Thursday, January 26, 2006

assignment

this was something i had to write for a television production company that is considering having me host a live show once a week about new york fun things (social things- bars, restaurants, culture, theatre- yadda yadda) it has an interactive aspect where veiwers can text message in questions and comments. i haven't got the job yet, although i should because i may bring in their biggest sponsor- thanks to my wicked mad connections (i might have to sleep with someone for it though...)

Manhattan Moment:

Perhaps the greatest day in my history of Manhattan was the day of the BLACKOUT! in the summer of 2003. I was actually onstage, performing in the Fringe Festival, when the lights went out. Being the resourceful theatre makers that we were, we continued the show by battery-operated candlelight and flashlights making the best of it. After the final bows, we made our way out onto the street and tried to figure out what the heck was going on. We soon learned that the whole city was out and everyone was a little worried.

The next group to perform in the Festival was disappointed that their show would be cancelled. They were from the prestigious Le Coq School and had traveled all the way from Paris to present their play. The Today Show was there to film their presentation and interview the cast members. We convinced them to do the show in the street! Yeah! Come on! That’s so New York- just drop what you are doing and do a play in the middle of the street.

So they did it.

We were outside the lovely Cherry Lane Theatre- right where the street turns and has this very European feeling. We squatted down on the sidewalk and they put on a show in full costume. It was so hot and the actors had sweat streaming off them the whole time, but they didn’t care and neither did we. The show was captivating- a farcical comedy about a metropolitan city facing a water crisis (very appropriate to what we were going through at the time), and what the government proposes to do about it- a competition to see which building can use the least amount of water.

Before we knew it, a huge crowd had gathered- people coming home from work with nothing better to do- people spilling out of cafes and shops and people leaning out of their windows and lounging on their fire escapes. It was, dare I say, a little bit magical.

A Little about me:

My parents live in the Midwest but I am so not Midwest. I’m East Coast through and through. I have two dogs, they rule my life. I’ve traveled to four out of seven continents in the world and this year I will travel to two more. I was a Girl Scout for nine years and I’m not even a very nice person (I do like cookies, though). I act, sing in the shower and dance with two left feet. I'm an environmentalist and like green things. I like chicken enchiladas with mole, margaritas on the rocks with salt and New York City.

As a host I will be interested in what other people have to say, intolerant of rudeness, a little bit inappropriate and maybe not the one with the biggest hair (although I usually am). I will go off on tangents that have nothing to do with the subject at hand and have to be brought back into the conversation. I will make fun of you if you make me. I’ll make funny faces and not even know it. I will wear jeans, a lot. I will want to hear from you and make you listen to me.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

thank you thank you for all of your wonderful comments. bonnie is back to her old self now. she's still on steroids and has bouts of 'roid rage' where she runs around and around and has all this energy and doesn't know what to do with it. she is also hungry all the time and is drinking a lot of water. which leads to accidents in the house- we take her out all the time, but sometimes she just well, has to go. this isn't behavoir that she exhibited before her episodes, so hopefully when we start weaning her off the meds, this will improve. till then, we keep plenty of paper towels on hand and let her out every hour- oh and lots of baths too... we take her back to the neurologist at the begining of february and then we'll decide if she needs the surgery or not.

champ is still a champ and they are both snuggled up with me right now.

i am busily planning the wedding, getting ready to go to brazil, preparing for the kitchen installation, taking acting classes, temping, auditioning and going a little bit crazy.

we're trying to get the save the date cards out and it is just taking forever. we're meeting with vendors this week and next, but feel like we're behind in the planning. i told kpr i didn't want to do any of this big wedding planning- i am all for eloping or the destination wedding where someone does all the work for you- but we're having a big event anyway. i know it will all be worth it- but i haven't gotten to the point where all this planning is fun- i still just see it as work. oh and we're going to be horribly, horribly over budget. ridiculously over budget. but it will be worth it, right? yes, of course. i'll feel better once we nail down the vendors- we're meeting with florists and photographers this weekend. i have no idea about the reception music- that's something i haven't looked into yet. we have a date and a place, and i have my dress- i have some ideas on the flowers, and the ceremony- but there is still a lot up in the air.

i want to hear your opinion on a woman taking a man's name. i'm torn- it's not that i don't want to take kpr's name, it's just that i don't want to lose my name- i'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. thanks!

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

bonnie- redefining the definition of supercute


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Originally uploaded by divinemissk.
hi, my name is bonnie and i need brain surgery.

my mom and dad wish this were a joke, but it's not. you see, not only was i born with a heart murmur, two luxating patellas (bad knees), no natural instinct to drink water, and the cutest face on the... well, face of the earth, i was also born with what neurologists call "a malformation at the back of the skull."

everything was fine with my new mom and dad, they rescued me at thanksgiving and promptly fell in love with me, i was teaching champ who was really the boss of the house, i charmed both sets of grandparents when they came for a visit, i knocked the socks off my aunt alicia and aunt laura over christmas, and i just loved giving my granpa kisses all over his beardy face and sniffing lovingly at his ears.

yes, yes, everything was fine until the thursday before new year's eve, when all of the sudden, i didn't feel like myself any more. i couldn't stop shaking, and i was making these weird little panting faces. mom and dad were set to go out to a party (mom looked good) they had been looking forward to all month, but mom realized she should probably stay home to make sure i was ok. she thought that i was shaking because, i'm a naturally anxious little dog, but then my legs weren't working too well, so mom made dad go get dr. jp next door. we're lucky to live next door to an awesome vet who works at a vet er. he came over promptly and said to keep an eye on me and make an appointment to see an internist soon, like tomorrow.

so mom stayed home with me and was only a little bit resentful that dad got to go and get wasted with all of their friends, but she made up for it by ordering fried chicken, goat cheese salad and a brownie sundae- hey, it wasn't new years yet.

dad came home very, very intoxicated, which was funny until it got to be annoying because, hello? couldn't he see that i was still shaking and not my pretty, little self any more? mom let me sleep in the bed that night, things were pretty bad and she won't admit this to me, but i think she was afraid to wake up and find me dead in my crate the next morning. i kept shaking all night, unless she held me really tight, only then would i relax, but then after about five minutes i would thrash about and try to get up, only i didn't know where i was going and my legs, they didn't work so good.

the next morning we all woke up and mom and dad's friends had stayed the night and they all ordered breakfast. i seemed a little bit better, but then as dad went out to pick up the food, i started tremoring really bad, and my eyes drifted up, my mouth opened and i was panting weirdly and then i started foaming at the mouth. mom freaked out! i mean, freaked the heck out! thank goodness mom's friend sue was there and was like, lets go to the animal hospital and mom was like yeah- but i still have my pajamas on and i'm not wearing any underwear (her hair? atrocious!). mom scrambled around the house, getting ready and mom and sue were going to take a cab, but dad came home and drove us to the hospital, leaving all the food for sue and her boyfriend.

we went to the animal medical center in new york city. this is a fancy schmancy animal hospital where people can take their pets in an emergency. mom and dad are very thankful it exists. they are also very thankful that mom made an appointment for later in the afternoon that they just bumped up when we got there, because an emergency visit is damned expensive ($500 to walk in the door). dr jp was there, and visited with mom while they were taking care of me in the back. mom was a little embarrassed because she hadn't brushed her teeth, or her hair, or applied makeup and oh, she was crying.

the doctor's took very good care of me and told mom and dad that i needed an mri (yup, they have those things for dogs too). they also wanted to do an ekg on me because of my heart murmur, to make sure i could take the anesthesia ok. the ekg was normal and the doctor was so nice that he didn't charge us for it. i think he felt guilty because he had to send us all the way out to long island to get the mri, because their mri machine was busted. mom and dad drove me to long island vet specialists where i met a lot of very nice doctors and nurses. my neurologist was dr. dewey, who (mom likes to say), literally wrote the book on canine neurology (dr. jp gave it to mom to go through the other day, it's his text book from cornell). dr. dewey was very nice and answered all of mom's questions and was very honest with mom and dad.

they did an ultrasound to rule out a liver shunt, when that came out normal, they did the mri. while i was out, they shaved my back and did and spinal tap as well, to test for inflammation of the brain and spine.

let's count that, ekg, ultrasound, mri and a spinal tap all in one day. did i mention that i weigh about 10 pounds and am only 15 months old? they found the malformation at the back of the skull in the mri and gave me some steroids, to help with the pressure on my brain. dr. dewey told mom and dad that some dogs respond well to drug treatment and some dogs need to have surgery to remove the malformation to ease the pressure on the brain. we go back in a month to see if i will need the surgery, and for now, i'm almost back to my old self. mom is worried about the steroids though, she doesn't want me to start growing more facial hair and have my voice deepen like champ's.

mom and dad think its a good thing i'm so darn cute.