How ACK ruined me for and gave me new life

Five years ago in April of 2009 I got this gchat from one of my best guy friends from high school that just said "wanna move to nantucket this summer"

And I didn't really think before saying yes.  I'd grown up visiting my great grandparents on the Cape, but I'd never been to the islands off of Massachusetts, I didn't need to have seen it to know it was where I needed to be that Summer though, so I just went.  I picked up and moved to the middle of the Atlantic ocean.  Lived in a verified 3 bedroom house we called The Hourglass:

here it is in all it's 4th of July at sunset glory

Worked mornings as an agent and split my afternoons between time on Cisco, Surfside or Nobadeer beach and spent writing parts of my great American (teeny bopper) novel (estimated publishing date 2016).

Got over my college bf once and for all.  Drank way too much, and gained an annoying amount of weight.  Got a gig hosting an airband competition on Sunday nights.  Had half a hundred friends and family members visit for memorable weekends of whimsy. 

Had a time, really.  It was the summer we were 24 and 25 - there were no rules but our house rules, there was no rush, but there was always somewhere to be later that night...the Chicken Box for Donovan Frankenreiter, the Wauwinet for a tasting at Toppers, in town to pick up so and so or whoever it was that was getting in that night on the last ferry.

But anyway - I bring it up to point out the way it ruined me.  (The ways it gave me new life are obvious I think - I was so independent: picking flowers in a field to put in the wicker basket I'd brought from Elsworth to spruce up our living room, unavailable to be at my family and friends' beck and call for the first time in my life - Nantucket Naugs was the ultimate free spirit and throw your hands up at me sort of sisterfriend).  It ruined me because my two roomies and I lived in said 3 bedroom house sans furniture, sans a full set of utensils, sans cable, sans over head lighting, sans a full length mirror, sans so many things... But we lived soooo fully and had so much fun, and we were always in the moment, whether we were out on the porch in sleeping bags staring up at the stars or secretly off-roading in the jeep my roomie bought on a whim one afternoon.  And we wanted for nothing.  We thought we were going out ther in search of ourselves and of answers and of the things we would realize we should do next, but we wound up content just treading water.  We made it work in so many ways and with so little effort.

And ever since, I've just reveled in this knowledge of the ability I acquired amidst adapting to a minimalistic existence - the ability I have to float.  I need so little.

I deserve so much (we all do, bright lights that we are, good hearts that we have, generous spirits, talented selves), but I need so little...

Hence - how and why I was fine sleeping on the floor for my first 10 days in LA this January ;)

 

From A to Zac Effron

As in... how I got from not being able to pick Zac Effron out of a crowd to pledging in a chirp to the twittersphere yesterday that I will love him forever and a day.  In all of his angsty glory:





As a marine:

 

And even if he has been in / to rehab.

FOREVER.

and a day.

You see it all started when I was being a teacher's assistant at a summer camp in Weston a few (ahem, over five years ago now), and got asked by the camp director to run a theatre workshop, and taught the kids to sing that song from the original High School Musical Stick to the Status Quo.  I actually don't think Zac Effron's even IN that scene, but because I took a liking to the catchy-ness of that ditty, and then stumbled upon the brilliance that is Zac Kevin Bacon in Footloosing through the fields courtesy of this comparison video, I allowed myself to watch 17 Again.  And the rest is history.

Important update: there's just one 'F' in Efron.  Thank God I wrote this post.  I'd hate to have Z.E. find out I've been posing as his superfan - unable to even spell his name right.  Lords.

 

 

I keep losing count

but it's 6. 

6 weddings on the books so far for 2014. 

well, 4 techinically.

but a likely 6 ultimately.  once we clear christmas and the couples have had a chance to scope out venues available next fall.

so. 

the season of life is going strong.

in case anyone was worried it was threatening to taper off.

6 weddings, 2 babies, 1 new adventure.

2014...I'm so ready for you

Lovely

Sometimes even when you're just wearing your big puffy black winter coat and gym clothes, if you've just come from getting a manicure and your blonde hair blown out, a very handsome man will walk by you on the Upper West Side and say in his French or Italian accent, "lovely."  And it's so flattering.  And such a nice treat.  And not creepy or smarmy at all.  Just really quite lovely to hear.

Question: why shouldn't you get what you want?   Or at the very least try to?

A twofold twofer

Twofold in that

first: I want to post 5 times this month, so I'm happy to share random musings twice on this merry little late Friday morning since it gets me that much closer to my goal.

second: I have wanted to post this pic for a couple weeks now

and then Tuesday night at the Council for Women of Boston College Lean In inspired Beginning the Journey event there was talk of how women are more likely than men to use both sides of their brain and assess situations from multiple angles than men according to a recent study at U Penn: Male and Female Brains Really Are Built Differently. 

I like to think of myself as a perfect example of anything.  So this'll do.

Julie the Cat

Last night as I was falling asleep my brain was working SO hard to remember who Pacey (from Dawson's Creek) was in the world of the Mighty Ducks.  I was oddly in denial that he was Emilio Esteves' surrogate son, Charlie.

And I only had the Ducks on my mind due to a funny and brief discussion that came up a few nights ago in Newton when I was engaged in conversation with my bambina sorella, rock banding brother, and Tao spouting Papa.

The subject of street hockey came up.  How you couldn't play it with a real hockey puck if you tried.  The baby sister said you need a ball right?  And my brother and I said, well yeah, OR one of those orange pucks with the silver balls in them:

"Have you ever even played street hockey," I asked the little one.

"Have you?" she retorted.

And how amazing is it that I could respond, "have I???  There was a time when you could call me 'Julie the Cat.'"

And my brother - who you know, sometimes is my best friend and sometimes is my mortal enemy and vice versa, answered the look she shot him questioning this declaration, "it's true."

Something I am so grateful for is the glory that was growing up on Tolman St with neighbors next door who were the same age as me and my two brothers.  We were like the kids on Hey Arnold playing stick ball.  We were X-men, and Magic & Marie who lived on a houseboat, we were a rock band, we were soldiers in water wars, and we were Mighty Ducks, like good old Julie the Cat:

Day 14 - Grateful Me

As I have shared a gajillion times with whomever's willing to lend me their ear for a moment this month: I'm DOprah-ing for the third time this year.  Meditating with Deepak & Oprah for 21 days. 

This round, I'm using the prompts and writing in the journal every morning following the meditations and today's I feel inclined to share with the interwebs:

Question 3 of 4

Who are you grateful for today? Write a thank you letter to one or all of them detailing all of your appreciation and gratitude. Consider sharing your words in an e-mail, text, letter or spontaneous call. 

I am grateful for everyone who and everything that has shaped my New York experience in the past five years.  From Bob Cline to Alfred Heller to Tamika Covington and Chris whatever his last name was and Thomas G. Waites and his accountant, and Mike Still and Danielle Carroll, and Lacey, Heidi, Meg, Michelle, Sarah Chandler, Daniel Bundt and Chris here at Will's and Will and Anthony of course and Alvin and Brad and Matt Putorti, and David DeBarros, and Melissa Cox, Jen Marsh, Kate Taylor, Fatima, Nicole, Micah, Halle, Jo, Chris, SB, my parents, my sisters, Ryan and Annie, Matt Leisy, Alison, Zaq, Kim Reynolds, The Brooklyn Barons, Mick and Alexis, Duss and Mike, and Sobes and Vicki, Geoff, the other Williams people who's parties I went to on whims, Becca Ain, Lauren Jacobi, Rich, MSB, Twain, Dan Lolli, Marco, Marissa Christmas, Mower, Michelle, my cousin Jon, Ray, Victor, the Nunziatas, the ENNIS artists current and past, Barbe, Nicole, Sara Campbell, Christine Smith, Brian Smith, Alex Palombo, Jose-Gabriel, the Okay Cupid guy from January who I went on three dates with, my nanny and papa, grandma and grandpa, my Uncles Kenny and Kevin, my cousin Kaileen, Michael and Brian Ferrolito, the movers I used last December, Kate Hickey, Drew & Sygale, my subletters, my audition circuit acquaintances, my improv friends, my life coach Liz, my improv teachers and coaches, my one night stands, Will's one month flings, my first NY hookup (the musician), my first NY date (the republican), the casting agents at Telsey who I went in for three times, the casting team for the Drowsy Chaperone tour who called me back five times, Brooke & Mary, the Iovate people, the Microsoft brand people, the theatre dance teacher at Steps and the hip hop teachers at NYSC especially the one I liked and the one that scared me, the cabbies who got me home safe, the baristas at the Starbucks on 81st and Columbus, the Broadway Bagel guy, Lady Doctor Oz, the magnet theatre, the Laurie Beechman, Maude Adams, Katelyn, Jess, my Aunties Jean and Anita, my Uncles Jim and Jeff, my godmother Debbie and her daughter Sam, Sam and Morgan, and Emily Kadish on the 1 train and Liza Rutenback and Becky Farmer on the Lower East Side, and the Pelusos, and Emma and Harry and Casper, and Hayley, and Erin Stutland, and Deepak and Oprah, and Eckhart Toll, and Greg Behrendt, and Fr. Duffel, and Marianne and Margaret and Dana and Brett, and Ryan and Andrea and Pamela Bubolo, and Jan and Barb and Garreth and YiiMei, and Aurelie Jezequel and Jackie and Marnie and James and Man-Lai, and Adhesive and Fotoworks, and Le Book and Casting Networks and Actors Access and Mary Colomba and Namecheap.com, and Kathleen and Robbie and Michael King and Tracey and Elizabeth and Bob, and Jason and Feinsteins and West Side Markets and Ray's Original Pizza and Koronets and Louie Lips and Cherelle at the Bed Bugs registry, and Manhattan Apartments and Michael Frazer (RIP), and JTS and Alex, Eric, Frank, LaurenAli, the BC NYC Chapter, Creative Minds Salon, Blu, Tonya Pinkins, Mark Fisher, Brian Patrick Murphy, Stacy, Amanda, Katie, Stasia, Brian and Jaya, the game nazi, the graduate admissions people at Columbia, the agents who responded to my queries about Inboxed, Jeanette, Tom Cassazone, Kyle Stewart, Karen, Rich, Kelly Doyle, the guy in the kilt, the Red Sox, the scalpers at Yankee Stadium, the Bradleys, Tracey, Mower's other Manhattan girlfriends, Kate Dorman, Matt, Britt and Sammy, Lacey's Kristina, the Galapogos Art Space, The Big Apple Circus, the Broadway, Matthew Broderick, Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansen, Hugh Jackman, Julianne Moore, Kristin Chenoweth, Grace Coddington, the people who work at the Post Office on W 104th St, the singers at the Church of St Paul the Apostle, the bass player at jazz mass, the upper east siders in the congregation of St Ignatius on Park Ave, the guys at Brother Jimmy's, the hipsters in Brooklyn, the ladies at Curves in midtown, the jitney bus drivers, the sales associates at Mandees and Strawberry and Macys and J Crew and Anthropolgie and Urban Outfitters, the NYPD, the salvation army bell ringers, the AM New York and Metro distributors, Time Warner Cable, my friends' roommates and roomates' friends, Billy, Spyros, Tocco, Jim, Culli, Carolyn, Dave Bruin, Thayer, the Meg(h)ans, Jess Kelly, Lauren formerly McLaughlin, everyone at those BC Theatre holiday parties, everyone at the few BC gamewatches I've gone to, everyone on the crews of web series I've been in, anyone who has read my blog, or liked my facebook statuses or commented on how they could never live in NYC, my brussels boy, Ronnie Nicholas, Sam Willmott, Ari Scott, Laura Rose, Dimple Pleasures, the Sing Kids, Michael Martin, Frank Spitznaegal, Frank's wife, my godson and cousins Neil and Matthew and Annie and Kathleen and Colleen and Mackenzie, Mackenzie's cousin and aunt, my therapist, the Upper West Side, Central Park, Riverside Park, the West Side Highway, Chelsea Markets, Anthony's softball team, my first Easter away from home, my rock solid foundation back in Boston, Times Square, 42nd Street, The Legally Blonde Soundtrack, my boots, Rose at Hair Farfalla, $10 manicures, the pulse of Manhattan, the ferry to Staten Island, the GoBus, the megabus, the one amtrak trip I've taken back to MA in the past five years on the company's dime, Devachan, Le Pain Quotidiens, two cell phones, a mobile office, Bubba, Sally Esposito, dollar stores, dreams, drive, faith, compassion, competition, creativity, courage, commitment, inspiration, belief, desire, destiny.