Growing Up A Wee Bit More?

Capitol One just upped my Credit Card limit, without even notifying me, as a nice little holiday surprise! Guess I must be moving up in the world, grown up wise (haha)!!

(Always there can be joy in the little things)

More Errant Bits of Wisdom

Also, it is not a good idea to spend five hours gardening and planting roses in California mid day sun after having received a shot in each upper arm. Especially not before one's first day of snowboarding. Ever.

Yowza!

Love and hugs,

A Broadway Baby

California Realizations on Such a Winter's Day

1. I don't want to put aside the dancing/singing/acting business until I get the chance to be involved with the Cats musical again. Here's crossing fingers for 2012!

2. You know you're really in California when:

• You spot a Jonas Brother in your rear view mirror, then do a double take when you realize he's actually driving the vehicle behind you
• You get stuck behind an obnoxiously large pick up truck on the 710 freeway, and notice that there are huge blue balls dangling from the truck's rear license plate. ClASSy.
• Your friend takes you to the most delicious vegan food you never knew wasn't "Real Food," and it's conveniently located near an ostentatiously named succession of blocks that go West from "Harvard" to "Yale" to "Stanford" 
• What should have been a 25 minute commute becomes a two hour sojourn, and freeway detour signs send you into the heart of Compton (which is south of Central Los Angeles, and is also known as the home of some of more intense gangs than the Fast and Furious series could ever dream up)

3. Things do come full circle

• Watching your first love become promiscuous is one of the most painful - yet valuable - experiences that a person can have. 
• One day, many days after my own heart break began to heal, I  finally realized that I cannot change people. As my dad always says, "work toward acceptance, not approval."  
• Rediscovering that place of enlightenment (aka the awareness of my inability to make anyone change, even if I SWEAR I am trying to help them) and staying in that place is a daily struggle.
• Being a "solutions-based" thinker is not always the best approach one needs to solve a problem. Sometimes I just need to shut up and listen.
• Slowly, I've learned that I must let the people I love live the way they want, so I can learn what I  really need.
• For every one thing I do know, there exists an infinity of things I have yet to discover. Sometimes that is exciting. Sometimes it BLOWS.

But hey, shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll still land among the stars, eh?

Happy Holidays!!

And in the darkest of night, remember, it's a WONDERFUL LIFE!!

Tilda Swinton & Merry Christmas Eve!

Sooooo Tilda Swinton was totally in my Boot Camp Christmas Eve workout class this afternoon!!! 1000 reps would have seemed pretty intense and undoable without her... What better inspiration can one have than working out next to the very woman who terrified the little Narnia kids into action as the Snow (Ice?) Queen! Sooo cool.

Also, I've just spent the past four hours making twelve servings of butternut squash soup, lasagna to feed 14, and five batches of sugar cookies (my great grandma's recipe) and some Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. My only fuel? A Rigoletto soundtrack from one of my dad's principal friends, four hours of sleep, and two glasses of yummy merlot (multiple bottles to choose from! ... Courtesy of the teachers who work for/with my dad)

Suffice it to say... I LOVE the holidays.

Merry Christmas Eve everybody!

Love, always,

A Broadway Baby

Noteworthy

Courtesy of my blog-surfing friend and fellow meta-thinker, EG, the most lovely person (inside and out) that I've had the pleasure to meet for lunch in Santa Monica!

"In life, we often place merit on someone based on the job they have. We may not mean to, but it's no real fault of ours if we do -- it's been ingrained in us almost since we could walk.

Parents tell us to get an education, or we won't get a good job.

Teachers tell us to study harder, or we won't get a good job.

Potential girlfriends and boyfriends often decide whether or not we're worthy of their attention, based on the job we have and the material things said job can bring. 

 We see someone being chauffeured from place to place and immediately imagine they must be quite important. 

In social media, this feeling is only exacerbated! Our blogs become popular, we allow Ads to be posted to our site, we get followers on Twitter, friends on Facebook, conferences invited us to speak; even the blogosphere has badges of merit to show how smart bloggers are. 

When one has that kind of adulation, it's easy to mistake one's importance and think one's job is something it's not. Sure, someone might have a great job with a personal secretary; someone else's golf course fees and table service might cost more than it takes to get a child through college.

Now, think about this: 

If every blogger in the world stopped blogging tomorrow, we'd still get our news and opinion pieces. Sure, they might be watered down a little, but we'd still get them.

If every chauffeur quit tomorrow, we'd still have cabs, buses, trains, subways, motorbikes, and even bicycles (not to mention our feet) to get around on.

If every girlfriend or boyfriend dumped his or her partner tomorrow, we'd still get by with our imaginations.

Life would go on.

There are jobs we often consider to be of lesser worth. What would life look like without them?

 If every trash collector quit tomorrow, we'd be faced with disease-ridden streets and pestilence and uncontrollable rat infestations (New Yorkers, you think we have it bad when they break ground for a new subway system? We ain't seen nuthin' yet)

If every sewage worker quit tomorrow, our streets, our toilets, our running water would be LITERALLY overrun with crap.

If every school crossing guard quit tomorrow, how long would our children stay safe while navigating busy intersections?"

 We look at life through odd lenses. We see people in a dimmer light because their job is perhaps not as socially acceptable as those six and seven figure posts. We celebrate our own importance, we compete, we seek approval instead of acceptance. Yet for the self-important person, take away their job, and the world still goes on. Our existence continues even if the source of our self importance were to disappear over night.

At the end of the day, we all have something important to do and to offer. Whether our calling is as a dancer, a teacher, a cobbler, a jeweler, a dreamer; we all have something worthwhile, something CONSTRUCTIVE, to offer society.

In a time as full of infighting, greed, anger, and lack of focus as the United States is currently facing, we can all stand to remember the commonalities we share. We owe it to ourselves, about each other, and to  our country to be the best, happiest, most constructive versions of ourself that we can be.

Next time you have the choice to either build up or tear down, choose the positive route. Build. Create. Move. Laugh. Give.

Anything Goes

... awry the minute you take a vacation!!!

Alas, ANYTHING GOES -- aka the Tony award-winning musical revival of the YEAR -- is holding an audition for the national tour in New York on December 29th, and I will be in LOS ANGELES!!!

Yiikes. Definitely one of those moments when I am seriously considering buying a round trip flight back to NYC just to audition for the opportunity of a lifetime...

Cwaaap. I'll have to hope that they have another audition later in the spring, since rehearsals don't start until September 2012 (according to this casting notice) Cwap CWAP cwap!

http://casting.backstage.com/JobSeekerX/ViewJob.asp?JobID=8iuMYq%2BdVgzgoDBbpZ4Ii%2Bb8ZMh3

I'll have to find a way to send a submission to that casting office ASAP.

Quiet Please

Apparently attendance at a group exercise class in California doesn't actually mean "I'm here to work my butt off" but instead means "oh, this is actually my social hour"

Reason(s) you know you're really becoming a New Yorker:

1. While the lady next to you is sharing the woes of her work day mid high kick repetitions, you can't help but want to shoot her a dirty "Stop talking please" look

2. Next time the high kick repetitions come around, you actually do send the dirty "Stop talking please" look.... And you only feel bad about it for about 1.5 seconds.

Whoops! So much for taking three weeks at the beach side homestead to become more zen...

Home in California

But sad to be away from my Met Opera family at a time like this!

I hope Wendy White is okay:

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news-and-features-news/performer-hurt-in-fall-during-faust-at-met-1005699952.story

Christmas Bonuses & A LOT of Ballet

Suitcase for Los Angeles is packed, house is clean, and operation "figure out a way to get Nordstrom status customer service at Century 21" is underway.

I took three ballet classes today and my bum and shoulders are burning from all the lifting and musculature flexing and attempting to look profesh, etc.

Alllso I spent the evening doing some wrap up tutoring sessions and got more Christmas bonuses!! So exciting! Who knew that leaving an office job for something more fulfilling would have such an unexpectedly rewarding outcome?!

Here's to falling asleep in a bed of sparkles, wrapping paper, and gift bows.

Hooray for the holidays!

Whoa!

End of the week already?! Yikes!! I have to make sure I get all my New York friends' presents out to them before I leave this Sunday for California. Where did the time go?

So I tutored one of my students next to Michael Douglas at Avery Fischer Hall in Lincoln Center this evening. Classy.

Cheers to buying a bottle of Malbec because you deserve it, to repurposing Christmas presents from the samples at the sustainable clothing company where you freelance, and to Trader Joe's lentil soup at midnight.

Living the dream ya'll!

Now... what am I going to do about staying fit while I'm home for the holidays... better find my mom's old racing bike. Lance Armstrong, '60s style. DONE.

Typical Tuesday

Kicking a** ... taking names, you know, the usual.

(...Well I could have kicked some more metaphorical butt if I had chosen to work out this morning instead of get a full 8 hours of sleep, but then every one needs their rest days!)

Wrote out my holiday cards on the crosstown bus, then mailed them in the first post office box I saw. Score!  Picked up my "fellows" and escorted them to their first ever "Future Project" presentation in front of a panel. One less 14 year old out there who is worried about whether or not to date a soon to be 19 year old. PHEW.

Holiday bonus from my favorite and most regular tutoring family, DOUBLE score.

Spending the night planning and wrapping presents for the people I love, assisted by a lovely bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and my new fave show How I Met Your Mother? That, my friends, is priceless.

As you may have gathered, this week is pretty dry on the auditions front, but I'm still hoping to get in some good dancing and working out before I head back home this coming Sunday! Here goes nothing!

Dear oh Dear

Guest blogger today, ya'll! Check it out:

"Dear A Broadway Baby,

This is your lower back speaking. I am not appreciative of how you have been pounding the pavement and the sprung floors of late, and I am sure you're feeling the little stabs of my displeasure.

While I am glad that you used me to support your epic Monday of yoga, vocal tech classes, and meeting with tutoring clients that amounted to a $500 net increase, I am not a valid excuse for you suddenly losing confidence in your acting/singing choices! Buck up! I have to bear the weight of your day, so get over yourself and get back to work.

Also, buy me a nice new warming device. I deserve it.

Treat me well if you want me to stick around. Pamper and rest and surround me with muscle if you want me to stay functional for more than a year or two. Just saying. Get on it.

This has been a friendly corporeal service announcement from your back.

Over and out."

Lord knows I've learned by now, if your back starts talking to you, you better listen. Rest week and careful yoga/pilates/ab workouts, here I come.

Love and hugs and happy 12 days until Christmas!!

-A Broadway Baby

Flying & Little Miracles

I love Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. It is one of the few places in the world where I can go to watch people fly without ever leaving the ground.

As to the little miracle, I am so happy to report that Let's Get Ready SAT Prep has been awarded Second Place and HALF A MILLION DOLLARS (last night) from the American Giving Awards.

Every student deserves the change to go to college, and their new $500,000 grant will enable Let's Get Ready (LGR) to continue the important work they are doing and serve even more students with free SAT prep and college application support and preparation.

Thank you for all that you have done to be part of LGR's success!

Santacon, Met Opera Babies, Rockefeller Roguery & Holiday Shopping

Saturday.

My only day off.

Today is often the most glorious day of my week. Usually, it consists of sleeping, eating, perhaps a yoga or spin class, more sleeping, some tv watching, and if I'm particularly motivated, cleaning.

Lately though, I have been feeling the urge to get all my holiday shopping out of the way before I fly home to CA on Dec 18th. Thus, today became a day like all my others; planned down to a ten minute window for error from about 8am to at least 8pm. 

Got up this morning at 8am for some yoga (paying $79 a month for a gym membership really inspires me to work out when usually I'd rather sleep). Turns out I really needed that, because I spent the next three hours with the Future Project, corralling some adorable yet nervous teenagers before their first ever presentations to request project funding.

After that, I managed to get way way way uptown (I'm talking Inwoods/Washington Heights, people) for my first ever grown-up people baby shower! Seriously... I have never seen more legit theme work and party planning in my life (Rock ON Met Opera super ladies)! Amazing food spread, everything was the color blue (down to the "it's a boy" Hershey's kisses), the entire registry was purchased ahead of time, and the house was immaculate. **Incidentally, now I want to live up in Inwood**

The ladies who co-hosted it have totally inspired me to be more creative, as have the Met Opera performers - men and women alike - who showcased their superior knitting skills in the form of beautifully made baby clothes and accessories! One of the male supernumeraries made a gorgeous matching sweater, hat, and booties set - and it only took him the down time of three weeks of rehearsal.

EPIC.

Midway through the gift opening portion of the afternoon, I had to peace out for my lady date with Anna near Rockefeller Center. WARNING: Woe be to those who go to visit the Rockefeller Christmas Tree during the holiday season in New York. Never in my life have I experienced such spectacular madness... there were tourists being barricaded and police officers with automatic weapons. Is that REALLY necessary?

Also, I'm pretty sure it took Anna and me 10 minutes just to cross one tiny street... I'd say I usually get across a New York street in 10 seconds. Anyway, after a good amount of rest and relaxation (and hot chocolate) far, far away from the mayhem of the crowds, Anna and I did some fun window shopping on Fifth Avenue and wandered up to Lincoln Center for some holiday gift forays (though I bought myself stuff too... gift shopping fail).

As the last anecdote for today's novelistic entry, I feel compelled to warn all New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike... If ever you are in the city on the second weekend of December, hide your children, because the Saturday of the second week of December has become infamous for it's Santa Con bar crawl. Imagine thousands of erstwhile twenty and thirty somethings (and in scary cases, forty and fifty somethings) dressed up like Santa Clauses and trolling the city completely WASTED. Then add some candy cane projectiles and the occasional drunk walking dreidel, and you have some idea of Santa Con. I KNOW that is not apple juice in your water bottle, thank you VERY much.

I can only imagine that the children are very confused, to say the least.

By the time I bid Anna farewell, it was 9pm and I was ready to fall over (but NOT due to any participation in the Santa Con madness). Still managed to drudge my way over to an adorable jewelry shop to pick up some presents for my girls, but CURSES to all the Santa con-ers who got all up in my business with their inebriation! One guy propositioned me with a pick up line involving his reindeer nose. Needless to say, my eyes rolled so hard they almost got stuck that way.

Oh... New York. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways....

Can't Sleep?

An aggregate of ways yours truly spends her unexpected awake time:

1. Pictures of the Day
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/

2. Investment Banker's Highly Amusing, Slightly Scary, and Wholly Unacceptable Stalkerism http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/investment-banker-embarrassing-email_n_1135279.html

3. ABT dancers on Stephen Colbert Report:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/308311/the-colbert-report-the-nutcracker#s-p1-sr-i1

4. Make or edit a personal website:
http://www.wix.com

5. The every popular amusing pictures of animals accompanied by clever captions
http://icanhascheezburger.com/

6. Access to any TV Show you'd like to watch:
http://www.sidereel.com (**note** do not click track show, do not sign up for membership)

7. Access to any movie you'd like to watch:
cuevana.tv (**note** likely to be accompanied by Spanish subtitles... but who says you can't pirate and learn at the same time!?)

8. Check out some alternative gift ideas for the holiday season:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/kristof-gifts-that-say-you-care.html?WT.mc_id=OP-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M230-ROS-1211-L2&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_c=156191

What a Feeling!

After a week of lack luster auditions has left me feeling low, several exciting occurrences have conspired to completely save this week!!!

My weekly meeting with the Future Project volunteer program yielded unexpected revelations that bode well for the future. One of the girls I've been working with is really happy with the progress she's made on her college applications, and to experience her happiness alone reminds me that there is so much to be grateful for.

I went to Strand Book Store in Union Square for the first time and promptly purchased $80 some odd dollars worth of Christmas gifts for my favorite people in the world, and got a free tote bag to boot!

On top of that, tonight was my last performance of La Boheme at the Met Opera this season, and it was definitely my most inspired night yet! My counterpart and I agreed that the aim of the day - acting choice wise - was to play it up as though this was a Paris we had never seen. As a result, everything was fresh and new. We had our hands kissed, we got to flirt with the flag and flower sellers, we had our fortunes read, we watched live horse drawn carriages flutter gracefully across the stage, and we culminated our participation in Act II with our customary exuberant yet staged wave to the audience.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to celebrate and say goodbye to a production that has been an absolute delight.

Ever Wanted to Talk to Meryl Streep?

I know I have... and now we can!! Today, December 6th at 8:45pm, Meryl Streep will participate in a live Questions & Answer segment hosted by Backstage.com and I can't wait!

Check out the link below:


http://bts.backstage.com/2011/12/on-tuesday-watch-a-live-online-qa-with-actress-meryl-streep.html

Also, please keep paying it forward this Holiday season and take a moment to vote for Let's Get Ready SAT Prep to win $1 million from JP Morgan/Chase towards giving free SAT prep to high school students in Harlem!

Check out THAT direct link, here:   http://VoteLGR.org

Shameless Plug for Let's Get Ready SAT Prep Non Profit!

Hey everyone! So I used to volunteer for Let's Get Ready SAT Prep while I was a student at Columbia. Several of my students at Harlem Children's Center increased their scores at least 200 points, one increased her score by 500 points and is now going to New York University!! 

This is a great program, it's free for the kids, and it's doing tangible work to help kids get into college. Please consider voting for Let's Get Ready in Chase Community Giving.

There are four more days left for Let's Get Ready to win the America Giving Awards, and your votes (once per day on Facebook) will give Let's Get Ready the chance to win up to $1 million and help thousands of students get into college!!

See link below:

http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving?sk=app_123284047772276

Thank you so much for reading, and for helping Let's Get Ready give students in New York City public schools a fighting chance to make their dreams come true!

When you wish upon a star.... :-)

Hugs and love,

A Broadway Baby

MMMMM Opera

What a weekend!

Rodelinda during the day, Faust at night. I am so  so  so in LOVE with Opera.

Pulled my Auditioning Muscle

Ouch. I am SORE. Haha I guess that is the outcome of firing on all cylinders yesterday. So in hind sight, it's cool to get to five auditions in a day, but holy moly make sure you are well warmed up, stretched, and hydrated. The big one I forgot to do yesterday while running from place to place is to stretch AFTER I dance as well. (Whoops). Only recently, I've begun to learn the value of the practice to stretch both before and after an audition or performance.

My difficulty moving around today strikes a memory chord from one of my voice coaches, who has always told us that auditioning is a technique that you develop in the way that ballet is a technique. The more you practice (the more you get out there to auditions), the better you become (and hopefully, the more likely you are to get hired). However, I've just discovered the flip side of that valuable lesson: sometimes you have to know when to go hard and when to go home. (Right now, I'm definitely home)

In other news, I am SO excited for the premiere of Faust this past Tuesday! If only I could be Marina Poplavskaya in this picture...