I drink from the keg of glory! Bring me the finest bagels and muffins in the land!

This weekend was one of those that was so wonderful, so jam-packed with friends and happiness and greatness, that it deserves to be recounted so that on gloomy days I can look back and think, "wow, that was ridiculously fabulous." This weekend's intense outrageous wonderfulness can be attributed to a lot of things, so let's just get started.

I began my weekend as I do now, spending the day working at The Franklin. Saturday's are actually a really fun day to work; things are pretty laid back, the volunteers are fun, and there are more families than camp groups, so the visitors are especially wonderful. The overall greatness of visitors was significantly enhanced this particular weekend by two people I tend to enjoy a lot: my mother and Nor-man. Norman basically just wanted to come to see the train, but they walked around the museum and I think they had a lot of fun. I spent my lunch break that day basking in the Philadelphia warmth, walking to Whole Foods for sushi and getting Isaac Asimov's Foundation out of the library (because somehow I've managed to get this far in my life without reading it).

After work, I dashed to Suburban Station, where I hopped on an R7 train to Trenton (note: i decided to take the train instead of the bus. further note: never doing that again). I arrived in Trenton about 45 minutes later. Now, I don't normally LOVE Trenton station but it's not the worst train station I've encountered in my 22 years, but this time it was awful! Construction everywhere, confusing signs, I could barely figure out where I was going and once I did, they had told me the wrong place to go! UCH. Anyway, after those trials and tribulations, I popped onto NJ transit and spent the next hour and a half in space-age-bliss (those two-level trains are trippy! hello alliteration . . . ), reading my book and getting excited for the weekend to come. I finally got to Penn Station, whereupon I jumped onto the two trains to Schutz's. On the way I saw not one, but TWO brandeis kids. woah.

I got out of the train, walked to Schutzy's apartment in the rain, and collapsed into his waiting arms, at which point I was promptly whisked back out the door by Schutz and Laurie (apparently Shaked, Missy, and Will had been waiting for us at the restaurant, so we had to get a move on). Anyway, we had a lovely dinner full of silliness and margaritas (these are a few of my favorite things . . .) and catching up and getting excited about the show the next day. After finishing my delicious three-mushroom quesadilla (who knew shitake and cremini mushrooms went so well with jack cheese? this kid did :) ), we went back to chill at the apartment. Mat endeavored to show us his Bradley Whitford-signed program from Boeing Boeing, but, to his horror and despair, he discovered its absence from his room. He spent the next half hour gamely looking for it, sustained only by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra's rendition of the West Wing theme song on repeat. oh lordy allah. Anyway, he never found it, but Shaked, Will, and Missy eventually left, to be replaced only a few minutes later by Jonathan and Brian. We stayed up chatting until an hour that I haven't seen since I graduated college and became a working-world-fuddy-duddy (ah, for the days when 2am was a reasonable time to go to bed!) They left, and we went straight to bed, because we had an early(ish) morning.

We woke up Sunday morning to the annoying buzz of my cell phone. After zippily fast showering and changing, Mat and I left to get bagels and cream cheese from Bagels and Co (everything and plain bagels with lox or scallion cream cheese, in case you were wondering. heaven). We got to Jonathan's apartment, where we met Shaked, Will, and ESTI (!), and went upstairs to find Jonathan barely functional but gamely friendly nonetheless. We all trooped up to the roof, where chilled for a bit (and lost a number of napkins to the winds of doom), then had a lovely brunch of our bagels and Jonathan's assorted leftovers and yummy french toast.

After brunch, we all split up and went our separate ways. Shaked, Will, and I had tickets for 3:00 and it was only noonish, so we decided to talk a leisurely walk down central park west, where I sunburned a bit, on our way to the American Museum of Natural History. We spent about an hour in the museum, hitting all of the most important highlights, especially the African mammals (love the ones shot by Teddy Roosevelt . . . ), the blue whale, the really racist holdover exhibits from last century, and my favorite, the Hall of biodiversity (ah, heaven!). We ended our brief tour in the fourth floor's Dinosaur, ancient mammal, and evolutionary comparison exhibits, also a favorite of mine, especially after having read Tim Flannery's The Eternal Frontier. Ridiculous pictures from the excursion can be found on Facebook, of course.

We still had about an hour before we needed to be in line downtown, so we walked around a street fair with lots of yummy looking kabobs and lemonade, and then got some fabulous cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery, which Shaked and Will are obsessed with (case in point: they spent the entire day carrying around a package of four cupcakes to take home). After enjoying the cupcake, we got stuff in Duane Reade for their journey home and then jumped on the subway downtown to Broadway! We got our tickets, waited in a not-awful line, then walked up to our seats in the balcony. The seats were pretty close to center, and it's a smallish theater so the balcony's not too far up, so we had a good view of things.

The show itself was tremendous, and defied even my high expectations. I was particularly excited for a number of reasons -- firstly, the presence of a certain Mr. Bradley Whitford and Ms. Mary McCormack, both of whom I loved in their roles in the West Wing, as well as Christine Baranski, a favorie from Cybill and more recently Mamma Mia!. I was further excited because it was my first non-musical Broadway experience . . I often intend to go see plays, but I always get to the tkts line and think to myself, why see a straight play when there's a perfectly lovely musical theater experience to enjoy instead? Anyway, my expectations were high, and I was not at all disappointed! It was non-stop funny, with hilarious physical comedy, ridiculous caricatures of characters, and a really thoughtful costume/lighting/set design. I loved the overall production, most especially the lead Robert, whose dopey, pun-ny character kept me laughing and laughing, and Mary McCormack's character, whose German, larger-than-life accent and movements produced some of the funnier moments in the show. Bradley Whitford was great too, though it seemed like he had a cold and his voice was straining. But he was great, and his character felt very Josh-like at times, so I enjoyed it.

After the show, we waited outside the stage door to see who we could meet. Christine Baranski came out first, and we got her signature, which was lovely. Of course, nothing could quite compare to the scene 20 minutes later, when Bradley Whitford came out -- we had basically come to New York to see him, and we were so excited! He came out wearing a bicycle helmet and carrying his fold-up bicycle (yay!), and went down the line signing things. He got to Will first, who asked him to sign his Season 4 DVD pamphlet, which he did, and then he also said, 'oh wait, i have to correct a mistake', and drew a mustache on Rob Lowe's picture! precious! Shaked told him she thinks he's brilliant, and then asked him if he would take a picture with us. And then she handed him the camera. oops, awkward, but I grabbed the camera, thrust it upon the unsuspecting person next to us in line, and asked her to take a picture, which she did. I told him we loved the West Wing, and watched it together in college -- he asked where we went, and when we said we went to Brandeis and were nerds, he said, "nah, more like brainaics". Josh Lyman called us braniacs!!!

So after that lovely encounter, Shaked and Will went home to Boston and I trekked eastward to Missy's apartment for a lovely dinner full of chatting and talking and the wonderfulness of the Mlotek family. They ordered sushi, and Missy knows my order (Boston and Philly rolls and miso), and it was so nice after a crazy day to just come back there and feel so at home. Uch, lovely people. Dinner was followed by the inevitable singing -- highlight of the evening was clearly When you're good to Mama :) After dinner, I trekked back uptown to Jonathan's for the evening. We plopped for a few minutes and then went out to 'our place', which is not really our place, just the dinner that we've been to the last three times I've visited him in NY. Anyway, decidedly un-melted nachos were eaten, and good times were had. Extra points were given to the cute, sad-looking old man eating matzah ball soup alone at the counter. presh. After chit-chating a bit more, I went to bed. I was just falling alseep when I woke up to the doorbell ringing. Whattttt? It was Jonathan's roomate, who had forgotten her key, but I was so confused and half awake and oh lord I did not know what universe I was in. anyway, good times.

The next morning, after donning the fabulous new argyle sweater :), Jonathan and I headed to the Popover Cafe, home of the popover. In case you are wondering, because I was, a popover is a delicious pastry which is hollow in the center and decidedly croissant-like in texture. only less cooked and more doughy. ding! Also, they come with strawberry butter. ding again! Anyway, we breakfasted there, then said goodbye, and off he went to work, and off I went to visit Ronis up in Washington Heights! At this point, I had recognized the loss of my credit card (idiot idiot Rachel), so I could not get her stuff in the drugstore, and basically felt like a total tool. Anyway, our visit was lovely, it was sad that her knee is post-surgery and therefore unhappy, but it was great to see her, as usual. At about noon, I got back on the train, and trekked home, arriving at my humble abode in Skippack 4.5 hours later.

And that was my fabulous, jam-packed, over-programmed, wonderful weekend. Next weekend, DC!