desktop computer = grounded naugs

YUP.

That's right. I'm writing this post on my good ol' HP Compaq which I inherited when bosslady moved our executive office up to the North Shore this November. And I'm packing this puppy up and bringing it with me to my new place on the UWS tomorrow morning. And I'm working and writing and facebook stalking, I mean, webrowsing on it from this point on.

No more laptop means no more Nomadic Naugs.

For at least the length of my first official 1 year lease.

EEEEEK! I'm super stoked.

And obviously not just to no longer be relying on / married to the pink dell laptop aka worst purchase ever, although I'm not going to lie, that's high on the list of things I'm looking forward to the new year for. Super stoked for the move in general though and for life as I will come to know it in the 5th place I will have lived in the city and 9th place I've lived in the last year and a half.

Signing off for 2010 since I imagine it will be a rather hectic next few days. Fear not though, I've got four drafts of future posts that I started last week when I was stretching myself to work full days at the Elsworth office so I could backlog hours and still get a paycheck for this week the company and industry in general closes down for. AND I still need to offer commentary on this article my oldest friend sent me. No, just kidding, she did send me that one as well, but this is the one I'll chat about a bit at some point in the New Year.

“Today, we operate on a simple premise—that every little girl should be able to grow up to be anything she wants, and she can only do so if she has the ability to chart her own reproductive destiny.” Oh, Kelli Conlin, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, tell us how you really feel. (Like every day you get to play God a little.)

December 30th..The Dawn of a New Decade

For me it will be anyway. I will start my new year's resolutions on the 1st of the year, and kick off the race to my prime that morning, commence training for my next half marathon, and pin up a new calendar on my wall.

At dawn on the 30th though, I'm moving for the 10th time in 16 months, and while my lease is only for a year, I'm thinking of it as a doorway leading to stability.

speaking of defunct

first of all, is this even a word "defunct" or did i make it up? i always do that.


anyway. thought this graph i just received from one of my modmates in the city was blogworthy. happy holidays from the brits interested in heartbreak:

where's Hugh Grant when you need him? i thought love actually was all around???

and apparently (just got a follow up email from another modmate..."Facebook can predict who you're going to date and or breakup with and when!!!") there's an article out there on all of this. need to find that one one of these afternoons at the office.

Defunct dating site results

I laughed out loud on the megabus at the prospect of writing my "must have list" out in full in the "what are you looking for" section of my lackluster lovey dovey dating website profile.

Prior to taking the plunge with my one year lease that goes into effect 16 days from now, my 3 month trial membership subscription to said lovey dovey dating website was the longest concrete commitment I had made to anything in, um, ever.

Apparently my profile on it sucks though (according to my mod mates who I had a lovely holiday dinner with Monday night at Eastern Standard in Kenmore Sq).

And I suppose proof is in the pudding pie since my two mod mates who made the three month commitment to the site at the same time I did have both garnered significantly more success in their guided communication with the guys they've been matched with through it, gone on lovey dovey dating website prompted dates, and everything.

I could crack a few jokes or reveal some legitimately interesting aspects of my personality on my profile...

I'm just not that into it.

People of interest

In this metropolis it's amazing how often the line blurs between it being a big city/small town.

Last night I went to the Alumni Christmas Party at Forum with my only other modmate who got a ticket in time - for whatever reason, the annual function sells out without fail. It was so nice to have a night out with Hips and one of her other good friends from college. It was so interesting to note the people I was most excited to bump into...

Namely: My residents - the guys & girls I was an RA for my junior year (when I felt like the world was falling down all around me. When I was all woe is me because I got cast as a pink sheep in Candide. When I was kind of crazy to be honest). They clearly were way more important to me than I gave them credit for being at the time based on the pride I feel when I see them now as successful New Yorkers setting the world aflame, as you do when you're an Eagle.

And then all blast from the past-y: PETER. This guy I met when we RV'd to Notre Dame that same year - the Fall of my junior year.

Peter from Alaska, who at the tailgate, I was tempted to cheat on my boyfriend with for the only time ever, and might have had it not been for my now-married (and apparently infinitely wise) friend answering his phone that morning and talking me out of making a terrible mistake.

Peter, who didn't exactly remember me/Hips at first when he came up beside us at the bar, but who totally came around with his recollection of the infamous pink trucker hat I wore for the duration of the epic road trip, flirt session and football game.

Peter, who 19 year old Naugs had romantacized to such an extent that I could have sworn we may have been meant to be or at the very least destined to date had we found each other at another time or place in our lives.

Peter, who's phone number is still randomly in K Koster's cell phone I'm sure.

Peter, who was a person of interest partly because running into him and feeling so far removed from everything he was connected to in my past proved how far I've come as NY Naugs.

Thank you notes

I sent my godson a birthday card this week with 2 $25 giftcards to Mobil. He turned 16 last year and bought a car this past summer.

(Admission: I was clearly having a blonde moment Monday when I was thiiiiiiis close to buying him a YOU'RE 16!!! bday card at CVS. Woops. Good catch, Naugs. And now that I'm realizing he obviously turns 17 tomorrow I am totally having one of those "wow if you're ___ I must be getting old" moments that grown-ups always have).

Anyway in the card I wrote a note asking him to facebook message me when he got the card so I'd know he got it and also to let me know what he could use for Christmas (band equipment, new sneakers, parts for his car, whatever he needs/wants - I love this little guy, he's such a cool dude, and I used to love buying him the latest & greatest toys, then he turned ten and got much harder to shop for).

Ready for this?

Thank you notes. Simply the sweetest thing.

He also happens to be a rockstar drummer opening for a band playing at Gilette Stadium this month on December 20th. nbd.

Naturally, I'll be in the audience. I'll also be scouring shopping malls in MA for the next three weeks if anyone has ideas of what to buy a super awesome 17 year old drummer boy godson for Christmas.

There is a cleaning lady cleaning my studio

Right now. At this very moment. Louie Lips sent her down. Suppose she's taking it out of my security deposit which I'm chipping away at with the 12 days of December that I'm staying in my little cave on this lovely tree-lined street of ours.

Super surreal. Pretty sure it'll be a while before I spring for another cleaning service (although note to self: that'd make an awesome gift for my mom for x-mas next year - this year, of course, she's already over the moon about the gift I gave her and my dad: 2 tix to none other than Donny & Marie: A Broadway Christmas).

Anyway - all of this is irrelevant as I primarily intended to report the latest outlandish request Louie made of me, and I quote:

"Hey if I gave you like a hundred bucks or something is there any chance you would be able to move out by Friday night instead of Sunday?"

Is she freaking kidding me? I paid $1100 to spend 12 - 17 days in this little box this month so I could attend the holiday parties I need to and see through at least half of the last 30 days of my membership at Crunch, and I am already ducking out 5 days earlier than I had originally planned.... WOMAN IS NUTS. $100? Try $600 and we'll talk Louie. Try, two nights at a hotel for my parents who are driving down here Sunday to loan me their car while they're at Donny & Marie so I can put my stuff in storage until Jan 1 when I move to the heaven that is my new 2 bedroom apartment on 109th and Amsterdam. Try, nope, sorry, thanks anyway :)

It's a jungle out there

Maybe it's the season.

The city IS inundated with out of towners and locals alike spending billions by the second on holiday gifts.

I have a sneaking suspicion though, that this sort of insanity goes on daily between 7 and 10 and 5 and 8.

Rush Hour - right? Isn't that what that block of time spawning either end of the work day is called?

Picture me shuddering at the sound of that phrase like these guys at the name "Mufasa:"

People - WHAT am I going to do if I ever have to go back to commuting some day?!?! I fear I have been overlooking and undervaluing the number one perk of working from a home office, and I was rudely awakened to that fact last night when I got KNEED in the THIGH by some guy who was walking DOWN what was clearly an UP stairway at the Union Square subway station.

(I wish I could explain/understand the physics of how this happened - I simply have the bruise to prove it.)

In any case, I rarely find myself amidst the mayhem on either the road or the public transit routes between 7 and 10 or 5 and 8 because I'm either out the door for an audition by 5:30 or 6am or commuting from my bed to my bathroom to my kitchen and ultimately my desk in the hour approaching 9am. I schedule meetings with clients and potential stylists most commonly at either 11 or 2, I walk a block to my gym around 8 in the morning or evening and I don't go "out" before 9pm.

Last night I met some of my artists at Japonais to review proofs from the shoot I produced Monday night, so WHAM I found myself smack dab in the middle of the frenzy of folks leaving offices/going to pick up kids from daycare/running errands/heading to the gym after work/and whatnot.

So this morning, I am saying a special prayer for everyone I know who does commute's safety on the roads and subway stairwells alike. And I am letting everyone know how blessed they already are to be spared my own personal/potential road rage. Thank you telecommuting for coming into existence.

A two-fer in support of dreams coming true

And here's why.

After finishing that last post more or less about being an aging Agent in NYC, I went for a run, on my lunch break, around the resevoir that's in my backyard, also known as the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Resevoir in Central Park, and while running I was reminded of how last night when I left Starbucks and parted ways with the BFF he asked me "where are you walking towards?"

And I replied, "I'm crossing here to take the T."

And he snarkily quipped that, "Yep, writing Christmas cards'll do that to you." Suggesting that being sentimental's such a Boston Naugs thing to do. What he didn't notice that I caught out of the corner of my eye at that same moment however was this super cute guy dressed in gym clothes and about to head to the C train station at 50th and W 8th about a stride in front of me glance over his shoulder and smile at my slip up.

I had to bet he was a Boston boy himself or else had gone to school there and had a soft spot for the good old "T." It was the tiniest instant, and then he was getting on a car in the middle of the train and I was trying to situate myself in front of a set of doors towards the front of it so I'd be lined up with the exit at 81st and not 79th street when I got uptown. I thought for a second about trying to find this cutie patootie on Craigs List's missed connections later that night though.

And I thought about how happy I was to have run in, albeit only for a moment, to a fellow Boston appreciator here in Manhattan, when I was on my run which reminded me of this great post I read on Open Eyed Sneeze and how I promised its author, Jess, in my facebook friend request to her that I would blog about her blog and her BOOK which is well on its way to being published!!!!

Published! How cool is that?!?! How much does this girl rock?! She's a real deal writer - and her dreams are in the process of coming true! If that's not something to celebrate and support - I simply don't know what is.

The End.

That pre birthday dip

can be direly detrimental.

Were it not for the fact that my birthday falls conveniently just a few days from the onset of December and right around the dawn of the Holiday Season, I might be prone to spiralling downwards into a "what am I doing with my life" depression for weeks on end following it.

Fortunately - I heard Christmas Carols sung at two services on the Upper East Side this past Sunday (one Baptist, one Catholic - surprising that Spiritual Naugs thrives in this city of sin, isn't it?) and then I spent two hours sipping on a peppermint mocha and writing out holiday cards at a Starbucks in Hells Kitchen while the BFF played with my iPad across the table from me yesterday afternoon, and now all it's going to take is me tuning into my favorite holiday stream of music in time for a daily 5 o'clock rendition of "Dominic the Donkey" for me to be full on festive.

Yesterday morning flurries were falling for my walk to the subway, and then I had the pleasure of producing a shoot at Go Studios on W 29th St photographed by the fabulous, Laura Rose, and featuring the work of agency All Stars, Stefanie Syat, Annie Nicholas, Charlotte Omnes, and friend of ENNIS, Carrie Butterworth. Pleasure might be an overstatement as I came to find I am far better suited to be an agent than I am a producer. Regardless though, our team artfully made it snow in Go, and now I can't wait to feature a photo from this shoot in the holiday card my bosslady will be blasting around in conjunction with a donation being made to the charity set up in Boston photographer, Kim Kennedy's name. How the heck can I mind having turned 26 on the 27th when it's undoubtedly the most wonderful time of the year?

Behind the ball from behind my wall

I love it - the pressure is on! I've got another awesome article to post tomorrow or Friday from my dearest oldest friend in DC, and so that means I better hurry up and write about what the Celebrity Relationship Expert had to say so I can get back on the ball here in the blogosphere.

I've also got to chat about the delight that is http://www.openeyedsneeze.blogspot.com/ within the week. So without further ado here's what she had to say...

"So you're telling me," she's smiling, smiling, she takes a dramatic pause for the camera, since after all she's shooting this with the hope of being granted the privelege of producing a full pilot before the New Year, and she's gunning for her own network TV talkshow in time for 2011's Spring Sweeps, "you'd date a compulsive gambler, or an alcoholic so long as he was 6 feet or taller and never planning to live in Connecticut?"

::nervous laugher from Sassy Single Naugs::

"You really are more worried that your friends and family seek out "suitors" for you who's sensistivity levels aren't threateningly effeminite and who are college educated and regular-joe shoe wearing vs interested in being loving, compassionate, caring, invested in and communicative with you?"

Shit.

She told me this was a defense mechanism, this list of mine, she said I've built up a wall as a result of breakups past, she said I shouldn't worry about "giving too much" to the next guy who may very well be deserving of my time, love, commitment, because in giving we receive, and she told me the work that needs to be done is on myself...

Errrr... check please? My interview lasted all of 25 minutes. It garnered some great laughs from the executive producers and PAs who were in the room for the filming. And it left me shaking in my boots and seriously considering entering therapy at the start of 2011.

Not two days later, my fashion forward modmate bemoaned her mother having sent her this article. Arguing that its message has always been her "thing" - "how can you expect someone to want to date you if you don't want to date yourself?" She (we'll call her Hips) thought she'd be justified in telling her mother not to talk to her ever again for assuming she hadn't already been working to strengthen the pillars of her emotional core - self-esteem, attitude, happiness, kindess & compassion.

I for the most part am on board with this goldfish guy's sentiments though. And particularly after receiving the instruction from the celebrity relationship expert to start working on strengthening those pillars and breaking down the wall I've built up around myself if I'm serious about wanting to someday re-enter a healthy relationship with the right one.

So add it to my list of New Year's resolutions I suppose: