Go Big or Go Home...How About Both?!

Flying home on Christmas Eve was looking increasingly like a bad idea as each frigid day passed and my itinerary flight changed for the third time, so I opted to changed my Expedia ticket from December 24th to December 9th. I arrived an hour and 45 minutes early for my flight, only to find out that Delta and Expedia had conflicting ideas of when I was allowed to go home. After battling with both Delta and Expedia, neither of whom particularly seemed to care about my predicament, I had to call a cab company and head back home to try to find an alternate flight. While I was contemplating whether or not I would make it home for Christmas, my mom was taking care of business with Expedia and got me on a flight the very next day. Just try to stand between a mom and her child...take THAT, Expedia.



I received the grand tour of my parents' new home, which, as I was forewarned, looks eerily like our old house. This house, however, has two big bonus features: a pool, and a two-story playhouse. My mom couldn't wait to show me how cute the playhouse was, in spite of the fact that it was about 12:30 am. I think that most of you know what happened here, so I'll leave you with the short version of the story. Mom decided to reenact Jack and Jill, except for instead of tumbling down the hill, she flew down the stairs...chin first. My mom's hang time would put Michael Jordan to shame. It was pretty scary to watch, and after she hit the ground she took a few seconds before she moved or made any noise. When she finally showed signs of life and we determined that no fatal injuries were sustained, we took my mom to the ER. Two days of liquids and three days of mushy foods later, my mom was back to cooking enough solid foods to feed the nearest third world country...or starving actor.



Although the first leg of my journey home was a bit rough around the edges, I am so grateful for this 5 week vacation. Most of my time here has been spent catching up on my VH1 countdowns, hanging out with family and old friends, and enjoying the green, green grass of home. The Monday before Christmas, most of the members from Sweet Peace got together and went Christmas carolling. Without prior rehearsal, we sang the same 2 or 3 songs over and over....and over and over. We were only brave enough to go to our parents' houses, the last of which was the Stewart's. Of course, we ended up singing some of the old medleys from LTC by the end of the night.


I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to see all of my family in the same room again, since everyone's getting older and busier. But this year, everybody made it to Christmas. One of the hardest things to deal with in the city is being away from my family, so I took as many mental pictures as my brain could hold...the space is pretty limited, but I think I did alright.

New Year's Eve rolled around, and after a few rousing games of Catch Phrase with the Martin's, the Price's, the Brandon Lehrmann's, and my parents, we all watched the ball drop in NYC. In that moment, watching the thousands of red-nosed faces shivering together in Times Square, I was glad to be in the magical land of Texas, where 75 degree weather still exists.

My resolution this year is to "be active." Not just physically active, but active in the everyday decisions in my life. I'm working hard to not just dream big, but actually do big. I've got my roots here, the place that keeps me grounded and will never let me down. But the current under my wings, at least for now, is pushing me back to Brooklyn. It will be hard to leave again, but I can go back with the assurance that I've got somewhere to land whenever I need a break.

Turkey Lurkey Doo, Turkey Lurkey Dap, I Eat That Turkey And I Take A Nap

Well the weather outside is frightful...
And I'm sure a fire would be quite delightful, if I could afford a fireplace in my apartment. :)

In all seriousness, it's been cold and rainy here for a while now, with the exception of the 65 degree Thanksgiving Day we had. People played football out in the streets while we watched football inside the apartment. Because cooking is harder than Rachael Ray makes it out to be, we had to catch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV this year like everyone else. Maybe next year we'll be able to catch it in person. We ended up having 8 people show up, so it felt almost like Thanksgiving with our families. Almost. Kara and I cooked up a pretty big feast, and sustained only a few minor injuries in the process. Although, I confess, I did explode one cake because I put too much batter into one pan. When we weren't watching football, we played Three Person Charades and listened to Christmas music. Here are a few pictures:
The Feast
Three Person Charades
Jonathan gracing us with a solo performance
Kara made the turkey dance. It made her less afraid to touch a dead animal.
My Turtle Cheesecake
More charades
Nadia, Shae, Jonathan and I at Trump Tower
I don't know what look we were going for here
Nadia and I eating at Spring Street Natural
This is supposed to be busy season for catering, but I've only got 2 jobs remaining for the month. I had 6, but 4 of them have been canceled due to the state of the economy. Needless to say, catering seemed too good to be true and, thanks to the Lehman Brothers, it is. After Christmas break, I'll be back on the job hunt.

Tonight at 7 pm is the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting, so my roommate and I are going to go participate in the festivities. I would be lying if I said that Beyonce's performance isn't one of the main reasons I'm going. Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers are supposed to be there, too. I'll be sure to write about it in my next post.

Three weeks and counting till I'm back in the Lone Star State. I can't wait to see everyone!!

Baracking Around The Clock

In the days following one of the most groundbreaking elections in our nation's history, my normally divided neighborhood changed drastically. The racial (and gender) slurs stopped, people made eye contact on the street and some even mumbled a "hello". A lady held the door open for me on the way to the subway and I almost had to pinch myself. Not that people are usually rude, they're just trying to be invisible. Everybody goes about their own business. For a little while, people were united. I'm sure my experience with this election would have been quite different had I been somewhere else. But here, in a poor neighborhood where many people had decided they didn't matter, that their voice was not heard and their vote did not count, this election was more than a page in history. When Obama was announced as the new president-elect, I could hear cheers from every direction. I sat up in my windowsill and watched streams of people exit their apartment buildings and flooding the streets, banging pots and pans and creating an impromptu rally for the future president. If you saw what I saw, no matter who you voted for, you would have been inspired by the sudden change, the restoration of hope among people who felt forgotten. The party was still going on when I drifted off to sleep. No longer in my windowsill, mind you.

In other news, my friend Caleb from college came to visit last weekend. We did almost every tourist thing imaginable, all in 3 days. To name a few, We checked out the Empire State Building, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, and we saw "All My Sons" starring John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Patrick Wilson and Katie Holmes. It's a horribly depressing show, but it was wonderful. Every time I watch a show, I still wish it was me up there on that stage. As long as I feel that way, I can't ( and won't) stop trying to be a professional actor.

As payment for my assistant stage managing "The Cenci" for the Red Bull Theater, Lyndsey took me to The Rockette Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. Precision dancing at its finest. And yes, they really do kick that high...I was sitting on the second row and was a tad worried that one poorly buckled shoe might be headed for my face. We also got some 3-D action, flying with Santa all over New York City. The show sure put me in the holiday mood. Kara and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our apartment for everyone we know who couldn't go home this year. So far, I think we have 10 people coming. I'm in charge of the baking, so send me your recipes...and all of your luck.

Thanks for all of your cards, emails, and messages (text, facebook and otherwise). I save all my messages and keep all my cards in a box under my bed to pull out when I get homesick or lonely. I'm going to make you proud :) Miss and love you all!

Keeping the Faith

Still here, in case you were curious. My allergies tried to take me down for awhile, but they were no match for hot chocolate, old movies, and my electric blanket. I had my first audition tonight for an Off-Broadway show called "The Awesome 80's Prom". I showed up, waited 4 hours, and didn't even get to read. I was "typed out", which basically means they looked at my headshot, and based on that alone, didn't think I was what they were looking for. What a lovely career I have chosen.

I went back to Central Park last week with Jonathan to see if the leaves started changing yet, but no such luck. We actually walked all the way from Canal Street to the park...which is about 60 blocks, and by the time we decided to exit the park we were on East 90th. That's a lot of walking. I still have blisters, but I didn't feel so bad about eating pizza that night. Here's a picture of us at Sheep's Meadow in the park.



On Monday, I Assistant Stage Managed for the Red Bull Theater again for a reading of "The Cenci". It was a relatively painless experience and I might even get a free ticket to see the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular out of it. One of the actors had to leave for a while to go to an audition, so I got to fill in. I think I did quite well, considering I was playing an Italian man. Sorry you all missed my Off Broadway debut :)


I'd like to take a moment to talk about Halloween. I assumed that people in the city would be too stuck up to indulge in Halloween festivities. I.Was.Wrong. I saw hundreds of people in some of the most outrageous, nonsensical costumes on the planet. The thing about Halloween in NY is, you don't necessarily know if the weirdo sitting next to you is in costume or their everyday wear. There is also a huge parade in The Village where people march around in elaborate costumes they possibly spent months creating. My roommate and I opted out of the parade to see a free Off Broadway show called "Farragut North", starring Chris Noth (Mr. Big on Sex and the City), John Gallagher Jr. (Tony Award winner from Spring Awakening), and Olivia Thirlby (the best friend from Juno), among others. Kara's head of her department was also in the show, so we stuck around afterward and got to meet the actors and talk with them for a while. Afterward, we grabbed a slice of pizza (a staple in my current diet), came home and made some popcorn balls and watched the original Psycho.

It has been a pretty relaxing couple of weeks. I'm still sending in lots of submissions for auditions, so hopefully I will land one that will actually allow me to speak :) Now that I've done one audition, I feel much better about pounding the pavement for more. It's not nearly as scary as I supposed. I'm far from giving up, so keep believing in me folks! I'm on my way!

Do You Smell What Barack is Cooking?

A faint stench permeates the smoggy air of the city. It's not the rats...at least not in the traditional sense anyway. It's the smell of politics, and as election day looms ever closer, it thickens and spreads into every corner of the city. I have always felt rather removed from election business, only bothered by it when I chose to flip on the TV to watch a debate or happened to drive by a yard sign. But here, politics are unavoidable. I would expect to encounter the unabashed preachings of campaign teams in places like Union Square or Washington Square, where rallies are continually held for one cause or another. But the most surprising choice for a soap box has been the subway. I cannot sit down on a train car (if I were ever lucky enough to actually get a seat in the first place) without hearing someone strike up a conversation with his neighbor about Joe Six Pack...or is it Joe the Plumber? Flyers, T-shirts, and, yes, even condoms are being passed out that are plastered with the faces of the presidential candidates. I am often passed up because people think I look too young to vote, but I am never spared their speeches on foreign policy, medical care, and tax breaks. I am beginning to think I could qualify to be a political correspondent for CNN or Fox News.


Even cooler than Election Tuesday is Free Tuesday at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are only about 4 blocks from my apartment, and I can walk straight through Prospect Park to get there. Jonathan Prim and I spent a few hours walking through it. An entire garden is dedicated to roses. There is also a Shakespeare Garden that is comprised of plants and flowers mentioned in the works of the Bard. The whole thing is stunning, I'm planning on going back in the spring to take pictures when everything is blooming instead of dying. Little gems like this keep Gotham City interesting. I forgot my camera (ugh), but here are 2 that I snagged from Jonathan.



We also went to Battery Park, which is where you go to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I'm saving the trip to Ellis Island, I want to devote an entire day to it. I snapped a quick pick of Lady Liberty below...she's kind of hard to see, but she's on the left:





In other news, I journeyed to the West Village on a mission to take some pictures of something inspiring. On a plain chain-link fence that guards a police station, I found it. Tiles For America is a September 11th memorial. People from all around the world decorated tiles with words of encouragement, prayers, memories, names of the deceased, and messages of hope. Some of them just painted something beautiful in honor of those who perished. All of these tiles were collected and hung on this rusty fence on West 11th street, and there they perch as a reminder, as a challenge, as as a plea to those who pass to strive for a better world. I'll let a few of the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Desperate HouseLives

This has been a long but very exciting week and a half. First, I found out that I'm going to be an aunt. Second, I met Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Suri. Since I'm sure you can guess how the first thing happened, allow me to explain the second.

Katie is in a play on Broadway right now ("All My Sons") and Monday is Broadway's day off. She brought Suri to the restaurant while I was hostessing. She and Suri were already upstairs when I got there, but imagine my surprise when the first person I greet at Alice's is Tom Cruise, surrounded by flashes from cameras of 50 paparazzi and fans waiting outside. I have no idea how everyone knew they were coming...I work there and I didn't even know. They had the whole second floor to themselves, but they brought Suri downstairs and let her walk around the restaurant to look at all of the Alice in Wonderland pictures and merchandise. Katie even wore some of our fairy wings in the restaurant. They were such nice people, and it was cool to see them playing with Suri. Tom even shook hands with my manager and I before leaving. The story is everywhere on the internet if you want to see some pictures.

An old friend of mine brought up a good point when, after reading my blog, she told me in a Facebook message, "Isn't it funny how we all find entertainment in each others' lives?" Meeting Tom and Katie made me think about the millions of people worldwide who bought their US Weekly or watched Entertainment Tonight and found the most exciting part of their day to be news of TomKat leaving a quaint New York restaurant. What's ironic, to me, is that Tom and Katie worked so hard to be where they are, whether they like it now or not. And now, they are trying desperately to have just one dinner, one moment of normalcy as a family. And those of us who aren't stalked by television crews spend our time blogging about them and wishing we could have the whole top floor of the restaurant shut down for us. We are all curious about each other. It's my belief that this is partly why all art forms are as revered and addicting as they are. We love to explore our options, to see what life might be like in a different time or place, under different circumstances. We love to wonder "what if", even when we are completely happy with where we are in life.

Mark Twain put it best when he said, "There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy." Here you are, reading the blog of a girl who has done nothing so far except try to reach for the stars, and who hasn't so much as lifted a foot off the ground yet. And I love to read or hear stories about home, about trips to the lake for three day weekends or what size the developing babies are, how business is doing and the concerts you go to. Perhaps this chronic restlessness, this insatiable curiosity about the human condition, is what keeps us moving on from one seemingly dull day to the next. Perhaps we all want to live life so much, that one life is just not enough.

Bat Mitzvahs, Brooklyn, and Beyond

The city is kissing summer goodbye. How nice it will be not to stand on crowded subways with sweaty people who aren't accustomed to the heat. Yep, it's autumn in New York, and I'm excited to see if it's all Billie Holiday said its cracked up to be.

Friday was my first full day off of work in 2 weeks, and I was as lazy as humanly possible. Friday aside, I've been splitting my time between Food For Thought and Alice's Tea Cup. Alice's is getting easier everyday, thanks to the cool people I work with (most of whom are actors, designers, or writers). It takes me about an hour and 15 minutes to get there from my apartment, so when I have the opening shift I have to leave by 6:15 am. I'm missing my senior year college days when 10 am was early and the only consequence of oversleeping was possible chapel probation. My current subway reading is "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". I'm still trying to figure out where that tree went.

I've catered two events for Food For Thought that are worth noting. The first was a bat mitzvahs for a wealthy family in New Jersey. Kelly Ripa was there. Regis, however, was not. The second event was for former basketball star Alonzo Mourning's charities. Not only was Alonzo there, but Patrick Ewing, Dwayne Wade, Nate Robinson, Quinten Richardson, John Starks, Earl Monroe, Herb Williams, Craig Sager, and Chris Rock's wife (random, but true) were also among the folk who put their trash on my little silver tray as I walked around the room. Not exactly what I had in mind when I dreamed of rubbing elbows with the stars.

For the first time in my life, I find myself trying not to be too good at what I'm doing. Allow me to explain. It's not that I want to be bad at it, seeing as I don't want to get fired... it's just that I don't want to be promoted or be considered a "professional" at hostessing or waitressing. If I get too good at it, if it becomes second nature to me, then I will have unknowingly created my very own fall back plan. Not completely loving my jobs is what motivates me to keep auditioning until I get to do what I really want. I never thought I had it in me to shoot for mediocrity, even in things I didn't really care about. Viewing these jobs as just a way to get by helps me keep living beyond...beyond picking up peoples' trash, beyond passing out menus and recommending teas, beyond where I am and what I have right now. I don't need (or want, for that matter) to be famous. I just want to do work that I can be proud of, work that can teach, inform, or simply entertain. I like to think that there's something more to my life than working a bat mitzvahs, that somewhere just over the horizon, something better awaits. And all I have to do to get there is keep truckin.

"That's what momma always says. She says that beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it's the middle that counts the most. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will... "--Hope Floats