The Comfy Corner

At work today, I look down at the floor and see these two silly bandz (I feel weird spelling bands with a "z") conveniently paired together. As far as Halloween goes, this is the scariest thing that happened to me all day. I had to take a picture, but I hope I didn't catch anything...

So after throwing a number of college parties and attending more than I probably remember I have reached some conclusions about how they usually flow at my apartment.

1) The Calm Before the Storm - this is the awkward time before anyone arrives when I'm sitting in my apartment with Vanessa and whoever helped decorate or clean up and we're usually already kinda wasted watching Food Network or "Reba."

2) The Excitement of the First Guest - We rush around, change the music, turn off the TV and cheer for them as they walk in. These are the lucky guests that actually get to enjoy the little bit of food that we are willing to contribute to the party.

3) The First Vomit - This usually happens pretty early in the night. It's the one person who gets a little overzealous with the shots and ends up hugging the toilet before the party really starts.

4) The Mysterious Disappearance - This is when everyone randomly disappears from the dance floor and ends up smoking in the back or just crowding into Vanessa's room.

5) The YouTube DJ / Raucous Dance Party- This is when people decide to abandon the evening's playlist and start playing the songs that they wanna listen to on YouTube. This typically ends with me saving the party, playing DJ, and everyone dancing up a storm.

6) The Beggars - the ones who forgot to bring snacks start begging us for our food. We turn them down and they walk away dejected. Some people go so far as to steal the food (these people are not invited back).

7) The Stragglers - After most people have left to catch the T, we sit on the couch (stoned out of our minds) and wait for the stragglers to leave so we can go to bed. We typically turn off the music and turn on the lights to get this process rollin'.

Alright, it has finally happened! I have made my first YouTube video ya'll! It's gonna be viral over night, I just know it. I feel it (and it was in my horoscope this morning). I decided to sing a song that I really connected with emotionally and sing it in a way that really brought out the lyrics. So I hope ya'll enjoy. NO HATERS! Here it is!

Things I love about fall that are just oh so comfy...

1) pumpkins and everything pumpkin flavored/scented...see pumpkin flavor craze
2) listening to Sam Tsui covers (that's year round actually)
3) soft blankets on the couch
4) sweatshirts again
5) cider and other warm (alcoholic) beverages
6) no more iced coffee cravings
7) cool breezes (not icy death breezes that make tears come out of your eyes)
8) piles of leaves with kids rolling around in them
9) cute families and their puppies (year round)
10) pies
11) the movies "Hocus Pocus" and "Halloweentown"
12) apple picking
13) sweatpants around the house
14) using my comforter again
15) cuddling
16) feel good fall flicks (like "Something's Gotta Give" or "Ten Things I Hate About You")

and finally...

17) COMFY CORNERS! (year round)

My friend Anthony and I were headed home after rehearsal and we were about to board the red line train headed towards Cambridge. The red line station at park street is set up so that you can board the train from both sides. Anthony and I were positioned across the tracks from this fiery redhead who was wearing a knee-length, red, fur lined leather coat (keep in mind that it is pretty toasty in the T station) and black stockings. She was listening to her iPod and she was full out irish step dancing with her eyes closed. She was not dancing for money, just for herself, and she was holding nothing back - elaborate kicks and turns with intricate arm and hand movements as well. She was sweating profusely. Anthony and I just stared at her in amazement (and made some discreet videos). Then the train arrived and she picked up her bag and prepared to get on the train as if nothing strange had happened at all. She was just waiting like everyone else.

As the train pulled in I turned to Anthony and said, "Man, I wish we were all so uninhibited that we could just full out dance at the train station." And then this girl comes up to me and says (with an attitude) "THAT'S VERY OBSERVANT OF YOU!" and boards the train. So there we were on the train now sitting across from this fiery red head dancer and this other random girl that basically yelled at me and...wait for it - they were both dancing in their seats. Both of them had their eyes closed, headphones in, working it out. We thought it was some sort of a flash mob or something, but only two women arrived. So I looked at Anthony. Anthony looked at me. We shrugged our shoulders and Anthony pulled out his headphones, we put on some Beyonce and we joined them.

After all, why shouldn't we be able to just dance to our heart's content whenever, wherever we want to? At least it's not as obtrusive as singing (poorly). The other people on the train were more confused than ever. The women across from us were flat out dieing of laughter. It's official, dancing can bring about nothing but happiness.

The awful, devil table I wrote about in Dear Table 27 returned last night (only this time, they insisted on sitting at table 25, the largest booth in the restaurant typically reserved for parties of 6 or 8 but they were a party of 4, but they were all so fat, they could have been 8...so I guess that's okay). This is how it went down:

1) They ate two entire loaves of bread and butter (we typically give each guest 1 slice)
2) They polished off their avocado egg rolls in the time it took me to refill one of their drinks
3) They informed me that they were still hungry after the three pizzas they ate and that they weren't as big as I made them think it would be (I told them the exact number of inches each pizza would be, we are a corporation, we measure our pizzas to a tee...bitch)
4) All the women (even the little girl) were so fat that their boobs were on the table.
5) They then ordered a pasta
6) They then ordered a brownie sundae
7) They then asked for more bread and refills
8) They then informed me that they felt rushed, they thought that the girl should have gotten her drink for free because she was a "kid" (That's a stretch, she is a BIG kid. AND she had THREE REFILLS of her adult size drink. That's cause to charge you for an adult drink), and that I deceived them into making them think the pizzas were bigger, so they wanted it all comped.

Here is what I did. She handed me a twenty (the bill was 66) and said to take that off and see where the bill was then. I looked at the bill and said "It'll be 46." She said, "Well, we felt rushed. People should be able to stay in a restaurant at least an hour after close and not feel rushed." (they were there an hour after close). "So why don't you see if you're feeling nice and do something about the bill." I said "fine" and I threw the bill on the ground, printed out a receipt for 46 dollars, handed it to her and said "this is how much you owe. Have a great night."

They were short 10 dollars on the bill. They almost made cry, I was actually fuming. The manager informed me that they were no longer welcome in the restaurant. Why are there people like this in the world?! It is so horrible that anyone would go out there and just make some poor waiter's life absolutely miserable just because you are a cheap bastard. If you can't afford the food DON'T EAT HERE!!! ARGH, she is such a heinous, severely overweight BITCH. If you are reading this, never return. If you do, I will personally tell you to leave immediately, hand you your receipt from last night and threaten to call the police.

Ya'll have a nice day

Yesterday, I found myself being incredibly distracted in my psychology class because the guy next to me was legit snoring. It's gonna happen of course - I have found myself in a myriad of boring classes that conveniently prefer to meet at 8am. So I have discovered ways to distract myself...

1) DOING OTHER WORK- the best thing about being in a painfully dull class is that this is often a good time to get work done that you wouldn't have time to do otherwise. For instance, I spend this time memorizing lines, journaling, or working on scripts.

2) TEXTING - Our technological world has brought about a whole new set of classroom distractions. And phones nowadays can do everything. So, I text (Chris is always up that early), I Tweet, I Facebook, and I brainstorm awesome blog entries (like this one).

3) WINDOWS - If you are fortunate, you will have a window in your classroom. This opens up a whole world for daydreaming. You can people watch, you can look at the birds, admire the changing of the leaves, watch the clouds move and just generally detach yourself from the boredom of class.

4) BECOMING OBSESSIVE OVER YOUR NAILS - This is something that I resort to a lot. I clean my nails and I judge the quality and dryness of my hands. They are, after all, always right there in front of me.

5) DOODLING - This is a big one for me. I can literally look back through my notes and find a direct correlation between the amount of doodles and the dullness of the class. I found myself doodling a legit masterpiece on the borders of my paper the other day, this is a telling sign.

6) SLEEPING - If worst comes to worst, this is always an option. I try to avoid it, but sometimes it's too tempting. I typically try to be discreet about it, though. One time I fell asleep in a math class and I literally heard the "Hallelujah Chorus" playing full blast in my dreams. Another telling sign (that I'm a huge nerd).

7) PLANNING AND LIST-MAKING - If you couldn't tell, I love making lists, so when a class gets dull, I make lists. It makes me feel like I'm being productive, even when I'm really not.

I ended up having to wake up the guy beside me before the snoring got outta hand...

So I just got back from the most incredible trip to NYC. The trip was incredibly inspirational on many levels. I learned that I belong nowhere else in my life but in that city. So let's hit the highlights.

1) THE ROADTRIP- It was very telling that it took me seven and a half hours to get to NYC and three hours to get back. What does this tell me, you ask? It tells me that everyone is trying to get out of Boston and no one wants to leave NYC. Literally, it took me two and a half hours just to get out of this city...thank God I had my good friends Miley, Whitney, Mariah, and Beyonce to keep me sane and bouncing around in my car like a crazy person. I get the weirdest looks from people when I'm driving because I shamelessly sing and dance (dangerous? perhaps, but not as bad as TEXTING!). And on the trip back I had my amazing classmates singing horribly in my ear: bliss.

2)BEDS (ON FIRE)- I'm going to use the theme of "beds on fire" to describe my time in NYC. I witnessed the best performance I've ever seen on a Broadway stage: Bernadatte Peters singing "Send in the Clowns" in A Little Night Music (She was sitting on a bed and she was "on fire"...there's your theme). I cried - not because of the plot, but simply because I loved it so much and I felt an incredible energy and a fire (there's more theme) in my heart to come to New York and do this forever and ever. I also saw the worst Broadway performance of my life in the same weekend: Five Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. I can't be too harsh because it was only their third run through, but let's be real: strug city. They lit a bed on fire, though, (theme) which was cool. And I got to see Patti Lupone, Sherie Renee Scott, Laura Benanti, and Brian Stokes Mitchell on stage at the same time, which was also cool.

In general, the weekend was all about bowls, booze, beds, and Broadway. I was with friends, I was seeing theatre, I was drinking a lot, had some recreational anesthesia and I was having a blast. Can there be anything that is telling me not to flee to New York as soon as I can? I think not.

It happens every year I suppose, but for some reason, I feel like the pumpkin-flavor craze is especially palpable this year. Everywhere I look I see pumpkin flavored this, pumpkin flavored that; everyone I talk to is saying something along the lines of "Oh my god, I LOVE pumpkin cheesecake."; and Dunkin Donuts is getting the most business it has ever gotten because of their take-me-to-heaven-and-bathe-me-in-pumpkin-syrup-because-you-are-so-good pumpkin doughnut and their own brand new version of the pumpkin latte (TAKE THAT STARBUCKS).

I talk as if I am an observer looking in...but in fact I am part of the craze. I LOVE IT!! Nothing is comfier than a pumpkin spice latte and my big hoodie. I am the reason why Dunkin runs out of their pumpkin doughnuts by noon. Perhaps that's why the craze seems so apparent to me? What doesn't help is that I work at a restaurant that purportedly serves the most heavenly pumpkin cheesecake in town. I have yet to try it (I fear for my metabolism, gotta keep up that Broadway body - and pumpkin doughnuts don't count). The moral of the story: we crave anything that tells us that the season is changing. We do not like to get stuck in ruts. When it's summer we long for snow, when it's snowing we long for just one summery day. We are in a constant state of discontent, so when pumpkin flavor comes around it is a signal of change. It means sweaters again, long pants, Halloween, gaining weight, holidays, and pretty leaves. Tis the season ya'll, eat up that artificial flavoring while it's here.

I often find myself staring blankly at my Facebook profile trying to think of the perfect way to describe my current mood or situation. The problem is this: usually I update my status when I find myself with some time to kill. And when I have time to kill, I am not really doing anything, so my status when searching for a status is typically "searching for a status." But I can't put that down, so I have to come up with some sort of clever anecdote or phrase to put out there. It's a bigger deal than it should be for me because my status on Facebook is posted right there beside my name and my picture. So every status I choose is out there for a world of people to make judgments on me. Also, I face the problem of negotiating statuses between social networking sites. Here is my basic rule of thumb...

1) Facebook - status can be fairly insignificant but must have some sort of clever twist. "Just went grocery shopping and the hottie at the register gave me his number." or something like that. It's gotta have an angle, if only a small one.

2) Twitter - Must be significant. Must be clever. Must evoke some sort of catharsis from the reader. Must provide some sort of insight on life. "'Hahah' = I genuinely think what you said is funny / 'Hahaha' = I'm just placating you" (compliments of JDuboff)

3) Gchat status - should be a big, overarching status that sums up your life situation at the moment "Tis the year of bowls, booze and Broadway"

I see a lot of grumpy, unhappy people passing through the restaurant. I waited on a guy yesterday who sat down, I came right up to him and took his order and two minutes later I saw him talking to the host and he ended up moving to sit on the other side of the restaurant. I went up to him and said, "Too cold up there, eh?" because I knew several people were complaining about the temperature. And he took several sharp intakes of breath (like it was the Arctic circle up there or something), grabbed his chest and said, "The service here is terrible. How are you supposed to see me with that wall right there? And you never brought me my bread and butter." As if I had been ignoring him for hours! He had just sat down!

I wanted to say, "You need to calm down, sir. I have absolutely no control over the architectural design of this restaurant and you didn't order bread and butter. You are my only table and I just got here and I would remember if you ordered bread and butter." But I all I said was "Yes, sir." And I made it a point to be extra nice to him for the rest of his meal because ya know what, sir? Life is far to short to be grumpy. As the Dalai Lama said "Happiness is not ready made. It comes from your own actions." In other words, it is something that needs to be worked towards and I'm working for it because I choose happiness, I choose confidence, I choose smiling.