Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

Dear friendlies,

This feels a lot like tip-toeing back into a room you shouldn't have left or something...but hi! Are you still there?



Please pardon the radio silence as life is life and it does what it does, sometimes kind of un-documentable, as it were. But I don't want to twitter (though no offense to those of you who twitter...twitter away! Twitter hard.)so here I am. We are. Here again.

I'm going to try to write semi-regularly, or regularly maybe. There's lots going on and it's all pretty wonderful. Things like dentist appointments and Pixar Movies, and reality TV, and comedy shows, and writing, and plans, and happiness, and funny ideas about higher education. So, lots.

Consider this a re-launch? Or something? I changed the format, so you know, big doings...

xoxo
Erin

Joint Birthday: Hard Left

These guys....

25 Things or Narcissus Flexes his Gorgeous Muscles

Everyone on Facebook is doing it, right? It feels a little bit more intimate here...

1. This morning I woke up with the word “somnambulate” in my head. I hadn’t any idea what it meant so I looked it up online. Now I wonder if maybe I “somnambulated” last night and got some weird psychic vocabulary message about it.

2. I dyed my hair dark brown last night.

3. In related news, I’m going grey real early. I mostly blame my previous stint as a teacher in Revere.

4. In related news, I’m finishing my Masters degree in August after a long hiatus.

5. I started wearing earrings on a regular basis this year, and I’m delighted with how much more poised I feel when I am wearing them.

6. People often ask me what perfume I’m wearing and my initial reaction is always to say “Michelle Barbera” because it’s her perfume. By “her perfume” I mean, I admired how she smelled for so long that one day I finally just asked her if it was okay if I bought the same perfume that she wore. She was very gracious about the whole thing and not nearly as creeped out as I imagined she’d be. She’s my perfume icon.

7. I miss a lot of people who have passed away, but the only one I want to call on the phone all the time is Neil Shapiro, my high school drama teacher. He was really awesome in this really fallible, human way. I miss him all the time.

8. The older I get the more I realize that the only “stupid” people are the ones continually calling other people “stupid”. The best way to be a human is to develop some perspective and allow yourself to be humbled when humbling things occur. Again, something I’m learning.

9. I started going back to church after Christmas last year. Long-term implications are still up in the air.

10. In quasi-related news, I think gay people should be able to marry and have kids and do everything in the world that straight people get to do, and it makes me very angry that other people think differently. It’s one of the only things I get all huffed up about.

11. My friend Braden is a constant source of inspiration to me. He’s a brilliant director and writer and he pursues his dreams with a single-mindedness that no libra in history has matched.

12. Alison Royer has taught me more than I ever thought she’d teach me, just by being who she is. I thought she was going to be a real handful when I first met her, but she’s one of the wisest people I know. Besides, of course, the fact that she read the entire Twilight series and didn’t catch on to the fact that Jacob and his tribe are Native American.

13. I love Thursdays and thank Matt, Ryan, and Taylor for destroying me with their brilliance every week.

14. Don’t know where I’d be without my Renee. Everyone should have a tall best friend who lives in New Hampshire.

15. My family’s dog, Louie, makes the most unbelievably terrible smells in the world. I’ve never ever smelled anything so bad as what can come out of that dog. That being said, he’s cute.

16. I’m real bad at keeping track of things I’ve written. I have no idea where 1999-2007.

17. I’m a good swimmer!

18. I ran the mile in 9^th grade in 8 minutes. It was maybe the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was trying to impress my dad. I threw up directly thereafter and still had to go to math.

19. I was a varsity football cheerleader in High School.

20. I was also a hockey cheerleader.

21. I was also VP of my class, and co-president of the drama society.

22. I was also obsessed with my resume.

23. I wrote my first play when I was 16. I would be really embarrassed to see/read it now, but people seemed to like it at the time.

24. I like reading other people’s blogs, even if I don’t know them. If you have a blog, I probably read it every so often and love it.
25. I am deeply grateful.
    

don't fall in!
xo
erin

Hi Again (or, Allegory Involving Debt)

You know when you forget to make a payment on your student loans and you make a mental note to write and send the check as soon as you get home on a given day? But then, after dinner with a friend and a long T ride home, you just make some tea and go to bed, completely forgetting about that check you need to put in an envelope and send to the loan company? It might be a few days later that you you remember it makes you kind of embarrassed so you put it off for so long. And where are the stamps? There are no stamps, you have to buy them, which is something that you try to remember to do. And fail. Eventually it gets to the point where you're getting phone calls and you know the number when it comes up on your cell phone and you hit silence every time. This is because you're ashamed to talk to the debt collector, because he/she will judge you. It's not even like you don't have the money in your account, you totally do, but it's become this monster thing that you don't want to deal with because it's symbolic of your childish irresponsibility. And you're 27, and should really be able to face these things and deal with them but you feel helpless and overwhelmed which is a thing that's alternately scary and depressing??

That's kind of how I feel about not writing here for a long time.

So, hi!



Sorry for the long hiatus. I don't know how with how much regularity I'll be updating here, but I'm going to try. Things in my life continue to shift and turn and change, and sometimes it's a challenge to strip it all down to a quick story, and make it palatable enough for general consumption. But I'll give it my damnedest effort.

Human experience is so varied. There's so much hideous and so much gorgeous. I'll try to direct us closer to the shiny stuff and keep out of the mud.

Chin ever up,
Erin

New York, Take 3

I keep going to New York, guys, and it's awesome.

My very small mother and I rode the train down to the city through a very scenic, very fluffy white landscape early on Saturday morning. The purpose of the trip was three-fold: Christmas shopping, kidnapping my sister back, and seeing a show. All three of these things happened.

1. Christmas Shopping: For those of you who have never tried to wrestle thirty-eight rabid backyard animals simultaneously, maybe it will be difficult to understand the experience that is Century 21.

I'm not talking real estate, I'm talking about a discount downtown department store. It could probably be classified as a sub-borough of Manhattan. The one that only crazy people and my mother inhabit. As I tried to muscle my way through walls of damp and frantically bustling and elbowing people, not even for pants or socks, just for air or daylight - I think I lost something fundamental of my humanity. But we got some cheap crap!! For cheap!!

My mother is a big fan of crime and illegality in general, so we then went to Canal Street. This was, shockingly, not even half as soul-sucking as Century 21, and we walked out with some questionably labeled items. For cheap!! See a pattern?

Kidnapping my sister: Meaghan's home! This is good news to me, my family, and every convenience store that carries mini-muffins in the metro Boston area.

Going to a SHOW: Ok, listen. You know her as Corky's mom on Life Goes On, but here's the thing: Patty LuPone is a goddess.

We went to see Gypsy, mostly because they had 1/2 price tickets, and I had no expectations really at all. And then Patty LuPone happened to me. She's like Liza Minelli if Liza Minelli were a person. She's funny and gorgeous and so very very talented. Patty LuPone, you can raise an adult down syndrome child AND rip apart a finale like no one else I've ever seen. Whattalady!!

and for cheap!!

So there's my third NY trip this winter. Brought to you by Judi McGhee, Meaghan McGhee, Patty LuPone and a TON of Asian merchants.

Till next time!
xo
erin

Good Deeds, Good Music, and Guns

Hello everybody!

I've been busy in work. The kind of busy that transcends running from copy machine to printer, to email. The kind of busy that leaves a person paralyzed by impending deadlines, sitting their cube unable to do much but write, cross-out, and re-write a to-do list. So, posting blogs has been a specific difficulty. But it was starting to feel like I'd left a child shoeless on the corner of some street, so here we are! I've been drinking enough coffee this morning to feel slightly able, and that's a good thing.

I think I'm going to have to bullet-point.

* Congratulations to the wonderful folks at Improv Asylum and Mike Anastasia specifically for putting together a fundraiser that raised $17,000 for Globe Santa.

I couldn't be a part of the festivities this year, which was quite disappointing, but it's such a fabulous thing they do, and such a wonderful cause they support. Yay, guys, yay.

* I started listening to Bon Iver.

I know, so late to the party, as always. But it's perfect for the gray of these winter days, and on a relatively superficial note, the CDs title For Emma, Forever Ago is almost my favorite title of anything ever. Something to do with the sentiment, the meter and the assonance, I guess. The music is quiet and desolate, and heartbreaking, and low, and lovely. Winter time, for sure.

* Folks, if you've ever wondered, "hm...I wonder if Erin has ever held a gun?" I've got the answer for you. I have. I guess this is what happens when you go to New Hampshire for a weekend. Hosted by my FNFO2008 (favorite new friend of 2008) Laura, and the always delightful Renee, I spent some time in scenic Manchester, NH last weekend. There was Mexican food, lots of wine, a Podunk bluegrass band, and some really good diner fare. Oh yeah, and guns folks. Laura's charming boyfriend Sean hunts (sorry to those who take offense. i do, however, eat meat as a life-choice so suspend my right to judge) and he had some pretty fantastic stories to tell about life crouching in snow drifts with a weapon. And when he offered to let me hold the rifle, I did comply. And it was kind of cool. Not that I could ever actually bring myself to shoot anything, but pretty cool nonetheless.

*TONIGHT Bastards Inc. performs at Improv Boston at 8pm. It's our last show before the holidays, so come on down. I'd love to see you!

love and updates,
Erin

Good Things with the Exception of Shampoo

It's raining aggressively outside right now and the bottoms of my pants are soaking wet because I'm shorter than a person ought to be...but things aren't so very bad at all. For example, yesterday my office building closed down because of some rad explosion that shut down all the power around Arlington St./Copley Square. This enabled me to have a leisurely cup of coffee with a friend, write a little, and take a nap. Granted, had I known about the unexpected 3 day weekend I probably would have stayed in New York another day, but unfortunately I'm neither psychic or powerful enough to cause explosions with my mind. Both of these things may change someday.

Speaking of New York, it was awesome. I got to drink insane amounts of coffee in wonderful company, check out sister Meg's fun apartment (which may or may not have a rat in the walls but is charming nevertheless), watch Arrested Development for the first time ever (I know!),and just relax a little. It was cold as hell, true, but still awesome.

Last night Alison and I ate sandwiches and gaped at Robert Pattinson for about two hours. I get it, I don't care, he's ridiculous. Renee, back me up?

And this morning I got shampoo in my eye which I hadn't done for about a decade. And it will take about another decade to forget how effing awful it is to get shampoo in your eye.

But I digress. The main idea of the story is that things are pretty good. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and beyond. To a time when I can create power outages with mind-force.



Eat good, chickens.
xo
erin