Stalking Alec Baldwin

The amount of filming in New York City seemed to drop off during the winter months, but as we move into spring and with the writer's strike over, they're picking back up again. I came out of the subway at Borough Hall (my home stop) on Saturday night, and there was a truck with equipment parked there on the street. There were also bright lights shining on the City Hall building across the street.
I was with my friend, Sharn, and she wondered if the lights were for filming. I checked the street signs for postings (they always post signs for "no parking" when there will be filming in the area so the trucks can park there), and sure enough there was a bright green sign. The signs usually state the name of the production, and this sign listed NBC's 30 Rock! I got so excited because I love 30 Rock, so I double checked with the equipment guys standing near the truck. They told us that sure enough, 30 Rock was filming on the 3rd floor of the City Hall building, that Matthew Broderick was there yesterday for filming, and that Alec Baldwin was up there at that moment.
Sharn and I decided to go up to our apartments, put on warmer clothes and "stake out" the building to see if we could see Mr. Baldwin himself. I told my roommate our plan, so she decided to join in the fun. The sign posting said the filming was only going on until 11pm, and it was almost 10, so we wouldn't have to stake out the place for long. After bundling up, we headed back out and did a perimeter walk around the building. We saw that the back of the building had a door that people kept coming in and out of, and there was a refreshment tent set up back there.
We figured the best spot was to sit on a half wall in front of the Municipal Building across from the back of City Hall.
We kept ourselves busy just chatting and laughing at ourselves for stalking Alec Baldwin. As we waited, I also talked to Michael on the phone. He reminded me of Baldwin's temper and the incident when he punched a paparazzi for taking his picture. Hmmm... something to think about. Our waiting in the cold paid off when around 10:45 Alec Baldwin walked out of the building.Due to Michael's warning, we attempted to take pictures from our unnoticed spot across the street, which lead to not-so-great pictures, but you can still kind of tell it's him.


He left with three young girls and started walking down the street. We tried to follow nonchalantly, and I considered shouting out, "Mr. Baldwin!" to see if maybe we could get a picture with him, but Michael's warning rang through my head. Instead we just watched as he got in his trailer, and we continued walking down the street as if we weren't just following him. I don't think he even realized we there, but it was fun all the same. The only thing that could have made it better is if Tina Fey were there :-)

Peep Wars

My friend Celia introduced me to this fabulous post-Easter tradition: Peep Wars. Celia, Laura and I went to the Target in the Bronx where the Easter candy was 50% off and took the last box of marshmallow Peeps. They were green, and we got them just in time. As we wandered the aisle, we heard two men searching for Peeps, but there were none left. :-)

We took the Peeps back to Laura's apartment where we each picked our own for battle. Each Peep got a lance (aka toothpick) for the fight. We paired off and set our battle-ready Peeps in the microwave for the face-off.
We set the microwave for 20 seconds and watched Peeps go around as they expanded. The first Peep to joust the other or knock it over was declared the winner.
Nancy's Peep won the first round against mine. Celia and Laura's Peeps battled, and Celia's won so it went on to battle Nancy's. Nancy's second Peep won the third round and was declared the final winner.

I think I will make this a regular part of my Easter festivities from now on. It was quite fun!

Scranton the vacuum cleaner

Since I live in NYU housing, they provide a vacuum for residents to check out. The first time I used it, I thought "he" was so cute I had to name him. He's now called Scranton. It makes vacuuming that much more fun. I get to say, "I'm going to get Scranton!" and it sounds like I'm hanging out with a friend :-P How silly am I?

a dream to run

I didn't do sports in high school. The only P.E. class I took from 7-12 grade was a summer school session. I started exercising sporadically in college- working out for a month or two at a time and then taking a month or two off. In 2005, I started running.
It was something I always hated and wasn't very good at, but I got it in my head that running a marathon would be a great life accomplishment.
While on a summer project, I was mentored by an older woman who ran the '05 P.F. Chang's half marathon. She really encouraged me to try it. I ran a lot that summer, which was great because I was living in Newport Beach. Unfortunately running became like all my other exercise endeavors, and I was never going to reach the goal of being able to run a half, let alone a full, marathon if I was running sporadically. Sometime in '06, I peaked at 5 miles, not even half the distance of the race.
In January '07, I bought a Nike+ system for my iPod so I could track my running progress and start a new year with a new resolution: to finally run that marathon. I started well- running 20 miles that month and again in February and March. But I dropped down the next three months, not running at all in July and August.

When I moved to New York last August, I felt like it was a fresh start. I had none of the endurance I had built up previously because of my long break. I spent the fall just getting to a place where I could run 30min. without stopping to walk. On February 19th, I started a half-marathon training schedule that should have me ready by June 8th. I don't have a race picked out yet, but the training is going great.
Today, I ran 5 miles! It felt fabulous (afterwards anyway). I'd been dreading the run since yesterday, but I told myself I had to do it if I was ever going to really run a race. I needed to stick to a schedule once and for all. It took me three years to get nowhere with this plan, but now was the time to see it through. When I hit that 5 mile mark, I felt so good I knew I'd be able to stick with it this time. Perfectly in time with end of my run, my iPod was playing JoDee Messina's "Dare to Dream." We can be strong and do anything, if we dare to dream. I'm not giving up again on this dream. I'm not wasting any more time.

My Celebrity Look-Alike

There is this really cool website I found where you can upload a picture of yourself (or a friend) and see what celebrity you look most like. I tried several photos to look for the most common results: Holly Hunter, Evangeline Lily, and Kate Beckinsale.

Daylight Savings Time & Tyra Banks

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There is a Starbucks just a block away from my house, but I choose to walk four and a half blocks to study and hang out at what I consider the best Starbucks in New York. The employees are what Starbucks employees are supposed to be like: cheerful, skillful, knowledgable, concerned about customers. There is a downstairs area with lots of tables and chairs, a couch and lounge chairs. I went there tonight and found out from one of the Barista's (a fellow West Coaster) that Tyra Banks had been there earlier that day! My Starbucks, and I missed it!

The other crazy thing that happened today was the time change. I stayed up late last night watching Grey's Anatomy. After one episode, I looked at the clock and saw 1:15am. I thought, I can watch another one, and it will only be around 2:00. When the second one was over, I saw the computer clock read 3:13am. I figured I must have read the clock wrong, but when I woke up and told my roommate about it, she let me know that last night at 2am, Daylight Savings kicked in. It wasn't my imagination or bad eyesight after all! Since I just moved to New York in August, this was my first "spring forward." Everyone made such a fuss in the fall, I was very aware of the time change then, but I totally missed that it was happening again. Good thing I didn't have anywhere to be this morning; I go to church in the evening ;-)

Dim Sum & The Other Boleyn Girl

This past Friday, for the Finer Things Club, a group of twelve of us went to Oriental Garden for Dim Sum. It was a crowded table but fun times. Waitresses came by with trays and carts of various dumplings and other tasty items, and we picked whatever looked good.

Celia and I enjoyed trying to pick up slippery items with slick plastic chop sticks. It was good practice.

Phoebe, Dustin, and Mark shared items on their side of the table and practiced the art of pouring tea for each other. It's customary in Chinese culture to pour tea for others. When someone pours tea for you, you should tap your first two fingers on the table to say "when" and as a way to say "thank you."

Rebecca brought her son, Deston. He was totally adorable playing with chopsticks.


Dustin posed with one of his favorite TV characters outside of a Bubble tea place we went to after lunch.

After Bubble tea, a few of us girls went to see The Other Boleyn Girl. I read the book recently and really enjoyed it. As I watched the movie, I felt disconnected, as if the movie I was seeing did not correspond to the book I read. Sure, they both told the story of Mary and Anne Boleyn and their relationships with King Henry VIII, but the stories felt different. The tone and focus of each was so different, that I had a hard time appreciating the film. The performances by Eric Bana, Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman were good. I just don't think Peter Morgan wrote a very good screenplay. Granted, it is difficult taking over 700 pages of material and cutting it down for a 2 hour film, but I think the important part of writing a good screenplay is staying true to the characters and theme of the original book. I just don't think The Other Boleyn Girl did that. But, if you haven't read the book, you'll probably enjoy the movie much more.