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.

it's all happenin' at the zoo

Today is my last Wednesday totally off for a while. Chris started his rock-a-baby classes this morning and I have my first session for fall next week. I am excited but of course I will miss my day off. Having a day off is so great! Today I finally was able to use a groupon I got last month for the Astor Bake Shop near our apartment in Astoria and it was so effing adorable I wanted to hug it. First of all, I love our neighborhood so much and especially THIS part as opposed to the part we used to live. 30th ave is nice if you like... I don't know.... to be annoyed... but Ditmars is great if you love things that are adorable, which I definitely do. This cafe isn't really near Ditmars, but it's close enough to consider it not 30th ave. Anyway, the food was so good and they played the Beatles the whole time we were in there. The only problem was that they were playing a recording of Revolver in stereo and the playback was in mono... so we heard only half the vocals to most songs and almost no vocals on Yellow Submarine (which, of course, isn't the worst thing in the world for that song. We just enjoyed the ocean sounds).

Last Wednesday we went to the Bronx Zoo and had the BEST TIME!!!!! It was donation day, so we got in cheap but it was so great I'm planning on getting a membership for next year. The membership gives you entrance for 2 into all the NYC zoos and the Aquarium (including all the extras that cost more) plus 10% off food and gift shop and it's only $94. Considering the Aquarium costs $25 for one person by itself, this is a serious deal. The last time I went to a zoo (not including Animal Kingdom) was the San Diego Zoo which actually scared me off zoos because it made me feel so bad for the animals. They were all in such small cages and I remember seeing one of the big cats pacing back and forth continuously and it made me so upset because I felt like that cat had gone insane from being cooped up. This zoo was totally different and more like Animal Kingdom where it's a simulated reality for the animals. I loved it so much and the weather was basically perfect. The food was also surprisingly good. I got this big cup with lions on it that cost $9 but was refillable. We were exhausted at the end of the day but had such a great time.

I am so happy the weather has been more reasonable the last couple of days. We did have a few hot days last week, but it wasn't too bad. Of course, the weather also made me sick. It's nearing the end, but I've had a cold since Friday. Sunday was the worst. We went to this diner nearby because we had no food to cook and I couldn't taste my soup at all except when I blew my nose. It was annoying. I'm now in the backed up phlegm phase where I'm constantly clearing my throat and having to spit. Like a lady.

Tonight we are going to a haunted house for FREE! I haven't been to one since 2006 so I'm excited. It's going to be boo-riffic. And probably scary. I do really well at haunted houses (as opposed to scary movies where I just can't watch them at all) but I have a feeling that a New York haunted house is going to be REALLY scary. My sister is working at Cedar Point's Halloweekends again this year and she asked me what the scariest thing I've ever seen was. I told her it was the zombie ghost of a vampire werewolf dressed as a mummy. I can't wait for my birthday. :)

you can ride backwards on the lirr

I think Conan O'Brien might secretly write for groupon. Take a look at what the "groupon says" cat had to say about a groupon in Cleveland:

"Here are some fire safety tips to keep you out of harm's way:

1. First, make sure it's really a fire you're dealing with and not a still photo of a fire or a fraternity brother dressed as a fire.
2. Fires are allergic to knives.
3. Shouting at fires will not make them go away, but it will lower their temperatures enough to punch them.
4. Fire only burns those who believe in it."

I laughed out loud for real.

Yesterday I went to the beach! Oh man. I was so happy. We went to Jones Beach, which is known as one of the best beaches in New York (state). It's a state park, so there's not much around and no hotels nearby, so making it a weekend trip would be hard, but I loved it. I loved every minute of the hour and a half we were there. I honestly couldn't stay any longer because it was literally the first time all summer I had been out in the sun on purpose. I had sunscreen all over my body, and I mostly used spf 50, and I reapplied it like... every 20 minutes... but I was still scared. And rightly so. The sun is DANGEROUS. But, luckily, I didn't get burned and I also no longer look like a vampire which was exactly what I wanted. The trip there wasn't too bad, either despite the next sentence: N to 30th, walk to Steinway, R to Roosevelt, E to Sutphin, LIRR to Freeport, N88 to Jones Beach. It was a lot of transfers but the LIRR was so fun (and only $21 for two roundtrip tickets!!!) and I was smiling like I was on a roller coaster the entire time.

After we got home yesterday I was EXHAUSTED and starving. I ate 3 pieces of pizza, 3 cheesey garlic things and 2 cinna-pizza things (we ordered from papa johns). I then laid on the couch, half asleep, watching PBS until 9:30pm when I nearly died because I could not take the heat in the living room any more. It was unbearable. We went to bed, but really I read the end of my Harry Potter 3 book for an hour and then half an issue of Glamour magazine. Listen, though. Harry Potter is AMAZING! If you're a fan and haven't read them since the 7th book came out in 2007, it's time to reread them. I had forgotten so much. I forgot that Scabbers was Pettigrew! The 3rd book is so excellent. I mean, what an amazing, original, exciting plot. That JK Rowling. She's good. I am excited to start the 4th book tonight, which is my favorite despite the fact that it's also the first one I cried during and also the one I threw across the room (when Cedric died). I suppose throwing it across the room is no beating the floor with my fists during hysterical crying (like I did during the 7th book... perhaps a couple of times) but it's still pretty dramatic. I love Harry Potter.

I really like having these days off on Wednesdays. It's been so great. I feel like I'm trying to fit the entire summer into 4 days off. Next week we're thinking about going to a baseball game. Even though it would be the Yankees, it'd still be fun. I like to get souvenir cups.

There's a hurricane a-coming! Sort of. The hurricane was half the reason I insisted on going to the beach yesterday. Labor Day and the hurricane will bring summer to a nice end. And this time, it BETTER END. I am tired of being too hot to sit on the couch. The weather gave us a reminder of fall last week (or the week before? I can't remember) and it was great. Not that I want winter to come, because I DO NOT want that. I think I could deal with an abnormally long spring and fall every year, though.

mysterious fall

Blargh. I am so busy at work today that I might not have time to actually write this. Now THAT is busy. For here. Apparently it rained a little bit and it's cutting off our phone service and making the computers run hella slow. Yesterday the phones were down the entire day, today they just keep cutting in and out. Obviously this makes us useless when it happens.

It has suddenly become Fall and I love it! Everyone looks better when they're not sweating. It also gives me the great opportunity to wear more clothes, which means... more layers. YAY! Fall will end and go back to hot again in a couple days, but we are loving it right now. It will come back for real eventually.

So, Chris and I moved our stuff from Ohio last week. The trip was pretty smooth but man were we tired. I only got to see my parents for about 4 hours before I went to sleep (since I had to wake up at 5am... again) and my sister for, like, 2.5 hours. We went to Rocknees in Kent and she showed us her brand new (for her) "big girl" apartment. Strangely enough, Chris used to live in the same apartment complex, back in 1992. It was HIS first apartment, too.

Anyway, we didn't even run into that much traffic until we were trying to get on to the George Washington Bridge, which took about 45 minutes to get through since we didn't have EZPass. The actual unloading of the truck was relatively okay, too.... we had some issues getting OUR couch through the door, but it happened. Chris did have to take off the door, though. His friend Manny and his girlfriend helped us. We repaid them with pizza.

Unpacking has been great. We had so much stuff that I totally forgot about (like a measuring cup). The other day, just because I found our big pot and frying pan, I made corn on the cob and tacos. I love our little apartment right now. I'll love it more when we're totally done unpacking, but I still love it a lot.

Tomorrow is MY FIRST DAY OFF IN 2 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am soooo excited. I am going to get a haircut and we are going to Ikea (to get a bookshelf). Maybe I should get a pedicure, too. Oh man. That's crazy talk. This haircut is pretty necessary, though. I haven't gotten a REAL haircut since February (just my bangs trimmed) so the ends of my hair are looking stupid. I have a groupon for a lunch bakery in Astoria so maybe I can convince Chris that we should go THERE, too. Tomorrow is also Ribs Night at the Brooklyn Ikea. I won't be having any but I am SURE Chris will. I originally wanted to go to the beach or something on my glorious day off, but it's gonna be too cold. It looks like I am going to have a day off next Wednesday, too, so maybe if Chris also has off, we could go then. After summer returns.

mailing machine fail

I just used this mailer thing that seals and stamps envelopes for you for the first time and I swear the administrative assistant sitting across the hall from the room must think I'm a moron, now. So many things went wrong: it jammed like 15 times, I sent a big stack through in the wrong direction, the finished stack got too high and the mail went flying all over the place.... it was like an episode of I Love Lucy. Apparently I should become a secretary just for the hilarity.

We are going to Ohio! For 24 hours. I will be happy to see my family but I wish we got to stay longer than we are staying. It's going to be a rough 2 days. We're flying into Pittsburgh to pick up the truck, driving to Kent and then Huron, loading the truck and then leaving early to get back to NYC relatively early. Then we have to unload the truck. BLAH! At least we'll finally have our stuff. I am SO looking forward to having my real nightstand back instead of the clothes hamper I've been using. PLUS, our dining room table, couch and ottoman, rug, half our clothes, books, instruments, kitchen EVERYTHING and, of course, Halloween and Christmas decorations. We have FOUR closets in our new apartment. FOUR! It's pretty awesome.

When we moved in there were already these butterfly foot grip things on the bathtub floor. I have this butterfly picture that I have traditionally always hung in the bathroom, also, so I decided to make butterflies the theme of the bathroom. I went to anthropologie searching out butterfly doorknobs. I was sure they would have them, and in typical anthropologie fashion, they, of course, did. Anthropologie is always there to make my ridiculous dreams come true. They are perfect. I had no idea WHAT they would look like, but I was sure they would have them. Plus, they were on sale for $3 each. THREE. DOLLARS. Now I've started thinking it would be a great idea for me to give a ridiculous theme to every room. I could do owls and birds in the kitchen, butterflies in the bathroom and trees everywhere else. PERFECT! If only we had a garage.

I have a big bruise on the back of my calf and I don't know where it came from. The fact that it hurts makes it even more mysterious than it already is.

Man. I am so excited for fall. I just want to be able to wear more clothes. I have perfected the art of layers. Even 1 layer seems like it's too much half the time this summer. Well, today is the exception. Today's weather is perfect after yesterday's humidity festival. And, obviously, today is the day I work both jobs and have a 10 hour day. Someday I would like to have 1 job (and rockababy). I miss the free time. I switched someone at work yesterday so I could have a morning shift and hang out with Chris and it was the best decision ever. Well, one of them. I definitely cooked dinner. I also definitely sat on the couch watching a show about NY's parks.

On Saturday night Chris and I ate 5 Guys and then travelled out to Flushing to play miniature golf. It was fun! I totally got a hole in one on the last hole. I was still like 15 over par, but who cares. We both only hit the ball into the water once. When we were leaving a gentleman with no neck asked us for money! Well, actually, he didn't ASK, he just tapped Chris on the shoulder and held out his hand. Maybe he couldn't speak because of his lack of neck. He was actually pretty terrifying. He creeped over to us so slowly and silently that I was afraid he was going to push me onto the tracks. If I ever make a horror movie, he will be in it.

My first day off in 2 months day off is slowly but surely approaching. I will find out for SURE if it's a day off when I get my schedule (which should be today, but who REALLY knows), but I don't know why it wouldn't be. I never get scheduled on Wednesday unless I can't work another day and next week is the first week in a month where I don't have any conflicts. So, it would be awful and probably ironic if I DID get scheduled. I hope I don't. I want to, like, do something amazing. Or at least something that is not work.

feelin' hot, hot, hot!

Whew! Wow. I can't believe that it's been a week since I wrote that short post, because it feels like it just happened. I am insane. I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to move on Thursday. I mean, it was fine, but listen to my last week:

8/3: Work 2 jobs--10 hours
8/4: Rockababy, work 1 job
8/5: Work 5 hours, move into new apartment for 6 hours
8/6: Callback, work 1 job, rehearsal at night
8/7: Rehearsal from 12-9pm
8/8: 8am Work meeting, rehearsal at 10am-3pm, performance that evening
8/9: Work 8am-1pm, 2pm performance, 8pm performance
8/10: Work 2 jobs--10 hours

AHHHHHH!!! I've been going insane. We don't have internet in the new apartment yet but it hasn't been so bad since I've hardly been there for something other than sleeping. At least we got our new TV. I did get to watch 2 episodes of "Friends" on DVD.... one of those days. I needed my Friends... and they were, like always, there for me.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun doing the staged reading and although the woman from Ave Q didn't end up being in it (she booked a movie. a MOVIE!), the woman who replaced her was wonderful, talented and very, very nice. There were other Broadway people, though... so... there. I decided I would sing alto in the ensemble which I haven't done in YEARS. I haven't sung alto since, like, 1998. I'm usually not actually good at alto.... I'm better at a 2nd soprano or a soprano harmony that's above an alto melody, but this was fun. Anyway, the audience was full every performance and I got to spend time with Adam, who I hadn't seen in about 5 years, and Alana, and I made other new friends, so it was great.

My callback on Friday was ok, although it could have been better. Actually, for the first time ever, it would have been better if I would have sang LESS. They told us to bring in 2 songs, 32 bars EACH. That is SO MUCH music for an audition. They wanted belt and soprano from me, so I sang the song I auditioned with and decided on a whim to sing "Think of Me" from POTO for the soprano. This, too, was something I haven't done since 1998. I would never, ever normally sing that song at an audition, but I decided to look at the lyrics in a different way... a way where Christine was being very passive aggressive about how angry she really was. And, textually, you could argue that point. But in 32 bars, there is only so much passive aggressiveness you can play before it gets old. And it got old to ME so I can't imagine what it was like for them. My other song was good, though. It didn't get old. Oh well. In all honesty, had i actually gotten cast in this show it would have been amazing and annoying at the same time. The last 2 performances surround Ginna's wedding on October 10th, which is something I would NOT miss (especially since I'm singing in it). I would have had to rush to Staunton and back and it would not have been fun.... it would have been do-able... but very stressful... and now, all not getting cast means is that I can take a fun train trip with my husband. Yay. :)

In other news, I like our new apartment! I haven't been able to unpack... and I won't REALLY be able to until we get our stuff from Ohio... but it actually feels like my HOME. The neighborhood is so nice. They have brick sidewalks and cars actually YIELD to you when you're crossing the street! I didn't know what to do the first time this happened. I was thinking, "WHERE AM I????" The annoying families of 20 apparently all live at my old subway stop so I haven't had to deal with them and being at the end of the line is AMAZING! You always get a seat on the train, you don't have to wait in the heat, if the train goes express you totally WIN and underneath the station is a restaurant called, "The End of the Line Cafe." How adorable. The only problem with our apartment right now is that the wiring in the house must be very, very old because the neighbor's air conditioner, which must be like, 50 million BTUs, sometimes makes our lights dim. And the microwave or fan do the equivalent of "dimming." My dad is worried about what this would do to our TV or computers and I don't blame him. We're going to have to call the landlord. We're also going to have to call him because the old tenants left a couch and dining room table. Right NOW it's awesome, because our couch and dining room table are in Ohio, but it won't be awesome in a week when we have our stuff there. Maybe we could sell them. I wonder. Money for nothing is the best kind of money!

it took too long to find the q18

Last Thursday we signed the lease for our apartment! Hooray! I think we're actually getting the keys tomorrow, too. The old tenants moved out on Saturday and the landlord just had to go in and make sure things were a-okay before we moved in. Of course, I have to work the entire day tomorrow, and most of Wednesday but we're still planning on moving in on the 5th, even though I have my callback, work and then rehearsal on the 6th. Well, and I have to work on the 5th, too. And so does Chris. So, it's gonna be crazy. But we have to make it happen!!

Today we went all over the place and what we ended up with was a new TV (for when we get TV!), a rolling cart (a good one, too) and some foot pain from walking almost all the way from Woodside to Astoria. We were going to get a microwave, too, but we wouldn't have been able to carry it back. I'm too weak.

Right now I have a migraine which makes me sad. It also makes it hard to think about continuing this post, so I think I will leave it at that for now.

it rained and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in 20 minutes

I don't have to work until 5pm today which makes me feel like I'm working in the theatre, but... I'm not. Theatre of Accessories. It's a topic we must have missed in Theatre History.

Apparently it's really nice out. I don't know for real because I haven't been outside yet, having only woken up at 12:30pm. I'm kind of busy this week: I have two jobs Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, so I figured I better sleep while I can. Also, I just didn't wake up. I will definitely be happy for the extra 10 hours of pay on my next paycheck. Since there's only limited performances at the concert hall in the summer, I've been down to only 3 jobs and my box office job hours are only 10 a week. It's enough to get by, but not by much. I'd really like a real FULL TIME job and to work Rockababy and Fossil part time. Or something. That'd be great.

This past week I went to the open call auditions for NYMF only because Michael Cassara and the people in his casting office are very, very nice and decided to let non-equity actors have an online sign up for appointments. APPOINTMENTS FOR NON-EQUITY ACTORS. Had they not had the appointments, people would have probably gotten there at 5am and waited all damn day and had the worst audition ever...... this was better. I wouldn't have even been ABLE to go without this appointment because I worked the whole day: 11am-9pm. But, I had an appointment for 10am, sang a Queen song, and got called back for a show that I would really love to be in. IT ALL WORKED OUT! For now. The hard part (and the part I have no control over) is still to come.

Next week I am doing a staged reading of The Water Dream which actually will have some people who've worked on Broadway (including Ann Harada, the original Christmas Eve in Avenue Q) performing in it, too. That's exciting. It's something, you know? I mean, for me. For them, it's a GIGANTIC deal and for me, it's a logical first step. You have to start somewhere in New York and the logical first step isn't Broadway, it's something small, like a staged reading or showcase. You do that for a while and then, maybe, you get an Off-Broadway show. After years of THAT, you move on to the "real deal".... unless you've grown too old for the characters you'll be playing, in which case, you stop acting and start teaching. *I*, on the other hand, can NEVER be too old for the characters I'm meant to play because *I* am meant to play Ouiser in Steel Magnolias.

So, apparently we got the apartment we wanted. I say apparently because we have not signed a lease yet, but the broker told us "rest assured the apartment is for you and Chris." Everyone gives me the same look when I tell them that. Anyway, we haven't heard from him in a week so we wrote him today asking for a few more specifics. He better respond, otherwise Chris is going to go down there and make him respond, in person (for real... but not in a mean way). We've got stuff to do, you know? Let us sign a lease so we KNOW the stuff is worth doing. It's actually going to be really hard to find the time to move. We're probably going to have to do it at night.... which, considering the weather, might not be the worst thing in the world. Plus, THEN we have to get to Ohio to move our real stuff... which will be a 2 day trip only, sadly. And then... THEN.... we can have a normal life. Normal.... for us. We won't have to live in a box, at least.

Oh yeah, so Chris and I had our four year anniversary (of when we started dating) the other day. I actually forgot the day OF (I remembered the day before and the day after). This is now, officially, the longest relationship either one of us has ever had! Hahaha. I guess we knew when we got married that it was a big deal... but now it's OFFICIALLY a big deal. :)

i'm trying to replace coffee with green tea. it hurts my head.

I did buy that groupon. It was awesome. We haven't been out in a WHILE and because of the groupon we got 2 entrees, my iced tea and his PBR in a can and a dessert. A DESSERT! And the food was awesome. It was this sports bar/southernish style restaurant called Duke's, nearish to grand central. I loved it. It reminded me of Ohio. Maybe I just loved the fact that we were able to go out... it was loud in there (we were there during the All-Star Game).... but the food really was good. Good and horrible for you.

Earlier that evening we went to see 2 more apartments. The apartment we put down the deposit for fell through because the landlord wanted people to move in before August 1st. So, we saw 2 more, one being the biggest apartment we've seen yet (in the same building as the last one) and another that was halfway between the Ditmars stop and Astoria Park, which is pretty much exactly where I wanted to live in the first place. It's in a more residential area, in a house rather than building, and although it was the 3rd smallest of the 4 apartments we saw with this guy, it'd still be big enough for US. As long as I can fit a chair in the bedroom, I'll be happy. Plus there was a dining room, which was nice. I haven't seen one of those in a NYC apartment yet. So, we told him we'd like to apply for THAT one. The people are moving out at the end of the month so I suppose as long as that STILL HAPPENS, we should get it. God, I hope so. In the broker world, we have TONS of time left.... but in MY world we're seriously pushing it to the limit with finding a place. I think about it constantly.

On the weekends the train service is cut (even less on Sundays, as if people don't ride) and the last couple of weekends it has taken me an hour to get home because of this. This is basically what will happen: the 7 train will arrive no problem and I'll get to queensboro plaza to transfer to an N train. I will wait 20 minutes for an N and then one will show up SO CROWDED that you know the train is going to go express, bypassing my stop, which it does, so I have to wait for the next train. Which, yesterday, took ANOTHER 15 minutes to arrive. On a weekday it takes me about 25 minutes (walking from the station to work included), sometimes if I am very lucky, it takes FIFTEEN MINUTES of train time. I was honestly afraid there was going to be a riot last night. People were so angry that the train went express. I was afraid they were going to push and shove to get the hundreds of people waiting on the platform onto the train when it finally arrived. Luckily that didn't happen. It was still bad, though.

I have surmised that we got enough people signed up for our Rockababy class in the summer for the class to continue, which is a RELIEF! It's always very tense for me at the beginning of a session because NO ONE signs up at first, they're all just drop-ins. We have to be AMAZING the first class to get them to want to sign up. And it's not like it's CHEAP. Well, maybe it is... to people with money.... but you know. *I* couldn't afford it. Anyway, I love doing the classes so much that if we had to stop for a session I would be DEPRESSED. I don't want that.

I had 2 auditions in 2 hours last Wednesday. It was kind of nice. It was hot, though... and the first was in CHINATOWN, which was just... kind of creeeeepy. I'm not a big fan of Chinatown, alone, in a dress, when I don't know where I'm going. I was going to sing "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen but the pianist wasn't very good, so luckily I had a back up plan. Even though the audition went well, I did not get cast. Story of my life. It was a company, though... and it was a company that was started by GIRLS, so they might have already cast all the female roles. That's what I'll assume, anyway. Plus, girls my height, size and voice type are a dime a dozen. The only thing I have going for me to stand out is that I'm MORE AWESOME, and it's hard to really show that in 1 minute.

We have some really beautiful bags coming to the store for the fall. I literally almost cried when I saw one of them online last night. It was so beautiful. Oh, also, I went to Anthropologie for the first time on Saturday. I spent about an hour there. I, of course, didn't buy anything, but now I don't want to buy anything from anywhere else. I text my friend Mitzy the message, "This is like disney world for MY KIND." You better believe when we have our own apartment, I am going to replace every single doorknob and handle with new ones from anthropologie. There are gonna be birds and butterflies on everything I own.