why i joined aea

On Monday, August 20th, I finally did what I said I would do after January 30th, 2010: I joined the actor's equity association.

Equity (or AEA) is the professional actor's union, in case you didn't know. They are the ones responsible for making the lives of actors bearable. There are a lot of people who want to be actors but not a lot of theatres or roles for actors (and even less for female actors, which is funny since there are WAY MORE female actors.... but that's a different post). When situations like this occur, it could be easy for producers to cut corners and take advantage of the actors. AEA provides fair pay, rehearsal breaks, respects the safety and time of actors as well as a ton of other stuff.

You have to earn your way in to Equity though...either by receiving an equity contract (which is hard), being a member of another acting union or working at a non-equity theatre for at least 50 weeks (one point per week is earned). Then you have to pay a lot of money and ta-da! You're a member.

I have had my points for 4 years. Since 2008. You have to join within 5 years of earning your last point or you forfeit your membership. Every time I've started a conversation with another actor they always ask if I'm equity. I have always said, "I have all my points, but I haven't joined yet." They are always, ALWAYS flabbergasted by this. "WHY NOT???" they scream (actors are dramatic).

Well, here was why:
A. I didn't have enough money to join until recently
B. I didn't feel I was "ready" to join
C. I kept thinking I would get more work as a non-equity actor

Well, here's the problem with C: I hardly ever went to any auditions. And WHY did I not go to many auditions? Because the non-equity (or OPEN) calls are insane and horrible.

On January 30th, 2010 Chris and I left our apartment at 3am to get in line to audition for the Broadway production of Hair, which was having an open call. Chris wasn't auditioning, he was just keeping me company because it was 3am on January 30th. It was freezing. The audition site was the Public Theatre... which is far away from where we live and not exactly in the best neighborhood on earth. Plus, I was going to have to sit on the street until 10am. I was still new to NYC. I had only been there for 3 months but I knew we had no choice but to get there no later than 4am. Because non-equity calls are insane and horrible.

We were 200th in line. At 4am. On January 30th. By the time the auditions started there were more than one thousand people in line.

It was the longest 6 hours of my life. It was like 20 degrees outside. And all the kids in line started singing and dancing and drawing peace signs and flowers on the sidewalk in chalk. Because obviously they're all real hippies. Because hippies still, obviously, exist in the exact same form they existed in 45 years ago. And, OF COURSE, the casting director would see their dedication and cast them immediately, from the line, at 5am, without an audition.

Whatever. I got a spot, I actually had an amazing audition under the circumstances (sitting on the street in 20 degree weather for 6 hours with no sleep are not exactly the ideal conditions for a great vocal performance) and then I went home and went to bed. I believe I heard one person was cast from that audition and it was, of course, a guy. Probably a regular guy, too, who showed up at the last minute.

But it was THAT DAY that convinced me I HAD to join equity. I have requested specific work shifts because I wanted to go to an audition... and then I didn't go. Because I always flash back to that day. I know it was an extreme circumstance. It was a Broadway show! But I've been to many non-equity auditions.... and unless they are AT a regional theatre, or they are booked by appointments, they are all insane and horrible.

I had to save my money for more than a year to raise the $400 needed to join. I still don't know if I'm "ready" to join. I realize that by joining Equity there is no chance I'll ever work at some of the theatres I've worked at ever again. Some of these theatres followed equity rules (which ALL theatres should) even for non-equity employees. However, some did not. Some of them paid me like $100 a week and made me clean bathrooms or cook food. Or both in one day. Some of them gave their equity actors a 2 hour dinner break and gave the non-equity actors a 20 minute break when they had been there the entire day and the closest food was a 10 minute drive. I am thankful for every single theatre I've ever worked at. If it wasn't an amazing experience, it taught me what was NOT an amazing experience and made me look forward to future amazing experiences. And, at the very least, I was getting to perform... and let's face it, that's the only thing I'm really good at.  (Besides writing this blog post.)

I didn't join right away because I was scared. Scared I wasn't good enough, I guess. But there's tons of people who aren't good enough and they still joined. I haven't met anyone at an non-equity audition who was my age in YEARS. People who are nearly 30 have all left the business or already joined equity because they realized non-equity auditions are insane and horrible.

When I told my parents I joined they were like, "YAY! Now you can get on that TV show that films in new york...." So. You know. I have that to look forward to. But mainly what I look forward to is auditioning for something in a civilized manner (unless it's one of those crazy Agent Access Auditions which I hear are pretty popular) and maybe, hopefully, getting another acting job someday. And the best part is that I KNOW I will never have to clean a bathroom as part of my acting job responsibilities. Because that is INSANE and HORRIBLE.

tips for waiting in line for tickets

Oh, hi. So, the other day Chris and I performed for kids on a boat, went home, I performed in a cabret at the Duplex and then we went home, changed our clothes, and headed to Central Park to get in line for tickets for Into the Woods. We were successful: so successful that not only did we see the show, we were 8th and 9th in line and actually had a GOOD time. I started thinking of some tips for others who are thinking about heading out.

Get there as early as possible
I would say "duh" but I want you to really think about this. Is two hours of sleep in your bed better than not seeing the show? Is the show WORTH IT TO YOU to sleep on Central Park West, right next to the scalpers??? We got there at 2:30am. It was a preview performance on a Monday. The people who got there at 6am were probably too late, or very close to being too late.

Check the weather forecast
Will it rain that night? Plan accordingly. Is it supposed to rain during the performance? If it does, the show might be cancelled. You might waste your entire day for nothing.

Bring a friend
Not just for company, but for security.

Don't talk to anyone on the street
I don't see the crazy drunk people of NYC that often. Apparently they are all out from 2:30am-6am on the west side of the park, trying to engage theatre fans in crazy conversation. Don't respond AT ALL, don't even look at them. They're all drunk and crazy.

No matter how hot you think it is, wear pants, a long t-shirt, a hoodie, SOCKS and bring a blanket
There are a million mosquitoes everywhere. They will bite you. After you have sat there for a while, no matter how warm it is, you will be cold. You need the blanket, trust me. Chris is always hot.... but he was freezing that night.

Wear bug spray
I'm not kidding, man. Wear a ton of bug spray. Better yet, bring one of those OFF portable bug repellents with the little fan in it. I did, and, for comparison, I got three mosquito bites before I turned it on and ZERO after.

Bring a chair
Chris brought a camping chair, I brought a beach chaise lounge that extended all the way: it was basically a cot. Chris was comfortable but didn't sleep much.... I slept like a freaking baby. I had a small pillow that I didn't care about, my "cot" and a huge beach blanket that completely covered me from head to toe. I was unbelievably comfortable under the circumstances.

Don't bring any valuables 
Bring a book, some magazines and your phone... but I urge you not to bring an ipad or laptop. Or a lot of cash/credit cards. A small amount of cash, an ID and one credit card are all you need. Keep them close to your body when you sleep. We had no problems with shady people approaching us but not everyone is so lucky

Bring some snacks!
The food stand at the Delacorte opens at 10am but you might want something before then. We brought fiber bars, string cheese and pretzel crisps.

GO TO THE BATHROOM AT LEAST 3 TIMES BEFORE YOU LEAVE YOUR HOUSE
Do you have to pee all the time? I do. And I knew that from the time I left my house until we were escorted into the park at 6am I would not be able to go to the bathroom. Sure, you could risk going in the bushes somewhere, but, first of all, that's gross, and second, what if you got arrested? Then you couldn't see the show. Just keep going to the bathroom before you leave home. I barely made it to 6am when we got inside the park, and I was asleep most of the time.

Be nice to the tourists
Once inside the park, Chris and I basically became the Into the Woods Ticket Line Information Desk. People would come up to us every 10 minutes or so to ask what all of us were waiting for, if it was really "that good", when we got in line ("We got in line at 2:30" - us "In the morning??" - them "No, 2:30 later today." - us in our minds), how to get to Strawberry Fields, how to get to the Sheep Meadow.... everything you could imagine. Just be nice. They don't know anything.

In case you didn't know....
The line starts on the north side of 81st st and Central Park West. Only the A train is running (local) after, like, 11pm, so take that there. A little before 6am a representative from the box office will come out, review the line and then at 6am, escort everyone into the park. Do not try to pass people: they will kill you. The first 10 people get to spend the remaining 7 hours in what I considered the "priority zone": right next to the theatre, the water fountains, the concessions stand and the bathrooms. The people from 11 - 700 wind back through the woods as long as they need to. At 1pm they start handing out the tickets.... to the seniors and disabled people first. I am pretty sure the senior line has no cut off... so if like 300 senior citizens show up, they all get priority tickets. So, always, the earlier you get there, the better.

PS - the show is perfect. I had the highest expectations possible: it disappointed in no way. I cried almost the entire time. I would wait in line every night if I could.

be a kid when you're a kid

This is gonna make people hate me, but I don't care:

I am so glad I am thin NOW as opposed to being really thin in high school/college.

Listen, man, I was never fat and I was never more than a size 8, so it's not like I went through some kind of struggle to get here. My life has been EASY. However, what's the POINT when you're younger?? You don't have enough common sense to use your thinness for good, rather than evil.

I was looking through old photos last night, and I realized I have never felt prettier in my life than I have the last couple of years. Some of it has to do with the fact that I only break out now at certain points in my menstrual cycle, some of it has to do with being a size 2, some of it has to do with being married to the best guy ever and some of it has to do with eating habits and KNOWLEDGE.

So, kids, stay kids. Eat right, but don't worry about being thin when you're a teenager. If you're thin THEN and gain weight later, you'll just be filled with regret. Most of your life is spent being an adult and that's the only time it really matters. Just enjoy not paying rent when you're a kid. And, also, learn how to speak, because I am sick of hearing/seeing things like "Doorbell don't work" and "I seen it at [such and such a place]."

celebrities i hope live forever

Since I never have time to update this with real information, perhaps I should focus on shorter, less diary-like posts. Like this!

Today Paul McCartney turned 70 and it made me think about how we couldn't have that much more time with our beloved Paul. Whenever his time comes, I hope whoever breaks the news to me is very gentle. Here is a list of other celebrities whose death is going to upset me greatly:

Dolly Parton
Betty White (obviously)
Tina Fey
Amy Poehler
Dave Grohl
Anyone from Radiohead
The Edge
David Letterman
Bernadette Peters
Joanna Gleason
Lisa Kudrow
Jennifer Aniston
Courtney Cox
Elton John
Sting
Micky Dolenz

Hopefully they just never die.

6 months later....

I'm so sorry. I never have time to blog anymore. I could make time, but..... no.... I couldn't. Working at only Fossil has made it a lot harder to be on the internet all day. I have no time to online window shop or constantly update myself on the weather happenings.

Here are the important things that have happened:

1. the Soho pop-up shop closed, thank God. It became the bane of my existence.
2. I went back to 5th Avenue. Yay!
3. I worked on 2 more productions of The Water Dream, one at the Peter J Sharp Theatre in midtown, the other at Shakespeare and Company in Massachusetts.
4. I performed in the NYC premiere of Ginna's one woman show, The 12 Dates of Christmas.
5. I'm currently about to open a sketch comedy show called Guilt and Fear. This weekend only!
6. This makes 5 shows this year (6 soon, because there's one more reading of TWD coming up in December) and I haven't been to an audition all year. I'm some kind of lazy actor success story.
7. We went home to Ohio for a few days and it was wonderful.
8. We went to Staunton for Johnston and Lindsey's wedding and it, too, was wonderful.
9. John Harrell is my favorite actor ever. Martha Jane said I looked like a boy (even though I was wearing a pink polka dot dress). Eliot has become even awesomer. Jenny is the best dress maker in the universe and she is also SO PRETTY.
10. It's almost my birthday month. SPOOOOOOOKY TIMES!!!!!!

If I can figure out a way to blog from my phone, maybe I'll be able to do it more often. Or ever. If not, please follow me on twitter at twitter.com/slceostyle for more timely information.

nothin' to do

Today I was waiting on the platform of the 1 train and this guy walked up to me. I HATE it when people I don't know walk up to me while I'm on the train platform because I'm always afraid they're maniacs who are going to push me onto the tracks. This guy said something about 79th St and when I slowly (and hesitantly) looked in his direction, he wasn't even looking at me. Sometimes it takes me a minute to understand what people ACTUALLY said, and when I finally realized he was asking if the train went to 79th st, I was totally startled. He kept apologizing for starling me, but I wouldn't have been startled at all if he would have said something like, "Excuse me, do you know if this train goes to 79th st?" I didn't even know he was talking to me at first. He said something about how he knew New Yorkers didn't like to be talked to but I "looked like I knew what i was doing." Which I do. HOWEVER... come on. New Yorkers don't mind being talked to by SANE PEOPLE, it's just that most people who try to talk to you on the platform or street are definitely not sane people. They're either homeless, on drugs, crazy ramblers, or trying to sell you something. None of those things are things I want to be involved with. So, you just tend to ignore everyone. You have no choice.

But most people here are probably HAPPY to give you directions. I know I am. This place is confusing as hell, but the more people who know where they're going, the LESS people standing around in the middle of the street, blocking foot traffic.

So, I got promoted at Fossil and am finally able to go down to ONE FULLTIME JOB!!!!! Amazing!!!! I'm still doing Rockababy, but that's just one day a week. I wouldn't know what to do with 2 days off every week. Plus, you know, I really love doing Rockababy, and it's not hard or stressful, so it's not like REAL work. I'm just so happy that I am going to be able to leave work and not have to go to another job. When I'm done working, I'll be TOTALLY done working for the day. My days will go from 10 hours of work (with an hour travel each way and an hour break between, total 13 hours) to 8 hours of work, hour lunch (hour travel each way, total 11 hours) AND I'll be making more money. I get 2 hours of each day back.... and that's 10 hours a week. I still have 2 days left at the box office but then I'm gonna be hooommmmmeeeee freeeeeeeee! (I'm also happy to be working with Fossil, because I love them and I love working there.)

My sister is coming to town this week. It's going to be fun. We're going to visit Harry Potter at the Discovery Times Square Museum. (I think we are... I am hoping we can get in for free.) She is taking the TRAIN. It's going to take forever. Hopefully she's not comatose by the time she arrives. She wants to go see Obscura because she's crazy. Other than that.... I don't know what there is to do. I'll probably just take her to Astoria park, hahahaha.

I may or may not be getting sick. I hope it's may not. I am subbing 4 Rockababy classes this week AND Jen is coming here.... I do not want to be sick. Maybe it's some kind of new allergy. Or maybe lack of sleep (just last night... the night before I was ASLEEP at 11pm). Just hopefully not sick.

My girl Haley killed it on American Idol again. Man, i hope she wins. Oh yeah, also, Chris's friend, Tony Pulizzi, who played guitar at our wedding, is the lead guitarist on the show this year. They went to high school together.... Tony is one of Chris's best friends. We were watching the results show the other night and Chris just keeps saying, "That's Tony. THAT'S TONY!!!" I thought he meant on the phone or something. I was thinking, "so answer it, weirdo." Then he said Tony was on the TV and I understood. And frankly, it's pathetic that I didn't recognize him before. I have a million pictures of him from the wedding and half the time he's the ONLY one on the stage with the performers. I was even wondering what it must be like to be the lead guitarist on AI when little Haley sang to him the other night. AND, the Paul guy gave him a shout out MID-PERFORMANCE ("Tony on the gee-tar!") and the camera went right to him.... and I didn't notice. Well, to my credit, I wasn't expecting him to be there. I never recognize people out of context, anyway. It's pretty awesome, though. Chris is THRILLED by the whole thing. He called him immediately. Now I feel like I should look for Tony all over the place on TV.

it's hard to post in March

The weather has been stupid and it's only going to be more stupid the next couple of days. It's going to be a rain/snow mix tonight. All I can do is hope that once this weather system passes, the winter is DONE. We are below normal for this time of year and winter needs to go away and pick up sticks. Serious spring abandonment.

In other news, some of the American Idol contestants are really good. I really love Haley Reinhart. She is like everything I want in a contestant on American Idol. I hope she wins. She would be the most fun winner of the show ever. In other reality TV news, Richard Blais DID win Top Chef last night and we ("we" being everyone in the world) were thrilled. If he wouldn't have won it would have sucked. Also, in REGULAR TV news, Michael's engagement to Holly on the Office was one of the best TV engagements ever! Good job. I laughed and cried.

See what I have been reduced to, winter???? I want to go outsssssiiiiiidddddddeeee!!

Chris turned 40 on Sunday. We had a good day which involved lots of food and good times with Ginna and Sheffield at the Bare Burger of Astoria. I got him a pair of shoes, new jeans, a bag, a groupon for a massage, tickets to a Mets game, new sunglasses and a keychain! I went all out, huh? That's probably more gifts than I've ever gotten him, combined. (Thanks to the extra paycheck in March for making this possible.) He was happy. If you can't go all out on someone's 40th birthday, when can you?

We did have a day of almost 80 degrees on March 18th. The 17th was really nice, too. I was doing laundry that day and the temperature kept going up.... by the time I was going to pick up my clothes I realized it was totally unnecessary for me to wear a jacket or sleeves at all. I wish it would have stayed that temperature... forever.

I painted my fingernails light purple because it reminded me of the color I used to wear in high school and because it's the only thing I can control about spring. I just can't wait to go by the park and suddenly there will be leaves everywhere. It's going to be the best day!

I feel like I have no clothes to wear but it's obviously not true. I have just exhausted my winter wardrobe. I am both sick of wearing the clothes and have worn them much more than normal because I must just own less winter clothes (strangely... since I'm from the north. I guess it's wishful thinking). Sigh.

Retail is so weird. We are starting to get summer products and SPRING hasn't even arrived for most of the country, yet. It's making my completely obvious and frustrating Spring Fever even worse.

I mean, what if spring NEVER COMES???? What if it's cold, windy and rainy and then suddenly it's 90 degrees and humid until it's cold, windy and rainy again??? What if there is no longer a spring or fall?? What if that is the new "normal" (thanks to Climate Change). WHAT IF IT IS???? You can't prove that it's NOT...

I am going insane. I miss spring so much.

i always need a snack

Whoops. I forgot to update for a while. I knew I needed to I just... didn't.

Well, in the past month I've become somewhat obsessed with hummos. I can't stop eating it. I guess there are worse things I could be eating all the time.... like ghosts. I've been eating it mainly with carrots (but sometimes with pita chips) but then there are these times... like right now... when I just want to stick my whole hand in and scoop it out. Mmmmmm.... weird, grainy mush....

Groupon's cat has been particularly funny the last couple days. One of my favorite quotes was from the guide to swimming which ended with the tip:

•Never swim alone, and always remember—whether you're being safe or being sorry, the most important thing you can do is just be.

I love that cat. So funny. Humor has really changed from hitting people in the face with a pie to the groupon cat. Everything is absurd. Well, everything *I* like, anyway. I did not like James Franco, though. I think I knew what the Oscar people were trying to do because I INVENTED that quirky duo. Or maybe I stole it from Gracie Allen. But either way, it would have worked better with someone else. Like Andy Samburg. Or the character of Ryan from the Office. OR BENJAMIN LINUS FROM LOST!!!!!!! James Franco just... sucks. He needs to go away forever.

The Soho store is getting a little busier. Yesterday it was beautiful weather and a lot of people came in... today no one came in until 12:30pm and I was leaving at 1pm. I'm now splitting my time between the 5th Avenue and Soho stores. It's gonna be better this way. I'll get the same amount of hours that I need and be able to do the reports I used to do. So, I'm happy.

My friend Jenny from high school was in town this weekend to see Bon Jovi with some friends and it was soooo good to see her. Everyone who knows Jenny loves her because she is the best. I took her to VYNL (because every time I visited NYC someone took me there) and we had a grand old time. I hope they didn't get lost on their adventures. New York can be scary.

Yes, it's true. New York CAN be scary. And, for the most part, I hate all teenagers. HOWEVER, today an older gentlewoman fell up the staircase next to me in the Times Square station and literally every teenager and young man around ran to help her. She was fine... it was just slippery out... but it was SO NICE to see all those boys stop to help her. Good job, teenagers.

I got this unsweetened White tea with mint at the store and it's kind of gross. I mean, it tastes like tea flavored toothpaste. I thought it would be better because green tea with mint is awesome. White tea, you lose.

Have you heard about these crazy people who think the world is going to end on May 21st? It makes me nervous that there's going to be some kind of mass suicide or that, on May 22nd when the world is (knock on wood) still here, they're gonna start attacking people. I mean, they are CRAZY. I don't understand why people believe the guy who says that's judgement day. If I remember ANYTHING from the Bible, it's that no one will be able to predict when Jesus is supposed to return. But, I guess people will believe anything. Plus, I think those radio and TV stations with extremely conservative, 24/7 Bible "preaching" are brainwashing people for real. There is no other explanation than brainwashing for their level of crazy.

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot. The day after I last updated Radiohead announced they had a new album out and that it would be available the following Saturday. I, of course, lost my mind, and pre-ordered it asap. And then... on Friday morning... they announced it was available THEN! A day early! I lost my mind again. Radiohead kills me every time! Some people are speculating that it could be a secret double album (second part to be released later) and I hope that it is just because it's such a clever IDEA. I love them forever.

Chris has a birthday coming up. It's a big one. I am feeling pressure (not from him, from myself) to make it good because when I asked him what he wanted he said, "To age backwards."

stabbarinos

Today I got off the train at 72nd St and I smelled Spring. You know what I'm talking about. There is nothing else that smells like the first couple weeks of Spring and I can't describe the smell (other than saying it smells like MY happiness). It's not really here yet, but it's above 40 today and the snow is melting or trying really hard to melt. (Some of the snow, like in my neighborhood, was piled so high that when it started melting, they started finding dead people inside cars. DEAD PEOPLE! They're also finding Christmas trees, pages of pornography (seriously, this stuff makes the news) and, of course, tons and tons of dog poop and garbage.) Although every weather forecast I see is different, the one I'm choosing to believe is the one that says it could hit 50 degrees tomorrow. Fifty. Degrees. I wouldn't have to wear my earmuffs.

Fifty degrees is a heat wave compared to the rest of the last 2 months but I saw, perhaps on Thursday, it COULD get up to 58. That's dangerous territory, my friends. Clearly no one wants it to be 60 degrees more than me, but whereas I wouldn't have to wear my earmuffs, other girls, mainly college girls, would feel as if they didn't have to wear PANTS. It's that whole freedom from being cooped up for too long mixed with their obvious desperation to make boys like them (which they will.... for a while). I can guarantee you, if it gets to 58 degrees this week, you're gonna see someone walking around in shorts.

I'll only do that inside when I'm pretending I'm on a beach in Hawaii.

There was some psychopath arrested on the 3 Train yesterday after stabbing like 10 people and killing 4. He went on a stabbing spree through Brooklyn. People saw him creepin' around the subway tracks Saturday morning and called the cops. They arrested him at Times Square, but not before he stabbed a guy in the head and neck between Penn Station and TS. I was going to work and saw on Twitter that the entire 1, 2, 3 line had been basically shut down from 96th St down and I was thinking, "What on EARTH could shut down a line that far???" All I had to do was search "penn station" into Twitter and I found the answer. I LOVE TWITTER. It is single-handedly the fastest way to get news on earth. Anyway, I was nowhere near this guy, or the 1,2,3 trains (and I don't even take them that often), but it was still SCARY! I hate the stabbarinos.

We opened the new store in Soho! We need a flag or banner or something that says that we're there and that we're open. It's beautiful, though. If I were a regular non-employee Fossil shopper, THAT is the store I would definitely want to shop in. It is really unique.

Wow, well, some guy just knocked on my box office window to scream at me for something that A. I wasn't involved in B. I didn't even see (nor was I anywhere near) C. I have no authority over. It'd be like if I yelled at YOU because I was angry at the former president of Egypt. I don't know why he didn't say something to someone who was not inside a box with no doors to the concert hall. So weird. I couldn't even say anything because after he screamed the "F word" at me several times, he just left. As always, you can never really prepare for these types of surprises. You're always too stunned to really react. It's like that time that old guy slapped me at the Times Square station. God... old people are just CRAZY, it seems.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day!! I am a very lucky lady to be married to the best, nicest guy in the world. I love him. I think about it all the time. I win.

at least the groundhog said winter will end...

So, last week I had off on Thursday and I just stayed home the whole day because of this big, school-closing snowstorm. Chris sent me a picture, it looked bad.... but the next day I was STUNNED by how much snow had piled up. The piles lining every sidewalk in my neighborhood are, on average, 3.5 feet high. Some are taller than me. It was CRAZY. I became very upset since that was the first I was seeing of it.

And now, of course, the piles are covered with thick ice, as is everything else. I was surprised schools weren't cancelled yesterday but I suppose because it reached 40 degrees in the afternoon I can understand why. That led to some ice and snow melting, which became water and then re-froze when the temperature dropped at night (and never got above 32 today). So now there's even MORE ice on everything. The sun was shining all day. I opened the blinds and me and kitty tried to soak it up. Then she bit my veins. It was weird.

We saw The King's Speech on Saturday. It was the first movie we've seen in the theater in almost a year (since last superbowl when we saw Avatar) and we looooved it. If Colin Firth doesn't win every award for acting that is available to be won this season, there is something seriously wrong with the people voting. This was also the first time I didn't completely HATE Helen Bonham Carter, either. The story was interesting and told really well, it was just a really good movie. On Tuesday of this week we went to the Museum of Moving Image and it was fun! I got to play an old Sega Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog (which I was REALLY GOOD at in like 1994, but not anymore), we dubbed over movie dialog with our own voices, replaced sound effects and scores to movies and even got to make our own stop-action movies. They also have regular "museum-y" stuff like costumes from tv and film, props, make-up, sketches, etc. We had a good time but when we left, after not even being there 3 full hours, we were SO TIRED. I had to take a nap.

Also on Tuesday I officially found out I'd be transferred to a new Fossil store, in Soho. There's only going to be a couple of people working there and we were all hand selected because it's going to be more "boutique-y" then the other stores. It's the first pop-up store they're trying and they have high hopes that it'll be a success. I do, too, because the ideas they threw around were so exciting. I really enjoy working for Fossil and I'd like to stay there for a long time.

Yesterday I did 5 Rockababy classes and I was exhaaaaausted. It was fun, though. It's so crazy how much the kids learn and develop when they're in the class more than one session. You come back from a break and all of a sudden a baby who HAD been only able to lay there during the first session is now crawling all over the place and squealing with delight. It's great.

my heart belongs to the napili sunset beachfront resort

Last night I was at work and I totally got scammed out of $97 in the box office. We have the guy on tape. It was your basic big bill to pay for low amount, lots of change, asking for singles and then totally tricking and confusing me and me somehow never noticing I didn't have the $100 bill until I was counting the money at the end of the night. As soon as I saw it was gone I asked Chris, who was taking tickets, if he saw the guy come back. He did not. He remembered the whole thing (and the house manager saw it too) but they guy was so NICE after he left, THAT was all we had to comment on. You know, later, when we realized he stole almost $100, that's when he stopped being nice. Right before he left he even handed some guy some money and said, "Hey Buddy! You dropped this!" The guy was all "Thank you so much!" and the criminal said, "Don't thank me; I've got JESUS on my side!"

I mean, maybe he does. Maybe he's stealing for the church. Or maybe he's a member of one of the religions where if you do any amount of wrongdoing and then pray for forgiveness, it's magically granted (but if you're a perfect human being but don't pray, you're doomed to Hell). Maybe he was speaking of another Jesus... you know, the one from his neighborhood in Spanish Harlem who helps him in his career as a professional scammer. WHO KNOWS. All *I* know is that I lost my job $97 and had to file a police report for petty larceny.

It of course adds insult to injury that he made the comment about Jesus being on his side while stealing from a Jewish arts organization. Maybe it was a hate crime.

I feel bad about the whole thing but what I'm most mad about is the fact that I honestly never thought this would happen to me and I spend a large amount of time thinking of all these horrible things that could happen to me... just so I never have to say, "I never thought it would happen to me." I imagine people pushing me in front of subways, getting stabbed or mugged or shot, being in car accidents, getting terminal diseases, being in a terrorist attack... but I am SURE I saw something on Dateline NBC at some point in my life about petty scam artists and blew it off thinking, "Yeah right. I'm IMMUNE!"

(You might wonder how I am able to live a normal life while thinking of all these horrible things happening to me. You might wonder how I can possibly be a happy person. I wonder too, sometimes, but I am a happy person. I think it makes me more cynical, but that's one of my best qualities. PLUS, the cynicism evens out the happiness. Imagine how crazy happy I'd be all the time if I DIDN'T think of these things.)

In other news, I've had a headache or migraine just about every day this month. I thought at first that it was my new contacts/glasses prescription, but now I'm thinking it's the cold weather because I found out that there is a correlation between migraines and cold, dry air. Considering I have nose bleeds every day, I'd say it's pretty dry. Just another reason to move to Maui. Take a look at this webcam I found. I've been watching it a lot. Well, "watching" is probably the wrong word.... "obsessing" and "daydreaming in front of" is probably better. Sometimes I imagine the cold draft that comes in is actually a warm ocean breeze and that's whats making the trees in the video sway. If only round trip tickets to Hawaii weren't over $700.

My day went really fast today. Maybe it's because yesterday I was ta work from 6am-8:30pm with only an hour break between jobs.

winter is really bumming me out, man!

Tomorrow the high is only 20 degrees. I guess I can deal with this since the next day the high is 40. What. the. eff. That just doesn't seem normal. Of course, as per usual, along with the 40 degrees temps, Tuesday is bringing another snow storm. I hate how it's always the day before rockababy and the one thing I look forward to during the week is always in jeopardy. I would say I need an attitude adjustment right about now.... and, basically, I DO, but I can't help it. We are only a MONTH into this ridiculous season, we have 2 more left, and it already feels like it's been going on for years. Blllllaaaaaaaaarrrrrgggggg.

Is there something FUN I can do in the winter? Something that will make me hate it less? I feel like I hated it less when I didn't have to walk everywhere.... but I don't have that option anymore. I guess I'd hate it even more if I didn't have ANY type of transportation from place to place and LITERALLY had to walk everywhere.... but that thought is not making me feel better. It also won't make me feel better when it's beautiful out, in the spring time, and I'm stuck inside at work. Or in the summer when it's hot as balls again and we sweat all night and spend $100+ on the electricity (air conditioning) bill. This is a terrible place to live.

Last winter seemed to be never ending, also. It did end, though. This one will end, too. I have to remember that... even though, at this point, it seems like we're caught in frozen hell.

Last winter was the first time I really thought about winter as being similar to life experiences. I remember comparing it to the last couple of minutes of the Beatles song, I Want You (She's So Heavy). It's so dark, minor-y and heavy (obviously). I would never have known this being born in 1982, but apparently the guitar riff play-off lasted on the original LP until the END OF THE RECORD. That's why, if you've only ever heard it on CD, mp3 or even tape the ending sounds so abrupt. So, you're listening to this heavy, DARK repeating pattern and it's lasting forever and forever and forever.... and then the record ran out of room, flips over and the first song on side 2 is Here Comes the Sun. Think about that when you're depressed, too. The depression seems to last forever... the WINTER seems to last forever.... but it will end. And the sun will come out. And you might cry. Not because you miss it.... but because the Beatles are freaking GENIUSES and it's too overwhelming for a normal heart to bear.




Whenever I work at 9am and Chris is working at the museum we go to work together. This morning this woman at 30th ave was screaming "HOLD THE DOOR!" as she was running up the stairs. You shouldn't hold the door ever, especially for people screaming about it, but some OTHER crazy lady DID hold the door, so the screaming woman got on. She forced herself into a seat that was too small for her: the seats fit three normal sized people but there was a normal sized girl and a big guy in the other 2 seats. She flung herself into the seat so hard that she hit the girl next to her, who was drinking tea. The tea spilled ALL OVER HER. It spilled onto her face and actually into her eyes. HOT tea. She never apologized. The crazy woman also had all these bags which were, I am not kidding you, on the poor girl's lap. Crazy woman didn't move them. In fact, her phone kept ringing and she would rummage through her purse (which still had a price tag on it), find it too late, answer anyway and then it would start to ring again. Crazy woman's coffee cup was also just resting up against the big guy in the other seat. AND THEN SHE GOT OFF THE TRAIN AFTER ONLY 2 STOPS!!!!!!!!! This is half a mile, people. She held the entire train up for 20 seconds, spilled hot liquid in a woman's face and put on the worst JERK SHOW we've ever seen and she only traveled 2 stops. Why did she need to sit down at all?????? That is why I HATE 30th avenue. Chris was laughing out loud after she got off. I was too disgusted.

street soup

It's raining slush today. There is, no joke, about 4 inches of water and ice in a puddle covering the sidewalk right in front of our house for about 20 feet. I was like "You've gotta be KIDDING ME!!" Because the snow removal was so bad in this area and our landlord never had anyone shovel the sidewalk, there is just nowhere for the water to go. It's still too cold to actually melt most of the snow. It's really terrible and disgusting. I feel like we need to build a bridge to get out of here.

What's REALLY irritating is that this is not what snow boots were made for. Not PUDDLES of water. So, of course water got into my boots. Not a lot, but still. I'm hoping it's not one of those "it got in once, now it'll always get in" situations because they cost too much money. In normal rain I'd wear rain boots.... but, as we know, rain boots have no heating ability and since it's raining, essentially, ice water, I don't want to have to have my toes amputated.

As you can tell, this weather is HORRIBLE. All I can think about is spring. We had another snow storm last week, too, and I just can't TAKE IT anymore. It's all making me want to move. Of course, spring is really nice, and I'm really looking forward to exploring more of the places in Astoria that I have heard about recently. There's a place on the avenue we off of called the Creator's Co-op that I haven't been to yet (despite walking past it every day) and several restaurants I'd like to check out. Not to mention the freaking PARK. The Astoria Park is 50% of the reason I wanted to move to this area and have we been there once since we moved? Of course not. There's also the Museum of Moving Image which I'd really like to go to.

I am hoping to get some potted flowers this spring, too. I wanted to do a window box but I don't know if we could actually DO that. I just don't think it would work with our windows. Regardless, I love flowers and I'd like to try keeping them alive as long as I can. Who knows, maybe I can keep them alive for a long time. Or maybe they'll go the way of my knitting.... I'll be really good at it for a while and then it'll sit in a tote bag for 7 months.

If you're looking for some good new music, Elizabeth and the Catapult put out a great album recently. Their first one is really good, too. If you like Ingrid Michaelson or Sarah Bareilles or you'll like them. Also, if you like GOOD music you should like them. Another band new to me is Buke and Gass (new as in, I just heard them for the first time last night). Chris was ushering at work and he text me "This band reminds me of a cross between the White Stripes and you and Chris Johnston." I immediately turned on the monitor in the box office to listen (obviously). He said they had some kind of deconstructed instruments and she was this little, unassuming girl with a big, rocking voice. OF COURSE I would like them. I also became depressed that Chris Johnston and I didn't start this band first. Both these artists have albums on amazon for $5 so please, do something to better yourself and at least listen to the samples. Elizabeth and the Catapult is relatively pop-y but Buke and Gass take some pop elements and mix them with some kind of Radiohead-like intelligence and have made something very new. Anything that reminds me of Radiohead or reminds me of NOTHING gets ten thousand gold stars in the Alisa Big Book of Good Music.

I got my hair cut today. My salon (the Gigi Styling Studio by Aveda) was voted Best Salon in NYC. You'd think this would make it expensive. Nope. It's just awesome. Even though it required me to walk through the ice soup on the sidewalk it was worth it because it's so great. I've had salon loyalty before (Tease in Staunton and Rudy's in Los Angeles) but never salon AND stylist loyalty. I wouldn't want to go anywhere else in this weird city.

Lastly, I am really mad that Glee won the Golden Globe for best comedy tv show. Over 30 Rock AND Modern Family? No. First of all, it's not even that good this season. Second, it's nowhere near as good as either of those shows. Third, not a real award (I know, I know....I say "real" lightly)... a People's Choice award? Sure. Not a Golden Globe.

my kitty is a celebrity

First and foremost, I must share this adorable video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If you're wondering why I've posted that, take a look at the last minute of the video and then at the black cat on the right hand side. THAT'S MY CAT!!!!! I remembered her ID card saying she was on the Today show at one point, but I only got to see the clip today. I can't believe she wasn't adopted immediately after this, but we're very lucky she wasn't. She is the best little kitty in the world and we love her soooo much. Meow meow meow.

I guess it's supposed to snow bad again this week. Boo. Major boo because the storm is supposed to be Wednesday, which is the first day back at Rock-a-Baby for me. I am doing FIVE classes that day (2 substitutes in the morning and my own 3 in the afternoon). I hope I can still get everywhere and that nothing is cancelled. I hope the parents still COME to class! It's tough in the city with a stroller. I mean, I'm assuming that. I don't know for SURE, but considering it was tough to walk without a stroller during the last big snow I can guess this would be worse.

So, my manager at my box office job is quitting. She was the 3rd manager I've had in a year. How am I about to have my FOURTH MANAGER IN A YEAR there??? Sounds like a great situation, doesn't it? Uggggggh. And what's WORSE is that she made me the assistant manager and now I'm afraid they'll want to re-structure everything and I'll lose my position. I mean, anything can happen when you get a new manager. I do not want to lose my position because I do not want to have to work 7 million hours a week again. I have gotten myself to a place where I have at least 1 day off a week, even with 3 jobs, and I am not afraid that I won't be able to afford my rent. I really do not want this situation to change. I didn't DO anything so that it could, but you just never know. It happened to me at the ASC, I'm pretty sure it could happen here.

The tourist season has ended and we have a couple months before they start coming back... not that they're enjoyable months, but at least the sidewalks aren't as hard to get through anymore. The last couple of weekends before the new year 6th avenue around Radio City was seriously impassable. You literally couldn't walk 5 feet without having to dodge someone. 5th was not much better and I can't imagine any other avenue was, either, but I didn't go anywhere near them. I didn't even see the Rockefeller tree this year. Remember how I said I was going to go EVERY DAY? Yeah. That didn't happen.

Man. I just sat here for 10 minutes staring at the screen, not typing or anything. I feel depressed. It's probably the job fear. And the seasonal depression... even though I started to take vitamin D to try and combat it. Blah.

the blizz

Ugggggh. I am going crazy from boredom at work. I can get bored at either of my regular jobs... but at least at Fossil there's someone to talk to... or somewhere to walk to. Not here.

So, Christmas happened! We went home on the Tuesday before and ended up staying an extra day because of the insane blizzard that hit New York. It was a great time, though. I hadn't been home for Christmas since 2006 so it was looooong overdue. My dad spent a great deal of time making a DVD of our wedding which included footage that I had never seen before because I didn't know it existed.... like the entire ceremony. He made us watch it immediately. I mean, it was awesome and so nice of him but we were so embarrassed. especially while watching our vows. I had to leave the room because I was so... incomprehensible. Then I cried during Chris's vows... but it was so nice to see the stuff Ben did and watch Greg perform, especially knowing what both of them were going through at the time.

Right after everyone started leaving at like 11pm I checked my phone and saw that I had a message from Delta telling me the flight was cancelled. I looked online and there was no hope of rebooking for anytime in the near future (or EVER, apparently, as I was never rebooked) so we decided to rent a car and drive home. The next morning (Sunday, the 26th) we were getting ready to go to the airport and the weather man was basically telling us we'd die or get stranded if we decided to go that night. We wanted neither of these things, so we called off work 24 hours in advance and decided to go the NEXT day. The drive home was perfect.... until we got onto the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan. At that point it was basically like we entered the movie The Day After Tomorrow. You would never believe the road conditions... and it was 24 hours since the peak of the storm, 18 hours after it had stopped altogether!! It was a nightmare. We somehow missed the entrance to the Triborough Bridge and ended up driving down to the Queensboro, which was nearly impossible to get on to because so many entrances were closed. We also almost got stuck in the middle of 2nd Ave in a snow drift. When we finally made it into Queens it was even worse. The main road in LIC and Astoria had not been plowed AT ALL. We followed car tracks until we got into our neighborhood which was even worse. Abandoned cars everywhere, ambulances, snow piled up 3+ feet at every corner... We couldn't even get onto our street because there was an abandoned van right in the middle, so we had to park the rental car in the middle of 24th ave, drag our stuff through the mountains of snow to our apartment to drop it off, and then get back to the car to return it to Hertz at the airport. I changed into my rain boots thinking "I'm going to be in a car and then on a bus most of the time... I won't have to worry about my feet getting too cold!" WRONG. So, LaGuardia is close enough to walk to normally. Like a 5 minute drive. It not only took 20 minutes to get there, but once we got there and dropped the car off, it took an additional TWO HOURS to get home! We just missed a shuttle from the rental place to the main airport and then I saw the M60 drive by. We ran out, but we missed it, but I figured another would come by soon, which was so, soooo stupid of me. I swear to God only 1 of the buses must have been running on the entire line. We waited outside, after wading through snow, for half an hour before I literally started to think I had frost bite on my toes and Chris made us go back to Hertz to wait for the shuttle. My toes hurt so bad I was almost in tears. After we got the main part of the airport we had to get in the 1 taxi line that was open, which was over an hour long because cabs only arrived every 5 minutes. By the grace of God, after only about half an hour, the girl at the front of the line was also going to Astoria and they asked for any other passengers going that way. We of course jumped on it. I got home, ran my feet under warm water and rubbed them until they started to get itchy and I knew I would have toes another day and wouldn't have to amputate them.

Man. I would not last long in a wintertime emergency situation.

Anyway, so the next day I was supposed to work at 8am and just as I was about to walk out the door, NY1 said the entire N train line had been suspended. It eventually, apparently, came back, but I was an hour and a half late for work. I called, obviously. Since none of the buses were running, the train was our only way out. It's been crazy. Things are getting better but there is still soooo much snow everywhere. Most roads, especially in Queens, have barely been touched by a plow and even intersections like 5th Ave and 42nd street are hard to walk through from so much snow piled up. What I hate the MOST is the fact that you don't know if a puddle is just a little bit of water or several inches of water. I've started dipping my toes in to check.

In better news, the sun was finally out today and I soaked up as much of it as I possibly could while sitting on the train. We also got a blue ray DVD player (which was Chris's Christmas present from me). I can't wait until I have a day off. It's stupid to say that after I just had a whole BUNCH of days off while in Ohio, but that snow drama felt like a week.

And so, we are at the close of another year. Faster than we'll be able to handle, it'll already be July and we'll be complaining about how hot and miserable it is.

sick, dizzy and spectacular

Looks like I didn't keep my promise about blogging more to make up for last month. Right NOW I feel like a lot has suddenly just happened, so I will write about it to remind my future self of when these events took place.

So, right now I am sick. I knew I was going to get sick-- everyone around me was sick-- but I was trying to hold out until today to do it. I did not succeed. I woke up on Tuesday and had I been scheduled to work anywhere that day I would have had to legitimately call off because I was just soooooo sick. My whole body hurt, I was so stuffed up and DIZZY... I could have dealt with everything else but the dizziness was too much. I have been loading my system with vitamin C, zinc and tylenol cold medicine. I still have a ridiculous amount of snot. Sometimes it clouds my sinuses and makes my eyeballs hurt but right now it is mainly staying in my throat, lungs and nose. It's actually made breathing kind of hard at times. The snot mixed with how COLD it is. On Tuesday night my throat swelled up and I could barely swallow.... luckily that hasn't happened as bad since. It was bad. I didn't want to get sick before my last Rockababy class of the year but I did... and I barely made it through the FIRST class without losing my voice let alone the second. But, I seem to be getting better (knock on wood) so hopefully I won't get sick again until.... well, never.

My poor kitty had a tapeworm. She must have come with the tapeworm because she definitely didn't have fleas when we got her. We took her to the vet on Tuesday to get it taken care of. It was the only thing I did on Tuesday. Tapeworms are really not that bad... it doesn't really affect kitty's general health too much and they're REALLY easy to get rid of... the only thing that is super gross is the terrible little "seeds" that are shed from the tapeworm and are left anywhere she sat. I mean... seriously. Gross. I had been vacuuming the floor, carpet, couch and bed like EVERY DAY because I was so super grossed out by these things. I noticed them immediately. Chris said he probably would have never noticed them which is even grosser. While at the vet he showed us that one of her teeth is WAY bigger than the other ones which is some kind of exposed gum thing. We're not sure what it is going to mean until they can take x-rays but we don't have money for that right now. They said it should be fine but we'll have to look into it further in a couple of months.

A couple of weeks ago we found out Praire Home Companion was going to be playing at the concert hall I work at on Christmas Day... the first Christmas in 4 years that I will be in Ohio for! I went crazy because just the previous day I saw that they were playing all over NYC this month and I mentioned how I wished they would come to our hall. Well, they are coming but I won't be there. So, I went crazy. However, I expressed my dismay to our booking manager, who used to be the touring manager for them, and the next day they offered her free tickets to the performance at Town Hall but she already HAD tickets so she offered them to me! It was amazing that I had off because I ALWAYS work on Saturdays but this was the one night I didn't have to work. Chris was able to get someone to cover his shift at the last minute and we had the best time. The seats were 4th row center and Elvis Costello was on the program... and he performed right in front of us! It was the best. Not that I listen every week but I've been listening to PHC since I was like 7 years old. I think I actually remember the very FIRST time I heard it. It was great. I am really, really happy we got to go.

Last night I walked in the door after I got back from Rockababy and Chris said, "Ok. I made food for you and then we have to go." The first thought I had was that there was some kind of emergency situation in New York. The second was that we had somehow offended our landlord and were getting kicked out. I was too sick to express any of these fears, however, so I just looked at him and said "why?" He then handed me a piece of paper of some kind of ticket he had purchased. I stared at it for a long time. It had an ad for Cirque Du Soleil's Wintuk. I was even more confused. I said, "We're going to see Wintuk?" I mean, sure, I'd go see that, but I didn't know why he'd purchased tickets for it. I wondered if maybe someone gave them to him at work. Then, finally, he pointed to the actual TICKET part and it said we were going to

THE RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR!!!!!

I have wanted to see the Rockettes my entire life. They always played in Cleveland during Christmas and I never got to go. I think they are AMAZING. We obviously didn't go last year and I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that we were not going this year because, I mean, it's already halfway through December. So, when he pointed to the title my voice got really high and I said, "We're really going?" He said yes, I ate the rice and chicken and then we went to the most spectacular show in the entire world. It was unbelievable. I mean, whatever, it's crazy and it's there to make tons and tons of money but it is AMAZING. There is no way anyone could deny the "spectacular" in the title. Everything about it is spectacular. It is the DEFINITION of "spectacular." First of all, Radio City is amazing. It is literally what I think of when I think of Christmas. It's what you'd EXPECT Macy's to look like, except Macy's is TERRIBLE and ghetto and you walk in and you immediately want to walk back out or start to cry. I mean, I walked through those doors and my mouth was hanging open. I don't know if I've ever said "wow" so many times in my life. We were sitting in the last row of the 2nd mezzanine but it was great because you could see everything. This theatre holds nearly 6,000 seats. Unbelievable. They do like 4 shows a day, too! It's crazy. So, anyway, the show was incredible. The girls were amazing (I challenge YOU to take 39 of your friends, line up in a perfectly straight line and then spin that line without there being a huge bend somewhere), the special effects were amazing (there was 3D, flying, snow and the best tech I've ever seen) AND there were sheep, a donkey and camels. WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR???? If you want to be artistically challenged by thought-provoking theatre, this is obviously not the show for you.... but if you want to see the most amazing, spectacular show in the entire world.... there is no other option. I wish I could be a Rockette.

We are leaving on Tuesday morning for Ohio. This is really the first visit since Thanksgiving 2009. Yes, we were there for 2 days in February and I saw my parents for 6 hours in August when we moved our stuff, but neither of those really count since we were there for other reasons than just visiting. Now we will VISIT!

kitties and turkeys

I haven't updated in a long time and now it's almost December. UGH! Time always go so fast.

Well, we did get a kitty on the 9th and it was the best decision ever! We adopted her from the NYC ACC and she's perfect. We named her Jessie and she's all black with orange eyes. We saw 2 kitties that day and I was so sure we were going to go with the first one we saw (before we met Jessie). I kind of said, "Oh suuuuuure. We'll see the other cat!" just to, like, humor them. Of course we loved them both. We picked Jessie because she was smaller and I liked her eyes. She's so sweet. I mean, yeah, she's insane and wants to be fed all the time, but she will just sit on your lap and go to sleep all day. I love her. Meow.

Christmas time has arrived! You know... sort of. Chris and I ordered food from Whole Foods for Thanksgiving. It was delicious. It was even MORE delicious since I didn't have to try and cook a turkey myself. Black Friday was not the retail death I thought it was going to be. What's been worse is the fact that our heat is broken yet we keep the door open at work. It is SO COLD! All the employees just stand around shivering.

I keep getting really, really tired really easily all the time. I just took a little sip of 5 hour energy because I'm so tired I feel like the last 2 hours of work are going to suck but I don't want FIVE HOURS of energy. That's way too much. I want to go to bed. These 5 hour energy people just walked into the store on Black Friday to give us some. I totally took it. It was like being in college again when the Red Bull truck would just drive up to you and you'd get free stuff.

We went to the South Street Seaport Christmas Tree lighting on Friday night! It was great! I thought we were a little late, but we got there at the perfect time: to see the tree actually go on and then to see Darlene Love perform! I love her. She sings on David Letterman every year. I couldn't believe how not crowded it was. Rockefeller Center it isn't, but still. It was the first Tree Lighting of the season, you'd think there'd be more people.

The Nostalgia train is running again and I can't WAIT to ride it. Hopefully next Sunday I'll be able to if even for a little while. Chris and I won't be able to ride it together until the 26th when we get back from Ohio but maybe I'll have a little time before then, too. I'm a busy lady.

I have lost my desire to keep writing so I'll try to post sooner next time.

time travel day

Hello! It's been a while again. I get busy, folks... I get busy.

So, my birthday came and went (that's the first time I've ever been that non-chalant about my birthday ever) and it was good. I had some friends from the ASC who live here over, including my Best Birthday Buddy, Greg, who doesn't get AS into Halloween as I do. I forced them all to play games and laughed a lot. I laughed the MOST when they played the eat-the-donut-on-a-string-without-using-your-hands game and the donut kept smacking Greg in the face. I laughed until my abs hurt. I could barely START the game.

I got a couple gift cards for my birthday... I might be using one of them this week in case we GET A KITTY!!!! I don't want to jinx it.... but I am also excited. We're going to meet a few kitties on Tuesday, I think. It's all I wanted for my birthday. I really want to get TWO kitties... we'll see, though. MEOW!

Christmas started at 12:01am on November 1st and it was actually awesome. Listen. I might hate NYC a lot of the time, but I LOVE Christmas in New York. It's the best place in the world. It is literally like living in Disney World in the good way. Yes, there are too many people in New York and not enough stuff for there to be sales on the things that *I* want, and it's so SCARY to go shopping because it's so crowded... but other than that it is AMAZING!!!!!!! There's ice skating, pop up shops, everything is decorated (everything. Streets, stores, trees, everything), everything is on sale, Santa Claus is there, those giant gingersnap cookies in Central Park, Starbucks holiday flavors, the Rockettes, Christmas music playing from speakers IN LAMP POSTS.... it's incredible. I bet Disney World is actually just like this at Christmas.

Speaking of Disney, the new, gigantic store is opening in Times Square on TUESDAY! Yay. I am so excited. The one on 5th ave closed at the end of last year and I was devastated. I used to go there after particularly bad days at work.... which was all the time at that place.... and it was the only thing that would make me feel better. Then it closed and I was so sad.... but now the new one is opening and it's going to be amazing. I work on 5th ave and I feel like every day after work in December I am going to walk out of my way to see either the Rockefeller Center tree or the Bryant Park Tree and go to the Disney store once a week. It will be the best time ever!!

Today was the NYC Marathon! I knew a couple of people who were running. It seemed like everyone was late coming in today because of it. That, or the MTA's craptacular Sunday Subway Service. I know on Sundays, if I work at 8am, I will either be 20 minutes early for work or 10 minutes late. There is absolutely no way to be RIGHT on time or even a little early or late. NOPE. Just ridiculous extremes. I hate Sundays so much. I also hate that Hale and Hearty soup is not open on Sundays. WHY??? People need soup on Sunday! I don't think the Daily Soup is open on the weekend at all! I had to go to the Food Emporium for soup.... and it was only ok. Maybe they'll be open on Sunday as it gets closer to winter. Yes, the cold has suddenly come upon us, but apparently the SOUP places refuse to acknowledge it. Jerks.

So, the marathon ended at 66th and Central Park West and I work (my OTHER job) at 67th and Broadway. That's 2/10s of a mile away so I keep seeing people wrapped in their marathon heat blankets. I don't think I could run a marathon. I think I could PHYSICALLY run it... but I think, somewhere around the 20th mile, I would be so bored and frustrated that there was STILL more to run that I would start crying.... and I think that would affect my time.

thoughts on harry potter

As I'm sure you know, I have spent the last 2.5 months re-reading the Harry Potter series. It took a while to get started... things kept getting in the way like ordering the first book on amazon and having it never arrive.... going to SEVERAL bookstores before I actually was able to find a copy for some reason... but I started around the time we moved into our current apartment and I've been reading a couple chapters a night.

This was my first re-reading of the series. I think I had read parts of Half-Blood Prince before the 7th book came out, but I am pretty sure I only read the entire book once. Most of these books I hadn't read since 2005, the last I hadn't read since 2007. It was definitely the right time. I had forgotten enough to be surprised and appreciate the humor while KNOWING enough to look for clues in the earlier books.

The first 2 were, you know, fine. I have suddenly found myself surrounded by people my age or slightly younger who have not read these books at all (SERIOUSLY??? How is it POSSIBLE??) and when I am telling them to get started I say, "Read the first 2 as fast as you can. The third book is where it picks up. The fourth is one of the best books ever." I definitely appreciate PoA (the 3rd book) a lot more now than I did. I always thought it was GOOD but now I'm kind of thinking it's amazing.

In regards to Goblet of Fire (or book 4), the first time I read that book, when Cedric died in the graveyard and Harry's parents (etc, all) came out of Voldemort's wand, I literally threw the book across the room. I was late for work that day because I could not stop reading. I did not THROW the book this time. I did cry.

The fifth book is pretty much the same for me as it was before.... long and hard to get through. I despise Umbridge SO MUCH that it's actually torturous. The first time I read this book it was nearly impossible for me to accept Sirius's death. I didn't realize the killing curse, though never actually WRITTEN in the book, was implied, so I didn't know what happened to him to make him die, and I thought, like Harry, that he'd be back any moment. I loved Sirius so much. He was one of my favorite characters. His death is one of the hardest to take in the series.

I definitely had a minor emotional break down when Snape killed Dumbledore in the 6th book, which I read surprisingly fast. The last 3 books are so effing long, but they're so well done that I would spend all my free alone time just reading on the couch until Chris got home. That's what I did tonight to finish the 7th book.

Now, again, I had not read this book since 2007 and what you have to understand is that I read it SO FAST and like, in the middle of the NIGHT when I was already exhausted from being in rehearsal all the time, that I did not take in everything that happened. It was practically like I was reading it for the first time, just knowing that several people would die and that Harry was a Horcrux. I kept saying that summer that I needed to go back and reread parts... that, obviously, never happened.

Let me tell you.... I had completely, 100%, forgotten about the Deathly Hallows. THAT IS THE TITLE OF THE BOOK. Not remembering ANYTHING about them, I was, at times, talking to the book. Telling Harry moot instructions that I literally was guessing at because I couldn't remember! I looked back at my old blog and read that I didn't really understand them in my haste to get through it... I don't know why. Not only did they make sense, but they are AMAZING!!!! The thing she does that I love the MOST is when she makes the Wizarding world seem possible in OUR world. Like taking everyday things like saying an old shoe on the side of the road is actually a portkey or a children's story having it's history based on fact (like the deathly hallows).... I just love that crap. Her imagination in amazing.

I did not beat the ground with my fists when Tonks and Lupin died this time. I knew it was coming and, actually, I remembered it being more climactic than it is. However, I totally forgot that Lupin almost ran out on Tonks and that they asked Harry to be the godfather. I had forgotten that Dobby died. DOBBY. I moaned, "Dobby, nooooooooooooo" as I closed the book and cried. I had forgotten about Moody's death. I had forgotten about that creepy scene where Nagini is actually that old lady, Bathilda Bagshot or whatever. I had forgotten the extent to which Snape loved Lily.

When Snape's dying words to Harry are, "Look... at...me....." so he can see HER eyes again.

How he begged Voldemort to save her.... how she was his Patronus.... it's hard to bear. It's hard to imagine that poor man's life of unrequited love and helping Harry because she was his mother's child.

But, again, the most poignant moment to me is still when Harry asks Dumbledore if the purgatory world is real or if it's just in his head and Dumbledore replies, "Of course is is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

A second reading of this line brought back memories of Narnia. Of so much spirituality. Of having my own crazy imagination that, at times, feels muffled.

So, despite the fact that I love it when Mrs. Weasley calls Bellatrix a bitch right before killing her, the previous line resonated with me more.

When I finished the book and wiped away the tears, I stood up and practically hugged it saying, "I'll miss you, Harry Potter." I just can't wait to share it with more people.

spooooky times are approaching

Well, it's been a month. I thought about writing but then I never would. Typical.

We just got back from Virginia and Ginna's wedding on Monday. I had been looking forward to this wedding for so long it was almost unbelievable that it was actually there. It was perfect. Ginna looked AMAZING and everything was very fun and original. She asked us to sing Maria Taylor's Cartoons and Forever Plans and that went well, too. I was so happy to be involved. I had never been involved in a wedding besides my own before this one! I think that's CRAZY for a singer who is almost 28!

Jenny made Ginna's dress, too, and it was literally a piece of art. People ACTUALLY screamed as she entered the room. Jenny has made 3 dresses in the past year and has at least 2 more coming up that I know about. Here is a sample of what she's done.

That's obviously me in the first picture, our friend Denice from the ASC in the second and Ginna and her dad in the last picture. All completely different, yet completely beautiful. Ginna's dress was also a CONVERTIBLE dress! The bottom part of the skirt came off for her party time. People literally screamed. It was amazing. It has actually taken this long for the full weight of the dress to sink in for me. I told Jenny every time I see a picture I faint a little bit. It's kind of true. I am really looking forward to seeing the professional pictures.

So, clearly, I had a great time at the wedding. The day after we got home we got a save the date for another wedding in Staunton (Johnston and Lindsey... who have been engaged since 2008! Also, let me just say... their engagement was the best day of MY life. It was right after ours and I lost it in the middle of the street when they told me. I had also PREDICTED it in the shower that morning, which was weird, because they had only been dating like 6 months when it happened) and I'm pretty sure Tyler and Sybille are also getting married in Staunton, so we'll be back before you know it. I need to start a wedding trip fund. For real.

I would also like to say that Ginna's family is so amazing. Her parents are some of the nicest people I have ever met and her sister Kelly is just a doll. What a lucky, lucky lady to have such wonderful people in her life.

So! Other news. Well, I found out 2 of my friends are dating and have been for SIX MONTHS, and I had no idea. This isn't like an "I found out on facebook after having not seen either of them in years" thing, either. This is a "I literally see them several times a week, had seen them TOGETHER, and still had no idea" thing. I was thinking about asking my friend Lyndsay if she was seeing anyone that day, because we had never really talked about it, and then I found out that night, in the surprise of the century. Then, of course, I had so many questions... only one of which I actually asked. I am really happy about it, though. They're both so nice and it's always great when nice people get together.

My birthday is coming up really soon. It is actually only 2.5 weeks away!!! BOOOOOOOOOO!!! I am still only half decorated. I got busy. Too busy to write and too busy to decorate. Of course, I STARTED decorating on September 30th at like 10:30pm..... I just haven't done much since then. I am planning on going to a couple of Halloween stores tonight after my rockababy classes. I can't buy anything, but I am planning on dragging Chris around them for a very spooky adventure. In a store. I am so broke until I get paid tomorrow it isn't even funny. Seriously, it's not at all funny. Don't laugh at the fact that I have only $10 left. I had a lot to buy at the end of the month, like train tickets to Staunton. Luckily, I get paid tomorrow and Friday so at least I'll have money for cereal again. Sadly, I foresee lots of being broke in my future with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up.

The price of the metro cards is going up FIFTEEN DOLLARS on January 1st and that makes me want to cry. I won't really cry, but it is depressing. You know WHY I ride the subway? To get to work. Now I have to work MORE just to make up for the fact that my transportation TO WORK is more expensive. Grumble. This is why every place of employment in NYC should offer their employees a debit card where half the amount of the card is taken out of each paycheck pre-tax, so they can buy the card. Chris's job does that. Every single job should. I have been saving my metro card receipts all year so that I can write them off on my taxes. Stupid metro card. BLAH.