Julie is My Julia

We watched Julie & Julia the other day. I'd heard people say they hadn't liked it very much, which I just couldn't understand. I thought it was the most fun. And the food looked amazing. There's a scene where Julie makes an amazing bruschetta that has her husband wolfing it down and muttering how amazing it is with every bite. And Geoff said he wanted me to make it someday.

So I did.

Most interesting to me was that she fried the bread in a pan instead of baking or broiling it. I'd never seen that before. So I tried it.


Prior to the putting it in the pain, I dipped both sides in some olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper and fresh garlic.


I will admit that there was a SIGNIFICANT amount of olive oil used to make these. Significant. But, since this was an experiment and since we are embarking on a SIGNIFICANT diet in 2010, I didn't let myself feel too badly about it. I'm sure they would also be good if you just spread a little on both sides.


Then the requisite tomatoes and basil....Julie clearly used heirloom tomatoes in her bruschetta, but those didn't quite seem to be in season in Queens at the end of December, so...I made regular old tomatoes work. Added sea salt, cracked pepper a smidge of olive oil and some balsamic vinegar.


And they were amazing. Geoff had his eyes closed as he ate them. He couldn't stop saying "wow. oh wow." He was basically Hanging Up The Phone. So I knew they were a great success. And it was fun to be inspired to cook and try something new. Thank you Julie & Julia.

Now come on over and I'll make you some....

... And All I Got Was This One Picture

We are back in the Big Apple. And somehow Christmas came and went without me taking a single picture. This is basically all I got.

Well, ok....and the obligatory shot of Hayley with the football.


And ok, maybe one of Toby too. Giving you a mournful over-the-shoulder look.


It was great to see family though. And if you are desperate for pictures you can check out the ones from last year. 'Cause things were pretty much the same this year.

Christmas was lovely. It rained cats and dogs early Christmas morning, and I love waking up to the rain. Just love it. We had breakfast, which is always amazing. My Aunt Jean always makes a breakfast casserole and this year she tried Paula Dean's recipe. Y-U-M. Eggs and cheese and hashbrowns all in one dish? Sign me up. Jean only used half the cheese that Paula called for and it was still dang good.

When I was younger I always used to marvel at how slowly my Dad opened his gifts. We usually pass out gifts so that everyone has a few to open and then we pause to give people a chance to open them. And now, in my own advancing years, I realized I am taking just as long as he does. I really enjoy watching other people open their gifts. And before you think I'm so selfless and saint-like and giving, let me clarify that I particularly like watching them open gifts that I have given them. If you've ever heard the theory that people have different love languages, I think I've learned that gift giving is one of mine. This year I gave my uncles and my dad some framed photos of the old cars at the farm that we took last year. I thought they turned out great. So much so that I might make some for us to hang in our house. And I was so excited for them to open them. I think they liked them. Which made me happy.

Christmas dinner was lovely and there was much political discussion as always. In general the food down there is just what you'd expect. Excellent. Southern. Full of cheese. It's a good thing we only go there once a year. But we balanced it out with walks out at the farm. So I managed not to gain any weight for the few days we were there. Yay me.

The day after Christmas we hosted a little gathering of family friends, just like we did last year. It was great fun. Somehow, my uncles swindled me into singing a few Christmas tunes IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Which was more than slightly mortifying. I haven't sung solo in front of people in about 5 years. And boy oh boy, can you tell. But luckily I was in a room of people who love me, so the level of judgement was minimal. And after that, I quickly retreated to the couch with my glass of wine and promptly won over my friends Mac & Katherine's two boys (Ben age 7, Sam age 4) with the Lightsaber application on my iPhone. Their dad had just gotten an iPod touch and they were loving it, so I showed them how they could wave my phone around and make it sound like a Lightsaber. And when we found out you could customize your Lightsaber (choose your color and put your picture in there to create your own character) I think I won them over for good. Shortly after this revelation, Sam looked at me real deeply, like he was really contemplating Important Things and asked, "Where do you live?". He was clearly hoping I'd say "Right around the corner" instead of "New York City", in hopes that there would be many more hours of Lightsaber practice in his future.

This was Ben's Lightsaber picture. He put the hood of his sweatshirt up and got all serious about it. He was "Young Master".



Sam was Luke Skywalker. Naturally. But my the application only let me save one custom picture at a time, so I don't have a shot of him. Which is really too bad.

Our last day there we spent some time at the farm and then visited a bit with Mac & Katherine, who do a weekly podcast called Catholic in a Small Town. They are super fun and really funny, so I bet it's great. We'll be listening in. And then we headed home for Aunt Paula's ribs for dinner. She made them one other year and they cook all day long and are pretty dang amazing. In fact, once they were served, the dinner table got pretty quiet. Because we were all enjoying them so much. In fact, Geoff then dubbed them Paula's Shut You Up Ribs. Cause that's what they do.

So we had a great time. Yay for family and fun and holidays and a little time away from work. Yay indeed.

Kim and Joel

Click to Play

Quite possibly the sweetest human beings we've ever met.

Kim and Joel got married this summer. They were one of the sweetest couples ever. We really bonded with them and they were the ones who gave out sunflower seeds as favors, which caused us to have a 5ft plant growing in our kitchen windowsill bfore we retired it to it's country home in CT.

I think Geoff did an amazing job on their video. I was on the verge of tears multiple times and Kim & Joel seemed to love it too. Joel said that Kim cried more watching the video than she did during their ceremony and engagement combined. They are such a terrific couple and you can see so clearly how much they love each other. I love that.

Hope you enjoy it too...

It's that Time Again

Well, I'm not sure how I managed it, but I somehow managed to wrangle Christmas with my side of the family again this year. So we are headed to Georgia for a few brief days. Slightly warmer temperatures, the farm, the dogs, some family, and not having to be in the office.....

Yes please.

Looks like I will be in a blog-free zone until we get back, but I'm sure there will be many stories (and photos) to share upon our return.

Happy Holidays to all!

Ab-Fab

Here's Robert Norman's shot of me in all my 3-D glory via iPhone. He may or may not have photoshopped in some rhinestones to make me even more fabulous.

Rocked My World

My world was forever changed last night. For the better.

I saw Avatar.

Let me preface this by saying that we'd made plans to meet up with Robert Norman to see it on Sunday night at 7pm at the AMC on 42nd Street. Let's think about that for a minute, shall we?

Times Square
On a Sunday night
The last weekend before Christmas
The day after a blizzard
To see a Sci-fi movie I didn't really care about seeing

I think it's pretty clear that in the same way that only Alison could drag me to the UWS on a Sunday for her caroling party, Robert Norman is about the only thing that would take me into Times Square over the weekend. In a blizzard. For a Sci-fi movie.

Well I ended up with a two-fer. Robert Norman AND an incredible movie experience.

Not only did we see it in IMAX, we saw it in 3-D. Which was amazing. My first 3-D movie ever. I spent the first 15 minutes (most of which were 3-D previews) having my world completely rocked. I mean, science and technology has never been my strong suit, but I cannot figure out for the life of me how they do that. How do they DO that????

And the movie itself was really terrific. Yes, the CGI was great. Like, crazy great. But it was also a terrific story. And made me realize how many movies I've seen lately have just been....ok. Kinda.... "eh" and therefore ultimately disappointing. And that even with all the crazy good CGI, Avatar could have probably just been "eh" if it wasn't for the story. Story is everything.

But crazy good CGI makes it even better. Well done, James Cameron.

I was completely beside myself afterwards. Loved it. I would highly reccommend it. In 3-D if you can.

And then you too can look as amazing as me in these sexy 3-D glasses.

Jill and Mark

EDITOR'S NOTE: - Geoff posted this all by himself all secret-like without telling me. What is that even about?? Doesn't he want me to be able to appropriately brag about him? This is a video we shot together last fall of a wedding in NYC. Some really fun NYC shots in there. It's one of the longer options we do...probably about 15-20 minutes. So if you've got time, take a look. And if you have to wait until your holiday shopping is done, I will understand.

Let us know what you think. And extra points for anyone who can guess what one of my favorite shots of the whole thing is....?

Click to Play

Jill and Mark get married

Caroling, Caroling Now We Go

This past Sunday was a monsoon. We'd shot the Christmas party the night before and were up late. So we slept in. We made breakfast pretty late. And by late I mean, it was almost lunchtime. And stayed in our PJs while it rained and poured outside. I love being inside when its rainy outside. Rainy Sundays are maybe my favorites. So it was only the great great love that I have for my best friend that could possibly drag me from my happy cocoon and out into the rain. And to the Upper West Side. Which is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo nowhere near my house. But Alison was hosting a caroling party. And I was not about to miss it.

Having failed epically at capturing the amazing spread we had at Amanda's shower, I was determined to not have the guilt and disappointment of a repeat failure this time. In fact, as soon as we arrived, after quick hugs all around, I barely spoke to anyone and just busted out my camera. Which basically forced everyone else to stop enjoying the spread so as to not ruin my shot. Slightly rude? Perhaps. Priorities askew? Almost always.

These puppies were pretty amazing...




Now this is my kind of party....this is about all I need.


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I love olives.


And really, what holiday party is complete without...


And it was homemade too. Beat that!

There were many fun peoples. As per usual at Alison's parties.


Alison & Sarah party it up (i hate using "party" as a verb. it's just wrong.)


Classic Jon & Alison


And her wee tree was so lovely. *sigh*


Homestrung popcorn and cranberries. Of course.


After much socializing we moved into the musical portion of the evening. This was a caroling party after all. Sadly all of our piano players were MIA, I suppose on account of the monsoon.

Wussies.

So we decided to soldier on anyway. A capella. And attempting 4 part harmony. Now, there were three people in the room who have been on Broadway. And then there were the rest of us. Sadly, Broadway could not save us. I mean, I was a trained musician in my day, but it's been a while. The ole pipes just aren't what they used to be. Some over-ambitious person suggested we start with It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. Well, that was a ROUSING success.

This picture was snapped about 4 notes in. Please notice how a majority of us are doubled over in laughter.


Sarah tries to keep it together. James doesn't even bother. Which I love.


We fared a bit better with Silent Night and Joy to the World.


But there were still plenty of moments of laughter and vocal disaster.


Despite the wonky harmonies and me questioning the long term use of my college degree, we had an awesome time. It was good that we were in the safety of Alison's living room, as we would have potentially had tomatoes chucked at us, or at minimum, doors slammed in our faces had we been attempting to go door to door. At least during It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

Regardless, a good time was had by all. I vote that it become an annual tradition. Who's in?

Every Girl Really Does Need One

This was taken when Alison and I were at Macys shopping for my rehearsal dinner dress for our wedding. So this must have been May of 2008 or so? (Back when I had a waist). Saw this little number hanging on a sale rack and HAD to try it on.

How could I not?


A pretty pink princess dress for grown ups! Alison took the pic on her phone and we laughed and laughed. And she just found it today and re-emailed it to me.

I really needed this today.

After realizing at 845am that I had a 9am doctors appointment. No shower for me!
After realizing that I am NOT as ahead of the game on Christmas gifts as I thought I was.
After attempting (and failing) to resist the unlimited amount of Christmas goodies and treats that are delivered to my office on a daily basis and that take up residence RIGHT NEXT TO MY DESK.
After a flurry of stress and phone calls at work that has left my head spinning. Which only made me fail more at resisting Christmas cookies.
After realizing it's 3pm and I haven't had lunch yet.
After catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror and seeing just how amazing my hair looks today. And I don't mean that in a good way.

After all that, I needed a laugh. And Alison knew it. Somewhere deep in her heart, her BFF powers kicked in. Thank God.

'Cause nothing gives you perspective like seeing yourself in a ridiculous poofy pink plastic dress.

Moonlightling

No, not as a DJ. Wouldn't that be something new?

This past Saturday we agreed to be the photographer at a Christmas party. Slightly terrifying considering we dont really have the appropriate gear (we really need to upgrade our camera if we're gonna do this for reals) and lighting was going to be a nightmare. But we figured it out and we did ok. It's amazing not only what you learn as you're shooting but afterwards, when you're editing. As in, I learned tons. TONS. So it was worth it just for that.

Some of the highlights...






And the dreaded group shot...which are super hard to do. But Geoff totally rocked the lighting and completely saved the day like the rock star he is.


So we lived through it. And even though it was stressful, it was a really good experience. And we thought, all things considered, we did ok for ourselves.

It was interesting to see myself in this situation. I think because I'm so used to shooting video at weddings, where the number one priority is to be unobtrusive, I really had to coach myself and remind myself that it's totally different with photography at a party. You kind of have to get in peoples faces and be the person who says, "Hey guys, let me get you together... let me grab a shot... (blah blah blah...) just get together for me...super! That was great! (blah blah blah...) " I'm not as comfortable directing people. Or maybe just not used to it? I mean I can sure tell people what to do at an open call. Or in an audition. But with photography, I like to blend into the background more. Maybe it's because I don't like posed shots as much. I like real life better.

I just do.

My First has Her First

I never had a solid group of girlfriends until college. I had two great girlfriends in high school who were a year older than me, so by my senior year I was left with my boyfriend at the time and a couple guy friends. I tended to have more guy friends than girlfriends in high school. Which I was fine with at the time. And while the cool girls in high school seemed to like me ok, we never really hung out much on the weekends. I was never really one of them. So it wasn’t until college that I really bonded with a group of girls and realized what I had been missing. College is certainly one of those experiences that really can bond people together for life. Something about being out on your own and starting to figure yourself out as a real person. An individual. A grown up. My mom still sees her college girlfriends about once a year. My Barn Girls are strewn across the country now (with 4 of the 8 of us somehow living in Texas, even though we went to school in Virginia and that’s not where any of them are from). But when we get together, that bond where you can tell each other anything, is somehow still there.

When I moved to NYC in the summer of 2001 (two months before 9/11), I was really concerned about building a community of friends. I knew people from various theatre jobs but wasn’t sure how or if I was ever going to have the same kinds of friends again. And it took some time. A lot longer than in college, when you spend four hours with someone at a freshman orientation party the first week of school and suddenly know they will be your friend for life. It took several years to build that in NYC. But now I’m fortunate enough to have my college girls and my NYC girls. And the NYC girls all started with Amanda.

I will never forget when I met her. I’d been in NYC for all of 2 weeks, max. I’d heard through the brother of someone who went to my old church in Virginia that there was going to be a picnic in Brooklyn. So I studied my subway map and got on the train from Astoria to Brooklyn with my bag of Doritos and my oatmeal cookies and headed to Brooklyn for this picnic. I wouldn’t know anyone there. Anyone. And I’d never been to Brooklyn in my life. The trip took forever. Once we crossed into Brooklyn from Manhattan, I checked the map constantly, convinced I was going to miss the stop, get off at the wrong place and be lost in Brooklyn forever. When my stop finally came I was at least a half hour late (not wanting to be the first one to arrive) and wandered fairly blindly into Prospect Park. The meeting spot was under the weeping willows by the stream. What? How did I ever find it? When I finally found the place, there was no one there. Ach! I was almost an hour late, how could I be the first one here?? So I called the contact number my friend’s brother gave me and a girl named Cassie answered. They were walking over. A herd of people showed up moments later. Introductions were made. Blankets were spread out. Doritos were shared. And I met a slew of people. But I remember sitting on a blanket, talking to Amanda. She was about my age. She had just moved here too, a few weeks before me. She was from Georgia, where I had family. She lived in Queens, like me. She wanted to be an actress too. My little heart lit up. She was a possible friend! I remember being too shy to ask her for her phone number because I didn’t want her to think I was a weirdo. Or straight out of Single White Female. And when I left, I was so sad because I didn’t know if I would see her again.

But never fear! I saw her the very next weekend at church. She sat the row in front of me. I talked to her afterwards and screwed up the courage to ask for her number. I crumbled and admitted I’d wanted to ask her for it before. And I think I probably said something like, “Can I have your number so we could maybe be friends?” Apparently she was glad I asked because she had been wanting to be friends with me. And had also wanted to ask me for my number too, but was shy. And so, my First Friendship in NYC began. We would go to auditions together. We would go to parties together. We’d meet for coffee or frozen yogurt. I think we even went to Hip Hop Class together. (Can you picture it? She was actually pretty good. Me, less so.) We talked endlessly about boys. And life. And auditioning. And the Future. And we cried about all of it too. Pretty much weekly. And almost always at this pizza place on 49th and Broadway.

So we’ve lived 8 years of life together in NYC. Lots of laughs. Lots of tears. Lots of chick flicks. I introduced her to her husband. Which he still thanks me for on a regular basis. And rightly so. She was the first of my NYC girls to get married. And now she’ll be the first one to have a baby. She’s due in February. They’re having a little girl.

And so, last weekend we had Amanda’s baby shower. The rest of my NYC girls, Alison, Marisa (who REALLY needs to update her blog :-P) and Megan hosted it with me at Alison’s apartment. And it even involved a sleepover the night before. Talk about classic girlfriend stuff. We ordered in, got crafty and prepped decorations, talked and watched The Holiday. Totally classic chick stuff.

The morning of the shower dawned and Alison and I headed out to walk Rupert and pick up a few last minute items. My favorite moment of the walk? Seeing this kid heading into the grocery store.


Just out and about with his hooded towel as his cape. Absolutely. I used to wear towels on my head and pretend I was a princess with long beautiful hair. So I totally get it. Love that his dad let him wear it on the street too.

So Alison headed back to the apartment and I went for a little power walk. Since I knew we'd be eating all kinds of crazy deliciousness. When I got back to the apartment I fixed us a couple of these puppies to kick the cooking off to a good start.


Yum.

OK, so Marisa and I were in charge of tea party sandwiches. We made three. A curried chicken salad, which was EXCELLENT. A Turkey and Earl Grey Honey Butter. I felt very fancy. Here's my homemade honey butter (that's shredded apple and loose earl grey tea mixed into the butter & honey):


And of course, cucumber sandwiches. Duh. What tea party is complete without them? Ours were a cucumber mint. And they were pretty killer. A huge hit. We ran out pretty quickly.


I of course managed to take basically zero pictures of the food. Zero. This was the closest I got. Helpful.


So people started to arrive. There was much merriment. And a crazy amount of gifts. So after food and socializing we played Baby Celebrity. All kinds of famous babies made it into the pot. Suri Cruise, Apple Paltrow, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. Maggie Simpson. Baby Jesus. You know, the usual.

Megan explains the rules. (And you can kind of see the sign Alison made hanging over the mirror. The baby's name will be Laura Mackenzie. I love it.)


Amanda nannied (is that a word? and if so, it can't possibly be spelled like that!?) for several years for a wonderful couple who has four girls. Noel, Toni, Eliza and Tori. And most of my NYC girls babysat for these four at some point and in some capacity. I remember when Eliza (second youngest) was just starting to talk and Tori, the youngest was just walking. These girls are so grown up now! It freaks me out. They were all at the shower and were a big help. When most of the ladies were still chatting after the game, Eliza was REALLY ready to start opening gifts.


So the ladies followed suit and finally the opening of amazing, adorable and mostly pink things began...

Adorable. And hand made by the gift giver.


This was amazing too. Amanda loved it. A baby stroller for the baby's baby. 'Cause you know Laura will need to push her own baby around. I sure did when I was little. Only we were living in England at the time and so mine was a pram, not a stroller. Clearly.


Pouffy pink princess dress. Every girl needs one.


Tori recycles the bows as Amanda Decoration


Amanda works it


Classic Kristin & Marisa. They are so pretty.


Amanda laughs at her neice, Sarah, who was saying hysterical things all day. She told Amanda that she hoped the baby would be smiling as soon as she came out. I think this picture was taken right after Sarah said she wanted the baby to wear the pouffy pink dress "the first time she comes to see me". Kids are the funniest.


One of my gifts to Amanda. A onesie and matching hat that says, "I was worth the wait". 'Cause it will be true.


Marisa hangs out with little Lucy, who I got to spend so much time with at a party a month or so ago. She is such a peanut.


Tori, who helped Alison with flower arrangements, got to take a mini bouquet home.


Amanda with the two future Grandmas....



So the shower was great fun. And I think Amanda had a great time. It's so wild that we're at this point in our lives. And I can’t quite believe it. It’s amazing to think how much has happened since our first year in New York. Since our weekly crying dates at 49th and Broadway. You never think when you’re crying over calzones and a salad bar about the state of your life and how stupid boys are and will anyone ever put us in a show that 8 years from that moment you’ll both be married and one of you will be about to be a mother. I never cease to be amazed at the way life… amazes you. And surprises you. And doesn’t actually end with you in tears at an over-priced tourist trap in midtown at the age of 24.

Amanda, I love you. I'm beside myself with excitement for you about this next chapter. And so glad to be able to still be a part of it all these years later.