Friday, December 31, 2004

looking to 2005

i'm sitting here in the house alone after spending the last two days cleaning for our little party tonight. living in nyc, the house gets pretty dirty, pretty quick.
kpr and champ went out to get the last of the supplies for the party and i'm hoping they will come back with a bottle of that sparkling apple cider, as his cousin is pregnant and i wanted to have a little more than ginger ale for her to toast with at midnight.
i've actually enjoyed preparing for tonight- we've turned the music up really loud and i stop what i'm doing every once and a while for a dance break with champ. he loves to put his front paws around your neck and boogie.
it's funny, when kpr and i clean, we make a general list of what needs to be done and then go about our own thing and eventually check over each other's progress- getting those missed spots and dusty nooks and crannies. the house is sparkling now and i'm about to get up and prepare 7 layer dip and put stuff together for the brie with cranberry chutney. My friend kelly made this for our last girls night and it was delicious. mmmmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

happy new year everyone- here's to a fabulous 2005!

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

who sucks? us airways sucks!

us airways sucks big monkey balls and they are asking their employees to work for free.

here is a list of all the wrong doings they have done to me personally:
-cancelled my first flight
-cancelled the second flight
-i was first on standby for the third flight- yet they had oversold the flight by three people-the flight went out full
-if your luggage has a columbus sticker on it, it will make it to columbus- even if you don't...
-$80 to and from the airport in one day
-booked a flight from philadelphia- kpr kindly drove me to philadelphia from new york and braved the airport traffic- left me at the ticketing terminal only to immediately have to turn around because they
-cancelled my third flight
-missed christmas with my family which means my parents have to take the expense to
-ship me all my christmas presents
and i have to
-ship all my christmas presents
-i've tried calling the 800 number about 400 times the past 6 days only to be disconnected, hung up on or given another number to call because "we don't handle lugggage" and thats about
-100 minutes on my cell phone
-oh- and my luggage? well god only knows where that is.
-i went down to the city desk finally (2 bucks each way), only to be told that they couldn't process my refund because i didn't have the credit card # (it was my mother's)
oh and
-"we don't handle luggage here, you have to go to laguardia and file a claim with them."
let me repeat that

-"you have to go to laguardia and file a claim with them"

i hate them i hate them i hate them

but i love kpr because he told me he will drive me to laguardia tomorrowon his day off.

Monday, December 27, 2004

ohio? not so much

hmmmmmm. i didn't actually make it home for christmas this year. thanks to the good folks at us airways and of course mother nature. i was incensed and very upset for days last week. but now i am mellow, introspective and counting my blessings despite not making it home. i have learned that it is truly embarrassing to burst into tears in front of complete strangers. strangers carrying luggage- its bad enough they are strangers but to cry in front of someone carrying luggage just makes you feel even worse.

my flight was scheduled to leave at 9:40am on thursday on usairways from lga to cmh (check out the fancy airport codes, am i in the know or what?!). my mother and i had been conversing for the past few hours about how bad the weather was in columbus and all the snow and ice- so needless to say, i had been frequently checking the status of my flight and kpr even called cmh and they were still open. so i spent $40 on the car from my home to lga (thanks to that lovely bonus my kind bosses gave me) and set out to the airport with high hopes. this was the last point of the day in which my hopes were high. i arrived, tipped the friendly driver and pulled my heavy suitcase (with only one wheel, thanks to usairways a few years ago) up to the self service kiosk and was prepared to check myself in. imagine my dismay when the display told me my flight had been cancelled when only five minutes earlier i had checked the status and everything was good to go. why do they even bother providing the flight status service if the information is wrong? the not-so-friendly-usairways employee told me i had to "go wait in that line" to make new arrangements. she pointed to the trembling mass of enraged people that was pretty much filling the entirety of the ticketing terminal. fabulous. a nicer usairways employee told me to call the 800 # while i was in line and make my new arrangments over the phone and then when it was my turn, they could just print my new boarding pass and it would be that easy. it is never that easy. i couldn't get through on the phone, it kept on disconnecting me. i got us to the counter and the woman was like- "oh its no good there, can you take a train or something?" hmmmmmmmm. i think not you freaking freak!

you know what? as i type this, i am losing that sense of mellow and counting my blessings and i'm getting mad again- so let me just summarize:

standby flight- full
mean, horrible, uncaring, uninformed usairways employees
next day drive to philadelphia to catch a direct flight-
cancelled
crying on phone to everyone i know and in front of people carrying baggage
mean, horrible, uncaring, uninformed and organized sick-out usairways employees
mom upset
great aunt passes away, mom terribly upset

spent christmas with kpr and champ and kpr's family-
nice surprise
had a mystery gift from santa to open on christmas morning
spent christmas day watching first season of sopranos
we're now hooked
didn't spend christmas in miserable airport crying in front of people who lost said luggage
had power (not everyone in oh did)
had lobster tail for christmas dinner
am now home safe and sound and not in miserable airport crying in front of people with lost luggage
not quite sure where my luggage is or if i will ever see it again or if i will ever get through on usairways customer service line- contemplating going to city desk by grand central station, but that would require showering and going out in the snow which is hard to do when my snow boots are lost in luggage.
expecting big package with all my christmas gifts from my family to arrive on wednesday- including champ's new bed!

so that's it. it wasn't the christmas i was looking forward to all year, but it was a great christmas none the less- i was able to spend it with kpr and champ and you can't beat that.

i hope everyone else had a very merry time and i'm looking forward to the new year!

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

the tree was erected

a little elf must have clued kpr into my need for christmas decorations because he came home after work on monday and immediately went and got the ladder out, carried it upstairs and went through the storage space looking for our holiday box. i was busy jumping up and down, squealing and clapping my hands with glee! how i love kpr!

i'm leaving tomorrow morning for oh to spend christmas with my family. kpr will be going to his folks, with champ. i'm very excited for the holiday and even more excited that i'm finished shopping, i'm not excited to pack tonight, whenever i return from my friend katrina's house (it's gonna be late, because, there will be wine and toffee making and did i mention wine?).

being a temp is great. that's what i do for money if i hadn't mentioned that already. being a temp sucks during the holidays though. two reasons- no holiday pay and no bonus. all this time i've been taking off recently has cost me double- for the trip itself and for loss of work. and next week they told me they don't need me at all- so there's another week of lost pay. ouch. the place i worked last year was kind enough to give me a very generous bonus- shockingly generous really. i had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that i would not be getting a bonus this year, because i am at a different office and i was out the week they handed out bonuses, but today i was very pleasantly surprised when my two bosses approached me at the copy machine and handed me a card and said very nicely "this is for a happy holiday and thanks a lot." it was very sweet and generous and they seemed embarrassed and i was embarrassed and said something stupid like, "oh thanks so much, you didn't have to, blah blah blah." i opened the card and was very touched, it just said "thank you" and had some money in it that i knew was from them personally and not the company. than i felt like an idiot for not getting either of them at least a card. but oh well.

this may be my last post before the holiday (or it may not, who knows)- so happy whatever you choose to celebrate or not celebrate to you all!

Monday, December 20, 2004

i never want to fly again

i've been flying a lot the last few weeks, with the holidays and such. i'm sick and tired of flying- i know all of you who travel for business, etc.. have no sympathy, but really, i never want to fly again. the weather has been terrible and each trip has been filled with white-knuckled turbulence. my last two flights have been completely blind landings because of rain and fog. my insides go crazy and i can feel my stomach producing that lovely stress-cocktail that plagues my skin and my energy levels for the next week. i try various breathing techniques, but nothing blocks that screaming in my head "the plane is going down and you are going to die!"

did i mention i have to fly back to ohio on thursday? fantastic.

kpr and i were on a cruise last week. his company sent all employees and significant others and we had a great time. we were supposed to go to cozomel, but never made it there- a passenger had a heart attack and we had to turn around and go back towards key west. they re-routed us through nassau island, the bahamas, but it was off season there and chilly and rainy. kpr and i had fun, though. i didn't get to show off my two new bathing suits (bikinis woo hoo!), but it was nice just spending time with him during the day and eating and relaxing and eating some more.

I've decided to start eating healthy again after the holidays. this is not a new year's resolution (i don't really believe in them), but something i have been meaning to do for a while, but realistically have been putting in off until after new years. i can't expect myself to give up wine and cheese during the wine and cheese season, now can i? i'm going to stop the dairy-alcohol-wheat craziness for about a month and give my system a rest. i can't give them up forever, but i know i can do it for a month. i'm going to the dr. tomorrow to get a hold on my asthma, which has been spinning out of control since september and going to start back up on supplements again. for a while i was taking so many vitamins and supplements, it drove me crazy and i just stopped everything. the cold weather is awful for my skin and lungs and immune system, so i know i gotta start taking the horse pills again.

its been great to get back to reading everyone's blog again- has helped put me in the holiday spirit. we don't have any decorations up this year because they are all in the storage space and we just haven't had the time to lug the ladder out and sort through all the stuff in storage- so no decorations- has made me a little sad, but i know that kpr has been so busy with work, he would do it if he had the time. i would get them out myself, but the ladder we have is sooooo heavy (whine) and i'd have to carry it upstairs and i know i would knock up all the walls that kpr has been working on all year. trust me, i would do it if i could.

hmm- just typing all that has made me want the decorations even more. poop.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Reality TV; it's not just for the real people anymore.

a few months ago i interviewed for a WB show called "America's Next Starlet." uggh, just thinking about it i can't believe i bothered to show up to the casting, doesn't it just sound gross? but it was around the corner from my office and i thought i'd just pop in to see what was going on and blah blah blah.

anyway- it was so amusing to look around the waiting area and size up the competition- i usually go to strictly theatre auditions, so the film and tv crowd can sometimes freak me out. one girl was wearing a long slinky gown, elbow length gloves, bright red lipstick and a feather boa! i had to admire her for her determination, the only problem was that she totally couldn't back the outfit up- she was a complete, blathering idiot- not sexy at all! most of the girls were showing some, if not lots, of cleavage. lots of makeup and fake tans. i was in my work clothes because i had just found out about the audition about an hour before i got there. as is the usual with most auditions, there was a lot of waiting and some of the girls were trying to make conversation with each other. i usually stay out of that nonsense because it always becomes a not-so-subtle resume competition. "i just finished playing the leading role in soandso's production of "thisandthat" and we got fabulous reviews! here's the postcard!" "i just shot a student film where i had to run down madison avenue in 4 inch heels! i tell you i felt just like carrie on "sex and the city"!" and all of that kindof crap.
we did a group interview with 15 people. the casting director was really sweet and basically just threw questions out there and it was a free for all as far as who dominated the conversation. i'm always very honest and up front about who i am and i answered the questions truthfully and tried to 'just be myself.' i could tell that a lot of girls were 'playing' a character- trying to be what they thought the casting director was looking for and you could totally see right through it. hello? this is reality tv- they are looking for actors to play real people here!

one girl actually said, "i think i would be a good contestant on this show because america would spend the whole season trying to figure out if my boobs are real or not."

i kid you not.

overall- i feel like i made a good impression and didn't look like a complete psycho.
afterwards they had us stand around and wait to see if we were called back. only 3 out of the 15 of us were asked to move on and i was one of them- ha! slinky dress girl went home with her feather boa between her legs. so did fake or not fake-boobs girl.
the next step was looking over a monologue- familiarizing yourself with it and then they would call you to a separate room for a one-on-one interview. the monologue wasn't too hard and i was ready when they called me in for the interview. it was on camera and i had to wear one of those fun mic things. i felt really confident about the interview and the second casting director told me i did a good job and that i would be moving on to the next round. i was given a huge questionnaire- a complete background information check. i had to go back years and years as for former roommates and jobs- they run a criminal record check- and then they ask you silly questions like "what would you do if someone left their dirty dishes in the sink all the time?"
i would pile their dirty dishes on their pillow- duh.

i dropped the packet off the next day and hoped that they would call me.

well, they never did, but, at least i got a story to tell out of it, right?

thanks to jen and her recent story (dec 7th, 11:50am) for inspiring this post.

no more new jersey

i will never again go out to an audition in new jersey.
i repeat
i will never again go out to an audition in new jersey.

i awoke at the butt crack of dawn this morning in order to get ready for a film audition at 9am, in new jersey. i had made a little rule for myself about two years ago that i would never cross the hudson for work. i had had a terrible experience with a student film, where basically penn station (the hell-hole that it is) was shut down for two hours and i was stuck on my train in a tunnel. by time i got to the train station in orange, nj, walked the mile from the station to the university (in the dark, mind you), the director had up and left me stranded. i didn't have a telephone number, she had mine, but never called to see if i was dead in a ditch somewhere. i trudged back the mile to the train station (with a suitcase full of costume pieces), and as i sat on the cold, rainy platform for and hour, waiting for the next train, i vowed never again to go out to an audition in new jersey.

fast forward two years and my insanity yesterday in agreeing to take a bus to secaucus, nj to a casting office in order to say three lines in what turned out to be a reading for a subaru commercial.

this morning, i somehow find the bus, despite the disorganized chaos that is port authority bus station (just as bad as penn station). once boarding the bus, i felt like a blind person, because i literally had no idea where i was going. just a brief description of what the bus stop looked like. i sat anxiously alert in my seat ready to hit the call button when it looked like i should get off. after about thirty minutes on the bus, i was nervous, we were nearing the end of the route and my stop hadn't come up yet. the bus driver stopped at one point and directed two men down the street to 600 meadowlands pkwy. wait! that was my stop! i asked him if he goes past that address and he said "not this bus, you have to get out here and walk about a mile down the road."

sound familiar?

ughhh. i woke up at the butt crack of dawn for this?

i get out of the bus and am delighted to learn that there is no sidewalk for most of the way. images of my body being found in a ditch somewhere flash through my mind, but i shake the thoughts away and plod ahead.

i finally reach the place, out of breath and windblown, in the middle of an industrial park by the railroad tracks.

lovely.

i go to the restroom, fix my hair and makeup and make my way up to the casting office.

which is also a vitamin distribution office.

fantastic.

i walk in and the casting director, camera man and another actor are the only ones in the room. i put my stuff down and introduce myself to everyone, handing my headshot and resume to the cd. he explains the set up and then we get down to business. the scene is three lines, i play a tough detective interrogating a 'shady' character- i tried to channel those sexy ladies from nypd blue. i read through the scene once with the other actor and am about to do a second reading when the cd is like, "great! super! fantastic! thank you so much for coming out!" and that was it.

that was it?!!

i was just getting started! that reading really sucked. it sucked a lot. it took like 15 seconds to happen and then that was it. oh my god i sucked so bad. a hour and a half commute, walking a mile down a parkway, and i only get one sucky reading?!

but we were sent on our way, we would know by 8pm tonight if we got the job. the only way i will get this job is if i am the only person who showed up for this role.

arrggghhhh! i woke up at the butt crack of dawn for this?!

the cd gave us instructions on how to get back to the bus stop and the other actor (adam) and i walked along, joking about how crazy this was. we stood around the bus stop and bullshitted for about 30 minutes, waiting for the bus. i took out my time-table and saw that the bus was supposed to arrive at 9:50. we were standing in the middle of nowhere- an industrial park behind us and up the street- train tracks across the road. tractor trailers kept on speeding by, spitting exhaust fumes in our face. i was just thankful it wasn't raining.
a woman who was out on a smoke-break asked us if we were waiting for the bus. yes, we said. "that bus doesn't come down this far, you have to walk about a mile up the road and wait at another bus stop."

you have got to be kidding me.

so we walked up the road and completely missed the 9:50 bus to new york. i checked the time-table again and, the next bus? yeah- that was in an hour.

an hour! we've been waiting for thirty minutes and now we have to wait another hour because the stupid guy told us the wrong stop?!!

arrrggghhhhh! i woke up at the butt crack of dawn for this?!!

the bus finally arrives and i get on, relieved to be going back to new york, then i realize i still have to go into work- the day hasn't even started for me yet.

good grief! no more new jersey for me.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

spicy ladies, spicy indian food

last night i had three of my favorite friends over for indian take-out. except we didn't take-out, we ordered-in, as is the thing to do in new york city. ahhhhhh, i love ordering-in, you can bask in the comfort of your own home and your fluffy pajama pants while enjoying a decent meal that someone else prepared for you. and sometimes i get to practice my spanish with the delivery men.

anyway. my friends m and k live all the way up in my old hood and we've known each other for 5 years- met at the national theatre institute and ended up in the same block in nyc (k actually took over my lease when i moved in with kpr), my other friend, m-b is danish and is in nyc for a month. she and i met in russia at a theatre program in st. petersburg.

hmmm initials are getting confusing, time for fake names. karen, meredith and mary-beth gathered at our humble abode and we enjoyed a night of yummy delicious indian food (i ordered way too much, but we ate most of it anyway), cheap austrlian shiraz (oz brand, not too bad), a fire in the fireplace and lots of laughs. karen and meredith had never met mary-beth and she is such a lovely fantastic person, i knew they all would get along. and the did. i love spending time with mary-beth because she is such a friendly, out-going person and offers a european point of view to things we americans tend to take for granted. important things like television, hollywood actors and foreign films.

we had tons of fun and lingered over the take-out container strewn table. meredith made her way over to the sofa and passed out around 9:30 (she's been working hard and has had no sleep), while mary-beth, karen and i drank more wine and oohhed and ahhed over how cute champ is. karen and meredith ended up spending the night on our two couches and mary-beth walked home to nolita, a few blocks away. i went to bed, smiling at my friends before i shut the door and promptly fell into a nice sleep.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

hmmm maybe i just answered my own question

if you google "shows my bo0bs"
my site is #10
strangely, i feel almost a sense of pride at this... ;)

but maybe i shouldn't post a pic (and don't ask for a picture of my bo0bs)? let me know what you think- do you have a pic of yourself on your site?

the original divine one talked to liz smith of ny post recently:

THE DIVINE ONE, Bette Mid ler, called from L.A. to say she is still having a ball taking her "Kiss My Brass" tour across America. Does Middle America get her? "Oh, Liz, they loved me in Omaha and in Oklahoma City and particularly in Texas — San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. New Orleans? Well, get out! They adored me!" (From others, such confidence would seem like bragging. From Bette, it's simply a joyful, appreciative statement of fact.)

Bette asked if any turkeys had survived Thanksgiving in New York? She laughed when I told her I'd recently seen a wild turkey casually strolling along a busy road in the Connecticut countryside.

Bette returns to Manhattan Dec. 13. We've missed her.



kiss my brass was one of the best shows i've ever seen (and i saw it twice dudes)

*ahem* i'm better now, thanks

i'm surfing a lot on BE today, so i realize that i had better neaten up my own pad so my new visitors don't thing i'm a complete raving lunatic (see following post).
so instead of the f-word, think happy thoughts, right?

i'm debating as to whether i should post a picture of self on my profile or not and i would love to hear your opinions. leave a comment and let me know how you feel about it and if you have a pic on your site.

ps- whoever keeps leaving almond joys out at the office obviously doesn't care about my need to be in bikini shape in two weeks for our cruise to cozumel. argggghh!

a rant about the mtfuckinga

i was stuck waiting for a train for 20 minutes today and then once i got the train i was trapped in said train for 30 minutes. apparently, a train jumped the tracks at herald square , at 4:15 this morning. yet it was still backed up 4 hours later. workers had been replacing a track and forgot to lock it into place. hello? isn't that like, half the job, locking the track into place? stupid asses.

now generally, i love public transportation, love love love it. love the idea of it that is. love the not paying for gas, insurance or car payments. love that i can read a book (or US Weekly) or do my makeup or sit and chat with a friend while someone else gets me where i'm going. love the fact that i am directly contributing to less pollution in the air, less congestion on our streets and less individual oil dependency.

but on days like today when it is raining cats and freaking dogs and i'm afraid my own dog is going to crap in the house while i'm at work because he doesn't like to poop in the rain and i'm already running late to work (what's new?) i don't want to be stuck standing on a stinky, wet, squishy, disgusting train.

the mta has a history of being poorly managed- you only have to look around your local station to see what stupid mistakes and decisions are being made. like they blocked off my normal entrance for months, in order to make repairs and install new tile (white tile, btw, which looks nice for about 5 seconds and then gets dirty because it's freaking new york city). a month after they opened the entrance, they closed it down and ripped out a quarter of the newly installed tile in order to put in a security gate. now, you stupid fucks, wouldn't it have made sense to do that in the first place, instead of incurring more costs, and wasting the work already done? not to mention inconveniencing the people who pay for everything to be done in the first place? oh- and installing that pretty tile floor was the stupidest idea ever considering it looked like shit before your workers were even done with the job. what's the point of putting in a nice floor if it's just going to show every bit of dirt in the universe and be impossible to clean? it seems like a nice, simple, gray, concrete floor would make more sense you morons. oh and it would probably cost a lot less. but cutting costs isn't really your main concern is it?

fuck you mta, fuck you fuck you fuck you, you fucking crooks.

oh and yesterday, when none of the vending machines would read credit cards- that was brilliant. thanks for totally messing up my cash budget for the week, assholes.

oh and don't you dare raise the fare again less than two years after the last fare hike you fuckers.