So yesterday the new dryer was delivered! Hooray!!

The dryer broke something like two months ago, and we have all been very sad, doing laundry and then hanging it around the house to dry. At least, the Callahans have. I have only done two loads of laundry in that time, because I have all of the clothes in the world and can easily get by without washing anything for quite some time, but sometimes the jeans are dirty and you just can't take it anymore.

They were going to deliver it after the blizzard, but canceled, to no-one's great shock. I wouldn't want to hump dryers around in knee-deep snow, either. Fran had to shovel my steps, though, since there was still enough there for them to break several ankles while taking out the old dryer or bringing in the new one. Too bad it wasn't today, because it all melted overnight.

I immediately turned into my mother and insisted on sweeping after they took out the old dryer, and a good thing, too, because it was revolting, and because I found a pair of my underwear that had fallen behind the dryer God only knows how long ago.

So we have a new dryer! And it is beautiful and it has a light inside and the clothes go round and round and it makes practically no noise and has a sensor that beeps when there is no moisture left in the clothes even if the cycle hasn't finished yet and merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

And then afterwards, Omar and I went out.

We haven't seen each other twice in a week since Doll's House, and I've really missed seeing him on a regular basis. And we have been talking about seeing this particular movie together for about six months, ever since we first saw the trailer.

The movie was Die Mommie Die. Now, I have no doubt that nobody has heard of it, but Loews is doing this special thing with Sundance this year where they gave limited releases to four movies before they appear on the Sundance Channel. This particular movie stars and is from a play by Charles Busch, a New York legend. He is a drag artist, but saying that diminishes him, because he is also a great writer and a wonderful actor, he just acts in women's roles.

Okay, let me make this perfectly clear. If Die Mommie Die is playing anywhere near you, go see it! It is without question one of the funniest movies that I have ever seen in my life. It's a take-off of those Joan Crawford/Bette Davis women's pictures, with Charles Busch as Angela Arden, a former singing star/current has-been with a horrible husband and nasty children who has to get out of her marriage, but he won't giver her a divorce! What will she do?

It is flat-out brilliant, I was choking with laughter, wiping tears away, both Omar and I clutching at each other and repeating lines-- "Are you a cocksucker?" "You're far too fragile and far too famous," "Why not me?". It was a very different experience than In My Skin, let me tell you that!

Before the movie, we had lunch at Popeyes, because we are such big old gourmands.

Actually we went because we are poor and because I had never been there before. Why should I go to Popeyes when Kentucky Fried Chicken is perfect? Omar always insisted that the only reason that I liked Kentucky Fried Chicken so much was because I had never experienced the greatness and the glory that is Popeyes.

I was not impressed. I mean, the chicken was fine, though the skin was a little too crispy (crispy is good, hard is bad), but they didn't have baked beans or potato salad as sides, and you couldn't order the meal and specify all drumsticks--you have to take what they give you and suck it up, or buy everything separately. The biscuit was pretty good, though, nice and flaky.

So I'm sticking with Kentucky Fried Chicken. Popeyes be damned.

Afterwards I took him to his bus and we kissed goodbye, agreeing to see each other again before I leave, because I haven't gotten his Christmas present in the mail yet, and he has to have it before the 1st (I can't say what it is, because I am giving the same thing to Tracing). I stayed in the city to see As You Like It.

I had some time to kill, so I decided to go to the Internet cafe on 42nd St. that I've been walking by for years but have never been in before. I mean, why should I? I have a computer at my house! But since I left the house in the morning and wasn't going to go home until quite late, I was going through a little email withdrawal and decided to spend a buck.

Now, I have been at Internet cafes before, in Toronto, in Scotland, in London, but never, as I stated above, in New York. And o my God, it was so different! I mean, smaller Internet cafes you get a card and there's someone at the counter and there are maybe thirty computers, this place was a barn, hundreds of screens on these long counters, and nobody working there, just badly working machines to poke dollars into and get tickets out.

It was just so ghetto. Really dingy and cheap and tacky, with the signs about no outside food and to watch for pickpockets and dropped tickets and crap all over the floor, and with more prostitutes than you generally find in such a place. It was less a cafe atmosphere and more a sweatshop.

The funniest thing was what happened to the guy next to me. This possible prostitute came up to him and said, clearly continuing a previous encounter, "So, how do I get that pen?" and he handed her the pen in question, saying "You can get this on the Internet." "You mean for money?" "Um, yeah." "You mean I gotta pay money for it?!" "Yes." "I thought you just wanted me to write something sexy with it and you'd give it to me!" she said indignantly and threw the pen back at him and flounced off.

In calling her a possible prostitute I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt, she could have just been a slut for fun rather than making money at it. Or pens. Clearly, I have to spend as much time at this place as I can, I'll never have to write about anything else again.

So anyway, I went to see As You Like It with Peter Rabbit, because Michael was in it and he wanted to see it, too. And it was terrific! It was the best Shakespeare that we have ever done, bar none, in that there was only one not-that-great performance, and several outstanding ones.

The biggest surprises were Andy, whom I directed in the Wilder earlier this year and is quite a good actor, but I was astonished at how conversational he made the verse. The other big surprise was Jon, who is this big, handsome ex-model who, the last time I saw him act, resembled a big handsome brick wall. Suddenly, he was excellent! He played two roles, one I though was okay, and the second was terrific. He played Syvius to Wende's Phoebe, and he was funny and sweet and he made the lines make sense and the whole thing just knocked me over, he made such a leap forward in only a few months.

Almost everyone else was great, too, as well as the design and the directing, and it was great to be able to honestly say so to everyone afterwards.

Today's horoscope:
Family plays a big role in your success. Whether you're superbly trained or actively encouraged, you always know where to turn. Secure individuals make the best group leaders.

One year ago today:
I need to remember that there is such a thing as the power of positive thinking, but I also must keep in mind that wanting something doesn't make it so and that dreams are dreams, not sneak previews of things to come.

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Last Updated Fri 12 December 14:31:09 2003