Rise Of The Guardians Premier in NYC

   We feel super special that we have been included on the invite list for the premier of the last 2 Dreamworks Animation films.  It became a date night for Eric and me.  We had both been excited for a while about seeing this film and it was everything we hoped it would be.  All the characters that continually awaken our inner child throughout the year, came together to rescue us from droning on as boring adults.  The kids in the audience, with their chorus of reactions, took us along their journey, as if we were on a theme park ride. And I just have to say that that was the greatest 3D technology ever.  Super clear and it felt unobstructed.  A truly great escape.  After the movie, it took me a few blocks walk before I became a part of this world again.
    If you get a chance to see anything at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York, that, in and of itself, is a special experience.  The theatre's embellished details and deep red traditional curtains cloak the whole building in magic from another era.

Upper West Side Tour Guide Extraordinaire

A visit from Cousin Kyle.  My 1st cousin Kyle, from TN is here in NYC presenting a paper on Social Business and we got to take him out and show him an afternoon on the Upper West Side.  We met for brunch at Jacob's Pickle (85th and Amsterdam).  This restaurant is New York's spin on Southern Food.  The do a few things really well...You guessed it...pickles (fried mainly) and biscuits.  We then continued walking East toward the 85th St. entrance to Central Park.  Sophie got down and played at Mariner's Playground.  It's one of my favorites because there are 3 different sizes of "ship" shaped structures, in order to accommodate all sizes of little ones.  She loves steering the ship and when I'm feeling especially brave, I let her play in the giant sand box.  Today was not one of those terribly brave moments.  With Hurricane Sandy just having reeked havoc on NYC, I shutter to think what may have washed into that sand box...so I'm going to leave that discovery to someone other than myself.   We then headed down and further into the park to find Bethesda Fountain, a must for those visiting New York and Central park for the first time.  If they haven't seen this in a movie yet, they will.  Taking the Promenade with the tree canopy and statues looking down on us closer to the south end of the park, we stopped and paid a dollar to hear a joke from a street performer.  At Columbus Circle, we exited the park.  Eric left to go to work and I went into the Time Warner Center to use there wonderfully clean bathrooms.  Kyle, Sophie and I headed up Broadway and Sophie took a nap in the stroller.  We walked past Lincoln Center and then took Columbus up to 81st, where we spent the afternoon in the Museum of Natural History.    With a stomach full of Mamma's Famous (86th and Broadway) NY Pizza, we sent Kyle back to Brooklyn via Times Square.  This was an awesome full circle walk that included tons of great Upper West Side landmarks.  I will totally use this walk again, even when I'm not introducing a first-timer.  As for Soph, in true Sophie fashion, it took her about 30 minutes and 4 bites of eggs to warm up to Kyle.  At that point, the switch was flipped and they were thick as thieves.

Hurricane Sandy: Light of Day

      I look through the large duct taped x's I placed across the windows of our 12th floor apartment on the Upper West Side.  The 2 ton crane that dangled over 57th Street during Hurricane Sandy is now tethered to the building.  Where there were once distant lights across lower manhattan lighting up the sky, there is a stillness in the black night.  What a strange bird's nest we have from or 450 square foot apartment.  I realize that literally half of us are without (power, water, heat) and half of us our with.  I prayed through the storm as it battered and shook our windows, that God would keep us safe.  Eric, Sophie and I played together and enjoyed some movies, with an interruption every now and then to wonder if we should move to the hall.  The winds, even with the evidence of seeing a 2 ton crane blow like a ribbon, weren't as worrisome as knowing that this morning, there were people that have awoken to devastation.  Thanking God many times a day that we were not on the worst of sandy's path.
     We have offered our apt., power, showers and what not.  It seems as if everyone across the city who has something, would like to give.  Especially those who we are close too.  As predicted, people have been without power for a week.  Many, most who we know, have had that luxury restored.  The power turns on from the epicenter of the world and is lighting up the many communities that are without.  I easily put myself in there place.  Mothers with newborns, children who should be in school, fathers who can't work, but the bills will keep coming.  Even those people who had evacuated to shelters for the storm are returning home to find nothing.  Petrified of being in shelters where they are ontop of people who have stability issues, mental issues...the existing homeless, who also need help.  On the second or third rotation of the dirty clothes they've been wearing, trying to keep themselves and their children clean on a dwindling supply of sanitizer.  It's the Thursday after the storm, almost 4 days and the stories of need are pouring in.
     Social media is spreading it's collective angel wings and putting the needy with those who can help.   Being a part of the New York community is like nothing I've ever known.  All the chraities in NY are at volunteer capacity.  Amazing.  That is something to celebrate.  Beyond that, we need to find how else we can help.  Just because the establishments can't handle anymore man power, it doesn't mean that there is not still an overwhelming need in communities that they haven't been able to get to.  As the days go on, communities are starting to communicate like a great game of telephone, that they are in desperate need.  Luckily, there are people who desperately want to help.  For most New Yorkers, like myself, we don't have any real legitimate way to get to the hardest hit places.  We don't have cars and I myself have a 2 year old to watch after as Eric was lucky enough to go back to work, pretty much immediately.  I have felt crippled the first few days in the aftermath.  Seeing all this need around us and having no way to help.  The storm clouds are lifting though and the lights are on enough that we are getting specific word of different communities that need our help.  As a stranger to most places we've been living in the past 2 years, our nomadic life led me to the internet for a community of moms.  Returning to NYC in September, brought me to a meet-up group for moms in my area.  This group, along with my Facebook network of people have found ways to give.  People who have reached out for help are being heard and answered.  I'm seeing groups of actors finding ways to give.
      We can do this.  We can help bring communities back and prove that we can be bigger than ourselves.  Responding when you have the chance is when to do it.  Don';t think that next week, you'll do that.  Tonight you have that dinner you are supposed to go to.  Get online and spend $50 giving to Redcross or sending something to the shelters.  If you know a family that has been hit, give directly to them.  It will be weeks until theis is figured out and people return to work and have clean clothes and some semblance of a life they once knew.
      These people are our neighbors.  It's as if it happen to you and everyone around you that you would lean on in a disaster.  Now, who do you turn to?  Social media has made us all neighbors.  Let's get out there.  If you are like me and don't have the freedom to go there, put your money where your mouth is.

During Sandy

Eric informed me before he went to his show that it would just be a few drops of rain.  He informed me that if he was wrong, I had full permission to hold it over his head and say...I told you so.   Preparing the apartment, getting water, flashlights, filling the bathtub, getting can foods, I hoped I wouldn't have to take him up on his oh so generous offer.  I was closely monitoring this storm, as I had so many before.  Growing up in Florida, I am no stranger to hurricanes. I knew that this was going to be bad.  Being so close to the water there was going to be no avoiding the battering of a storm so big and slow.  The only question was...how bad will it be for us?  The subways closed down, all of downtown Manhattan lost power, and they began announcing no school or service the following day/days in NYC.  As the night went on, the winds picked up and shook our windows on the 12th floor.  I huge hawk, about 3 ft tall was blown into our window and took refuge on our fire escape.  I opened the curtain to see what the commotion was and there was my friend, the hawk, looking at me as if to say, help me, lady.  He was remarkably huge. We even got to see him spread his wings in an attempt to air them out.  His time in our refuge was short and he was soon blown away.  We had some flickering of the lights, but the power stayed on.  Sophie was unable to go to bed as the heart of the storm was between 6 and midnight.  The wind and rain beat on the windows in the bedroom, so we made a Rain Party and let her stay up late.  Our party had popcorn and milk accompanied by Rapunzel and Tinkerbell movies.  At midnight, as the worst of Sandy moved out, Sophie crashed into bed and slept late into the morning. We are waking to see how everyone else survived the storm, as we did.

Growing Pains

I realized shortly after being here that Sophie would love to have some friends, like those few we had developed in L.A.  I kept my eyes peeled at the park for a mom.  I see one!  I see one!  Oh my gosh, she has a daughter that is exactly Sophie's age.  She initiates some small talk...the old "how old is she,she's cute, and where do you live."  She decides I'm ok and we stick together throughout the park.  Soph is eyeing her older kids and trying to keep up.  As she can't climb as high or run as fast as the 7 yr olds, she becomes upset.  I calm her down and we head to the sandpit.  I set Sophie inside, next to the other sweet little girl and perch on the edge next to her mom.  We start chatting about schools and things to do.  It's going well, I think.  Definitely going to get her number and try to do a playdate.  They live close and the girls are playing well.  I'm just so excited!  The girls are playing just out of reach and I'm staring at Soph and daydreaming of a long friendship of park days, museums, and ice cream outings.  Soph looks back at me as if she can read my mind and then...it happened.  Her eyes glazed over, she took the shovel full of sand in her hand and poured it directly down the front of her own coat.  Embarrassed, I quickly got up and brushed her off asking why she would do that and telling her that is not what a shovel is for.  I go back to my seat and turn around to see.  Dun, dun, dunnnnn.  Sophie stares at me stone-cold and pours and shovel full of dirt down the other little girls shirt.  Immediately, I jump to my feet and demand an apology.  My reprimand is meet with that new stone-cold stare.  What is happening?  And why now?  I gave Sophie to the count of 3 to apologize.  With each number, I knew that this was not happening and the Time Out of her life would have to be enforced when we got home.  As I picked Sophie up, I apologized to the other mom and got our things together.  Other Mom was very kind, but gave me the definative brush off with the, "I hope it all works out.  Good luck."  She said it in that way that she never planned on seeing me again in her life, as if we had just bombed a job interview.  As I pushed Sophie up the hill back towards the apartment, she began to sing.  I kept stopping to remind her of how much trouble she was in.  As we enter the apartment, she literally has her arms out in flight and is singing at the top of her lungs.  She's so sure she has gotten her way.  I had to giggle a bit behind the stroller at the absurdity of all this, but then I knew I needed to enforce our rules and be the Momminator.  I came around the edge of the stroller and heard my own mother's stern voice come out as I walked her to the corner of the bedroom to face the wall and explained how hurtful her actions were to the other little girl and to me.  She was crying from the second she got down.  After a good 3 minutes in Time Out, I went in to talk.  True sadness and understanding came from the same eyes that had just been cold.  Wow.  I could not believe the power of the Time Out.  The next day, we were on the other side of things at the park and Sophie did a complete 180.  She was an angel child.  What do you know?  All those people that say kids need clear boundaries and discipline are right.  It actually works!  As for the friends that were at our fingertips...oh well.  These things happen.  Sophie and I both grew that day is our respective roles as Mommy and Daughter.  That growth is the important thing to take away from our morning at the park.

Here we go again!

Eric booked a Broadway show.  We are leaving our home in L.A. and heading to New York for the Fall!  Peter and the Starcatcher is the kind of show that reawakens your artistic spirit.  It will be great to have that in his fuel tank going into pilot season.  We could all feel New York calling us.  We packed up the house, got some sub-letters and headed out top the big apple.  This was sure to be a great experience for all of us.  Eric will get his artistic fulfillment, I will get to be with Sophie full-time again, and Sophie is at an age where she is learning so much and what better place to be stimulated than New York City!  Here we go again!

Decision 2011: L.A. or New York

   Settling in. So, Eric and I have spent a lot of time mulling over the possibility of staying in LA for a while, when the tour ends. It seems that Eric has some excitement about his availability for working with his agents out here. We did the old fashioned pros and cons list. Then we looked to our gut. In this business, there is no guarantee of work wherever you are, so we just are trying to make the best decision based on projections. My agent in NYC had just began calling me about auditions, since the baby, and with knowing we were to be returning to NYC in a few weeks. Her excitement felt good to me and like a fresh start would be waiting. My first call was to come in for Bring It On. The popular movie, turned musical was beginning a tour that was to begin in LA for a long sit down and then headed out on the road. This led us to the realization that our criteria for touring was now extremely different than ever before. The money had to be good enough that it was worth it to bring Soph. The thought of a lifestyle that had us not seeing each other that much was why we toured together with Shrek. Secondly, Eric needed to really work off of the steam that he had from doing Shrek in L.A.. As most mommies find out and cannot predict, going back to work has different stipulations than you can imagine. You have to factor in the cost of childcare, the emotional cost of being away, and how much you will actually be bringing home. I called my agent and told her what I had recently discovered about myself...I was no longer interested in touring. Touring is what makes up half of our viable jobs in the theatre world, but now was just not the time. Soon after, Eric was met with the same question concerning Les Mis and came to the same difficult conclusion. If we hadn't just come off of over a year if touring, we would all feel differently about it.

   One of the main factors for our decision was the thought that the springboard of Shrek would only happen once in LA. Eric had always wanted to try LA and it seemed as if all signs pointed to now being the perfect time. Eric was set up with meetings with casting executives from almost every major network, as a result of playing Shrek and playing it well. His agency was bi-coastal, so he already had a team of guys in place working to get his career off the ground here.

   I felt a bit sad myself. Just as I had finished the commitment to tour for a year with a newborn and was ready to make a comeback after losing my baby weight and spending the first year as the primary care-taker. It looked as if we I was going to have to rethink my plan. My agent was only in NYC so I was left with no representation on the West Coast. The difference is in NYC, there are auditions you can go to without an agent and here in L.A. you can't get into an audition without representation. It seemed as if my career was starting back at square one. Theatrical credits don't mean as much in Los Angeles.

   I did decide that if this is what Eric wanted and if his dream to be a series regular on a sit-com was to ever happen, we needed to be here. So, I retained my realistic outlook on what my situation was, but decided to look to what I needed to do to get things rolling for me.  I took registered for some imrov classes and reached out to the few actors I knew to get representation. My friend Jane, from Mamma Mia recommended me to her agent and we began a series if meetings. I was told by a huge agency that they only work with celebrities and another big agency that they work only with people with reels. We'll, the LA experience just wouldn't be complete without a touch of rejection. Here we go!


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