It Sucks To Be Me

Today, I woke up from the extended July 4th holiday weekend and desperately did not want to go to work.  Now I realize the Monday (or Tuesday in this case) morning blues is common for many, but for me, today's episode was merely the catalyst for my monthly(ish) pity party in which I complain about how much my life sucks (which basically amounts to feeling dissatisfied with how little I feel I've accomplished with my life so far, part of the reason this blog was born...).

Usually when this happens, I indulge in a little schadenfreude and comfort myself by listening to "It Sucks to be Me" from Avenue Q.

For the most part, it makes me feel better that my life is no worse than the lives of any of the people in this song.  Then I realize the "people" are actually fictional characters (well except for Gary Coleman, sort of), and several of them are in fact puppets, and then I don't feel so good about myself anymore...

So after a few more hours of self-indulgent pitying, I usually get over it when I realize that everything in life (except for death and paying taxes) is only for now.

Now I make the not so stealth segue to the topic of Avenue Q, the Tony award winning musical about people, monsters and puppets living in Manhattan and coming to terms with the fact that life isn't the sugar-coated fairy tale we were raised to believe as children.  It's hysterically funny, completely irreverent at times and also truthfully sincere.  I had the opportunity to see the show several times on Broadway and most recently the newly resurrected Off-Broadway version at the New World Stages, and it remains one of my all-time favorite musicals.

To finish up this post, I'd like to acknowledge Bobby Lopez, perhaps my favorite current Broadway lyricist/composer (yes, I have favorites).  As one of the co-writers of both Avenue Q and this year's wildly popular (and much more irreverent) Book of Mormon (which is also deserving of its own post...), Lopez has brought the raunchy, comedic Broadway musical to the fore (think Judd Apatow of Broadway musicals).  But what makes him so amazing to me are his other musical credits: Finding Nemo - The Musical (at Walt Disney World) and the soon to be released Winnie the Pooh movie.  Now that's versatility.

Daily Monku:  I went to a restaurant recently that had a interesting and diverse drink menu, including a sake cocktail.  However, they chose to spell sake as "saki", which truly irked me.  The mispronunciation of sake (sah-kay) as sah-kee is one of my biggest pet peeves (is there something greater than a pet peeve, 'cause I would probably classify it as a few steps beyond pet peeve level).  But to then spell it incorrectly is just unpardonable to me (I did a little research, and as far as I can tell, "saki" is not an accepted spelling [I mean Google redirects to "sake"]).  Don't perpetuate ignorance.  Look up your shit.