*

Hello from Gate 86 at Newark airport. I'm on an airplane, but I'm not on my way to do a gig. I'm going away for two days and this is the first time in a long while that I'm out of town purely for fun. A few months ago when I hit 25,000 frequent flyer miles, I got "Elite Access" on Continental Airlines. It's so great because I now get upgraded to First Class whenever there are seats available, and it happens all the time. James had around 2,000 miles left to fly before he got Elite Access and he had to get them by Dec. 31 or else they wouldn't count. We didn't want to spend the next year traveling with me being upgraded and him sitting in the back, next to the scullery maid, a la "Upstairs Downstairs." So, we decided to find the cheapest flight we could take where he'd get the miles before the end of the month. Cut to: Dublin, here we come! Right now it's Friday night at 7 PM. We leave in a few minutes and land at 7 AM, Dublin time. We're staying Saturday and Sunday and high-tailing it back Monday morning. Since this is also supposed to be a romantic weekend where we don't worry about work, I decided to leave my cell phone at home. No cell phone! iPhones don't work in Europe anyway, but I still miss the security of having it in my pocket. It's so weird not to have it constantly one inch away from my hand, but now James and I can really focus on each other. *Silence*.

This past week began with the 2011 Gypsy of the Year competition. It was my fourth time hosting and, yet again, it was so much fun. The whole opening number featured a reunion of the original cast of Grease to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Everybody still looks amazing. Adrienne Barbeau still has a fabulous figure (and muscular arms), and backstage I mentioned her twins and she told me she gave birth to them when she was 51! Yowza! The whole cast sang portions of "Summer Nights," "There are Worse Things I Could Do," "Mooning," "It's Raining on Prom Night," "Born To Hand Jive" and "We Go Together."

	Adrienne Barbeau
	photo by Monica Simoes

The numbers were introduced by me or by a voiceover, and once in a while an actor would go out for a special section (like introducing the judges). Halfway through the show, right after one of the numbers ended, I didn't hear a voiceover, so I ran onstage to introduce How to Succeed. In the middle, I heard noise from offstage. I turned to glare and then saw it was Tom Viola in the wings, motioning me stage right. Ah! I remembered that there were a few intros I was supposed to do away from center stage in order for the crew to set props. So, I moved to the right and continued my intro. Then I heard more noise. I'd had it. Right before I hauled out my supersonic glare I saw that I wasn't being told to go stage right, I was actually being told to get off the stage. That's right, I wasn't supposed to be introducing How to Succeed at all. I had come out at the wrong time. P.S., not only did I come out at the wrong time, but the moment I upstaged was Judith Light's incredibly moving introduction of the moment of silence. That's right. The one truly somber and tender moment in the whole show began with me a.) babbling center stage, b.) babbling stage right and then c.) babbling as I fled the stage. As I clanked my way offstage, a regal and glorious Judith Light entered the stage and gave her impassioned and moving speech that led to the moment of silence. The only reason I wasn't 100 percent mortified about my onstage clunkery is because I remembered that Daniel Radcliffe is now on Broadway and I hoped he somehow put a forgetting spell on all the muggles in the audience.