My birthday weekend

I decided to see JM tomorrow in Connecticut instead of on my actual birthday. For one thing, he always does a better performance when playing in front of a hometown crowd (and that can include anything in the tri-State area of NY, NJ, CT). Since I've never seen him perform in his homestate of CT before, I thought this one could be the best of all. For another thing, it's a Saturday so I would have a better chance of finding someone to go with me. My birthday is on Monday, so I would have to bribe someone into thinking my ridiculous obsession is important enough to take a day off. I decided it wasn't important enough to anyone but me, thus, we are going on a Saturday.

All the stuff that is happening in the "news" lately detracts from my feelings about the whole thing, so I have to just get back to the basics. Here are the basics:

Question...

Why are new CD's still so hard to open?? Why haven't they fixed that yet?

I spoke too soon (as usual)

Over the weekend, I saw that I have two new tomatoes growing.

Grease is the word!

Since I am writing about theater, the other show I saw recently is Grease. The two leads were from the show "You're the One that I Want" from last summer that let the audience vote. (and yes, I voted.) These were not the winners, but I remembered them from the show (Danny was good, Sandy was terrible). Also, Taylor Hicks was in it, which I guess was a draw for some people. One of my clients wanted to see it and I told her that since she has been working really hard lately, I would take her. We both loved it! It was different enough from the movie to keep it interesting for me, since I've seen the movie 8000 times (but still love it and would see it again in a heartbeat). She loved it because she knew most of the music. It was her first time in a theater and she had a million questions. Afterwards, we waited outside with all the other tourists to get the autographs of the cast and got a photo with Danny. (He did actually pose for a photo with my client, but I can't post it.)

Hair -- the musical

Saturday night I went to see the musical "Hair" at the Public Theater in Central Park. I only went because someone got me a ticket because, as you may know, I'm not the biggest fan of musicals. There were a few numbers that I liked, like "Age of Aquarius" which isn't a song I like but the performance of it was incredible. As I had suspected, I was a little bored during the show, checking my watch like our president at the Olympics Opening Ceremony. And then the last bit comes where the boy goes off to Vietnam and comes home dead and he's lying on the American flag and the cast is singing this song with so much passion, you can feel it. I have to say, I think it was the most powerful thing I've experienced in theater in my life. (This is the cast, but not in the Delacorte theater.)

New camera!

With my birthday coming up, my parents asked what I wanted for my birthday. I couldn't really think of anything... and then my camera broke. So I asked for a new one, and I got it today! yeah! I don't usually open my presents early (I'm weird that way) but I already knew what it was and didn't want to leave it at work since things have a tendency to walk (I'm still bitter about a peach someone took off my desk a few years ago).

Here's the first photo... Heidi at her desk.

A lot has happened in the few years since I got my digital camera. I was one of the last people to get one. Before that, I always used disposable cameras. For the group that I am running with teen girls, I bought a bunch of disposable cameras and asked them to take some pictures to make into some sort of an art project. I dropped the cameras off and they told me it would take at least a week to get them back! I said, "But you used to do it right here!" She told me that they don't do that anymore, and they actually lose money developing old fashioned film. I had to go back to group on Wednesday and tell them that they were not going to get their pictures for a while. I was pretty surprised.

Thanks everyone!

my first tomato

I picked it this morning! I'm pretty sure this is what it's supposed to look like. I was getting worried because it didn't seem to change for the longest time, but finally started to get some red this week. So I have this one from my Brandywine plant, and three on my Bucks County plant, but that's it. Is it too late for any more to grow? It's the middle of August! If this is, indeed, the only one I get from this plant, then this tomato cost $20 when you factor in the plant, the dirt and the pot that I had to buy.