Pick Up that Telephone...

"Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." Psalm 62:8

Lord, empty me so I can be filled with you. 

You are so good....

I am still baffled as to how discontented people( me included) can continuously search for the magic formula in self-help books, counselors, new diets, trendy fads, life-coaches, fermented grapes in a bottle to finally clear up the problems...

When I should just be calling on the Lord every time. 

Here's the problem...sometimes there is a disconnect.

Prayers will be hindered because of a number of reasons. An unforgiving heart, disobedience. Or one, if your marriage is out of sync. This coming from Atlanta pastor, Michael Youseff in today's message.

 Quit reading the Relationship Rescue and How to's for a Perfect Marriage and follow this code....

"husbands are commanded to lovingly and humbly lead and wives to joyfully and loyally follow."

Can you dig it independent women? I called the man and said. Put my needs first, I  will agree with your decisions incessantly....

Time is on fast forward. Met my first cousin and her husband tonight on 45th street. They are visiting from Scotland with their new smiling baby flower. In our three decades on this Earth, we spent an entire week together (that's seven days) in the crazy mountains of Montana when we were prepubescent tomboys. Tonight, grown women realizing that blood and genes link you in the most similar of ways, we enjoyed each other and a balmy full moon night in Manhattan relishing over flat pasta and vino. And you know the Italian is good...Mario Batali was seated at table number one...pony tail and all.

There are some nights I am so lonely and question why in the hell I want to work so hard to live in such close quarters and spend so much. But as I put my darling family in a taxi and headed south...the orange moon shone down on Broadway and the shadow boxing shirtless man shuffled his way past me north.  The Lord said, Trust me. Wait, this is your time.

I'm glad He got through.

Okay, So no one's answering
Well can't you just let it ring a little longer longer longer oh oh oh
I'll just sit tight through shadows of the night
And let it ring for evermore.... ELO

Are your prayers unanswered?

Food Diary

"He made him ride on the heights of the land  and fed him with the fruit of the field.  He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, fresh kernels of wheat. You drank from the foaming blood of the grape." Deuteronomy 32:13-14

A little more Old Testament to keep it bizarre and interesting.
      

After stepping over sleepers and stumbling home to find the deadbolt locked, knock...knock..knock., I rolled in to bed at 4 AM only to listen to the bridge and tunnel goers at Santo's nightclub scream profanities at each other and over the dumpsters crashing and scraping metal against metal.....

Finally passed out to wake at a quarter past noon. Where has my semi-sunny day gone?

The only item on the Saturday agenda. A hot, sweaty, mind-clearing, calorie busting run....

Ahh the glorious but dangerous blessing of crafty.

Craft service refers to the catering done for the cast, crew, and extras working for film and television production companies. A craft service table is a table of snacks set up either on set or on location. Cast, crew, and extras choose snacks and beverages from the table buffet-style. You know the one prima donna Christian Bale refers to....He wants his f'ing  glazed donuts...

This is different from catering as that occurs every 6-8 hours of shooting (if you're lucky) and is a sitdown meal.....

OH but Crafty is constant from call time to wrap and changes periodically. The variety of the food depends on the budget of the production and consists of a healthy mix of sustenance and junk. Coffee, Juice, and endless bottles of H20. 

By advertising dollars alone and the fact that we all travel to Long Island and the Hampton's via a luxury wi-fi equipped tour bus, I'm guessing that Royal Pains has it's fair share of cash to throw around.  Not that they are throwing it a the principle's salaries. (no names at the moment)

When I am not on set and in between takes. I don't sit in holding. I hover by the craft services table. So much so the crew knows my name and my cravings....

Told that we should eat before we come...I ate a modest lunch and then hit the tent...I'm not crazy.

Yesterday 7PM:  Espresso and poppy seed cake. Blueberries and raw cashews.

9PM popcorn, celery, carrots and tomatoes and a two mini Take Five chocolate bar

10:30 hard cheese, salami, banana chips and wheat harvest crackers. 

midnight: cauliflower medley and buffalo mozzarella, green gum drops, roasted peanuts shell and all.

1AM "Don't you eat at home." Craft services attendant  Snag some corn chips and guacamole.

2:30 AM mini cheeseburgers and carrot cake ice cream sundaes

Wrap and two plums, one granola bar, and five snickers for the ride home....

Looking around at the Irish Italian gaffers, Polish camera ops and the load they're carrying in the front.

I wondering just how much I've gotta keep my energy up...

I don't care if you're full
Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it
Open up your mouth and feed it
Have some more yogurt, have some more spam
It doesn't matter if it's fresh or canned
Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it. Weird AL

What are your perks of the job?

Truth Becomes Her

"You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." Deuteronomy 15:12

When you get in trouble and you don't know right from wrong,
give a little whistle!
Give a little whistle!
When you meet temptation and the urge is very strong,
give a little whistle!
Give a little whistle.
Take the straight and narrow path
and if you start to slide, 
Give a little whistle!
And always let your conscience be your guide. -Pinocchio

One of the most powerful voices in the world. My Conscience. Sometimes an annoyance but always the right choice. Even if it doesn't make me the most popular in the class, it is nearly impossible not to heed it. Oh bother. The pounding in my chest is motivation enough to keep it all on the up and up.

I made sure to tell catering I was lining my bag with the crew's take home munchies.

It's cold and rainy. Manhattan is receiving a good cleansing.

Did I mention the high is 58 degrees and oh yeah it's June.

Another spacey 6 train home from Grand Central at three in the morning after working Royal Pains for the second night in a row....Some progress. The Art Director finally granted me the beloved "waiver" or in union terms, "the good life". Almost four times the pay and upped the ante of treatment from mere sub human background to featured foreground....

Spent hours laying on a fainting couch while the camera changed its angles...

That and an official invitation to the FCW society...(Fu*k*ing Cool Women) by a seasoned member who body paints nudes for a living, despite our blatant difference of opinions;

Me-One God

Her-We are ALL God

Makeup Artist cat fights, overflowing toilets, prayer shawls for the Pekingese and poodles. And all of us in the basement of an over sized house in the Hampton's.

I tell you, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Do you tell the Truth?

Gypsy Spirit

"I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah" Psalm 16:4

These days the only steadfastness in my world is my strong desire to hear the Lord.

Vacating my current Tribeca premises in 15 very short days...

Joined a network group on CouchSurfing.org . Short-term living. Freedom.

Worked 13 hours as an ill party patron in a gorgeous summer home in Long Island. Fun.

Actions not necessarily congruent with other married thirty-somethings I know. Fine

And in the words of a true Ton-A-Wandah Girl...

H-A-double P-Y  A-M-I!

Does the sameness give security?

Push Pull

"I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me.  The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." Psalm 118:13-14

You are not the President of the world. You are president of the United States. And your moral, ethical, office given obligation is to us and our safety. Tread lightly Mr. Friendly.

Colonel Peters reminds us that it wasn't a group of Presbyterians attacking Saudi Arabia, it was them...attacking us. Lest we forget.

There is no denying my mood, therefore my thoughts are tainted on days I have time to sit and take in the daily news.

Blow it in a bubble and float away. Or replay Bruno's nuts in Eminem's face again.

Either way, he better start talking like he's proud to be an American.

I was in the presence of some serious talent today.

If there are any 80's children out there who rooted for a Private Benjamin victory, sobbed in fear of divorce in Irreconcilable Differences, felt one person could fight the KGB like Whoopi in Jumping Jack Flash, or relished in the idea of leaving yuppie corporate America to make jam in the country like Baby Boom Keaton; then you too would have been impressed.

Nancy Myers wrote every last one of them....

She is the most successful female director of all time, has a stellar resume of directing successes, and stands at a confident 5'1.

Casted as a sun-kissed L.A. blond in her new untitled project and standing in admiration of Meryl Streep's flawless complexion...I spent the morning (feigning a LAX traveler) feeling so utterly blessed.

And if working in ear shot of heavy but cute Alec Baldwin wasn't elating enough,  as I was walking disguised in my dark shades to the E train home, A mom stopped in front of me and whispered to her two children, I kid you not..."There's Gwyneth Paltrow".  

Guffaw.

Took a casting call for four days on Royal Pains and a possible stand in for the timeless academy award winner herself...we do share the same Roman nose.

Peaks and Valley's people!

It was Newton's Third Law.

Climbing or Coasting...ain't life grand?

Stream of Consciousness

"If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our rightmind, it is for you." 

2 Corinthians 5:13

Retail Sales are not in my blood. Women who would normally respond to my warm smile in the street...walk by me with their new noses high in the air ignoring the sound of my voice...The good news...it's a chapter I never need to revisit.

No, the torture of sales are not in my blood.

" I don't know what I'm doing! Wishful make-upping!" Pretty in Pink

All of this fades away. We all get old. 

Quit telling me in order to follow the Lord, I have to follow a set of rules. 

Summer in the mountains? Isn't that what the wealth of Manhattan does?

This place (Barney's) is a joke. Every one's got that look of...

"For I'm sure that I could be a movie star if I could get out of this place." BJ

No , New York can't swallow the resolved.

If a 15 year old girl wears a shirt that says "I LOVE Penis." Who should we blame?

Scholastic Downsizing

Dead Point. Purpose?

McGraw-Hill layoffs. NBC Universal on an ice cold hiring freeze.

Sesame Street hasn't called.

My writing works. Demands Discipline. I'm lacking focus.

Bleacher Report, Examiner, why isn't Conde Naste calling?

Blog your way our of this Recession....Conceivable?

Benefits. No Health. No Babies.

$15 an hour. Who am I kidding?

If you are repeatedly going to a place you dislike, watching the clock tick to quitting time. Do yourself a favor and leave. Time moves fast enough.

The Gregory Brothers struck a nerve with me. Creative, Innovative, Something Different. Courageous in doing what they love. Look them up. Be inspired.

Drove today in the city. The Local Lafayette deranged Chinaman jumped in front of my car. The undercover blew his siren at him.

Negativity is Noise. My skin is screaming.

I want to create my world where no one tells me how to live or disapproves of my living because it's different from their standards.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND PACK MENTALITY.

I'm a loner. 

I like to go my own way.

Do you ever stop and listen to yourself?

You Are What You Eat

Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." Genesis 9:3

I don' know if he was referring to the Grecco du Tufo buttery chardonnay or the luscious pappardelle pasta with beef accompanied with salted spinach, seasoned eggplant Parmesan, and crispy toffee biscotti. But leaving the gorgeous Berkshire mountains down the Taconic New York State Parkway and driving seamlessly into New York City at sunset for a celebratory romantic al fresco dinner in West Village's Bar Pitti...I praised Him all the way.

In the words of my near and dear. He's ready to be in the full on rocking city most of the time and the sleepy countryside where he grew up once in a while. Again, an amen....Darlin' I love ya but keep (Freudian slip) give me Park Avenue.

Another opinion, I do not understand how people do not and choose not to know good food. Up to 1 Am a few days ago in Chinatown eating steamed dumplings and homemade ramen with steamed young chicken and a cold Bud in a can. I finally struck gold with the eating cheap in Manhattan.... 

Fortified in the womb on greasy Pancho's San Antonio Verde enchilada's.

Relished stewed goat and sweet plantains in VI

Planned my Honeymoon around authentic spicy curry in Thailand.

Survived on burnt Chapati and Lentils in Tanzania.

Think Bone Marrow and Butter on Toast could be one of my favorites.

I do not get white bread. Will not eat American Cheese. Don't drink light beer. Wouldn't think of paying money for aspartame. And Can't comprehend the phrase "too much garlic in the potatoes." 

Variety is the spice of life. Is yours too bland?