was insane. Someone actually fell on us. Amy caught him. And rather than apologizing for like, you know, falling in the middle of our blanket, he just said, somewhat stupidly "I fell down." Really? Get our friend here some more beer! I didn't really know Jack Johnson going into the concert, and I can't really say that I know him any better even after sitting there - the acoustics where we were sitting were kind of bad. We ended up leaving a little early, but that was okay. We headed back to Kenosha for some more cheese and a potty break. It also gave us a chance to listen to the cd that Amy found while we were sitting at a stoplight. It was a personally made mix labeled "To My Bride" that featured (wait for it... maybe you should sit down?) jewish reggae music. And some Missy Elliot with some UB40 thrown in. We were kind of wondering if maybe this cd was responsible for ending this relationship seeing as we had found it thrown in the street in the middle of nowhere.

(me and Jane)

(Heidi, up to no good?)

(Jane, Amy & Heidi)

(the birthday girl - probably also up to no good)

Happy Birthday, Jane!

The Morning After

Notes that I took on Monday, June 16


Today I...

• Ate waffles at Nice Matin (just as good as I remembered!)
• Completely by accident, found the New York Public Library (had planned to just get subway to 42nd Street and walk to 5th, but stop actually let me off right there. Yess! Sometimes, am brilliant!)
• Walked from library down 5th to 57th - just cuz. Stopped by Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall (ahhh!), Carnegie Hall
• Ate at a deli down the street from City Center (not Carnegie Deli - too crowded and was hungry) and had massive piece of cheesecake. I had trouble deciding which to order and waitress said, helpfully "Do you want to look at them?"
• Took N train back to 42nd and wandered around. Shopping.
• Found myself in front of the St. James theater (again, completely by accident) and picked up my ticket for tuesday performance
• Saw "The Happening" - for god's sake, don't see that movie. Was terrible. Should have waited 35 minutes to see the Zohan.
• Went on nighttime bus tour. Still daylight. Got rained on while we came back from Brooklyn. Had to wear unattractive plastic bag style poncho with hood. Tour cut short.
• Bought umbrella, went back to hotel.
• Changed clothes, went to dinner at Ristorante LaGrolla on Amsterdam Avenue.
• Ate (delicious) risotto with salmon, safforn, peas and scallions.
• Lost umbrella (damn)

Notes that I took on Tuesday, June 17th

Today I...

• Ate another waffle (helloooo, lovah...)
• Took the wrong train while attempting to go downtown and ended up in Brooklyn (grrr. Not brilliant.)
• Shopping for birthday present at South Street Seaport, rapidly got tired of touristy kitsch and went (somewhat inexplicably, yes?) back to 42nd Street. More shopping. This is what I do when left to my own devices??
• From there went to Lincoln Center to buy "This Charming Man" by Marian Keyes (had to get something to read on the flight home!)
• Went to the Historical Society. Replica of guillotine worth $6 (student) admission
• Went also to American Museum of Natural History.
• Realized am totally uninterested in Natural History-style exhibits. An hour and a half (and $11 student admission) that I am not getting back.
• Because I am SO.INCREDIBLY.PARANOID about missing curtain, I arrive in midtown ridiculously early. Eat at Junior's (but no cheesecake) and wander around for the hour and a half or so before it is time to head back to the theater.

Time for the show. Ohmygod. I could again go on & on & on & on & on, but then this would be a really long post & you all probably would not like me very much. I think I have said that I could listen to Gypsy every minute of every day of the rest of my life and be happy. I am not kidding here. If I lived in NYC, I would go and see the show a whole lot. I would be happy. Broke, but happy. This marked the 10th time I have seen Patti do Gypsy, and every time, I marvel. I know what's going to happen, I even know some of the inflections they will use, the movements they will make, and yet, I am entranced, enthralled, enchanted, every single time. It was even more special this time around because so many people were there to support the cast after the big Tony wins. It - oh, I can't even describe the thrill I felt. The anticipation beforehand, anxiously bouncing around in my seat when the lights went down, cheering wildly for Patti's first entrance, and then for Boyd's, and then for Laura's.... until the audience was nearly told off for being so vocal... then we all settled down... I have tried to explain the experiences I've had in the theater to people who don't know, who don't go to live theater and have no clue what I am talking about. It was like a spiritual experience. Is that too much to say? It's how I feel.

Afterwards, booked to stage door, and got a fairly decent spot. Got shoved to the front when Patti turned up, which was good, but I always get so overwhelmed, I couldn't rub two brain cells together to form an intelligent sentence. It always seems to me that saying something like "you were great" or similar doesn't really capture everything I'd mean to say to her, doesn't convey the impact, the specialness of the occasion, so I can't even say anything, which is annoying, but ah, maybe next time!). The lady next to me said something to her about knowing a teacher of Patti's - "Which teacher?" Patti asked, while scribbling her name on extended programs and stagebills. The lady said something rather incoherent and Patti clearly had no idea what she was talking about because all she said was, "Huhhh..." and moved on. You either got it, or you ain't.

As for me, it was in a cab and back to the hotel for frantic last minute packing.... The next morning I left for LaGuardia by 8:00. United had canceled my return flight since I had not flown with them on Sunday, and so I spent a little bit of time getting that straightened out. No other problems and back home...

Let me just say this, kids, it's gonna take me a long time to get over this one...

I love New York in June...

I know it's been almost a whole week since my (all too brief) vacation, but you know how it is... I got home after another problem with United Airlines (never again!) and crashed immediately. Thursday and Friday at work were nuts. Thankfully, we are NOT moving next week so I don't have to worry about packing up my office while also trying to coordinate our annual meeting.

Pictures to come, but here is a little recap of my most excellent vacation...

Sunday, June 15
Have all the demons in hell come to torment me??? In the midst of a torrential rainstorm, United decides to cancel a flight to LaGuardia. Yes, mine. Interestingly, my bag proceeds on to its original destination. In a panic, I call the "customer service" line - they cannot get me out of O'Hare until later that afternoon, by way of Detroit and DC, landing me in New York at 11:00 pm. He claims he cannot check any other airline. Ha. I call the United reservations line. This time, they tell me that they can't get me out Sunday at all, but Monday morning. He claims to have tried other airlines but comes up with nothing. I am freaking out. Do I just go home? But what is the point of flying out Monday morning just to leave Wednesday? What about my Tuesday night fourth row Gypsy ticket???

Desperate, I call American Airlines. While I am talking to a representative, we get cut off - in the middle of booking me a flight that will get to LaGuardia by way of Boston (or is it Cleveland?) leaving within hours and landing me there at 4:00 pm. I call back, and lo and behold, this new representative finds me a DIRECT FLIGHT to LaGuardia leaving that morning and getting me in at 2:00 pm. Clearly, God loves me and wants me to get to Sarah's Tony party. I catch the flight - and we sit on the ground for close to 2 hours, while they hold the plane for people making connecting flights. We waited there for about 7 people. I had brought a book that completely sucked, which didn't help the endless wait.

Finally, FINALLY, I arrive at LaGuardia. My bag was chillin' at the United baggage claim.

AT LAST, time for Sarah's lovely party. She rolled out her red carpet and greeted us all in style. Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. I loved being with people who could talk about theater, who made jokes and funny comments, and who understood the need to rewind the DVR so that we could watch Patti's winning speech a few more times (and in slow motion!)... Speaking of.... Oh! I was SO excited for her to win! And August: Osage County! Steppenwolf love! :) I could go on and on (and on and on) about Patti, but I won't. Overall, it was a great night, wonderful company and who could ask for more than that??

Sloshed back to the hotel having had many cosmos and champagne (to toast the diva!). SO glad I got there!

"Shut UP! It's been 29 years!"

I know I'm a little late with this post, but, well, whatever... Congrats, Patti!

summer in the city!

Sticky weather? Check! Three fans blowing on me while I sleep? Check! Some kind of street festival every other week? Check, check, money order! Oooh, it looks like it's Summer in Chicago! Yesterday the head honcho asked me, in his gorgeous, gorgeous British accent, if I "would get to take some time off, ever" - and I am happy to report the answer to that is YES. Woohoo! As I've been looking at my plans for the summer, I am busier than I thought I would be. Take a look:

Sunday June 15 - thru June 18 Off to NYC for a brief vacation (brought about by the need to burn off several PTO days that I am unable to carry over. Twist my arm!)
On the agenda - a Tony party with a gracious hostess and people who are as excited about it (if not more so) as I am!
Also am planning to see some shows (okay, "show" at the moment. Care to guess? I am working on finding something else to see in the brief time I am there. Heaven forbid I just see one show while I'm out there ),see some sights and eat some waffles. Looking forward to all of this very much.

June 21 - Jane's birthday surprise! This may or may not include skipping town, a monster truck rally and a hayride ho-down (I can't really say it's a surprise and she may be reading...) but it will be lots and lots of fun. Woo!

June 23 - Betty Buckley at Ravinia! I'd almost given up on this, since I was very unwilling to shell out beaucoup bucks for the trio concert series. Apparently other people felt the same way, because when I saw single tickets had gone on sale, there were lots of good seats still available.

Late June - the last of our big meetings, and our BIG move to our snazzy new digs. So I realize that I will no longer physically be located on the 13th floor, the blog name will remain "Life on 13" since "Life on 3M" does not have the same ring and makes it sounds like I have an unfortunate adhesive addiction. Maybe if I still worked at Archiver's (HA!) Life on 13 is a state of mind, baby.

Then in July, it's back to Ravinia for Dame Kiri te Kanawa's farewell gala concert. Who knows what else I will get up to???

That's MISS BIG, to you!

Something funny that came out of this weekend (aw, heck, there were lots of funny things, but only so many that I can list on here) was when my friends and I cast ourselves in Sex and the City. Nobody admitted to being a Samantha, but we do have a Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Steve. My friends decided that I should be "Big" - since out of all of us I make the most money and have the most glam career, if I had my own place it would be large and awesome, and that they could see me swooping into somebody's life and being mysterious. Nice.

So, yeah. BIG. That's me.

Inside the "Mecca of Beauty"

What better way to spend a sticky, rainy Saturday than bag shopping with my girls? For her birthday gift, we took Beth to what she referred to as "the Mecca of Beauty" AKA Zola Jones. This little storefront was crammed with one-of-a-kind bags designed by Jason Loper. Oh my god, they're so cute. I dithered in there for a good hour (at least) trying to decide between two styles. I polled all my friends to see which one they liked best otherwise known as "purchase by committee" since I can't make important bag or shoe purchases without at least a few people around to consult with. I bought two (!) and I LURVE them. If you find yourself on Montrose, go and check out some bags.

the things I do for my divas...

I watched an hour of The View just to see you, Patti LuPone. I swear to god, I felt brain cells actually melting away during the first, what? 40 minutes of the show? Oh, but it was all worth it.

I should have just waited for the You Tube clip. Since I'm so concerned about your brain cells, just sit back and watch...

Moral Dilemma

Firstly - the spelling of 'dilemma'
Secondly - This whole election fandango. I cannot - CANNOT vote for a Republican, but I don't really care much for Mr. Obama. I don't like the thought of not voting at all though, so what's a girl to do?

Any Obama fans out there? Can you explain to me why you like him? What am I missing? I am serious about this, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt now that he's the candidate, but I just don't see that he's done anything for me, personally, as a citizen of Illinois.

DENIED

So golly gosh darn it - I had recently discovered an open airwave from which I could poach me some WIFI from my bedroom. But I guess all of my midnight web-mding (oh, I wish I was joking. I've become completely OCD) alerted them to my presence on their network because when I tried to get on today, I was booted off. Gravy train is OVER. Damn.

Sunday, in the park

This lovely little park was dedicated to my cousin David, by the good people of Naperville. It was a really nice example of a group of neighbors pulling together to create something beautiful on a piece of what had been condemned land. They got everything donated - flowers, pavers, benches, and labor from Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and the folks at the Morton Arboretum. Everyone welcomed me and my family for a good old neighborhood picnic with snacks, cake, popsicles and sno cones. It was unusual for me, since we barely know our neighbors' names over here, let alone circulate a neighborhood newsletter. But it was a beautiful day and everyone could not have been nicer.

A very fitting tribute to someone who loved his home, his family and his country and who was taken away from us all too soon.

ahhh, the weekend!

This has been a whirlwind weekend for me.... I will need some time to recover. Think the boss will buy that (no, I didn't either).

Friday night: Sex and the City with the girls, Heidi, Kim and Amy. Some smart soul (Heidi) bought the tickets the day before. Good thing, too, since all the evening shows were SOLD OUT. We got there at 7:00 after having a bit of dinner and there was already a huge line of (mostly) women, waiting to get in. I have to admit something here - I did not see much of the series when it was on tv (no HBO, see?) but I had seen some episodes, I knew who was who, and what was going on, generally. Despite that, I was really excited about the movie. Maybe I didn't have as much invested in it as some longer term fans of the show, but I don't think that really matters much. And it did not disappoint me. I loved every minute of it, and so did the audience in the theater - from the moment the title credits started rolling, we were all hooked. At the end of the movie, there was a round of applause and even some tears. Was it predictable? Yes. Fabulous clothes and unbelieveable shoes? Mais oui! Girl power? By the bucketload. I totally recommend it - grab some girlfriends and go. It is not so much a date movie though, but it is a total chick flick.

Saturday: Beth's birthday surprise (well sort of). We'd planned to take her to see Avenue Q for her birthday. And it was supposed to be a surprise, but she knew about it anyway. C'est la vie, and it's not like it was any less enjoyable. Off to brunch first, where I continued my quest to find a waffle equalling the ones at Nice Matin. (guess where I will be having breakfast when I am in NYC in a few weeks??). The waffles at Walker Brothers came close, but not quite there. We braved the Edens construction (oy) and got to the theater in good time. Stumbled into a very weird parking garage that was valet even though it was not marked as such. And it closed at 6:00. What kind of parking garage, in the theater district no less, closes its doors at 6:00 on a Saturday?? I ask you,

Avenue Q was the first show I ever saw on Broadway, and it rang especially true for me back when I saw it (it was in 2003 or 2004 I think) - being out of college, trying to make it as an "adult", all that stuff. It was just as good this time around - fun songs, laughs and of course, raunchy puppet sex. The show came to a halt after the "George Bush!" line in the song "For Now" - as I had suspected it would. This is Democrat country, son. Where, as Heidi pointed out, the polls close at 7:00 and the Democrats are awarded victory at 7:05.

Post show we had to haul it out of the parking garage, and we journeyed to Lincoln Park for cupcakes. We went to Swirlz on Belden, for I had heard tell of a banana nutella cupcake and I needed to sample it. Overall, the cupcakes were good, but not totally fantastic. After that, it was off for some good old Chicago style pizza at Lou Malnati's and some girl talk. We have all known each other for so long (in fact, we kind of dazzled these shopkeepers in a store we visited. "You all know each other?" they asked. "Since Kindergarten?!?!" Yes. It is true.) that we just can talk about anything and everything. We are all so old now that we frequently talk about our various ailments (sad, no?) jobs, guys, etc etc. But it was lots of fun. Thanks for listening to me whinge on about MY current ailment and my Web MD obsession (I need an intervention here! It is a terrible habit!) and happy birthday, Beth!

Today - in a matter of hours, I will be off to Naperville with my family. The city is dedicating a park to the memory of my cousin, David Caruso, a Marine killed in combat in Iraq a number of years ago.

And then tomorrow, it will be back to work again.