It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Lovelies - the blog title above suggests that it is indeed the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - HALLOWEEN!!!

I got my costume with the tall Englishman this weekend.  Here it is:

MEOW! ~ I look pretty rockin' in this, but it's not as hot as the chick who's currently wearing it.  And I'm going to need to wear spunky underwear - I'm trying to find black undies with the Batman symbol on the butt....

The tall Englishman is going as Batman, naturally.  Although his costume is WAAAYYYY too big for him, so I'm going to try and figure out a way to take it in for him!

Crumpet, our Puggle, is going as something totally non-super hero related: a Banana Split!  This is what it looked like before I figured out how to put the hat on correctly...

And THIS is what it looked like after I figured out how the hat works!

She hates it, but tolerates it quite nicely...  and I love it on her, so she's just going to have to put up with it!!

Guess what Opened!?

Other than Target, which opened in East Harlem in July, I am very excited and proud that a new Trader Joe's opened on the Upper West Side.

Though the Tall Englishman and I live closer to the one on 14th Street, but who cares?!   I love a Trader Joe's ANYWHERE!!  Seriously, lovelies... Mama Musical LOVES a good deal and a great product with a down-home marketing scheme!

It gets me sucked in every time...

So in LOVE!!!

Oh, lovelies, I was just sorting through my e-mail and ran across my old match.com folder...

You know the one.  That folder of e-mails that you hang on to so that if you're single and sad and having a SSM (sad single moment) you can look at them and feel like somewhere, someone thought "Wow - she's hot!  I'd like to e-mail her!"

Well, lovelies - I just deleted that folder.  For good.

BECAUSE - I have a lovely tall Ginger Englishman who tells me everyday how much he loves me and enjoys my company!  (I'm actually still pinching myself that I found such a great guy with a good heart!)

And more importantly, I have started loving who I am - in the happy times and in the sad times...

Even though I love the Tall Englishman more than life itself, I was sad the past 3 months or so.  It was a transition, a process that I was working through.  There was a lot of resistance that came along with moving to the Battery Park City neighborhood...

I was angry about my long walk to the train from our apartment on the river, I was sad about leaving my quaint Queens apartment that I'd spend 4 long years decorating and I was nervous and scared about not having my creative freedom be able to flourish in a community with fewer actors and artists.  I was so proud to live in Actoria - with all the other actors that it was really hard for me to move into Manhattan.

But the switch flipped when I started doing some of the stuff that I did in my single girl days - like going to see some theatre spur of the moment.  Or taking an acting class.  Or something as simple as having a manicure!  Doing things that were just for me really helped.

And when I started to say to myself "Yeah, so I'm angry/ sad/ frustrated/ hurt/ (fill in the blank) and I'm not going to beat myself up about feeling that way - because I feel that way just for now, not forever."  WOW.  That really helped.  A lot.

Now I actually am starting to see some of the positives to living in the Battery Park City neighborhood... Like the beautiful tree lined esplanade and the marina where the big boats pull in and out of the harbor.  And the dog run where my beautiful puppy Crumpet loves to play...  And the spacious apartment we have, which is really quite perfect for a new couple just trying to start their life together.

When I finally can see the beauty in all of this, my gratitude just bubbles over.

I have so much!  My life is so good!

I love my Tall Ginga Englishman, I love my time auditioning and I am now starting to love the next chapter of my life in a different part of New York City...

Taking it back to the beginning- I'm so glad I deleted those e-mails.  (But I did look at them one last time - and you know what??  They didn't make me feel nearly as good as having the Tall Englishman send me an e-mail or leave me a voicemail or tell me every night before we go to bed that he loves me...)

Oh.for.the.LOVE!

Lovelies, friends, countrymen... lend me your ears, tails, and snouts!

I have come across the most BRILLIANT of websites: Haute Diggety Dog!  They sell doggie things that are kind of tongue in cheek toys - like "Kate Spayed"doggie toy purses, "Grrrona Beer" dog toys, and "Arfsolute Vodka" dog toys.  I LOVE it!

Enjoy!

Ode to a Puppy...

Oh, lovelies... I swore I would never turn into one of those people that talks about their dog all the time, and here I am.  In Dog-Talking-Non-Stop-Mode.

I'm so annoyed with myself... but I secretly love it!

The poor Tall Englishman has heard non-stop "Who's a good girl?!", "Who wants a treat!", and his personal favorite "No, NO!  Crumpet!  No licking mommies ass!" as I clean up the poo on the floor....

Oh, dogs.  I love 'em.  But having one of your own is HARD WORK!  But so rewarding!  Last night she went on her piddle pad and I nearly cried I was so proud!  She's been pretty good at learning how to pee & poop on the pad - but she can't quite figure out that we go poop and pee outside.  Hopefully my mom's dog Marley will teach her how to poop an pee outside when we go to my parents house in Cake Eater, MN tomorrow....

Her first airplane ride.  I'm a little nervous, but also very excited to bring her home!  Here she was in her raincoat...  We couldn't get her fur wet for 2 days, as she had her frontline flea & tick medicine on her neck!

Here's hoping she doesn't howl all the time on the airplane!  Or poo.  Or yack... I have a feeling I might be cleaning up some puppy puke on the plane...

Long Time No Blog...

Well, lovelies... several things have happened in the past 2 months:

- I finished up my second show at the Pole of Totems Playhouse - loads of fun!

- Celebrated my 29th Birthday in 80's awesome style with loads of good friends at the bowling alley in Totem Pole, PA.  And the Tall Englishman and my awesome friend Linds-a-lou were both there...  I loved it!

- Moved in with the Tall Englishman in Battery Park City - it's domestic bliss! I love LOVE it!

- Have gone to a handful of auditions - and felt pretty good about 80% of them!

- Went to a Gender Bender musical theatre class - where you sing a song that's usually sung by the opposite sex in a musical!  It was AWESOME - I sang "Lost in the Wilderness" from Children of Eden.  And if I do say so myself - I ROCKED IT OUT!

- Scheduled LOADS of appointments when the Tall Englishman and I are home in Cake Eater, MN.  Mainly of the wedding variety.  Cake tastings, catering tastings, venue viewing, and most importantly - we are going to the Minnesota State Fair!!! (YUM - insert salivating Homer Simpson noise here...)

- Saw 3 Shows: Promises Promises (fun & plucky!), Addams Family (dark and funny), and the brilliant play "On the Levee" about the floods of 1927 in Grenville, Mississippi.

 It was moving and historically accurate - and overall one of the best plays I've ever seen.

OH- then there was ENGLAND!   That's a whole other blog post...

And last but not least... we got a dog!  Lovelies, meet Crumpet, the Puggle!

We Moved In!!!

Lovelies, the Tall Englishman and I have moved in together!

Or rather I moved into his spacious one bedroom in Battery Park City!  We have a beautiful view of the Hudson River and we can walk out our back door and see the Statue of Liberty!  We have been on several long walks on the riverfront of Battery Park...

We moved all of my boxes from Actoria, Queens the day that I came back for the Pole of Totems Playhouse.  The Tall Englishman was such a sport!  He carried boxes.  He rented the truck.  He sweated and put loads of effort into helping me with my moving process - and all the while he had a big smile on his face!

There have been some growing pains... I don't like all my furniture to match like the Tall Englishman does - I think having different compilementary items adds personality.  I think we should go on Designing for the Sexes on HGTV.  Now THAT would be fun!

I love knowing that I'm going to get home and be with him and knowing that I get to wake up next to him.  He's so good to me.  I'm so lucky that I get to have a lifetime of this!