Updating from my igloo.

Hey y'all-yes, I said "y'all"- I swear the Arkansas is rubbing off on me.  Damn you neighbor, damn you!!!  Sorry, I get sidetracked very easily, which is why writing at this coffee shop is such a challenge.  Oh?! You wanna know why I am stuck at a coffee shop?  Well, let me tell you!
   As of, oh lets say Friday or so, my computer decided it was full and won't accept anymore wifi-sandwiches.  Well, Hotel Belleclaire wifi-sandwiches.  I can go anywhere in the city and get quick wifi access, but not in the place I live.  It is rather frustrating, but I am not alone in my suffering. My neighbor and pal, Britt-or Brittch as I like to call her-is dealing with the same disease I am.  The hotel literally hates us, her more so then me.  They've had a flooded bathroom-like Jumanji style-and a cockroach in their bathtub. The only thing I deal with besides internet is that my room is mucho chilly during the day and deathly caliente at night.  I literally lose weight in my sleep.  That hot...sexy right?! *angry face*
   As for my life, it is a whirlwind of snow, interning and walking through slushy NYC.  Aka LOVE.  My internships are pretty stellar, super intimidating but oh-so enjoyable.  Whoever said New Yorkers are rude may have exaggerated a little cause most everyone I work with is pretty baller.  Ugh! Yes baller! As in awesome, cool, legit.  *insert words that make me sound cool and part of the "in-crowd"*  But, seriously I really like the folks I work for, so my weeks are pretty hectic but full of colorful folks that make the work worth it.  Though I did look like a buffoon the other day when I made coffee and it appeared *emphasis on APPEARED* to be made by someone who doesn't know how to work a coffee machine.  But, I went back and showed how I went about making the coffee, and I did everything right! But, the machine needed cleaning which was why it was acting so weird.  BUUUUUT what made it so horrible was that this moment happened when a movie director was waiting for coffee...So I made a great first impression to him...He shall remember me as the boy who ruined coffee, when in reality it wasn't my fault.  Oh well, it is all just split espresso now.
   Whoah, did you notice i start my two main paragraphs with "As"! My creativity is lacking...must be all this snow....Getting back on track...My life in a few bullet points.
    - Saw Alan Rickman and Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter Party!) onstage.  *drools*
    - Witnessed my first "horrid" show in New York.  Super repetitive interpretive dance show...an hour and forty minute dance show...oh the same moves/music.  This A.D.D kid was unhappy.
    - Went to the MET and realized what my heaven should look like.  Rooms full of old European paintings...or just artwork in general.
    - Did laundry at a laundromat for the first time.  Fun. Fun.

I must run. This iced coffee i ordered is too bitter and I need some milk to sweeten the thing up. Later yo, hopefully I will be back soon.  Or soonish.  I think the "ish" is more likely ;)

I'd much rather be at Rydell High then at stupid Mckinley ;)

       New York is a whirlwind...well, maybe the better metaphor for this land of skyscrapers and seedy underground would be a hurricane...or blizzard...or God's toilet...No, wait, I know...I am living in Glee. Everyday I have slushies thrown on me from the most unsuspecting of places.  The street corners, window ledges, children kicking the street corner slush, you name it; if there is slush it will make its way on me.  Anywhozzle, the rest of my week revisited.

    1.) Tango Inferno: There is only three words that come to my mind when I reminisce about this dance extravaganza, and that's: Hot, Hot, and you guessed it-Sweaty.  Well, sweaty comes from the hot which was produced by the 5 couples intertwining body parts at hyper-speed.  The live music was phenomenal, the singer was major blah-great voice, slowed down the pace, and was too cocky for his own good-and the dancers were out of this world...and Italian. Again, the hot scale rises up to extreme.  Great show, I feel like I need to workout for the rest of my life and it is still beyond me how no one got their junk wrecked when legs and other appendages were flying up, down and in between things.  Mind = blown.
  

2.)  Dueling Pianos.  Like for realsies.  One of my fellow New York termers landed a playing gig in the basement of a comedy club called "HA!"-creative, I know- two men played requested songs by overly drunk adults on a stage with a impressively loud sound system.  My friend improved it up on the violin, worked the stage and my eardrums.  It was a crazy good time, though I think the age difference in folks was apparent when good old 80's tunes that I knew the chorus to-that's being generous-would come on and the pot-bellied drunkards would hoot, holler and slobber along with it.  Then when they played N'sync and my friends and maybe two other random girls got all jazzed and sang-and mimed-the dance along with the songs while the "older" drunks got more drunk. It was a hella good time.

3.)  A day on the town with Kendra.  A good old Coe, dare I say it...alum *gasp* as well as New York term alum came by for a afternoon and took me and my friend out on the town.  As an experienced New Yorker she took us to Hells Kitchen were we wondered until we came upon her desired spot...Vynl.  It was all disco balls and records, to say I felt like I was at home would have been an understatement.  (To understand that last comment you should now that my family has a tendency to use Saturdays to clean the house while blasting disco tunes) It was crazy fun and the bathrooms were themed, so I drank to the point of bursting just to go visit on.  I wanted to go into the "Dolly" themed one, but alas that was taken, there was Cher, Nelly, and Elvis.  I chose the king.  A bathroom dedicated to the one and only, I was even serenaded by Elvis tunes.  Glorious.  After that we made our way over to Rockefeller Center and wandered into the NBC story...I wanted it all!  Right where I walked in I saw a shirt that said "What the Frak" and my heart pooped itself out.  A whole area dedicated to Battlestar Galactica...I nerdgasmed to say the least.  Buffy shirts, Dr. Who, Community, The Office...SO. MANY. OPTIONS.  It was glorious and a real struggle to not leave with a t-shirt.  Or toaster.
P.S. 30 Rock isn't filmed at Rockefeller Center, so don't get your hopes up.  That's all I am saying, and I am saving you tears.

4.)  Gruesome Playground Injuries at 2nd Stage.  It was a preview show by one of the writers of season three of Nurse Jackie (my favorite show on TV at the moment) and it featured Pablo Shreiber and Jennifer Carpenter.  Yeah, that Jennifer Carpenter from Dexter and Quarantine...but more importantly...White Chicks. It was a rather depressing play that followed a non-linear timeline jumping years in two peoples lives each showing their relationship through scars.  Rather gruesome and well done.  I can't say I overly enjoyed myself because it was one of those shows that just ate at you, leaving you with hope but the kind thats like "AHHH you're almost there" but I wouldn't change a thing about the show.  The set was GORGEOUS! Small, white, with water filled boxes that made up the floor-lighting up to give various affects.  The walls held secret compartments and was adjusted to make benches and whatnot.  Super cool...The acting was great, the actors jumped from ages 8 to 18 to 38 all in a span of 80 minutes.  Talk about pressure/talent/a workout! The music was stellar, odd but appropriate somehow.  Loved the lighting and I am curious to see what critics will say once it opens on the 31st.  Oh, embarrassing moment of the night.  So, this rather handsome man came and sat with a lady friend in the row in front of us, after the show when we all got up to leave I said "Well I can't say I thoroughly enjoyed myself" meaning that the show left me with a uncomfortable feeling in my stomach but totally not meaning I didn't like it.  Well, the guy was in front of me and when I said that he turned around.  I felt rather awkward.  Later that evening, I went and looked up the writer, Ravij Joseph, and he may or may not have been the guy in front of me...Opps.

         So yeah, monday I spend all day inside because I felt/fell like caca...Stupid friend getting me all sick...blah.  So currently I am battling a cold which is whooping my butt-but I shall silence it for a bit tonight with the magical elixir known as Niquil.  I had my first day of work today, only 4 hours, hopefully I can add more on once I work my other two internships.  Having rarely ever used Excel I must say after 4 hours of fiddling with it, I made a pretty mean Production Schedule lineup.  Now off to pop the phantasmic green pills and then a 8 hour day of work! Wish me luck!  *steps in puddle* Gosh darn it!  ;)

Subways, Sauce, and Sweat(ing).

Mission Numero Uno:  Finding a decent source of wifi.  I've been on the hunt for the right spot in my hotel but it constantly keeps moving and it is a major workout when one goes wifi-hunting.  Anywhoozle how bout an update!
     I've been in New York almost a week now.  At about 8 p.m. tonight the bells will ring and a celebration with me, myself and I will commence for I have survived a week in the real life Minotaur maze.   The minotaur being the various beings/obstacles in New York.  The big momma being the subway...tis an evil underground dragon that one.  But, I have almost tamed it, though the hardest part is finding your baring once you go above ground.  Thank god for my trusty weapon known as Mapquest.  Slays all my demons.  So far I have:
     1.)  Walked a good distance through Central Park.  My gluteus maximus will be maximusing it to the max once i get home.  Unless...
     2.) New York Pizza gets me first.  I have never had pizza like this before. It's like a rad drug trip without the illegal substances!  And it all starts with a bite!
     3.)  Went to the MoMA.  Museum of Modern Art to be exact.  My teacher wasn't lying when she said we would need to eat a hearty breakfast if we were going to make it through the museum.  I personally only made it through a few floors without a hearty breakfast and I was in metaphoric tears by the end of it. Well, at least my legs were crying. The museum was cool though, some major pieces of art that induced many "ooohhhs" and "ahhhhs" and the occasional "wt waahhh?" If you want a visual and physical workout go to the MoMA.
     4.)  Finding inventive ways to say "No I don't want to go to a comedy show" in Time Square.  Being the nice midwestern person that I am...I found it difficult to just say "no" to the street venders.  But, after being talked to and followed 10 times my friend and I had to resort to new ways to avoid them.  I just said "no" while my friend had a more inventive answer.   Vender: "Do you like comedy?"  Friend: "No I hate it." or "No habla ingles."  or made up jibberjabber.  Venders aside Time Square was drool inducing.

    5.)  Saw Pants on Fire's Metamorphoses at The Flea Theatre.  The best of Edinburgh Fringe, this play full of young wonderful actors mixed Ovid's myths with WWII history and kept the underlying theme of chaos intertwined in everything they did.  I personally didn't know what to expect when I walked into the theatre.  It was small, you had to walk through the set (which consisted of a few flats and props) but once the show started and the first humorous moment was issued it was a laugh-infested ride.  Ungodly *ahem godly comic timing mixed with super effective-and intense-set movements the play was such a great starting point for my New York theatre adventure.  Thumbs way up.

     6.) And lastly, though it should have been the first thing I wrote about, my home...Hotel Belleclaire.  Or "Home Base" as I call it.  The sign says "HB" so home base...eh-eh...yeah not super creative but it makes me feel closer to being a superhero, or being in a never-ending game of capture the flag.  It is a beautiful space with faulty wifi but an array of colorful inhabitants.  Writing from my stoop I have witnessed:  Hilarious Irish men walking around smacking each other-oh so manly-and one likes to sing Enrique Iglesias.  A super friendly aid who when told the floors he had just cleaned looked beautiful, he said "Oh.  Thank you.  You're beautiful too!"  These are only the tip of the iceberg!  I can't wait to see what else awaits beneath the surface...aka in the lobby ;)  My single is super nice, i have wood floor...i can't complain.
            My adventure is only beginning, hopefully i come back in one piece...but, if i don't i hope the scars I receive at least come from fun stories! ;)

Unstoppable. You know that train movie. Only not really.

The story of two semi-adults on a 20-some hour long train ride.   *In this instance "ride" could be loosely used or is recommended to be omitted and replaced with "adventure."*  To start let me just inform you that I have never, in my life, taken the train before.  Before this moment every time I thought of traveling on a train all that popped into my mind was the moment in "White Christmas" where the four main characters sing "snow. snow. snow. SNOOOOWW!" in the dining car and what not. Let's just say being stalked by a "child of the corn" was not what I had planned into the equation of train travel.
     I arrived at the train station in little small town Iowa, as in the station hadn't been remodeled since the late 1900s.  It was me, some amish folk, and a few other stragglers waiting for their love ones.  Anyway train came, found my friend and was whisked away.  I must say if I didn't have two huge pregnant-looking suitcases I would love train travel. Easy-peasy and lots of foot room! The train from Iowa to Union Station, Chicago was lovely.  Quiet-well minus the giggles of myself and my travel buddy-cool scenery and the best "dinner car" announcer.  We the passengers were known as, "America" and every time this feisty man made an announcement it went a little something like this...
                                                 *Read this with a swagger-filled southern dialect*
      "Alright America, we got a little bit of orange juice left for you.  Okay America?  The dinning car is closing in an hours so come get your breakfast America."  Though my absolute favorite was when he apparently made an error while reading..."Alright America, we have a Rebecca party of two and an Adam party of...oh...uh-oh...uhhh...."  It was unfortunate that my time as "America" had to stop when I was demoted to "stupid traveler" when I entered Union Station.
       Union Station.  I was prepared for a bright open station with redcaps everywhere, but that image I had in my head was far from right.  For my travels I packed two major bags, like I could fit myself and a small child inside one of them, but I can roll them.  My friend on the other hand brought many little bags, with one that was heavy and couldn't roll very well.  Well, since we aren't experienced cross country travelers we had imagined there would be help after we got off the train.  We were wrong.  Union Station when the train pulls in is pretty much underground (did not expect that) so it was super well lit, and there was no one to help.  To say moving from the outside to inside was frustrating was an understatement.  Once we found our way to the waiting area, which was a sea full of angry, sick-you name it kind of people-we were told (quiet forcefully) to get out of the isle by the most lovely lady ever *hint the sarcasm*  Finding a spot would have been easy if the space they put everyone in was more open and less like a bomb shelter.  Long story short some nice lady moved around and we were able to sit down.  Then begins the 6 hour wait.  On this wait here is what happened in a nutshell:

                1.)  Stalked by Malachai.  You know the scary red head from Children of the Corn.  Though to be honest his getup was more like this kid-------------------------------------->
his features looked like Malachai (the evil redheaded adult killer).  Oh, and he talked like Forrest Gump.  This is not me being mean, just me describing to you in the simplest way possible our stalker.  He came around every 10 minutes and would watch us.  No joke. Like full on stare.  We realized this when my friend an I were playing with Photobooth, taking stupid pictures of ourselves, and I turned the computer towards my friend and guess who was standing in the background...yup, it was exactly like a horror film.
              2.)  Watched various people get their luggage stuck in the new-age lockers.  Lockers that read and respond only to your thumbprint.  Well, this sounded like a nice idea but apparently the locker had a plan of its own, rebelled and ate the peoples' luggage.  It wouldn't respond to their thumbprints and they had to resort to calling this beastly man who looked a little like an Eastern European version of Shrek, but had the personality of mean Ogre.  One girl who was gonna miss her train went up to him, nicely and asked for his help telling him she needed to get in line.  His response, "Yes lady, everybody has to get on the train.  So I just need you to be quiet-"  and that was when I stopped listening because the nice girl-who had awesome chained heels-had only said one thing and he shut her up.  Evil Ogre.  This happened again and again, it was like a soap opera.  Intense, just needed music.
            3.)  The invasion of the arsty awkward dancing family.  A rather earthy looking mom and her two, possibly twin, daughters sat across from us towards the end of the trip.  The two girls who I thought were in their upper teens-based on their fashion sense (i was wrong)-sat in front of us on their kindles fighting over book ratings.  Then the odd one who stared got up and sat on the ground and began to doodle what appeared to be very unfortunate looking trees.  Later they got up and danced around-very gracefully-but awkwardly in the middle of the station.  Come to find out from the feeble attempt of the other less awkward girl-this one wore a see-through shirt!-to flirt with a 25 year old.  He lost interest when she revealed she was 15.  But, the two girls had never gone to school, they just read a lot teach themselves and go to a dance conservatory.  I learned this all from one sitting.  Lucky me.  There was a lot more to them but I had to zone them out because they started to make me nauseous.
           Then my train ride to Penn Station was long as hell, but a nice one.  Favorite memories-or just memories-of this ride are:
            1.)  Antoinette.  The lovely older lady who sat across the isle from us.  She was from Long Island and she was a godsend on the train ride.  So nice and fun to chat with.  Got lucky sitting next to her.
            2.)  Waking up at 6 something in the morning to see the apocalypse outside and wishing I had Viggo Mortensen with me.  It was soooooo foggy/white/snowy outside I thought I was in the movie "The Road."  Even Antoinette woke up and shrieked, "DO YOU SEE THAT?!"  Yes, yes I did Antoinette.
            3.)  Train stopped for immigration people to come through with their gun-clad belts asking everyone what country they were born in and yadadadada.  It was strange and unfortunate for the asian family sitting a few rows behind us because they got interrogated.  Profiling?  I think yes.
            Yes, these are the memories I have of my 20-some hour long train ride.  Penn Station was heaven compared to Union Satan.  We found help, who found us a cab, who got us to the hotel super fast.  New York has been pretty amazing (the pizza?! The tastegasm i'd waiting for).  I shall keep you informed on my adventures to come.  Till then...I am on the hunt for a decent Wifi connection ;P

Remodeling in duh House

Hey boys and girls and whatever else is out there,  I am back after a long long long-did i mention long?- semester.  Sorry I didn't post more but here is/was the dealio: my schedule devoured my social life which seeped into my blogging time which resulted in lack of posts.  There was a lot more to that, but I thought a brief description would suffice.  Right now I am in the midst of whipping up a new blog dedicated to my semester abroad in New York City. That's right hims and hers, I am off to the big apple and this here blog will soon be my daily journal of my adventures.  But, for right now, I am getting this blog's hair did.  ;) See you in a few.