Alaska, Cloudy and Chill

So I have lots to say about New York, but first lets start with ALASKA. I'm in Anchorage for a 10 day shoot! YAY. I got in last night, after an eight hour flight. I'm making a face but you can't see it. Alaska is FOUR hours behind Eastern time, which means I didn't get checked in until almost 11PM Eastern, and I didn't get to bed until 2AM Eastern. I had to be at work today at 7:30AM/11:30AM Eastern time. I was a wee bit tired...but then I found the Starbucks and life was better. :) God I love Starbucks...

Ok, lets move along and not be boring. SO, Anchorage gets like 22 hours of sunlight right now, so the sun never really sets. Apparently it just goes down a little and comes right back up. Supposedly it doesn't actually get dark. I have yet to see this, because it occurs sometime around 3AM. And Mindy (best friend) and I are trying to figure out the East/West logistics of that one...But imagine this, the Golden Hour, typically the last hour of sunlight and the prettiest time for shooting, lasts for like 4-5 hours here. It's perpetual sunset! Which is, I gotta say, pretty rad. I'm just glad we don't have to shoot night shots this week, since that would be virtually impossible. I think one night I should set my alarm for 3AM and look out the window to see if it's dark. HA.

OK. So today Mindy and I drove around looking for shots. We were a little tired from the flights and very slap happy, mostly because we hadn't seen each other in about a month. And, that's when we almost drove over a cliff. Kidding, I mean Mindy had it under control at ALL times. wink.

Whole Delicous Foods

OK, I feel like it's late, which it is, but I can't sleep so I'll fill in on the last week. June 1st, Sunday, I'm packing when Emily calls to tell me we've just lost the apartment we're supposed to be staying in for the summer. Begin Panic Mode. Ok, but really, I'd already decided like 2 days before to just let it roll...so I finish packing and head to Louisville. Emily and Mom find this place on Craigslist, Ems calls, and we meet with the girl on Monday night in NYC. We decide to take the place. I might add that it has an HDTV, and a DVD player and surround sound. The only catch, we can only stay thru June, AND, it doesn't have air conditioning. YAY. So Emily and I are sharing a room and a full size bed (giggle) but we have the apt to ourselves until the 12th when the other roommy comes home. Rumor has it he's a JAZZ musician. Again, (giggle). Last week was fairly cool...but a heat wave hit Saturday and we've been sweating ever since. The box fan and crappy window air conditioning unit do no good. And the breeze has stopped, so open windows also do NOTHING. We are dying. Last week I spent my days exploring and wandering. We've found a couple of cheap diners, and Emily started her job at Starbucks and LOVES it. The kids there are really sweet. And it's a 10 min walk from the apt. Friday night we went to the Upright Citizens Brigade with Tyler and another friend from Western named Tony. Afterwards about eight of us ended up at a diner until three in the morning. Saturday night Tony and Emily and I hung out at the apt and watched movies. Tony brought the movie Arthur, which I had never seen but is HILARIOUS.

I forgot to mention that last Tuesday I thought I'd be a bad-ass and go grocery shopping for us. NYC is very expensive. We're talking $4 for peanut butter people. So we made a budget and a list and I stuck to it. But the funny thing is that Emily and I like the same foods, so we're going through foods like cheese and hummus and milk TWICE as fast as I would at home. That's interesting budgeting. We are about to start our 3rd gallon of milk tomorrow and we've only been here 10 days!!! What can I say, we like calcium?! Anyway, the point of this story was that I took the subway like 25 min away to a brand name grocery store because I thought it would be cheaper (it wasn't). I mean it was my second day here people. Then when I got back to our neighborhood I discovered the local grocery was pretty much the same price and had everything I needed (almost). BUT...the victory came on Sunday when we stopped by the Whole Foods Market on our way home from Central Park. Thank GOD! They had cheese for 2.99, and corn for .50, and milk for 3.99, and all kind of other wonderous deals. I'm telling you, everywhere else in NYC things are like $4.00. I could not find cheese or bread for under $4 anywhere else except Whole Foods. I'm a believer now. And I'll happily make that 20 min subway ride each week. (Or twice a week for us growing ladies). Smirk.

Surreak-i-dic

OK. So much to say....and I've been a bad girl about not writing things down. We'll have to start with the present and work our way through the last week... OK, so tonight, (Tuesday the 10th O' June) me, Emily, and our friend Tyler went to see November, an off-Broadway play. It starred Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalfe, Dylan Baker, and Ethan Phillips. It was pretty decent, made so even more by the fact that we met AND chatted with Dylan Baker after the show. His wife is a Western KY grad, and Emily and Tyler are fairly well acquainted with her. We saw him on the street right after the show...and Emily and Tyler BOLDLY stopped him and made pleasant if not totally BS convo with him for like 5 min. He was very gracious...he actually blew off the guy he was already talking to once Emily and Tyler mentioned his wife and WKU. I was totally star-struck, but he asked each of us what we were doing in NY and chatted with us about theatre and TV. Score. Nice guy. As we walked away a COLD front...I am not kidding...came in. The temperature dropped like 8 degrees and a crazy wind started kicking up dust in our faces. There was heat lightning everywhere, and we were giggling but running down the street. We were hoping to get inside before the rain hit (which we just managed). It was like a movie. With a crazy mind machine. We were covered in dirt by the time we got to our restaurant. I called my dad to tell him I just sat several feet away from Nathan Lane in a play. I LOVE student tickets. It was like $26 to see the show. It was a really fun night. Tomorrow we plan on trying to get student tickets to another show. And I have a lunch with a producer. Oooooh. Sounds fun, eh? We'll see. I'm loving it here so far.
Yesterday, I took a yoga class and wandered around the Union Square/Village area. I stumbled upon Strands, like the biggest bookstore in NYC. They had great deals and I bought a book for $1. I've just been wandering since last Tuesday. I'll try to post pics and describe things. Today I also went for a jog in Fort Tryon Park. It's less than 10 min from our apt. It was BEAUTIFUL. The Cloisters, this old, medieval, nun, cathedral building is located there. I jogged up to it. I'll post pics and more info later. BUT, once inside the park, the views of the river are very romantic and surreal. It doesn't feel like NYC at all. It's my next favorite place to Central Park, which we visited 2 days ago (Sunday). There are places where you are surrounded by trees and foliage. New York really doesn't play when it comes to their parks. They are FANTASTIC. Sunday, Tyler and Emily and I went to Central Park and meandered. It rained on us, but we didn't even care. I danced to Puerto Rican music and we all enjoyed watching people go by in row boats. Perfect.