Wednesday, February 24, 2010

All You Wanna Do is Dance

You don't want to deal with the future,
You don't want to make any plans
Oh, baby, all you wanna do is dance.


Sittercity is a website that allows parents to pay to find babysitters either by placing an advertisment, or, more frequently, to browse though a list of sitters living near by, read their profiles and references, and call them up and use them. This second option only happened to me once, and I have been nannying that young padawan ever since.


(Hughie can't write yet; but imagine the first sentence he can write will be this)


Well, that anomaly was true until three and half weeks ago when I moved to Soho. Since changing my zip code on sittercity, my profile has me down as being less than a mile away from Tribeca, Soho, Union Square and West Village (A.K.A wealthy families with babies galore). I couldn’t be in a better sitting location, unless, you know, I moved uptown.


In the four months that I was living in that L.E.S. rat hole I had had one job offer. Since moving to the 10012, I have become the favorite sitter for four different families. FOUR! I haven’t even been here that many weeks! I didn't even have to lift a finger; they all found me.


Of course, just because my zip code is baller, and has allowed me to become Sittercity’s MVP of Tribeca, doesn’t mean that I’ve gotten a second permanent real job...


I’ve taken to blitzing stores.


I print out the applications to work at those big chain stores on Broadway, staple a cover letter and resume, and I just drop them off with the managers. A clearly written “we’re hiring” or craigslist ad be damned! I will give you my resume whether you're hiring or not. I certainly have all the same qualifications any of those people working at the Old Navy, if not more.


Especially, if you consider the fact that my resume is “enhanced” half the time...

Moving on past my indiscretions, and right on to some good news:


When I started this blog I wanted it to be about my struggles as an actress in New York. I wanted this blog to be a place where I kept my memories of an actress so that I could use them for my subsequent memoirs, books, movies, and E! True Hollywood Story. As of late, is has mostly been a blog about the troubles of being a young girl without a college degree just trying to survive the big city during a recession. That, and occasionally it’s a poor man’s Uptown Girls (R.I.P. Britney) and Nanny Diaries. While those stories are fun in their own right; they aren’t the kind of stuff “True Hollywood Stories” are made of.


Therefore, I am glad to announce that this week marks my return to auditioning. I already have two lined up for the end of week/early next week, and plan to have many more to come. While I may want to dance, Joel, I am dealing with my future and making plans, so get off my back.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Zanzibar

I went to see a Psychic today. I’m going to live to be 87 and I’m moving across the ocean within the next year.


I guess I should start at the beginning of the story. Try to imagine this as the beginning of a pretty cheesy Chick Flick. After a bottle (or two) of wine last night a friend brought up the idea that she wanted to go see a psychic. I’m not sure why, but this sounded like a brilliant idea.


Cut to the two of us, plus one other friend, standing outside a building near Union Square trying to buzz the apartment number where a psychic supposedly worked. When the spiritual adviser didn’t answer we ended up calling the number on his sign. He wasn’t in but offered to do a phone reading; we politely declined. We don’t trust palm readers who can’t see our palms; “spiritual advisor” or not.


And this point we were pretty determined though. Our palms were just itching to be read. So off we went to Veronica on St. Mark’s Place.


Veronica’s shop is above a t-shirt place (or something I didn’t get a good look). We went to ring her doorbell only to see that there was a sign saying that the bell wasn’t working. We were about to knock when, low and behold, the door opened! That’s some serious ESP there.


Her husband let us in as he went back to watching TV with her kid in the other room.Did I mention that her store front was just a tiny room with a table and two chairs attached to her apartment? Well, it was.


She gave us a group discount for palm readings and I decided to go first. She told me right away that I was going to live a long life and die at 87; I thought this was pretty great at first, but then she told the other girls when it was their turns that they were going to live to be 89 and 90, so than I was mourning the loss of a couple of potential lost golden years.


I wont bore you with all of the details of my reading; some of it probably only I would find interesting, but I’ll give break it down, and give you some highlights.


Career:


I’m a creative person whose talents have great potential. I was disappointed with my last year, but opportunities are approaching. In the near future I will have the chance to choose among 3 different careers. Two that would keep me in New York and one that would take me over seas. She sees some negativity in my energy that may stop or deter the fruits of my talent (I’m thinking she could sense how distressed I am about this season of Lost; it is a very confusing area in my life right now).


Love:


I am in a cycle of choosing men where the relationship is doomed before it began (I’m really hoping that she’s just cynical of Billy because things didn’t work out with Christie and his last wife). I’m going to have a summer relationship, but it won’t bloom into anything (note to self: don’t start dating Joseph Gordan-Levitt this summer). In order to break this cycle I’ll need to get rid of that negativity she saw in my life and will need to find spiritual enlightenment.


So if in one year’s time I’ve had a summer fling, moved to Zanzibar, and have joined a cult religion, please don’t be alarmed. It’s my destiny.


Back to how this relates to my Chick Flick. My friends then got their palms read. One of them is going to be involved in a love triangle within the next 9 months and she needs to choose wisely. In her career she needs to find a way to mix her creativity with her business talents (business talents none of us knew she possessed). The other will have three serious relationships, one learning, one heartbreak, and one that’s forever, and she will be VERY successful. She’s also naïve but nobody’s fool.


With a beginning like that, the subsequent screenplay basically just wrote itself. If we get attractive enough guys to play all of our different romances we have something for every girl who actually shells out $12.50 to see that movie. I just hope my character over comes her spiritual crisis and find Joel in time to work it out with the guy who seemed wrong, but is just so right.


Also, I vote James Franco plays my summer fling that I over come my palm reading and negativity to get with.