One hot mess.

Ahhh Christmas Eve…. T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house…I got the freakin’ flu. Yeah, some holiday. Sick on Christmas Eve, practically dead on Christmas. Sad times.
I felt better Wednesday morning just in time to go to work. Yipee. I was in a bit of a haze for half the day.
I basically have been working non-stop but I did have an interesting night Wednesday. My foot has been bugging me for about three weeks now so I decided to go get it checked on. I’ve basically been limping around like a goof. I kinda need my foot in order to walk (A LOT) in this city so I thought I should get this problem fixed.
After work Wednesday I walked (yeah, ironic) to the ER at Beth Israel Hospital on the Lower East side. I walked in and braced myself for a zoo. I mean, it is the ER in Manhattan, at night. I was waiting to see a scene from the movies or something. I was also a little anxious. I was about to have my first (and hopefully only) visit to the ER in New York City. (I actually don’t think I’ve ever had to go to the ER anywhere. Jumping straight to the big time.)
What actually happened was this:
I walked right in to a quiet waiting room and walked up to the nurse at the check-in window. She, very nicely, took my information and gave me a nifty ID bracelet. Then I sat in the waiting room with a few drunken bums and waited to be called. I had just enough time to pull my hand sanitizer from my backpack before I heard my name called. I had a nice nurse lady take my blood pressure and look at my foot. She decided to order an X-Ray, "Just in case." “Ok,” I thought, “Now I’m gonna have to wait.”
I sat in a different waiting room, alone. A couple different doctors and nurses walked by and said hello to me. One guy even made a crack about my last name. “Are you, by chance, related to Freddy Krueger?” Ahahaha. How does he know my last name? OK.
Just then I got called in to get my foot X-rayed. About 3 minutes later I was talking to “Yaakov” my very Jewish doctor for the evening. He was a very nice little Jewish man. Together we discovered that I don’t have a broken foot and all I really need to do is stop walking so damn much. Well, that’s not gonna happen anytime soon so Yaakov, myself and a bevy of lonely, bored nurses and doctors chit chatted a while. They told me that how slow the ER was that night was (obviously) not normal but they were kinda of weirded out by it as well. They teased me and said that I had a spy who told me when the ER would be slow so I could get in quick. You'd think I did.
I was in and out of the ER in New York City in 35 minutes. WHAT?! I mean, that’s a good thing right? I guess it’s just weird. I got some friends in the ER now too.
Plus I got this super cool bracelet!

The Holly Days

The week of December 10th was full of performances with the NY Dinner Theatre. We performed all over NY, Long Island, and New Jersey. I was exhausted by the end of the week but I’m so glad to be performing.
On Monday night I got to finally hang out with my friend Rachel from college. I ran into her a week earlier randomly at the subway station in Union Square. We ate dinner at the “Chat ‘n Chew” in Union Square. It was a really fun, inexpensive place to eat dinner. I loved it. I’ll have to introduce more of my friends to that place. We’re always looking for cheap places to eat!
I had a callback audition on Wednesday night that was pretty promising. Well, it wasn’t THAT promising because I didn’t get the part. Boo who…and I’m over it.
I went to the “spa” with my friend Annie on Friday before performing in a show. I got my hair “did.” The spa or shall I say “salon,” was very high fashion. Or so it seemed. There was loud techno music, lots of people, and a strong scent of high-end hairspray. I had no idea how I was gonna get out of there without dropping a small fortune. Somehow I managed to do alright, (with the help of my friend Annie’s previously purchased discount). I got my hair cut and highlighted, because the stylist insisted, (ouch) for about half what I probably could’ve paid. Not too shabby. I like my new do too!
I worked and performed and didn’t come up for air until I could let my hair down at my friend Lauren’s Christmas Party Sunday night. She had a few people over to her Upper East Side pad for a little holiday fête. I had a great time and some good grub to boot! This is Murph and I enjoying the party... .
Monday the 17th I worked at Sephora. I cut out early to go to the Knicks vs. Pacers game at Madison Square Garden. My Uncle Dan was in town with the Pacers just long enough to whip the Knickerbockers. He got me a free ticket and a pass to the team visitors’ area. The game was a lot of fun. I got to chat with him after the game for a little while before they jetted off to their next match city. It was really nice to see him.
Tuesday night (after work OF COURSE) I grabbed a bite with Annie before she headed out to Oregon for the holiday. We went to “The Burger Joint” by Carnegie Hall midtown (ish). It’s this popular, tiny burger place within the lobby of a very fancy hotel. The lobby is intimidating but you walk into the corner and right into an inane little dive to get a great burger. It’s a really small place and there where entirely too many people there. It’s definitely a New Yorker favorite. It’s off the beaten path so it’s relatively free of the hordes of tourists that hit the town. I liked it. I don’t eat many burgers so I didn’t have much to compare my meal with. I thought it was pretty good though. I liked the atmosphere most, I think.
Thursday I took the train out to Newark airport to buy a plane ticket to visit Oregon in January! The train ride was a giant pain in the…but I’m glad to have that over with because I’m one step closer to a much needed visit. I am loving it here in NY but I gotta visit home! I miss the good old OR and the family and friends I have there.
After my Newark excursion I went to a birthday party for my friend Murph. We played Cranium and celebrated Murph’s big day. It was so fun to play board games again. I don’t do that often enough if you ask me.
Friday I worked for the psychotic human beings that have decided Christmas shopping is a life or death matter. After that unfortunate endeavor I, once again, partied with some pals. This time we met up at the Belmont Lounge in Union Square. It was my co-worker Denise’s Birthday so we had a little dance/cocktail party with her. Denise is a lot of fun to work with. She does improve comedy like me so we never really stop laughing when we’re around each other. Glad to have her as a friend here; she’s a real New Yorker. haha.
Saturday the 22nd I had some coffee midtown with my friend Jason from church. Coffee midtown the Saturday before Christmas is just a bad idea. There were about 1 million people per square foot. Not exaggerating. Seriously. No really. Avoid midtown Manhattan for the entire month of December if you can help it at all. There are just too many people. All of which have somehow forgotten how to walk. But that’s just the “I really gotta get out of town for a while” Kira talking. But do avoid midtown nonetheless.
Jason is a really great friend I’ve made at church. We talked for a couple hours mainly about music and politics. Separately, of course. He really likes The Beatles too so we had plenty to talk about.
Sunday I went to the “Fourth Sunday in Advent” service at Apostles. There was a wonderful sermon on God’s love to hear. Sounds simple but it was very poignant at this time of year. If you ever wanna hear any of the sermons from Apostles you can hear any of them on Apostlesnyc.com. Good stuff.
Well, I’m up to date DAD! Hehe.

A little Christmas gift...

(I took this picture at the Christmas Party. Lauren had all these tiny little presents for decorations. I just had to catch 'em on film.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Finally, that "continued" part.

The majority of my life, recently, has been consumed by working at Sephora, performing with the NY Dinner Theatre, and being a part of my church.
I was pretty excited when I got to go to a friend's birthday party on Saturday Dec. 1. It was a welcome change of pace; my friend Paul's Birthday. I went to college with Paul and he now lives in Harlem. At the party I got to see my friend David from UE as well. It was so great to see those guys again. It's been a long time since we all hung out. Paul's party was crazy. I met a lot of new people and danced like it was going out of style.

When I finally headed home from the party I was out just in time to see the first snowfall of the season. It was beautiful! The night was so peaceful and the snow looked so pretty. By the time I got back to Astoria the snow was really beginning to accumulate on the ground so I got to be the first to make footprints in the snow. That made my week.
Sunday I went to church at Apostles then hung out with my friend Courtney. We ate lunch at the "Green

Kitchen" near church then went down to Union Square. There is a holiday bazaar on the south side of the square with all sorts of art and random gift ideas. Courtney and I walked around and checked out the vendors. It reminded me a lot of Portland's Saturday Market. I saw a ton of great gifts but, much like PDX's Sat. Market, everything was a little out of my price range. It was really fun to look though. I'm always impressed by the original artwork I see at those type of things.
After we bummed around the market for a while, Courtney and I went and saw the movie "Enchanted." I thought it was cute. The theater was packed but I still enjoyed the movie. Not sure if it quite lives up to the hype but that's just my opinion. Far be it from me to rain on Disney's most recent princess parade.

As for the rest of the week, I worked with the exception of a few highlights: On Wednesday night, (12/5), I auditioned for a play called 36:24:36. It's about how body image is being skewed and handled by society today. The audition went well and I ended up getting a callback.

On Thursday, (12/6), I had my last meeting with my Community Group that met up to read "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis. We wrapped up our discussion of the book and I have a great sense of accomplishment. That book is quite a challenge.

This week I got a Christmas present in the mail from my parents. They sent me a new camera so I can actually show instead of just tell! I'm so thankful for it and I will try to keep put more pictures on here.

The pictures in this post are ones I took with a disposable camera I bought because I was tired of not having a camera. The quality is obviously not too great but at least you get the idea. The picture above is of my community group. From left to right it's me, Cassie, Deirdre, Caleb, Brian, and Charles. They've become good friends of mine and I'm glad you get to finally see them. Oh, the cat in the picture is Deirdre's new kitten, Loki. He's adorable and has a hilarious personality. In our last meeting he slept between the couch cushions while we hung out. We had to be careful where we sat on the couch.

On Saturday 12/8 I had a performance of "Let's Kill the Boss" in Long Island with the dinner theater. It was at a banquet hall called Tivoli Terrace. The show was packed and the hall reminded me of something from "The Wedding Singer." It was due for a makeover. I had a great time with the cast, again. They crack me up.

On Sunday I was on the Load-In team at church. The sermon was on "spending less" and I appreciated hearing it. I'm finally trying to set up a good budget for myself here in the city.

After church I went straight to work. After work I decorated our apartment for Christmas! My parents sent us a tree and some lights and ornaments so we had fun setting that up. Our apartment is so cozy now. I'm so glad it's up to the season.

I better go for now but I'll leave you with some more photos from my disposable camera: There is a picture of a really pretty tree that's on the upper east side at 59th street between 3rd and Lex. A picture of my bedroom (I still haven't decided what I'm going to put on the walls). There's a picture of the view from my bedroom window. At night you can see the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building and it's a beautiful view. I also put a random shot of my street and the street sign marking my street. that's called wasting film. haha. I hate to do it again but, too be continued...