NYC, I give you fair warning...

You all know how I am about brevity...but here goes. My attempt to keep this short but to make up for lost blogging time.

Everyone wants to know "How's NYC? Do you have a job? Have you been auditioning? How's Louis? What exciting things have you seen?"

NYC is WONDERFUL! I love my apartment, love my roommates, love all the fun stuff Josh and I have gotten to do so far.

I DO have a job, I have several:
1) I'm admin assistant for Josh's dad's psychology firm in California, The Family Institutes of Richmond and Pinole. It's basically the best job I could have, it's all online, all on my own time, and they're giving me plenty of work now, so it's paying the rent!

2) I'm doing lots and lots and lots of promotions. So far I've promoted: Vitamin Water and Burger King (giving free Vitamin Water out in Spanish Harlem=a little scary. Why they sent me and my roommate Jon, the two whitest kids in the room up there when many other ethnicities were represented among the other promoters, I'll never know), Time Warner Cable at the Bryant Park Film Festival, L'Oreal Cosmetics at Sears, The Bloomberg Foundation at the Central Park Film Festival, NYC's Dept of Transportation-sponsored "Summer Streets" which encouraged residents to walk, run and bike in the streets that are usually clogged by traffic (I had a hot pink shirt, a neon orange vest, and had to stop traffic with my arms in the air), and Harrah's Casino at Mets games.

Soon, I'll be demonstrating new espresso machines made by Nestle in Sur La Table, Bloomingdales, and Williams-Sonoma, sampling the new champagne-beer Kasteel Cru at Whole Foods, handing out free cookies and coupons from Insomnia Cookies at NYU, handing out postcards for the new car-sharing service (competing with Zipcar) called Mint, and probably promoting American Honey Wild Turkey (hey, the best hourly wage is ALWAYS in the liquor promos).

I'm also trying to get the word out that there's a new dog walker in the neighborhood, but it's tough to market yourself when there are a billion other people doing the same thing and there's always some 12-year-old willing to walk a dog for $5.00. At least the Broadway Animal Hospital in Astoria let me leave some business cards there.

I HAVE been auditioning....these are the things I've auditioned for so far: The Fantasticks at Cincy Playhouse (got the job!), White Christmas at Cape Fear Regional Theatre, the new musical Lost and Found for the NYMF, Aldonza and the soprano role whose name I can't remember in Man of LaMancha for a company in New Jersey, the workshop of a new musical Zuly in the Last Place on Earth (got the job!), a commercial for Dove deodorant, an infomercial for some vitamin (totally sketchy, they "filmed" my interview on a camera phone, thank you for not calling me back, weirdos!), the national tour of Annie (got several callbacks, they kept me there over 5 hours, it was a long day but good to be liked!), and a touring show that goes to schools called Halfway There.

I was called in for a Shakespeare showcase but I got there and realized the performances are when I'm in DC visiting Erica, so I didn't even read for them.

Coming up, auditions I've received appointments for include a Columbia showcase of Chekov's Platonov, the Beauty and the Beast tour, a tour of Fiddler on the Roof, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in Yorktown, NY (#1 dream role ever, I wonder if I should say I come with my own Toto?), and ensemble/supporting roles in Anything Goes in Virginia Beach.

Louis is doing GREAT. He loves Astoria, walking around and meeting new dog and human friends...just like every other place we've lived, he always thinks everyone is here to see him, but he sure is happy when Matthew, Jon, or I come in the door. He knows where he is now, he's even ridden the subway with great success, and the next step is tackling the NYC dog parks.

Things I've seen in no particular order (except the first which was definitely the best and it will be hard to top): GLEN HANSARD in Chelsea...totally walked past him on the street. Josh told him he loved his work; I simply froze...a homelessman peeing in the subway on Day #2 of my living here, so many plainclothes drag queens I've been truly surprised, my fair share of the good and the bad subway musicians (those full-out Mariachi bands make you smile whether you're ready for them or not, and the sweet old man playing the saw really beautifully got $2.00 from my wallet), a few friends I haven't seen at a long time at auditions and the odd planned rendezvous when I've had time, and Josh and I saw both the amazing Spike Lee-directed film version of Passing Strange, and the groundbreaking, modernized Off-Bway production of Our Town at Barrow St. Theatre.

There's been tons of good food already...Pinkberry and black and white cookies are way too easy to come by, Blackbird's Cafe right around the corner from us offers an incredible Sunday brunch with three different food stations and four drinks all for $14.95, ridiculous bakeries are plentiful close to home and it's really easy to buy italian cookies for less than $1.00 each, Josh and I had a gorgeous dinner at Peasant in SoHo (though his all-green pesto pasta dish wasn't nearly as good as my mussels in wine sauce over linguini), Rich introduced me to Better Burger in Hell's Kitchen after I got the Fantasticks job, and the karma ketchup over their not-fried fries is not to be missed, cheap Mexican is becoming a tried and true meet-up-somewhere-random-for-a-dinner-date favorite of ours, obviously pizza slices are around every corner, I tried a Grey's Papaya hotdog on the way home from my Annie callback and it was no Yum-Yums, but it was good, we're always looking for some good, cheap Indian and finding a little success with it so far, and I'm so happy to have my own kitchen again where I can cook dinners full of real vegetables and other healthy things on the nights when I'm actually home at a decent hour.

Annnnnnnnnnnd guess what? that wasn't brief at all, but it should catch you up on a good deal of my life here.

I'll do my best, Lauren and Alan, to update more often now. :)