Up and Down

This week has been so up and down (hence the title of this blog entry). It started out great because we booked the actor we really wanted for a TV pilot I'm working on.

Up!

Then I did my taxes and found out I owe a lot of money and my entire savings account that was to help me move to NY will be gone.

Down!

Then my boss gave me a raise and a bonus to make up for what I have to pay in taxes.

Up!

Then I found out we're shooting our TV pilot in LA instead of NY (I really wanted to go to NY).

And down again!

Then last night I watched Oprah on TiVo and she did that annoying thing she does which is put everything in perspective. She reported on the state of things for the Hurricane Katrina survivors.

Okay, so my little ups and downs are nothing, Oprahhhh. I realize I'm lucky to be alive, have a job, a roof over my head and food in my stomach.

It was one of those reports that - by the end - makes me want to quit the Entertainment biz and do something more philanthropic with my life. Buuuuut I need to make some money first before I can be such a "giver".

It truly is amazing how she's building 65 homes and creating a new community in Houston, TX. I love that she uses her power for good.

But then I hate it when she interviews Tom Cruise and kisses his ass the whole time, but...no one's perfect.

Is it bad that I'm watching "American Idol" instead of the Olympics? I feel like a bad American or something. I just can't bring myself to care about watching some chicks from Japan and Norway speed skate...or luuuuuge. (You have to say it like that. "Luuuuuuuge." Otherwise you're not doing the word - or the sport - justice) Meanwhile, my roommate is actually THERE in Turin... Torrino... TomAto...Tom-AH-to...whatever.



vs.



Tough call...

Okay, so I just took a break from writing this entry (this is tougher than it looks) and saw an article on freakin' CNN.com that told me who won the Gold medal for the woman's figure skating. That's the ONE THING I wanted to watch tonight! Fuckin' time difference. They should put a disclaimer at the beginning telling you that you might not want to read any further or it'll ruin it for you.

I'm going to try a new Lean Cuisine frozen dinner tonight. Ahhhhh, my Beverly Hills lifestyle. Aren't you jealous? It's Lemongrass Chicken!



I'm going to recommend a book to you 3 people who read this blog. It's "Twighlight of the Superheroes" by Deborah Eisenberg. It's a collection of short stories and I've only read the first one so far, but I love her writing style. Check it out...

Great toast

I was reading a book today (are you impressed?) and in it there was a great toast that I want to remember and share with whoever reads this thing. The next time you need to make a quick, witty toast before drinking alcohol try using this one:

"Here's hoping that when you get to Heaven...it's at least 30 minutes before Hell finds out."

I thought that was great. And please notice my use of the ellipses in there. The beat is very important for emphasis.

That'll be my "go-to" toast when the pressure's on. Now that I think about it I need a "go-to" joke too. Don't really have one. Everyone needs a good solid joke to tell at parties. Must get working on that.

Weekend Review

MAN, I had the best weekend! After all the party craziness of the weekend before I was thankful that I had NOTHING that I HAD to do this weekend. It was fabulous. Friday night I stayed home and watched part of the Opening Ceremonies and I gotta say - pretty damn boring. Thank God for TiVo. I always feel so stupid too when they announce some country that I've never heard of before. "...Angora...Aruba...Aruthagippinstan...Bali..." Wait, what? I TiVo backwards to make sure I heard the announcer correctly.....yep, yep, he said "Aruthagippinstan" alright. I watch the globe at the bottom swirl around to the location of the country - still lost.

So....yeah, I got tired of feeling stupid - go figure - and resorted to my always faithful "Sex & the City" rerun.

Saturday I slept in really late (love that) and decided I needed to go running. I haven't run since the NY Marathon in early November and I was itching for a good jog (why does that sound sexual? GOD, I'm in heat). Given that I may be moving to NY soon I thought it'd be a good idea to take advantage of being close to the beach while I'm still in LA. So I drove up the PCH and found a cool spot. Put on my iPod and selected "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve (so cliche, but don't judge...) which was the perfect song. The weather was fuckin' fantastic (75 degrees in February), the surfers were all lined up in their black wet suits, the sun was shining and I just ran. It felt great! .......aaaaand after about 5 minutes I had had enough of thaaaaat so I relaxed in my beach chair for about an hour listening to mellow tunes and then headed home.

With traffic it was a 27-hour round trip experience, but toooootally worth it.

Stayed in Saturday night as well. I contemplated calling a friend to go out, but in the end I got lazy and watched more of the Olympics. Saw a girl that I met at the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002 win the Gold medal in the moguls so that was cool.

I must admit that I also read some of Dr. Phil's book "Love Smart" Saturday night. My mom mailed this book to me randomly about a month ago and I almost lost my shit when I opened the box. I thought it might have been another belated birthday gift so I ripped open the package and......yeah. Dr. Phil's advice on finding a man. Jesus Christ. Is she serious? But luckily for her she included a note that said she didn't know if I'd get anything out of the book but thought she'd try. And it's a hardcover too. My mother borrows paperback books from people so she doesn't have to buy them. But when it comes to me finding a man she apparently has no problem shelling out the dough.

I was very ANTI the book. The whole idea of it pissed me off. "I don't need HELP finding a man! Reading a BOOK isn't going to help me find the guy of my dreams!" It sat on my floor next to my bed for about 2 weeks. Dr. Phil's smiling face looking up at me saying, "You're still siiiiiiinnnggglllllllle. There must be something wrong with you. Just read the first chapter. Go on little one. You can do it. You never knowwwwwww."

Fucking Dr. Phil. I hid the book for our party last weekend to protect myself from any potential embarrassing comments. That's ALL I need. So I found the book again this past Saturday night and decided that since I have a first date with a guy this week.....it can't hurt to just skim a little.

Most of the book is stuff I don't need, but he did have a few helpful statements I'll take with me.

Thank you, Dr. Phiiiiiiiil. [she says very unenthusiastically]



ANYWAY...Sunday I decided to place myself in a "target rich environment" (Dr. Phil-ism) and go to the golf range to hit a bucket of balls. I tried on 2 different casual outfits and spent about 15 minutes doing my hair when - in the end - it ended up in a baseball hat because Lord help me I look like I tried too hard. Overall it took me an hour to get ready - to go sweat.

The only cute boy at the driving range was with a cute girl (my baseball hat was better though - WHAT? I'm not bitter.) so that part was a bust, but I got some good golf swings in there.

Then I got the NY Times and plopped myself at a table at Red Rock and had a Guiness and a turkey burger. Then a girlfriend of mine called out of the blue so she joined me which was fun.

I ended the weekend with "Grey's Anatomy" of course. The world would end if I missed one second of Dr. McDreamy. Someone told me recently that I look like Ellen Pompeo and now everytime she's on screen I'm looking at her and thinking, "really?" Whatever, who cares.

I didn't go to bed until about 4:30am and I'm exhausted today. The anticipation of getting the question "Am I moving to NY or not?" answered is killing me. Hopefully I'll know by the end of this week!!!!!!!

Party Photos

I thank my friend, Sarah Rose, for these pictures. I'm always too distracted to take pictures when I'm hosting a party. So I handed the camera to her and I must say...she met so many people being the drunk party photographer. I was the only person she knew when she got there but by the end of the party she was BFF with everyone there! I highly recommend that method of meeting random people.

Here's a picture of me waiting to go to the bathroom. Whoever the hell was in there was taking forEVER. I was like, "Please don't let the toilet be clogged. Please oh please."

Me and my buddy, Kurt.




Me, Fuf (foof - nickname, long story) & Mary Beth (they're dating and are the nicest people)




Me & Hot Actor Boy Jeffrey




Aaaaand my personal favorite: Random Guy On My Bed

Good times....Gooooooood tiiiiiimes..................

Can't wait until the next one.

PPD (Post Party Depression)

For the past 3 weeks I've been planning a huge party with one of my roommates and two other friends. The party was this past Saturday night. People showed up. They ate. They drank. They laughed. They danced. They went home. Now I don't know what to do with myself. Literally, for the past month it's been, "Too many people are coming." "Is my hot actor boy going to show up?" "We don't have enough hummus." And now that it's over I'm confused about what the hell to concentrate my energies on. Myself? Interesting option.......buuuuuut, maybe later.

We looked fuckin' fabulous if I do say so myself. I've pasted the picture below to give you an idea of what I looked like. Will evennnnnntually get around to posting a real picture of myself but for now I feel this is a fair comparison.



Last night I got a call from my roommate saying that she thought there was an intruder in our back yard. She got me all freaked out and it was probably just a raccoon getting into the 57 bags of trash from the aforementioned party, but there was the distant memory of "Nightmare on Elm Street" that invaded my rational, conscience thoughts and completely took over.

Before we entered the house, my roommate revealed that she had "911" already typed into her cell phone just in case the scary homeless man tried to attack us. That made me feel better. After searching around and finding nothing but our other roommate's cat, Storm (he so doesn't live up to that name), we decided to let it go and watch "Grey's Anatomy" on TiVo. Amazing how a little Dr. McDreamy can make the scary man in the backyard go away...

My hero...