Irony.

I'm bored, so I'm reading through old blog posts, and I found this...

He was actually nominated for the Tony for Best Lead Actor in a Musical, but lost to the three kids who play Billy Elliot, which I'm bitter about (although not that bitter. Kiril Kulish is some lovely 14 year old jailbait, and I want to see Billy Elliot, but only if he's on for Billy that night. Otherwise, no desire).

And this...

Next to Normal was nominated for the Tony for Best New Musical. It didn't win (stupid Billy Elliot).

And also this...

Ugh, I have zero interest in Billy Elliot...

And this....

Will I run out for tickets again right now? Probably not (especially since there's no student rush, lottery, or TKTS discount). Would I go again if I wasn't 100% sure Kiril was on for Billy? Eh, probably not. Is it my new favorite show? No.

Yeah. Guess what my second favorite show on Broadway is right now. As you can tell, I originally went to see it because I knew when Kiril was going on, and I wanted to see him because he's a cute kid. I didn't think I'd actually like it. Well, that's not true. I thought I'd enjoy it, but I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. And in fact, it took a few days after I saw it to realize how much I liked it. I'm the kind of person that will see a show and think about it for a few days after, and relive certain scenes and moments and performances, and then make a final decision on it, at least if the jury is out when the curtain falls. Obviously with shows like Spring Awakening and Next to Normal, I'm obsessed about ten minutes into Act I. But anyway, I thought about Billy Elliot and realized I liked it. Then I happened to mention on TGO (the Spring Awakening message board) when it was posted that David Bologna was leaving on September 27th that I hadn't seen him, and my friend Rob said "I hope you do. That little firecracker is fierce." So I bought a ticket blindly, hoping he'd be on. And I think it took me seeing the show again to realize how much I love it, and how much I relate to Billy. Because I do. More so than I've related to a lot of musical theater characters, except maybe both Mark and Roger from RENT (I say both even though they're so different, because sometimes I'm lonely like Mark, and sometimes I'm dark, brooding, and angsty, like Roger. It depends on my mood.). I mean, at first glance, Billy is a twelve year old kid in a mining town during the 1980s miner's strike in England who really just wants to dance and has a lot of potential in ballet, but his father won't let him. And I'm a 22 year old graduate student from a small town trying to find myself in the big city. Not a lot of similarities there. But then you look at the heart of both of us. We both lost our mothers and were raised by our father, our much older sibling(s), and our grandmother. And we're both trying to pursue what we love, against the wishes of our families (don't lie, I know you're all still not comfortable with me being here, but I do appreciate that you're all willing to put that aside to let me do this, just like Billy's family). And at the end of the day, we both want to get out of our town and know that we need to in order to chase our dreams, but have a harder time leaving than we thought we would. And most importantly, we both swear like sailors.

Also, Kanye West, you need to go away. The real winner in all of this is Beyonce, who came off as a total class act and made me gain a ton of respect for her. Poor Taylor. First country artist to EVER win a VMA, and Kanye has to ruin it.

And lastly, I'm having an identity crisis. I'm really loving my comparative politics classes this semester. Soviet Russia yesterday was the best class I've sat through since I've been here. I only took a general European comparative politics class as an undergrad because that was all we had so I don't have much background. It's just interesting because I've always been an American government person. But I think I have enough time to double concentrate in both, which would probably help me in the long run anyway, especially since I think a lot of political scientists do that. The other thing though is I don't know if I want to teach. I mean, I do. But the problem is that I'd have to be willing to move, and right now, I don't think I am. I know it's only been six weeks, but honestly, I can see myself living here forever. I saw the skyline when I was flying in yesterday, and my first thought was "home." And for the first time since it happened, 9/11 footage made me cry. I love this city. I'm where I want to be, and I don't see that changing. But with a degree in comparative politics, I'd be well qualified for a UN job, which is right here. And I wouldn't be wasting my time, because I'd need at least a Master's, if not a PhD, for that. I might try to intern there this summer, and see how I like it. Hilary is there right now, and we have tentative plans in a few weeks (she has her GREs on the 10th, so we're hanging out after that so she can study), so I can talk to her about it. It'd be a trade off. She wants to get her Master's at Brooklyn. And in the meantime, I'll keep at this, because like I said, I'll still need my degree. What I want to do with it might change.