Musings from Mid-November

Ok - I kind of hate those blog posts that start - "I know I haven't posted in a while - but I've been so crazy!!". And I don't even feel like it's been that long, I post on average, once or twice a week. It's been two weeks since my last post, so I'm not too far behind. Plus, I recently discovered that no one really reads this - so who cares?! Actually, that discovery (that no one reads) is kind of freeing. The whole point of blogs (I've thought) is that you can post your feelings anonymously - and so "the world" gets an un-censored 'you'. Blogs to me have always been a way to vicariously live another life almost. Or at least to feel solidarity if me and the blogger are leading the same crappy life :) .

Anyways, I haven't posted recently not because I was 'so' busy - it was just that I didn't really have a 'set' topic and felt all this lame pressure to post something fun. No more! I'm gonna post what I would normally post in my journal/diary from now on. Plus maybe some mini-reviews of musicals from 1929.

So let's get started!

Last night I went to Haru with my friend Lo (it was her Birthday). I was feeling sick though so I didn't stay long. It was fun - I found out Lo's boyfriend thinks I hate him (for no reason! - I like him I swear!) , and that sometimes I'm funnier than I intend to be. Lo and I were at the bf's apt. one day (he was out golfing), we were baking pies and watching "The Flight of the Conchords" and it was a great day. When the bf came home he looked tired and he went straight to the bathroom for a shower. I just thought - if it were my apt. and I was tired and sweaty and I don't get to see Lo that often, I would want Lo's third wheel friend to leave! :) I mean I thought I was being polite, and nice even, but he thought I didn't want to hang out with him. Oh well, I'm going to try extra hard next time I see him to assure him that I do not dislike him at all!

Also last night it was me, Lo, Lo's roommate Tiff, our friend Kyle, and two other fun gay boys. So we were all drinking our little pomegranate martini's and having a pretty good time. More people were on their way and I was feeling not so good so I was about to leave, and I look over at Steve who has what looks like a date book out and he is organizing his business cards. John, across from me, looks over at Steve and goes "Who do you know at Men's Wearhouse?" and I looked at John and with a wink I said "Who doesn't he know??!" and John just busted out laughing! I was really surprised my little quip hit so hard. But he was so tickled. When he could, he asked do you know something I don't? Or were you joking? And I was like, no no! Just a joke. But it was really funny....also, while typing this I just now realized it is wear and not ware - house - which makes perfect punning sense - I just never paid attention. I feel like Jessica Simpson.

More later
xoxo Gossipgirl Lynn!

An (Almost) Perfect Night.

So, I don't know if I've told you about my love of music, but I love music. Some days the discovery of new music occupies me for hours. I go from new bands, to their new/well-known producers, and then to the producers new albums and so forth. It's quite a time-consuming little loop. Anyways, I say all this to preface this next admission, which is that I am a big fan of John Mayer's music. I've liked him for a long time, and saw him for the first time in 2001 in a tiny little whole-in-the-wall bar in Gainesville, FL (Go Gators!) for free. I definitely thought he was pretty good then, and his recent forays into blues and with the John Mayer Trio have only strengthened my opinion of him. So I'm a fan I guess a more succinct person would say.

Last night, I had tickets to go see a free screening of "Walk Hard" and I was really looking forward to it! It's the newest movie out from Judd Apatow ("Superbad, Knocked Up") and I had invited some friends to join in the funny. Then, about an hour before I was to head over to the movies, my friend Lo asked me a) what was I wearing and b) did I have plans? I told her I was wearing jeans and that I was going to see a v. funny movie! To which she replied that she had an extra ticket to go see Cyrano de Bergerac in an hour and if I wanted to come I should hurry home and get changed! Luckily I live near the Theatre District so quickly accepted and then ran around town like a crazy person.

I had to hurry to the 42nd St. Movie Theaters, give my friends my ticket/flier thing, run to my house, change into "nice clothes", and then run to meet my friend at......Opening Night!!! Awesome- and I had no idea! Of course, Lo thought I knew that that was why she told me to dress nice. So anyways, we met outside and proceeded to walk past the red carpet where Ben Affleck (!) and David Cronenberg where being interviewed. There were tons of other celebs (Maxwell, Kathie Lee Gifford, Glenn Close, etc.) there too but I only saw those Ben and David. Now, I've been to a couple of openings before but this one I was really excited about. I love Jennifer Garner (I'm a big Alias fan) and I adore Kevin Kline as well - I once served him a latte at the Starbucks I used to work at! We go way back. Also Cyrano is a great play, and I've been lucky enough to have had to study it in both French and English so it's one that I know well (I feel like I enjoy familiar plays more). I was pretty hyper the whole time, and the show was great! It was really funny and well-paced, the sets were stunning, and I thought Jennifer was enchanting. However, If I'm being completely honest, while I really enjoyed watching her performance, it was a little inconsistent as far as tone and dialect go. Although when Lo and I talked about this she thought that a lot of that could be due to the directing (and she's the Theatre expert!). As far as everyone else- I thought Kevin was a-mazing!!! Really. I'm getting teary right now remembering his last few scenes. And Chris Sarandon was very amusing as well (he was the evil prince from Princess Bride!) and he plays the evil Comte de Guiche here (always evil!). And I don't know about you - but the entire cast of the Princess Bride will always have a special place in my heart. All in all, it was a perfect night!! Almost.

As soon as I got out of the show I realized I had a text message from my friends who went to the movie. It said: You're going to be so pissed but John Mayer is here. Me: Damnit!! Why fate, why??!!

I mean in reality my night was totally great and I would've gone to Cyrano even knowing that one of my favorite musicians was at that movie screening. But still. Couldn't they have just gone to the movie and not have seen anyone I would love to meet? Anyways, after that I met my friend C at the W bar for drinks and then went home shortly after....it felt like a very "New York" night (and I normally cringe when people use that expression). Anyways, If you're thinking of seeing a Broadway play, I do recommend Cyrano de Bergerac!

and if you want to know about "Walk Hard"? Ask John Mayer. Who knows, he probably blogged about it!

Happy Halloween!

Hi everyone!

Happy Halloween and I hope y'all have a great night. I am going to go to a bar tonight after work to celebrate a friends Birthday, and then I will probably head down into the Village to check out all of their festivities too! So good fun should be had by all.

Below I posted a playlist from imeem, an awesome music website. It's a totally legal and safe place to check out really well made playlists and discover some new music. Check it out here.

And TricK or TreaT!!!

Halloween Tunes

Looking for some Spooky Halloween tunes? Look no further and enjoy!

Halloween Pressure

Sigh. It's that time again.

With celebrations coming up on Friday/this weekend and then ending on Wednesday night. It's the time I used to worship as a child...Halloween. I would literally count down the days 'til Halloween! I was so excited! Even if my costumes did suck - and I actually don't remember what I was ever - my Mom wasn't the photo-taking type. I would still rush home from school, change into my costume immediately and then bug anyone within reach to take my trick-or-treating.

At that time we lived on Air Force bases so we were allowed to go running around the neighborhood, as long as we didn't venture over to enlisted housing, or bug the Generals too much. It was obviously very safe and so we stayed out until it got dark, sometimes a little later. I remember the best house was General Schwarzkopf's house, he had two Doberman Pincers (very scary to a kid), but he gave out the best candy - full bars! Way better than bite-sized, so it was worth risking the dogs.

Anyways, after years of looking forward to this day, I find myself as an adult, dreading it. I hate the pressure to go out because, like New Years it's inevitably not as fun as it "should" be. I hate having to wear a cute costume (and for cute read: sexy), and I hate trying not to eat all the candy that is everywhere! I love being scared and watching scary/cheezy Halloween movies and even Halloween themed-TV shows. And, I like seeing other peoples costumes, I just don't like making a big "To Do" over it.

A task I've accomplished the past few years. Last year I went to see "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"(first time ever!), which was great, and the year before that I watched the East Village Parade for an hour or so, which was kind of lame. However, this year I have a friend coming in from Florida and she has already asked what we're doing. I just know she is expecting a wild "New York" night. Or something. Hopefully I will think of something fun to do that's not too much trouble for me. If you hear of anything let me know!

P.S. - Is anyone else extremely annoyed at the attention Halle Berry's "Jewish" comment has received? I just think it is really too much - our Nation is so scared to be un-PC. I hate to really go into it (because I'm scared too), but I really don't think she needed to apologize for her comment. Ok I have to stop now.

Fedex Came Through.

So last time I posted I was stressing about a package gone astray. I sent said package Fedex prority overnight on a Wednesday afternoon. I soon received several email confirmations from Fedex saying "package has been picked up", "package is being delivered", package has been dropped off", etc.

I thought everything went fine and I didn't feel the need to follow-up since I had received confirmation that it was sucessfully delivered. Enter my boss, on Friday morning, he was working from a meeting downtown but was on AIM, and he asked me "whatever happened with the tickets?" ( it was 4 Springsteen tickets that were in the package). I told him, "I sent that out on Wed. and Fedex said they delivered it on Thursday afternoon at 1:00 pm". All of the sudden my AIM started going crazy - my boss is all - 'what's the address you sent it to?', 'what's the tracking number?', 'are you sure you sent it correctly?'. I asked him if there was a problem and he IM'ed back- 'A' doesn't have them! I started to freak out a little bit (hence my post about anxiety), but I kept my cool, answered his questions and assured him Fedex delivered it.

So then, just to be the awesome, thorough employee I am, I called Fedex to follow-up and let them know there was a problem. The Fedex rep thoroughly apologized, went through the delivery with me and said they would start an inquiry with the courrier and let me know. I waited a couple of hours and hadn't heard anything. So I called back, and they did the same thing (apologized, went over deets), then they gave me one small piece of new info and said to call back when the courrier had reported to 'someone' specific. So I waited, and still nothing. Finally I called them back again and they said the person who received the report had gone home (what?!) and I should call back at 6:30pm (my job ends at 5:00pm) when the night person would be there. So I said I would, but I didn't - I went to a blogger Happy Hour and hung out with friends!! But I did email my boss to let him know the follow up I had done, and he (sadly) thanked me for being so diligent.

Cut to Monday morning. My boss came into my cube and very seriously explained that we needed those tickets, The recipient (A) checked his house and his neighbor's very carefully and couldn't find them. He also told me that 'A' had tons of scuba gear on his front porch which should ring a bell for the driver. So I said I would follow up, although to be honest, after the run around I got on Friday, I didn't expect much. So I called Fedex, went through the apologies, the deets, and the "we can offer you $100.00 for the loss" (which means nothing to my Boss!). After that I basically told the rep the money was useless to me and then asked what else could be done, and then I just stayed on the line, unwilling to give up, and kept asking "what could be done?", until she finally said - "let me get my manager". YES!

The manager came on, and very bored-like asked me what the problem was. I told her, and I repeated the new information about A's porch being covered with Scuba gear. She sighed and said she would check with the driver and call me back. Honestly! Was that so hard?!

Cut to: An hour later - my boss comes running up, all "They found them!" I was thrilled! But where? My boss said the driver delivered them to the wrong house. Awesome. That guy has one job and he screws it up. I swear. So the lesson here is when dealing with call centers - if you don't get the answer you want, hang up and call right back to see if the next person will be able to help you, if not - the manager! is the best thing ever.

And so it all worked out - 'A' got the tix and went to the concert, and my boss was impressed with my follow-up. Yay!

TGIF??

All of the sudden I’m feeling very anxious. I can’t seem to focus at work and I haven’t been to the gym in 4 days. I know that doesn’t seem like a long time, but to me it really is. I have plans to go tomorrow but right now I am really feeling ‘stifled’ – this morning was weird to begin with – I never hit a “rhythm” and now at work I essentially have two things I have to get finished by today that I am stressing out about. And they are relatively simple tasks! I do them everyweek, and yet today I am struggling so much!

This week I did have something really cool happen to me – I’ll blog about that later (when I get my photographic evidence together). For now I felt like I had to express my anxiety before I imploded on myself.

Furthermore, I have a plans for Happy Hour later today that I have never needed more.

Oh and P.S. – Is it really my fault if I sent something important to someone FedEx overnight and that person didn’t receive it? I mean, Fedex dropped it off- their tracking devices say that they got it. Except my boss says that person didn’t get it, and it is now my fault – I’m on it. Le sigh.

P.P.S. - I am loving Pushing Daisies the "Hopelessly Devoted To You" number was amazing!