elf training

dear readers, i got myself a job for the christmas season as an elf at macy's santaland, herald square. why? well, aside from the obvious money panic that so many people are going through right now, i figured it would actually be kind of funny and an overall interesting experience. at least that's what i thought until sunday when, in training, we spent 4 hours role playing. usher elf, santa elf, photo elf, gatekeeper elf....we made our way through all the different positions until we were familiar with our responsibilities. then we switched and were told to play the parts of the surly parents, unruly children, shy children etc. do you know how embarrassing it is to be 31 years old and have to pretend to be a 7 year old girl sitting on santa's lap? uh, yeah. not to mention just outright creepy. so, everyone else saw the lameness of this scenario right? right? no dice. all the other elves were super into their parts and ACTING to the extreme. unbearable cheer. elaborate stories of what they do at the north pole the other 364 days, what the reindeer like to eat. it was excruciating.

this kind of behavior is totally against my constitution. i hated walking down the aisle on my wedding day because everyone was staring at me. i don't go to see plays because i'm embarrassed for all the over-actors. i don't know what made me want this job...probably watching will ferrell in 'elf' one too many times and hoping that i too would get a cute elfin outfit like zooey deschanel. if only. we get ugly smocks and scrub-like pants.

nevertheless, this may be my lot for the next month, so by all means, come visit me. but remember, in santaland there is no patty. there is only peppermint the elf.

i have returned from the land of the lost (a.k.a. the freelance job from hell that swallowed my entire summer). it's almost the end of october and i'm just now starting to feel aware of my life again. it's really all been a blur since may.

anyway, i am home, full time freelancing. and by 'freelancing' i mean i'm looking for my next project and not doing much of anything....besides all the millions of little things that pile up around the house. last week i washed the curtains. a pretty gruesome endeavor in nyc that made me want to never open my windows again. next up is cleaning the garden and prepping it for winter. have you ever grown a rosemary bush on your windowsill in the cold weather months? i'd like to try that this year.

otherwise, i've got serious crafting on the brain but don't really know how to channel it. i very much want to make a cool, airplane mobile for m's room. i don't want it to look baby-ish though. i've got a trip planned to a big fabric warehouse in rahway, nj next week so am hoping to find some fabric that inspires.

alone in the supermarket

over the weekend i took markus to a kid's show at celebrate brooklyn. it was that band, they might be giants, but i guess they do kid's music now. while i'm not a fan of tmbg, nor that genre of music (i.e. children's) we had a great time visiting with old friends. susan fox from park slope parents snapped this pic of a very serious m. i think he was wishing for depeche mode to make a kid's album.

i've often had this discussion with paul of how annoyed we get with kid's music. there's so many great bands out there like yello and kraftwerk and disco pusher and primus that have insane sounds and lovely melodies and fun lyrics that kid's can sing along with. why subject myself to a grating album when markus is just as happy jumping around to the clash?

campestral

my new upstairs neighbor is a heavy walker. a VERY heavy walker. do. not. like. (although, we have a crying baby so i'm not sure which is worse). i miss my old neighbors tom and rebecca. they decided to trade in the stink and filth of our city for the lush vermont country life. i wish they were still here cooking dinners and watching sci-fi tv with us. instead they are picking flowers and riding ponies and watching out for moose. lucky! check out their exploits on the campestral blog.

rpatz

robert pattinson is filming his new movie just a few blocks from my place in brooklyn. when i got the text this evening from an equally rpatz obsessed friend, i bolted up to amity st. to catch a glimpse of edward cullen in the flesh. what was i expecting? that he was going to spot me in the crowd of a hundred swooning girls?! anyway, so i'm standing there with all the other smitten fools, staring at his trailer, willing him to come out and baby m starts sing-song babbling. yes friends, i was standing there with a stroller, in a sea of young 'twilight' fans. i laughed to myself at the ridiculousness of the scene and promptly went home.

new york i love you but planting my celebrity crush smack in the middle of my neighborhood is just too much of a tease!!

speaking of edward cullen, i got a good snicker out of this twilight/buffy mash-up. remember how awesome the buffy series was?! i do.