I went to Well last night at ACT.

The SF Chron had the little man jumping up in his seat and clapping, and it was a big hit off-Broadway in New York and was name of the ten best plays of 2004 by the NY Times and other publications. It's also apparently heading for Broadway sometime soon.

It was a good play, funny as heck, but in the end I left vaguely feeling unsatisfied. I kept also looking at my watch, something I almost never do in a play performance. People clapped at the end and a few people stood up, but the audience response was less than what I've seen it for other plays.

Afterwards I kept thinking, you know the play should have worked and I should have walked out feeling like it was a good play. I laughed, I was entertained, but the ending left me flat. There was no big revelation at the end, no "AHA" moment, no lifting of veil to take a peek into the universality of human behaviour, no Aristotelian cathartic moment, just a gentle, gentle let down.

"Caroline or Change" had the same effect of me, only to a lesser degree. The character Caroline's last song was heartbreaking and really, really touching, and as she sang it I knew she was knocking for a few seconds on the door of some great universal truth, but then the truth wasn't sustained and the ending was flat.

Great art takes on a wild emotional ride, and at the end you feel complete, you feel full, and there is no flatness.

And it's not that these two plays weren't good, they were, they just weren't great and great art is such a mysterious thing.

I've had the urge to shop for weeks, and I finally gave in tonight. So I'm shopaholicking at Macy's and I find two silk skirts and two silk dresses that actually fit. They were all on sale and I was expecting to spend about $175 or so.

Much to my surprise, the bill came to $98.07. And I'm like "OH MY GOD!" I'm paying under a hundred dollars for four, count them four, 100% pure silk pieces of clothing, two of which are dresses. I'm buying silk housedresses to wear to work. You just pop them over your head, throw a jacket, pearls and heels on and you're ready for work. They are so comfy too!

I just love shopaholicking. I could have bought those trendy mini tweedy/boucle skirts that everyone seems to wearing, but you really have to have the right figure to get away with all that bumpy and textured fabric on your big old rear. And right now, I feel fat and I'm sure my bum does too.

You know the US economy is in bad shape when Thomas Friedman of the NY Times writes in his column about the dollar falling.

North South Korea's Central Bank is diversifying out of the dollar, which will probably have a domino effect through Southeast Asia. Once China decouples its currency from the dollar, it will be a wild ride on the markets. Sadam Hussein tried to do it before Gulf War 2 when he wanted Iraqi oil payment in Euros instead of dollars, but since his demise no other Arab country has followed suit.

Oil is heading up to $50 a barrel and expected to go to $60 by Spring, and my energy mutual fund is up $4 since I bought shares in December. Of course my nasdaq stock is tanking, but that's why I bought into an energy mutual fund to offset any losses that are bound to be expected when oil prices go up.

Noah's Bagels raised their prices and so did the cafeteria in my building. I would expect consumer prices to spike up in relation to how gas and oil prices rise. Is it any wonder no one is shopping? Once people stop shopping, prices will drop. I hear GMC has already lowered the price of their cars and trucks to get business going. Of course, they manufacture nothing but gas guzzling cars and trucks so I don't think their discounting will help their bottom line much.

I'm exhausted and cranky. I only got maybe three hours of sleep last night. I just couldn't fall asleep and ended up reading till 2 am, and when I finally lay down to sleep I passed out and the next thing I hear is my alarm going off.

I have to go to a play tonight, and I know I won't enjoy it because I'm exhausted. I had lunch with a friend and I thought maybe some Cadbury chocolate would cheer me up, but I ended up buying a dark chocolate bar by mistake and I hate the taste of it. I'm more of milk chocolate girl.

Another friend broke up with the guy she's been seeing off and on for about a couple of years. She didn't want it to get to the point where she hated him, but then it went that way. Sometimes I think that's the best way to break up with a guy. Get the point where you hate the guy so much and then when you break up with him you're not grieving and wondering if you've done the right thing. People say this is the unhealthy way to break up because then you can't be friends but you know, the whole "let's be friends" idea is so overrated. Who wants to be friends with an ex?

I wish I had broken up with the red-haired guy the old fashioned unhealthy way. I'm the one who broke it off because it was not a good thing for me, and I'm the one who is still grieving and wondering if I did the right thing. It's like been way too hard to break the pattern of unhealthy emotional behaviour because I don't usually break up with anyone in a healthy way and I'm not used to having so much regret about letting someone go. I hate the emotion of "regret". I've had very few regrets in my life,and I'm not used do dealing with this emotion.

I swear the next time I break up with some guy, I'm going back to how everyone else does it; unhealthy with no regrets because you hate the person so much.

I had a sleepless night and it's only 10 am and I'm already having a horrible, horrible work day. I put someone's phone number instead of their fax on a letter that went out to clients, and now my boss and his AA are so mad at me.