My full time job(s).

On Saturday, fall officially began. It was brisk and cloudy in the morning. It seemed like fall had hit New York literally overnight. I was a little nervous about the weather because it was the day of the Block Party!

I got up early and went to help with the set up at John Jay Park on the Upper East Side. Right before the party started, at about 11:45am, the sun came out and it was a perfect day for a party. There was free food, arts & crafts, face painting, clowns, music, and even a bouncy house for kids.

I was amazed at how many people showed up. I was on the face painting crew with several other people so I thought I wasn't really going to be needed to paint. Well, I painted the whole time. I must have drawn 100 butterflies, a dozen snakes and flowers, and even a monster. I was a little nervous when the little boy asked me to draw a monster. I mean, it is a little subjective what a monster looks like. When I held up the mirror for him to see my work I held my breath. He looked at his face, smiled really big, said "Cool!" then ran away. Success.

We were so excited about the success of the afternoon. I think the church had a great outreach to the community day. I really enjoyed getting to know the members of the church that I'm attending. I'm really liking it there.

For the rest of the day on Saturday I hunted for apartments. I walked all over the Upper East Side checking out places, I made phone calls, and sent out emails. It was exhausting and so far unsuccessful.

At night I met up with some friends at a bar near Times Square. It was called Vintage. I liked it there and apparently so did a lot of other people because it was pretty busy. It was really great to just hang out and unwind with some friends. Seems like you spend so much time in the city being alone, I was taking for granted time with friends.

Sunday I went to church. I'm getting to know so many people there and I'm feeling more at home every week. I'm so thankful.

Afterwards I did more apartment hunting. I took the subway all over New York City. I still have no idea where I'll be living in October. Yikes.

Monday morning I got up early and went to an audition for the Prather Entertainment Group (PEG). They have theaters in three cities in the US and were casting a ton of shows for their season. Because of all the roles there were lots of people at the audition. I got there early and was #286 on the list. I figured I wouldn't get seen that day. I resolved to come back Tuesday for their second day of auditions.

I left those auditions and walked uptown to stand in line for the Alicia Keys background singer auditions. Yep, I auditioned to be a background singer for Alicia Keys, the Grammy Award winning singer. Aren't you proud? hehe.

I stood in line at noon and the actual start time for the audition was 4pm. It was A LOT of standing around. You gotta do what you gotta do. It was kinda chilly out but there were a couple other people there that early that helped distract me from the cold. I had a lot of fun talking to them.

So, I was the 4th person in line and, thank God I got there so early, because by 4pm the line for the audition was down the block and around the corner. It looked like a line for American Idol auditions. It felt like one too because we had to sing a'capella. We went one at a time in front of a panel of Alicia's "people." I picked the song "It Don't Make Any Difference to Me," by Kevin Michael (I only had to sing the chorus). I sang for her music director, manager, and others on her management team. It was a crazy experience. They video taped our audition and I think they liked me. Well, I know they didn't hate me. :)

I was glad I didn't bomb. Alicia's music director was kinda dancing as I sang and I thought that was hilarious. I don't know if they'll be calling me back considering I was one of three white girls in the entire line of auditionees but it was a great experience. I mean I can say, "I auditioned to be a back up singer for Alicia Keys!" What a story that one'll be for the grandkids, haha.

Tuesday I got up at the crack of dawn and went to the Prather audition again. Again there were so many people! I almost didn't get seen for a second time! I lucked out. My audition went well but I wasn't what they were looking for. Bummer.

In the afternoon I went up to the Lincoln Center to visit the Performing Arts Library. I got my library card (which was a big deal to me since only New Yorkers can get one) and checked out the library. I spent hours exploring their play collection and all the musical sheet music they have. I'm so glad to have that resource now. I found some new stuff to work on in my next voice lesson, too.

On Tuesday night I went to check out an apartment in the East Village. I liked it. It was in a great location and had a real good price. I put my name in for it; we'll see if I get it.

Wednesday I went to an audition for Macy's and all their holiday stuff like the parade, Santaland, etc. It went really well. They had me sing an extra song and then they interviewed me. Considering that most people sang 16 bars and left, I think I might be getting considered for something. I'll try not to get my hopes up, as usual, and I'll let you know if anything happens!

Now I'm off to see another apartment. Ugh. It's practically a full time job: apartment hunting in this city.

The week of shows....

On Monday night I went to see a show called "Celebrity Autobiography." It's a performance put on as a fundraiser for the Theatre Development Fund. My friend Jana from UE had two tickets so we went to see it. The theater it was in used to be a zipper factory. They converted it to a really fun, funky little off-Broadway theater. The show was basically just a staged reading of several different celebritys' autobiographies. Sounds simple but it was very cleverly done. Since the show was on a Monday night, several big names got to read like Kristen Johnston (3rd Rock from the Sun) and Richard Kind, (Spin City, tons of movies) and half the cast of Broadway's Xanadu. Most of the performers are usually in shows but since it was Monday night, they weren't. (Broadway's dark on Mondays)



The show was hilarious. It was amazing the kind of stuff some "celebrities" put in their autobiographies. Every word in the show was strictly a direct quote from the celebs. Some of the celebs covered were Kathy Lee Gifford, Tommy Lee, Sylvester Stallone, Ivana Trump, Elizabeth Taylor, Burt Reynolds, and Marilu Henner, (to name a few). It was so funny it hurt. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. The guy who put the project together must have read hundreds of autobiographies. I was in awe. Apparently the show was a hit in L.A. so they brought it to NYC. It's a hit here too so I bet they'll keep showing it about once a month as a continuing fundraiser. I highly recommend it.

Tuesday was the 6th anniversary of the tragedy of September 11th. It was very surreal to be working in a high rise building in NYC on the anniversary. It was a very stormy day with torrential downpours. The day was relatively normal and uneventful. I couldn't help but cringe every time I heard a siren from a fire engine throughout the day. The security guards in our building wore flowers on their lapels in memoriam. Other than that their was hardly any acknowledgement of what had happened 6 years earlier. Seemed strange to me. I wasn't expecting the city to drudge up its painful past, it just seemed a little insensitive that no one seemed to even remember what say it was.

Wednesday I got an unexpected phone call from my friend Jana again. She had tickets to see "The Lion King" on Broadway and she invited me. (She gets all these free tickets through this great company she works for). Of course I said I'd go! We ate dinner at the Heartland Brewery in Times Square then saw the show. I haven't seen it since 2000, on my first trip to the city. This year is the 10th anniversary of it being on Broadway. It's still a hot ticket after all these years! It sure is a pretty show. I love all the cool technical elements; it's so fun to watch.

Thursday I had my second voice lesson with Jordan. Again, it was great. I am learning so much about belting. I'm gonna go to the performing arts library at the Lincoln Center and find some music to work on with her. I'm growing out of the music I have!


Today I had an audition for a play called "Wild Geese." I read it online a couple times and I really like it. There are 4 female roles, 3 that I feel like I could play. The audition went well, I'll let you know what I hear from them.

Tomorrow I'm volunteering at the Block Party my church is having. I might be painting faces or helping kids with arts & crafts. Either way the weather's supposed to be great so I'm excited!

Busy, busy, busy

Thursday I had my first NYC voice lesson! I am taking voice from a girl named Jordan. She has all sorts of training in various genres of singing. I found her website online and thought I'd give her a shot. I had an hour lesson and I learned so much in my first lesson! She's teaching me how to belt properly so I don't hurt my voice. In order to be competitive in the Broadway scene I knew I needed to learn how to belt. Jordan has several students on Broadway now so I knew I could trust her teaching and to be honest with me. I was so encouraged and had a great boost of confidence after working with her. I look forward to more lessons.

Friday I had my first day of work that was appointed to me through my temp agency. I work at a VERY FANCY high end office interior design firm. I am the receptionist at the World Headquarters for the company. Which means my first day was insane. I could go on and on and on about it (ask my parents) but I'll just leave you with some highlights that have happened thus far.

In my first 10 minutes the call volume was so high that I was answering the phones like you'd see in some comedy sketch: "Hello, ...hold please, hello...hold please, hello...hold please, etc." I hadn't been trained how to answer the phones yet so I just said "Good morning, the name of the company, hold please," over and over. I didn't think that kind of thing happened in real life. I'm here to tell you it does. I can laugh about it now but I was sweating bullets when it actually happened.

The office I work in is actually a showroom meaning it is the size of an entire floor of a building on 6th avenue in midtown Manhattan (HUGE). It is also, as I said before, very VERY fancy. The entire office and everything in it is high end contemporary interior design. I don't know how to describe it but it is.....uh....well....fancy (I need to invent a word). I feel so out of place! Ok, how about this, if you see a really contemporary high fashion office space in a movie, it is entirely composed of furniture and design from this company. (Sorry I can't say the name, confidentiality stuff. It's that snooty!)

In spite of the apparent classiness of the joint, everyone there is very nice to me and pretty laid back. I feel like even if I did mess something up, it certainly wouldn't be the death of me, I think. I got to talk to people from all over the world (on the phone) and I am really digging this crazy experience. Plus, the view from the building is spectacular. During my lunch break I sat and stared at the city for a full 1/2 hour, well, at least until the phone rang again.

I am scheduled to work there until the end of September so there is a lot more craziness on the way. Also, I might get to help with some really classy cocktail parties when they are courting clients from all over the world. Could be cool, we'll see.

Friday night I had my callback audition for the children's theatre in Brooklyn. It went well. However, I didn't get cast. Truthfully I'm not that torn up about it. It would've been fun to be working on a show but I got the feeling they wanted to cast me as "Polly Princess." Which was hilarious to me. They ran into a dilemma when the only guys that showed up for the auditions were about 1/4 my size and they couldn't very well cast a 4 foot Prince Charming to play opposite me. So I can have a good laugh and know that a bad audition wasn't the reason for not getting cast. haha.

Also on Friday night, I met up with some friends from UET (College theatre friends). We went to a really great bar in the Delancey area (apparently that's the place to be on a Friday night). We hung out on their outdoor patio which was very cool. After about an hour the bar got swamped and I mean SWAMPED with people coming from some sort of a party. The place was wall to wall people. So we left. About a block away we found another bar with a lot less people so we had some drinks and danced all night. It was so much fun and almost everybody I was hanging out with lives in NY so we can hang out again. Yay!

Saturday I had to do a little recovering, teeheehee so I ventured off on my own for a stroll on the South Street Seaport. It's basically a giant tourist trap but I liked it. There was a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge so I played tourist and snapped some photos. The Seaport is (obviously) on the water on the southern most tip of Manhattan. There are all sorts of shops and restaurants and some great views of the water surrounding Manhattan. It sort of reminded me of Seattle's Pike Place Market. From the Seaport I could see some sort of a marathon taking place. There were about 150 people swimming across the East River and under the Brooklyn Bridge. It looked so hard and I was in awe watching them swim that stretch.

After the Seaport excursion I did some more walking and exploring the city. I checked out Wall Street. That whole area is so cramped. There are tons of huge high rises only feet apart. It's very odd looking, narrow streets with giant buildings close together. It's really just something you gotta see.

I don't know what possessed me to do so but I walked around the Upper East Side some more. I was kind of having fun taking the Subway everywhere. On the weekends there are so many tourists that if you stand without a map on the Subway platform and otherwise look like a New Yorker they'll come up to you and ask you for directions. It's kinda fun. I must've been asked for help from about a dozen people from all over the world coming to visit this crazy city. I feel like I passed some sort of "You know you're a New Yorker when..." test by giving out directions without a map. But I certainly don't know everything yet.

Sunday morning I went to church at Apostles again. We met in their new space this time, in a school's auditorium. I actually really like it. The only problem is how hard it is to get there from where I'm living. There aren't really any major forms of transportation that'll get you there very quickly. You just have to hoof it. It's a bit hot for that but I can't complain. A walk in the heat and humidity ain't anything like the hell Jesus endured, so I'll walk there every Sunday. The sermon was great, again. I learned a lot and I really like how Pastor Vassar preaches. It is very clear, to the point, and based in scripture. Today's sermon was about sex. Moving on....

After church I walked around. (I seem to be doing a lot of that here.) I ran into the street fair the city closes down an entire chunk of street for. I don't know how they do it. I swear I see these street fairs every time I go out! They're fun though. People sell all sorts of crap. It's kinda funny to see people selling bedding out on the street in Manhattan. It's just random.

Next I went to the matinee performance of "Spring Awakening." I got a ticket (by the grace of God) at the TKTS booth at the South Street Seaport on Saturday. It's the hottest ticket on Broadway right now. The show won a ton of Tony Awards earlier this year so it's a big draw. I got a cheap ticket and couldn't wait to see it because of all the hype. I won't say too much because I don't want to spoil it for everyone. It is basically about a sexual revolution or discovery amongst teenagers in a "provincial town" in Germany in the 1890s. I thought it was sort of funny that I was seeing a show with this subject matter considering what I had heard in church that morning. Well, uh, I didn't really think it lived up to all the hype. I'll leave it at that. If you wanna hear more call me. haha

Gym, groceries, laundry, bed. That pretty much sums up the rest of my Sunday.

Wait. That's not it. I saw Elmo today. Sorry kids, he lives in Manhattan not on Sesame Street.