What Else I Shouldn't Do

Because no one should be getting their news from Kid Rock.

Thanks L!

What Shouldn't I Do

Scratch housepainter off the list. I just tried to finish up my entryway and ended up painting much of the floor and most of my body in the process.

Coolest gift ever

I got an Ice Cream Maker for my birthday. A Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker to be exact. But who are we kidding? No one's wasting time on the froyo and sorbet.

The Road Not Traveled

Birthday's been good so far. Mellow. Not much to report. But being a "woman of leisure" at the moment reminded me of the time I actually lost a job ON my birthday. My 30th birthday. About an hour before the party. Doesn't that just take the cake?

I'd auditioned to cohost a series called "Road Trip" for the Travel Channel. The premise was simple. A guy and a girl get in a convertible and drive cross country. The production company had already found their guy and shot the pilot with a solo host. But the Travel Channel though the series needed a sidekick so they asked the crew to find a woman. They found me.

We spent a day reshooting the pilot - if I remember correctly - from Long Island to Queens. It went alright. I'm not much of a "turn it on for the cameras" personality. I'm better just being me. So the process of take after take to get multiple camera angles of the same shot was tedious. Plus, I'm better off-the-cuff than reciting script that's masquerading as spontaneous dialogue. It's why I never got into acting. Not my thing. Therefore, by the end of the day, I was less Road Trip more Road Kill.

A couple of days later I went out to the production house to take a look at the raw cut. In retrospect, I didn't love it, but I was under the impression that Pilot 2.0 was more of a proof of concept than a proof of me. The whole process was awkward, and it was clear both cast and crew needed to work out the kinks. Messy but not insurmountable.

Then it got quiet. For days. And on my 30th birthday, I got the call. I remember being on the street in the East Village when my cellphone rang, and a lower level producer informed me that Road Trip was a go but going without me. They ended up hiring an actress - a Broadway actress - to cruise shotgun cross country.

Yeah, it was a bummer. Huge bummer. And I can't even say it was for the better because where's the real downside in getting paid to see the country? But if you believe in things happening for a reason, then the lost series are just as important as the ones that stick. And had I caught that ride, who knows where I would have been when CNN came calling? If the pilot was any indication, I would have been somewhere like this.

MYstery solved

I'm more Nancy Doodle than Nancy Drew, but I cracked the case of the missing Sunday papers.

Turns out when I skip town, my downstairs neighbor scoops up my NYT.

I can see the logic behind not wanting home delivery to go to waste, but I'm thinking there's a better way of handling the situation. Like maybe bringing the paper inside and leaving it for me, seeing as how it's mine and all. Or maybe asking if it would be alright to grab my paper when I seem to be out of town. I'd be ok with that. I play well with others. I'm just not digging the assumption that it's cool to cop first and ask permission later. It leaves me in the awkward spot of having to knock on your door Sunday night and ask for my crossword puzzle back - operative word being "my."

Power grid

We're back from NYC, and we had an amazing time. How can you not have fun at a wedding that features spiked SnoCones? Solid choice.

I do feel like we ate our way through Manhattan though. When you live in the city, you pace your consumption. When you're only back in town for 48 hours, you tend towards wanting to devour everything it has to offer - sights, sounds, and scooped bagels - in ridiculous dose.

Yes, I miss it. A lot.

But I did promise info on my pre-vacay soiree so here goes. It was a fancy shindig celebrating Washington's most powerful people. I'm not one of those people. I'm the DC power equivalent of a flashcube. But sometimes you need a quick blip of light, and therefore, I was invited to be the non-date date of a "one to watch." My "one to watch" and I spent much of the night watching and wondering who ARE these people? Clearly, I'm not just out of the loop, but I don't even own a belt. I was honored to be invited, but the dinner afterwards with good friends and even gooder wine (she says after 3 glasses) trumped the evening's main event by a wide margin.

Which leads me to this. My Power 150 is probably closer to a Power 15 these days, but it's not tough to make the list. You just need the power to make me laugh, the power to laugh at me when appropriate, and the power to laugh at the rest of the city that takes itself much too seriously far too often.

DC needs a little NYC. It could start with scooped bagels.