Julie's Apple Tart

Julie's previously mentioned Apple Tart was amazing!



Truthfully- this is not an actual image of her tart- but you get the idea. Another confession- I do not usually like apple tarts, apple pie, apple cider or warm apple of any sort. Julie I didnt tell you this the other night- because it looked so good and I wanted to try it before passing any judgment. Well, you have swayed the harshest of critics, because I loved it! We had it warm and covered in whipped cream. Yummo!

Great Day!

What a great day I've had! First of all- the Letterman show was so fun! The theater is much more intimate than I had anticipated. Renee Zellweger was the first guest and she was so nice and teeny tiny! I loved her stunning red dress!



Although- it looks very similar to this dress she wore on his show last year. Hmmm.




Then I had two girlfriends from American Girl, Tricia and Julie, over for dinner! Tricia brought a salsa dip and Julie an apple tart. I made burritos with shredded pork and it was so tasty! I just popped a pork loin in the crock-pot for 8 hrs with some chicken stock, fajita seasoning, lime and lemon juice and cracked pepper. Mmmmmmm! So good! I could eat some form of rice/ beans/ cheese every day of my life.

But the best part of this day was that it was the last one of three weeks with out my man! E returns from Cali tomorrow and I couldn't be happier!

Won a free ticket to tomorrow's David Letterman show! All I had to do was answer a trivia question: What color hair does announcer Alan Kalter have? Red. Duh! I hope the guests are good!

Princess

One of the fabrics for the "Princess" tablecloths Im making.

Old Friend

Just returned from a short reunion with my college roommate Krista. She has a beautiful home and family in Easton, PA. It had been three years (and their wedding day) since I last saw her and Nick, but it was just like no time had passed. We picked up right where we had left off- being silly, singing, dancing and talking about our hopes and dreams. I had a great time! Im going to get busy making table cloths for her baby girl Giana's up-coming "princess" birthday party!

9-11-01

So I was bored and I "googled" myself. I found a lot of stupid stuff and Honor Roll listings etc.. but i also found this comment I posted on Sept. 11th 2001. It took me back to that day. Here is the link if you want to see what I was responding to (and other peoples responses to me).

Sep 11th 2001
ok... being a resident of Manhattan, being an onlooker of this tragedy, and being a witness of the aftermath forces me to respond to messages written. I think the immediate issue here is the health and safety of all the INNOCENT people who were hurt and killed. True the US has done some fucked up shit, but I know the majority of the victims involved in this tragedy had NOTHING to do with it. Its one thing to sit back and watch on t.v., but its quite another to hear the explosions, to see and smell the smoke, to see people break down and cry beside you on the street, and to wonder if you're still in danger. I am living only 30 blocks away.I am LIVING in New York City, and experiencing this first hand, not from the comfort of my living room hundreds of miles away. I am scared out of my mind, and this "anarchist heroism" that some people think is appropriate, is way out of line. People are dead and people are terrified. So I ask that even if you are against the government, just think about how lucky you are. You should be thanking God that youre safe behind your computer screen, and not out here in the midst of reality. Think about how lucky you, and all of us are. Marissa McCullough

Damn. And I didnt post anonymously like most of those kids.

That day was the singularly most terrifying day of my life. The full scale of it didnt even hit me for a long time. New Yorkers put on a brave face and went on with life. But we were damaged. We were scared. Freshman year had just started, I had only lived here for one week and had no close friends yet. I was getting ready for class when the first plane hit. We didnt have a TV in our dorm room- so I didnt even know about it until Mom called me. Since we still didnt know what it meant, everyone went to school like normal. Once at school, the second plane hit- and we got scared. Classes were canceled and I started to make my way back to the dorm. By that time the streets were chaos. All bridges and tunnels to Manhattan were closed and people were stranded. Everyone was running and crying and listening to car radios. It was like a movie scene. Thats when the first tower fell- and we knew thousands of people were dead. I started running back to the dorm- trying frantically to call home but cell phones didnt work. All I could do was wait for news. We could see the billowing towers of smoke from the dorm windows. All you could hear was siren after siren making its way downtown. Later that night, when it was over- we went out on the streets to light candles. The city was silent and the streets empty. You could walk right down the center of Lexington Ave. The stark difference from earlier the day was eerie, and you could smell the burning in the air. .This guys video gives you a sense of what it was like. I didnt cry- and I didnt even see footage of the planes impact for over a year. I avoided the confrontation. A few years later my mom and I went to see a movie- and a preview for one of the movies made about 9-11 came on the screen- and i lost it. I cried and cried. I cried because I was happy to be alive and safe, with my mom beside me to hug me. I was happy it was all over and behind me. I was proud to be a New Yorker

Silent Genius

Ok, so some of you may argue with what Im about to say... but Allie and I nicknamed Winston- Salem "The Dash" a long time ago- and thought it would be funny to try and integrate it into every day lingo. We used to make up words all the time to see if people would start using them. Well, it worked and now even the baseball team dons the name. Sigh. To be a silent genius.

Anything for "art"!

How did I miss this? It seems like just the kind of thing I would have encountered and then bitched about here. Maybe this explains everything! All weird, homeless, peeing, singing, farting subway riders are just part of a big Improv experiment. Yeah! Thats it! Anything for "art", right? But seriously- please watch some of their other videos, too. Hilarious.

Nachos, Musicals and Cake.

I had so much fun last night! One of the (very few) benefits of having E out of town is that I had a night on the town with the girls! Party! whooo hooo! Oh, but dont worry, we spent half of the night with musical singing queens... who gave us cake.

First, I met Madelaine and Julie (hi girls!) for din-din at Trailer Park. Yummy nachos and tater tots. Then we went to see Kidz Theater's production of Bye Bye Birdie. Kidz Theater is this childrens theater program our friend from American Girl, Kristen, started. Check out the web site. Anyways, about 12 young performers from American Girl were in this show- and it was sooo much fun to see them. They did such a great job! My face hurt from smiling so much.

Then the whole AG gang (not the young girls, just us adults) headed down to Marie's Crisis Piano Bar in the West Village. If you're a Broadway lovin, show tune singin, moderately conceited individual, then this is the place for you. We sang our little hearts out to everything from Fame to Pippin and back again. This guy from Project Runway was there too. Also, it was Marie's birthday so everyone got cake! Yippie!

And, Im pleased to report that we have officially booked our wedding photographer McDorman Photography ! So excited

Thoughts on Aliens/ Robots...

Im pretty sure these "people" are either Aliens, Robots, or Alien Robots.





You know- some kind of prototype that malfunctioned and then was just abandoned here, forgotten by their motherland and/ or creator.

I couldnt make this stuff up ...

Oh where to start. I guess I'll go chronologically. So first of all, I suffer from migraines. I blame YOU mom. Just kidding, but it does run in the family. Mine didnt start till around puberty, but lil' sis started getting them while still in elementary school. Poor thing. Anywho, they suck. I usually take a Migraine Excedrin as soon as I feel one coming on- but this time I delayed and it inevitably got worse. In addition to the Excedrin I always need a shoulder rub and a hot shower. But this morning I realized I was out of soap so no shower. I am also sans fiance at the moment so no back rub either.
Long story long- I ended up going to a Korean Massage parlor in a sketchy basement. It was out of pure desperation and also I only had ten dollars on me. This particular establishment is located below the laundromat near by the theater. It smelled slightly of cat and consisted of two rows of "beds" partitioned only by sheer curtains. I think I was supposed to undress- but yeah right. Ive heard about women contracting vaginal infections from tanning beds- so just imagine what I could have picked up there. All weird sketchiness aside- it was a great massage. I think I might have to go longer next time. Thats right, I said next time. Maybe I'll consider wearing a tank top and running shorts so she can at least use the lotion and not have to rub through my jeans and turtleneck.
So after the massage I was all relaxed and I headed towards the subway home. Now, if you've read any of my former posts on the subway- you know this post is about to get gross. A man was urinating in the corner of the platform. Not a homeless man, no. A US Post Man! In uniform! I couldnt believe it- although, you'd think by now Id be used to such things.
Then, while on the ride home this guy starting singing along (very loudly and very off key) to whatever song was on his ipod. Always annoying- but his particular song went something like this.... "Sex. Sex. Sex. It will make a baby. Sex. Sex. Sex. Some like it fast, some like it slow" So on and so forth. I just couldnt help myself and I started giggling. I couldnt stop- and when I made eye contact with another passenger who was giggling too, we both erupted in to uncontrollable laughter. Of course this just spurred the man on- but damn, it was so funny/ terrible!
Ah, just another day in NYC. I mean- I couldnt make this stuff up if I tried.

Thoughts on Proactive

Proactive, are we supposed to feel sorry for those gorgeous celebrity women who had "breakouts" resembling tiny pencil dots and have top-o-the-line makeup artists painting them up every day? Maybe that commercial just causes my tear ducts to become temporarily faulty because I never can pinch out one salty droplet.

Bog of Eternal Stench

First I want to mention this SNL skit:



Too funny. (even though all of those shows are either long gone or not even closing.)

Anywho- NYC is so gross. Sure there are a few streets not spotted with dog shit, but I rarely walk down them. Only when traveling near a museum or Central Park, but then again, many Central Park sidewalks have horse shit. So basically what Im saying is odds are you have to constantly dodge shit. Then theres the garbage. I have literally watched people just toss their empty soda can on the ground. Eric has taken to confronting litterers, but Im not that brave. They may shiv me. If the trash and shit isnt nasty enough, then you have homeless people. If you have never smelled "homeless" you cant even imagine the stench. They smell like what I imagine the Labyrinth's "Bog of Eternal Stench" smells like. Im not exaggerating. Not only are the homeless people gross- so are many of the "regular" inhabitants. Yesterday while walking down the subway platform the man in front of me seriously stopped, squatted a little, let out an enormous fart, then continued on as if nothing had happened. Ugh! Oh my god- it was awful. I was in his direct path! Did he do that maliciously do you think? Was he aiming for me? Did he get some sort of obscene pleasure out of farting on me? Probably.

Where'd Everybody Go?

So, not the best time to be in the theater biz. Here's a little snipet from an article on playbill.com...

PLAYBILL.COM'S THEATRE WEEK IN REVIEW, Jan. 3-9: Where'd Everybody Go?
By Robert Simonson
09 Jan 2009


So let's look on the bright side: theatre owners will be saving a lot on their electricity bills this month.

Nine Broadway shows gave their final performances on Jan. 4. It's more complicated than that, of course. Some, like White Christmas, Slava's Snowshow and Dividing the Estate, are simply concluding their limited run. Another, 39 Steps, is simply taking a breather before reopening at the Helen Hayes on Jan. 21. But whatever the reasons, you just don't want to see a quarter of Broadway's theatres go dark at once. You just don't. What's more, three more shows — Spamalot, All My Sons and Gypsy will close on Jan. 11 and Spring Awakening one week later.

There are some silver linings. The hit farce Boeing-Boeing recouped well before closing and will begin a national tour in 2009. And no one can really feel sorry for Hairspray, which ran forever. Grease also stayed a fairly long time (too long, to some critical tastes). But doubtless the producers of those shows, along with Young Frankenstein and 13, probably feel cheated by the economy of what might have been a long run.

Yeah.

Le poo-poo.

Whilst traveling to and fro the laundromat yesterday- Eric passed by a Hispanic transvestite walking his/her dog, who advised Eric to "Look out for le poo- poo!" For me the best part of this encounter isnt the transvestite, but the wording of "le poo-poo". I am surprisingly unfazed by tranies. Maybe its my artistic up-bringing amongst dancers and actors. I also went to the Ms. Drag Rhode Island pageant with my friend Ron,although tranies and drag queens are not the same thing. I admittedly know a very good many lines from the movie "To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar". My local Burger King employs a very nice he/she who I suspect may be one in the same with the "le poo-poo" lady.

Wedding Immersion

As you can tell from my last few posts- I am deeply immersed in wedding land. It suddenly occurred to me that we've been engaged for 7 months and all I have is my reception location! So I've been researching and emailing vendors like crazy! I mean, we still have 9 months- but I was shocked when 6 photographers I inquired with already had our date booked! The worst news Ive had is that the water at my ideal ceremony location (Corpening Plaza) may be shut off to save the city money!


If that turns out to be the case, it will just be this big cement wall. Not very romantic. I should find out in a few weeks what the decision is.

Ive also been looking around at dresses for my ladies to wear. Im letting them pick their own dress- black and knee length is all I ask. Here are some of my faves from Nordstrom...

Bridesmaid Beauties by Costume Diva

Wedding Inspiration Board

Updated the floral inspiration board to include more images and to cover more of the wedding look overall! Im loving it!


Black/ pink/ red Wedding by Costume Diva

ps. Martha Stewart and her team are amazing.

Wedding Flowers

Here are some beautiful floral ideas Im loving for the wedding. White, light pink, with hints of red and black. I think its classic, romantic and modern. 9 months to go!


Wedding floral inspiration by Costume Diva

Here is a pic of me in my Mom's wedding dress...

(1972)


and my Oma's wedding dress...

(1948?)

2009!

Happy New Year!