These are the people in my neighborhood

Leaving for a week but so happy to be calling my tower on the upper upper west side home for a second straight year starting December 30th.

Wishing a merry merry to my neighbors, who include - in case I haven't mentioned them before...

- a rowdy bunch of men the BFF has dubbed members of the Tortilla Party that takes place in the Atrium between my building and the one abutting it on W 108th at odd hours of the night during late September and early October.

- an old woman (an abuela, if you will) who stands to the side of my front stoop selling "Pantalletos a pollo" at the end of the school day which it's taken me a year to decipher she then translates in English for me whenever I come back in from dropping off mail or picking up laundry as "meat patties, chicken" and I vow to try one afternoon before leaving this hood

- quite possibly THE cutest beagle puppy I've ever encountered

- and my favorites, the three men I've been introduced to as the Super of my building who all seem to answer to the name Mickey, which I affectionately refer to them as in calling and texting them incessantly whenever we need a light bulb changed or the doorknob tightened.  Think charmers like the ones in this video my Improv made:

Home sweet home.

Merry Naugmas

Many of my girlfriends have at least a glass of wine a night and are no stranger to the "woops I polished off that bottle of 3 buck chuck" phenomenon.

I had never drank by myself however until last night.  When I realized it was the last night I'd have on my own in 2011 (from here on out it's holiday gatherings, nights home at my parents' with my siblings & puppy, and hosting out of towners visiting for NYE in NYC) I decided to have myself a merry little Naugmas and dip into (drink) the birthday bottle of Malbeck the nice waitress at Jadis sent me home with last month while watching The Holiday.

I also, full disclosure, took an intermission and grabbed a single dogfish head 60 minute IPA from the bodega on the corner, and better yet, I took notes throughout the viewing on the things I loved about the movie...  scrawled in chickenscratch, I think they say...

1. The character Iris
2. The hot guy who almost sits beside her on the plane
3. That Jim from The Office has a bit part 
4. That Cameron's character can't cry
5. That that fucker Jasper texts Iris the second she's seated and ready for take off
6. That Cameron's character has Atonement with her in first/business class
7. That Iris drives along the same LA strips I did this June
8. Cameron staying on her feet just barely the way I did when I nearly fell on my face in front of my crush John Paul last Wednesday 
9. That I made it through 3/4 a bottle of birthday wine and a beer from the bodega before 11pm
10. That Jude Law can play "non d-bag" ala my fave gay chorus boy/one-day leading man who REALLY pulls off straight
11. Kate waking up in Amanda's bed mirroring my every morning in LA on Iovate's dime 
12. That Jasper rouses Iris from her LA wakeup with a request for her to ______ on his career
13. VOM
14. How much Jude Law's beauty in the breakdown buddy looks like Paul Rudd
15. That Cameron's character has a Lexus SUV
16. Jude Law's line: "I sew and I have a cow in the back yard.  How's that to relate to?"
17. Jack Black's confrontation with the girl cheating on him
18. Iris giving him water when he asks for something stronger
19. How I cried when Cameron as Amanda _____ "welcome back" cried

The _____'s are place holders for where I can't read my own writing, and I think it becomes ENTIRELY clear that I had all that wine and the beer when I switch from calling Kate Winslet by her character's name to calling Cameron Diaz by her's around #11. 

This was a fun exercise.  I highly recommend it.  I also think I need to make a point of going back to California before too long and checking out the English countryside one of these days.

Love.

Google Plus One

Last night in the 80 minutes I spent upon the treadmill I watched this commercial at least six times.




And congrats Google Geniuses, you won me over.

I'm Google Plus' newest one.

Let the circling commence.

My Christmas Earrings

A few years ago my family started a sibling grab.  There are five of us, and it would be super costly to have to shop for all of the sibs and significant others of sibs, and everyone else does it, so it seems to make the most sense for us to too.

Anyway, my middle brother the really, really, ridiculously good looking one, had me in the grab the first year, and the way our grab works is that we each get to basically tell whoever has us what we want them to get us.  So I told my bro I really wanted some drop earrings.  They didn't have to be expensive, they just had to be "going out" earrings.  You know?  He had a girlfriend, he still lived at home, I figured he'd consult the girlfriend, one of our two sisters, or our mom maybe before buying what I expected to be one of those sets of three silver hoops or dangling earrings of different sizes.

But instead, he set out on his own and bought me what I now affectionately refer to as my Christmas Earrings and religiously wear each December.  They're these little drop wreaths of Avon Holiday Caliber, and believe it or not they totally come in handy more often than I ever would have imagined they could have when I first opened them that Christmas morning.

Tonight I have to go spend an absurd amount of time on the treadmill at my NYSC, because yesterday I was a waste of space and skipped my long weekend run, and I'm getting ready to head there now, but I just stopped and thought, I think my Christmas Earrings will make my time on the treadmill much more bearable, and dug them out of my jewelry box (which my middle bro's new wife gave me for being a bridesmaid actually) so I could put them on.

This is approx the 4th time I've worn them just this month.  And they just make me so very merry.

It sounds cliche but...

If you use this phrase, and then proceed to tell me your "passion is fashion," in an interview with me when I'm in agent mode, I pretty much stop listening.

I was taught by my best (read: only real) writing teacher that if it sounds cliche, you just shouldn't say it.

Find a way to make it your own.

Be original.

Even you, Sara B.

 

I still love you.  And I agree love is a lot of the best things (ie: Christmas).  But it sounds cliche, silly girl.

I think one of my New Year's resolutions is going to have to do with not copping out once in 2012.

Miles to go before I sleep

Whose woods these are I think I know. 

His house is in the village, though; 

He will not see me stopping here 

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there's some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

Tell me about it, Robbo.  I had an impossibly difficult time getting my miles in tonight.  But I did it.

I've pretty much checked out for 2011 so it exhausts me just knowing I have 6 more days of agenting, 2 as an actress, 3 full of friend engagements, 15 to prove I'm a writer, 7 for which I'll be a nomad, and 8 as a sister in residence on Elsworth this year.  Miles to go before I sleep is the prevailing theme, and I will run a remarkable 72.5 more miles before ringing in 2012 and officially commencing the countdown to Boston 2012.

I broke the 3 Day contact rule

"DAMMIT!"

And I'm so mad at myself for doing so.  It was so JV.

I didn't even think twice before doing it.  A couple weekends ago I just went ahead and fb messaged a boy I was totally into after our first two meetings without giving it that buffer, and poof, window of opportunity appears to most likely be closed most likely because he took the premie-message to be an indicator of my A.) potential clinginess, B.) lack of experience, and/or C.) classic crazy.

MANNN.  So annoyed.  I was on autopilot - I blame it on one too many holiday cocktails that weekend having thrown me off my game.  And just when I'd thought I'd gotten my groooove back.

Don't get me wrong - I did get my groove back, and I'm holding onto it into and throughout 2012.

But this was amateurish.  And such a shame.

And what pisses me off more than anything else is then turning around and having the ex demonstrate his  mastery of the 3 Day contact rule when at first I didn't reply to a question he texted me in immediate response to an instigating text I sent him when all of the girls in my Improv class decided we should have a text-your-ex moment at our cast party (thank you K's Chianti) Saturday night (you follow?) and he patiently waited until Tuesday to re-ask the question.  He's not even out there playing the field!!!  It's just so unfair.

I hate this fact (that boys are naturally well equipped to adhere to the 3 Day contact rule.  I don't think it's just my ex who's got the routine down, I believe the male species invented the rule) for the same reason I hate laundry.  Because I hate being bad at things that are necessary.

GRRRRRRRRR.