Rickey Martin! A punny thing happens when i talk about people from my tween years

Rickey Martin came out of the closet today.
















I know right? Who’d have guessed?!
I knew when I was twelve that he was even more boy crazy than I was (am), the first time I saw him but I digress.

He said in his statement how people had advised him not to comment on his sexuality during the height of his career (circa late 1990s early turn of the century) because it would counteract all of the hard work he had done to get to that point. Hey it’s not easy shaking your bon bon!

Basically the people in charge of his career put him in a glass closet, potentially denying him a chance at happiness, because the public might not buy his music if they knew that he was livin’ la vida homo.

I like to pretend that 40 plus years after Martin Luther King Jr died in pursuit of a world where people would be judged for the content of their character and not what they were born like and in a country that has just elected its first black president, we have moved past such stupid thoughts. The unfortunate truth is that Martin’s entourage was right to be cautious and it’s still going on ten years later.

Gay rights advocates will say that this is a big step for America because a huge star has come out and more will surely follow, but let’s be honest; Rickey is about as relevant as someone on “Dancing with the Stars” these days. This might even be a move to make him reenter pop culture since he also happened to mention an upcoming memoir (sounds a lot like a certain Lance Bass I know.)

So is this a step toward a more tolerant America with liberty and justice for all? Probably not.

Is Rickey kind of being gay for pay in hopes of making a buck on his former fame? Yeah but that is what America really is about, money!

Either way I wish Rickey nothing but happiness and an overflow of men in his cup of life (olay olay olay!)

Beauty out of Pain: Why you should donate to The Race for Hope

When I was a little girl I was in love with the movie THE THORN BIRDS (I was a very strange child but that is a story for another day.) In the film Father Ralph de Bricassart tells Meggie Cleary the following tale.

There's a story... a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to out sing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles.

As a child the concept is a bit hard to wrap your head around but I always thought it beautiful, even though it was mysterious and seemed paradoxical. Now I am an adult and I still have never seen a thorn bird but I have seen the most beautiful song come out of the most excruciating of pain.



This video of David Cook singing “Permanent,” the song he wrote about his brother Adam’s fight with brain cancer, was taken not long before Adam lost his battle. The visible pain he has is extraordinary but his voice is even more so.

I to have lost someone I love, my aunt Eileen, to this horrible disease and it is time we need to do something about it. On May 2nd there is a national Brain Cancer Run/Walk where Cook and I, and countless others, will be trying to raise awareness and money to stop the senseless loss and so that one beautiful day there will be no disease left to walk against.

For information: http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/site/PageServer?pagename=RFH_DC_AboutTheRace

To Donate to David Cook’s team (which I’ve joined): http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/site/TR/Events/RFH-DC?px=1754121&pg=personal&fr_id=1490

Operation better Limbs

Since March or maybe it was early April 2008 I have lost 30 pounds. Not the most amazing diet in the world but I saw on E! News last night that Valerie Bertinelli's amazing transformation was 40 lbs over 3 years, which averages out to less than the 15 a year that i've done for two years. Take that celebrity trainers and frozen foods.


In all seriousness though Bertinelli, 49, looks a million times better than I do at half her age and the reason for this is my legs. Sure my tummy has been shrinking but my thighs are humongous! Ever single pair of pants I owned got looser and looser in the waistband but the inseams continue to wear out. Apparently the dieting and walking plan that I’ve been following isn't going to burn off that fat.


Aside from being potentially unhealthy, pants are costly. So I’ve decided to set a goal, reduce limb circumference by summer. I'll keep you all updated on what I do and how it works. In the meantime if you have any ideas, share them.
Wish me luck!

GiGi’s Smile

I always thought that I’d be working in Manhattan when I was in my twenties, possibly even living there. I didn’t expect, however, that’s I’d still be babysitting when it happened, at least not as my main job. Technically I’ve been upgraded to Nanny but, whatever you call it, I clean poop, wipe food off of everywhere, and have spit up as an occupational hazard. But this isn’t a “Woe is me,” blog, it is about what gets me out of the self pitying place and that is GiGi.

I spend four days a week with what might be the most beautiful baby that has ever graced this earth. In fact she may actually have been put together with spare angel parts. She is just that wonderful. Every day she greets me with the brightest smile you could imagine and then we promptly giggle and play basically all day (occasionally we have to stop for food, naps, and diapers.) It is pretty hard to stay mopey with someone like her.

To see GiGi is to love her and I can only hope that when I have my own children they are half as amazing as she is. I still want to be more than just a nanny, and one day hopefully I will but in the meantime, I get to be a part of the life of an amazing little girl who will one day be an amazing person. If I can say that I was, even in the smallest way a part of that, well that’s something to be proud of.

Photo Blog

“She loves New York at night…”

As a New York City girl, this has to be my favorite line from Ryan Star’s “feel better about yourself” Anthem “Breath.” For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of New York at night, here are some shots of why the unseen She dreams of running away there.

Life of a David Cook fan

A year ago tomorrow morning around eight-ish, I was projectile vomiting into the sink at Nathans from one of the worst migraines I have had to date. it was just my special way of kicking off my first trip to Atlantic City, a trip that I had put together about five days before when I decided I simply could not live knowing that David Cook was one state away and I wasn’t seeing the show.

It hadn't been the first time I’d gone out of my comfort zone for Cook. If I don’t have to work I tend to sleep until the afternoon but I had twice gotten up while it was still dark because of the singer with the voice that owns my heart. Once was to see him tape the Today Show a week after he won American Idol and the other was to be one of the first 100 people to buy his album and get a free ticket to his album release party. But those times I was sacrificing time where as Atlantic City I was sacrificing money, and lots of it. After calculating the price of tickets, transportation, and an overnight stay at the Borgata hotel and casino I jokingly labeled the date in my planner as, “the day I officially lost my mind.”

I’d love to say that that was the last time I did something like this but that would be a lie. In august I left a week vacation at the ocean to come into Manhattan to see Cook play Time Square. Not nutty enough? How about when I add in the fact that I had an ear infection with an eardrum about to burst? The night ended with me in tears at Penn Station; codeine couldn’t numb my pain but during the show Cook was my anodyne. Just a month later I repeated my Atlantic City trip sans vomiting. I really have lost my mind.

The point I’m trying to make is the man has a hold over me. Tonight Cook will be doing some live stream thing over the internet at midnight. I have to be up for work seven hours later. I usually go to bed around 10:30 or 11 on work nights. I have been up since 7 today and have a sinus infection but
do you think there has been one second today where I thought about not having Cookie as a midnight treat?

If you aren’t a David Cook fan you can’t understand this, if you are one I know I’m preaching to the choir. Being a fan of David Cook and his band the Anthemic is not simply about favoring his music, it is something much greater. David Cook is a lifestyle choice.

Music Monday: Midwest Kings

About a decade ago, Friends Neal Tiemann and Andy Skib created MWK, or Midwest Kings, a Tulsa based band that toured (mostly) the Midwest, in 2003 they released their first indie cd Midwest Kings followed in 2005 with Judging a Bullet, and 2006’s Incoherent With Desire to Move On. After a brief hiatus the band released a digital only EP Luna Despierta in the summer of 2008.

Over time the faces that graced the stage have changed. On February 18-the band’s most recent show- Kyle Peek and Joey Clement became the 13th and 14th members to play with the band. Arguably the most famous of the fourteen is David Cook, now famous for his American Idol season 7 win. However, with MWK he is simply a backup singer and musician.

The next time the band with hit the stage (Cook is not confirmed at this time) will be March 25 at Spaceland in Los Angeles, California. If you are able to see them, take the opportunity to do so. Founding members Skib and Tiemann, along with Peek, are currently members of Cook’s band the Anthemic so when and if there’ll be a next show remains to be seen.

If you can’t, buy their music (link below.) They are by far the greatest Rock/Alternative band to never be signed. The lyrics, most of which were written by Tiemann, are so pure and raw you see straight into his heart and at the same time they transcend the writer himself to reveal the sole of the everyman so when you listen you feel the songs straight to your core.

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/MWK
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/mwk/id125369830

Goodbye Old Friend

When I was young I was an obsessed Yankees fan. All throughout middle school, I’d hang on to every pitch like it is the most important thing in the world because to me it was. When they were winning in the late 1990s, I never missed a game but then after the 2001 season, my cable provider didn’t carry the YES network for an entire season. Team that with a quick exit in the 2002 playoffs, and the spell was broken a bit by the time the YES network premiered in April 2003.

I like to think that I’m not a fair-weather fan; in fact I would still consider myself a rather good fan of the team. It wasn’t the loosing that did it. Season after season, I would watch important games and hold my breath for the entire playoff run but as I got older I realized that the Yankees are a part of my life but not my life. I mean really, would anything but a diehard sit in an Orlando bar watching the world series, surrounded by Phillies fans, and cheer her heart out not really caring if it led to a fight or a beer over my head?

It would shock Past Me but I haven’t been to the new Yankees Stadium yet, even though it’ll be starting it second season in about a month. However, ever since I started my job working in Chelsea, I do pass it every day on my way to work. It sit there, beautiful and majestic, right across the street from the Yankees Stadium from my youth. At first it was funny for me to see these two building standing side by side, almost identical, but as the winter went on things began to change.

They are taking down the old Yankees Stadium, my stadium. Time turns, seasons change and we all grow older but I don’t know something about seeing this happening right in front of me is too much to bear. I try not to look, I know that sounds stupid but it feels too much like watching an old friend or relative slowly die. I might not have visited as much as I could have in the last few years but I do love that place and all it stands for. To the city of New York it might just be some old building but there is a part of me that will always call it home.

I have been sitting here trying to think of a blog topic for over an hour and can think of nothing to talk about. That is just pathetic! I mean I talk all day long, almost nonstop but here I am and I have nothing to say.

Oh well maybe tomorrow





PS…I ate another cupcake today. Don’t judge me!

To Have Heroes

Looking for new Music? Look no further than Andy Skib.
Never hear of him? Well that’s okay don’t be scared, try him out.

http://www.myspace.com/tohaveheroes

Skib, who is also a member of The Anthemic (as in David Cook and the Anthemic) and was/is lead singer and a founding member of Midwest Kings, started this solo project in 2008 and has, just today, added a cover of the Killer’s hit “When You Were Young.”
So check out the MySpace and if you like it, go to ITunes and buy the EP!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ep/id285072635


Are you still reading this?

What are you waiting for? Go now.

Just say no to cupcakes…

Look carefully, that might appear to be nothing more than a picture of cupcakes but I will let you in on a little secret, those are actually a highly addictive substance. You see those are not just cupcakes those are Magnolia Bakery cupcakes, which the government should list as a controlled substance.

If you have never been to New York City, you probably haven’t tasted one. You are the lucky one because you really can’t have just one. Oh sure they are great for an occasional visitor, you get to taste them and then go home to the safety of your neighborhood bakeries and Betty Crocker cook books, but I am not so lucky.

The first time I tasted one was when I was a freshman in college. I had heard a celebrity I was crushing on swear by them and I simply had to try and he was right. I then went back to my life in the Bronx and College in upper Westchester, safe from their delicious temptation tucked away on Bleecker Street. I am now almost two years removed from college and my interest in that celebrity has gone by the waste side, when I think of him at all I am baffled by the infatuation in fact. However, I’ve never forgotten the cupcakes and now I work in Manhattan just blocks away.

One day I saw a sign in Grand Central Station stating that they would be opening a Magnolia Bakery annex there the following week. I made my first visit there the last week of February. It is now the second week of March and I have visited Magnolia locations three times and just today literally had to force myself not to go to Bleecker because I was only 5 blocks away.

The cake is just cake but the frosting is like crack! I don’t eat chocolate cake but last week I was babysitting for friends who had a box of Chocolate Magnolia cupcakes and I not once, not twice, but three times stuck my fingers in the frosting and had to rearrange it so that the mother wouldn’t notice I did it. And it gets worse, there are two other locations in Rockefeller Center and Columbus Ave. bringing the grand total to 4 Magnolia Bakeries around Manhattan, I cannot escape them they are literally Uptown, Downtown, Eastside, and Westside.

So please, don’t be like me. If you have never tasted this mouth-watering treat, save yourself. If you don’t’ heed my warning and do become addicted (and you will) don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.

Reality Bites part II: Why There Will Never Be Another Season Seven Of American Idol

American Idol was the greatest show I had ever seen, The first episode I’d ever watched was the season one finale and I was so hooked I counted down the days until season two. By the time Ruben won that year, Idol was my favorite show. I have on many occasions, including my prom, been out and called home to find out the results because I couldn’t wait a few hours to find out.

Then came Season 7, March 2008.

After season 6 I had decided that I would never vote again, I have no idea what exactly set this off, but I had realized that my vote was the kiss of death and I wouldn’t do that again. This lasted until Aussie Michael Johns, one of my top 3 favorites, was given the boot. Then I started voting my fingers to the bone in hopes of saving my pick from the beginning David Cook from elimination. Apparently, I was no longer the kiss of death because Cook won and has gone on to go platinum. I was overjoyed because I picked him as the best when he auditioned looking like a rooster in a Cosby sweater, belting out a version of “Living on a Prayer” that kicked off a love affair with his voice that many of you are aware of (if you aren’t familiar, I’m sure you will be as this blog grows).

Season8 did not live up to its predecessor and now season 9 doesn’t appear to be much better. Simply put, Season 7 broke AI. You might think this is a longing for David Cook but it isn’t, top to bottom the final 10 could out sing anyone that has appear in both 8 and 9.

It’s sort of a double edged sword for me, my favorite show is awful so I should be sad but I witnessed some amazing artists appear on the music scene and, in the case of Cook, got to watch a man who may go down as one of the greatest artists of our time finally get the record deal he so long deserved.

Reality Bites part I

So it’s Friday and I lack energy to think of a good blog topic. It was between complaining about people who insist we are all going to die in 2012 or talking about Kate Gosselin being on Dancing with the Stars. I decided, since its Friday (and the end of the world idea freaks me out) I’m going to compromise and talk about the end of reality TV as I knew it.

Until recently I only watched three reality shows, Dancing with the Stars, Jon and Kate Plus 8, and American Idol. All of these strangely have a correlation in 2008 so let’s go back exactly two years ago.

One night, while channel surfing I stumbled about a show about a couple with two sets of multiples. Kate was an overbearing wife, Jon was her abused husband, but the stars were 8 adorable little kids (ok technically 7 and Mady.) I immediately set the DVR to tape all episodes and by summer, along with driving my mother crazy, I had caught up on the entire lives of the Gosselin children (you remember them, the ones who Jon and Kate forgot about.) Not long after I had caught up, unfortunately the marriage dismantled and so too has the reality show.

Now all that remains is Kate, who everyone feels sorry for; Jon, who has gone from victim to biggest AHole in the world in the eyes of the media; and enough publicity and money that you would think you were talking about the Jolie-Pitts. Personally I think the kids should actually be given to Brad and Angelina since Jon and Kate are horrible parents and media whore.

Kate’s latest Media stunt, DWTS. In 2008, I really started to love that show because it was about faded stars trying to recapture their former glory. There is nothing like watching former boy-banders realizing that their lives and careers aren’t over just because their voices have cracked. But now the stars are gone. Has-beens are fun but never-wases are not. The point of the show is that we knew these people. It is sad to say the least.

This blog is getting a bit long so the biggest tragedy in the reality world, American Idol, will have to wait for another day.

Nighter…

Pinkberry Part II

Ending my last post with the Pinkberry hasn't killed me yet and then not blogging yesterday was not a planned move, I was simply unable to get my day together enough to take a break to write. Nothing like a little suspense, though, huh?

However, we are now over 48 hours out of the Pinkberry experiment and I was right, nothing bad happened. I don’t know what it is about the chocolate but apparently it really does block whatever causes my allergy, or perhaps the two interact and therefore the allergen is removed for the chocolate variety.

NOW FOR THE DISCLAIMER: this worked for me, which is awesome but that doesn't mean that it will work for everyone with a yogurt allergy and I don’t recommend that people with them just jump right in to a cup. If you want, introduce it gradually like i did and if anyone does repeat my experiment, I’d love to hear about it.

And while we are on the topic of Pinkberry, apparently singer Seal had a run in with security at a movie theater after he refused to throw away his Pinkberry treat before entering. This is an award winning entertainer who managed to win over a supermodel, how is it possible he doesn't know you hide it in a bag and sneak it in like the rest of the world? I myself have snuck in everything from Starbuck's Venti Frapicinnos to an entire Chinese food meal.

Come on Seal, step it up.

The great Pinkberry experiment

Let’s start at the beginning. I am allergic to yogurt and have been since whenever it was that my mother tried introducing the food to me when I was an infant. I don’t have actual memories of the occurrence or occurrences when I sampled the stuff but from what I’ve been told the result was projectile vomiting to the point where there was no attempts at reintroduction and subsequent warning that I could not eat yogurt.

I am not very good with vomiting, projectile or otherwise so I heeded the warnings and decided that I would live a fine life never eating yogurt and didn’t particularly care if children do sometimes grow out of some allergies. I managed to spend the next 23ish years doing just this until Fall 2009 and my first day of my current job as a nanny. While pushing the carriage around Chelsea I found myself face to face with my first Pinkberry store.

I had heard raves about the frozen yogurt (something I can eat) and had always wanted to try it so I decided to get a trial of original. After one lick I realized however, Pinkberry doesn’t serve Frozen Yogurt but rather yogurt that has been frozen and is served soft serve. I cannot explain to you what the difference between the two is but apparently, there is.

Within five minutes I was in the throws of the worst headache I have ever experienced, with in hours this pain was rivaled with the bloating in my stomach and I spend most of the night running to the bathroom.

FACT: I AM STILL ALLERGIC TO YOGURT

Which bring us to last month. I was getting a sample of the new chocolate Pinkberry for a friend, some got on my hand and I licked it off; No nausea, no vomiting, no running to the bathroom, and no headache. I spent the following week trying to convince myself against my better judgment and all reason that there is something magical about chocolate that cures my yogurt allergy because it tastes amazing.

I know it doesn’t make sense but maybe there is something to this theory and so, like any body who ever took elementary school science I decided I would try it out, complete with the Scientific Method.

Ask a Question:
is it possible that there is something about Chocolate that I the antidote to whatever part of yogurt causes my yogurt allergy?
Do Background Research: The lick, I know it isn’t much but this is one of the rarest of food allergies so there isn’t much out there to help me.

Construct a Hypothesis:
"If I eat Pinkberry Chocolate and don’t get sick, then I will be right."

Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment:
As this is not a cheap treat and there is the issue that my own body I the test subject I didn’t want to rush into anything so over the last month I’ve done a few sample sizes to make sure I could handle it. Since I haven’t had any side effects I went in for the big test.
Today from 1:30pm until 1:45pm I ate a small cup.

Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion:
Well this remains to be seen it’s been almost an hour and I’m not dead so I think that is a good start.
to be continued…

Why am i doing this?

The truth of the matter is writers need to write. It's like air to us, we don't breathe the same way without it. Well maybe that is a bit of a stretch, you can’t live without air and a writer can live when not writing, just not completely.

No matter how hard I try to have a successful and full life, despite how busy my mostly mundane existence has become I simply am not a fully evolves human with so much of my self laying dormant. I did have a blog following college, for almost a year actually but life got in the way and I decided I was better off turning my attentions toward finding a job and writing for money. I did continue to write, on occasion in the form of Epic emails or Facebook notes that lasted for days when I felt there was something justifying worth bothering my loved ones about. However, only writing of the extremely amazing or truly unbelievable isn’t good enough. It takes 1000 little nothings to create the amazing something that we all look back on as a great life.

So now here I am, ready and willing to share with you my world, through my eyes, as warped as it might be, and I promise this time I will keep writing as long as there is someone out there still reading. And it may well be that I will continue long after any readers are gone but I’d like readers.

I can’t guarantee it will be life changing, educational, or that you will come out of reading what I say feeling in any way more enriched than before you stopped by, but I can promise it will be interesting. So goodbye for right now and I hope to see you later
Lissie