Oh the irony

How many times have I sat in Washington, DC, looking at the New York theatre offerings and wishing I were there so that I could see a play?  Lots.  And now here I am sitting in New York, wishing I was in DC so I could see Theatre de l'Atelier's production of Les Liaisons Dangeureuses.  Of all the plays this season in DC, there are two that I really wanted to see -- this is one of them -- but as of now there's basically a zero percent chance that I'll see it.  I had a ticket for last night's performance; I moved it to tonight.  This morning, when it was clear that I wasn't going to be able to go home, I exchanged the ticket for tomorrow night's performance; but still there's no sign of my being able to leave anytime soon.  No doubt by this time tomorrow night I'll still be in a conference room at Davis Polk either working away madly or -- quite as possibly -- sitting around in my hotel room while everyone at the client is taking a break with their families or friends. 

That's kind of what happened tonight.  We worked all day to get a set of documents ready for a discussion with the client tonight.  The documents were ready on schedule, only the client canceled the meeting -- everyone had other plans and were happy enough with where things stood -- we could go home.  For the first time in a week I found myself free at 9:30pm with nothing to do.  It was too late to see a play or opera; I didn't want to sit around the hotel, so I went for a walk to see the pretty display windows at Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany on Fifth Avenue.  


Every year Bergdorf does fantastical life-sized holiday windows.
This year's theme is the Follies

This was my favorite -- an aerial view of an all-woman jazz band

A giant crystal star hanging above an intersection surrounded by the top jewelers in the city

Giant jewelly snakes on the Bulgari store front

Tiffany has tiny, jewel-box-like windows;
these evoked elegant interiors

 

 

Now I'm back at the hotel watching an upsetting and increasingly frightening Joan Crawford movie that appears to be a 1950s effort at grappling with issues of loneliness and the need for love and affection, age differences in a relationship (where the woman is significantly older than the man) and mental illness (both the challenge of the illness itself and the stigma and limitations of psychiatric treatment).  We'll see how long I last before I fall asleep.