Pricks abroad / Prince Charmings here in NYC

Two nights ago I went to see the Ides of March with my modmate and Milan travel buddy.  Sigh, Ryan Gosling, how do I love thee?

Anyway, this modmate and I had lamented when we were touring Italy and Switzerland last Fall the fact that there are pricks abroad similar to the ones we've come across and dated periodically here in the States as if you can't meet a dreamboat in storybook Europe, where can you expect to find one?

But doing our best to orange buzz in the new year, we actually spent a good deal of time chatting post movie at the whimsically named West Village pub, Pint of No Return, about the Charmings we've had the pleasure of being cheered up by in the past week or so.

You see, she was being wisked away to Chi-town by her very own Mr. Big, who also happens to be taking her to Per se the next time he's in town (so Mr. Big of him, right?), and I was with two other BC gals last Monday, who had only JUST made the observation that there appeared to be not a single chivalrous guy in Manhattan by contrast to the South and Midwest where they're dwelling these days, when an uber kind cutie offered me his spot on the Jitney so I could get to Jersey at the same time as my girls.  He could take a later bus, he said, I should go with my friends.

So sweet right?  And then later another young chap helped me not fall on my face while riding the subway in a precarious spot out of reach of any poles to hold onto, and even when I stepped (hard) on his foot, he reached his arm out behind me to be sure I didn't topple as the train jerked into the crowded station, so I thanked him for his help on my way out making him chuckle, and chocked another one up on the scorecard of this city of singles.

Turns out there are a handful of chivalrous guys in the Big Apple it's just that their gentility's in their little gestures.   Pricks abound abroad and Stateside, but it's important to stop and point out the princes in our midst, because daily interactions with them are paving the way to our happy endings.

Thank you wellness tea

Celestial Seasonings makes this amazing tea I first discovered in the Fall of 2008 fresh off the bus from Boston, and it is by far one of the best things 2012 has brought into my life so far.

I grew up wearing faux fur hats and stoles to tea parties with my neighbors and friends, having been taught how to enjoy a cup of tea by my great grandmother (Nana Rose) as early as I was taught just about anything else, and nothing beats two heaping spoonfulls of sugar in a well steeped cup of Red Rose or Lipton tea heavy on the whole milk as well, but the start of 2012's about scaling back the indulgence (yet again), and truth be told there's something to this brew that's just plain magical.

My year kicked off in the best of company, with laughter, lots of important, inspiring and insightful conversations, and making the most of my days off to explore Manhattan over the course of the holidays.  Who could ask for anything more?

It is, in fact, well with my soul.  Sing it, bro.

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.