this weekend was the new york city marathon. last year, we were sidetracked by the large crowd of runners between us and every other part of the city. this year, we left the apartment early to go build sets at the theater. crossing the main marathon street was a lot easier since the only people "running" at the time were several people on bikes - these people didn't have working legs and were pedaling their special bikes with their arms. what struck us the most were the crowds of people lining the avenue and cheering for them as they went by. and it wasn't just people who happened to be crossing who paused for a minute (like us), but you could tell they were there to cheer everyone who went by.

and now it turns out that if we had stayed, we could have seen katie holmes running. or tom cruise greeting her at the finish line. ah, the sense of loss is almost too great to bear...

the show approaches. i say this with some excitement. and some anxiety. one of the things that i love about the theater is that no matter how crazy it all seems right beforehand, it magically all pulls together in the end. i know this. i have seen it happen over and over again, and yet it still stresses me out. i think i forget how insane it all is before it actually pulls together. this right-before time is scary.

we have been in this city for over a year and this sunday we did something completely new for us. two guys came onto the subway car we were in and began playing a guitar and an accordion. they were playing ranchera music so (and this is the new and exciting part) mike and i gave them two bucks. mostly because if my dad had been there, he would had gotten a huge kick out of them and their music. maybe next time he comes to town, he'll get to see someone like that. or who knows? he might pull out his trumpet and join them.