Shoe Diet

Pretty Polly has a thing for Pretty Shoes. Mostly high heels (her legs look longer and more shapely) but cute flats, kitten heels, you name it. The problem with pretty shoes is that, well, they tend to hurt. But Polly could care less. They're pretty, right?

With the warmer weather, I've pulled out and bought a bunch of new summer shoes. And, since Insta-BF and I are the same height, I've even invested in a few pairs of cute flats that, unfortunately, needed more breaking in than anticipated. So, I've been limping around, bandaids covering my feet.

So, Insta-BF, fed up with seeing my feet cut and occasionally bleeding, has put me on a shoe diet. He says I'm only to wear sneakers or my chinatown sandles for 1 week! Though part of me is loathe to wear ugly shoes, I do concede that he has a point. My feet do need time to heal (heel?).

Further proof, I think, that this fellow is a keeper.

House Mania

After seeing Insta-BF's living situation, I've become totally obsessed with buying a house.

What? Huh? Yep.

I've been spending at least part of every day in Brooklyn, rehearsing for all my shows. And Insta-BF lives a short walk from the theatre, so I've been crashing with him a lot. He lives in a 3 family house, and the building's owners live on the top floor and rent out the other two floors. When I started thinking about it, I realized that they don't pay anything at all -- the rentals pretty much cover their mortgage payments, and yes, though they do have to worry about taxes, insurance, and maintanance, that's nothing compared to building equity on a property worth nearly a million dollars.

So now I want to do the same thing. And I'm in Brooklyn every day anyway, so it seems to make sense to move there. And I've become completely obsessed with the idea. I'm looking at properties all day, have been calling realtors and loan agents, and have run the idea by my mom (she'd have to be my co-signer--I hardly qualify for a loan of that size on my own). She thinks it's a great idea. Of course that means selling my apartment, but it's way overvalued right now, so it's a good time to sell. And I figure I could bring my two roomies with me, if they're game, just move all our stuff together (one has already said he'd be interested).

Poor Insta-BF has been great. We've walked around his neighborhood, looking at for sale signs and being patient with me as I call every one I see. I've yet to look at a single place, but I'm already itching to move--I have ideas for how to organize the garden, decorate the hallways, everything. And I'm actually leaning toward not organizing my place as much--I mean, if I'm going to move anyway....

A girl can dream, can't she?

My First Interview!

I just got off the phone with a newspaper reporter about my new show. Apparently after they saw my picture, they wanted to do an interview because "pretty girls sell papers," which is what the reporter's boss said. They're definitely going to print the photo. Hehe!

She was super easy to talk to, asked me where I was from, my acting background, if I look like the character I'm playing, if my breasts were real, etc. And, since it's a Brooklyn paper, they asked about my connection to Brooklyn--my dad was born & raised, so I've got that covered. It was really so much fun, kinda like a personal profile piece more than anything.

I can't wait to see it! How totally exciting!

I'm Gonna Be Famous! (Not really)

OMG, so exciting, I just found out that I'm going to be interviewed by a reporter for my upcoming show. The reporter specifically wanted to talk to me! Wow--this is totally new and has never happened before. Interview at 10am tomorrow--scary!

Acting class sucked today. The Guru hated everyone's work. Somehow I got so down on myself afterwards, I actually started to cry (not like me at all, I think I was carrying my vulnerability from the scene into my life). Then, of course, I forget my iPod in class, so I have to find The Guru and ride up in the elevator with her as I cry, silently. Nice.

So much to update on Insta-BF, I know I owe y'all stuff, I'm sorry! Tomorrow!

Instant Manicure

Has anyone seen the commercials for this? Please forgive me as I gush about Avon's newest product -- Instant Manicure. Looks like Press-On Nails, right? But it's not, it's press-on nail POLISH. Which means it goes on dry, and doesn't chip as fast (the fact that it comes in a sheet offers more protection than traditional polish).

I got a sample of this about a month ago and fell in love. I usually don't wear nail polish because it chips as soon as I put it on my fingers (seriously, I'm lucky if it lasts a day). This stuff lasted a week, easy, and when I put a coat of clear polish over it, it lasted even longer.

This is my new beauty miracle. And, it's currently on sale at shop.avon.com, two sets for $8.99. And free shipping if you use code FSWA6. And if you use the above link, I get credit!

It's All About the Tits

My weekend was all about the tits.

Huh? Yep, indeed, they got a lot of attention this weekend. And not from Insta-BF either, but from everyone else. I'm playing a sex symbol in a show in June, and we had our photo shoot Sunday. I love how the photos came out, but seriously, having people take pictures of your tits for 3 hours sounds like fun, but um, it's not. And it's exhausting. Making that vapid smiley face over and over again made my face hurt! And the makeup! I was probably wearing a pound of it, at least. I looked like a drag queen walking to the deli. I think the guys in my show were having fun at the photo shoot though. They got to ogle me nonstop for 3 hours. Heh.

Knocked off one of my performances (yes! one down, two to go) on Saturday night. It was a scene as part of a benefit performance for an indie theatre company. The director was the Founding Member (long-time readers, remember him?) and it was an awesome experience. He's great to work with. Totally on the same page as me, in terms of what theatre is and should be. It never happens that way. I loved every minute of working with him.

And Insta-BF got to see me act. He said I had great stage presence. Yeay! How fun. AND, I discovered he's an awesome dancer. This guy just surprises me with wonderful things every day. *sigh*

Vent

I'm totally sucking in acting class as of late. We have to come up with still more activities, and I'm driving myself crazy because I've already killed everyone in my family and most of my friends. Yet the Guru, our teacher, requires more and more activities--and on Tuesday, when people didn't have the best activities, she gave us a huge lecture. "The moment you say 'this will do' you've lost us as an actor," she repeated, over and over. This is true, we were half-assing things a bit. So I tried to go all out for my activity yesterday. The circumstance was that my sister had been raped, so I was going to make this creepy voodoo doll thing to send to her rapist. And I would be working on my anger, which is something I have trouble expressing. Insta-Boy and his friend even helped by finding me black candles (not the easist thing to find in NYC, as it turns out...). I do my activity, get furious, am totally happy. The Guru's response? "I'm glad you're emotionally connected to the circumstance, but I think you could find a better activity." Great. Thanks. I've never been able to get mad in class doing an activity, and the one time I do she says she doesn't like the activity??? Great.

Then, we get assigned scenes. I've been looking forward to this for weeks, because I'm much better at the scene work then the activity work anyway. And..... she switches our scene partners. My scene partner, who's clearly the best guy in the class, gets moved to work with his old partner, and I get someone new. My new partner isn't bad, but he's not quite where my old partner was, and I was SO LOOKING FORWARD to WORKING WITH HIM!!!! I'm so pissed off right now, I can't even tell you. I feel like the Guru is punishing me because my activity work hasn't been great. And, to top it all off, my scene sucks. I'm playing this dream-crushing bitch of a character, that I can totally not even relate to, which means I'm not going to be very good. Which means I may not get invited into the 2nd year of the program. Which means this whole year was a big waste of my time.

To make me feel even better about the whole thing, I called Insta-Boy as I got out of class, asked him if he could meet me for dinner (so I could vent). He had just eaten, but told me to text when I got out of rehearsal. So I did, and he replied: "I'm in full cleaning mode. Plus I looked at finances and I shouldn't spend till my freelance check comes in on Tuesday."

Nice. So I went home alone, and pissed. He did call to talk later on, so I do appreciate that, but I really could have used an in person conversation. Isn't that what BFs are for? Now I'm regretting the "moving too fast" thing, though, because we haven't known each other long enough for me to really rely on him (and I can't really say, yet, "I need you to do this"--don't wan't to be the "too clingy" GF, here).

Well, at least I can vent here. Thank god for blogs.

It Always Happens When You're Not Looking

When one is single, and lonely, and recently out of a long-term relationship, friends (mostly coupled-up friends) feed you platitudes. My ultimate favorite: "It Always Happens When You're Not Looking." There's nothing more annoying than hearing that from your friends after another date gone awry.

Well, unfortunately, given my (and Dolly's) current situation, I'm starting to think they're right.

Sort-of.

Yes, it's true, I've wanted to take a brief hiatus from dating. And now I've met this awesome guy. And yes, Dolly wasn't going out to the party with me to meet anyone. She's been on a bit of a hiatus as well. So, yes, we weren't looking.

However, we were doing everything in our power to meet the right people. Whether it's a book club, a dating website, or a party, we were out there so that we could be in the right place at the right time. And, as Dolly and I were commenting this morning, it's easy to hang back and chat with the people you know, yet we both make an effort to always talk to new people--male, female, it doesn't matter. So while we "weren't looking," we were still "out there."

The End of Tall Ted

So given what's been happening with Insta-boyfriend (and I have more to share, don't worry!), I had to do something about Tall Ted. Last weekend, he sent me the following email:

Hi Polly,

I'm officially a Brooklynite now! Ok, well, maybe it's less than 24 hrs that I've been here, but I did find a crazy little barber shop, a hip diner where there was talk of an upcoming poetry slam and the local laundromat. The movers weren't too bad, but it did become a slightly expensive day. My room is all arranged, though there's still some unpacking to do. Not too fun.

I was gonna ask you two more questions: would you like to get together this week for lunch/dinner? The second question is do you know any cool restaurants in Brooklyn?

Talk to you soon,

Ted

So, I sent this email (thanks for all your comments, btw!!):

Hi Ted,

I'm pretty busy this week, but unfortunately I've begun seeing someone that I seem to really connect with--and I have to pursue it. Which really sucks, because I'm totally attracted to you and think you're an amazing catch. Anyway, I didn't want to let things go any further like this--it's always the sooner the better with these things, and you're too great a guy for me to pull the fade.

If you're interested in being friends, I'd love to take you out to lunch (or go dancing!), but if not, I totally understand.

I did get some good Slope restaurant ideas though: (list of restaurants here)

Take care,

Polly

He responded right away, with this:

Hi Polly,

I'm quite happy for you that you found someone that you really like. Don't get me wrong, I am a bit disappointed that I won't have another chance to take you out on a date. However, I am really glad that I got to meet and go out with you. As you asked me, where was I three months ago?

Of course I wanna be friends with you! I do enjoy hanging out with you and the fun we have. That would be terrific - lunch or dancing sometime.

I appreciate the suggestions, I'll definitely have check them out in the very near future.

Talk to you soon,

Ted

What a cool guy. And a great response. Seems like someone I would want to be friends with. Now I just have to find the time to squeeze him in...