6/26/11

NYC Day 4

Day 4 - Saturday

If you were to know anything about the Babauta Family (my mom's side), it's that we are a thrifty bunch of people. All the cousins, who are all a year apart except one, would meet up at grandma's house in San Diego once every few years and despite any other fun things we had planned, there were two destinations that always made the list: Amvets and the Swap Meet. Amvets is the best thrift store ever--I once got a giant tropical fan there that I used for decorating my room for $5. The swap meet in our family is a huge deal. It's like a gigantic flea market-it has a bunch of seriously marked down clothing places, funky gadget places, cute toy tents, $1 only spaces, food venders, surf and longboard shops, instrument shops, fresh plants, fruits and veggies, mexican candy places, and of course garage sale vendors selling all sorts of interesting valuable gadgets at incredibly reasonable prices. Since all the Babauta grandkids have been going here since they were toddlers, we are practically pro bargainers fasho.

This was the reason why my mom, Auntie Linda, and Grandma got up so early today: to hit up the flea markets. The cousins and Aunt Elaine slept in since we knew they'd be going on until at least 2pm.

Here's Auntie Linda at one of the early morning sales.

The rest of us got up late, got some bagels and sat in times square to people watch for a bit. Then we made our way to a flea market of our own. We were supposed to meet up with the others there, but it took them forever to get there, and by the time they arrived, we were pretty much done looking. This market we went to though, it had some prime stuff. It had a lot of vintage stuff, a lot of hand-crafted trinkets, and a lot of foreign ornaments - all of which are usually really expensive, but I managed to get this gorgeous vintage ring for ten bucks!


Here's the locket I was able to knock $5 bucks off of.

Aaaaaaaand the back. Its so pretty!!

Well, after the flea markets, we walked back to the hotel in times square. It was ridiculously hot out so the air conditioned room felt amazing. I'm pretty sure I was about to start my period because damn. As soon as we got back to the hotel, everything starting pissing me off like no other. People couldn't decide what they were going to do or if they even wanted to see a show that night, or who was going to use the bathroom first, and frankly I was getting tired of everybody telling me MY options because unlike everybody else, I knew what I wanted to do: I wanted to go see Master Class by Terrance McNally on broadway.


In high school, I was super involved in speech and debate. Two of my best friends (who did Duo) and I (who did Dramatic Interp) were the best on the team, and as such, the best was expected of us by our coach, who was basically our second mom. My junior year, she got it into her head that we were all going to be State champs and so she gave me this absolutely phenomenal speech about the opera extraordinaire Maria Callas; a woman who at one point dominated the operatic world.


This quest for greatness, however, cost her her emotional stability, and allowed all her fears of failure to invade and eventually conquer her mind at which time she lost her voice. They say those who can no longer do, teach; and so she held open master classes at Juilliard to which many stars of the time came to watch the renowned opera star work her magic on up and coming students. These classes, though she tried as hard as she could to focus on the task at hand, always seemed to revolve around her obsession with her own fame. These classes eventually became her path to reconciliation with the fact that she was but no longer is the best. Now imagine embodying this character at 16 years of age. This role tore me apart. I'm not kidding, I have been scarred by this woman's emotional tragedy. So when I heard that the play from which the speech I won 5th in state with was cut was back on broadway, I felt it was essential that I see it. I went back out to times square to stand in line for tickets with my aunt, who fortunately wasn't driving me crazy at that time, and got 2 tickets: one for me, and one for my other aunt who was in the mood for something we hadn't seen before; everyone else wanted to see Sister Act because it's all of our favorite movie.

I think we chose the better show ;) It was sooooo fascinating watching Tyne Daly reciting the same lines I recited just a few years ago, and comparing/contrasting our views on Callas through the decisions we made in interpreting the role. I thought she did an absolutely fantastic job. Her repartee with the audience just made the show. We were all exhausted after the shows, so we all pretty much crashed within the hour. It was a good day :D

Oh yeah--and here are my shot glasses. Keepin' it classy ;p

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