Avenue Q

Avenue Q is hands down the most entertaining I've watched so far. I laughed from beginning to end. Supremely highly recommended if you are visiting New York City, as in don't miss it. I bought the soundtrack immediately on iTunes and I'm still laughing. Don't expect elaborate sets or dancing here, but the puppetry is ingenious and the script simply excellent. It absolutely deserved the Tony Award for Best Musical over Wicked. I know some of you expect Broadway shows to have amazing sets and costumes, but Avenue Q demonstrates that you don't need any of that to have a great time. Avenue Q also benefits from the fact that its lead actor, Howie Michael Smith, is so cute! That always helps.

And now a snippet of my life here in New York:

Thursday was a productive day for me. I accomplished a lot of small stuff that has been nagging me for months, such as billing clients and mailing insurance forms. Darn it, I felt useful. It pretty much carried over on Friday, although I tried something new on purpose: strategic napping. I noticed that for several weeks now, I would fall asleep between 4-8 pm when I got home, and wondered what that was. After talking to my therapist, I decided to just go with the flow and allow my body to rest when it wants to. And so on Friday, I slept at about 3 am and woke up around 8 am. I had breakfast, blogged, e-mailed and answered some phone calls. I then fell asleep at about 11 am and woke up at 1:30 pm. Did a little computer work, took a shower and headed for a client I was very late for at 3 pm. I realized later that I had forgotten to eat, but you can't win them all. I was very happy with this client since I had not seen them for almost a year so it was a bit of a reunion and work at the same time. I finished around 4:30. Didn't feel like going back home at that time since I already had some posts up on the blog, and it felt like I just started my day. I decided to head to Broadway and try the lottery rush tickets.

My first choice was Avenue Q, since the Filipino Librarian had raved about it when he was here a couple of weeks ago. Waited in a line of 5 people which swelled to about 40 by the time they picked the lucky winners. They were selling 12 front row tickets at $21.25, which is about 5-7 names as you can get 1 or 2 tickets. For some reason, I think I was praying to the powers that be to reward me for being a good boy and taking charge of my life these past couple of days by allowing me to watch Avenue Q that evening. Seriously, I was praying for a reward! You know, the kind of prayer that comes from your heart and not your mind. Haha. I got a little worried when I saw a lot of people -- even more than the Hairspray lottery I joined and didn't get a few days ago. But after the first name was called, the usher called out "Richard Yaneza", and I knew it was meant to be.

At that point I was famished, so I walked around Hells Kitchen for something to eat. Realization: Broadway is truly an economic engine of NYC. The plays employ people and attract tourists, which is the lifeblood of the restaurants and bars which then employ more people, etc. I used to not like all the crowds of tourists in Times Square, but I just realized today that they're a necessary "evil" if you will. At any rate, with that in mind, I pretty much got irritated at how expensive the meals were in that area. LOL. They were tourist prices which sucked. Talk about price gauging. But I was hungry so in the spirit of treating myself, I bought some Japanese food (with the gift card I won from Blingo!)

At 7:55 pm I was off to the theatre, and to my surprise, I pretty much had the best seat I could have in the front row: right beside the aisle in the middle. What a treat. Avenue Q was a lot of fun. Two words: puppet sex.

After the show, I walked up to 52nd Street at the Hairspray stage door and waited for Tevin Campbell to show up. Haha. I'm not too sure if he remembered me from the last time, so I'm a little fanboy-confused, because I don't know what I'm doing. At least I got a picture. (Note to self: Must talk to therapist about this Tevin Campbell Hairspray situation.)

I then walked to The Color Purple stage door at 53rd Street, and waited for some actors there as well! I met Ashton and her mother who were visiting from North Carolina and they asked me who's who as the cast came out the door. I was surprised that some of the main characters were darting off trying to avoid the autographs, and I had to call a couple back for pictures with Ashton. Anyway, I did get a couple of pictures with the dancers I really loved on the show! A bit shocking though was that they remembered me from the last time when my brother was here. Haha. I got a "oh it's you again" comment. Yikes. I might be having a long session with my therapist. So here are my pics with Eric L. Christian and Jamal Story (who was a dancer on Madonna's Drowned tour and Cher's Living Proof tour).

And finally, some pics of the NYPD, who keep New York City safe and are more than willing to pose for a cute Filipino boy with a badass camera. Here's Officer Kimmes with the tribal tattoo and Officer Oberst.

Officer Oberst asked me if I was going to post his picture on some porn site. Are you kidding me? Of course I am! The Internet is for porn! Hahaha.