a new year.

A lot happens in a year.

In 2011, I lost my last living grandparent, I found out that humans can in fact contract ringworm, I met more awesome famous people than the average person mets in a lifetime, I got more ink, I went to an after-after party for the 1st time in my life, and I finally decorated my apartment.

You may lose people, places & things in a yeat but you also can gain them too.

exactly 1 year ago today, i wrote this.


go read it - i'll wait.


did you read it? good. (you better not be lying to me! if you didn't read it, the rest of this won't really make sense.)

I did 3 of those 7 things. I know that's not a very good statistic but you know what? WHO CARES?! no one asked you! it's 3 more things than I did the year before, the year before that, maybe even possibly ever.

and just to gloat a bit more, here are the 3 things I succeeded in doing in 2011:

I quit smoking. FUCK YEAH I DID! It's been exactly 366 days. I still can't believe I was able to do it (cold turkey no less) and then continue to stay cigarette-free without murdering someone.
I really believe that the support helped me get through it - from my parents, my friends, all 8 of you that read my blog and even the Government (the taxes on cigarettes are INSANE now, esp in NY - $12 a pack?! yeah no THANKS) but I thank each and everyone of you for the support whether it was a text saying 'Good Job!' or by not giving me a smoke when I semi-drunkingly asked or just by being an awesome person/friend. Thank you.

I saw more. I saw more of my friends and even made a lot of amazing new ones. I saw more art, in the theater, in museums, in me. I saw about 8609242358921 concerts this past year. Ok, maybe not that many but it certainly felt like I did attend that many shows. Some of my favorite & best times of the year where spent at shows. I made some amazing new friends and reconnected with awesome old friends. If I were to list all of the concerts I have been to this past year, it would look like someone was given a serious amount of drugs and then told to make a playlist for their ipod.... Actually, maybe I did those drugs when I was buying all the tickets. A true concert goer never reveals their secrets.

and the last thing I succeeded in doing (which was originally just half fantasy/half jokingly put on the list) was purely awesome. I actually met Tina Fey (well, re-met) and I told her exactly what I wanted to tell her. I have no words to describe how awesome it was so I'm just going to post this link that sums it up nicely: blerg!


Also (not on the list) thanks to my Nalgene bottle, I started drinking more water this past year.


So, you're probably thinking, "Well you did SO well with some of those things on your list from last year, what are you planning to work on or do this year?"

Well since you asked, I'm taking the same approach as last year - doing things I actually want to do, not just force myself to do because it's the New Year and I want to fix or work on something.


1) keep up with working out - I have been loving this routine of going to Yoga once or twice a week that I've been doing for about a month now. Also, after 14 years, I dusted off the old jazz & tap shoes and got back into dance in May and will definitely continue that this year. I'm trying to just stay active, fit and maybe loose a couple of pounds in the process. Oh and I want to have guns. Yeah you heard me. GUNS.

2) READ - I just don't read enough published work anymore. I go through spurts where I'll read like 2 or 3 books in a row and then I don't read for months. I am going to try to read 12 books I've never read before this year - that gives me 1 a month and I already have a few lined up to read.

3) start saving more money - this will probably be my hardest goal but i really need to take this seriously.

and then my couple of fantasy "highly unlikely to happen" goals:

4) get a job with 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'
5) meet any or all of the following: Tom Hanks, Mariska Hargitay, Molly Shannon (again)
6) convince Frank Turner that I am his one true love and run away to England with him :)


Ok, I think that's a good start. Let's do this, 2012 - BRING IT!

it's ALIVE!

it's 4:25pm on the last Friday of July in 2011. i'm currently sitting in my cubicle at work listening to music and doing a half dozen things that are not work related. i'm bored. i'm antsy. i want to get the fuck out of here and go see the McQueen Exhibit at the Met. so i start to write... something i haven't done in awhile.

just this week I realized that not only is it halfway through the summer but it had been quite some time (almost 7 months) since i typed some of my thoughts into my dear ol' blog. and then i realized i haven't really done much writing at all in the last few months. THEN i remembered i'm lazy and like to watch that black rectangular object in my apartment that shows images & sounds of things that entertain me and that i believe i have adult ADD and i always have to be doing 8 things at once or doing absolutely nothing at all. also, i like to nap.
so is my life.
and here i am.
almost another year older but not so much wiser. my hair is a bit longer. my skin has more ink on it. i'm still not smoking (almost 7 months!), my heart seems to have started to mend, my hearing has probably gotten worse from shows and my butt is definitely a bit bigger (ice cream & i have had real quality time in recent months.) i've had my ups and downs, but all in all, i'm alright.

even though you thought i was gone, i'm not. i'm here.

i just do my own thing sometimes.
and if you know me, then you already know that's just how i am.

you want resolutions? i'll give you resolutions.

I originally didn't want to make any sort of formal goals this year. I was just going to let the year take its own course without my yearly restrictions or demands. But then I actually thought to myself "wait, some of these things I actually want to do, not just force myself to do because it's the New Year and I want to fix or work on something."

So in no particular order, here are the things that I will attempt to do & work on this year:

1) challenge/push myself more creatively (mainly in writing & performing)
2) see more - as in see more of my friends, see more live music, more off-off broadway shows, more Art in general, more of Brooklyn.
3) save more money. not for something specific but just to put aside.
4) 'experiment' more with cooking. friends of mine will know exactly what I mean by experiment.
5) NO MORE CIGARETTES! - I'll need all the support I can get with this one, people.

ok, the next 2 are a bit more extreme, 'high unlikely to happen' goals but I want to throw them out there:

6) get a job with 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'.

I'll give you all a moment to stop laughing before I continue.

7) find an occasion where I can re-meet Tina Fey and tell her the following things:
*Since she won't have the slightest idea who I am, I would first explain that I was an intern on SNL during the 2001-2002 season when she was the head writer. Hence the re-meeting.
* even though we probably always messed up all of her lunch & dinner orders & would run around the city aimlessly for any sort of prop &/or graphics for update the writers could imagine, I would thank her for always being so nice to all of the interns in the writing & research department.
*please don't ever stop making 30 rock. EVER.
*please don't ever stop being you. you are amazing.

I had a few more but let's not go crazy.

Alright. I'll see you all back here next year, if I make it through this one alive.