Back in March, I dove head first into this blog and am only now returning to it, and finally plan on publishing it.   Here are some of my thoughts…

1. Recently while rehearsing for a reading, I was rambling on about my collection of  favorite creepy casting posts of the day.   A woman I was acting with said, “Hey!  You should blog about these!”  Well…here we go!  Among CastingNetworks, ActorsAccess, and the other handful of sites we actors obsessively monitor, there is also at least one incredibly bizarre jaw-dropping notice.  To get us started, my favorite from a few weeks ago was: “Seeking albino vampires to play waitstaff.” AlRIGHT!

2. As promised in the blog title, I will report on my favorite New York City finds involving cupcakes, chocolate, coffee, or just generally awesome people.  I could go on for pages about chocolate cafes I’ve discovered here, but that’s a whole post of its own…(Lily O’Brien’s, LA Burdicks, Little Brown Cafe to name a few)

My find of the day is…Papa’s Gino’s Pizza on Newtown Road in Astoria!  Why?  Because the owner not only sold me a very cheap pizza, but also tried to find every reason to make me take a shot before leaving the place.  So hooray to friendly Astoria restaurant owners!  He ranks up there with the nice pizza place owner on 30th ave who used to trade Greek pastries for my cupcakes after work.

3. Favorite 5 year old moment of the day.  After leaving Crumbs, I opened up my schedule to balance teaching, acting, and anything that basically brought me more  joy than selling food to Madison Avenue blue shirts (my nickname for corporate types.)  Right now, I teach Toy Design and Science to K-3 in an awesome all-girls afterschool program.

Classroom from this summer.

This one is from yesterday…kids are painfully honest sometimes.  I had a class that over-enrolled and left me with 20 kindergartners and lots of sparkly craft supplies.  If you have a wild montage in your mind of  me being chased by a roomful of toddlers covered in glue…yes, that it exactly what happened.  At the end of the class,  I collapsed on the rug with them in a circle as they played their water bottle maracas.  I said something like “I think we’ll try things a little differently next week.”  The incredibly wise-beyond-her-years buddha-like child (there’s always one), put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Yeah, didn’t work out too well for you, did it?”  She shook her head while she said this.  I was speechless.

4. And last but not least…NY Lesson of the day!  I think this one will speak for itself…

“Never underestimate the power of New Yorkers to IGNORE YOU.” Ben, my fantastic and insightful boyfriend, said this to me about people being crazy on trains.  Well today there was that business dude, angry at everyone, who starts yelling and screaming to get attention.  In any other city people may move trains or show any sign of concern.  NO no, here people suddenly discover that books they’ve been meaning to finish, their phone with no reception, or the best: continue the conversation they’re having despite the cussing man threatening the train.  Ah New York.