The Reluctant Receptionist

i made a valliant effort to avoid catching whatever it was that sidelined phong late last week, and i’m not convinced that i’ve caught whatever it was he had. he had nasal symptoms, a fever of like 101, and was barfy (but didn’t barf). i woke up today with a scratchy throat and a general malaise, coupled with a weirdly itchy/runny nose, so i’m thinking that just as i succeeded in sharing a bed with a sicko and not getting sick, i also succeeded in catching a total stranger’s illness. which is worse? i’m going with stranger, although i do hate being barfy. then again, i sang for a total of about 7 hours yesterday, 4 of which was at a screamy, accomplish-nothing rehearsal for this opera in which i’m singing three lines (and the chorus…which i of course found out a week ago). i’m sorry, four lines. i sing four lines. although the last two lines i sing are “que donc!?” and “romeo!” so i count those as one. so maybe my throat is scratchy from overuse and my allergies are kicking in. long story short: i want to go home and play mariokart on wii with phong, which is what i spent my lunchbreak doing.

besides the two days of rehearsal, we had a relatively quiet weekend. we went out friday night in hell’s kitchen with our friends jorge and michael, who were visiting from baltimore. phong went home early because he was feeling like shit, but jorge, michael, and i ventured out to the eagle. it was so funny, because i always take out of town visitors to hell’s kitchen, assuming they’ll want something loungey and fancy. i was so pleasantly surprised when michael was like, “this is nice, but can we go somewhere darker and dirtier?” i was like, the eagle it is. and it was packed because black party was the next night. bears and beers. that’s a good friday night in my book.

except for rehearsal, we spent most of saturday recovering (me from going out, phong from his mystery illness). we went out to dinner with sean, cory, courtenay, and their friend hillary, then came home and watched burn after reading, which i can only recommend if you like weird, rambly films.

yesterday, after the aforementioned 7 hours of singing we went out to dinner (mexican a second night in a row, and good mexican at that—i have basically died and gone to heaven, and phong has died and gone to hell. which is almost certainly backwards from what will actually happen.) for austin’s birthday and then continued the party at the phoenix. i always forget how much i love the phoenix until i go there. it’s got such a great jukebox; there’s no scene; the bartenders aren’t bitchy; and they were running a special on two dollar domestic drafts.

looking back on it, it was a big weekend. but aren’t they always? yes. basically.