Citizen of the World

My husband is the sweetest man. Last night, because I've been taking care of him while he's got a nasty cold, he made the sign over his heart like this and said, "My love, I heart you!"
I said, "Awww!!  Me, too"  Then, I reached over to my heart's area and, with a horrified look on my face, made like I was prying my heart out - alive and pumping - giving it to him saying, "KALI MA SHAKTI DE!!" - like that creepy priest in Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom.

Matt and I got into a laughing fit, which in turn just made him cough a bit more and blow his nose. See? I'm taking care of him to make sure it all comes out - love, phlegm, snot, AND laughter!

This is FREAKING hilarious!!

I mean, it's one thing to see a line up of shots of her leg... and then the reminder from the Groundlings of her leg, too!  Pretty funny.

<a href="http://www.hallmark.com/online/hoopsandyoyo/ruin-christmas/" target="_blank">This looks like it could be cute</a>. 

I mostly cannot STAND the Hallmark Channel during the holidays.  They have the absolute worst run-down of movies - and who's ever heard of all these 2-hour movies??  I guess up and coming actors have to start somewhere and Hallmark affords some of them that place.  :-|

"Marjorie's telling mother how spoiled I am, how TERRIBLE I am. And Marjorie knew my father and my uncle. Mother's giving her all this s-h-i-t. So, I went and told her a few things about the family.

But in dealing with me, the relatives didn't know that they were dealing with a staunch character. And I tell ya... if there's anything worse than a staunch woman - S-T-A-U-N-C-H - there's nothing worse! I'm telling you! They don't weaken, no matter what! But they didn't know that! Wow, what they didn't know!"

Starting at about 13:27

We're leaving tomorrow after I'm done working for Sharon Springs, NY! We're heading up there for the Spring Festival and staying in The American Hotel. All sound familiar? Well, it might because of the Fabulous Beekman Boys of Beekman 1802 on Planet Green.

Derek Hartley and Romaine Patterson (of the DNR Show on Sirius OutQ Radio) will be working in the Beekman 1802 Mercantile all weekend with the Beekman Boys. We listen to them practically every day and I've posted conversations I've had with them over the last couple of years. We're hoping to see lots of local celebs there and get to chat with them all. Plus, staying the one night in the Bears' hotel tomorrow night, we might enjoy dinner there Saturday evening before coming home.

We haven't gone anywhere, really, since Christmas, so this is will be a nice little side trip. Haven't packed yet because we weren't sure whether we'd get the hotel reservation or not. They called us back late this afternoon just before I shut off my work computer.

This is the weather for the weekend:


Can't wait! We're also breaking in Matt's new car for the road trip. Should be fun!

Yesterday evening was a quintessential NY evening. Matt had to work and I got offered tickets to go see "MotherF***** With The Hat" on Broadway starring Bobby Cannavale, Chris Rock, Elizabeth Rodriquez (really good), Annabella Sciorra (fierce!) and Yul Vázquez (hilarious!!). I hated going without Matthew, but someone had to see the show, right? I invited a friend of mine, David, and we had a great time.

I took the NY Waterways ferry into mid-town, which, in and of itself, is very NJ/NYC. When the ferry docked and let us passengers off, we all discovered a TV scene shoot happening for Person Of Interest (yes, I saw James Caviezel and have a picture of him below).

Though I won't be in any of the show's scenes, it was very cool to watch them do a couple of takes. I ran into an acquaintance when I came out of the bathroom. In talking to him - at a normal talking volume - in the echo chamber of the station foyer, we almost got thrown out of the station!

Here are a couple of photos:




After picking up the tickets, buying some WONKA Easter basket candy, and getting something to eat at TGI Fridays, I went to the theater to meet up with David.





The show was GREAT! The stage was really cool, too. The curtain was up when we entered the theater (above). There were three basic scenes and the stage moved in separate parts with moving parts inside those to make the different apartment scenes. Even a couch rolled over up and out of the floor onto the stage for one of the apartments and a bed folded up - automatically - into one of the walls. IT.WAS.SO.COOL!!

After the show, David and I took our playbills (below) to get signed by the actors and pose for pictures.


Each of the actors looked really tired, but Bobby looked especially drained. It was an emotionally draining show. At one point, I even noticed a REAL tear drop off Bobby's face. Amazing acting. Very funny, intricate, and deep. Loved it. I really want to take Matt to see it later. Hopefully, we'll meet up with Bobby et al again!

We've programmed out Tivo to collect as many holiday programs throughout the season as possible. We always start this up just around Halloween after we've (sadly) discovered that we missed It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Along with the Thanksgiving specials, food shows, and odd HGTV holiday decorating episodes, we also happily find things we've forgotten about or don't see too often, like The Wizard of Oz, It Happened on 5th Ave, etc.

Then there are all the religious shows, the arias, operas, musical extravaganzas, plays, and other things they show during the entire holiday season. There's a show with Joanna Bogle, a Brit who's a die-hard Catholic. She writes a weekly column for the Catholic Times, has authored a few books, and has been providing humanitarian aid to people in Africa.

Her show, Feasts & Seasons, comes on around the holidays. I watched her show briefly last year and did the same today, but I can't watch the whole thing; it's kind of a train wreck and I find Joanna Bogle tremendously condescending. She actually leans on her counter for most of her show, supposedly making you feel comfortable to listen her spew her religious hypotheses.

The show is horribly produced and her creations are left wanting. Left wanting for more talent and creativity for sure! Even though her show lasts for 30 minutes, I have to turn it off after about 10 minutes or just fast-forward to see what other atrocities she makes or find other postulations she asserts, such as there being a sort of "Summer Christmas" based on the birthday of John The Baptist. I find it all a bit strange. Not foreign, but strange.

Here's a perfect example of a wreath she made a few years ago, which she finds "wonderful" and "exciting". She goes into explaining how the circle/wreath represents eternity as well as the cycle of a year.






Apparently, this is a straw wreath that's held together by red, shiny, plastic ribbon. The ornaments she "changes from year to year" are horribly placed around the circle. The ornaments aren't placed very aesthetically, either.

She mixes in the pagan timing of the Christmas celebration with "biblical time lines", so that John The Baptist's "Summer Christmas" is opposite Jesus' Christmas in the winter. John The Baptist (JTB) said, "As he increases, so must I diminish." Bogle's explanation of the passing of the summer solstice (in terms of JTB and Jesus - and their two "Christmases) the days get shorter (JTB diminishes). Then after the passing of the winter solstice, the days get longer (Christ increases). And this cycle repeats itself annually. She finds that analogy very instructive, while the audience might tend to find it all very convenient to her interpretation.

Just now, as I was researching a little more about her before I posted, I discovered that she's got a totally different biography than I would have expected AND there's a YouTube video of her speaking out against the use of condoms in Africa as a means to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Here's the video. Please watch in amazement - the women are "Bogle" and "Baggaley" are on the show and disagree very much - Bogle, in particular, becomes "fierce"...):

Matt and I have found a hair stylist, Celia of Hair Dynamics, close to home and have been going to her for almost 3 years. Celia's nice, remembers all our stories, knows our heads of hair, and expects us every 4~6 weeks. Once in those almost 3 years, Matt and I had to get haircuts in DC because we were in dire straits - that was in 2009. When we told Celia about the trip and the haircuts, she scoffed (as only Italians can do) and said, "Yeah, I could tell they really messed it up, but if you needed it..."

The DC hair stylist:

We swore we wouldn't go anywhere else again, unless we were out of the country or state and really needed a hair cut; i.e. we wouldn't seek out someone new in our area. However, a few weeks ago while waiting for our tanning booth, we noticed a very handsome Italian man across the street who seemed to be working in a hair salon. The tanning salon manager told us that the hair salon had moved from around the corner to our street, which gets a LOT of traffic. Our interest was piqued and we went over there to get information. The place was named, "Chez Paul" and had 80s gauche decor.

When I met Paul, he seemed nice, very personable, and hungry for business, which, I thought, was a good thing! Matt and I agreed on our "dire straits" we'd detail to Celia the next time we saw her. So, Wed., we made an appointment for Thu. @ 12:30PM. Here's my hair before the cut:

Before the Chez Paul haircut:

We entered the salon at the set time: 12:30 PM and immediately, Tabatha's checklist started running. You know, Tabatha of Tabatha's Salon Takeover. Great show and we love her. She's also helped bring out our inner salon divas; i.e. she's open our critical eyes to the whole (possible) salon experience. Here's our "needs improvement" Tabatha checklist of Chez Paul:

1) No one looked at or greeted us for 5 minutes, but they saw us.
2) NOTICEABLE: A CACKLING group of 3 women - #1 getting a hair cut, #2 sitting on a styling stool, #3 the hair stylist.
3) They were all yelling at each other and laughing loudly - for 30+ minutes.
4) Paul, in starting to cut my hair, exchanged my small-necked drape from the cackling girl (whose hair was in progress) with the one he'd tried on me. Ew - a piece of that girl's hair fell off the drape between my legs.
5) He didn't pay good attention to my existing hair style. He just started cutting after I told him where it parts and what was going on next week: the interview and Puerto Vallarta.
6) He and I had to yell at each other over the women cackling behind him (as the owner, he should notice that kind of interference).
7) He used the buzzer too much on my head instead of scissors for layering. Big no-no.
8) His shirt was filthy. I understand you might get soap or coloring agents on your clothes. Looking presentable goes a long way in the salon industry. If you don't attend to your own appearance, how are you going to attend to mine?
9) The salon's decor was 80s glam: silver, neon, and purple everywhere.
10) There were 3 uncomfortable chairs in the waiting area and 6 piles of mags PILED 5 deep on a table.
11) Not much product and some of the stuff they had there was very vintage - especially the hair brushes.

Matt's experience was OK and better than mine because by that point the women had finished up. But his hair was worse than mine and uneven on top. We compared our notes on our way out of the salon to tan across the street and throughout the rest of the day. Needless to say, we won't be going back to Chez Paul again. My hair looked OK yesterday afterward; it's not a bad haircut. It just didn't feel that it looked as fabulous as after Celia cuts it. The sides are too short now in my book and will poof out when the top starts to grow back in. The good thing about a bad haircut is that hair always grows back. Here's my current haircut.
After Chez Paul's clippers:

I just notice how the back and side are a little choppy!! Celia's haircut never did that. Meh.
Celia cutting my hair (handsome Jay in back):

I posted this directly on FB earlier and I want to see how quickly this post comes across. What do YOU think and how do you read this?

We were watching Jon Stewart's interview with Betty White, who we love to watch. I helped (with millions of other FB folks) get her on SNL as the host (I don't know if I really believe that FB or viral social pressure actually did the trick, but that's another story). But toward the end of the interview, Jon asked her, "Now, is there anything you won't do in the show?" I think he was pointing toward nudity, sex scenes, maybe profanity, etc.

We love Betty White, but she seems to contradict herself between the interview and the scene that's shown in a commercial - directly after her statement: "I don't think drugs are funny and I won't do jokes about drugs..." watch & listen - YOU decide.

(And, yes, I made this video montage this evening from camera recording to my desktop, through editing and splicing, then production, upload, and annotation. Very exciting, indeed!)