finding home on 125th St.

As i prance around dealing with my normal day to day responsibilities as a BG PA for X amount of months on a TV Show, I realize how many different places we go to.....from beaches to city ski scrappers in a week or months. We are the money machine gypsies, best we can be.....but non the less, its a job.

While on duty, we stumble upon the most amazing little lechonera I could ever find. Just like home minus the palm trees and the occasional "reggueton". Smells of glory, beans and roasted chicken....fried goodness...oh my. I was so exited that i just left set, left set. No care. I walked a block, and ate bought the best empanadilla I have ever had. So close to the real thing. Like the ones abuela makes from scratch...or now with age she semi home makes it. I ran back to set with my little beef empanadilla in its paper bag oozing its delicious grease around the bottom of it. It was amazing. So much so, I hid in a corner outside while I lock up the door to set and devoured this little thing that didn't know what she was about to encounter. It was like meeting your soulmate. This little empanadilla and I where one now.

We finally broke for lunch....I ran back, sat down in one of the 6 stools that faced the fake marble countertop and ordered the best lunch I have had in a long time....at least since I was back home in Puerto Rico. Rice, beans, chicken, alcapurria and nice cold Malta India, the works. Heaven.

lazy summer days...please dont end!

Thinking. what a thing! all this time to think and not to necessarily do.
Rekindling old projects that have been left in the back burner to simmer like pot roast have resurfaced. New energies and inspirations. Between the meeting with friends that I havent seen and taking the time for me, its been so far so good for this hiatus. I have the feeling that come monday morning i will be cursing the 5 am sky as a make my way to LIC. 


blah! 

For now and wonderful dinner with my guy. Through a movie in the mix and I can call this day to and end...partially.


L.

hiatus project #1: my succulent terrarium w/ Carlos the dinosaur.

my new favorite word.... hiatus.

After 2 years of various tv shows and day playing her and there..... I finally have a good well deserved week off. My current job, a nice and formidable tv show which has laughter and quite a good amount of jokes on set, has its season hiatus. I have never been so happy NOT to work. Will I suffer a weeks paycheck, yes. Will my right ear, where my lovely surveillance sits in for 12 to 14 hrs a day thank me for a quite non AD, BG or coffee related task....oh hell yes.

Enough said.

In order for me to act like a normal and decent human being I have, not planned, but loosely scheduled every day activities that I've neglected for a innumerable amount of months. Yes, cleaning my tiny brooklyn apartment, paying my student loans on time and watering my plants back to life are some of these life altering experiences ill be encountering this week.

Cooking. I dont even know what that means anymore. I made breakfast this morning. I was quite distress as a burned my 1st fried egg in 6 months. I have dishonored the egg kingdom by waisting a perfectly good organic egg and also tender 20 something ego. I am hurt. As my 2nd attempt was close to perfection, just like riding a bike, my culinary cooking thumb is sure to come back with its mojo anytime soon.

For now it is Monday, Day 1 Int. Lins Apt. - Hiatus Mode

mental preparation H.

Like the sand in the hour glass, fall is back. My sun tan abandoned me without saying good by or a hint of it coming back anytime soon. I miss it already. Mr. Dry skin moved in a couple of days ago, so Im trying to see if I can get him evicted with Mr. Burt Bee's, I've been told he is a good case lawyer.

5 days, 72 hours per week in Long Island City, I sit, I walk and I run from stage to stage from honeywagon to set. But with this type of weather all I want is to cuddle in my twin size bed in my little Brooklyn apartment and continue reading Just Kids.

My call is 5:30A, Ill have my 6 hour turnaround to sleep in my twin size bed in my little Brooklyn apartment and just imagine the next chapter of Just Kids.

good night kids.

L.

"if you have to leave, please lock the car and take the keys with you"

So, I finally met my match with our NYC cops. Yep, felt pretty badass riding on the back of that cop car.

"This is the only way I ever wanna be in one of these", I said to our MOVIE TV UNIT police officers, "with a walkie in hand and working". They laugh, while they turned on the sirens and made way for our rigged camera car coming right behind us. Six different types of coffee cups from different street vendors around the city decorated the cup holders inside the car.

"They say next week is gonna be around 6o." one says with a well earned NY accent.

"Well don't get your hopes up." says the other.

"Why you gotta be a debbie downer and rain on my parade?" they other says.

As this weather convo proceeded I just silently laughed in the background, thinking where they might be hiding the donuts. We continued to ride, sirens on and off, summons talk, clarified some doubts on using my puerto rican license to drive in NY, a call from one the officers mother's conversing about her trip to Florida. "

"If you have to leave, please lock the car and take the keys with you." The officer said, as he and his partner leave me alone to warm up in the cop car as they leave to speak to our 1st AD.

All of a sudden I had a crazy urge to just take the keys in the ignition, breaks off and just hit the accelerator and ram into something. You know, one of those of urges that are totally wrong but might feel pretty good, like that 7 year old kid that stole his is car from grandmother. " Maybe it is fun to do bad things after all.

ANYWAYS, after that little ride around town, I somehow ended up in the detective world, walking around, squad rooms, morgues and all the other fun stuff. Where props are badges, guns and making people look dead for the morgue at 3:00pm for Scene 001, is top priority. A well oiled machine that kicked my ass and kept me on my toes the whole week. I know, people say it's just a TV show, but like many other, i love this show. It's what made my parents and most people feel like NY is crazier than what it seems, not doubting that it's not at all, but giving it that extra "je ne se qua" to the city and its characters.

"People have been working on this forever, since the mothership."

It was like the 1st day of school. Old people, new kids on the block. Quite interesting to see. High expectations and some flying egos, but none the less, it's the show. My first day was like a complete mind fuck. I ran a photo shoot, helped out with 1st Team plus everything else. It was clear from that moment that I was in another world.

As they say, my rite of passage has begun.

L.

rabbit.

So.

Lets reflect on the month of January, shall we?

Cold.

Lots of cakes and birthdays. :)

no work :(

cold again.

ocasional sun rays.

some more cold.

Now, it wasnt all bad. Just a tad slow.

February keeps on looking up, al though ocassional water comes down my eyelids, im looking forward to better and greater things. I believe in the chinese. They celebrate the year with confetti, bunny rabbits and a whole lot of dragons.

So, yeah.

February, bring-it-on!

L.

Anxiety Attack. On.

The cold has scared the jobs away. "Things are slow", says my close PA friend, " January and February are always like this". A few interviews here in there keep me on my toes and show me that since I've been here the word "New York" appears more and more on my resume. It makes me have a little bit more confidence at the time of interviewing and speaking about my experience in NY. My last interview was for a staple NYC tv series. It went really well. I went in with confidence, speaking clearly and ready to kick ass. Even though I didn't get the position that was up for grabs, they where apparently really impressed with the things that I had to say. They mentioned that since the 1st time they worked with me, I worked with that AD team on my first job in NY, I had more confidence and more knowledge than before. Silver lining = they want me to additional when needed, if Im available. A job is a job! And on that note.....

Ever met those people asking you about services in the streets of NY? You know, they ask if you've ever used "X service" and ask your opinion about it? Well, for 2 very long and cold days I was working for a commercial for the something around those lines. Tackling little quaint cafes in Williamsburg, money driven peeps of Wall Street, busy kids at NYU, the beautiful parents of Greenwich Village and of course the busy folks on Midtown...Grand Central Station anyone?

My job: wrangle people to talk to us about NYC 311. Insane! I have never in my life spoken to that many random people in 2 days. In the mist of it all, it was interesting but between the cold and a little dehydration I would get these little anxiety attacks. You know, the ones that make you feel like crap for about 10 minutes...well those. I came to think that I was afraid of crowds, but it was kind of weird. ANYWAYS, I got through it. When I went to sleep after the first night of the shoot this is what I dreamt about: Elias, Jane, Peter, Allen, Mark, Idalia, Maria, Stephanie, Luis, Janet, Johan, Luca, John, Tony. Yes! These were some of the names of the people we interviewed. I woke up at 1:30 am overwhelmed. Today, I had another anxiety attack just thinking of going into the masses again.

Breath in, breath out.

After speaking to my roommate almost in tears, I realized a valid point. I can't take things to serious. I take jobs and invest myself in them to much, no matter how silly or simple they might be. Im weird. Im not saving the world or anything.

So yeah, life is all about breathing....if I stop, I might die.

End of thought.

L.