Change of pace

The finished area that we did.

Lower East Side flavor, color in garden design.

Planting beautiful color in the garden.

Coleus, one of my favorite plants.

The end result? a beautiful garden enjoyed by neighborhood.

Still in thoughts about the fellow BGer's funeral, I decided to get out of the house if I couldn't get out of my mind and distract myself by going to see a movie. It was close to 10 pm as I headed out on my spur of the moment decision, after watching the sun go down. I had refused to turn on a light but had to in order to change out of my mourning clothes and into a pair of jeans and a more lively color of dark pink for the blouse and headed out in sneakers to midtown manhattan to catch the last showing of the evening. At the last second, I decided to go with Angels and Demons instead of Star Trek. The movie was pretty faithful to the book although I may have to re-read the last couple chapters of the book on some of the sequences that the professor, I thought, was supposed to be doing or had done and it was slightly tweaked for someone else. I don't want to give too much away, but I had thought the professor did not succeed in saving any of the hostages' lives. It moved pretty fast, a bit jumbly, jaunty. And I didn't like the professor too much in this one -- he seemed a bit too haughty and big for his britches which was not there before. There was a lot of explaining at the beginning of the movie for those who are slow to follow or for the five people who haven't read the book all these years.

Dan Brown's latest Professor L. book gets released sometime this September. I may read it.

Today I went to go to my latest volunteer project -- working in community gardens. I went to pull weeds, dig, plant petunias, begonias, and various other plants and flowers, plus add mulch and water. The earth felt good in my gloved hands and smelled rich and dark. They use organic soil (what else is there I wondered inwardly). As the day progressed, we took a break and went to another garden two blocks away to mow its lawn with this new electrical mower which had power and did the job with less noise and was light as a feather being mostly plastic, which to me was impressive.

We got a lot done considering it was only three people. Got a free lunch and plenty of water and gatorade to quench my thirst in the hot sun. You could feel the steam coming off the soil after watering it and the sun warming the soil. I had fun, got my mind cleared a bit, and enjoyed the day despite the hard work. I felt I got something accomplished and helped make something more beautiful. I will be back to volunteer on this again.

not too boring so far

The past two days found me working on set in Brighton Beach filming for a series called "Bored To Death", starring Jason Schwartzman (Darjeeling Express). He was amicable, and made small talk with the background actors and even asked our names, which was nice. We needed a way to pass the time. He talked up the pretty thin blond next to him, who had some interesting views about her fear of aging and that she was concerned she was not as thin as she could be. This was a very pretty and thin woman, who was concerned about her looks, and Jason was as gentlemanly as can be. I always wonder what these women see when they look in the mirror. Sometimes I wonder if they are just trying to get someone to say "oh that's so not true, you are gorgeous, you are doing great!" or if they truly don't see how pretty they are. Either way, it's a crime and a shame. I didn't say much but simply observed and kept my comments to myself. I tend to get into trouble when I don't.

Ironically, I couldn't help but notice all the tall pretty thin women that were on set, and here I am with my curvy self, that two of them could easily stand side by side to fill one of me. A lot of the men were paying attention to them and eyeing them. If one of the thin women seemed confused or stuck, it took seconds for one of the men if not a few to come to their rescue.

So I watched Jason as he talked up the blond at the table he was at, and thought, here's a guy who is average looking, reminds me a bit of Dustin Hoffman, who I think he admires anyway. Probably smart, seems engaging. And he's not looking at the 'average' girl but this beautiful thin tall blond who is preoccupied with, let's face it, shallow issues.

We want what we can't have. Or we let ourselves get lost in what we think we can acquire when we know what the price is going to be. Would Jason be able to talk to this girl, or better yet, would this girl give him the time of day if Jason wasn't in a starring role?

And I fold my napkin onto my lap and allow myself to observe, relax, and talk to fellow BG actors, some I've worked with before, and catch up with them, cracking jokes and listening to everyone's stories.

One BG actor did spiral out of control at one point when we were in holding because she was not getting the attention of this male BG actor who was sitting and talking to another. She got more aggressive towards him, first by interrupting his conversation and then by physically moving closer to him and in his face to get him to interact with her and he was not amused and kept on his conversation. She lost it by stating that everyone was jealous of her, no one cared about her, and she was "used to that". When another BG came over to have a seat, she tried to engage that person by stating along the lines that everyone at that table was against her, and nudged her chin towards the direction of the male actor. The male actor made a crack, "No wonder you never got any waivers," and she got up in a huff and left to complain to another passing BG actor. Nobody knew her, not even the one she tried to start an argument with, not the other passing BG actor she tried to get involved, or the one who sat at the table at the tail end of her dramatic speech before going off in a huff.

On a positive note -- my computer drive replacement came in, it's installed, and I'm up and running! YAYYY!!!

After scouring ads, I took a break and took advantage of a deal to get a free haircut and color.

I had thought I was going to get a completely new do, but instead, they only darkened my hair and snipped here and there, keeping the length for the most part. I was sort of disappointed, and could see they cut a bit, but for the most part, the cute layered bob I was envisioning did not happen. Maybe my face wouldn't accomodate it, I don't know. I leave it to the pros to figure out what works. They liked my length and hair, so I guess I'll just leave it there.

I also asked to be put on a recurring basis on their mail list to get a refresher or new cut in a couple of months. Let's see how this current look grows out. *smile*

meanwhile, I keep scouring the jobs and looking for work. Looking for open auditions as well as background work...did receive a nice little check for some work I did over a week ago. Loving the turnaround on these checks! Will go deposit.