When I was little, I used to think teachers lived at school and then when I would see them somewhere outside of school, I would think it was weird. It's sort of the same with people that I work with...I mean, sure, I don't think these people live in the office but I also don't know anything else about them, except they work in the same office as I do.
I got to thinking about this earlier, as a man who works a few offices down from me gave me a rose and then the woman I was speaking to explained that he breeds roses and has won awards for them...Now, I don't work for this guy and I don't know much about him in general but I would not have guessed him to be a gardener so I thought that was really cool. Not, of course, that that means gardeners have telltale signs, but it wasn't something that had crossed my mind. I mean, another man in the office used to be an Equity actor, but I could have guessed that because I join him in singing showtunes every now and then...But I suppose if I had never spoke to him, I would not have known that.
People were intrigued to find out that I work on shows after work...though it is obvious that I love the theatre from looking at my cubicle which is papered with postcards from shows I've done and seen...but if someone didn't speak to me on a regular absis, they wouldn't have known that...
So I suppose we wait for after office hours to let our own, individual idenitites come out.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Friday, August 26, 2005
Girl Crushes
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B13FC3F5A0C728DDDA10894DD404482)
This was recently in the Times...I think you have to pay if you want to read it, but this link is the summary of the article...
Anyway...I was thinking about this concept for a while after I read that article...and it's interesting that the article means 'crush' in a thoroughly non-sexual way. Which is itneresting since I forwarded to my dad to give to my mom, and he misinterpreted it. But I guess it's more likely that woman would use the word 'crush' and not equate it with sex.
There is always that person who you look at and think "wow, she's so put together, confident, pretty, etc" and if this person is your friend, and spend time around them...you feel more like you'd want to be that person for a day rather than have sex with them...
My friend from SU, Alise, told me sometime after we became good friends that when she first met me, she thought I was a person who'd had "a lot of sex" because I was confident and she also said that she was intimidated by me. Well, by then, she had found out that I had not, in fact, had a lot of sex but I found that interesting because I always saw her as confident, fairly free-spirited and fun...and she was (is) but the images we had of each other have long since evaporated, leaving more realistic and interesting people in their places. It is always intriguing to hear how other people see you because it isn't always accurate but usually holds some interest.
This was recently in the Times...I think you have to pay if you want to read it, but this link is the summary of the article...
Anyway...I was thinking about this concept for a while after I read that article...and it's interesting that the article means 'crush' in a thoroughly non-sexual way. Which is itneresting since I forwarded to my dad to give to my mom, and he misinterpreted it. But I guess it's more likely that woman would use the word 'crush' and not equate it with sex.
There is always that person who you look at and think "wow, she's so put together, confident, pretty, etc" and if this person is your friend, and spend time around them...you feel more like you'd want to be that person for a day rather than have sex with them...
My friend from SU, Alise, told me sometime after we became good friends that when she first met me, she thought I was a person who'd had "a lot of sex" because I was confident and she also said that she was intimidated by me. Well, by then, she had found out that I had not, in fact, had a lot of sex but I found that interesting because I always saw her as confident, fairly free-spirited and fun...and she was (is) but the images we had of each other have long since evaporated, leaving more realistic and interesting people in their places. It is always intriguing to hear how other people see you because it isn't always accurate but usually holds some interest.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Dating Etiquette: Sort of Ridiculous
http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspx?articleid=3973&TrackingID=516311&BannerID=544657&menuid=6
Seriously. Why not start with the obvious: When a date is made, don't cancel it. We are in the age of IM, JDate and Match.com but meeting people online is never as personal as meeting them face-to-face. However, it becomes difficult when the person with whom you are speaking with online lays it thick with compliments one moment, then won't really ask you out the next. Say he does, then you set up a time to meet...but he calls to cancel. Then doesn't call to reschedule.
The problem is that people you have met online actually haven't met you, despite the connection that could possibly be forged over IM. So if you haven't met that person, then how could you be compelled to even keep a date? If you cancel, you're really not losing anything becuase you never knew that person to begin with.
The aforementioned article is ridiculous for several reasons...The first being why direct this at the guy? These would be things for both people to think about. Most women would not dress down for a first date, but still. They could be just as guilty of hiding behind their menu as the man. And why not add something that is usually a question when you first start dating: Who pays?
I'm one to believe that in theory, both should add to the bill. It is, however, a nice gesture if the guy wants to pay. I will always offer, but it seems like good manners if the guy picks it up...not for every date, just the first.
Also, don't say you want to get together again and then not do it. That will erase any chance you might have had. That article would have been much more effective if it included anything of substance instead of fluff.
Seriously. Why not start with the obvious: When a date is made, don't cancel it. We are in the age of IM, JDate and Match.com but meeting people online is never as personal as meeting them face-to-face. However, it becomes difficult when the person with whom you are speaking with online lays it thick with compliments one moment, then won't really ask you out the next. Say he does, then you set up a time to meet...but he calls to cancel. Then doesn't call to reschedule.
The problem is that people you have met online actually haven't met you, despite the connection that could possibly be forged over IM. So if you haven't met that person, then how could you be compelled to even keep a date? If you cancel, you're really not losing anything becuase you never knew that person to begin with.
The aforementioned article is ridiculous for several reasons...The first being why direct this at the guy? These would be things for both people to think about. Most women would not dress down for a first date, but still. They could be just as guilty of hiding behind their menu as the man. And why not add something that is usually a question when you first start dating: Who pays?
I'm one to believe that in theory, both should add to the bill. It is, however, a nice gesture if the guy wants to pay. I will always offer, but it seems like good manners if the guy picks it up...not for every date, just the first.
Also, don't say you want to get together again and then not do it. That will erase any chance you might have had. That article would have been much more effective if it included anything of substance instead of fluff.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Endings and Beginnings
So last night, one of my favorite shows, Six Feet Under ended. It was after five seasons and it was arguably time for it to be over. Six Feet Under was first and foremost an HBO show, which meant they could do what they wanted storywise, languagewise and visually. And they did. They did things such as employing the dead people who passed through the funeral home, Fisher and Sons (though for three of the seasons, Fisher and Diaz, though it went back to 'Sons' in the end) to speak to the characters and become their inner monologues, opening every episode with a death and the fade to white instead of the ever-popular fade to black.I didn't always love what everyone did on the show; they all were very human and made plenty of mistakes. But who wants to watch people be perfect?
That was not why I loved the show. I did love the quirkiness of it and the dream sequences, occasional musical numbers and presence of the many ghosts. But for some reason, I always felt close to the show. Close enough to spend my last semester in college writing an episode of it. For that project, I pored over my tapes of the show and took laborious notes about how long scenes were and how many a character had in an episode. For me though, this was hardly work. I enjoyed this project. I would do it again, if I could.
Somewhere around the time I was doing this project, something odd happened. The Fishers became my family. Nathaniel, Ruth, Nate, David and Claire moved into my room and stayed with me. Even Brenda, Rico, Lisa, Keith, Russell and Olivier were present. It became obvious to me that this was the case when I got an A on my project and was told by a lontime tv writer that my script was "solid." This also manifested itself in my other writings.
In one of my storylines, a young man died but it was only after I was familiar with SFU that this young man hung around with his friends who were mourning their loss. He visited them, became their conscience and I don't believe I would ever have had this idea otherwise.
The espisode itself was both ending and beginning and since that is the way life is, it was fitting and beautifully executed. I will miss the Fishers, Chenowiths and Diazes visiting me for 13 Sunday evenings out of the year. Luckily, I still have my tapes.
That was not why I loved the show. I did love the quirkiness of it and the dream sequences, occasional musical numbers and presence of the many ghosts. But for some reason, I always felt close to the show. Close enough to spend my last semester in college writing an episode of it. For that project, I pored over my tapes of the show and took laborious notes about how long scenes were and how many a character had in an episode. For me though, this was hardly work. I enjoyed this project. I would do it again, if I could.
Somewhere around the time I was doing this project, something odd happened. The Fishers became my family. Nathaniel, Ruth, Nate, David and Claire moved into my room and stayed with me. Even Brenda, Rico, Lisa, Keith, Russell and Olivier were present. It became obvious to me that this was the case when I got an A on my project and was told by a lontime tv writer that my script was "solid." This also manifested itself in my other writings.
In one of my storylines, a young man died but it was only after I was familiar with SFU that this young man hung around with his friends who were mourning their loss. He visited them, became their conscience and I don't believe I would ever have had this idea otherwise.
The espisode itself was both ending and beginning and since that is the way life is, it was fitting and beautifully executed. I will miss the Fishers, Chenowiths and Diazes visiting me for 13 Sunday evenings out of the year. Luckily, I still have my tapes.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Thoughts on Hermione
I wrote this almost a month agao, but I wanted to move it here:
So I've now completed my first reading of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and look forward to what comes next. I have been an avid fan of these books since my sister put them in my hands my first summer home from SU.
I thought a lot about the characters in the books, and about which ones show up or don't show up as much in this volume. I missed Ron's older brothers, Fred and George and the late Sirius Black because I like those characters. We go through the story with Harry, out hero and main character but I thought then of what character I most related to.
The obvious answer is Harry's best female friend, Hermione. Not because she is the most prominent female character and the brains of the outfit, but because I see myself in her.
I have unruly blonde-brown hair that used to be the subject of ridicule by certain people in middle school who had nothing better to do. Hermione's two best friends are boys, and I have close male friends, sometimes even preferring their company to that of girls. And then in high school, I found myself with a crush on one of my closest male friends. Reading the scenes where Hermione and Ron nervously dance around each other with their as yet, unspoken feelings for each other, I remembered my time as the girl of a very different trio of friends doing the same.
I enjoy the action, the friendships and the values emparted by the Harry Potter books and I have to tip my hat to Ms. Rowling for making a girl like Hermione such a prominent character throughout the series. Though she can be wearing at times, Hermione is a rock for both of her closest friends and she values them highly. She is a supremely feminist character that shows not only can girls play with boys, but girls can match boys in strength and loyalty.
So I've now completed my first reading of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and look forward to what comes next. I have been an avid fan of these books since my sister put them in my hands my first summer home from SU.
I thought a lot about the characters in the books, and about which ones show up or don't show up as much in this volume. I missed Ron's older brothers, Fred and George and the late Sirius Black because I like those characters. We go through the story with Harry, out hero and main character but I thought then of what character I most related to.
The obvious answer is Harry's best female friend, Hermione. Not because she is the most prominent female character and the brains of the outfit, but because I see myself in her.
I have unruly blonde-brown hair that used to be the subject of ridicule by certain people in middle school who had nothing better to do. Hermione's two best friends are boys, and I have close male friends, sometimes even preferring their company to that of girls. And then in high school, I found myself with a crush on one of my closest male friends. Reading the scenes where Hermione and Ron nervously dance around each other with their as yet, unspoken feelings for each other, I remembered my time as the girl of a very different trio of friends doing the same.
I enjoy the action, the friendships and the values emparted by the Harry Potter books and I have to tip my hat to Ms. Rowling for making a girl like Hermione such a prominent character throughout the series. Though she can be wearing at times, Hermione is a rock for both of her closest friends and she values them highly. She is a supremely feminist character that shows not only can girls play with boys, but girls can match boys in strength and loyalty.
Friday, August 19, 2005
And Now Presenting:
"The Cabaret girls..." Sorry. Done now ;o).
I'm sure this comes a surprise to no one that I'm an avid reader/tv and movie watcher...So some of my favorite shows recently have all featured relatively good looking (or hot, in Timothy Olyphant's case), brooding torutred men. This has led to something my sister and I have come to refer to as "the tortured soul competition," which came into being when Deadwood and 24 were on back to back nights earlier this year...Now Jack's supposed to be dead but Seth lost his son, so I'm still not sure who wins. Then I got into Rescue Me and Tommy Gavin makes a case almost weekly for his spot as top tortured soul... And then Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out (if you haven't read it yet, that's your problem) and Harry makes his own, convincing case for a shot at top tortured soul...So the list is as follows:
- Seth Bullock (Deadwood)
- Jack Bauer (24)
- Tommy Gavin (Rescue Me)
- Harry Potter (Harry Potter series...of books, not movies)
I pick these people because they are main characters in their respective stories and because these are shows that I watch every week or read every book.
People who come close:
-Ben Hawkins (Carnivale...doesn't make the list since Carnivale got canned and it made no sense most of the time)
- Any of the Fishers (Six Feet Under...don't make the list because the show has degenerated in the last two seasons and the only reason it's good right now is that it's ending)
So that's it for now, we'll see what kind of trouble Tommy gets himself into this week...
I'm sure this comes a surprise to no one that I'm an avid reader/tv and movie watcher...So some of my favorite shows recently have all featured relatively good looking (or hot, in Timothy Olyphant's case), brooding torutred men. This has led to something my sister and I have come to refer to as "the tortured soul competition," which came into being when Deadwood and 24 were on back to back nights earlier this year...Now Jack's supposed to be dead but Seth lost his son, so I'm still not sure who wins. Then I got into Rescue Me and Tommy Gavin makes a case almost weekly for his spot as top tortured soul... And then Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out (if you haven't read it yet, that's your problem) and Harry makes his own, convincing case for a shot at top tortured soul...So the list is as follows:
- Seth Bullock (Deadwood)
- Jack Bauer (24)
- Tommy Gavin (Rescue Me)
- Harry Potter (Harry Potter series...of books, not movies)
I pick these people because they are main characters in their respective stories and because these are shows that I watch every week or read every book.
People who come close:
-Ben Hawkins (Carnivale...doesn't make the list since Carnivale got canned and it made no sense most of the time)
- Any of the Fishers (Six Feet Under...don't make the list because the show has degenerated in the last two seasons and the only reason it's good right now is that it's ending)
So that's it for now, we'll see what kind of trouble Tommy gets himself into this week...
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Job Hunting vs. Dating
You can't tell me there aren't parallels... Just because some article decides to point this out
(http://careers.msn.com) doesn't mean they were the first to come up with this analogy...I know I'm not either. That's fine.
I went to this event earlier this year called "Pre-Dating," which was speed-dating, ie spending like 10 minutes with someone and deciding if I liked them or not. This was basically one glorified job interview because as I met with each guy, they would almost invariably ask me to explain my job to them. Don't people know that they are not only defined by the jobs that they do? Apparently not. I doesn't matter since I didn't match up with any of those people...I was insulted at first but then thought, "Do I really care?" No.
I had a recent job interview and it reminded me of a date because I could tell it wasn't going especially well because there were all these awkward silences and me, sitting there uncomfortable. It's like Carrie said, "First dates are job interviews with cocktails." (If you don't know who Carrie is, that's your problem ;o)...Not mean, just honest)
See, connection is such an important component to a work environment/ dating situation and it so hard to come by that you spend a lot of time wondering how you got it wrong on both fronts. It is hard to 'just be yourself' because in these situations, you become a like a version of yoursefl...and it is not until you are hired for a job or actually dating someone for the real you to come through.
(http://careers.msn.com) doesn't mean they were the first to come up with this analogy...I know I'm not either. That's fine.
I went to this event earlier this year called "Pre-Dating," which was speed-dating, ie spending like 10 minutes with someone and deciding if I liked them or not. This was basically one glorified job interview because as I met with each guy, they would almost invariably ask me to explain my job to them. Don't people know that they are not only defined by the jobs that they do? Apparently not. I doesn't matter since I didn't match up with any of those people...I was insulted at first but then thought, "Do I really care?" No.
I had a recent job interview and it reminded me of a date because I could tell it wasn't going especially well because there were all these awkward silences and me, sitting there uncomfortable. It's like Carrie said, "First dates are job interviews with cocktails." (If you don't know who Carrie is, that's your problem ;o)...Not mean, just honest)
See, connection is such an important component to a work environment/ dating situation and it so hard to come by that you spend a lot of time wondering how you got it wrong on both fronts. It is hard to 'just be yourself' because in these situations, you become a like a version of yoursefl...and it is not until you are hired for a job or actually dating someone for the real you to come through.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Wilkomen, Bienvenue...Shalom?
It's really weird that when I spend the day at my desk at work thinking baout coming home and writing, when I actually sit down to write, I have issues getting the words out. I feel like it's because I've actually thought about it too much. Oy. What a way to begin.
Anyway...so introduction: I'm Sara. Sara Anne. See, some people find this really hard. There is no 'h' on the end of Sara. Why should there be? It's just an extra letter. But people invariably add it. Even when it's written down for people to copy, they still ask me if there is an 'h' at the end of my name. Though you're probably like, then why add the 'e' to Anne? You know what? I've seen 'Ann'...and it just looks, well...naked. So anyway, I'm 24, an aspiring writer who works at a job somewhat reminiscent of Office Space (just enough for my co-worker to come over and say 'what's happening' to make him and me crack up)...it's not a bad line of work, though it is in an office. I also volunteer at a theatre near my Brooklyn apt and enjoy that much more than the job I actaully get paid to do. But I get paid. So I shouldn't complain. Not really.
Anyway...so introduction: I'm Sara. Sara Anne. See, some people find this really hard. There is no 'h' on the end of Sara. Why should there be? It's just an extra letter. But people invariably add it. Even when it's written down for people to copy, they still ask me if there is an 'h' at the end of my name. Though you're probably like, then why add the 'e' to Anne? You know what? I've seen 'Ann'...and it just looks, well...naked. So anyway, I'm 24, an aspiring writer who works at a job somewhat reminiscent of Office Space (just enough for my co-worker to come over and say 'what's happening' to make him and me crack up)...it's not a bad line of work, though it is in an office. I also volunteer at a theatre near my Brooklyn apt and enjoy that much more than the job I actaully get paid to do. But I get paid. So I shouldn't complain. Not really.
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