And awaaaay we go!

In honor of the month of February, Ramblings of a Long Island Girl is moving to a brand new website, which can be found at www.collwrites.com.

Again, thank you Alice for all of your help. And thank you Jay for bugging me for the last month to actually do it.

"The key to success is often the ability to adapt."

Brace yourselves. This is the last post you'll see on this blog. I'm going corporate. Well sort of. Within the next day or so, I'll be pimping out a brand new website version of Ramblings of a Long Island Girl. Yay!

Much, much, much, much, much, much thanks to the fabulous Alice (aka Aliceness on Twitter) for helping me set it all up and not killing me when I had 29 million questions about what the hell she was talking about (I'm not stupid, but I swear I can't grasp the concept of hosting still...)

But anyways, stay tuned within the next few days while stuff gets figured out. And then stay tuned within the next few weeks because I've got some other new stuff I'm working on too. Lots of change: new state to live in, new personal website, have to find a new job, who knows what else is in store? haha, the possibilities are endless but hopefully all good things.

Oh P.S. Jay & I watched The X-Files: I Want to Believe last night. I've heard lots of people just trash talk it or give generally negative reviews on it & I have to weigh in. I agree with Jana's opinion: it would have been way better as a TV movie rather than a motion picture. The supernatural element was weak & the plot wasn't strong enough to carry a movie. I loved having all the characters back (Yaaaaaay Skinner!), but it reminded me of a stronger episode of Fringe & a weaker (not weakest) episode of The X-Files. Also, isn't pedophile priests soooo 2006?

I'm off to do errands & see Michael Ian Black with my Pookie in NYC tonight. I'll leave you with Strider to say peace out to this blog:

“Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.” -Swami Sivananda

Oh this is the start of something good, don't you agree?

Okay, so the gorgeous Allison has requested I make a new blog post so that she doesn't have to see my bloody finger anymore and I kinda think she's right! So lucky for Ali and the rest of you tired of looking at my mangled claw, I've got an announcement:

I'm moving to Raleigh in the middle of February!

My last day of work is February 4 (a Wednesday) and my birthday is Sunday, February 8. I also found out as I got home tonight that Brian & Bobby got tickets to see "The Daily Show" on February 9, so I am going to go with them and then drive down to Raleigh that week and try to find a job, etc. I'll couch hop with Jay and Sara & TJ and who knows maybe Clif'll let me crash for a night. At least the slumber party will distract me from the absolute terror I have about finding a job haha. I told my bosses at work and although I was scared to do it, I was really more just sad in general. It's a nice place to work and they're really good bosses and I like the people I work with so it's kinda like I'd be losing more friends.

But anyway.

I'm really excited and really scared. I'm excited because I think that it'll be a great new chapter of my life but I'm scared about finding a new job. I accepted back in 2007 when I decided that if it came to it, I'd be the one to move that it would mostly mean giving up 90% chances of ever having a job in the fields that I have my degree in (Communications with focuses in Journalism & PR as well as a minor in English & Theatre). I worry too much and I think too much. And nothing is or will EVER be as beautiful as New York City and that's a fact. BUT I like Raleigh and even though it's clear that I will really want to end up back in NY someday, I cannot wait to start a new life there.

I'm just going to miss my friends. I'll miss Cassidy (bitch moved back from North Carolina as I was moving there), Tricia, Julia, Amanda, Amanda, Ali, Ian, Brian, Claudio, Randy, Anthony, Joe & Steph, Eddie, Bobby, and everyone around here that I know I'm not mentioning (forgive me). I'll miss the BTR crew, Annie & Jeff & Max & Maia and all of our mid-day margaritas. I'll miss Yankee games with Angri & Sabella & Storey. I'll miss my dog Strider. But most importantly I'll miss my family: my parents, sisters, grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin. Just as way excited as I am to move, I'm just as sad that I won't get to see them whenever I want to anymore. I know that this post sounds somewhat shaky but I made this decision with both my heart and my head and I'm certain that it's the right one.

It's gonna be a big adjustment and I'm really gonna need a lot of support from all sorts of places.

Oh, and I'm gonna need a job if anyone's hiring...

Call Me Mac-Allister Now!

This is why I'm so excited about my new, beautiful Macbook, which arrived on Wednesday. Observe my Dell, duct tape/ external webcam/speakers/mic and all next to my pretty new computer. Excuse the doofus who insisted on being a part of the pictures via Skype video.

Bigger is not better.

Observe the external speakers, the duct tape, the ghetto web cam & external headset set up.
P.S. That's my dog Strider in his Halloween costume as the background!

The next set of pictures exhibit the duct tape, just because it seems that people think I'm being melodramatic when I say my laptop was held together with duct tape:

Band-aid from Jay's dad, Jack.

Isn't she lovely? I think I should name my new Macbook. Any suggestions?

Bless your heart if you made it down this far. Now that the computer issue is taken care of, I have to go to Verizon early tomorrow to get my phone fixed. It stopped charging. I bought a new one and it still doesn't pick up that the charger is plugged in. Boooo. I hope I don't lose all of my pictures and favorite texts. That would be sad...

An Apple a Day

November 30, 2008. 11:30pm.

I finally purchased a Macbook after almost a year of computer problems.  I didn't get one of the new aluminum ones (way way cool but a little too expensive), but I got the white one and I'm really excited.  I think it was one year ago this week that I was staying with Jay at his school for the week and he tried to start the Mac attack slowly by having me use his laptop while I was there, but I finally jumped on the Apple Bandwagon over the last two months that I have been using John's iBook.  So...yay!  No more external speakers and half-working external microphones and clumsy external webcam hookups and terrible sound quality when recording podcasts!

Holler.

Of "Lost", Haircuts, Apartments & Graduation

For all my Lost fan friends, this may be the funniest thing I heard all week:

JNorton15: So you want to see possibly the best Lost message board quote ever?

JNorton15: "When Rose said to Bernard "If you are going to be hiding in the bushes, lets get you into something dark" .. was she refering to herself ???"

Anyway, I didn't want to leave a sad post like I did yesterday as the last one I did, especially since May 17 is over & I feel much better now AND there's all sorts of awesome things going on right now.

1. I cut my hair, about 7 inches. I don't think I look like me at all, but sometimes you just need a change, so I'm glad I did it :)

2. Amanda Giordano & I are moving into an apartment in Astoria, Queens on June 1. Visitors welcome. Yay, NYC livin'. It's sort of scary to officially be an "adult" now, but we all know that I'm definitely not going to start acting like one any time soon. Hooray for being broke, but it'll be worth it...

3. I helped Paul from Barenaked Hurley (the Lost parody band) write his last 2 songs & it was really fun. I stayed up literally all night on Tues so help him finish it, but it was such a blast to be a part of something that awesome. If you're a Lost fan, go to iTunes & download the Barenaked Hurley podcast feed, because all of his songs are hysterical.

Finally, to all my Marist friends who are graduating - GOOD LUCK! I'm so proud of you guys & I miss you all a lot. I'll (hopefully) see most of you tomorrow, whenever I get up there (I'm going to Rachel & Will's grad party). <3

Gimme yo' digits, yo.

May I have your attention, please?

I'm sure like 3 people actually read this, but if you're one of those 3 people, then good for you! Here's the deal: I got a new phone, so I need everyone to send me their numbers again. My old phone is broken so I can't transfer my phone book over, which is just too bad for me, I guess. Sooooo send away - email, IM, MySpace, Facebook, etc.

Thanks!

The Katie O'Hagan Update

Yeah so the last week has been so incredibly stressful & busy at work that I haven't been around much. I'm talking worse than MCCTA stressful/busy. I actually really missed the MCCTA stresses this past week because at least when working on a production, I always knew that I could do it, that it'd go up, the show would go on - no matter what. (And that when it was all over, there'd be vodka or tequila shots waiting for me in the box office or green room haha.) I never doubted my ability with MCCTA & that's why this last week was worse. But it's Sunday night, time to adapt a new attitude. This next week has to get better. It has to.

But seriously, who cares about me bitching & whining? What everyone's been waiting for: A Katie O'Hagan update! I feel like a proud Jewish mother right now, haha.

So our lovely Miss O'Hagan has been a busy little Hollywood starlet. Last April, we all watched as she was killed off (here & here) during the 1st part of the 3-part series finale of Charmed. Now, she's been doing a lot of extra work on the TV show Jericho. The episode airs this Wednesday (March 28), but she says her part was small & honestly expects that it'll get cut.

Moving on, my former roommate also worked on Cold Case, in which she plays a women's right activist in 1919. That airs on Easter. There's a picture of her on set on her MySpace page. Or hell, if I'm not too lazy, I'll put it up with this post. We'll see. There ya go.

Next up: RiffRaff, the movie that Katie & Justen did in summer 2005 (where they met), is being shown at a film festival in Spain soon! Rob Belushi, Katie's co-star (Jim Belushi's son), is up for a Best Actor Award. I don't know a whole lot about the festival (Justen emailed me about it last month, but I forgot a lot of the details, oops) but they're super psyched about it! Here's the MySpace page for the movie, there's more info there. He submitted it to some film festivals in NYC, so if it gets accepted into any them I'm SO going as Katie's date (she promised). Yay! Their wedding is August 4, so they'll both be going back to Chicago in July to do the final preparations. Justen also got a part in a Will Ferrell movie; it's a basketball movie & Justen's one of the players on the team. Stay tuned.

Finally, the big news! KATIE'S GOING TO BE ON THE OFFICE!!! The episode is "Female Appreciation Day." Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) decides to show the ladies in the office how much he appreciates them & takes them all to the mall to shop & bond. Thinking that it's what girls do, he takes them into Victoria's Secret. Enter dear little Kathleen O. She plays one of the workers at VS. No lines but she got to hang around with Jenna Fischer (Pam) & Phyllis Smith (Phyllis) on set & told me that they were beyond nice! She also said that Steve Carrell joked around a lot on set. I'm so incredibly bitter & jealous right now, but incredibly proud & happy for her!

Come on, Katie. Hurry up & get famous so I can make money off of you, selling incriminating pictures & telling your secrets for your E! True Hollywood Story! And after those AWFUL pictures you put of me on your MySpace, I'd say that profiting off of your talent is fair game...

July 21 = Greatest. Day. Ever.

So who's jumping around like a massive tool because the last Harry Potter book is getting released July 21, 2007?! This girl.

Just in time too, cause I finished JUST rereading all 6 books (for like the 4th time lol) last night & went to bed sad about probably having to wait another year & a half for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. Hooraaaaay!!!

SoCal is where my mind states

California in a few hours! I don't think I officially explained this:

Tricia's moving back to Coram while Clayton's finishing his last 6 months stationed in Japan. Sooooo I'm flying out there & then we're driving back across country with her stuff. I think we're leaving Tues afternoon, going to Vegas (yippee!) on Tues night since it's only 2 hours from her soon-to-be-ex-apartment. Then we're driving through the southern states Wednesday til whenever we're finished, making stops for her to visit family in Tennesee/Louisiana & going to Lookout Mountain(?) in Tenn. We're gonna drive up the east coast, (maybe visiting harassing Cassidy at UNC?) then I believe spending the last night at her dad's apartment in Baltimore. Sooooo in case anyone other than my dog Strider is going to really miss me, we're going to aim to do it in about 5 days, so fear not. I may or may not post from the road, since I need to check my email as I still foolishly hold out hope that perhaps I'll hear from some place I've applied & magically have a real job waiting for me when I get back. Oh, sweet daydream.

Went to Potown last night to see my MCCTA bitches do one of my all-time favorite shows, Crazy For You (Colleen trivia: the 1st show I ever saw on B'way, was in it years ago; one of the resaons I love the the-at-re). The house was nearly sold out & they did a fantastic job. Mark gets the rockstar award for producing it completely on his own, without a co- or asst prod. Mole Mole got new, clean menus, which sort of ruined the Mexican atmosphere of the joint. Amanda, Sabella, Julie, Julia, Donoghue & I represented the alumn. Speranza got the hottest new haircut & as usual, Rachel was her kickass self. Phil got skinny, so he probably tastes pretty good right now. Yeah, I think I covered it all.

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, I have a picture of one Ian "Ian-face" Topping dressed as a himself in the real world! & one Joseph Matero dressed up as the Crow for Halloween. My mom offering to help him paint his nails black was slightly disturbing, but probably not as disturbing as it was for Joe to walk into my house as I'm straigthening my hair with the Rocky Horror soundtrack BLASTING, obnoxiously singing along, slightly oblivious to the fact that I've got company. Why do I ramble so incessantly all the time? Here's the picture:

Um, just to add: I just turned the TV on & that show where they fix up people's homes - I totally can't remember the name right now but it's on ABC Sundays at 8pm - is on. I put it on right as the chick was asking this little like 7-yr-old boy: "If you could have a special room, what would be it be?"

Ohhh, it's just too easy. Too easy. Is this show always this Michael-Jackson-esque?

I hope that my sanity covers the cost

Finally the new Damine Rice CD is out on Tues, Nov. 14. You can preview 3 tracks at www.myspace.com/damienrice or stream the album/special features at his website. Fantastic.

Oh, P.S. Neil Patrick Harris is gay. I'm not sure what relevance this has to anyone's life, it really has none in mine, but it's 2:10am & I'm mad tired so I'm telling you anyway.

Marist tomorrow (today) to see Crazy For You, one of my all-time favorite shows that I've ever been in. 2 days til California/road trip!

I'm a wild & untamed thing

"I'd rather stick my dick in a blender." -Funniest text message Chris Golio has ever sent me.

California on Monday morning! Then Tricia & I are going to drive back across country, leaving sometime Tuesday? Colleen = Excited. I know we're probably stopping in Vegas, we're stopping in Tennessee so she can see her grandmother & in Baltimore to visit her dad (yessssss, our last adventure in Baltimore back in April was SO much fun; I got to see some of the places that Tricia caused trouble when she was growing up & then during her Towson days). I think getting away from everything on Long Island that's completely stressed me out since I got home in May will be just what I need, since the only other thing that would be 'just what I need' is a real job & that one's obviously workin' like gangbusters.

Aaaaanyway, I don't really have any fun work stories at the moment - except that when you're in the wordrobing room, you can hear people in the break room, since there's a little window that connects the two. There's a vending machine right against the shared wall that breaks every other day & often times, whoever's in the dressing room can hear whoever's frustrated with the vending machine banging/shaking it in order to get their candy out (usually the Swedish Fish get stuck, FYI in case anyone ever finds themselves in the break room of Ann Taylor anytime soon).

So this afternoon, I hear someone beating the shit out of this machine for being such a withholding little bitch. I open the window & call out, "Stop beating up the vending machine!" (I was going to make a tasteless misogynistic joke too but alas, did not.) Usually, someone will say something back, but this time - nothing. So I thought nothing of it til about an hour later when one of the stock guys, Ryan, comes up to me.

Ryan: "Did you yell at Dillion (new guy) for shaking the vending machine?"
Me: "Yeah, I heard him giving it a beatdown through the wall."
Ryan: "He thought that it was an automated message. He came back white as a ghost, claiming that the vending machine was TALKING to him, telling him to stop shaking it!!"

Exactly. And in case you're wondering, hell yeah I made fun of the new guy for the rest of the day. I don't care if he's Lisa's brother. Dude thought the vending machine was talking to him...

Ok, that's enough for one night. I'm off for the next 2 weeks. Yaaaay for not having to work, boooo for how broke I'm going to be soon!!

Oh - holler at me if you want me to send you a postcard or something, since everyone knows I'm big on that shit since I'm so cheesy. Roadtripping advice also encouraged.

P.S. STARKED NYC's been down since Wednesday, which SUCKS cause I spent like 2 hours on Wed night doing all the Daily News Links with a Rocky Horror Show theme for Halloween, wasting time that I could have spent in NYC with Amanda, Courtney, Julie, Hittenmark, Matero, etc & of course as soon as I publish it, the site's down so no one could fucking see it. However, I'm sharing this with all of you because I found it hysterical & nearly peed my pants when I saw it (don't you just love redundency?) & have no other way of sharing it with people til the site's back up. Have fun: Have Yourself a Merry Lohan Christmas!

Alumni Weekend

Hey guys, now that i've found out when alumni weekend actually is, i'm wondering who's going up. the answer better be ALL of you since i miss everyone. i can't wait to see the mccta kids (ya'll better not have forgotten about me muhahaha). but yes, let me know who's going up and what day and if anyone still at marist has an extra couch for me for friday night, holler at me.

yaaaaay i can sort of pretend for 3 days like i'm not in the real world! woot woot. :)

Palace Diner, here i come.

Home Alone with Colleen McAllister

There's no way that it can't get better than this. Because otherwise, no one would get past 25! We cannot be the only people who feel this way. Otherwise, we've got some other serious problem." -Randy.

That made ME feel a little bit better the other night so I wrote it down as he said it hahahaha. He was trying to talk sense into me as I bitched & moaned & cried over how much I wish I was back at Marist & how I'm sorry that I was an asshole in general this summer. MOVING ON.

Ok bitches, here's the deal: I'm house/dog sitting for my aunt in Mt. Sinai (8 miles from my house in Ridge) for the next 2 weeks - til Sept 14. I know Eddie's coming out this Saturday to keep me company (9/2) & Princess Cupcake Assface Randy's coming to par-tay it up LI-style next Saturday (9/9). If anyone wants to come and hang out with me at all for the next 2 weeks, definitely, definitely call me. It's sort of lonely here with just the two dogs, not gonna lie, so if you wanna chill, this is my invitation. I'm working alot the next 2 weeks but whatev, it'll be an improvement over the nothing that I basically did all summer (except get drunk like 4 nights a week & go to the beach like every other day).

P.S. I watched the first like 10 minutes of the V.M.A.'s and I have 3 comments - 1) Justin Timberlake is still fucking gorgeous & 2) WTF was J.Lo wearing? 3) Lil Kim is not intelligent. Then I turned them off after Lil Kim because they were already boring me. That's all.

P.P.S. Yesterday was the first Wed between Sept-May that I was not at a board meeting at 11am in 2-and-a-half-years and it was really fucking weird. I don't know if I like having my soul back anymore...<3

Colleen's attempt at blogging, take 2.

Ooookay, so after talking with the one and only Kelly Rainey on this fine evening, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and started regularly posting shiznit on a blog. Soooo I'm going to take some old MySpace blog posts and put them up and then start rambling here for your entertainment. Because I think that what I have to say is somewhat amusing, even if it has absolutely no relevance in anyone else's life. Ah, hell, you never know. I lived with Sarah & Amanda for 3 years. Their wittiness has to have rubbed off on me in one way or another...

Here goes. The first couple posts will have been ones that you've already read if you happen to follow my MySpace blog (which I update probably once every 3 weeks or so).

From Wednesday, July 12, 2006:

ok, here are some fun links for everyone's laugh out loud pleasure.

1) It's a Paris news story. Read it and love it. Then laugh about how ridiculous it is and let's start a discussion about whether or not she actually believes half the shit she says. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004580002-2006320014,00.html

2) I don't even think I can properly comment on how absolutely hysterical this is. Mickey Rourke is crazy. Makes Mariah Carey look like the model of sanity. http://socialitelife.com/2006/07/12/mickey_rourke_angry_with_his_pinky.php

3) A little bit of "Arrested Development" for your entertainment. Both are short clips from 2 of the funniest (in my opinion) moments from season 2. This show is BRILLIANT. (Amanda & Sarah, you NEED to watch season 3. It's SO funny). http://youtube.com/watch?v=MV_Ll5MhmeM&search=arrested development
and
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4blSr_M8jag&search=mrs. featherbottom

4) Not a link, but a quick antidote that Dunning told us at my graduation party. His friend was at a party with Christopher Walken, who may be my hero. Anyway, Walken's totally shitfaced and walks up to Dunning's friend and goes in his creepy, yet so bad ass Walken voice, "Ya know what the greatest part about being me is? I can go up to any girl here, take them home and fuck them in the ass and she'll let me." Yeah, sort of dirrrrrrty but his Christopher-fucking-Walken and he's probably got a point. I love that story. (Dunning, if I'm telling this wrong, correct me haha)