The uptown C
Wasn't running from 50th
And the entrance for the 1 
Was closed for maintenance 
And it was cold 
And windy 
And spitting rain 
But the forced change in direction
The altered commute 
Meant that I spotted a row of trees
Seemingly suspended in mid-air
Decked out in fairy lights
A magical slice of fairy forest
​In the middle of the urban jungle 

It’s a chilly, grey and dismal
Day in New York City
But you’re walking uptown in Harlem
With your dear friend
And you're singing 
The opening refrains of RENT
Together
Like no one is listening
And your heart feels big and bursting
And you don’t even feel the cold
And your 16-year-old self
Can’t quite believe
This is her life

What a joy and a luxury 
To see such a gorgeous sumptuous opera 
The way Zeffirelli paints on the stage 
Using bodies and sets
And splashes of color 
The way a soprano's voice can float across the hall 
All the way into the gods 
What it feels like to watch over a hundred people
Lift their hands to the sky together 
Puccini's soaring score 
Resonating in my bones 
Remembering Abuela playing the music 
Thinking of her
And how much she would love this 
How thankful I am
For the gift of
Enjoying opera

A last minute email
Tickets available today! 
Free! 
A sitzprobe 
(Sit and play) 
of Dreamgirls 
Conducted by Seth Rudetsky 
At the New York Library for the Performing Arts
Featuring musicians from MUSE 
Musicians United for Social Equity 
An organization with a mission
To diversify music in theatre 
And a starry cast of performers 
Sharon Catherine Brown
J Harrison Ghee 
Brenda Braxton
Among many others   
Attended by a small but mighty audience 
Who spent the afternoon in the rapture 
Of a 35-piece orchestra
Playing a fabulous score
With some of Broadway's best
Belting to the rafters 
It almost felt like church
It was glorious 
And in between the songs
Seth regaling us with stories from the original production
How the show was made
The work of the actors and dancers 
The decisions to include songs and cut others 
Michael Bennett, Bob Avian, Henry Krieger, and Tom Eyen
The devastation of AIDS on the original company 
The devastation of AIDS on the artistic community of NYC 
The power of the music
Sharon Catherine Brown absolutely slaying 
"And I'm Telling You"
The way the other leads held her in an embrace as she wept at the end 
The way Seth asked her to describe what it was like
To sing the song with a full orchestra instead of a 
GarageBand of tracks 
The way the tears streamed down her face and she said
"You cannot replace what is real" 
You cannot replace what is real. 

Today, it was an absolute treat 
To be taken to the MoMA by a friend
To see "Picasso in Fontainebleau"
Extraordinary works of art 
Sketched and painted and printed 
In a rented garage in a village south of Paris 
Over a hundred years ago
Today, in a gallery 
(Approximately the footprint of the garage
And 3500 miles away)
Extraordinary to see the myriad of sketches 
Surrounding the "final" works 
The distillation of instruments and 
The human form
Into color and 
Geometric shapes and 
"Simple" lines 
The way the women have a heft to them 
They are not mere waifs 
The way they always have a breast or two exposed 
A young girl and her friend
​Run toward the ochre "Three Women at the Spring"
Is that the red chalk?! 
It's the red chalk! 
They giggle excitedly 
Another patron catches the moment
And we smile
Upstairs, the harrowing work of An-My Lê
Photographs and graphic tapestries 
Tell the stories of war and violence 
Against vast landscapes 
Later, the joy of a meal at 
Momofoku Noodle Bar 
Savoring the umami flavors of 
Pork buns and garlic chicken ramen 
Watching the chefs at work behind the bar 
And delighting in horchata soft serve
Sprinkled with sesame seeds and pepitas 

This morning I went for a run 
And found myself outside Yankee Stadium
And later I went for a walk 
And found myself outside the Cathedral of St John the Divine 
​My god I love New York! 

Today I got blood work
In prep for my survivorship meeting tomorrow 
2024 marks ten years since I was diagnosed with leukemia
A disease that, when I was diagnosed, had a survival rate beyond 5 years of 25% 
And even though cancerversary isn't until July
And transplant-aversary isn't until October 
Today felt like a VICTORY LAP 
TEN YEARS!!! 
I'm a unicorn! 
After the labs I walked down town
And across town
All the way from 74th and FDR Drive
To 48th and 8th 
And I thought about the myriad of people who got me here
Aaron
The Rabinowii
All the Buck's Rockers 
Anita
Jodi
My fellow young adult survivors 
Dr Stein, Dr P, Kim, Marjorie, and every nurse 
Every clinician 
All the runners on Fred's Team
Everyone who came to cheer along the marathon route
All my friends and family from across the globe
Sydney, London, FoCo, New York
Every soul who has been part of this insane overwhelming exhausting journey 
And feel thankful thankful thankful 
And I think about the giant blue heart 
On the wall

You come out of the subway at
Lincoln Center
And you hear singing
And you realize it’s live
And there’s a quartet of acapella carolers
Singing gospel covers of Christmas tunes
Beneath trees adorned with strands of glowing lights
And even though it’s freezing
You sit in the middle of the street
In midtown Manhattan
To soak up their joyous singing
Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But inside your heart’s delightful
Later in the restaurant
A little girl
Hair in pigtails with red and white bows
And a gorgeous pink and red party dress that is perfect for twirling
White stockings and black shiny shoes
She has made friends with the older couple at the next table
When they go to leave
She hops up
“Are you going now?! Byeeeee!”
Who said Manhattan is hard?
And you go to the opera
Which is always such a delicious treat
On the way home, a man is sleeping on cardboard next to the turnstiles
A rough woolen blanket wrapped tightly around him
How can all of this exist at once?

I love the warm-up guy
The fun of
“I can’t hear you!
Let’s try that again!”
The silly fun of audience participation
En-masse laughter therapy
With a room full of strangers
Watching the stage hands
Quickly and quietly moving set pieces
The strange smallness of the set
Which looks so much bigger on tv
The cameramen (and they are all men
Though the rest of the crew is more balanced)
And the way they peer through their viewfinders
Framing the scene
The prompter
With her oversized binder and clipboard full of notes
It looks like theatre, but different
And then
Kelly singing
O Holy Night
A joy to behold.

​The magic of an NYC Christmas
Where the concrete jungle becomes a fairy forest
Adorned with thousands upon thousands of tiny sparkling lights
And whimsical decorations and
The store windows transform into enchanted storyboards
Depicting the fantasy of happiness through consumerism
A long overdue reunion with Aussie family
In “chalets” overlooking the ice rink and the tree at
Rockefeller
Sharing hot chocolate and apple turnovers and s’mores
(Happiness through consumption)
And theatre stories

Heading uptown
To your new neighborhood
Confirming that, yes, you will take the apartment
Celebrating with mocktails and truffle mac and cheese at Lucille’s -
One of your childhood nicknames
And laughing at the coincidence of one of the pizzas on the menu being called Arthur Ave
Of all the streets in all the world!