Waiting for Godot

This was my last spring break. Well, undergraduate anyway, I think. Things get confuddled when one is planning on studying abroad. I spent a few days in Toronto, during which time I saw Waiting for Godot, a very famous play by Samuel Beckett. (Incidentally, I loved Toronto, and could very easily see myself living there, the cold and snow notwithstanding).

I loved the play. It really fit my current mood, because I've been in a real funk the past few weeks, and don't know why. To be honest, I've kind of been in a funk for a while, but it seemed to be more severe recently. If you haven't seen it or read it, you must. It is absurdist, so don't worry, it's supposed to be that way. And by that way, I mean confusing, untraditional, and lacking in the common features you usually see in a plot. In watching it performed you really get the full weight of its meaning: the repetition and futility of life. While seated, you are intrigued and yet bored by the character's interplay, which I think is how it's meant to be. The conversation is dull and goes over the same things again and again (e.g. "Go-Go: I'm going to leave. Di-Di: You can't. Go-Go: Why not? Di-Di: Because we're waiting for Godot!" repeats many many times throughout both acts.) The time moves slowly, and the scene doesn't change. There are few characters. You feel the full weight of their own boredom and the struggle to find things to pass the time. In the end, there is no resolution. It is readily apparent that both acts (essentially the same in structure and content) form a representative sample of the whole of their lives. Nothing changes, Godot never comes. They continue waiting.

Most interpretations of the play say that the two main characters, Estragon and Vladimir (Go-Go and Di-Di) represent all of humanity. The constant struggle for them to wait for Godot, someone who will never arrive, can mirror the futility of life itself, the fact that we wait for nothing, because it never comes, whatever that nothing may be. Godot is often considered to represent God, which makes sense given much of the dialogue in the play, but Beckett has said this is an incorrect interpretation, and that he never meant it to be so.

I found the play to be tragic, depressing, but wonderfully done and exactly fitting a very pessimistic mood, most likely brought on by other factors I won't mention here. The theater we saw it at was great, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, deep in the Distillery District. The audience for this play was less than 30 people, and we were front and center, about 10 feet from the actors. It made for an enveloping experience.

Don't fret for me and my mood, however, if you would do so. I think that a lot of the factors that were contributing to it will (hopefully) go away soon. Then I can go back to being my chipper self.

No Snow Can Stop Us!

Enjoy my pictures from the most recent Soundbytes weekend tour. We went back to my hometown (for the 4th time) to sing at my high school, and the next day we performed at Cornell University. Despite the awful driving weather (it took 8 hours to drive what is normally 5 1/2), good times were had by all.

Fun in Florida

Over Thanksgiving, my family went to Florida, primarily because my cousin was getting married on that Saturday. We decided to just spend the entire holiday there, and it ended up being really fun, and changing my opinion about traveling during Thanksgiving, which I had previously been against.

Thanksgiving night we saw the Blue Man Group; my dad had gotten tickets in the middle of the second row. It was awesome! However, I really thought the band behind the three blue men was better than them overall. My mom got pulled on stage and they used her in one of their performances. It was great.

The weather was amazing , about 85 and sunny the whole time, so we spent almost every day in the pool. Friday night was my cousin's rehearsal dinner, at this great Italian restaurant. It was also open bar, so everyone drank a lot. Actually, that was the story of the weekend: there was so much food, and so much free alcohol. I've never had so much to drink in a five-day period before. But I didn't overindulge, that would have been extremely awkward in front of my parents and family.

Saturday was the wedding, held in an outdoor garden similar to what Phipps would be outside. It was only fifteen minutes long though, which seemed kind of a waste, seeing at it took so long to get ready. We waited for the wedding for longer than it actually was. My cousin is visibly happy though, and her husband is really great.

The hotel we stayed at was directly on the beach, and it was the weirdest experience to lie on the beach in the middle of November. I'm not complaining though. I also made a friend that weekend; my cousin Noah is three, and fell in love with the red satin dress I wore to the wedding, and followed my around after and the next day. He liked to try to "drain" me in the pool (that was how he pronounced "drown").

Stories from California

After my lovely New York excursion (see below for details) I flew to California to visit Ryan. Right away I had a bit of an adventure. My layover was in Pittsburgh (oh the irony) and as I got settled into my seat for the flight I heard this man's voice behind me, terse and pretentious, snapping at the flight attendant for "shoving" his 600 dollar (extremely ugly) plaid sports jacket in the overhead bin. It was a full flight, so space was scarce. "You don't shove a 600 dollar sports coat in there, you place it in" he yelled peevishly. And after it was disposed of in the right way, he proceeded to look to his neighbors for sympathy, complaining about the flight attendant. I rolled my eyes at his shallowness and continued to wait for our departure, which was looking like it was going to be late as it was.

Before we left, a flight attendant walked down the aisle to make sure everything was secure, and noticed that the snobby man behind me was still on his laptop, even though they had made the announcement to turn off all electronic items. She asked him to turn it off and put it away, and he made some bland reply. This flight attendant, however, was not going to be talked down to. She became shorter and shorter, asking him if he was going to be a problem on the flight, telling him that she saw how he treated the other flight attendant about the jacket, snapping that he had better listen. When he gave some rude replies, she said "that was it, you're being taken off this flight" and walked away. Then he got a bit scared, and began complaining to his neighbors about his treatment.

The plane sat there for a few more minutes until we felt that we were pulling forward to the gate, not backward. The Captain announced that we had to return to the gate "to deal with some passenger issues". This got the man a bit angry. The flight attendant returned with a male attendant and a slip of paper, saying that it detailed why he was being taken off, that he "violated FAA regulations". He asked for her name, and she kept declining, and the male flight attendant kept saying "you have to leave now". He walked off in a huff, blustering that this was "outrageous, it's never happened to me before, completely outrageous", and a few people clapped. While this might have been a bit over-the-top, to take the man off for something rather small, the woman in front of me said that he had been making trouble before we boarded and that they had probably anticipated problems with him then. Still, a first for me, and kind of exciting.
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My next story has to do with my trip into San Francisco with Ryan. We decided that rather than driving his car and having to find parking, we'd buy day passes for the CalTrain (similar to the NJ Transit with New York) and take that in.



We spent the day walking around the downtown area and had dinner at a restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf, and I got to see the sea lions on Pier 39.



After dinner we began our way back to the CalTrain station, taking a trolley part of the way. It was a Sunday, so the train left every hour until midnight except 11:00. It was nearing 9:00 and we still had many blocks to walk, but we thought we might make it in time. As we neared, we realized that we'd probably would miss it by 5 minutes, so rather than running there to try to catch the 9:00 and wear ourselves out, we'd take a leisurely walk back and shop at the grocery store before the next train left.

We got to the station at 9:05 as predicted, and went to check just to make sure the train had left. Ryan tried to open the door only to find it locked, which was strange. A janitor working there told us that the station was closed and we had just missed the last train!! Ryan immediately took out his copy of the schedule, and sure enough, the times he had thought were for the weekend were only for Saturday night! I had to laugh, but he was really worried. We were stuck in downtown San Francisco at 9 o'clock at night, in a not-so-nice part of town, with no way to get home. We had to think of alternatives. We could either find a hotel to stay the night in or take a cab back to Mountain View. We asked a cab driver how much it would cost to drive to Mountain View, but he quoted too much. We stood there looking foolish for a bit, and I reasoned that it would probably cost the same to take a cab back as to rent a room and buy two more tickets for the next day's CalTrain in the morning, and more inconvenient.

Just then, a man walked up to us. "I heard that you missed the train and wanted to get back to Mountain View right? And that cab driver quoted you such and such a cost. Well, I can take you there for less." A bit shady, right? Well, we negotiated a price, and he accepted it and took us to his car. He was a legitimate cab driver, incidentally, and we got back to Mountain View. A bit embarrassing, but we got home regardless, and that's all that matters.

However, the story isn't complete. The next day Ryan biked into work so I could take his car in for lunch and meet him there. I'm ready to go and walk down to his parking spot, only to find his car missing. I walk around the complex, just to see that it wasn't in another spot, and call him to tell him about it. He immediately starts home, telling his boss about the problem, and I have to go tell his manager about it. I call the police and give them the information, and they tell me that they're sending an officer over. I sit tight to wait, so worried, and thinking that I must be back luck for this many bad things to happen to Ryan.

Then Ryan calls me. "I know where the car is," he says. It was parked in the CalTrain parking lot, where we'd left it the day before. In our stupidity, we forgot that in taking a taxi back to his apartment that we'd left his car parked to receive us when we got off the CalTrain we'd missed. So he went to get it, and I called the police back to tell them not to send the officer, and told the apartment manager about it. The worst part was that Ryan had to tell his boss about the whole affair.

New Yawk

Although it's been several days since I left, New York is still on my mind. I had a spectacular time with my lovely Diana, and will be going back there as soon as I am able, or as soon as she'll let me. :)

We spent at least half of every day in Manhattan (she lives in Brooklyn), going to the Met, meeting friends for lunch, spending time drooling over jewelry at Tiffany's or clothing and bags at Macy's. We spent a morning in Soho shopping (my new favorite place). If I ever live in New York that's where it'll be. Her mom is a great cook, so we ate dinner at her place several nights, and the last morning I was there Diana took me to a traditional Chinese brunch place where I was the only person who didn't speak Chinese. It was excellent and very fun. I also learned how to knit, and set a goal to knit a sweater by next Christmas. Let's see how I do!

I always thought that people who thought New York was the only place to live were full of themselves, but last week I understood, at least in part, why that's so.