As Bugs Bunny would say, "That's All Folks!"

Across the street there...

I'm safe and sound at my new home in Greenville, North Carolina after an eventful end to my time in NYC.  The transition might take some 

                          getting used to...

across the street here.

Yep. That's my house. This is Greenville.

Until the next adventure! ...If this isn't one.

We Get Around

So the next chapter of our not-so-bad Hurricane Sandy story:

The George Washington Bridge. Only 3 miles to get out of the city from my apartment.

 










After the subways closed on Sunday at 7:00 pm, my mom and I waited at my apartment Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we decided to make a move.  Laguardia Airport was said to be scheduled to stay closed until Thursday morning at least.  Both of our flights were supposed to be Thursday afternoon.  We went with our gut and decided our flight would probably be canceled and rented a car to make the drive to North Carolina.  It turns out we got the last car for hours, and the place we got it from was also the only Hertz location open in all of NYC...and only 11 blocks from my apartment.  Blessed.  And the gas tank was full.  Blessed.

Our ironically beautiful drive through unaffected parts of New Jersey.

NY, NJ, DE, MD, VA, NC = $24 in tolls

Welcome to Maryland

Capitol Building view from the freeway.

With 2 1/2 hours of crawling traffic through D.C. rush hour, it was a very long day.  But we were blessed more than we even realized when we returned home where the was a TV to see the devastation across the Northeast Coast.  We had no idea just how bad it was while we were holed up in my apartment, safe in Washington Heights.  Thank goodness my mom was with me to rent a car since I'm not the legal car-renting-age of 25...or I might still be there waiting.

Yep, The Pentagon too

Oh Sandy...

Well as you might have guessed, my mom's trip ended up being extended due to the kind Hurricane Sandy.  Her flight was originally scheduled for Monday night, so she decided to play it safe and reschedule for Thursday.  This way we could go to the airport together too.  Here's how we spent the next few days at home while all public transit was down:

What can we say?  A girl's gotta have her chocolate chip cookies!

On Monday afternoon before the storm really hit, we attempted a trip to the store to satisfy our craving for chocolate chip cookies.  Needless to say, the storm was just getting worse and the store changed it's early close time from 6:00pm to 2:00pm.  Outta luck.

Instead we...

...did puzzles,

 

 

 

 

 

 

...read books

...and watched movies.

On Tuesday we decided to get some fresh air, go to the store, and check out the damage.

One of the trees down in the park across the street from my apartment.

That brick building across the street is my apartment.  Glad it didn't fall the other direction.

Another tree...

A spattering of leaves at my front door.

Thank you Jesus for keeping us safe.  Although we could hear the trees cracking across the street, Washington Heights did not even lose power.

A Weekend in Photos...

"Why don't we go to Sarabeths!?" - consult iphone and it is only a block away!

Fall on the Hudson

After a delicious brunch...a walk on the Esplanade of Batter Park City.

Pinot Noir and Thai chicken satay at the Marriott

After resting up at our hotel, these classy ladies stopped at the Marriott for wine and appetizers before the first Broadway musical of the weekend, "Nice Work If You Can Get It."

A new 1920's screwball comedy full of songs by George and Ira Gershwin

Coffee milkshakes, french fries, and sweet potato fries are a perfect prelude to a matinee performance of Newsies. Is my Momma beautiful or what?!

I won the ticket lottery AGAIN!!  The second time did not disappoint!

The end of day 2.  At Lincoln Center after another classy evening.

After a morning of logistics and planning due to Hurricane Sandy's untimely forecast, it's time for another show of course!  Yes, that is where our priorities lie.  

Ready for Hurricane Sandy, we hope!

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a musical about a murder mystery novel by Charles Dickens that was never finished before his death.  So the ending is quite literally, a mystery all, including the cast.  The audience votes on "whodunit" and according to their votes, the cast produces that ending.  Broadway star Chita Rivera was sick and therefore not performing and thus, the director offered to give every ticket-holder another ticket for a performance of their choice!  What better show to see a second time than one which has a different ending every time!

Another spectacular show to add to the list!  And what an interesting concept this whole show is!

A Watched Pot Never Boils

So my absence has been due to the lack of content to write about.  I'll just say that I have been quite lonely here in this big city lately and am very ready to go back to North Carolina in just over a week.  I have yet to be able to call the place "home," although the people (my family) will definitely make it so.  But...this will not be one of those "sad girl blogs," so on to other things.

There have been so few auditions in the past two weeks, making me all the more ready to head out, but there have been a few:

• October 16th, Chicago - Currently running on Broadway, 10:00 dancer ECC
• I almost didn't go because I knew the whole city would show up for this audition because, well, as they say, "sex sells."  I arrived at 7:45am to sign in.  I waited until 11:45 when non-equity was "typed out" by resume and headshot because of the lack of time for the masses of women who showed up.  Well, my resume and headshot sell sweet and beautiful, not hot and sexy.

• October 16th, Miracle on 34th Street - Westchester Broadway Dinner Theater, NY, 2:00 singer ECC
• Headed over to another audition studio after waiting all morning for Chicago.  Signed in, went and got lunch, came back, changed into my dress and heels, returned to the holding room, told that there would not be time for non-equity.  Two for two.

• October 17th, Miracle on 34th Street - Westchester Broadway Dinner Theater, NY, singer open call
• Came back the next day when I found out there would be an open call.  Went in, sang my 16 bars, and went home.

• October 23rd, Silence! The Musical - Currently running Off Broadway, dancer ECC
• This call was DESERTED.  One group of Equity and one group of non.  Less than 50 women total.  I did not do my homework on this show and realized after I got there that this was not a show that I would want to be in.

So in my abundance of free time, what have I been doing?

- I have been taking class, after class, after class, and have not felt this strong in years.  Even though I am eager to go back to more of a permanent lifestyle, I will definitely miss all these classes being at my fingertips.

- I have begun and finished season 1 of Mad Men.

- I have spent a lot of time at Barnes and Noble.

- I have been applying to any and every online job application for Greenville, NC.

- I have probably stalked you on Facebook.

What is holding me over for the next week and a half?  My Mommy is coming to NY in 3 days!  It will be like old times when we lived in NJ and came to the city!  Only now I will take her around instead of her taking me around.  And we can drink wine together.

Audition Update:

• October 1st, Evita - Currently running on Broadway

• Disaster Audition.  I guess everyone has to have at least one.  This was definitely mine.  However, I'm sure it wasn't as bad as the slow-motion version in my head....

•  October 1st, Prather Entertainment Group Season Generals - Fort Myers, FL.  Lancaster, PA.  On Tour. 
• I had to sing to be able to attend the dance call-back.  I wasn't kept to strut my stuff, but it was still good to feel like I did a decent job singing.

• October 3rd, Big Fish, a new musical - Chicago preview run before heading to Broadway
• Non-Equity dismissed

• October 4th, Disney Character Performers - Disney Cruiseline 
•  Kept through the dancing first round for the animation second round.  Resume on file for 12 months.

• October 8th, Frog Kiss - Virginia Stage Company, Norfolk, VA
• Nothing special to report other than it would have been fun to perform so close to where I grew up.  Waited for hours, danced for minutes.

•  Ocober 10th, Carnival Cruiseline
•  Four grand battements and a double jazz pirouette, both right and left.  Chose people from there.  Clearly they had a look they were going for, because I definitely have those steps down.

TODAY - 6 1/2 hours of waiting and not seen at either call.  Ugh.

• October 11th, Tuck Everlasting, the musical - Broadway Across America (performing in Boston)
•  Non-Equity dismissed
• October 11th, Thoroughly Modern Millie - Maltz Jupiter Theater (Jupiter, FL) & Papermill Playhouse (Millburn, NJ)
• Non-Equity dismissed.  Better luck tomorrow at the open call for this one.  I was just hoping to get a head start.

Iris in The Big Apple!

 We packed in the necessities during Iris' first time to New York City:

• Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island
• A Broadway Musical
• Central Park
• ...Little Italy?  We made it to the one street that comprises "Little Italy" eventually....after spending far too much time lost in Chinatown. (rename: Chinacity?  I'm just sayin'.)

The museum at Ellis Island was so interesting!  We would have spent more time there if we could.

ONCE, THE MUSICAL
 We got standing-room tickets for a great price, but were given amazing seats by a couple whose daughter and her boyfriend couldn't make it!

Such a great show!  I would call it 'a play with music.'  Not your typical musical.

A beautiful, sunny day in Central Park, despite the rainy weather forecast.

We just wanna find Little Italy!  Ah!   Too much Chinatown!

"Ah...

...that's better."

BAM.

NEWSIES


MARY POPPINS


ONCE




....all in one week!

Picnic in the Park

Central Park Beauty!

Provider of delicious picnics since...well...you get the point.

 ↑ The Goods. ↓ (I'm talking about the food.)

And then...

What do you mean we don't look like students? ;)

Chug, chug, chug

Although I haven't done a lot of writing as of late, that doesn't mean nothing fun or exciting is happening.  In fact, just last week made it through an entire audition for Alan Menken's, A Christmas Carol, A New Musical.  I danced...was asked to stay and dance again...was asked to stay and sing...and it was the week I was sick and had no voice. Very disappointing, but at the same time, very encouraging that I was able to finally make it that far.

Ready for "Whoville" - How the Grinch Stole Christmas audition

Here Comes the Fun!

A beautiful day at The Cloisters

Falafel pita with all the fixins.  Bang for your buck at Moaz!

Won the lotto again!!!!!  NEWSIES IS AMAZING!!!!!

"It's either a diner or a strip joint."  Diner.  Crisis averted.  Delicious milkshakes after the show!

When Life Gives You Lemons

So today we're here to talk about Lulu Lemon.  What is Lulu Lemon?  Basically, it is a designer brand for work-out clothes.  If you live here and you are a dancer, if you're cool enough (and rich enough) you will be sporting your high-performance, Lulu Lemon attire.  I'm not against this by any means, I just find it comical.  I think a dancer must have been fed up one day with the fact that they never got to wear all the nice, designer, name-brand clothing that white collar workers wear, and decided to capitalize on the idea.  So now, there is designer clothing even for dancers.  (Don't ask me how dancers afford designer clothing...we're talking $100-$200 for a zip-up hoodie.)  But I suppose if you are going to see it anywhere, it's going to be New York.

Up next

Up next in terms of auditioning:

• Tuesday, September 18, 2:00pm: Flashdance, A New Musical - Short engagement tour

This one's an Equity Chorus Call (ECC) so we'll see if I get seen.  I feel like A LOT of people will come out for this.

• Thursday, September 20, 4:00pm:  A Christmas Carol, The Musical - Pioneer Theatre Company, Salt Lake City, UT

Also ECC, but I predict less people.

That's it for this week.

Highlights since we've spoken last:

Cynthia and I won the "ticket lottery" last Thursday for cheap tickets to Peter and the Starcatcher!  Only $27 for a Broadway play, and my first Broadway play at that.  That statement may confuse some of you, but there is a big difference between a play and a musical.  I, for example, have no desire to be in a play.  There is no singing, and most significantly, no dancing.  Well, dancing is what feeds my soul! ...After Jesus, of course.  With all that said, I have seen many Broadway musicals, but this prequel to Peter Pan was the first play.  It was very clever and extremely well done, but its fast pace definitely requires a lot of attentiveness.

Other goings on include:
an incredibly fun Contemporary class.  Be careful not to get too "into" throwing yourself around in the choreography. - When battling it out, the floor will always win over your head.  Embarrassing moment that I hope went unnoticed.
a long walk in Riverside Park on a beautiful day.
a wonderful sermon from the author, Tim Keller.  After my church in California and its great teaching, I really appreciate solid teaching right out of The Bible, instead of just advice on how to be a better Christian.
a Hip Hop class!  Yes, I did it.  And honestly the class was kind of a joke.  An hour and a half could have been pushed into 50 minutes if she would just get straight to it.  BUT, even though I did not take an advanced class or anything, if you give me the choreography, and give me a little time to learn it, I can even do hip hop!  Pats self on back

Ta-ta for now, ti-ti for later.

Ballet Makes Life Better

I actually did the audition for Florida's Music Man today.  Although I was not kept to sing, I felt good about my audition.  Obviously it could have been better, but I was satisfied.  After all, they were only looking for two girls.  And by the way...contrary to what I predicted a few posts down, there were still a lot of girls at the audition...a few shy of 100.

I stopped at Steps on the way home and took a ballet class.  It is easy to forget when you've been out of class for a while, but ballet just makes any day better.  My goal with dancing here is to also try to better develop my skills in my weaker genres.  Jazz and contemporary are on the list and maybe if I'm brave enough (I probably won't be), hip hop.  But ballet is always the greatest class to come back to for a sense of comfort and reassurance of my technique and training.  Here is a little glimpse into the talent at this NYC dance studio!

Steps on Broadway

My Hero, Joe

Thank goodness for Tader Joe's and his prices after trying to shop at the local markets in my neighborhood.

Paying Tribute

I wasn't seen at today's audition for Music Man.  There wasn't time to see any non-equity auditionees.  However, we were informed that there is a non-equity call tomorrow and "how come we came to this one."  Well...there is no evidence of a posting for that call anywhere.  This is great news for those of us that were there, because that means we are the only ones who know that it is happening!  So, I'll be back for the Maltz Jupiter Theatre audition of Music Man tomorrow at 10:00am.

Today marks the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks.  Cynthia and I headed down to Ground Zero after we were dismissed.

It was so strange to think of the state that area was in 11 years prior.  Very sobering.