Christmas came early this year :)

This week at home has been quite relaxing and incredibly enjoyable. And I seem to have done exactly what I told people I was going to do: eat, PUPPIES, eat, eat, family, oh- and eat.

After getting off the plane incredibly delirious, my parents and I stopped by our friends Dan and Sara's house to drop some fire wood off and say hello to everyone at their beer and cheese tasting (Dan brews EXCELLENT beers and Sara makes DELICIOUS cheeses). We stayed for a quick beer and I got a short chance to catch up with people.

Then I got to see my puppies :)

I don't think they quite remembered who I was at first, but after they got their jollies of "Mom's home!!" out they both jumped in my lap and showered me in kisses. It was a glorious reunion. Oh- and so was seeing my brothers! Epic back-cracking bear hugs and making fun of me... I was definitely home.

On Sunday I met up with some of the Bakery Babes at Hollister Brewing Company :) The Mac-n-cheese is still excellent and it was so much fun catching up with the girls. After that we did a family trip (minus Logan, who was in the throws of pulling together Holiday Package) to Santa Barbara's very own REI store! I thought they did a very nice job with it, though the layout of the store threw both my mom and I off a bit. We don't know why but the store felt backward. My mom made Beef Stroganoff that night. OH MY GOD I MISSED MY MOM'S COOKING SO MUCH!!!

I had to make a few stops to the old stomping grounds and enjoy EXCELLENT raise donuts. I still have not found donuts as good as Anna's Bakery on the east coast... God they are good! We went on Monday morning early (since it was Lauren's last day) and Wednesday. It was great seeing my old bosses too :) I certainly do miss working there...

Noms!

My mom and I decorated the tree after the bakery adventure. They got their tree at Costco this year and I think it's the last year they'll do that. It was a bit tricky decorating but fun nonetheless!

Yay!

Around 9:30 I started craving an In-n-Out burger (Ya gotta understand, I'm on East Coast time...) so I went and got one and some animal fries. Totally worth it!

Animal fries. I only eat them once a year but hot damn they are delicious!!

Sunset on the way to UCSB, picking up the pops from work.

Monday evening we all went to see opening night of Holiday Package. For those of you who are not familiar with Holiday Package it is a student written, directed, and produced sketch comedy show that Dos Pueblos High School has been putting on for 41 years (or some crazy number like that). They have 2 weeks to put it on and it's all about making fun of the school, teachers, silly holiday traditions, and culminates with the male ballet. This year Logan is the Theater Arts Boosters (TAB) president so he and 3 other officers were in charge of putting it on. I must say, for only having one week to throw a whole show together, they did a fantastic job! The first night was a little rocky, and it was definitely the most risqué Holiday Package to date, but quite enjoyable.

On Tuesday I had lunch with my dear friend Sydney at Super Cucas. It was SO great seeing her and catching up with her. She is a baller and going to Panama with the Peace Corps at the beginning of January to teach high school age kids english. I love see old friends after a long stretch of time and you pick up right where you left off :) Best of luck to you Sydney! I'm hoping I'll be able to pull my act together at some point to come visit you!! We had my mom's famous flank steak for dinner... So. Freaking. Delicious.

Wednesday was fraught with purpose! Since I wasn't home for Thanksgiving and I will not be home for actual Christmas day we decided to have our early Christmas celebrations on Thursday. So naturally Wednesday is when we all did our elfing. We went and took advantage of the sale at the UCSB bookstore and had lunch at Freeb!rds :) Yumm-o!

Thursday was the Michaels Clan's Christmas celebration! Yay! My mom and I spent most of the day cooking a Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner (we called it Thankschristming dinner, cuz we're just that cool...) 

This is the best way to cook a turkey. Brine that sucker. Oh- and this was also the smallest turkey Costco had: 20 pounds.

We are such good little helpers!

So it didn't quite fit in the pan...

and it barely fit in the oven. But Mama Michaels made it work.

Stuffing makings....

Spencer carved the beast this year. Papa Michaels you trained him well!

This is pretty standard in our house...

Merry Christmas from the Michaels Clan!!

The dinner was SO GOOD!! The turkey was perfect. And per Thanksgiving tradition I ate entirely too much but loved every bite of it. My mom bought some poppers at Costco so we popped them open after dinner and had some fun with the prizes inside.

While my mom and Logan were off at Holiday Package, Spencer, my dad and I did some last minute elfing and gift wrapping. My brothers wanted gifts to open on Christmas morning so my family opened my gifts and a few others, and we got our stocking stuffers, and my dad surprised our mom with a very nice gas grill. She's been wanting one for YEARS but my dad would never cave to using a gas grill (he's a charcoal man all the way) so this was a huge surprise for her :)

Friday morning was spent lounging around with this guy. It was pretty wonderful. Then my parents and I went into a deserted IV for some Bagel Cafe. God I missed Bagel Cafe and it's chive cream cheese :)

Noms!

After bagels I figured I could not be that close to the beach and NOT make a quick stop. I miss this coastline.... So gorgeous.

The rest of Friday I napped. My mom and puppies had a terrifying experience with a rottweiler/pitbull mix. It busted through a fence and went for Gus and Xander. My mom was a baller and pinned the dog between the ground and fence, while calling Spencer to come help her and keeping Gus and Xander away from the dog. The wounds were minimal (thank goodness!!) but Xander got a straight through puncture on one of his ears, and both dogs were really shaken up by it :(

Saturday came all too soon :( My dad had to go on a camping trip with the Boy Scout troop his Assistant Troopmasters for so we said our goodbyes very early in the morning. My mom, brothers and I went to breakfast at Cajun Kitchen. It was a great last meal to have in Santa Barbara. My brothers and I said our goodbyes at the house (they wanted to stay and play the new xbox games they got for xmas). So my mom took me the airport and sent me on my way back to New York.

It was great being home, but it was incredibly odd as well. Santa Barbara didn't feel like home anymore. I felt like a guest, only visiting for the week. Besides being able to get a decent burrito anytime of the day/night, the thing I miss most about SB is my family. I also didn't realize how much I really do LOVE living in New York City. It's where I am suppose to be, right now, at this point in my life. So, while I was sad to leave my family I was quite excited to get back to the east.

My flights were boring and uneventful. THANK GOD!!! I was thrilled! I got back into the city around 1 am, passed out, and was up again at 7am to get ready to go to Philadelphia for a friend (Claire) from UCSB's wedding! I took the train there and arrived SUPER early, Kelsey had taken the train on Saturday since she was a bridesmaid. I got to see Claire in her gorgeous wedding dress; she wore a modified version of her mom's dress and looked absolutely stunning! Kelsey and Savannah looked pretty in their bridesmaids dresses and the venue was beautiful. It was interesting being at an orthodox jewish wedding. The bride and groom are separated for the entire week prior to the wedding and the moment when Claire and Arkadiy first saw each other was magical.

All in all, it was a very fun and joyous occasion and a great ending to a wonderful break!

Now the job hunt begins again. I received an email from my bosses at Dolce Vizio, and after a month of being open for breakfast they realize that they are losing more money than they are making. So they will no longer be serving breakfast. They love working with me and offered me different hours but I am taking this as my sign to get out of the food industry. So I'm hoping to find some tech work or a temp job. I am still demoing for Zola, so there's that, but I do have to pay bills/rent. Ah, adult life...

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Trekkin.

Holy. Fuckin. Shit. Who knew getting to the airport would be SO FREAKING DRAMATIC?!?! But first, let me give you a quick update on this green-eyed girl:

The last two weeks have been fairly uneventful with the exception of the last 3 days. I’ve been feeling incredibly lost the last few weeks; mentally, emotionally... Ugh! And having many more existential crises than I thought I would. So I thought about it and I haven’t done any work in a theatre in over two months. I can’t remember the last time I went that long without doing SOMETHING (acting, directing, costuming, stagehanding....). So I asked a couple friends if they knew anyone in the city who needed some help (tech theatre, coffee runs, whatever) and if they could point me in said person's direction. My friend Elisha sent out a few emails and e-introduced me to his friend Michael Roderick. Michael and I set up a time to get coffee, and Wednesday we met. I went into the meeting thinking it would be more like an interview but instead it was more a “if you could have your dream job in the theatre what would it be and how can we get you there?” type deal. It was a fantastic hour talking about networking and people he could introduce me to in the New York theatrical scene. He invited me to a reading of a musical the next day and I gladly accepted.

The musical was called Apathy and it was probably the most excruciatingly painful two and a half hours I have ever spent in a theatre BUT I got to meet an awesome composer (and of course I cannot remember his name for the life of me, I should probably work on that...) and Joan Kane, who was recently named one of New York’s most influential people by nytheater.com. Michael mentioned that I had just moved here a couple of months ago. She asked me where I was from,

“Santa Barbara, CA.”

“No way! My son went to college out there! I was actually just there visiting him last week. BEAUTIFUL town! Did you go to school there as well?”

“Yes I did! I actually recently graduated from UCSB’s BFA Acting program.”

“Oh that’s wonderful!”

And then it was time for us to file into the theatre for the reading. Right before it started she leaned over and told me to email her my headshot and resume and handed me her card :)

Totally made the next painful 2+ hours worth it. I did some research about her company (Ego Actus) and loved what they’re all about. They’re putting up Pizza Man next month at a theatre in Midtown, I definitely plan on attending.

Friday I worked all day, went home and napped, then met Kelsey at the New School for the New Visions 2011 festival. We saw 2 plays The Boston Marriage by David Mamet and The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel. Both plays were fabulous and very well done. After every show the New School does they have a little wine and finger food reception, which is awesome but last night I decided I should probably head home and pack since I hadn’t yet and it was 11 pm.... It was at that point that I decided to pull an all nighter.

It didnt take me very long to pack. I forgot how little I really need to take home with me haha 1) I don’t have a whole lot here and 2) I still have a full closet back home.

Once I had finished packing I decided to keep myself up with a How I Met Your Mother marathon. It worked until around 2:15 am... then I decided to take a 30 minute nap. Thank GOD I woke up in time to head down to catch my shuttle!

Now the dramatic beginning to my first fairly epic trip home for the holidays.....

I’ve used Super Shuttle to get to and from the airport here in New York both times I’ve flown here. They’ve been professional and gotten me where I needed to be pretty much on-time (at least when I was heading to the airport, heading into the city is a whole other ball of wax). After today I’m not sure I’m going to use them again and here’s why: 

The driver picked me up on time (3:15 am), and the next three passengers were picked up in a timely fashion as well. The next set of people we picked up however were not. I swear we waited outside their apartment for a good 15-20 minutes. Did the driver call headquarters and have them notify the passengers we were waiting? No. Did he do anything to move us along to the early flights we were all catching? Nope. He read until they came outside. The next two people we waited 10 minutes for, a piece. By the time we got on the road to the airport it was 4:15 am... And then we took the most roundabout way to get to JFK. Thankfully my terminal was the first one we stopped at. And here’s where it gets REALLY crazy.

The driver of our van cut in front of this SUV who was just sitting at the green light at the terminal drop off. He pulls up curbside and myself and another passenger get out. The driver goes to open the back doors to get our bags and the guy he had cut off pulled his SUV so close that he couldn’t open the door without hitting this other guys bumper. So, instead of pulling forward more (like ANYONE else would have done) he calls the other driver out and starts tapping/hitting this guy's car. As soon as the SUV man opened his mouth I knew this wasn’t going to end well. I don’t like to stereotype at all but I kind of felt like I was in an episode of Jersey Shore or The Real Housewives of New Jersey mixed with some kind of Eastern European flair (because I can't tell exactly where our driver was from).... Things begin to escalate between the Super Shuttle driver and the SUV man, his wife, and teenage son. Meanwhile, this other guy and I are standing on the curb, both looking for security, and really just wanting to get inside and on our way. Finally the Super Shuttle driver opens the back door and it taps the front bumper of the SUV... and the fighting begins. Yup, you read that right: FIGHTING. At 5 in the morning!! It started with shoving and pushing. Then the teenager gets involved and they go behind the van, punches are thrown; the people still in the van don't know what to do... All the while I’m saying out loud “Are you fucking kidding me? It’s too fucking early for this shit...” The other passenger agrees. Airport security slowly saunters up and says “Hey! Stop this shit!” I kid you not, that's exactly what he said.

After about 5 minutes of fighting, I get my one carry on item and head to security. I didn't even mind the crazy full body scanners after that, I just wanted to get through and sit at my gate!!

At the moment I am sitting at my gate; delirious from the lack of sleep mixed with my excitement of going home. Its a weird combo and I definitely feel like I'm on drugs.

I really hope this mornings excitement isn’t an indicator of how the rest of my travels home will be.... Only time will tell.

8 HOURS LATER...

So, this morning was totally an indicator of how the rest of my day as gone.

We boarded the plane on time, everything was going great. So I decided it was safe to pass the fuck out. I wake up an hour and a half later, open the window and see we're on a tarmac. "Sweet! I slept all flight! Hello, Phoenix!" And then I realize we're still in New York. Then I hear the Captain say that there is a problem with the hydraulics on the right engine and that we would be back at a gate shortly. I turn on my phone. It's 7:45 am.... I start freaking out a bit because something like this (where I'm going to miss my connecting flight) has never happened to me before. Shows you how much I've flown haha.

They have us deplane so they can run a full diagnostic on the right engine... I stand in line to figure out what the hell I'm going to do while I'm texting my mom who is asleep because it's SUPER early on the west coast and not 15 minutes later they have us boarding the plane again. I quickly texted my mom the situation, asking her to call the airline to find out about my connecting flight in Phoenix.

I'm all for safety first, especially when it comes to flying. But the two and a half hour delay was caused by a malfunctioning indicator light.... seriously dude. Whatever. As soon as the plane took off I passed out. I slept for most of the flight, which was so needed!! The flight itself wasn't terrible. I had an ENTIRE row to myself so I could stretch out :) We hit a bit of rough turbulence but it wasn't crazy.

We arrived in Phoenix around noon. I went to US Airways Customer Assistance counter (like most of the people on my flight) and got my new boarding pass for my connecting flight. I felt bad for the customer service people working the desk. People were being such bitches to them even though the problem occurred in NY... I smiled and said hello as I approached the counter, told her politely where I needed to go and handed her my original Phoenix boarding pass. As she was typing she asked me if I worked in customer service, I replied that I did and she thanked me for understanding and being flexible with the situation. I told her I knew it wasn't her fault and that I would get home at some point :) She wished me a "Happy Holidays."

After I got my boarding pass I found a bar that served food as well since I had not eaten an actual meal since 3 pm Friday. I enjoyed a delicious beer and some yummy nachos. It was EXACTLY what I needed at that moment.

Now I'm sitting here at my gate, charging my phone, waiting for my 5:49 pm flight home, enjoying the silliness of traveling during the holidays :)

Two months?! Hold up- No, I've been here longer than that. Right?

I am a workin woman once again! And gosh it feels AMAZING to have some structure back in my life!!

I have been employed at Dolce Vizio Tiramisu for a few weeks now. They hired me last month but I didn't start working until Nov 14th. My one training session consisted of me proving a could make bomb coffee drinks and the owners (a young Italian couple from Milan) explained the way the tiramisu works. That's it. Tiramisu and coffee... oh an croissants. Filled with nutella. I might get fat at this job because I definitely eat one every shift. I work 6 days a week. Most days I'm only there for 4 hours (starting at 7 am - I know, I would get a job that has me up before the sun...) and have the rest of my days to do whatever my little heart desires. Excepts for Sundays. Sundays I work a 9 hour shift, which isn't so bad if you're working in a theatre or at some other job that is face paced. But when it's a ghost town from the time you open until 2 hours before you close it gets REALLY boring. It's a cute little place but I'm kind of ready for the next thing.

Kelsey's dad also hooked me up with a job doing in-store demos for Zola Acai. It's a pretty awesome company and I'm not going to lie, I'm shocked that a drink as good as Zola can actually be REALLY good for you!! I wont give y'all the who sales pitch but you should try it. Iz real good. The job itself is pretty simple: show up to a grocery store, set up the table, sample/talk up the drink/hand out coupons, tear down and find out how many bottles you sold. And the people at corporate are super nice! I love it when you can tell over the phone that someone likes there job and really believes in what they are selling. Plus they pay well :)

This Thanksgiving was my first turkey day away from home and my family. Thank GOD I have Kelsey and her awesome extended family!! They scooped me up like I was one of their own. We step out for our mini tour of New England on Thursday morning. Our bus was leaving Port Authority at 9 am, so we left our apartment around 8 - and thank goodness we did! Kelsey and I both did not know the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route surrounded our block. So that was super fun to discover. It took us 30 min and a subway to get there when we could have walked there in 5 min any other day of the year. So once we got there we asked a guy in Port Authority uniform and asked him if he could point us in the direction of where we could figure out where our bus was leaving from. He told us our gate so we hopped in line. I don't know what it is about us but people kept coming up and asking us where their terminal was... like we would know that. It was pretty amusing, especially because we realized we were in the wrong line. Kelsey and I were the last 2 people on the bus! If we hadn't made it we would have had to wait a few hours for the next one.

We took the bus to Southbury, Connecticut where Kelsey's Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Brad live. There were 25 people at their house for Thanksgiving! It was crazy! Most of it was Kathleen's brothers, sisters, and their kids but I did get to meet Kelsey's grandma, Pricilla, and her Aunt Sally and Uncle Mike. It was fun getting to meet more Foltzs. We pretty much ate and drank all day starting at noon, with dinner being served around 3. It was a little weird eating so early but man was it delicious! Then we rested for a few hours, stretched out, and went back for desserts :)

Sally and Mike surprised us with a hotel room in town (we were prepared to sleep on the floor), and boy was it nice sleeping in a full bed by myself! It was SO sweet of them to do that for us, and we couldn't thank them enough!!

The next day we got breakfast at this tiny dinner in town called Dottie's. And I found donuts that are comparable to Anna's cake donuts. So. Good.

After breakfast, Sally and Mike drove us to Kelsey's brother David's house in South Grafton, Massachusetts. It was great seeing David, his wife Alyssa and their ADORABLE kids Jonathan and Olivia again. I had met them briefly at graduation. We spent the rest of Black Friday and Saturday hanging out and playing with the kids. It was so relaxing and fun. We headed back to the city Saturday night because I had to work all day Sunday.

Miss Olivia and I

This apparently is my family's new post Thanksgiving dinner tradition. Bunch of crazies....

Marcel and our little Christmas tree :)

I took this one a run through the park a while ago. I still can't believe I live here sometimes.

Fall on the High Line.

Coming home from work on Sunday night. It was incredibly creepy.

NYFD. Doin work.

There are times when I'm walking to the subway on my way home from work and I realize that I've only been here for two months. TWO. It's crazy. I feel like I've been here for at least six months. I've had so many adventures, met so many awesome people, and am slowly but surely living my dream. At the start of my long career. And I suddenly don't feel so bad that I haven't gone on an audition. That I haven't been cast in a show yet. That I'm not already starring on Broadway. No, it's all about the baby steps. The small victories. 

I know I have a long way to go, but I can't tell you how excited I am for the journey. No matter where it takes me.

Wait a minute- What happened to Thanksgiving?

I spent most of this last week either in bed or on the futon, waging a battle with a gnarly head cold.

But I did have a few short hours last Tuesday where I was feeling human and took myself on a power walk around Central Park. This might have been a mistake seeing as I walked from my apartment, up to the Reservoir, around the Reservoir and back..... roughly 7 miles. It was a down hill battle for a while after that.

Since moving to the East Coast I've noticed a lot of difference between here and home. People say "Can I help the next on line?", donuts are not NEARLY as good as Anna's Bakery donuts, restaurants and places of business stay open later... Oh, and the Christmas season starts the day after Halloween. Many places have their Christmas decorations up already: Radio City Music Hall (where the Rockettes have begun performances of their Christmas Spectacular - which Kelsey, Leah and I are seeing on New Years Eve!!), Macy's has decked their halls (it's like walking into a Christmas movie), and even Duane Reade has Christmas decorations for sale already....

Macy's

What happened to Thanksgiving?!?! Remember Thanksgiving? That day where lots of people watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and then a football game? That day where you get to eat entirely too much excellent food and spend time with family? Thanksgiving is not a holiday to skip over people!

I guess I'm more aware of Christmas' take over of November because this year, and for the first time ever, I wont be with my family for Thanksgiving. This year I will be joining Kelsey's extended family for the feast since she has a TON of family surrounding us and my closest relatives live in Virginia. While I'm really bummed I can't be with my crazy family, I am STOKED to see the rest of New England, since I've never been anywhere on this coast other than NY and Virginia. ROADTRIP! Woohoo!!

But wait- there's more exciting news! I started my job at Dolce Vizio Tiramisu today! I went in for a quick training session yesterday. My bosses are awesome (thus far), the job is really easy, and I work mainly mornings (except Sundays when I get to work from 1030a-8p... yep, 9 hour shift....). I'm really excited about it and am getting really positive vibes from this job. Plus one of the walls in windows on a fairly busy corner in the West Village which means EXCELLENT people watching :) The one con thus far: it has me up before the sun again... I guess some things never change.

A month and a half in and I finally have structure back in my life :)

The Adjustment Period.

So, it's been a little while since I've blogged about life in the big city... I'm not going to lie, the last week and a half have been a little rough and not nearly as exciting as my first few weeks here but there have definitely been some good times.

• I got drinks with some old friends from high school that are living in the city. It was so good catching up with them!

• I got to babysit one of Kelsey's family friends 8 month old. He was just precious and their apartment was amazing! It's been a while since I've babysat a child that young but who doesn't love getting paid to put an adorable baby to bed and then watch tv?

• I spent more time in Central Park, walking all around the lower half of the park (everything below the Reservoir). Fall is definitely here. I brought Marcel along too. He quite enjoyed the fall foliage but is in need of a sweater....

the park is so lovely this time of year.

No big deal, just a an Egyptian Obelisk behind the Met...

• IT SNOWED!!! IN OCTOBER!!! Crazy right?! I was on the phone with my mama Saturday morning and glanced at the window to see snow flurrying down! It was so pretty :) Not quite as pretty to walk through though. It didn't stick at first so the ground was very slushy. But I survived my first snow in the city, now I just need some snow boots....

I wish I had taken more pictures with an actual camera but you can still see it on the rooftop of the church we live next to.

• That Saturday night Kelsey and I went to a Halloween party at her classmate Tristan's place up in Harlem. I dressed up as a bumblebee again and Kelsey went as a hipster (and stayed in character most of the night, it was hilarious!) Since it was snowing and we were going to Harlem we decided to cab it... good call on our part. It was a really fun party filled with beer pong and flip cup without the craziness of IV's Halloween craziness. We stayed there until 3 am, then decided to cab it back to Midtown, grab some pizza and spent the rest of our night watching The Shining (which we had started watching earlier that night). It was the perfect way to end a great night. 

Hipster Kelsey

Bumblebee and the Hipster

• The actual night of Halloween was pretty uneventful. I was really sad that we didn't get any trick-or-treaters but who wants to raise their kids in Midtown right next to Times Square? No one haha. Kelsey was in the Village Parade and was interviewed by NY1! My roomie's famous! I spent the evening watching the chaos of the parade on TV and watched Ghost Hunters live show. Here's a picture of Kelsey on TV:

• Kelsey's dad came to the city and took us out to dinner, which was awesome and delicious! We went to the Blue Water Grill in Union Square. Oh. My. Goodness! They had lobster mashed potatoes that were simply heaven. I want to find some lobster to recreate them!

• I FINALLY heard back from my new boss at the tiramisu shop. After weeks of back and forth emailing I finally start working this Sunday (Nov 13)!!! I have a quick training session and then start opening the shop Monday. They are just starting to do breakfast items (coffee and pastries) and I am so thankful I have so much experience doing just that! Thank you Anna's Bakery!!

• Last Friday Kelsey and I saw the second year's production of Execution of Justice at The New School. It was so good. They play is centered on the trial of Dan White, the man who killed Harvey Milk and the Mayor of San Francisco in the late 70s. There were some amazing performances and the show was just devastating, knowing the outcome going into the show and the fact that there's nothing you can do... Gah! It just rips your heart out.

I've definitely had more than one "What the hell am I doing here? Did I make the right decision moving out here? Maybe I should have stayed in SB for a bit longer... Do I really want to go into this profession? Why didn't I major in something useful?!?! WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE??" moments over the last few weeks. Those moments plus this cold I've been battling mixed with the fact that my grandfather is in the hospital and I'm 3000 miles away from my family resulted in quite the existential crisis. Thankfully, I live with my best friend. She is awesome and amazing and I really don't know what I would do without her sometimes. I'm not quite out of this funk, but I'm getting there. I'm trying to put more structure in my life, and I know once I start working regularly I'll bounce back to my hardworking self. I'm applying to a few theatre internships in the city, thinking about auditioning for grad schools sooner rather than later, and working on/looking for monologues and auditions. 

I'm starting to realize now what a bold move I made, one that not many people my age have the balls or gumption to do. And I'm glad I did. I'm living my voice project out, jumping off that platform in the dark knowing that if I fall flat on my face my friends and family will be there to help me pick myself off the floor. So here I go. I'm leaping, jumping, trusting it will all turn out for the best in the end.

The honeymoon phase is definitely over, the adjustment period is rough, but this is but a slight bump in the road that is my great love affair with New York.

Wait- I've only been here for 3 weeks? What.

I know I haven't been here all that long (and still feel fresh off the boat most days), but this week felt normal. I don't feel like I'm on vacation anymore; I feel like I'm settling into my life here on the East Coast.

While this week was fairly uneventful, there were still some awesome adventures. Here's a highlight reel for y'all:

• I got around to doing my laundry (SUPER exciting, I know). Fortunately, our building has an in-progress laundry room. Unfortunately, I do not have any fun laundromat stories....

• I did go to Central Park on Tuesday. Fall weather is finally here!! The days are crisper and chillier. It's been excellent sweater weather :) AND the leaves are slowly but surely changing colors. I feel like such a little kid sometimes: stepping on crunchy leaves, looking up at the trees... I REALLY want to rake a pile of leaves together and jump into it, but I think I've going to have to wait a lil bit longer for that to happen. My iPhone camera did not do the beautiful afternoon light streaming through the trees justice... But here's a picture anyway.

• I just about died with excitement when I saw this pop up on my twitter feed:

And then after a little internet research, and nerding out with Michaela, I found this and did die with excitement:

Now, I don't know if y'all have seen the YouTube video "Marcel the Shell with Shoes on," but I'm a little obsessed with it. He's just so stinkin' cute!! Watch it!! 

• I bought my plane tickets home for my visit in December! I'll be Santa Barbara from Dec 10-17th. Yay!!

• On Thursday I went birthday elfing since Kelsey's birthday was on Friday. I had quite the adventure wandering around the city looking for things. It is so difficult to find crate paper streamers in this city!! I went to like 5 different stores before I found some at the Rite Aid in the West Village. I wrap her gift and decorated the apartment with orange and black streamers, as well as some cheesy green spider webs. Our apartment looks ready for Halloween now (minus the carved pumpkins) :

• Also on Thursday I went to see Master Shakespeare's Loves Labors Lost with Charlie at The Public Theater in the East Village. I met him at his work and we decided to eat there since they have apparently have excellent Mac n Cheese and when have I ever turned Mac n Cheese down? Never. I must say, it was pretty darn good. Not quite as good as Mama Michaels' nor quite as good as Hollister Brewing Company's either, but easily the best I have had in a restaurant in New York City. The show itself was much better than the last production Kelsey and I saw (in Santa Barbara at the Granada) and WAY better than the last play that Charlie and I saw (We Live Here). It was a more concise version of the script and I enjoyed the actors performances. The set was very minimal, which I always enjoy more when it comes to Shakespeare, and the costumes were great. Overall, a very pleasant evening of theater. After the show we decided to have a few drinks and went to the Queen Vic, a very chill English pub in the East Village. We grabbed a table by the windows and saw some interesting street activity: a man yelling at another man (who was standing on the sidewalk, dealing drugs and not being discrete about it, at all) who we later learned was a former employee of the bar and the man yelling at him was the owner.... it was crazy. Then there were the not so subtle guys who would literally stop in the middle of the sidewalk and stare at me through the window... Now, I usually never notice when people are looking at me (which my mom finds incredibly amusing) but that was just ridiculous, hard NOT to notice, and I found it to be quite silly. Anyway, it was a fun night: great conversation, great beer, great company. What more could you ask for on a Thursday night?

• FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21ST WAS KELSEY'S 23RD BIRTHDAY!! YAY!!! I got up earlier than I had been all week to go see her co-lab midterm in the West Village at 9 am. Co-lab is a class where the first year actors, directors, and playwrights work together to create new work (at least, that is my understanding of it). The playwrights were given an area in the West Village to wander around, find a space and assigned to write a 3-5 minute play to take place there. Then the directors were assigned a playwright once the plays had gone through their first draft. Then the directors were given actors. You get the picture. So I grabbed a cup of coffee and wandered over to the Hudson River park until I hard heard from Kelsey where they were starting. It was chilly and windy but still a beautiful morning! Kelsey told me that they were starting at the Highline Park (which is AWESOME!) so I headed over there and stumbled upon her class. It was cool to see the work and meet a lot of the people in her class. It reminded me of the outdoor movement piece we did sophomore year with Jeff. After the last piece I headed back to Midtown, stopping at TJs to get eggs since I had forgotten I needed them to bake Kelsey's funfetti birthday cake. I got home and started baking, worked on my acting resume a little bit, read, cleaned, decorated the cake and then passed out. I woke up around 5:30 and got ready to meet Kelsey at the bar down the street from her school. It was great meeting her classmates and chatting with them. Good people. Around 8:30 we decided dinner would be an excellent idea before we headed to the haunted house. Kelsey, Nicole (one of Kelsey's classmates), and I made our way to a restaurant called The Riviera Cafe; Kelsey's other classmate Kyle joined us shortly after we got there. We talked about grad schools and grad school auditions among many other things. It was really fun. After dinner we met up with a few more of Kelsey's classmates and headed to the haunted house Kelsey wanted to go to on the Lower East Side, where we met up with Dom and Maggie. It was so good to see them! We bought our tickets and stood in line for what seemed like FOR-EV-ER! It was a tad bit ridiculous. Now- I do not do so well with haunted houses. I love working in them, but for whatever reason the waiting in line for them (the anticipation of the terrifying unknown I know is immediately in front of me) causes mild panic attacks. Luckily, we were going to one based on fairytales and had two-dimensional sets (like a pop up book) combined with the Brazilian Bamboozler silliness (Velson is one of Kelsey's classmates, things get lost in translation) kept my mind elsewhere. The actual haunted house was well done, and a pretty cool concept. I wont lie, I had my face buried in Kelsey's back anytime we walked from room to room (it was guided) but it was still good haha. The second part of it was dumb. They had you go up to the second floor of the building and had you participate in an "experiment on fear." They showed a video, tried to make the crowd believe this really was an experiment by telling us we were being videoed, and asked stupid questions. Then they had us walk through single-file through a claustrophobia simulator (which if anyone was claustrophobic they would have freaked the fuck out and died) which, in my opinion, was dumb and they should have explained what it was before sending anyone through it. The tunnel lead us to a poorly devised lab set. We sat in a semi-stadium seating formation and they demonstrated some common fears... like stage fright (they shined a special on Kelsey, had her come up on-stage, do a clown dance, and answer a few questions in front of everyone. Clearly they should not have chosen an actor.) By the time we got out of the haunted house it was 12:45/almost 1 am. We adventured to the Upper East Side to a bar where Tristan, one of Kelsey's classmate's, works. We took the subway from the Lower East Side up to Midtown to catch the 6 train. Unfortunately for us the platform was under construction so we had to exit the station and walk to another entrance to catch the train. I can't tell you how many stairs we climbed and how many escalators we road on to reach the surface. It was like we had been in the bowels of hell, the center of the Earth, chillin with the dinosaurs. It was ridiculous. Anyway, we made it. And when the 6 train was going to be 17 minutes we decided to cab it the rest of the way. It was closer to 2 am by the time we made it to the bar, but lots of people were still there and burst into "Happy Birthday" when Kelsey entered. It was great! Charlie was there and we talked for a while, I met more classmates, sat at the bar and talked to Kels... It was fun. At 3:30 Kelsey and I decided it was time to go home. We hailed a cab, came home and ate cake while Kelsey opened the rest of her presents. It was a MIGHTY long day, but man was it fun :)

• SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22ND I don't know how Kelsey made it to work before 9 am, but I certainly slept in until 11. I worked on my acting resume some more with the info that Kelsey has been passing along to me from her casting workshops (which is SO INCREDIBLY HELPFUL!!). I signed up last week for this thing called ActorFest 2011, which is put on by Backstage, so I had to get my headshots/resume ready for the real acting world. Once I had a finalized draft I made my way to Kelsey's cafe and hung out with her for a while. She gave me a few more suggestions for my resume, we ate a delicious veggie quesadilla, and looked at the gossip magazines the owner stocks the cafe with. I headed home around 8 and finished up my resume, printed it out, made sure my adjustments fit the 8x10 picture and headed to the FedEx Office that is across the street. It's open 24/7 and is awesome. Printed and cut my resumes very easily and headed home to staple them to my headshots. Around 1 am I decided I should get some sleep since ActorFest 2011 started at 9 am.

• ACTORFEST 2011: Oh my word. I am really glad I went for the free option because this place was a ZOO!! I got to the block the pavilion was on around 9:15 and the line to get in wrapped pretty much around the ENTIRE block. So I hopped in line and waited. And waited. There was a lot of good people watching, which was nice. There were a lot a little kids/younger kids/teenagers there with their stage moms.... yeah. I finally got into the building and it was sheer madness. I snagged a free bag and wandered around the entirely too small showroom, got some info about classes, met Kelsey's Alexander Technique teacher (small world), and dropped of my headshot/resume with 20 casting directors/agencies. That part was pretty cool. Then I left, haha. I walked across the street to Old Navy and took advantage of the sale they were having. Yay running pants!!

So there you have it. Week 3. Hopefully next week I will have some new job stories. I'm currently in negotiations with the tiramisu shop. I have the job, we're just figuring out the hours/week situation. 

Hope all is well wherever y'all are!

love,

jen

Still in the honeymoon phase...

Week #2, and what a week it was!!


SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9
Spent the morning recovering from the creepers of Saturday night. Hung out with Curtis the Cadet in Central Park and Kelsey joined after she got out of rehearsal. We walked around for a bit, looking for a snack but we never stopped for anything. We made our way to Rockafeller Plaza, hung out in front of the GE building entrance and decided/figured out how I was going to causally bump into Andy Samberg, have him fall madly in love with me and propose. Our plan was elaborate and silly, and would totally work if my life was a romantic comedy or sitcom. But alas. It is not...

After plotting, we meandered over to the Magnolia Bakery and bought some mini cupcakes. They are delicious!! If you've never gotten a cupcake from Magnolia I HIGHLY recommend it :)

Then we all decided we were hungry/wanted to grab a drink. So we walked back to the apartment and decided to eat at Langan's (the Irish pub Kelsey and I live above). We got some beers and ordered our food. I got their Mac n Cheese (shocking, I know.) and wasn't impressed. Mom: yours is still the BEST EVER. When we realized it was almost 9 (aka Dexter time) we tried to flag down our waitress but she had apparently disappeared. After briefly contemplating dining and dashing, we got our bill, paid, and ran upstairs making it into the apartment right as Dexter was starting! Whew!

After Dexter I went on a little mini adventure to Duane Reade to buy a hat for my first day of training at Bonsignour. The one closest to our place didn't have any, so I ventured to the Times Square one.... and they had one. I love living by Times Square, but good God there are ALWAYS a ton of people out there who don't know how to walk in a crowd! Move to your right people! It's not that hard!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 10
I got a very early start today, New York is pretty peaceful at 6 in the morning! I needed to be at the cafe at 8, so I hopped on the 7 am F train and walked to the cafe from the 14th St stop. I was 30 min early. So I wandered around the sleepy West Village for a bit, I finally have my bearing there. The roads are chaotic but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite neighborhoods in this city.

Now, the vibe I originally got from this place, when I dropped off my resume/interviewed, was chill. Boy was I wrong! Not only did they throw me to the wolves of customers without walking me through any of the correct prices, but all they "taught" me how to do was make coffee drinks (thanks but I already know how to do all that...) Once the coffee/breakfast rush was through the manager kind of explained lunch (not very well) and the madness really started.... They had me train for 8 hours with only one 10 minute break. I'm not sure about labor laws here, but back in California you are required to provide a 30 minute break for an 8 hour shift. Not cool, man. Things finally slowed down around 3 and by the time 4 rolled around I was SO ready to go home. The manager seemed to really like me and asked me to come back and train for another 8 hrs Tuesday. Then she handed me $40 and I said sure!

I walked my weary bones down to Kelsey's cafe and collapsed in a chair, suddenly realizing that I never wanted to go back to that job ever again and kicked myself for saying I'd go in tomorrow. $40 is nice to have in your pocket but that's only $5/hour and it's just not worth it. Kelsey gave me some Creamy Tomato soup and a cookie and life was MUCH better :)

I walked to the subway station and when I got home I passed out. Kelsey texted me a bit later saying that she was talking to the couple that owns the tiramisu place across the street. They were talking about the hiring process and that they wanted to hire someone else and Kelsey (being the AWESOME best friend she is) of course dropped my name and that I had experience working in a bakery, to which they ran across the street to get a business card for Kelsey to give me. How awesome is that?! So I let the manager at Bonsignour know that I was not going to be come in anymore and thanked her for the opportunity. Dolce Vizio Tiramisu here I come!!

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11
Oh the Post Office.... how I love/hate thee. So last week some of my boxes arrived while I was asleep and our doorman/super wasn't around so they couldn't deliver them. I tried to get them to redeliver (which they said they would on the sorry we missed you card) but it turns out they don't redeliver to my building. So I adventured.

I walked to our Post Office on 42nd St. It was quite a nice walk. The sky was overcast and looked like rain and it wasn't hot. So I get to the Post Office and explain that I can only take one box at a time but that I would be back to get the others later that afternoon. The guy gave me a hard time at first, telling me I should rent a car at Avis down the street and a bunch of other bullshit to which I said no. He smiled and got me one of my three boxes. I walked down the block to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to hail a cab, having some construction workers ask me if I needed help. Hailed a cab no problem. The cabbie saw my box and opened the hatch so I could put it in the car and drove me no problems. $4 well spent.

I opened the box, made sure my stuff was ok (since the box was pretty beat up) and headed back to the Post Office. The next box the postal worker gave me was the heaviest box I mailed- 45 lbs. I struggled to the bus terminal, but I made it without the help of the same construction guys and hailed another cab. This one didn't open his trunk when he saw my big ass heavy box and rolled his eyes when I asked him to pop the trunk. This should have been my tell him to move along and hail another cab moment, but did I? No. I got in and told him I wanted to go to west 47th between 6th and 7th, very clearly. He repeated correctly and I confirmed, west 47th between 6th and 7th. The asshole drove the wrong way, and when I corrected him fairly quickly he started to yell at me, saying that he though I said west 27th st. To which I politely said "No, I said west 47th and you confirmed that." To which he yelled at me more and muttered things in a language I couldn't understand. Twice the price I paid the first time I was on my block. He told me the price, I paid that exact price, and asked for a receipt since I paid with a card. Instead of giving me my receipt he yelled at me "WHY NO TIP?!" To which I calmly said,

"You took me in the wrong direction, then yelled at me when I corrected you. I don't feel that service deserved a tip."

"But I got you here!!" he yelled some more. At this point I am flabbergasted. He yelled some more and I said FINE and went to hand him a dollar. To which he said, "NO!!"

So I said "Look, I'm sorry, could you please just open the trunk?" getting sassy at his angry. He opened the trunk and yelled "Sorry doesn't pay my bills!!" To which I responded "Don't I know it!!" as sassily as I could.

He drove away. People were looking at me in a concerned, are you ok, that guys is a total douchebag kind of way. I walked into my building, got into the elevator, and silently began to cry. I am too nice for this city. I held my own against that asshole, but man!! Did it get me...

I decided that was good enough for one day, took a nap, and then unpacked my boxes.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12
I went back to the Post Office and walked my last, lightest box I shipped home. What a workout!! After unpacking the box, I made my grocery list and headed to the West Village to drop off my resume at the tiramisu shop. This place it so stinkin cute! And clean!

After wandering around the Village I headed to TJs and got my groceries. I love Trader Joe's. I am so happy they have it here in the city!

I went home, put away groceries, made some dinner and watched Wednesday night TV. Gotta love Modern Family, Happy Endings, and Revenge back to back... even if the main girl in Revenge is a horrible actor.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13
What a day, what a day this day was!! It was so nice to have a productive day after the last 2 days.

I ordered more headshots from the photo shoot I had with Emily Hart-Roberts before I moved. I think I found a winner :) What do you think?

After I finalized that big decision, I submitted myself for an audition for a regional theatre company in Colorado. Pretty cool. One step at a time.

I then decided to walk to the Bed, Bath & Beyond on Broadway at 65th St. It was overcast again and misting a little but it was quite a pleasant walk up 7th Ave, through Columbus Circle (saw Anderson Cooper filming up in his studio...), and to the 3 story BB&B. I spent so much time in there! It was a little dangerous. Thank goodness for coupons and a gift card (thank you Parker Family!!).

After making my purchases I found the subway station and headed home. It was a little tricky since the subway was packed but I made it work.

The best news arrived later that afternoon!! The box that I had shipped the week before I moved, that was now almost 2 weeks late FINALLY arrived!! I now have my towels, sheets, pillows, blankets, and DVDs!! Woohoo!!

I also received an email from the owners of Dolce Vizio Tiramisu and we set up an interview for Friday afternoon!

Good day!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14
I spent the morning cleaning up my messes from unpacking boxes and such.

I ventured into the West Village for my interview at Dolce Vizio Tiramisu. It went really well!! The owners are a very cute, young Italian couple and they were so excited about my interest in working there. They opened in Mid-August and are now wanting to expand to do small breakfast pastries and expand their espresso capacity. One of the owners is going to Italy for a week so they aren't going to start me right away.

After my interview I decided to celebrate with a latte and enjoy a book at a coffee shop. Unfortunately there weren't any seats available so I decided to walk around the Village for a bit. And then it started pouring!! I ran into the nearest store, which happened to be Rite Aid, and spent the time looking at horrible birthday cards. When the rain passed I walked to the subway station and took the train to Bryant Park. I walked around for a bit, chatted with my mama, and then realized I should go home to eat before the show.

I met Kelsey outside the New School for Theater building. It was cool getting to see the spaces. We saw Master Shakespeare's Henry VI. It was one of the best history plays I've seen. The set was very simple, as were the costumes, and the lights. OH MY GOD the lighting design made the show! Here's a link to a stop motion video of the production: http://vimeo.com/30473723

After the show, Kelsey, Curtis (who met us at the show), and I made our way to the subway and headed home. We watched Clue, which neither of them had seen before. It was silly as always.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15
Kelsey had class and work all day. Curtis and I got breakfast at Ellen's Stardust Diner. All of the waiters and waitresses sing. It was a little loud for breakfast but the food was good, as was the singing.

After breakfast Curtis and I made our way to the American Museum of Natural History!! It was awesome! We started with the dinosaurs and then wandered around the entire museum. I think we saw just about everything.

Instead of taking a cab back to Midtown we walked through Central Park. Soaking up the fall sunshine, listening to musicians, wandering around the landmarks. We stopped at the Boathouse for some hot chocolate, which was delicious, and people watched for a while. Quite a pleasant afternoon.

I went home and napped. After some food I started working on this weeks blog, and watched TV. Kelsey got home from work around 9:30 and promptly passed out. As I was flipping through the channels I saw that The Shining was on. It made me think of my Elements Theatre Collective peeps, so I started watching it. I didn't watch for very long. Too scary to watch by yourself, in a dark apartment.... So I turned on Saturday Night Live. I got a text from some friends from high school around midnight and we decided to meet up for some drinks. It was so nice to see a familiar face in this city! Curtis texted after he got out of a film he saw at the New York Film Festival and we went to a bar called Fat Cat. It was pretty cool. It kind of reminded me of Isla Vista; there were couches everywhere, ping pong tables, pool tables, shuffle board, and live jazz. We played ping pong. I got my ass kicked, but I've realized I'm a little better at it when I'm drunk.

We headed home when the bar closed at 4 am. It was a grand day, but a very long day.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16
Oh my was Sunday morning rough...

Spent the morning watching WALL-E and rehydrating. I love that movie, so very much. Kelsey had rehearsal until 2 and then we met up in Bryant Park. Hung out there for a while and decided to brunch. She told me her director for the directing scene she was in had an extra ticket to a play that night. She was going to a play with her aunt so I said "Sure! I'll take the ticket."

I walked to the theater, which was a short walk from our apartment and met her friend Charlie in front of the theater. We saw We Live Here By Zoe Kazan. It was an odd play, left a lot of loose ends, but the set was incredible! I wanted to live in that house. After the play we walked to a restaurant for dinner, talked about the play a bit but mainly got to know each other. Kelsey texted me when they got out of their play and we walked over to the restaurant they were dining at. I got to meet Kelsey's aunt, who is a book agent, and one of her clients. It was fun getting to meet them. After a bit, Charlie and I walked to the Playwright's Tavern on 8th Ave and grabbed some drinks. I told him about the honors project and how I wanted to keep working on it/focusing on Annie's life story. He seemed really excited about the project and encouraged me to write it. That was pretty cool.

Kelsey met us there and we hung out and talked for a while. Around midnight we decided it was time to go home.

It was a very pleasant end to the week :)