Money for Music

Today was the first time I ever gave money to a musician. I've walked by homeless people, fake homeless people, musicians on the subway, guitar players on the street, dancers at 42nd Street. Although I sometimes feel something for these people, it's never enough to give them some of my money. I generally think, Well, I'm poor too. But tonight, standing on the subway platform, I enjoyed the music so much, and was so thankful to have it, that I dug in my purse and got out my wallet. I didn't have much to give, just some change, but he sure seemed grateful for it. I told him I enjoyed his music, and I hope he knows I really meant it.

Public Bathroom

New York is just one big public bathroom. Dogs are always using the sidewalk as their own very large backyard. The subway platform at 42nd street has smelled like urine in this one particular spot for the past three days (and no, I'm not stopping at that point, but I have to walk by that spot to get to my spot). And, to top it all off, the cab I took home last night had to have been used as someone's toilet that day, as the intense smell overwhelmed me just after I got in and closed the door (curse my co-worker for letting me get the first cab as he waited for the next one!). I guess that's why all the windows were down. I spent the entire ride breathing through my mouth with the wind blowing in my face.

Don't even get me started on how the city is also just one big garbage can...

Looking For

Just got back from my first run in New York since getting back. As I've said before, I don't really enjoy running. Maybe it's just because I'm not at the level I'd like to be and so I feel frustrated with it. But this morning I was looking for that feeling I got before and after my 5k race--excitement, anticipation, drive, purpose; I sadly feel like those are currently missing right now in my life. I liked the rush of getting ready for something, doing it, and then knowing that my family was waiting for me at the end.

I unfortunately didn't capture what I was looking for. It was hot and, since wearing my pedometer, sadly learned that it takes 6 laps and not the 4 I had always thought to make a mile. But, after checking when I got home, it is just 4 laps for a mile; maybe the track I run on is smaller than normal, maybe my pedometer is wrong. Who knows.

Our Amazing Planet

It's my birthday, and as part of my birthday tradition of seeing a movie on my day of birth I headed to the movie theater after work. I was having a hard time deciding between Earth and State of Play; did I want to see a sweet documentary or a gripping who-donnit narrative? My sense of cuteness, and the fact that it was Earth Week, ultimately won out and I chose Earth. I was definitely not disappointed in my choice.

Our planet and the things that inhabit are pretty amazing. From Polar bears trying to find food in the melting ice caps, to a baby and mama humpback whale making the trip to the south pole, to an elephant herd trekking across the desert to a lush water area, Earth is home to many animals all just trying to survive and live. Those two may seem like they're the same, but many times the animals were in a fight to survive (see the baby caribou being chased by the wolf...and losing) while trying to get to a place that would allow them to live. In order to live they had to survive. Life is so much about the journey.

Being a Disney film, it strived (strove?) to be family friendly, making sure to refer to the animals as families with moms, dads and kids. Families are such an important part of living and surviving, that I found it very fitting. And it never hurts for kids to see families working together and caring for one another, even if they are elephants, ducks, polar bears, lions, or humpback whales.

And I'm not gonna lie, there were moments when I gasped out loud (run elephant, run, don't let the lion get you!) and moments when I cried (poor baby elephant who got lost in the sand storm and ended up following the herd's scent the wrong way) and times when I was shocked at what happened (papa polar bear trying to kill a walrus but failing). It was shocking to see these animals go through these hardships and getting killed (well, we didn't actually see anything get killed, this is Disney), but reminded me that that's what happens everyday. It's the circle of life. And it truly is amazing.

This is our planet. And we've only got one.

Pedometer

Yesterday I wore a pedometer; I've always been curious how much walking I do while here in the city. I bought one for my running, but never actually used it until now. I wore the pedometer all day, and my grand total miles, was 5.66! Can you believe it?!

Funny Commercials

I'm gonna share with you the commercials that have made me laugh out loud, put a smile on my face, and made me want to shake it!

Good Things Come in Pairs

This post brought to you by the number 2:

--the number of leeway pounds I had on my checked luggage

--the number of people I sat between on the plane

--the number of hours it took me to get home after landing at JFK

--the number of times I took a nap yesterday

--number of times I went grocery shopping today

--number of days I've had a headache

--number of people I'm living with

--number of my shoulders that are sore from wearing my backpack

--number I'm declaring on my W-4

--number of hours I'm ahead of my friends and family in Salt Lake

--number of losses the Jazz will have to the Lakers when I wake up in the morning

So there you go.

Left on a Jet Plane

I'm finally back in New York after two months in Salt Lake. I'm not quite feeling the blogging mojo at the moment--I blame it on the rain that's been going on all day, and the weirdness of being a guest in my old apartment, and sleeping in Rosemary's old room, and the extreme lack of sleep on the red-eye flight and throughout the day--but thought I would at least let you guys know I'm here. I had an HR orientation in the afternoon with Tribeca, took a nap, then went to an FHE birthday extravaganza (there are at least 5 birthdays of ward members in one week, including mine on Friday!), then came home and unpacked. And now I'm ready for bed and some actual, mojo-rejuvenating sleep.

Race Day....Means Blisters

The long-awaited 5k race day arrived this morning ...a little early, considering I got to bed later than I was planning. But I somehow still made it thru.

Here's what was different about the race this year:
--different race route, which I like oodles more than the original. There's more running in the heart of downtown, and there's nothing cooler than running right down State Street towards the capital

--different starting point: the City Building

--my time--36:10--which seems to be getting higher with each time I do it

--my body, which has a little added weight to it this year (which might account for my slower time)

--stopping the running and walking; the previous two years I've "ran" the entire way. This year, though, I thought if I walked for a bit I could finish faster in the end. It sort of worked, but that might be because I walked the uphill part (a new aspect of the new course) and started running again when it was a slight downhill. It was a tough choice, but honestly, at that point in the race my "running" was pretty equivalent to walking fast.

--using my ipod this year. It pretty much changed everything. Music is a powerful motivator.

--no signs telling me what mile I was on. Very frustrating.

And what was the same:
--my pink running shoes. I've had them since my first 5k in 2006. Seeing as how I got a nasty blister on the bottom of my foot, I think it's time to get some new ones.

--the great weather. Every year I've done it the weather has been great, and considering we had snow just a few days ago, I was very thankful for the beautiful race-day weather.

--feeling like I couldn't go on anymore but somehow finding the will to keep moving my feet

--people finishing so fast that they could've ran a 10k in the time it took me to do the 5k

--the feeling of excitement and elation when starting and crossing the Finish Line. I'm not one of those people who enjoys running; I get no sort of runner's high or satisfaction after a run. Unless I'm in a race. And then it's all just so exciting. I can last a lot longer when I'm running with a ton of other people thru the streets of Salt Lake.

Ivy and Elliett ran the Kids Marathon 1k. They were very excited to be doing the same thing as Aunt Julie. Emily ran with Elliett and I ran with Ivy, even though I tried talking her out of it. (So if you're counting, that means I ran a 6k today!)

Rockin' to Rachmaninoff

My cousin Phaedra is so awesome. She got free tickets to the Rachmaninoff concert Friday night at Abravenal Hall and decided to share them with me! So I get dressed up, which I love doing for something other than church, and we headed downtown. The seats were awesome, the music awesomer, and the company the awesomest.



Listening to Rachmaninoff was like listening to "midnight poetry with quiet reflection." It truly was beautiful. And all that talent in the orchestra! Wow! I love just looking at all the cellos and violins moving their bows in unison. And the trumpets and the cymbals and the flutes. Having pretty much zero musical talent myself, I'm always awed by other people's abilities.

The coolest thing about Abravenal Hall, even with its great acoustics and beautiful chandeliers, is the glass sculputre in the lobby. It was built for the Olympics, but somehow we got to keep it (I suspect a rich person bought it and donated it). It really is quite amazing. The pictures don't do it justice.

Hair Cut

Yesterday I had my hair cut. I always go in thinking I'll just get a trim, but end up leaving with much shorter hair. My original plan was to do something about the two colors of my hair. You see, I used to color my hair, but when I moved to New York and couldn't afford the outrageous cost of a good and decent hair color, I started coloring it myself. Well, I just got tired of doing it and decided I was going to stop coloring. It was a good idea, until my hair started to grow. Or, as it never stopped growing, continued to grow. And then the roots were showing more and more. Now, when you decide to stop coloring your hair you have a few options: just let it grow out and deal with the color disparity; shave your head or cut it really short to just nip the problem in the bud; or try to redye your hair the natural color.

Well, I couldn't deal with the growing out anymore, as I still had a good six inched of colored hair left, which would take about a year to grow out. I definitely wasn't going to shave my head, but instead of redying it my natural color, which was my original plan, I chopped it. I didn't cut off all the color, as that would've been too short, but I did cut quite a lot off--to the point that it's mostly my natural color. I used to hate my natural color, but I've actually grown to like it.

Cousins at the Game

Yesterday was the Jazz's final home game of the regular season. They played the LA Clippers, which normally wouldn't be anything to fret about, but they lost to the Timberwolves at home, the Golden State Warriors at home, and lost road games by twenty points in the past couple weeks, so there was reason for concern. Em and I even thought about boycotting the Jazz to make a statement, but alas, we had planned for a few weeks to have a Cousin Jazz Night--me, Emily, our cousin Phaedra, and our cousin Karen, who has never been to a Jazz game!! We overlooked the fact that she is from Denver and sadly a McNuggets fan, because family is family. And we also wanted this totally awesome picture of us, all in our Jazz jerseys, to send to our Grandma.


The night of course started at Applebee's by the arena, where we've met numerous times before a game to eat and talk about the Jazz (Kyle Korver to be more exact, as Em and Phaedra are quite smitten with him!). We even had a surpirse guest at the table behind us as my mom showed up with a co-worker and the boss's unused lower-bowl seats!




We all commented how the arena (I still refuse to call it by it's new name; it will always be the Delta Center to me) felt different, had a better energy to it. We just knew they were going to win. We couldn't let our minds go to the if they lost place, so we thought good thoughts and gave them good energy...and they WON!! They were a completely different team, helped, I think, by the surprising start of Matt Harpring. He definitely needs to start tonight as they go against the Lakers, and when they start the playoffs. He's a 32-year-old "veteran", but plays with so much energy and toughness and determination that he is definitely a starter.

Super fun night, and hopefully Karen enjoyed her first Jazz game as much as we enjoyed the Jazz's first win in five games.

My Day As an Extra

For those who don't remember, I mentioned that I was an extra one day on set. And since I got the pictures of my day as a movie star from the set photographer, I decided to let you all know about my time in the spotlight. It was a lot of work trying to be a PA and an extra, especially wearing those scrubs; they don't have near enough pockets for all the crap I had to carry around. But man, were they comfortable!

Peter, the 2nd AD, asked me the day before if I'd like to be a nurse extra for our hospital scenes the following day. I of course asked a very important question--Am I a slutty nurse or a regular nurse? It is a kid's movie, so of course I was just playing a regular nurse! And so I agreed to help out the production. Yep, I'm a sucker. And I was the only sucker on the crew--Peter went around asking almost everyone on the crew if they wanted to be an extra the next day and I was the only one who said yes. This was near the end of shooting and the budget was becoming quite the issue, so their way of saving on costs was to get crew to be extras, meaning they wouldn't have to expend money on actual extras.

I must say that it's harder than it looks being an extra. We're constantly telling them to not look at the camera or stare at the actors in the scene, but I must admit that all I wanted to do was look at the actors and the action going on while rolling and had to remind myself to not look at them as they passed me. We're also telling them to pantomime and fake talk so as to not mess up the recording of the actors talking, but I felt very foolish pretending to talk on the phone and pantomiming writing and typing, especially with the crew seeing me. We're always telling them it'll be just a moment and to wait patiently, we're almost ready to roll. But that's usually a lie, as being an extra means a lot of just waiting. And once I took my walkie off--because we were "close to rolling"--I had no idea what was going on. And when "rolling" was finally called, on instinct I still wanted to yell "Rolling!" and "cut!", but was told by Peter that it wasn't necessary!

And when the scene was done and we were moving on, instead of being able to relax, grab a few snacks, I was back into PA mode, talking on the walkie, grabbing batteries, escorting actors and working. Working double duty is kind of a hassle, as I felt rather useless while I was being used as an extra because I knew there were other things I could have been doing. But it was a fun experience, and perhaps I'll see myself on the big screen....if my scenes don't get cut!

Basketball at the Movies

If you can't make it to Dallas for the Jazz/Mavs matchup, what's the next best thing? That would be the movie theater at Jordan Commons, of course. My fabulous cousin Phaedra, who is just as big a Jazz fan as my sister and me (probably more than me, with her obsession with KK!) reserved tickets for the three of us to participate in the first ever Jazz game broadcast at the theater! Let me just tell ya that there's nothing cooler than watching a game in a packed movie theater.

Unfortunately, though, the game was awful, with the Jazz losing by 29 points, thus making my "Number 1" finger a rather silly gesture.

It was a little hard to watch at times, but we stuck it out to the very end. The game may have been a bust, but we still had a good time, complete with popcorn, a raffle that I was thisclose to winning, Jazz dancers, David Locke liking the sound of his voice a bit too much, and Memo andKorver on the big screen.
And, perhaps my newest basketball player crush, Juan Barea. He was pretty awesome last night.

Flip Flop

Today is the first flip-flop day of the year. That's right, instead of wearing socks and shoes today is warm enough that I'm able to wear flip-flops. This is a rather momentous occasion, as it signals the coming of spring and summer and fun times. I'm ecstatic about it! I'm also wearing a skirt. Hopefully the warm weather is here to stay....

Running Like a Fool

Like the fool that I am, I registered for the Salt Lake City Marathon's 5k event. It's on April 18th and is the reason I'm staying in Salt Lake for such a long time after my work was done. This will be my third time doing it, and when I first did it in 2006 I had dreams of getting better every year, going from the 5k to the half marathon and eventually to the marathon. Sadly, this has not happened; I actually ran slower the second year I did it! But I'm back this year after missing last year, and I must say that I am definitely a fool. I haven't been running for quite some time and am trying to cram it all in in just two weeks. I don't think it'll work out all that well, but I knew that I couldn't just wake up the morning of and try to do it.

So I've been running (I should really call it jogging, or walking fast) three times since registering a week ago. Since I don't live near a track like I do in New York, I have to settle for running along the sidewalk in the neighborhood. This is slightly embarrassing for me, as I don't like exercising in front of random people, but I'm slowly getting over that each day. And it's a good thing I'm at least trying to train for it, because that first run was pretty brutal; I didn't make it very far without panting and the deep desire to stop. But it's been getting a little better with each run, and hopefully by the time race day comes I'll be somewhat better prepared for it. Because really, I'm just doing it for the free t-shirt.

Happy Birthday Ivy

Yesterday was my niece Ivy's 8th birthday. She's just like me in that she loves her birthday and all the hoopla surrounding it, including presents, dinner and attention. While I normally shy away from any kind of attention except on my birthday, Ivy is sort of a drama queen all the time. But when it's your birthday it doesn't matter; when it's your birthday you call the shots and can do whatever you want.

So where did Ivy want to eat? Applebee's. And what did she want to do? Go to the Jazz game. Well, that was actually grandma's idea, but Ivy was pretty much completely cool with it. We went to the Applebee's by the arena, where Ivy was sang to by the waiters, got free ice cream, opened presents, and was the center of attention as she wore a crown from the card Em and I bought her (because she's a Princess! I took a picture...I'll post it later). And after all that was done we headed to the arena for the Jazz game.

Never mind that the Jazz are pretty much going into flames at the moment--none of that matters to an 8-year-old girl. She was just excited to be there with Daddy, JoJo and Grandma. My mom got four tickets for down low from a co-worker while Emily and I were up top. Since they were so close to the action, I told Ivy that she had a very good chance of getting on the big screen. You see, I came awfully close to getting on it during the previous game but missed it by a couple rows. But Ivy, with her crown, Boozer jersey and homemade sign that read "Go Jazz Go" and "Go Jazz Bear!", was sure to get on--they love the kids. I told her to dance and wave her sign whenever there was a timeout. And you know what, the birthday girl got on the big screen!! I could see her dancing from my seat up top, and then all of a sudden she was up there on the screen, too! It was so exciting and quite the cap for the day! Happy Birthday babe, love ya.

Down Time

You guys sure are getting a lot of posts about my time working on Snowmen. Since being done with it, I now have the time and energy to finally write about it! Plus, it's easier to reminisce and feel good about the experience when I'm not in the thick of it, getting up at five in the morning, standing all day, watching kids, and being cold.

Working on a movie set comes with a lot of downtime. We're there for at least twelve hours--we can't possibly have enough things to do to fill all that time with work. As a PA, it's frowned upon if you sit down, but there are many times when you're just standing there with nothing to do. The trick, and fun, is to find ways to make yourself look like you're busy and doing something; carry around some extra prelims or call sheets, always have batteries somewhere on your body, move around from one place to another, and always say Copy and Looking when talked to on the radio. Everyone had different ways of keeping themselves busy so as to not go completely insane with boredom...






Don't let these pictures fool you though; we all worked awfully hard, sometimes in extreme cold and other times in extreme heat. And in between all that downtime we found the time to make a movie!