Day 334/365 (July 18, 2009)

I'm tamra!

so i had fallen asleep at 6:30 in the morning like i said yesterday... i woke up about 7:30 when grace got here... just long enough to say hi and fall back asleep! Then i got ready and met up with Kim, Susie, and eventually Jo at Blockheads... then we walked to the highline ballroom and they bought their LFO tickets for the night... then we went to Kim's and ate a bunch of jello... it was good times with everyone and doing something that was so laid back... and i got to see kim's puppy for the first time since i finished puppy sitting in i think May! she had just gotten groomed the day before and she looked like an entirely different breed of dog but she was still as cute and friendly as ever.... i love her so much!

well i was there kim gave me the amazing gifts she had picked up for me in disney: a princess patch, a princess lollipop, a pretty bracelet that has a T charm on it with a mickey mouse head clasp, and Mickey ears that has my name embroidered on the back. well in true tamra form i put them on and wore them the rest of the day because they rocked and i didnt want them to get crushed in my bag... so i went and helped grace try the hair and 9 to 5 lottos (lost both) and then we went to subway to get some much needed grub... yep and i passed kyle dean and tim young... whilst rocking the mickey ears!

then grace and i headed home and i began the long process of the night... baking! OH MY GOD!!!! i can't believe how long it took to make the red velvet cake balls (Satan's Balls) and the carrot cake cookies! I began at 8 and finally finished about 2 o'clock! thatw s six hours of baking and doing dishes so the kitchen remained clean! grace was a super star at making whole cookies from the scraps of cookies that had fallen apart.... they taste so good but they suck to make because they fall apart s easily so you could make 72 cookies (as i had) but only about 38 actually came out ok, and then grace made about 16 cookies from the remains of the other ones, and the rest just had to be thrown out... and since you sandwich the cookies together with cream cheese frosting i ended up with only 27 sandwich's when theoretically i could have ended up with 36 if all the cookies had turned out... basically that sucks! the red velvet balls are really simple in theory but in practice they involve alot of effort but man are they worth it because they taste so good! so anywho afterwards i cleaned the last of the dishes and went to bed!

ps whenever i hear or think july 18 i always think of bad boys II and vice versa because the year it was released Will Smith and Martin Lawrence presented an MTV movie award for something and their whole speech before hand they kept saying bad boys II came out on july 18 to promote it and it became sort of an ongoing joke between judith and myself for a little while, now i suspect i am the only one who still remembers.

Day 194/365 (February 28, 2009)

Got up earlier than planned and not sure why, ate some breakfast then went with Grace to help her with West Side Story Lotto. Ran into Sami, Penski, and then Carina and Stef.

The lotto guy is pretty funny and has a booming voice but i think his "we will call an alternate" policy incase someone doenst get all the tickets they said they wanted... yea i was called as the alternate only to wait in line and be told we don't have any more tickets for lotto. The other funny thing was during lotto there were two names that were called and the people didnt come forward because they werent there... well i was waiting in line these people came in and asked if lotto had been done yet and we said yes, and they asked if any names were called and people didnt come forward and we said there were two and he asked if they were adam or lauren and i was like on was lauren, and then asked her last name and it was it and i was like sorry! then the guy thought they could still get their lotto tickets somehow and he was set on his plan but she kept telling him it wasnt going to work... it made me chuckle.

Then i went to Wamu and closed out my bank account, yay for having a little bit of cash since i am without until Bank of America sends me my new ATM card... still peeved at Coldstone for causing that grief!

Had a little lunch of toast pizza and tomato and avocado... so much yum!

I came home and Krysta was watching one of her movies... not only does this not have "drama" but i saw some stuff that i did not need to be seeing. She also curled my hair all pretty like and i was going all vain and toss-tossing my hair all night!

Karolina came over to kill time after her wedding expo and before we went to go see boyz. We both seem to not see each other as much lately so its always nice to catch up, and we had dinner then made our way to NWS for Altar Boyz and Diane's anniversary celebration. She gave us pretty fun party favors, and i gave her a copy of Bare since she had never heard of it before!

The show was great... it is nice to see it after a little break, and Joey was on as Matthew. Karolina and I shouldnt be allowed to sit next to each other since we encourage each other with funny comments and whatnot.... always a blast!

We did a little photo shoot after the show then went to TOL... It was good fun and i got to speak with Clayton for a while (in picture above with Ravi). He is the drummer for Boyz and i missed him the last few weeks while he was working on another show. (in Seattle).  Also had a conversation with some others that involved my super math skills and a discussion of all the shows that have played at NWS.

Karolina also struck a deal for herself that resulted in a good thing... oy! LOL :D

Day 193/365 (February 27, 2009)

yea it is square but it was tricky homemade dough!!!!

The biggest event of the daylight hours occurred at the grocery store. I wanted to make pizza so grace and i went and bought the supplies but because we couldn't find pizza dough i decided to try to make it on my own. It ended up being a good project for the day but i didn't like the yicky feeling i had well mixing or kneeding it. I usually enjoy mixing things with my hands but this just felt weird and yea i dont think i will do it again. Next time i will make my ay to Whole Foods and buy the dough i like... and the sauce i like!

I also spent some time with Fred and Emma, and got a good picture of them liking each other (ok well getting along)... which they are very good at not letting you get but i snuck up on them.

Krysta, Grace, and I ate the pizza which was yet another real dinner for me which was nice. I also spoke on the Phone with Ted, and emailed with my cousin... i need to get out to New Rochelle on the sooner side to visit them!

Went to Mostly Sondheim (of course) and had lots of fun. This week Todd hosted again and since Kate was away in CA this guy named Michael filled in. He sounded great and was quite funny. AT one point Grace and i got brave and we sang Church Rulez... it actually was a disaster and we did follow the music pretty well for the most part.... it was no where near perfect but it was lots of fun and Todd and Michael were super nice to us and warned everyone we needed a lot of support... haha but it was great and fun!

Day 192/365 (February 26, 2009)

Today was another day filled with boredom, but i was able to eat some of one of my favorite cereals Raisin Bran Crunch. Later i had some yummy tomato and avocado.

Failure of the day: Altar Boyzopoly... i made some pretty graphics for the board but for some reason i cant get it to load on the page and i am beginning to think it will not be finished by the anniversary and that makes me more than a little sad!

I found a new show i kind of like called Burn Notice thanks to Grace.

I went to meet Grace outside of Blithe Spirit since she was seeing it.... turns out it ran way longer than they told her and i spent about 40 minutes in Shubert Alley with nothing to do but listen to music and walk around... but i was passed by Christian Anderson, Two Mermaids, and Heidi (so an octopus.)

FInally i left the stage door madness so i could meet Jake for karaoke fun to begin... and we had alot of fun! Grace came when she got autographs but by the end of the night there was alot of singing... as Lympus said we were doing a set. (hehe). But We sang Light My Candle and We Didn't Start The Fire. We failed at Can You Feel The Love Tonight since the words didnt come up and it was the eltn sung version, not the nala and simba sung version. What else did we sing?

We also got Grace in on the action for Wannabe... and she sang New York New York with Jake and i sang Take Me Or Leave Me with her... and i even let her sing Maureen which i never do since i like maureens part better, but that is just the diva in me! So i tried to work Joanne's part. They have a new drink there for Rooms, it is called Romance on the Rocks, and it is very sweet... i liked it but not enough to get it again.

I also decided i like the production people involved with Rooms because they were having lots of fun there too... yay for fun people in TOL!

This picture is my "tourist" picture because when i got off the subway to wal to meet grace i realized i hadnt taken any pictures today so i took this one just in case i didnt take one before midnight... good thing too because it was the only picture all day!

Day 191/365 (February 25, 2009)

I was going for a zoolander look, and instead look upset... when in fact i had a great time!

I tried to capture all 3 sets of baked goodies... SUGAR COMA!!!!

Oh what a day!

I spent the day doing many random things. I must also note that with the exception of showing Grace select scenes from American Mall and listening to part of the commentary the day was spent listening to a whole bunch of music rockin' from my itunes.

Today i made a birthday card for Hope that i was super proud of, even if i can no longer allow myself to use super glue because it always results in more glue on me than anywhere else. I then began my baking quest of cupcakes to bring to Hope's celebration. I had lots of fun frosting them, and then decorating them. I wish i had better handwriting, but one container said happy birthday hope, and the other were random designs, music notes, and one that said TSS.

Eventually i showered and got ready to leave, and at this point had consumed a few cupcakes amongst other random food of the day, including an omelette that i put cheese on that i had to scrape it off because it disgusted me for the first time ever. I made my way to grand central since i had to take metro north to Pleasantville because that is where Lucy's Lounge was. The trip wasnt so bad and the train was for nicer than the ones that take me to new rochelle! The cupcakes had a tiny incident on the way of me dropping them, but luckily nothing happened to them and they remained safe... seriously those dollar store containers rock!

When i walked up the steps as Hope had said i found it pretty easily and headed in. I ended up only being like 8 minutes early and walked in to an almost empty place. However i found a girl sitting by her lonesome with cupcakes in front of her. I asked her if she was here for Hope's birthday and she said yes.... score! so we chatted until Hope arrived, and then until more people came and we moved over to a larger table. Another one of Hope's friends had come in with this beautiful/monstrous sized cake.

It was nice getting to know the few of her friends i had never met before, and it was eve nicer when i realized i had already met most of them so it ended up being an evening of just fun, instead of "oh hi i only know one person here awkwardness."  we sang her happy birthday in spanish and everyone ate so much of each others cake like goods The cake had chocolate squares on top, and was checkered inside with vanilla and chocolate cake. We ate so much we went into sugar overload! I suspect i will have a bad tummy ache tonight!

All of her friends are also nannies, and let me tell you how weird it was. I would have killed 3 years ago to have so many nanny friends back when i was a nanny. Everyone was talking about their day and the things the children had done, and for the first time i had nothing to share since i am no longer a nanny. I still liked listening. At one point a band started playing and the singer started sining in a grover (of the muppets) voice and we were like what? but then he started singing in his real voice... twas much better!

I left a little on the early side since the trains started coming much further apart and when i got home i was extremly pleased because Krsyta had mae a real dinner and i was able to consume the left overs which was much needed to get something non sugar related in my system.

Then i designed the money for altar boyzopoly since i hate the money design that came with the make your own opoly game... and now i shall get ready for bed and spend 5 hours brushing my teeth, because they sure need it!

Day 190/365 (February 24, 2009)

I didnt take a picture of what i should have taken: our table all clean, with table cloth, and set up for a real dinner!

The day was spent doing nothing really. I baked sugar cookies because i was bored and when i went grocery shopping butter was on super sale.

We all ate a ton of them, especially me!

I watched lots of TV, did job hunting, and wrote a very long LJ entry about yesterday.

Krysta and I also lamented in the fact we couldn't go to the Bare reading!

The nicest part of the day was provided by both Grace and her Mom. She brought a lasagna made by her mom here from CA and this was the first night we were all in, so we decided to have it tonight. Krysta got some yummy bread and in her words made it "fancy." we used the pretty china dishes i have to eat a real meal, and we watched the movie Identity. it was kind of interesting but the murders in it should have started sooner because i was losing interest fast, but then it got intriguing. My favorite was the random guy in it that was in an episode of Highlander as Mikey and i always get excited when i see him in things because he is such a versatile actor, too bad i can never remember his real name.

Day 187/365 (February 21, 2009)

This was a crazy day! (technically it started with amazing subway luck getting to the Duplex for Mostly Sondheim... the night before) but it didn't start until after midnight so here ya have it!

I got there way earlier than i intended because the subway actually worked super fast at that time of the night but it worked out because there was a bunch of people that hopped in line as soon as i did. I had the cupcakes with me as bribery to get Matthew to come. I saved a table for us (since i knew Sasha, Matthew, and Nick were on their way). Todd was back as a host and i had never seen him at MS before but he is one of my new favorite people! so funny and talented too... At one point during the night we had a Rent sing along that began with Seasons of Love but then it became both parts of La Vie Boheme (we fast forwarded over I Should Tell You) and that was my absolute favorite part of the night! Sasha, Matthew, Nick (the cupcake vacuum), and I had so much fun and we sang every word and threw in some choreography for good measure!!!! we really did come alive during those songs. Another part of the night was filled with some trivia... but Matthew couldn't follow the rules and ruined two questions... silly boy! We also learned what an Ace Hole was and LOL! Which after seeing the reading of "How The Nurse Feels" i just dont understand how he has fans.

Grace finally came towards the end for a little but (i even sang a "cute" but train wrecked version of i'm not that smart and Grace and I have concocted a plan for next week... only if the room ends up being composed of NOT certain people.

When Grace and I got home we stayed up with Krysta until like 6:30 in the morning talking and watching videos... fun but i really shouldnt go to bed when the sun is coming up.

I finally woke up to a phone call from Mark telling me that he thought Story of My life would be closing Sunday since tickets weren't onsale past Sunday. It turns out he was right and i said i would go get us student tickets for the night show. Sadly the BO didnt have student tickets so i went to TKTS for the first time ever! the line was long, but not too bad and it has great security that stopped someone who tried to cut the line! We got ninth row center and that was good times.

The show was quite good in my opinion. I would have loved to have been able to see it a few more times. The set was simple, rather beautiful, and perfect for the show. Until the show began all you saw was a bold black background, a very white podium and a very white desk and chair. i enjoyed its start and contrasting nature. When the show began with an audio recording of two boys the balck background parted ways just a bit to reveal a white background that changed colors depending on the lighting used and Will Chase's character walked out. Eventually the black went away and we saw Malcolm Gets' character chilling on a library book shelf ladder/wheely thing and a massive book case (all white in the back. It was really nifty because it seemed like MG was wearing all white the way the lighting was until he got off the ladder and you saw he was wearing beige. The rest of the stage was awesome because it was slightly curved and they were able to use it to get closer to the book shelves, or at one point run up a jump down. 

Another thing i liked about it was when they made snow angels in the "snow" the lights created what looked like the snow-figures as they stood in place moving their arms and legs (like i used to fake jumping jacks in kick boxing)... That amused me to see. Also the lighting made the desk and chair appear blue at one point, and the books lit up on the shelves. There was a story about a butterfly in the show and when i looked at the playbill after and saw the three books had little butterflies on the bottom of each it made me smile! There was a moment when Will's character threw a bunch of papers up in the air, and as the papers started to fall "snow" began to fall from the top of the stage and it was kind of a breath-taking moment to see the flecks of white dance down towards the ground when the lighting had changed to make the background look very much darker than it was. I truly hope this music does get recorded. Another part i liked (and i dont remember exact quotage) was Malcolm's character had told Will's character that because he wasnt there the moment he had died he will never have answers he can only ever have questions... and isnt that a universal truth?

After the show ended i ran into about a bazillion people i knew which was fun, and mark was all "do you know everybody?" the audience was also surprising bcause they were all really respectful. Not one cell phone, i didnt hear any crinkling wrappers, people didnt talk... it was absolute quiet except for the extremely occasional cough, and the one rude person who sounded as if they were opening a can of soda. I have never seen a performance with such overwhelming quiet of people listening to every word! It was fun to share the night with MArk.

Then we went to the stage door and i was able to finally fangirl Malcolm a little bit which made me so happy. I had seen him years ago in an off broadway show called Polish Joke and have been wanting to see him do something else ever since then and well he was worth the wait! Malcolm and WIll both have such beautiful and powerful voices and they blended so well together and their chemistry onstage was astounding... the show had a sad ending but that made it kind of nice actually.

Afterwards Mark and I headed home because he was sleeping over so he could be closer to the airport for his flight to FL in the morning... we stayed up later than we should talking with Krysta and showing him videos too... but this time it was only 12:30! It was a good day!

Day 117/365 (December 13, 2008)

It is funny Grace is from California, but I don’t think of her as a tourist… even though she technically is. We decided to be tourists and go see the tree in Rockefeller Center… I am glad we did because it is always an incredible sight to behold, but man oh man is it crazy mayhem and way TOO many people! I took lots of different fun pictures (including my current wallpaper on my phone) but this turned out to be the most interesting because that green little tree/bush thing was saying “I may not be tall and huge and have tons of sparkly crystals upon me, but I can upstage that tree any day!”