This Girl is a Better Scout Than I Ever Was
Confession: I was a Girl Scout. For a very long time. Like, long after it was okay to be a Girl Scout. And I’m okay with that; I’ve accepted my nerdiness.
But being a Girl Scout for so many years left me with a fondness for Girl Scout cookies that will never go away. So every year, if someone is selling, I’m buying. Caramel deLites (they call them ‘Samoas’ up here); Peanut Butter Patties (called ‘Tagalongs’), and Thin Mints (you can freeze them!). I don’t need the cookies, they’re definitely not diet-friendly. But still.
Anyway, this year, a coworker emailed out that his daughter (a six-year-old Daisy) was selling cookies. Well, they were delivered today – along with a handwritten Thank You note.
She signed the card 'From The Daisy'!
Adorable! And much more considerate than I ever was as a Scout.
How Not to Get a Job
This was too good not to share…
A friend of mine was interviewing people for a position in his department at work. He had an interview with one person – and two days later got the following email from that person, via facebook. (note: names have been redacted, and I asked my friend’s permission before I posted this)
Hello Xxxxx!
This is Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx from XXX, we met the other day in the interview. OMGoodness, you know my dear friend Xxxxx Xxxx!!! She was my bestest friend while I was in college… then she had to go and move away ; (
NO, I’m not a stalker, I was talking to Xxxxx the other day and mentioned your name because of the interview and we discovered that you guys are friends.
You and your partner look really good together!!! So handsome. I am gay too, so I just wanted to say….gay high five, and keep up the good work! Gay America needs many more talented, intelligent, super cute representatives!!!!
Enjoy your day!
So kids, let me help you learn what not to do when you want a job:
1. Don’t play the gay card (or the race card, or the religion card, or any other card). You can bond over alma maters, fraternities/sororities, or hometowns. Anything else is pretty much off limits.
2. Don’t email your interviewer on facebook (or any other venue) in a casual, “you’re my new BFF” way. Trust me: he’s not.
3. Never, ever use the phrase “OMGoodness”
And what of the emailer? Let’s just say it really stacked the deck – in the other candidate’s favor.
Scissor Sisters and the Power of the Internets
Where to begin?
On March 1st, tickets went on sale to see the Scissor Sisters in concert. This was great for a few reasons:
– They haven’t been on tour in nearly three years
– They haven’t had a new album in 3 1/2 years, but finally have one coming soon
– They would inevitably be playing some of the new tunes at this show
– The show was at a super-intimate venue, the Bowery Ballroom. Capacity 550.
So they were performing two shows: one on Wednesday, March 17; one on Thursday, March 18. I decided to buy tickets for the show on Thursday. My sister doesn’t have class on Fridays so she’d be able to come up and go, and I usually work from home on Fridays so it wouldn’t be a big deal if Thursday turned into a late night. So, done and done. I am incredibly detail-oriented when it comes to these things: I marked the date on the calendars in my phone and on my work computer. I even joked with a friend in Tulsa about coming to NYC on March 18 to go to the show with me.
So on the morning of Thursday the 18th, I check my email – and I have an email from Ticketmaster asking me to review the show I attended on Wednesday, March 17. The first time I read it, I was confused – and then the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach came in. No. Nonononononono. This could not be happening. But it was.
I had purchased the tickets for Wednesday, March 17
I checked the email confirmation and sure enough: March 17. I don’t know how I missed that incredibly important detail; I double- and triple-check these things. I can’t even count how many times I verify a day/time before I buy a plane ticket. But somehow, I totally missed this.
So – yeah. Disappointment? Hardly describes it. I had missed a show I was VERY excited about, and also let my sister down. Score. I called the box office to see if they’d let me exchange the tickets for a show on Thursday, or at least give me a refund. No on both counts. So not only did I miss the show, I’m out $70. (I could hardly have Rachel repay $35 for a show she missed by no fault of her own).
So I had one last resort: Twitter. I follow both @scissorsisters (the band account) and @JakeShears (the lead singer) on Twitter; that’s how I found out about the concert to begin with. So, I tweeted them both. Several times. “Hey @ScissorSisters – I bought a ticket for last night’s show, but thought I bought for tonight. So I missed it!! HELP!!” I wanted to give my comment a chance of being seen, so I think I sent it to each of them 4 times through out the day, once every two hours or so. Poor Jake Shears was being twitter-stalked by yours truly. I didn’t think there was a much of a chance of it paying off; I checked my “mentions” in Twitter several times throughout the day, and nothing.
So last night, I had a couple of consolatory drinks with coworkers after I left the office, then went to Robert & Kevin’s for a short bit. I was about to leave, it was 9:15, when I checked my twitterfeed one last time. And saw this:
@adayinthelyfe I’ll put you on plus one.
From Mr. Jake Shears himself.
Holyfuckingshit.
He’d sent the tweet at 8:20; the doors to the show opened at 8, a DJ went on at 9:00, and then Scissor Sisters go on at 10. So I had 40 minutes to make it from the Upper West Side to the Lower East Side. Challenging, to say the least. But I jumped in a cab and went. The cab driver made excellent time; I got to the venue at 10:01. I talked to the guest-list guy at the door and he couldn’t find me on the list under my twitter name. Yup, that’s right. But I figured I’d come this far: I wouldn’t be deterred. So I was nice, told him thanks, and then stood over to the side, trying to figure out what to do. I tweeted Jake Shears again (poor guy, he must’ve been so sick of seeing my name pop up on his list), and as I’m sending the tweet – I hear the Scissor Sisters start playing their first song on stage. So that won’t work. It then dawned on me: my full name shows up on Twitter. So, Jake may have added me to his list with my actual name, not my twitter handle. Duh. Right before I could go over and ask the guy to check – he tapped me on the shoulder. Seems someone else on the list hadn’t brought their plus one, and he took pity on me, so he let me in anyway. Long story short (too late!): through the kindness of a rock star, a door guy, and a random stranger – I got into the show.
And how was the show? Amazing. Fantastic. The energy was incredible, they played lots of dance-y stuff. It wasn’t a long show (less than 90 minutes), but they played a mix of old songs and new. And I have to say: assuming the new music they played is all on their upcoming album, the album will be a good one. Can’t wait to buy it.
So that was my day! It was crazy, and stressful, and amazing. And the moral of this story?
1. Never underestimate the power of social networking
2. ALWAYS DOUBLE-CHECK DATES ON TICKETS.
The State of the Union
Okay, while I would love to write all about this – I actually do need to work. Terrible, right? But I wanted to just mention one thing…
I have become frustrated with how President Obama has handled “the gay issues” (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act). I, along with many, feel he hasn’t done all he could (and should!) for equality. And last night, many felt he should have said more on this issue. His full quote in his speech about DADT:
This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It’s the right thing to do.
No, that’s not a lot. And it’s also not a promise, or him issuing an executive order. However, his saying that he’s going to work to end the repeal – and that he said so in front of a joint session of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Supreme Court Justices – is promising.
But I started thinking… The first time a president ever mentioned advocating for gay rights in a SOTU was President Clinton (the one who signed DADT and DOMA into law, let’s remember), back in 1999. And all he said was:
Discrimination or violence because of race or religion, ancestry or gender, disability or sexual orientation is wrong and it ought to be illegal. Therefore, I ask Congress to make the Employment Nondiscrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of the land.
Talk about vague, eh? And let’s remember he was on his way out of office; Obama still has three years on this term.
And so it helped to remind myself what President Bush (#43) said about gay equality. Oh, he talked about gay rights during his SOTU – about how there shouldn’t be any. From 2004:
A strong America must also value the institution of marriage. I believe we should respect individuals as we take a principled stand for one of the most fundamental, enduring institutions of our civilization. Congress has already taken a stand on this issue by passing the Defense of Marriage Act, signed in 1996 by President Clinton. That statute protects marriage under federal law as a union of a man and a woman, and declares that one state may not redefine marriage for other states.
Activist judges, however, have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives. On an issue of such great consequence, the people’s voice must be heard. If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process. Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.
I won’t go into all of Bush’s points – thankfully, he’s out of office and can’t do any more damage. But he certainly did dedicate a large chunk of his speech to that, huh?
So all I am saying is, when we’re frustrated with Obama’s ‘lack of action’, it’s important to remind ourselves where we’re coming from, and what we’re trying to correct from the past. I hope (and trust) that he’ll do more before he leaves office; in the meantime, I am just happy we no longer have a bigoted man in the White House who uses anti-gay rhetoric to ‘motivate the base’.
My First Thespian Experience
My good friend Dan is a playwright (or, as he prefers, a writer). I met him soon after I moved to New York, and over the past year or so, he’s been trying to get me in something he’s written. First, it was just a reading – that fell through. Then, a couple of months ago, he asked me to read for a character in a short play he’d written. The play was only about 10 pages long, and would be just one of a short play “lab”. I read it, and liked it, and before I could talk myself out of it – I agreed.
And I have to say…it wasn’t bad! The play was only about 15 minutes, and my part was sort of as a narrator, so it was really almost more of a storyteller than actor – I sat in the middle of the stage and talked to the audience, and then interacted with the other two actors as they came and went from the stage. There were only two performances, and as it was just in a small black-box theatre, the sold-out crowd was still only 60-80 people. But was I nervous? Well yes, yes I was. Though I think the process of rehearsing/learning lines was almost more nerve-wracking than actually performing the thing! But it went well (if I do say so myself). I did flub a line on the 2nd performance, but (according to the director) I covered it and nobody could tell.
But yeah, the whole experience was pretty fun. It was neat being part of the process, and nice to meet new people (I obviously know the writer and also know the director, aka Dan’s roommate, but I didn’t know the other two actors before we started). I can’t say I’ve caught the acting bug full-on; I am definitely not quitting my job to pursue a career on stage. But would I do it again, if asked? Absolutely.
I Have My Own Name, Thanks
Looking up some info for work, and I found out something interesting:
1. First Ladies of the U.S., both current and former, are all honorary chairs of The Kennedy Center.
2. Of those first ladies, the three most recent (Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, and Hillary Clinton) go by their own first names; the rest (Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, and Betty Ford) all go by their husband’s names (Mrs. George Bush, Mrs. Ronald Reagan, etc.). See for yourself. Interesting, no? The times are a changin’, it seems. Good!
Oh, and another random fact: most of the rest of the board for the Kennedy Center was either appointed by the President or designated by an act of Congress. Who knew?
Walking In A Winter Wonderland
As pretty much everyone knows by now, the East coast got hit with a pretty big blizzard last night. Knowing it was coming, I rushed around yesterday and did ALL the shopping I needed to do before Wednesday – gifts, groceries, etc. I wanted to make it so that I could have the option of not leaving my apartment again before going to Jersey for Christmas!
Good theory.
Well, technically, I didn’t HAVE to leave my apartment today. And honestly, I’m glad that I took care of everything – this is the kind of weather which makes running errands a pain. But this morning…well, for some reason, I was up at 6:20. It’s as if I was a 10-year-old, trying to see if I’d get a snow day from school. I laid around for about an hour, and then thought, “screw it” – I was up for the day anyway. I looked outside, and saw this:
Looks funny because it was taken behind the screen on my window
It was still and quiet outside, and I was wide awake – no WAY was I going to sit and not go see the park while it was still freshly covered with snow. So I got bundled up and out I went. Now, my apartment is across the street from a pond in the park, so I basically stuck around there – and the pics are all from my iPhone, hence the quality. But still – it was SO nice to go out and walk around! I discovered a couple of things:
1. The only people who go out at 8:00 on a [Sunday] morning after a blizzard are people with dogs and people with cameras.
2. I don’t know if it is because of the holiday season, or the snow, or the shared camaraderie of being some of the few out in the park together at such a unique time, but everyone was SO friendly. Like, saying-hi-as-passing-each-other-on-the-sidewalk friendly. It was odd. But nice 🙂
Anyway, here are some of the pictures…
It's hard to see, but these are ducks that live in the pond, using the one small bit not frozen
This pic isn't pretty - I've just never seen Central Park West so empty during the daytime
So, first snow storm of the season! And I’m not certain, but I think it may be the biggest snow I’ve ever experienced. And now, a day inside – enjoying Beatles Rock Band, wrapping presents, and watching Christmas movies. I love this time of year!
Christmas Light Hero
Okay, in honor of the fact that I finally ordered Beatles Rock Band, and because I’ve really been dropping the ball on Christmas posts (or any posts, for that matter) this month, I thought I’d give you this: Christmas Light Hero
You can read more about it here, but basically a guy who used to do special effects for Disney Imagineering put it together. It must’ve taken him forever to set up, but it looks cool!
This song has been stuck in my head all week
Now maybe it will be stuck in yours, too.
Merry Christmas!
Keanu Reeves is Immortal
So there’s a new theory going around the interwebs: that Keanu Reeves, beloved film actor, is actually immortal. Or maybe a vampire. Or maybe both. The proof? Well, here’s part one: Keanu from 1994 looks essentially the same as Keanu from 2008:
But wait! There’s more! Keanu also bears an uncanny resemblance to this man, French actor Paul Mounet, who died in 1922:
I know! Shocking!
And people are going all out with this theory. First, this [short] video:
And then there’s the post by this guy, about how not just Keanu Reeves, but two other actors from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, are also immortal! Of course, George Carlin actually did age, and also died recently (OR DID HE?!) – but who’s counting? Honestly, at first I thought this guy’s blog was a joke, but he seems to be taking it verrrrry seriously. Bogus, indeed.
Aide-mémoire 