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

Vampires.

Dear reader,
In an attempt to avoid hyperbole, I'll tell you that words like "train wreck" and "nuclear meltdown" could be used to describe the week in which I'm currently mired. Read the preceding text as if I'm speaking in a British accent, please.

So, instead, let me talk about vampires. You heard me, vampires. I've had two awesome vampiric artistic (ish) experiences recently that I've loved in very very different ways. The first is the film, Let the Right One In. This is a Swedish horror movie that some of my lovely work friends and I went to see in Kendall Square this past weekend. It was so sparse and cold looking, with that specifically northern loneliness that can only be visually communicated through shots of snow at night. Really gorgeous. I didn't know what the hell I thought of the movie after I left the theater, but a few hours later I decided that I'm crazy about it. It was so heartfelt and innocent, but also really filled with torment and grief, but in the end, it was a love story.


A real weirdo love story, but a love story. Go see it, but not if you're feeling kind of strange to begin with. If you're feeling strange, rent Anchor Man.

The second stop in our vampiric journey is...yup, you guessed it, the Twilight series. Guys. Seriously? What's going on? I loved the first book and am buying the second today. Am I fourteen? It's crack.



BookCrack. Every woman I know wants to have relations with Edward Cullen (Harry Potter's Cedric Diggery for those of you who have stared at the movie posters scratching your collective adorable head). It's hard to explain. Just read it the books, it will only take you about a day.

So, thank goodness for vampires, folks, or else I may have brawled with myself Fight Club style in a public place. And it's only Wednesday!

Someone buy me a coffee or something?
Love,
erin

Briefly...

Oh folks, have I been writing. I just passed by the 50% mark, and I'm exhausted. But I've got to keep going! I'm just a few weeks away from having a novel. I real, honest to goodness novel. Yes, it will need gigantic amounts of revision and no, I don't know for sure where my characters will find themselves at the end...but it's a process.

Last night we had a fabulously fun Bastards Inc. show at Improv Boston. It's been uniquely terrific performing with Ryan and Taylor every Thursday. My chief problem with all this is that I keep laughing on stage during scenes. Which is both a lovely and utterly infuriating problem to have. They're just pretty awesome.

This weekend is going to be filled with writing, movies, writing, comedy, and I might try to write a little.

Miss you too.
Love,
erin

A Question of Love

I'm at about 16,000 words on my novel so far, sorry for the never-posting.

I feel a lot of things about prop. 8 and have not been able to articulate them effectively. I think Keith does it pretty well for me (us). What an interesting time to be an American...





xo,
erin

Here's The Thing...

I'm doing this nanowrimo craziness and it's seriously cut down on my blogging. I understand that that sentence might be entirely nonsensical to many, many people. Basically, I'm trying to write a novel and trying to keep up with daily word counts. It's hilarious and maddening and really fun. At this very moment I am behind, but not for long! I'm at 4,815 and I should be very close to 6,000.

So back I go. To writing, working, etc.

VOTE, for Obama.


kisses,
erin