Chicago in New York

More fun this week! I am so grateful for my new friend Jacqui. She and I went to the Ambassador Theater Thursday night to see “Chicago.” Yay! It was a short walk because I actually live on the same block as the Ambassador, which was built by the Shuberts in 1921.

The week before we saw “The Producers” at another theater built in that era, the James Theater - the same theater that one of my dad’s Navy buddies attended with his wife in 1958 to see “Toys in the Attic.” I emailed him back and said, “Hard to believe that was almost 50 years ago.” I wonder what tickets cost then? Today, if you pay full price, you’re spending at least $100.

First Jacqui and I had a good dinner at Charley O’s across the street. It had been snowing for hours – the big fluffy, wet kind of snowflakes – but no real accumulation. (Drat!) Our seats were down in front, two rows from the stage. We were surprised at just how close to the stage our seats were. It didn’t look that close in the seating chart! I could’ve reached over the guy in front of me and touched the front right corner of the stage. First thing I said to Jacqui was, “We’ll be looking up some skirts from here.” Sure enough - we were close enough to see the actresses’ fake eyelashes and the runs in their fishnet stockings.

She and I both wondered where the orchestra was because there was no orchestra pit. (After the curtain rose, we found out the orchestra players were right on stage.)

The show was great! The two female leads, playing Roxie (Charlotte d’Amboise) and Velma (Brenda Braxton), were total naturals – not only could they dance and sing but they were funny too. Especially Roxie. She was just plain adorable. The dancing was incredible. The women wore skimpy ensembles, and the men wore...well, let’s just say their outfits were form-fitting. Ahem.

A couple nights before that we were in the office together (a rarity because Jacqui lives in Princeton, NJ), and she spontaneously suggested we grab a cab and go to that Rice to Riches place in Soho that I’d told her about after New Year’s. It is a place (similar to a Baskin Robbins) that sells nothing but rice pudding – in every flavor imaginable! Vonceil and I had come across it one Saturday night during our 2-hour wait to get into Lombardi’s for pizza. We thought it was such a cool place because the décor resembled something from a Jetsons cartoon. Come to find out, Rice to Riches was featured in the recently released movie “Hitch.”

We stopped at a designer purse store a couple blocks from the pudding place. Jacqui is a lot like my friend Bella – very stylish. She splurged on a purse and wallet, but I restrained myself. I may be a New Yorker but I’m not quite ready to spend $145 for a purse. (And that was the sale price!)

The new Chanel purse that Jaqui carried with her that night retails for over $1,000. (Of course she didn’t pay anywhere near that much on Ebay.) I think this made it harder for her to haggle.

I suggested we save cab fare and take the subway home. I was surprised to hear that Jacqui has only been on the subway once in her lifetime. And she used to live in the city. She told me she would never ride the subway alone. I reminded her that people with Chanel purses don’t usually take the subway. It was pretty funny – I wanted to take her picture sitting across from me next to the woman with the dirty clothes and straggly hair, but she wouldn’t let me. (We both knew that that photo would’ve ended up on our team Web site at work.) :)

I admit, I did get designer glasses a couple weeks ago. That's a first! I went into Manhattan Eyeworks looking at the cheapest frames they had (as usual), but the girls working there managed to talk me into getting something stylish instead – something “New York.” So $450 later I have a new pair of prescription eyeglasses.

I’m getting there. I would be better at being a true New Yorker if I made about a million dollars more than my current salary. This week I asked my boss for a $30,000 raise, but he said I’d have to split it with him. I said, “After New York taxes, there’d be nothing left to split,” so we left it at that.