Third Person Thursday

As a parent of a child attending the school and participating in the Winter Choral Concert, she was invited to sing with the Parent and Faculty Group.

She couldn't attend the first two rehearsals, so she only had one rehearsal before the day-of rehearsal. The night before her daughter said: "Mom, you need to practice," in a tone that suggested that she was not at all prepared to perform in her choral concert.

On the way to the morning rehearsal before the concert, she practiced on the subway train. Her daughter observed: "Mom, people think you are singing for money, you need to be quieter."

During the rehearsal, the 3rd grade classroom teacher introduced herself: "Hi, I don't make it up to the 5th floor very often, so I haven't met you, I'm Annie*."

She replied: "Oh, I don't work here, I'm actually a mom...my daughter is Daisy*."

Annie replied: "Oh, I'm sorry."

She tried to make her feel less embarrassed, but just ended up embarrassing herself: "Oh, it's ok, I know I'm a little young to be one of the moms." Implying that Annie is old? Because she happened to know that she had a daughter the same age as her own. She was glad they had to start singing again.

After the rehearsal and a visit to the allergist (she found out she is NOT allergic to eggs as she feared), she returned to the concert hall about an hour early, in case she had to do another rehearsal or sit somewhere special or be responsible for something or other that she didn't remember. As she was waiting in the lobby her daughter's class exited the concert hall to go up to their room and get ready for the concert. Out marched 14 little 5-year-olds wih black pants and skirts and white tops, except for her daughter who was wearing hot pink.

She said to the teacher: "I thought it was black on the bottom and a color on the top!"
The teacher said: "I put a note in the folder last night! White tops! It's totally ok though, at least she's clean."
She thought: Is she not normally clean?

She asked her daughter if she was ok with wearing pink when everyone else was wearing white and she seemed utterly unaffected.

She sat for a few minutes, called her husband and told him. He convinced her that it was time to go to the Gap across the street and get her a white shirt. So she did. And it was better that way. She stands out enough as the only blue-eyed blond-haired child in the class, she doesn't need to be the only child wearing hot pink on top of that.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

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Revlon Run/Walk for Women's Cancers

In May of 2003 I had the opportunity to walk a 5K from Times Square through Central Park in an effort to raise money for the tenacious fight against women's cancers. At the time I was reeling from the passing of my cousin's wife from breast cancer. She was diagnosed while pregnant with her third baby, and she passed away about a year after her birth. I couldn't understand why a mother of three had her life taken and in this way.

Since then I have been affected by several other cases of breast cancer through friends and family. Undertaking this kind of fundraiser every year is a lot for me to do, but it's been 5 years and it's time to raise more money for this worthy cause.

In 2003 my fundraising goal was 500 dollars. I raised 2000.

5 years later, with many more friends in my community offline and on, I feel that we can all pitch in to surpass that goal.

Please donate if you can. Click here for my online fundraising page. If you would rather donate with a check, you may contact me at kristy at kristyglass dot com and we can make arrangements for that as well.

And THANK YOU.

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TJX Wrangling

3 Babies at a Birthday Party. How did I do it? Lots and LOTS of Cheerios....

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Stock Updates

I just found this post, I forgot to post it a while back, so it's sort of Christmasy, but I think it's still pretty funny.

I send out a lot of Christmas cards. I receive a lot of Christmas cards. It's one of my favorite things about the holidays. Well, let's face it...I have a lot of favorites. I almost had a heart attack the other day when I saw 7, 10 foot Nutcrackers as decor outside an office building in Manhattan.

This year in a Christmas card from Washington State, I received this:

Gotta love the stock photography. Now I am the face of automotive specialties...I guess cute baby's can sell ANYTHING. I think the words FLUID FLUSH are particularly apropos.

Oh, and another polka dot pregnant lady photo here.

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Marvelous Man

We will miss this man, who used the word Marvelous so much, but never to describe himself. Gordon B Hinckley 1910-2008.

Read more about an NYC experience with Pres. Hinckley here.

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Yes We Can!

I get teary every time. I know this blog is not about politics, but I just can't help it.

YES WE CAN!

YES WE CAN!

YES WE CAN!

"When I hear that we'll never overcome the racial divide in our politics, I think about that Republican woman who used to work for Strom Thurmond, who's now devoted to educating inner-city children and who went out onto the streets of South Carolina and knocked on doors for this campaign. Don't tell me we can't change.



Yes we can change.



Yes we can heal this nation.



Yes we can seize our future.



And as we leave this state with a new wind at our backs, and take this journey across the country we love with the message we've carried from the plains of Iowa to the hills of New Hampshire; from the Nevada desert to the South Carolina coast; the same message we had when we were up and when we were down - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope; and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people in three simple words:



Yes. We. Can."
~Future President, Barack Obama during his South Carolina VICTORY Speech.

YES WE CAN!

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Quote of the Week

Lil Sis made this request:

"I want my Christmas Socks."
I gave her her Christmas Slippers
She then made the following discoveries with quite long pauses between each sentence:

"Hey. These are not my Christmas Socks."


"These are not Socks."


"These are Slippers!"



"These are my Christmas Slippers!"

My response: "Oh, well, when you said you wanted your Christmas Socks, I thought you meant Christmas Slippers, so that's why I gave you your Christmas Slippers. I'm sorry."

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Third Person Thursday

She was told she would have to improvise. Well, the nature of improvising means no preparation, so she tried not to sweat it.

The subway train arrived and everyone was ordered off the train. She knew there was nothing she could do about the delay, so she just focused on her book. She tried to read as much as she could leading up to the audition, to keep focused and not get nervous.

When she arrived there were about 4 men signed up ahead of her and one woman. The woman was sitting in the waiting room with her drumsticks, practicing. She just kept reading her book. She couldn't hear anything behind the audition room door. There were no sounds, no drums, no voices, nothing. Each auditionee was in the room only about 4 minutes, and they all swiftly exited, put on their coats and left. She could not find any clues in the other actors. She kept reading. As the list progressed, she realized her hands were cold, and if she had to drum, maybe cold hands was a bad thing? She tried to warm them up by rubbing her hands on her leggings. It didn't really work.

Finally it was her turn to go in. She entered the room, and observed 5 people sitting behind the table. A 6th woman approached her with a practice drum and a pair of drumsticks. She began beating a rhythm on one side of the drum, and instructed her to imitate it. She did pretty well, and responded to the coaching notes that the woman provided. Then it was time to learn a new rhythm. The dominant beat was done with her left hand, over and over again. Once she had it down, the woman told her it was time to switch hands.

She put the drumstick in her left hand in her right hand and vice versa. The panel laughed. Apparently drumsticks are universal, just because you change the dominant beat from left hand to the right hand, does NOT mean you have to change the drumsticks. Note taken.

She exclaimed, upon understanding why they were laughing: "That is so me." She excecuted the rhythm once again. It was a pattern that was like: right, left, left, right, left left, right. Once she had it down, she was instructed to only play right-left-right-left-right-left, but STILL do the same rhythm. (She realizes this is hard to explain, but trust her, it was tricky.) Overall, she thought she did reasonably well.

Next it was time for a short acting exercise. She was instructed to pretend she was a 1st grader walking into her classroom on the first day of school, only to discover that she had walked into the 6th grade room, and the panel behind the desk were the 6th graders. She was relieved by this scenario simply because she is quite in touch with an almost-1st-grader...in fact she is the mother of one. The scene was brief, and she again, executed it to the best of her abilities, and she felt that she kept her nerves quite under control.

Her only concern, if she gets the job is the name of the show. She hopes that it is changed to the Blue WOman Group. That would be SWEET.

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WALL STREET JOURNAL TODAY

I haven't seen it yet, but the ad is running on the cover of the Wall Street Journal Today. They chose the tankini over the bikini, phewsh. Lil sis is wearing a pink swimsuit...and we are lounging in the sand. My DH says it's about 3 x 3 inches, but it's on the front page....so stop by your local newstands today, or just wait to see the scan here tomorrow.

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Another Pic of Lil Sis

watch out. she's going to get you. stay tuned for news on my what will sure to be legendary audition this afternoon.

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Considering the Idiotarod

I knew my neighborhood had room for me when I witnessed participants in the Idiotarod.

This year's race is on the 26th. I swear, if the weather stayed THIS warm and this shopping cart was only $20, instead of $120...I would so be participating. I figure I could throw the girls in the cart, and get two other crazy friends to come along for the ride. Costumes would mostly be either a superhero theme or a princess theme...either one would be perfect.

I just asked my DH if he would let me buy a shopping cart for the race and he said NO without even considering it for one second, what UP with that? I didn't ask him to run the race WITH ME!!!???

My only concern is that I fear all checkpoints along the route are bars and there might be quite a bit of drinking involved, which may make this event slightly inappropriate for children...but maybe instead of participating in the race, I will check out a few check points along the way, camera in hand.

We'll see...

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MLK Jr. Day

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I will honor another African American Man who is trying to change our world right now.

Click here.

Today, I also got a chance to see some friends that I haven't seen in quite some time. They can be added to my list of very talented friends. Check out some of their work here.

I tried a little photoshop action on this photo...I like how it turned out. I hope you made it home safely friends! Thanks for reading!!! Especially you Brad Baltimore Rose.

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M & M

I made my M and M:



You can too! www.mms.com

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GLASS GIRLS

Friday morning, my dream came true. As Big Sis was practicing the violin, I was playing the piano to accompany her, and Lil Sis came running in: "I want to sing!" My dream band, The Glass Girls was born. Big Sis played the violin, I played the piano and Lil Sis sang the entire song: TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR! Or, as she sings, starS.

After we finished Lil Sis requested that we sing ABC's. So, off we went again the three of us, singing for the first time, what will be our second hit song: The ABC's. When we finished, Big Sis whispered to me: "Mom, Lil Sis was singing ABC's, but I was playing Twinkle, Twinkle." Hilarious.

For those of you who don't know, Twinkle Twinkle and The ABC's share the same familiar melody, as does Baa, Baa Black Sheep.

Anyway, my girls are finally big enough that they are catching the spirit that is music, and I am thrilled.

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Kittens and Babies and Chicks, OH MY!

Remember the wrangling job with kittens and chicks?

Well, I got the tears....here they are:
The baby on the right kept trying to eat the baby chicks, and she succeeded in getting one taste I think! Whoops.

The little boy on the left got a tiny little scratch from one of the kitten's claws. I felt so bad, but he was SUCH a trooper.

The little boy on the right did NOT need a wrangler, he was SO happy and gentle and slow and sweet. We loved him.

The little girl on the left was a little scared, but she did really well.

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Photoshoot

I got some seriously good shots of Lil Sis today. I will post a few over the next week. I think this is my favorite one.

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Third Person Thursday

Typically,on any given day, if she sits down, she will get drowsy and fall asleep.

On this day she really wanted to sit down with her children and just chill out for an hour before the dermatologist appointment. She started getting drowsy. She looked around and Big Sis was busy watching a show and looking at a book and Lil sis was busy playing with a pile of toys that she had gotten for Christmas. She looked at the clock...35 minutes until they had to go.

She decided that she could close her eyes for that amount of time. She set the timer on her microwave and promptly fell asleep on the couch. A few minutes later Lil Sis screamed: "Open Were Eyes!" She said something incoherent back about a nap and 35 minutes and went back to sleep.

Next, she felt a jarring pain in her eyeball. Lil Sis had managed to obtain a lollipop from Big Sis and with it in her mouth leaned over her to show her the lollipop up close, and the stick went right into her eye, waking her up a second time. This time she was so out of it that she just pushed the stick and the girl attached to it, away from her eye and the searing pain, and went back to sleep.

Finally Lil Sis came toward her with her grimy little fingers shouting: "What color are Were eyes? What COLOR are WERE EYES?" She thinks she responded: "I just want to sleep for 35 MINUTES..please" and went back to sleep, but in her head she was screaming: "WHY? Why now? Why do you need to know just now what color my eyes are? YOU know the color of my eyes better than you know the color of your OWN eyes! BLUE! They're BLUE Lil Sis! BLUE BLUE BLUE! now leave me alone."

Remarkably, she actually felt a bit rested after that nap of many interruptions.

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Talented Friends Part 2

Our journal came yesterday! We have already begun. It's so great. This is Big Sis' self portrait. Thank goodness I still had a prototype on hand so that Lil Sis' can do her masterpieces as well.

Get your own here.

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Quote of the Week

Part of our vacation over Christmas was to spend a little time here.
Among the crowd of octegenarians I heard some great quotes:

With surprise:
"When I see myself in the mirror, AY YA YA! I just look terrible!"

About a couple seated nearby:
"He's an attorney. She's a gypsy." Not quite sure how they got together.

"Four men died last week, they were all 96. I'm 91, I got a lot of years left!"

With Glee:
"Watch this lady walk, she can't see a thing!"
I'm not sure if he was excited for her that she could walk so well without seeing, or that he was glad he could stare at someone without them knowing, or if he wanted her to bump into something.

I also observed someone put 4 sugars in a 6 oz. cup of green tea. That seems like a lot to me!

My girls loved all the attention they got from the grandmas and grandpas.

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Talented Friends

I have a lot of artist friends.

I love that about my friends. They fulfill many of my creative needs because they tolerate my artist crazy mood fluctuations, they understand when I am enthusiastic about a good-looking bathing suit on a mannequin or 6 giant nutcrackers lined up all in a row outside of a building, and they inspire me all the time.

I have featured some of my friends and their work on the blog before, but this is the latest!

Tftcarrie's work has been seen here because she is my friend who makes my children and me home-made treasures...but this time she has ventured off into publishing.

This is Me Journal

"The "This is Me" journal combines drawing, writing, creativity and simple scrapbooking to capture the year’s memories through your child’s eyes. Pre-writers will love dictating their answers to a parent while young writers will gain confidence in expressing their thoughts in their own words. This journal will prompt and preserve countless memorable conversations between parent and child."



Instead of a plastic barbie or a toy truck that is just going to be discarded in a large pile of birthday presents, I think this is going to be my signature gift for my daughter's classmates next year. When I was a kid I had an all about me journal that I loved...but it was also a bit overwhelming and adult. This is the perfect size, perfect font, and perfect content for you and your kid. I know because I was one of many mom and kid-tested editors. And of many green choices for the cover, the one I voted for won!!! YIPPEE!

So, put it on your Wish List and don't worry, I will remind you about it again when Christmas comes...only 11 months away people...get ready.

Other talented friends:
Sara
Melissa and Krista
Joy
McKay
Eirian

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Manic Monday

I'm gradually feeling recovered from our Holiday Happenings.

It's taken a long time. A very long time. I know myself...I know that when I have an UPPER in life (the Holidays) that I will always have a DOWNER. The past few weeks have been that. I am okay though...just a little cranky...well a lot cranky.

I am trying to be patient and breathe when the dermatologist won't see our family until she has talked to the insurance people who have her receptionist on hold for 30 minutes, and her payment in hand. I NEVER have my checkbook with me, but for some reason I did today....thank you checkbook, or else my DH would have had to go find an ATM and get a bunch of cash (thank you deductible) before we were escorted in to see the doctor.

I always feel a bit irked when the money comes before the humans...especially when she tells me during my appointment that the waiting room is piling up so can I please hurry? Well, sorry, if you had been willing to look at my moles while the receptionist was on hold, there wouldn't be a back up of patients...I hope you didn't miss that ONE malignant mole hiding somewhere on my body.

On the way home we got to see three subway performers...my kids just LOVE that. We saw a man playing the saxaphone and a family from Michigan singing some choral music and finally an electric violinist. Big Sis was QUITE taken with him. We had to watch two of his songs. We took his card and found a little youtube video of his work. I think she wanted a violin just like his. Now I have some new motivation for her when she doesn't want to practice....remember, you can play the electric violin one day if you keep practicing!

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Saturday's Adventure: To Hell and Back

I think I have finally experienced hell on earth.

Surprisingly, it is located at Chuck E Cheese in the heart of Harlem. I had driven through Harlem a few times...but this was my first official visit. I had experienced the Chuck E Cheese in Astoria, and knew it was an experience I did not want to repeat again. I figured Harlem would be similar, maybe a a bit worse. But no, it was about 1007% worse.

I arrived on the second floor and walked into what felt like my favorite automatic hand dryer blowing heat on my body, but not quite as sanitary. My body temperature immediately raised about 10 degrees. Thankfully we saw some familiar faces in the long line to get in...some friends from school! Big Sis's classmate's mom is 9 months pregnant, and I figured she had to be hating this experience. When I approached she pointed to a man sitting in a booth about 20 feet away, who apparently had just thrown up while sitting there. I jokingly suggested we ditch and go to the movies...well, they ditched about 7 minutes into it, and as I realized they were absent, I envied them oh so much.

When we approached the entrance the guy in charge was turning people away. Why didn't I go? Instead, I declared we were with a party and he promptly let me in. I imagine it's about that easy to get into hell too. We pushed and shoved our way to the showroom where the parties were held. I think there were 47 parties that night. The Chuck E Cheese was crawling with bodies. People everywhere...coats, large shopping bags full of the days finds...pizza....I recall seeing a lot of salad being carried around by lots of people topped with LOTS of dressing....like more dressing than I have ever seen in my life.

The noise was at maximum decibels. My voice felt hoarse and fatigued within minutes of arriving. The natural thing to do was complain, but I really tried to keep it in. At one point a flushed and flustered mom asked how I was doing, and I said: I am practicing not complaining.

After battling a pretty fierce headache earlier in the afternoon I took a shallow breath (can't imagine the organisms floating and festering all around), and tried to be the best mom I could be for my little girl who absolutely loves parties and Chuck E Cheese. I did pretty well taking her and a friend around to this token eater and that token eater. There was so much stimulus in the way of sights and sounds that I could barely make out the options. After about a half hour we made our way back to the table to eat some pizza. I do not recall how it tasted. I just needed some sustenance to make it through the rest of the night.

When I knew my daughter was safe and trapped in a booth, I sought refuge in an abandoned greasy booth nearby. I had brought two magazines and two books in my purse because I fantasized that I might just find a quiet corner..ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That was funny. I struck up a conversation with a new mom and even got to hold her little bundle which only made me even hotter, so I promptly gave him back.

Just after the Cheese himself appeared, sang a song and cake was served, Big Sis wanted to spend her last two tokens and trade in her tickets. I ventured back into the mad madness and all of a sudden I felt this familiar feeling that I had felt once before...the room was spinning and I was looking for the nearest window to jump out of, I needed air, and space and someone to tell me what to do and I needed to push! I was in transition.

I quickly gathered myself and made promises to Big Sis about ditching tokens and tickets in exchange for something, anything money could buy. We escaped to 125th Street...just a few blocks from the Apollo. I thought about maybe heading in for their amateur night (a lot of stars got their start there), but thought maybe not my crowd? Instead we made a beeline to Old Navy and I let Big Sis pick out some items on sale. I found it surprising to see lots and lots of white girls on all the posters of the walls, even in the middle of Harlem.

After we sought refuge in our little family vehicle, I concluded that I would like to return to 125th street another time. There was a lot of color and sound and culture and what seemed like a lot of great stores. It's a bit out of the way, but I've got a lot of years left to make my way uptown. And I am never (and you can hold me to this), NEVER going to THAT Chuck E Cheese again. Again. Do you hear, read me?

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note...I found the cutest swimsuit I have ever, EVER seen today....at Nordstrom. It was in a light turquoise in the store, but same cut as pictured here. If only it had only been 5 dollars, it would have been MINE!

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Cookie Batter

We went to Coldstone Thursday night.

I had Cookie Batter Ice Cream (a flavor I had never seen nor tried before), mixed with waffle cone pieces and brownies. It was amazing.

Then I watched Ratatouille, which was enjoyable, however even cartoon rodents give me the willies.

All this after a short wrangling day for Target. Cute cuddly babies and well-behaved, happy children that made my job easy. The weather continues to be beautiful. We went to the playground for the second time this week.

I am feeling completely blah. At first I thought it was just adjusting back to life after our legendary December and super fun trip...but I now suspect it is just those chemicals that cause me all sorts of trouble each month.

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Third Person Thursday

She saw Frenchie at Sam Ash in Times Square. Yup, Didi Conn. It was the voice that caught her attention, and she was even talking about hair! HA!

After a quick burrito at chipotle, she picked up her daughter. As they were walking home she said very nonchalantly:

"Mom, the bathroom was flooded today."
She responded: "Man, that's too bad....was it the toilet or the sink or what?"

Her daughter replied : "Ummm...well...I think it was my diarrhea that caused the flood."

Oh.

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Gradually Going Green

I did give a few green Christmas gifts this year...but mostly I was the recipient of them!

What I gave:
Reusable Bags from Container Store. I even gave one to whoever sat in my seat on jetblue after me last week. I miss my bag very much. It was strong and held a lot, and it comes in a little zipper pouch, so it's SO convenient for shopping!

What I received:
Magnets made from Junk Mail
Presents wrapped in these reusable bags made by my most talented friend Carrie.
In those bags, another homemade reusable bag (made out of old sheets), and a stuffed animal designed by her daughter and made out of fabric scraps around the house.


More Carrie-creations here.

I also received a bag kind of like this for my produce. I can't WAIT to use it.

The other day, at the grocery store that I frequent the cashier asked me how many of my own bags I had brought, and she gave me 2 cents back on my groceries for each bag. It didn't matter that one of my bags was one of those ginormous plastic ikea ones that holds about 8 plastic bags worth of groceries...I still only got 2 cents for that one! HOWEVER, I saved 8 cents that day people. 8 cents. Now, that's gonna add up for sure!!!

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First Job of 2008

Wall Street Journal ~ Morgan Stanley ~ Baby Blue Bikini

Everybody sing with me now: Sesame Style!
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Remember the first casting of the year last week? Well...lil sis and I booked it! I was quite surprised to receive the phone call late Friday evening, after being told the job was shooting that day. We were booked for today...and much to my dissappointment, not a bathing suit, but a bikini was involved.

We walked the 12 minutes hopstop said it would take from my house to the studio (one of the few in my hood), in the balmy 54 degree weather. When we arrived it was straight to makeup. The hair guy, Hellick, did an awesome job on my hair. I took a pic so that I can refer to it when I try to straighten it myself:

See how sleek and straight it is?

Then it was time to bronze this pasty pasty. I got a nice light layer of some spray on tan, and then it was into the bikini and on to the set. This consisted of a 12 x 12 wooden box filled with sand. My daughter's dream come true! Unfortunately the photo was not of her playing with the sand, but us relaxing on a blanket on top of the sand. Immediately I knew what the challenge of today's shoot would be....sand patrol.

Another interesting aspect of today's shoot was that our Icelandic photographer, Smari, placed the camera about 40 feet above our heads on a porch in the studio. It was slightly difficult to hear his direction from all the way up there, but one of the least invasive shoots I have experienced. It kind of reminded me of this one, which was also shot above our heads, but only 6 feet or so.

Negotiating lil sis without a wrangler was the hardest part of the shoot, but the wardrobe and makeup peops tried their best to help out. In one particularly restless moment with lil sis, I was laying there on the blanket trying to look serene, peaceful and relaxed, and she threw a large fistful of sand in my face. She has big hands. A large portion of the sand landed in my ear. I could feel sand in my eyeballs for a while too. The photographer happened to snap the frame RIGHT before she let go of the sand, and he captured her diabolical expression.... Oh, and another lesson learned today....lipgloss and sand do not mix. Not at all.

Needless to say, after our 4 hour romp in the sandbox, I had sand in those places that I do not enjoy sand. I had to ruin my great hair and take a bath to make sure all grainage (my mac is telling me that's a made up word...cool, I'm an inventor now!) floated off of me and to the bottom of the tub. I am still finding the occasional grain of sand in my ear and around my eyes though....

And now all of you Wall Street Journal Readers can look forward to what I am told will be a front page ad in the next 6 weeks or so. Just don't get blinded by my super-white torso....pass the shades please.

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Christmas Surprise #2

Finally, the video of our surprise!!!

Click HERE to check it out. It is my first attempt at imovie on my mac...so it's pretty simple....not an expert yet! ENJOY!!!

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Rose Parade Report

It was so much fun experiencing the Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA on New Years Day.

The waking up early and waiting part was much more bearable in Southern California, than in NYC on Thanksgiving morning. Our friends took care of us by providing drinks, donuts, fresh fruit, candy and breakfast burritos. I loved that several people actually CAMPED OUT on the side of the road, just to have those amazing seats in the morning. I really wanted to curl up in one of their sleeping bags when I arrived at the parade spot a little too early than my suffering-from-a-cold and tired body wanted to allow.

The parade itself was so beautiful to see. The creativity and innovation involved in creating the floats is so difficult to appreciate when watching on television. I could see everything close up, and I didn't sneeze once.

I did miss a few things about this parade compared to Macy's....one was the clowns. When you watch on tv, you don't realize how much the clowns and street marchers/performers add to the atmosphere of the parade. Also, watching it on the streets of NEW YORK make for a very compact situation...the energy is really focused and intense. In Cali, the streets are so spread out and there are no tall buildings, so it's way laid back...I don't remember a lot of cheering....but that's ok..it was a parade, Cali style.

I compiled a few pix....my fave float was the Day of the Dead float. I am a fan of DOD art...though I don't own any! I also loved the pigtails on the Oktoberfest girl.



And I also loved the use of pineapple on the little dinosaur.

It's not a parade with out the Sesame Street peops:


Before the parade began there was a lot of pre-parading. We saw some runners running the route, one of our neighbors almost got hit by a football from a local game of catch, some Jesus-Freaks (I guess that's what you call them: JESUS KILLS JESUS SAVES signs), and finally the Hare Krishnas. Lil Sis and I happened to be returning from the Princess Potties (read: PORTAPOTTY), and we found ourselves dancing right along with them. Good times!


The sun was bright so big sis borrowed my sunglasses:

You can take the girl out of NYC, but you can't take the NYC out of the girl:

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Back to Work Already?

I had my first casting of the year today.

It was actually a combined casting for lil sis and me. I asked twice about the specifics of wardrobe, and after being told casual twice, I arrived at the casting unprepared. A swimsuit was required. They took my picture anyway and assured me that "nobody" got the memo, even though the woman right before me did. I don't see how anyone can consider me for the job if they haven't seen me in the proper wardrobe (especially right after gaining the Holiday 5).

This situation would have bothered me more had my original plan for the casting gone through. See, we returned from California to HARSH HARSH cold weather. Okay it's not zero degrees, but once you have hit 20...it's pretty much all the same: FACE IS NUMB cold. I was also so exhausted from my travels and cleaning out my system of about 4 days of waste, that I couldn't possibly go out in THAT cold and do any sort of city traveling.

I looked up a local parking garage and found that it would cost about 23 bucks to park for an hour. I had about that much left over from my vacation budget, so I decided to treat myself to a DRIVE into the city. When I located the parking garage, I took a wrong turn, and while correcting it drove RIGHT by the address of my casting, and noticed an open metered parking spot right in front. How could this possibly be? And with 1 minute to go until I had to be on the 6th floor. AND I had quarters in my wallet? It was seriously a first-day-back-to-work in 2008 miracle. I hope the rest of my casting days this year are as charmed...and that I never have to wear a bathing suit.

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Disneyland

My fave photos of Disneyland:

Please note my multi-tasking here: Taking the picture WHILST riding in the tea cups!


Please note my newly acquired photoshopping skills here: This tree is stabilized by 3 black wires...can you tell where they used to be? Didn't think so!

This photoshop is much more detectable....I am getting tired here people....I photoshopped out the obscenities on my DH's tee shirt (j/k)!...about the obscenities that is....And yes, my little one is wearing a nightgown in this picture. I bought all the little girls in our party new jammies, and they all wore them over there clothes at one point or another throughout our New Year's Eve (Day)...
Happy 2008!

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