Else what's a heaven for?

In a recent conversation with Julian, I realized that most of my hobbies end with a bang. I stopped diving after completing a gainer in competition, one that my teammates knew I planned to punt bc I was freaked out from hitting the board the last time I'd done one. I stopped riding after galloping an Andalucian on a beach and spending a week riding Andalucians trained by a disciple of the school at Jerez. I stopped aerial after posting a bunch of kickass videos to Facebook -- and reaching a level where I'd have to start performing to get better. I've stopped mountaineering after bagging a Himalayan peak; I've stopped rock climbing after leading 5.5-5.6; and I've stopped ice climbing after my last two, internationally-accredited guides got hurt setting climbs for me. Not to mention the fact that I can't think of anything I could do that would increase how kickass I sound about ice climbing without dramatically increasing my danger level. Julian has been trying to convince me for months that it is okay to pluck the low-hanging fruit from each of my hobbies and move on, and I'm sort of okay with it now.

I'm really tired of running. I started my taper last week and I had some phenomenal runs in training for this marathon. I'm also horribly disappointed with what I read -- 4 out of the last 5 audiobooks I finished kinda sucked and flipping through what I've bought on Audible and The Teaching Company, I've realized they don't really fit my current research interests. I don't really care about daily life in ancient Egypt or why Confucius and the Buddha appeared at roughly the same time. Whether I finish the Marine Corps Marathon or not, I don't see myself giving it a retry, leaving the Disney marathon the only one on my bucket list. I'd still like to do the Las Vegas half-marathon, and maybe the Philly and Brooklyn ones, if I end up moving to the latter. Originally I thought 2013 would be the year I run more half-marathons, possibly even trying for all 5 of the NYC boro halfs, but then I remembered the Manhattan half is crowded and sucks.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself after I've recovered from the marathon either. I've completed most of the quests on Fitocracy and I've hit intermediate/advanced on all the powerlifts. My motivation for weightlifting was primarily to get better for climbing. After 8 months of being unemployed - and realizing how awful winter sports are for my partners - I'm pretty sure I won't be ice climbing, mountaineering, or skiing this season. Unless it's unseasonably warm, I dunno how I'm going to get fresh air this winter.

Also, it would probably help if I slept at all before heading to Chamonix in the morning.

[Poll #1768569]

I was holding off on my next Broadway poll until I went singing with my posse again, but (a) I guess I went singing two weeks ago and (b) I feel like Yahoo!Notepad ate a whole round of poll edits grr and I want bourbon and a nap, not arguing about policy.

Edit: Is it just me, or is Once On This Island basically The Little Mermaid? How did I never notice this before?

[Poll #1628341]

I may have missed my chance to see Climb the Smallest Mountain (and after reading the creator's comments on lj last week, I'm extra sad about that), but it was STILL musicals week for me. Marie's Crisis twice in one week! And the bestest musical theater moment ever, until the next one.

And that, of course, was the theme of last week's poll: musicals! The six scenarios were from South Pacific, The Wiz, Chess, Phantom of the Opera, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Carousel, respectively. Congrats to slrose for being the first one to get it and a big raspberry the smart-aleck who gave a silly answer to the final question instead of the answer he knew. There's going to be a lot more musicals polls, although perhaps not quite as many as the last round of Disney polls.

I know I'm unobservant but how did I never go to a piano bar before? Showtunes + alcohol for the biggest win of all time. Why didn't any of YOU suggest it? *peers*

OperaBoss has been talking about Marie's (as she calls it) since I pretty much (re-)met her; I've discussed it with cow orkers; but it took a post from regyt to actually get me to go. Part of it is, OperaBoss and I pretty much only hang out on weeknights and singing is a late night activity, but I've been singing in the shower and on the street so much for the past two months, yeah.

We had dinner at i tre merli Bistro: the boar ravioli was amazing, as was the grilled octopus. Unfortunately, it really wasn't enough protein. Also, I had two glasses of sangiovese while we were there, so by the time we left, I was already unsober. How unsober? I was misspelling words when I texted. *gasp*

I'm glad lj warned how dive-y Marie's Crisis is, bc it may well be the diveiest bar I've ever been to, and I used to go to Hellfire. But you get to sing showtunes! in a large crowd so no one can hear your caterwauling and I had too much bourbon and no water and did I mention there were showtunes? As I said to my fave music director on email this morning, it's all the best parts of MTG, without actually having to put on a show. I miss all those times we'd hang out in a rehearsal room and Carson or Pete would play. Hell, I've considered flying to LA to see Carse just to recreate the experience. and now, I don't have to.

This was the best night of drinking I've ever had. I love love hanging out with my ninja+first responder friends, but I've never had someone verbally deflect an intruder before. Wow. *schmoop* I also liked that it was ok to kiss all the people in our party, although based on the amorous texts I found this morning, maybe I shouldn't encourage OperaBoss. She's usually so uptight, I'm completely horrified that there were ransom-note miscapitalizations in her propositions. How do you do that on a Blackberry??? Really though, the worst part of the night is that my frames per second capture rate dropped really low, so I just have tidbits of happiness on which to feast. Speaking of which, I should go look for my wallet.