Hmmm

I've become obsessed with meeting new people. It's exciting! It's fun! It makes me think differently. I often find myself going out of my way to find a new place to get drinks or food or taking a different route home, just to get a new perspective. Then again, I've yearn for stability! I think I just want a job out here already that can keep me for a couple months. I feel like nothing is really promised for me at the moment. I could be out of work in two weeks and then be lost for work and need to hop on a plane. It would be sad considering I've worked so hard at finding work and a place to stay and friends and food and all that good stuff. I crave stability I think just so I can save the money to go traveling some more. I think I've finally started to get a feel for what I want to really do. I just need a video camera, a camera and my computer. I'll travel the world and put it out for the world to see, people need to stop being so chicken and get out and try something new! I can't believe I lived in such a bubble my whole life. It doesn't matter if you've lived in a huge Metropolitan like NYC or the smallest town in Nebraska, it's beautiful to live and feel a new culture. It's not about visiting the Eiffle Tower on your vacation, I mean live and work with the locals, get a pint a beer and find out what pisses off the dude that works at the corner deli shop or the dude at the bank or the woman that teaches. There is always a story to be told. 

Maybe the Peace Corps would be a good look for me. 

I woke up this morning wishing I came from money. How wonderful it must be to pay your bills on time and know you will eat well that night after a long days work. On the other hand, it's the lack of those things that's helped me realize how much I don't need them. 

I watched an old dude sit next to his wife on the tube. A posh sort, he rocked his argil scarf and wool peacoat. The couple read the paper as if they had an exam in an hour. I could tell they were married. Anywho, the dude got all upset because the train conductor had something other than a British accent and it was a bit difficult to hear him. "For Christ sake, can't they at least get someone to speak English!" he said out loud to his wife. His wife continued to read the paper, said something under her breathe as he continued... "They don't even dress properly. At least they could get someone that spoke English." 

I wanted to tell the dude that I spoke English perfectly fine and heard quite clearly what the train conductor announced. Or maybe I just wanted to give him a big ol' slap in the head. Wake up and smell the coffee Mr. Poshity Poshsters! People travel, listen to some other accents and maybe you can understand someone besides you and your wife. 

Hmmm, maybe Americans and Brits aren't so different after all... 

hahahah

Oh, excuse me sir, can you please STFU

It must be a New York thing. Are we that angry of a people? I love it. It's gotten so bad I've been tempted to strategically camp out on a busy city corner waiting for something to happen. 

Car fights! I love them! Not so much in NYC, those can get pretty ugly. But there's something about watching an angry British driver turn to the bike rider that almost caused a five car accident after swerving into the wrong lane to say, "Excuse me, but did you realize you almost hit me." Talk about anger management control. I can't even think back to the last time I spoke that politely to a person I wasn't mad at! Is there really a need to excuse yourself when your heart isn't there. Why lie to themselves? Save your breath London drivers and start speaking without thinking. No need to be polite, you don't like them anyway. The city is big enough, you probably won't run into them anyway... especially considering they ran into you first... (hahah.. I made a funny.) Maybe we should all just drive singing Bet Midler.

Oh I get by with a little help from my friends

Honestly, I don't think I'd be as happy right now or having the experience I've had without making friends. Life lesson dudes... it's no fun experiencing things without enjoying it with someone. It's the most beautiful feeling, giving someone a hug good-bye and thinking to myself, "Shit guys, I have a friend!" I actually found a good number of people who care enough about me that they'd even touch my skin to give me a kiss and a hug before leaving. They even call me once in a while to see how I'm doing. Amazing! Such a simplistic concept... friendship, yet so deep. I mean, think about how successful the show FRIENDS became! The whole show was just about a group of friends... and like woah, shits a hit!

It's been great, I mean, I do miss my plumber dude... he was my first real friend out here, but I've come to grips with it. It's fascinating how quickly people affect other people. All of my relationships here are based on me randomly popping into their world. Even at my new gig I picked up, the whole staff treats me like I've been there for years. Like, they actually care about what I'm doing with my life and I actually give a damn if one of them is having a bad day or stubs their toe (especially if it's the tiny one... those hurt yo!) 

For example, for the past 4 weeks, I've really gotten to know this guy named Tim. He's the other runner at the office. He's just awesome. His girlfriend is awesome... she rocks the dreads look right now. Funny, he's actually the only British dude I've met that doesn't like tea... Who does that? He puts me on all these random media facts in London, which may or may not do me any good in the future... unless I get to be on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?! (watch Slumdog Millionaire and then maybe you'll get my terrible joke/thought process)

Andy is another dude I've become good mates with. Him and his girl have been going out now for 7 years! Wowzers. Andy just looks out for me so much. We have the best chats about life and its great connecting with people who you'd never realize you had so many similarities with. Who would think a chick like me from the Bronx, would share similar goals as a dude from a small town in Devon, England. He's a drummer and I got to watch him live at the pub I use to work at. It's nice going back to the pubs I worked at, especially the one I used to live above. I made such good friends there. My two old Australian flatmates Ben and Anna. I love them and it was just so refreshing to see them as well yesterday. One of the regulars came up to me and bought me a Bulmers and said "Well you seem to be miss popular tonight huh!" Funny, I only worked and lived there a month. 

I can't even begin to explain how awesome my flatmate Chris is... and Jeannie and Scottish dude. Scottish dude is already planning out my birthday weekend. If nothing else works out here, I have nothing to regret or complain about. I've made some life long friends. It's a hard concept to grasp when you have your own circle of friends and you don't really need to find new ones, but for me, popping over here with nothing and finding so much... it just makes you really appreciative of what I have and it's made the relationships I have with people out here a lot stronger. 

No place like home..

I don't think it hit me till about a week ago... I HAVE NOT SEEN ONE ROACH AKA BUG AKA NASTY YUCKY THING AKA THE CRUNCHY SOUNDING THINGS WILL SMITH DID A SMASHING JOB KILLING IN MEN IN BLACK AKA THE CREATURE WE CAN NEVER SEEM TO GET RID OF NO MATTER HOW CLEAN YOU ARE!

Seriously, no lies... and I mean, I've worked in 2 pubs since I've arrived... I HAVE NOT SEEN A SINGLE MUTANT!! I can't believe it! As dirty as I sometimes think British people are (Although I do think it's mostly people from the pub I worked at), I feel like London is a damn pretty clean city. Three months and no bugs! It's awesome! No wonder I'm not ready to leave yet! I LOVE IT! 

While I'm on the topic... here's an interesting story that came out from the Guardian newspaper out here... 

How a cockroach put 30 people out of work

For the viewers of Turkmenistan's popular nightly news program, Vatan, it was another routine bulletin. But as the newsreader began the 9pm broadcast, viewers across the central Asian country spotted something unusual crawling across the studio table: a large brown cockroach.

The cockroach managed to complete a whole lap of the desk, apparently undetected, before disappearing. The program, complete with cockroach, was repeated at 11pm that night.

Turkmenistan's president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, was so upset when outraged viewers complained to the station that he fired 30 workers from the main state TV channel.

Back in US

I know the focus of this blog has been what goes on here in the UK, but yikes... what's happening to the US!? 

Today's BBC report:  AIG reports record $61.7bn loss

What's happening over there? Why are companies getting so much money and still messing up? Yikes... it makes me nervous. It's just as bad here...

BAIL-OUTS RECEIVED
AIG - $180bn
Bank of America - $45bn
Citigroup - $50bn
JP Morgan Chase - $25bn
Wells Fargo - $25bn
Goldman Sachs - $10bn
Morgan Stanley - $10bn
State Street - $3bn
Bank of New York Mellon - $3bn

Picture this...

The snow in London!!

My homie Scottish Dude

more pics to come

I guess I haven't really discussed this new job of mine in detail...

It's nothing big really, I'm a runner at a media slash advertising agency out here in Central London. 

Surprisingly, I got the job after facebook stalking the CEO of the company. The CEO is quite the man... making big bucks, making big deals and married to a pretty well known actress out here in the UK. It's wild! A dude like himself would normally give a flying hoot about who or what I was.  

I sent him a facebook message about a week after I arrived in London. Maybe it was two or three. It was around the time I started to panic about my job situation. I figured it couldn't hurt writing him. I actually tried to contact the company before I left New York City. I emailed another dude who worked there, but he never responded. At the time, I felt like it was the only way to get myself noticed with this company, so I looked up the CEO on facebook and sent him a nice little message which said... 

Hello Mr. (___)

I am a young producer from New York City. I recently moved to London and came across your company's website- (_____). I just want to compliment you and your group on an amazing website and what looks like on face value, a strong and creative media company to work for. I apologize for the informal facebook message, but I had no other way of contacting you other than a phone call and I felt facebook would be a bit easier for me to contact you personally. I am actually just looking for a freelance position or apprenticeship to get myself started out here. I have a lot of experience in multi-media production back in New York City. I not only helped produce many online media packages, but I was also a radio disc jockey as well as a presenter. I worked on many entertainment events such as the Pepsi Blue Carpet Bash and the Latin Grammy's.

If you have any room for a young woman with tons of energy and an infinite amount of ideas and passion, please contact me. If nothing else, I would like to see what you guys do so I can get a feel for the media out here.

Thanks for taking to read this!

YIKES... Thanks for taking to read this! I didn't even write properly in the message and he somehow sent me a message back about a month later saying... 

Hey, in NYC in Feb (3rd - 7th)... we are looking to open up in NYC and possibly LA this year... lets meet and have a chat. cheers. Let me know your availability and lets hook up to talk. Would be very useful for me.

WTF MATE! 

I jumped on the opportunity to meet with the dude. Called him the next day. Met up that Friday. 

It happened all too quickly. I met with him and it was like, we were using each other. He wanted to meet with me to find out about New York City. I wanted to meet with him for a job... we both won. He sent my name to the Facilities Manager and about two days later, I was offered a job as a runner. 

Unfortunately, the job is really really really (really) beneath me. It's been a humbling experience making coffee for people and picking up the dry cleaning for the lazy bastards. HOWEVER! I am thankful and super freaked out at how crazy it is that I am actually working for a legit company right now in London. 

My issue right now is the job is only temporary, aka for five weeks I can get paid and also panic at the idea of not having a job in another three weeks time. It's kind of like STANDING BEHIND ROBERT LOGGIA IN AN AIRPORT. Think of how anxious I am right now, just waiting for the damn thing to finish and hoping I can get hop on another plane of opportunity. 

Despite my internal grief and panic, I am enjoying meeting new people and shmoozing with every single soul I meet at the office. I have actually made some awesome connections and my job, which started off as a mere waste of a day with silly errands grew to getting the chance to work on a commercial shoot this past Friday for this group called the Noisettes and helping out one of the producers over the weekend with another music commercial for Groove Armada. 

The shoot Friday was amazing!!! I had an awesome time.. made a lot of connections and took a lot of pictures!!! Which I will post!!!

Yay for facebook and being gutsy!