December

Another month has flown by!  I'm at home on a Saturday night on my computer and writing Christmas Cards. *Gasp*  I've been fighting off a cold for a few weeks and it finally caught up with my yesterday.  I went to Duane Reade which is like a Walgreen's / Rite Aid to buy over the counter medicine.  I've wanted to go to a Quick Care, but wasn't able to find any in my area.  I was lucky to discover that Duane Reade had a walk in clinic and I was seen within 5 minutes!!  The Dr prescribed antibiotics and ordered me to stay home yesterday and today.  I've been in my own sleep marathon and I'm winning.  I've slept more these past 2 days than I average in a week!  I'm feeling so much better!!  It was hard to fight off getting sick because a lot of people have been sick at school and the weather changes so much.  Rains one day, warm the next, cold the next, etc.  I'm getting used to it though.:)

This has been a much better month for me!  My classes have been terrific and I've improved so much.  I'm enjoying them and it feels incredible to see myself progress.  I really needed that!  Some of our acting exercises require improv and impulse.  It's interesting, because my quirkiness and silliness usually comes out and gets a lot of laughs.:)

I did have a bit of a desperate moment last week.  I've been rocking my boxed wine since I got here because I'm not ashamed to say I like it and the price is right.  My favorite bottled wine is any Coppola wine.  I bought a bottle on sale and was so excited to have a glass when I got home.  The wine opener was dull and damaged the cork beyond repair.  I made the executive decision to scrape out the cork with the dull wine opener.  This caused more cork to land in the wine bottle and I know this had elements of danger.  After I removed the large pieces of cork, I filtered the wine with a tea filter into a bowl.  Then, I poured the wine back into the wine bottle and had my delicious glass of wine.  This took 45 minutes and screams wino!  However, I choose to think I showed determination and wine enthusiasm!

My cousin Michael works for an airline and is based in Newark, NJ.  That's not too far from NYC.  I met him and his friend last week.  We had such a great time and it was so nice to be around family.:)

I'm off from classes for about 2 weeks.  I'm going to get out perform some stand up comedy.  I'm so looking forward to this!!  I'm also going to continue looking for a new place to live.  There are so many rooms to rent, but lots of weird people and low standards.  Guess I'm a snob.  I actually found a perfect rental situation regarding price, location, room size, laundry, etc.  However, one of the roommates came home when I was there and had a fight with the roommate that showed me the room.  Glad I saw that before deciding to rent the room!  I have enough drama with the 180 employees at my work and the scenes I have to perform.:)

I'm going to get back to my Christmas cards, but I will post more soon. xoxo

November 2011

This month has come and gone so fast!  The weather has been all over the place.  Some days it's extremely cold, windy or raining.  Other days, it's beautiful and I could wear shorts and a light sweater.  My Mom bought me a warm and long coat that I'll get a lot of use out of.  Thanks Mom!

My B.F.F. Jennifer and some of her friends came to NYC for her birthday.  It was so wonderful to see them.  Jennifer made NYC feel more like home.  Jennifer's hilarious friend Rhonda is like a NYC tour guide and helped us get $25 tickets to see some plays.  We saw Sister Act in the front row and it was amazing!  I've always enjoyed musicals, but this gave me a new appreciation.  The actors worked so hard and it was a riot.  We also got incredible seats for The Mountain starring Samuel Jackson and Angela Bassett.  Their performances were inspiring and I hope to be able to deliver like they did someday. 

A comedian friend from Vegas was in town and it was fun to hang out.  He performed in some shows and I made some contacts.  I'm going to get out and perform more stand up comedy during my Christmas break from my classes.  There is so much opportunity here and I need to take it.

Work has been so busy and I've decided that this past Black Friday was my last in retail!  No more retail craziness.  I'm continuing to learn a lot in my classes.  I have a bit of 'emotional blockage,' but I'm working on it.  I joined Costco because groceries are so expensive here.  I googled the location and was so excited to find that it was right next to a Target!  It's a trip, but worth it!

I've also decided to move by February 1st.  I want to find a studio by myself with cheaper rent.  I hope I find a clean place without any bugs.  I also want laundry in the building and for it to be close to the subways.  I know, I'm picky!!  I just saw a place today with lots of roach traps and dead bugs in the hallway.  Gross!  It was right across from Central Park, a block from the subway and a bus picks up right in front of the building.  It was in the basement and the trash was close by.  My Mom gave me a 'reality check' and told me to call her for more because that would have had more cons than pros!

I missed my family and friends on Thanksgiving, but I worked and had a nice time with my co workers.  We were really busy on Thanksgiving!  The city is so beautiful already with decorations for Christmas.  I will be posting lots of pictures.

If you like Supernatural movies and shows, check out Grimm and Once Upon a Time.  They're new TV shows and that's my style.  2 Broke Girls is also a hilarious TV show.  That's exactly the type of show I want to write for and act in.  It's my type of humor.  Only watch these shows if you want to get addicted and if you have good taste.

Have a great week!  xoxo


Lot's of rain!

 Saw this sticker on a wall.  This was our softball team's name.

 Daffy's store trying to channel Vegas.

 This made me laugh.  It was right outside my building when I left for work.  Looks like it belongs on the strip in Vegas.  First picture I've seen like this since I've been here.

A picture of my script that I accidently took.

One of the beautiful stores on 5th Avenue.  Just a few shops down from mine.

I took the subway to Costco and Target.  I was caught of guard that part of the trip was above ground.  This is a pic from the subway.

 Hollister has a live picture feed of CA beaches.

Radio City Music Hall Christmas Tree.

Not a great pic, but a lot of the walking signals display a hand and walking person at the same time!  It's a 50/50 shot to make the right choice.  It's a glitch in the system.

 My new coat.  Thanks Mom!

I dropped one of my vitamins on the ground in the subway.  No vitamin for me that day.

Part of the crowd I had to make my way through to get to work on Thanksgiving.  The crowd was watching the parade.  I saw part of the parade and was escorted with a small group of people to cross the street so I could get to work.  We crossed in the middle of the parade between a new car and a bunch of cheerleaders.

 Swarovski window across the street from work.  Corporate denied my request in Vegas to get mannequins for our window.  I had a dress shop willing to lend us gowns to display with our jewelry.  This looks great.

October

October seems to have come and gone so fast!  Work has been extremely busy and has made keeping up with classes a bit challenging.  I need to somehow find a way to manage my time better.  I'm not making enough time to rehearse and get the most out of this amazing experience.  It's been taking a bit of a toll on me.  I'm struggling a bit with being truly affected with emotions like anger, etc.  I'm realizing it's because I'm so used to being rational, assessing crazy situations and fixing them.  For example:  I saw a guy get hit by a car while driving bbefore I moved here.  I was the first person on the scene.  I pulled over, took a deep breath, walked towards him to see if I could do anything and called 911.  I couldn't do anything because he was too mangled and couldn't be moved.  A few moments later a couple pulled over and the girl started screaming, crying and running with reckless abandon through the street.  I need to let myself experience things more like that crazy girl.:)  My acting instructor recommended that all of us go to therapy.  I called 10-12 therapists, but none of them are taking new patients.  That was rejecting and would make good comedy.

I'm getting ready for work and was expecting it to rain today.  However, it's snowing!!!  My first snow day since moving here has arrived too soon!!


 Mom, thanks for this really warm comforter!

 There's an I Love Lucy Museum!

 Wow, even the trash cans have a cause!

 This is the ridiculous line at Trader Joe's to pay for groceries!  There were about 50 people in line and that's normal!  I haven't seen any self serve lines at grocery stores. Or Vegas prices.:(

 Thinking of my brother.  I want to eat here with my brother and Mom.

 This is a mannequin in a window near my apartment.  Hmm...

 View from Starbucks in the Trump Towers.  This is one of the locations I feel most at home.  Being in the Trump Towers feels like being in a beautiful casino like the Bellagio.

  My brother Angelo always says 'human' and this made me think of him.

 FAO Shwarz disappeared from Vegas, but it's in NYC.

 Walking to the subaway near work.

 It was supposed to rain today, but this is snow!!

The Past 2 Weeks

Wow, I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post!  Time is flying by here!  Work has been busy.  I work on 5th Avenue.  5th Avenue is a beautiful and busy street.  It isn't as busy as Time Square, but the foot traffic is comparable to the Las Vegas Strip.  It will be amazing to see during the holidays!  There seems to be a parade there almost every weekend!  There was a parade on 5th Avenue 3 days in a row for Columbus Day.  Lots of parade floats, but mostly people just walking on the street that were part of the parade.  5th Avenue had barricades and was closed to traffic for about half of the day.  Pedestrians couldn't cross the street to get to my store during that time.  They had to walk 4 or 5 streets over and go a different way.  I learned the last time we had a parade that I need to walk a different way.  Lucky for me a police officer let me run through the parade a few weeks ago so I could get to work on time.  I ran right between the military and I think some dancers.:)

I get an hour for my lunch break.  I'm not used to it, but it's been nice.  I usually read and eat my lunch that I bring from home.  It's so much cheaper than eating out.  I take a walk outside sometimes.  I walked past Jay Mohr on my lunch break last week.  He's a comedian and was also on the Ghost Whisperer and Last Comic Standing.  It's really cool that no one really cares about celebrities out here.  Or from what I can tell, being superficial.  I haven't seen one pair of fake boobs, fake blond hair or acrylic nails!!  I got a pedicure and manicure for $19.99 last week.  (That's $15-$20 cheaper than Vegas.)  There were about 20 manicure stations which is ridiculously big for a nail salon.  I noticed that no one had acrylic nails and they didn't have the supplies set up for it.  I asked my nail tech if they did acrylic nails and she didn't even know what I was talking about!!  I'm not in Vegas anymore.

I went to an open mic last week with a friend that used to be in the Short Bus Comics Show with me.  It was good to get out and see and meet other comedians.  It was fun, but New York definitely has a different style.  It will make me a stronger comedian.

School has been exhausting and rewarding too.  My Voice and Speech teacher is incredible.  Our text book is a book that she wrote.  It's a very popular book that's offered on Amazon, etc.  Movement class was fun today.  We somehow ended up dancing to some 80's and 90's music and my very bad dancing wasn't so bad in the dim lighting with everyone else dancing.  Wait, that sounds like how it goes down in a club...  Anyhow, it was so much fun and movement is my favorite class.  Acting class continues to be challenging, but I'm making progress and learning a lot.  My instructor said if we are well rested, we aren't learning enough and getting our money's worth.  She said that we should be tired for the next 2 years and not have much of a social life.  I see where she's coming from.  I work 40 hours a week, my commute can take an hour each way depending on the time of day and walking, I have classes 6 times a week and meet with my acting partner to rehearse 2 times a week.  I don't have any days off with nothing scheduled.  I've been making it work though.  I even found time to go to happy hour with some classmates this week.  A few of them weren't old enough to go though!  I'm one of the older students.  I'm impressed that the younger students were able to figure out what they wanted to do so early in life and go for it!  They may be younger and capable of getting younger roles than me, but I feel like I've lived 5 different lives!  I wouldn't change my background because it makes me who I am and I have so many life experiences to appreciate and pull from.

Have a great weekend!

xoxo

Movement Class & Equinox

Yesterday was the last day of Rosh Hashanah, so a lot of Jewish people have a 4 or 5 day weekend.  Kids were off of school yesterday and there were so many people out and about in my neighborhood.  It's kind of busy on Sunday, but this was the busiest I've seen it.  One of the reasons I like my neighborhood so much is because it's not as crazy busy as other areas like Midtown where school and work are.

My acting teacher is Jewish, so we didn't have class yesterday.  I had Voice and Speech and Movement class.  My Voice and Speech teacher is really sweet and says the cutest things.  My Movement class is taught by 2 different instructors and they split the days.  There's a lot of laying on the floor in both of these classes.  I haven't been on the floor this much in my life.  Both of these classes require a lot of partner work and since the class rooms are small and we have 15-18 people in a class, we are pretty close on the floor.  It's kind of funny.  I've also noticed that every person in my classes is beautiful.  If you want to be around beautiful people all the time, go to an acting studio.:)

In movement class, we lay down for 10 minutes on the floor when class starts.  The lights are dimmed and there's no sound.  We just have our thoughts.  The instructor then comes in and turns on some great music and says things to inspire us and get us thinking.  He has us roll from side to side, etc.  He actually had us do full rolls while our eyes were closed and people were rolling on top of each other.  I was a human speed bump at one point.  Remember, I said everyone is just beautiful and I didn't mind being a speed bump for some of the guys.:)  Then we had to sit in front of our partner and 'receive' them.  It's basically staring, but we don't call it that.  The guy I had the exercise with had to stare back at me for 10 minutes while we said, 'You' back and forth.  It was something else, because we kind of knew what the other person was thinking.

A few classes ago my partner and I had to hold our hands on each other's diaphragms and close our eyes and feel each other breathing.  Then, we had to recite each other's names to each other.  These exercises sound strange, but they really bring you closer and more comfortable to the other person.  The Voice and Speech and Movement classes work on our breathing and moving more easily and gracefully.  We are supposed to use these breathing exercises and other exercises to prepare for when we act.  It really makes sense to me because of the stretching I had to do in sports and the practices too.

After our Voice and Speech exercises, we can speak so much clearer and it makes an amazing difference.  I'm really enjoying these classes.  I just have to make sure I don't fall asleep while I'm on the floor with my eyes closed for 20 minutes.:)

I went to the gym this morning and it was the busiest I've seen it since it's Saturday.  I've already noticed that New Yorkers don't care about how they look, etc as much as Las Vegans do.  I've noticed this out and about and at the gym.  The locker room should say, 'Remove your clothes to enter,' because everyone seems to be naked in the locker room.  A lot of people walk around naked and shower at the gym in NY.  That's not as common in Vegas.  I love going in the steam room and it has the most rich eucalyptus smell.  I wear my bathing suit and take at towel when I go in there.  There's usually a few naked chicks when I go in.  Today I walked in and a lady was stretching at the entrance and I saw all of her naked rear bits.  Not what I wanted to see, but glad she's that comfortable.

I've been walking around the locker room with clothes on as much as possible or a towel.  I guess I know I've gone to the dark side when I decide to go without the towel or it accidentally falls to the ground.

Better get ready for work.

xoxo

PS:  Just read an article about Ryan Gosling and how he helped stop a NYC street fight.  He said something about the Notebook guy showed up and it got weird and it helped stop the fight.:)

Acting Class, Voice and Speech and Pilates

I was off from work today, but I have class on my days off.  My acting class went really well today.  I have a partner for the year and we have to perform exercises in front of the class.  My partner had to work on a task today and I had to react to him.  The catch is that we had to repeat what the other person was saying.  It's a repetition exercise that makes you listen and respond to the other person.

For example:

"You look bored."

"I look bored?"

"You look bored."

Sounds pretty boring, but we're learning a lot and it's advanced pretty far in the past week and a half.  My partner and I got pretty heated and were even yelling at each other during our exercise.  He's really good and he's of course a model that was scouted from a small city and has been here for 3 months.  It was challenging and fun today in class.

After acting, I had Voice and Speech class.  We worked on our breathing and stretching.  It's amazing how much they effect our voice and posture.  I also have a Movement class.  I've been getting really relaxed in Voice and Speech and Movement.  They've been great so far, but I'm not used to these types of classes.  When I leave, I feel refreshed and like I've meditated and even had a small massage.

I decided to go to my first class at my super fancy gym tonight.  I've been working out, but hadn't checked out any classes yet.  It was a Pilate's class and I didn't know what I was doing and it was really hard!  The instructor was nice though and I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow and back for more in the future.


                                                    These are the stairs or escalators I walk
                                                     up at the subway exit near my work.

                                                     The most grass I've seen since I've been
                                                     here.  Guess who has less grass than
                                                     Las Vegas?  New York!  This is Bryant
                                                     Park and it's by my studio.

                                                    Close to the studio.

                                                    Leaving class on a rainy day.

                                                    Waiting for the train.

                                           View from across the tracks while waiting.

                                                    My gym.  I'm going to get in killer shape!

                                          Grocery store across the street from my place.

                                          Cute diner in the building next to where I live.  They
                                          had a Saved By The Bell trivia night last week!

                                          This is the building I live in on the 6th floor.  Count 6
                                          windows up and we're in the center area.

                                                    View from one of our offices at my work. 
                                          Ha, my old work is in the right hand bottom corner!

                                                     Closet space is tight, I'm working on it!

Pics from this week

The building I work in.

Another pic of where I work.

Street near my work.

Another street near my work.

Pizza place near my school.

$1 pizza place by school.

View from my gym.  The dark brown building on the right is where I live.

1st floor in my building.

1st floor / entryway in my building.

Elevators to my apartment.

On a train from 1920.

1920's train

1920's train

1920's train

1920's train

1920's train

1920's train

1920's train

1920's train

1920's train