Rockefeller Center was a mad house last Sunday evening. The scene was more stressful than cheerful or romantic: police were everywhere and movement was cattle-like at best. There was a line to get to the best photo-op spot, so I snagged this picture from the side. I prefer Bryant Park for iceskating and it seems that others agree- the rink (you can just see it in the bottom left of the picture) was the least crowded area in the entire 4 block radius. If you want to brave the crowds, I would HIGHLY recommend going on a weekday. That said, this tree is easily the most iconic Christmas-time fixture in NYC.
Don’t forget my giveaway! Check it out in yesterday’s post here!
I am a devoted reader of the blog After I Quit My Day Job by Kat Richter. She’s a self-described serial dater, dance instructor, based in Philadelphia. She is adorable, a great story-teller, and incredibly devoted to her blog. While there have been times my blog has gone neglected for months, she apologizes profusely when she hasn’t written in a couple DAYS, and that itself is rare.
Months ago, Kat did a give-away sponsored by Mitchum Deodorant asking her readers to share: What’s the stickiest, most stressful, sweat-inducing situation you’ve ever been through? I shared a short version of my infamous Safa Boy Saga and was chosen as the winner of a $150 gift card to Macy’s. Which was amazing! No small prize! I was torn about what to use my gift card for. Should I use it to buy the perfect date outfit, in honor of Kat and her many dates and their coordinated outfits? Should I use it to buy the perfect pair of city boots? As an eternal spendthrift, $150 gave me a lot of options. I finally settled on the perfect way to spend my prize. I bought a camera. Who knew you could find such a thing at Macy’s?
I haven’t had a real working camera in the longest time. I’ve become anti-photo after seeing so many people living their lives through a camera lens. Been to a concert recently? You’d be shocked by how many people spend the whole show recording the experience on their iPhone, watching a 3×2 screen instead of actually experiencing! Digital cameras first came out to the masses when I was teenager, I went through my photo obsession then. But this stance on photo-capturing has gone to far. I could be dependent on friends to capture the moments of my twenties, but it’s more fun to capture them myself. Plus, this blog would be a lot better with pictures, don’t you think?
So expect a lot of pictures in the coming weeks. It’s also Christmas time, I’m in a giving spirit. I’ve been working a lot of promotions a getting a lot of swag. Why not share it with my awesome readers?
Remember the free hats I mentioned I was passing out in my last entry He Has A Girlfriend? No? Didn’t read the entry? Didn’t get that far? Well I spent last month in Bryant Park, promoting Columbia Sportswear and passing out really nice, really warm free hats. I’m giving away three of them before Christmas starting today with this one!
This is the actual hat you’ll receive! There are better images on their website.
Check it out online: here. It’s all black, as you can see from the picture, with ear flaps that have a fleece lining. The main lining uses Omni-Heat technology, which was the main selling point of the promotion, and make it 20% warmer than normal! It really is warm and cute too (and retails for $40!)
Voila the lining! It absorbs your body heat and reflects it back. “The future of warmth” they say.
All you have to do to win this hat is read the post I just mentioned: He Has A Girlfriend and comment on it. (Already did that? Missy Me you’re awesome an automatically entered!) I’ll announce the winner on Thursday, so comment before then! It’s really getting cold now, so who couldn’t use a nice warm hat? Good luck and thanks for reading!
Sounds like all good things right? Things you’d find in any women’s magazine article “Things He Does When He’s Into You”. What woman wouldn’t want a man to do not just one, but all four?
I have a crush on a guy who has a girlfriend. Not because I want to. Because it’s cliché. And because he’s so freaking cute.
It was crush at first sight. We met on the same corner I met Safa Boy (a corner that seems to bring me nothing but trouble.) There were similarities: 6 foot+, dark hair, tangible twinkle. But unlike Safa, there was no accent to distract me from red flags. Girlfriend Guy (yep, I’m calling him that; the obvious reminder will do me good) is a genuinely sweet, nice guy from the midwest. He has a great sense of humor. He has a great smile. He hasn’t been a teenager in five years. He has something about him that makes him so easy to talk to. He has…he has….he has a girlfriend. He mentioned her that very first day I met him (that’s what nice guys do), I should have been able to shake the crush off right then and there. But that’s the thing about crushes, especially those at first sight.
We’ve all been there, right? Crushing on someone who is totally unavailable. (I’ve been there before. Bet you forget Sideburns Guy.) It’s safe in a way, you know it’s not going to go anywhere. But then it’s also dangerous, because you’re probably harboring the hope that it does.
So what do you do? Never acknowledge the feelings? Know what you think is flirting, he just sees as friendly banter? Avoid spending time alone together? Leave town for a whole summer assuming when you come back the feelings will have disappeared/you’ll have a new crush/he’ll no longer have a girlfriend?
Guess which one I did.
We kept in touch that summer the way most people keep in touch these days: a wall post here, a “like” on a status there. The way we can pretend to be in someone’s life with only the smallest effort and only knowing the smallest fraction about that life. So I was excited when we were both back in the city and decided to meet for lunch. Would the feelings be gone? Or maybe the girlfriend.
He was just as cute as I remembered. Still had all his teeth, hadn’t gained 50 lbs of beer belly. Still as sweet as ever as he hugged me hello and told me I looked great. Still made me laugh, several times before we’d even ordered. Somethings hadn’t disappeared. Had anything?
We caught up over strange gourmet hotdog-wrap-things (not a Manhattan food trend I see catching on), sitting on uncomfortable-albeit-cool-looking chairs at a solid wood, modern, soda-counter-inspired table. I was looking for glimmers of hope, and I was finding them. He’d paid for lunch. We were sitting side by side. Then he brought it up, “How’s your love life?” he asked. Wah wah wahhh. I said, in not so many words, and quickly turned it to him, How’s your girlfriend? Here was the moment of truth. “Great!” He said, “Blahblahblahblah.” I couldn’t concentrate on his words, I was trying to hard to keep disappointment from spreading across my face.
We walk around Union Square after lunch. We like each others company, ok? I know he has a girlfriend, we’re just friends. It’s fine. I’m not flirting with him. I mean, I’m not a very obvious flirt ever (it can be a flaw), so no one would know if I was kinda flirting. But I’m not. Not really. He has a girlfriend so it doesn’t matter! No, there was never a moment where I kinda wanted to kiss him! The thought didn’t even enter my mind! Shut up! I’m not getting really defensive! Shut up!
When we part ways he gives me a hug. A good hug, not the kind of half-assed, I-barely-touched-you kind of hug some guys give. Maybe it’s a midwest thing, but the hug last seconds longer than the west coast hugs I was raised with. Our perspective heights mean his nose is at my hair level. “You smell good.” he says. Shut up! Don’t say that! I don’t want to hear that! I don’t want to think for a second that you have any kind of feelings for me and comments like that really don’t help! It’s not friendly! I want to say. Instead I just emit a I-don’t-know-how-to-respond-to-that! giggle. Great.
About a month later, we’re meeting for lunch again. He has to return a play he borrowed from me. He still has a girlfriend. I still have a crush on him, but it’s not a big one. Absence hasn’t made the heart grow founder. I think I’m getting over it, really I do! But the only way to put that thought to the test is to see his. “Do you want to plan the date?” he texts me. HE CALLED IT A DATE, I yell to my roommate across the apartment. WHY WOULD HE CALL IT A DATE? THAT’S JUST MEAN! She agrees. UGH. I text back, “Don’t call it a date. I might get the wrong idea. 🙂 But yes, I’ll plan.” My roommate approves of this text. “That’s good. Let him know it’s not ok to call it a date.” My phone buzzes, his response: “I’m ok with it” I read it aloud. What kind of response is that!? Neither me nor my roommate know what to make of it, but we both agree it’s annoying.
We meet for dim sum. Because it’s officially a “date”. Because I planned it. Because growing up I lived 5 blocks from Chinatown. Because I freaking love dim sum. He’s never had it before. This should make him less attractive to me, yay! Except he’s so eager and willing to try it that, nope, doesn’t help. Lunch is great, we try all sorts of different steamed and fried plates, with varying degrees of success (bean curd was a fail), exchanging stories and laughing the whole time. He doesn’t pay this time (though he tried, but it was cash-only and he didn’t have enough bills). Afterwards we wander around Chinatown. He confesses to being some what of a pothead, and this actually succeeds in making him less attractive. It feels more like two friends hanging out than it did last time. I’m proud of myself. I still think he’s cute, but so what?
We decide to go up to Bryant Park where I am working that afternoon. I’m passing out free hats, he should get one. We’re waiting at the Grand subway station and I think I’m feeding off his buzz. We start playing a game of balancing on one foot and trying to throw the other person off-balance. (Shut up, it’s more fun than it sounds.) Somewhere between me making fun off him (we tease each other all the time, which doesn’t help the crush situation) and winning the game, he grins at me and says, word for word, “You’re so adorable.”
I reflexively change the subject and 100% ignore the comment. But in my mind it drives me crazy. Why’d he have to say that!! That’s SO something you say to a girl you have a crush on! He probably does have a crush on me. WHO CARES HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND! I’m being back-burnered, is that it? Maybe he’s just COMPLETELY stupid and naive and has no idea the implications of saying things like that? SO ANNOYING.
We get to Bryant Park. We would have gone ice skating if my employee status got us in for free. Fortunately this wasn’t the case. Ice skating would have REALLY crossed the date line. I go to work, he gets his hat, gives me my play back, and leaves.
In the middle of my shift, I get a text message “I left my bookmark in your play, can you keep it safe for me?” I open my play (Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp, it’s fantastic) and find his bookmark. It’s one of those photo booth strips, comprised of four pictures. It’s Girlfriend Guy and the infamous girlfriend. They look so happy, so in love in each picture. And suddenly all the “mixed messages” don’t matter. A picture is worth a 1,000 words (which is, coincidently, approximately how many words I’ve just written). I finally, fully understand the only message that matters: He has a girlfriend.
I vividly remember the day I realized Santa Claus didn’t exist. I did not handle it well. A wave of tears followed that lasted nearly the entire walk home from third grade. The Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy crumpled simultaneously. It was all or nothing. Or so I thought.
But they look so real!
Thanksgiving is a rare holiday that has remained (relatively) unadulterated by Hallmark. It’s no secret who slaves over a hot stove preparing a dinner all about people coming together and sharing food and love. And giving thanks. There’s no culturally formulated magical Native American or pilgrim children are made to believe in. That’s part of the beauty of the holiday. Of course leave it to my parents to concoct their own Thanksgiving lie myth.
The subject of ethnic background comes up more often than you might think. It seems to follow, “Do you have any siblings?”, especially on first dates. The long answer is: “Majority English. Also Scottish, French, Dutch. Probably something else I’m forgetting…” The short answer is WASP- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. In some ways my family goes against WASP cliché- mainly in that we don’t have any money. But the way we keep secrets, we might as well be Charlotte and Trey Macdougal.
21 years old. Over a decade since the magical belief in Santa. I was about to graduate college, I’d finished my thesis and was squarely in the cocky-senior-year place of “I know everything, just give me my diploma”. I thought I knew everything. I was an adult. A mere four years later I can look back, sigh, and think How foolish the young can be.
My mother and father decided it was time. That I was old enough to handle a deep, dark, family secret.
They sat down and told me, “The turkey you ate every Thanksgiving growing up…it wasn’t actually turkey.”
My father paused, I held my breath.
“It was chicken.”
What??
It didn’t matter that this made perfect sense. That a turkey would have been ridiculous for our small, often just the three of us, Thanksgiving dinners. That chicken arguably tastes better. No. I felt betrayed.
Santa, the Easter Bunny, and now this!? I wailed, tapping into teenage hysterics I’d all but forgotten. Why did you feel you had to call it a turkey? I couldn’t have handled the truth? The aforementioned thesis was directing a play and for the first time in college, I hadn’t done much acting that semester. I took full advantage of any dramatic outlet. Why must every holiday be a lie??
In a side by side comparison, the difference is obvious. But not so to the eye of the innocent!
Since then, I haven’t spent a single Thanksgiving with my parents. This is purely coincidence. Tomorrow, I’ll be enjoying turkey with good friends, but a good part of me will miss my parents and their pretend turkey.
The apartment I currently live in was the first I looked at in NYC. It was too easy, back in 2009. My roommate’s father was our guarentor, we didn’t even need salary checks or any of the usual mass of paperwork. I was living with my 3 best friends, we were all kinds of excited, and positively could not wait for September 1st. Our impatience was at such a fantastical level, we could not stay away from the neighborhood of out apartment to-be. One day we snuck into the building on a whim and a hope. Our apartment was unoccupied and someone had left the door open. We hung out in an empty apartment for hours, planning our brand new city life. It wasn’t all dance parties (though they are the absolute best option for an unfurnished, echoey apartment), there was business to attend to. We sat on the floor and drew straws to determine who got which room. I ended up with the shortest straw and the only room without a closet.
I never win anything. I thought with mild bitterness.
Maybe you never win anything either. But you can’t say that anymore if you’re Melissa! Because Melissa is the winner of my first give-away ever! She was named the winner by the straw drawer of the internet: random.org. One I ♥ NY shirt is all yours, gil! Just let me know what shirt size you want girl, and I get it to you!
Thanks everyone who entered! I plan on giving away more New York cliché things. Any ideas?
I am incredibly lucky. I have an amazing group of friends here in New York City. Friends who are actors, friends who are not, shoulders to cry on, and at least a dozen people who I know will be in my life always. I have my own little family out here and I don’t know what I would do with out them. Currently, some of my friends are involved in some pretty amazing projects.
[By the Mummers] is a theatre company whose roots lie in improv and interactive theatre. They are an incredible bunch of talented, inspiring, passionate people who work collaboratively to create original work. Over the past two years they have work shopped a musical called BLOOD [By the Mummers] which is now running in NYMF- New York Musical Theater Festival.
Macbeth meets Dracula meets High School Musical. That is BLOOD: “The ambitious upstart, Mack, rises amongst the hallway ranks of pretty girls, nerds, jocks, and studs while best friends Jacques and Maura raise their personal stakes for the sake of survival. One problem – Maura is Mack’s girl. A prophecy determining the fates of the Birnam Woodsmen sets this pop rock musical love triangle in motion…”
If you are a Twilight fan, you have to see this musical. If you like campy satire, you have to see this musical. If you like catchy rock-pop songs that will implant themselves in your brain, you have to see this musical. It’s the perfect show for Halloween!
I am on run crew for the show. This means I run around like a chicken with my head cut off moving set pieces and pretty much whatever else I’m told to. It makes me wish I had more upper body strength. Originally I was supposed to be in the background for some of the full cast scenes- to round out the look of a crowded high school. There is a prom scene that I was originally supposed to spend making out with the bassist of the band. This all got cut due to limited space, but my persona of “Slutty Band Groupie” was already formed. I am dressed accordingly, moving set pieces in an over sized jean jacket and fishnets.
The performances are amazing. Every one in the cast has a comic mastery and likability that is crucial to improv, it really sparkles on stage. It twinkles, dammit (to quote the show.) The set is minimal to showcase the performances. This is a campy vampire musical at its best, with just enough satire and tongue-in-cheek off set by truly touching moments. It’ll hit your funny bone and simultaneously tug at your heart-strings.
I’m not just singing praises because [By the Mummers] are like family to me. I’ll admit my viewing of the show is incredibly biased. But you needn’t take my word for it! It’s been getting great reviews. Backstage called it “one of the freshest and funniest shows I’ve seen at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in a long time.” Checkout the full review here or just buy your tickets now! (Click here for tickets!) If you are reading this right after I post it, the next show is at 1PM (today, Wednesday): in mere hours. If you use the code ‘bld50’ you get half off for todays performance! Full price tickets are $25, still a fantastic deal for live theatre. After today, there are still 3 chances to “Handle the BLOOD”: Saturday October 15th at 4:30PM and 8PM; Sunday October 16th at 1PM. Don’t miss it! And if you don’t like musicals, hate vampires, and have no sense of humor: I’m wearing fishnets and a short skirt. That sight alone is worth the admission price.
My first impressions of New York City were less than favorable. It was a city where we walked around boring museums for hours. It was a city that made my parents scream at each other.
Mother: “LOOK OUT FOR THAT TAXI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON”T SWITCH LANES!”
Father: “YOU HAVE TO DRIVE AGRESSIVELY IN THIS CITY OR YOU’LL NEVER GET ANY WHERE.”
Me: My parents hate each other and we are all going to die in a car crash.
Yes, my first dozen visits to New York City were as a young child. My family would drive through the city and visit the MET or the MOMA. Most children do not appreciate museums. I was no exception. My association was a paradox of boredom and stress.
This all changed right before middle school graduation. It’s standard practise to have some sort of eighth grade trip at this time. I was among 30 people from my eighth grade class to go to Washington DC, Gettysburg, and New York City. Coming from San Francisco, it was a big deal.
Everything we did on this trip was a cliché: a trip to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, shopping at the Mid Manhattan Mall, a Broadway show (it was the beginning of my theater snobbery: I was disappointed we saw “Beauty and the Beast” when we could have seen Bernadette Peters in “Annie Get Your Gun”), eating at Dallas BBQ, a picture in Times Square:
My 13 year-old self is in this picture. She’s already falling in love with the city.
On our last night in NYC we went to the observation deck of the Empire State Building. The city was lit by a glorious sunset with the Twin Towers prominent to the south, the bridges to the east. On an island twinkling with bright lights, I felt the magic New York City possesses. Its energy has a magnetism that either attracts you so you never want to leave or repulses you so you have no need to return.
The observation deck Empire State has a reputation as the site for grand romantic gestures. In the gift shop I bought an “I♥ NY” shirt. The grand start of my love affair with this irresistible city.
That was over ten years ago. Over three years ago I moved here and started this blog. Over the weekend I bought my domain name. HTTP://NEWYORKCLICHE.COM is now all mine! Hand in hand with the new domain name, I created a Facebook page. You can like me on Facebook now! http://www.facebook.com/NewYorkCliche
I ♥ everything I’ve written here. I ♥ all you readers who’ve stuck with me, even through droughts. I ♥ all you new readers, what ever brought you here.
In celebration, I am doing my very first give-away ever! It’s a blog cliché!
Can you guess what I am giving away? An “I ♥ NY” shirt! To be purchased in the center of Manhattan, in whatever size you would like, and sent directly to your home (or where ever you want me to send it)!
To enter leave a comment saying one thing you ♥ about New York. (If you can’t think of anything, you can alway say this blog!) Extra entry if you like me on Facebook!
Deadline is this Friday, October 14th. The winner will be selected at random on Monday October 16th!
