the september issue

Incredible isn't a strong enough word to describe a situation developing at work. I work in the internet (rah! rah! rah!) but through some wild and crazy connections, we're partnering with a company that's pitching a reality fashion television show that already has the backing of one of the major fashion magazines. (My company would be providing the digital support for the show.) SO. I've been to New York City twice in the last three weeks, meeting with insane companies with insane brands and OHMYGOSH is this really happening? Let's just say that dressing for these meetings has been more than a bit intimidating.

Friday I had a meeting in the Empire State Building. IN. IT. I've love love loved NYC as long as I can remember and to have a meeting in the actual building? Oofta. I still can't really believe it. But it went well. Really well. If all goes as well as planned, filming could begin sooner than you'd think and I gleaned a promise from those that matter that I'd get to be on set. Too, too many of my favorite things colliding. I wish I could take you all with me.

I got home from the City just this afternoon after having spent an extra day hanging out with some girls who were on my Holy Land Adventure this summer. It was so lovely catching up, but I spent a few hours in the City by myself yesterday doing some things I've wanted to do for quite awhile including Mood Fabrics, Ground Zero, Battery Park, Century 21, Times Square and Canal Street.
The impressive (for me) part of the whole day was a) how far I walked (still feeling it!) and b) I didn't have a smartphone at my every whim. My battery dies much too much too fast so I relied on my innate sense of direction (seriously, that might be my most marriable skill) and my own two wandering feet to find what I needed. It also meant I wasn't listening to music or reading/texting on the subway or when I sat alone at dinner; but instead I simply got to listen to the sounds of the City. Oh, how I'll miss New York when I head West. But all good things must come to a end.

Until I have to come back out for another big-timey-what-am-I-adding-to-this-meeting meeting. And then the hunt for fashiony fashion clothing begins again. Because it's stressful, but heLLO, it's also very fun.

Ebony and Ivory

Once upon a time, we all went to BYU. Now the first of us turned 30 and we celebrated at an all-out all-white (hold the irony) party in NYC.

Happy Birthday Jam. I think 30 is going to be a banner year for you.

Also? The growth spurt that left me nearly six feet tall has ended everywhere except my arms. They're now dragging on the floor when I walk. But the silver lining? I am one excellent dancer.

And I always raise the roof.

Of Posts and Ponytails

Tap tap tap. Is this thing on?

This is the time of year when dull is the word. The weather is drab, grey is omnipresent, and my hair just isn't very shiny. It's hard to feel motivated to do much besides burrow down, keep your feet warm, and try to survive yet another Boston winter. (For those keeping track, this is my fourth.)

This time of year is funny because I feel like so many of the things that make me inherently unique lie dormant for weeks and months at a time. In review, I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing, just an observation. Maybe this is me. The Q1 Nat.

Hi. It's good to be back. Part of me wants to write the longest blog in the history of blogs (and boy have I written some doozies) to make up for my time away -- to update you on what needs being updated. The other part of me wants to go back to wearing the same 8 outfits, slapping my hair into a ponytail, and allowing the chores of my life to stack up in favor of good books and TV.

As my previous post pointed out, I've had some real humdinger weeks at work. The worst appears to be past, so I'm going to cling to that hope. I'm also beyond grateful for a company that forced me into a mental health rejuvenation day and an unexpected 3-day weekend. I ended up going to NYC, partook of some festivities--and didn't manage to take a single photo. On a weekend with minimal ponytail usage and maximum color wearage... waste of a good opprotunity, huh?

This coming weekend will be another slow one--which is a plus given the pace I've been sprinting. It's a long weekend for most and Valentine's Day for most so maybe something exciting will happen. Chances are slim but a girl can always dream about getting flowers delivered, right?

Despite the lull in activity and excitement in my life, I'm going to try to bring the creativity back to this blog and back to my life. Won't that be fun? Because let's face it, a ponytail only looks good for so long.

*This photo brought to you from a creative event in the summer at a non-pony event. Nothing to do with this post, but 8 out of 9 readers want to see 67% more photos.

**This second photo brought to you by the color GREEN!

Life from the front row

Another lotto win on Broadway. STOP. Lyrical hip hop song and dance. STOP. Set in New York. STOP. Photo taken from my seat in the front row before the show started and changed my life. STOP. If you're bored this holiday week, search "In The Heights" on YouTube. STOP.

When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way

West Side Story has always been my favorite musical. When I heard they were reviving the musical on Broadway, my heart didn't merely beat faster, I think it actually started snapping.

I've been in New York City this weekend to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Melissa in the form of a bridal shower brunch (and to visit some of my other favorite people of course). She and I have been talking about trying to win tickets to see WWS (she loves it as much as I do) for months now. Long story short, Melissa won the lottery. This was a big deal, because in its second week of previews (the show is still in soft rehersals, it doesn't officially open until the end of March) the lottery pool was already almost as large as Wickeds. (Joe, Jamar and I tried to win on Friday night but didn't) For the girl who says she never wins anything, she really won the big prize. She and I were literally floating on air during dinner.

When you win lottery tickets, you pay $26.50 to sit in the front row with somewhat obstructed view (in this case, we couldn't see the dancers feet too much). NO BIG DEAL. Being so close to the 30 person orchestra, and seeing all the actors' faces and true sweat... the show whas phen.om.enal. Words will not do it justice, but I'll try.

Things I love love loved about this West Side Story revival (in no particular order):

• The dancing was the original choreography from the original show recreated and restaged. High kicks, jumps and all. Seeing it from the front row was surreal; and completely all encompassing.
• Being so close to the stage allowed us to keep a close eye on the conductor and how good he was at his job--especially keeping the music and snaps on count.
• During the large group dances (the Mambo at the gym, the opening scene, "Cool") there was so much to see and movement from all corners that it was overwhelming to watch and decide where to focus.
  
• The color palattes for the Jets and Sharks were unbelievable. The Jets wore green, mellow orange and khacki while the Sharks wore purple and black. The costumes blew my mind, because the styles were all so different, but the colors clearly identified what gang each character belonged to.
• They used actual Latins for the Sharks. The Sharks spoke and sang in Spanish. While I missed hearing the words to some classic songs ("I Feel Pretty"), hearing them in Spanish was this amazing combination of old and new.
• The Anita in this show should win a Tony hands down. Any.time. she was on the stage I literally could not take my eyes off of her. She absolutely sold her part -- more so than any character I have ever seen on stage (Elphaba in Wicked included).
• Have I mentioned how amazing the dancing was?
• Tony was a hunk. Riff too. Bernardo tambien. In fact, all the male characters on this show were strong.
  
• Singing check. Dancing check. Acting? Superb. You felt the honest emotion; the show was incredibly raw. The tension was there from start to finish. I know the ins and outs of the story but was still shocked and surprised by the plot. It's easy to get carried away when a show is just that good.
  

Alright, alright, I'll stop raving now. Just know this--the show was so beautiful at times that it was almost too much to take in. I didn't cry, but felt moved to tears on several occasions. There's a possibility this might be the best Broadway show I've ever seen. I'm still trying to mull it over in my head, but this is a must see in NYC if you're a fan of the big singing and dancing musicals. I promise you won't be sorry. Then, cross your fingers and say your prayers you don't get an Anita understudy.

I'll steal your honey like I stole your bike

My, world wide web activity has been down the last few days. Did you enjoy your three day weekend? I had a smashing last few days--the big news is that I'm finally back in Boston! I did the math, and I've only slept 8 of the last 30 nights in my own bed. I've had quite the last four weeks, but there's something comforting about your own bed.

In previous posts, I raved about the lush beauty that is Oregon. Take at right for an example. In the nine days I was in town, it rained only two mornings. The rest of the time was blue skies and gorgeous weather. But no more talk of Oregon or Boston. Let's discuss what I did over the true weekend.

After flying all day Friday (with delayed flights and mechanical trouble of course) I rolled into my house at 9:30, unpacked one bag and repacked it with clothes for my weekend in NYC. Unwound while watching the Grey's finale (I kind of loved it) and finally turned the lights off at 1am. Got up at 530am, dressed and had Julie picked up by 545. I had no idea it's that light that early. I don't make it my business to get up in the 7's usually, let alone the 5's. Our plan was to drive at off-hours to avoid holiday traffic. It worked like a charm!

We needed to pack as much into our two days as possible, so I guided the quickest, fullest tour possible. For as fast as I generally move, even I was surprised with how much we got done.

Our drive was quick, and we were parked and wandering around the Financial District at 930am. I'm pretty sure I have never been up that early and going in the city. The streets were so quiet! Over the course of the next two days, highlights included shopping, the diamond district, battery park, the Staten Island ferry, grand central station, Rockefeller center, Radio City music hall, a movie, amazing food in window seats overlooking Times Square, a constant craving for Coke Zero, and asking questions to each other about sailors.

Sailors? Yup. It was "Fleet Week" in New York City, so thousands of men and women in uniform were doing their own sight-seeing and posing for pictures. You couldn't take too many steps without seeing tourists asking for photos. Julie and I had so many questions and observations about the sailors--but we never actually talked to one.

We did see quite the number of them karaoke however. Friday night, we found ourselves in this sweet karaoke club in the heart of Times Square. (Complete with background singers/dancers.) We got in before the cover charge went into effect and stumbled upon quite a few sailors having a grand ole time. FNL fans perk up. There was a sailor who kept singing (courtesy of the USS Richmond) who looked exactly like Matt Saracen on stage. I knew he looked familiar, but it took me through "Somebody Told Me" and "YMCA" to figure out the resemblance. Julie (late to the FNL game, but appreciated nonetheless) also agreed with me, and we snickered about it for quite awhile. Or maybe the whole night.

After quite a bit of dancing and singing along, we're somewhat close to leaving when guess what happens? Sailor Saracen grabs my hand and saddles right on up. It's like my true TV-meets-reality moment. He doesn't even say anything to Ju, just shoves his camera in her hand. Just call me Julie Taylor. For the record, that is not my hand on his shoulder, it's his Landry behind us. After our photo was taken, Saracen had some choice and somewhat slurred comments for me; but boozed or not, it's nice to feel appreciated by the male species. Thanks Matty; you made my night. I'm hoping Julie will post about her Flow Rider admirer. (I'll admit that he doesn't look so Saracen-esk in the upclose photo, but from the stage the resemblance was uncanny.)



My Broadway tickets lotto streak continues! We managed to win four tickets to see Hairspray at the Saturday matinee. I'd seen it before but love love loved it, and was itching to see it again. Joe and Jamar came with, and boy were our seats right in the action. Like two feet from the action. The orchestra's subwoofer was at our feet; we felt every note of the soundtrack for several hours afterward. One of the highlights? Link Larkin was played by none other than Ashley Parker Angel. You remember that hit group O-Town's awesome song "All or Nothing", right? No? Do you remember his hit MTV reality show "There and Back"? Sigh. I guess I do know/remember too much about has-beens. Nonetheless, he was really pretty great as Link. And Norm from Cheers was Edna Turnblad (Tracy's mom and the role played by John Travolta in the movie). Motormouth Mabel and Seaweed were also played by quasi-famous people. All in all, it was quite the delightful afternoon. Especially when Penny's mom had to squeeze in front of us in the front row and put Joe on the spot with funny accusations of inappropriate behavior. The only time any of us will be on Broadway, that's for sure.

I just love New York. I can't help it. A two day trip was actually a pretty fantastic way to get it done. We drove home from 1130-3am last night and avoided holiday traffic yet again. Just before leaving, we enjoyed a piece of pizza and a Coke Zero on the Upper West Side. The moment was fairly perfect; the whole weekend was much the same way--the cherry on top would probably be that LFO hit "Summertime" was the first song that played when we turned on the radio. Our remaining weekend wish was to hear "In This Club" and "Please Don't Stop the Music" before we switched from radio music. Within 15 minutes, both played, we sang along, giggled, and shifted mental gears in heading home.

Back to the real world tomorrow!

A short blog

Going to NYC, wish you could come.

Crutches are too exhausted from the UK Extravaganza; they're staying home.

Is there a word that looks like it should rhyme with come and home but doesn't with either? I must be overlooking something.

Happy ^Leap Day!

We Spread the News

Hundreds and hundreds of NYC photos. STOP.
Surprisingly busy at work. STOP.
Overwhelmed. STOP.
Enjoy these quick highlight photos until I can get a breath. STOP.

Flashback Friday XII

Are you getting tired of hearing about New York City yet? You'd think I live there instead of in B-Town lately. Well, gear up happy campers. The NYC posts will be free-flowing for the next week and long into early December. There is a reason New York is my favorite city to visit.

Today's Flashback Friday post is a true flashback. A High School flashback. Think you can handle it? I seem to look nearly exactly the same (save hair color and length). It was March of my Sophomore year--that makes it... ::beep beep boop boop mental calculations:: 1999. Is that right? Yes. 1999. And we almost partied like it was.

Our school's advanced choirs and Drama Club planned a combined "tour" (and why do they call it that? Isn't it more of a "school-sponsored but not funded vacation"? and what chaperones in their right mind would take, or want to take 40 crazy wild, annoying teenagers to one of the craziest, wildest cities on earth? And now that I'm OUT of high school and a frequent visitor to NYC, how can we get these crazy middle and high school groups NOT to come?). (Wow, that was a long side-note.) Being the not-so-great singer than I am, I wasn't in an advanced choir. I had to join Drama Club. Dun dun dun. But who cares. Back to the fun.

OH wait. Fun was postponed. Somehow, I drew the oldest maid of all old maid cards. My friend and I had to share a room with two chaperones--two moms. DRRRRRRRAG. Instead of staying up waaaaay too late and having a big experience in a big city, we shared a room with two moms. How was more ruckus not raised about that? How does crap like that even happen to me? Oye.



This trip was my first all-in-all out-and-out tourist trip to NYC. We did the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Canal Street, Broadway (Lion King and Miss Saigon), and a host of other Times Square-based things. It wasn't until subsequent trips that I realized there's TONS to New York outside of Midtown. Who knew?



Guess what? Yeah, it rained while we were there. NO BIG SURPRISE.


Quite a few of my readers were on that trip--and are in the pictures above and below. Alaina, Jody, Jake, Clayton, Rachael, Mandy, Matt, Cari, etc.--do you have anything to add? Particular stories to share? Alls I remember is that sneaking out was the rage--how safe is that? But really, High Schoolers sneaking around after dark in the city that never sleeps? This is another reason these trips should be outlawed. We had our fun, let's call it good and stop all school trips. Sure High Schoolers may be a bit bummed, but all NYC dwellers (Mel, Kristan, Karen, Michele, Joe, Nate, Jam) and frequent visitors (ME) would probably all be in favor.

Flashback Friday XI

Happy Halloween weekend! Yes, I realize Halloween isn't until Wednesday--but is there any worse day for a Holiday than a Wednesday? You can't really push it to one weekend or the other... I hope everyone has awesome plans for celebrating. The Boston bunch have several parties, dances, and Salem Witch Hunting extravaganzas planned in the next few days... we've been hard at work getting our costumes together.

Today's Flashback Friday is brought to you by the letters N, Y, and C. Last year, I used some frequent flyer miles to take a hop, skip, and super quick trip to visit Melissa and Michele in New York. In purusing my blog archives, I discovered that I actually never even blogged about this trip. Crazy huh? Especially given my propensity for Weekend Updates.

A little background: My girlfriends and I are a little obsessed with being goth. I don't know why, but the yearly tradition started years ago when Krista and I were living in Southridge and continued for the next five or so years. (Please note: my actual fascination with dressing goth began Halloween 1998 when Alaina and I threw a Goth Party for Halloween. We had roughly 60+ Seminary kids show up.... along with the cops. I tried to get a photo of that party--maybe Alaina can help me out?)

Okay, back to NYC. I flew in, and brought the makings of some goth costumes with me. The M's made pretty good Goth Angels. You can't tell, but under my sweet foam collar (more on that below), I'm wearing an "Everyone loves a Goth Girl" shirt. Okay, not really, but it would have been sa-weet!


Two Goths wait for the 1 Train Downtown to the Manhattan Temple for the YSA Stake Dance we were to attend.


See the collar I'm wearing? I've owned it since 2002 and worn it every year since then. Trying to Halloween shop in Provo is a nightmare, at Walmart, at DI, at Savers... it doesn't matter where you go, everything's been clean picked. But guess which luckiest lucky found this sweet goth collar? Perhaps the best (and longest lasting) $3 I ever spent.


In between our double night Goth Adventures, we spent the day doing what we do best--shopping, eating, and Broadway Ticket Lottery Winning. After we ALL won tickets (so many we had to turn them down and say we didn't need them!), we had a bit until our show started. We plopped down in the Applebee's in Times Square (don't judge us for eating chains, we all wanted a refillable Cherry Coke), and it immediately began to pour cats and dogs. Seriously, I've never seen it rain that hard. Anywhere. (And it rains every time I'm in NYC.) Two minutes after this photo was taken, the rain intensified four-fold, and there was literally no one--no cars, no tourists, no eight-person bikes to be seen. It was wild.


We won tickets to see "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." OH. MY. GOSH. This is the funniest Broadway show I have seen. Literally, it's hysterical. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Our lotto tickets put us literally at the actor's feet--in fact I got touched several times. As I'm prone to do (see: when I have to go, I have to go), the Cherry Cokes from our extended lunch worked their way through my fragile system.

THE SPELLING BEE HAS NO INTERMISSION! Argh. I created quite the ruckus when I left mid-show to attend the bathroom. Especially since all three of us looked pretty terrible--we'd made the choice to neglect doing anything to our goth-ratted hair and darked eyebrows, eyes, and faces. Awesome. GO SEE THIS SHOW.

(To my sisters, sister-cousin, and Mom who all frequent this reading. Consider saving $20 and seeing this show with me next month when we're there. It's better than another shirt at H&M, I promise. Just think about it.)


Happy Weekend all. Stay tuned for photos and recaps of the wild-about happenings of a Boston-based Halloween, Krista's visit to the New World, and maybe a little trip to see a witch burn.

Spot's Bridge

I spent most of the long weekend in New York. It was "The Columbus Day Conference Weekend East Coast Friends Fall 2007 Reunion." I promised these boys if we took a good picture, I'd reopen my blog. You'd find it funny to consider how serious they took this promise.

Work is crazy wild busy today, and I have more to say about my trip (including the celebrity sighting and his crazy wild screaming family I sat with on the train... believe me, this one is for the books and worth a full recap)--but until then, enjoy these photos of us walking the Brooklyn Bridge.





For the record, Nate's camera takes better night pictures than mine does, I don't make a very good Asian gangster, humidity makes my hair look greasy, it's much hotter than it looks, and I highly recommend walking the bridge--it was my first time doing so. Oh yeah, and it's good to be back.