Vacation and Awards

This is my first post in a few weeks because I was travelling out of the country on a two-week vacation to Sydney, Australia and New Zealand. I flew to Sydney for four days and then on to New Zealand, where I spent two days in Queenstown and two in Franz Josef, then two days in Wellington followed by two days in Auckland before returning home to Los Angeles.

It was quite a trip. Sydney is a great city with much to do and some very interesting beaches and wildlife, zoos etc within a relatively short distance. The weather was off and on. Some sun, some rain. It's early spring there so you never know. We didn't travel outside much except to go to Manly Beach one day and a wildlife park another day. We ate well. That's one thing for certain, No matter the weather, you can find an abundance of good food.

From there it was off to Queenstown, New Zealand which is a cute little tourist town on the south shore of Lake Wakatipu.

There's a great deal of winter sports and plenty for the thrill seeker (not me) and then this quiet little town has quite the nightlife for all those spending the day sporting. I took a boat ride through Milford Sound.

Mirror Lake on the way to Milford Sound

From there, we drove up to Franz Josef with a quick stop in Lake Wanaka and the National Transport and Toy Museum (what a treat!).

The Transport and Toy Museum where bears drive the vintage cars.

We took a helicopter ride to the Fox Glacier and liked up towards the top. Amazing!

Then drove up to Picton for a three-hour ferry ride across the strait to the North Island and the New Zealand Capital of Wellington. Here, the weather starts to turn on us. Not much sunlight from this point on. Rainy days and gloomy days. But again, plenty of restaurants to choose from. And we tried to choose different cuisines each night of our trip. And there was the National Museum (Te Papa) and the Parliament building to tour.

Auckland was last and while it was nice, it wasn't great. If the weather had been nicer, we would have ventured out to the shore or taken a ferry to Waiheke Island. But the weather was gloomy or rainy every day.

One goes to the hotel gym when it rains.

We ate well. Notice a theme?

And we did one day trip to the Waitomo Caves and Rotorua and the thermal pools. Nice.

While I was away, the Scenie Awards presented by Steven Stanley of Stage Scene LA were announced. Both shows I was in this year won multiple awards. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at Glendale Centre Theatre won multiple awards including for Outstanding Ensemble Cast Lead Performance in a Musical - Larger Theatre (which includes me!). And The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee also won for Outstanding Production, and one for Musical (Intimate Theatre) Outstanding Ensemble Cast Performance, Musical (Intimate Theatre) (including me again)
So my Facebook page was lighting up with posts from friends and colleagues congratulating one another and giving thanks to Steven for those awards while I was in Sydney.

So thank you Steven Stanley!

Lastly, I booked a commercial while I was in New Zealand How did I do that? The audition was the morning of my flight to Sydney. Fortunately, I wasn't leaving until 11:00pm. So I auditioned that day. No callbacks. I found out I booked it 4 days into my trip. And shot it the day after I returned!

Fall in So Cal

Its cold out. No really. Its cold out. Its 61 degrees at 9:40 pm. Freezing. I need to turn the heat on in my apartment. This morning, I got out the wool peacoat. It's freezing! I've got the sniffles and I'm taking echinacea.

What?! 61 degrees and I'm cold? I lived in New York City for 13 and a half years for Gods sake. This is nothing. Wait! And before that, I lived in Albany, NY for the first 28 years of my life. What happened to me? 61 degrees is cold to me? Yes! Dag nab it! It is.

When I moved here from NY, I donated more than half my sweaters to Goodwill. I had a few coats too. I got rid of all but one. I'm moving to Los Angeles, I thought. What use would I have for these? What use indeed.  You back in the Northeast may laugh and perhaps sneer at my complaining of the cold. But you try it. You move out here and see it you don't eventually convert too. If the temps drop below 60, you try and walk around in a short sleeve shirt or in shorts. You can't. I dare you. You'll be just like me.

It must be something in the air.  It does something to our blood. After you've been living here for a while, your body adjust so you can no longer tolerate anything under 60. Or you acclimate to the point that you body doesn't remember what it felt like to live in a colder climate.

As much as I love the warmer climate here and as much as I hate the long cold hard winters of upstate New York...I do miss the seasons. We don't really get them here. All we get is a drop in the temperature and maybe some rain. That's it. The leaves don't change color. There is no smell of burning leaves in the air. And its always green (or maybe yellow and some browning but that's only because there's a drought here). That's our winter and fall. Rain. Cold. Nothing more.  And at any time, the temperature can suddenly skyrocket to 90 degrees. It was in the 90s just a couple of weeks ago!

We weer complaining about the 90 degree heat. Now we're complaining about the cold temps, which really aren't that cold. Downright balmy compared to the East Coast. When did I become such a wimp? What happened to my blood? Am I no longer a true New Yorker? Am I a Californian now?

I always thought of myself as a New Yorker. No longer how long I live here, I still day I'm a New Yorker. Maybe I can't say that anymore? I still grumble at people that won't step in the crosswalk unless the Walk light is on. Please ! Bitch! I'm from New York City, we don't wait for no stinking Walk light!

I curse at cars that don't pull up all the way into the intersection when they are waiting to make a left hand turn. C'mon! Move INTO the intersection. Don't wait behind the crosswalk until there is a gap to turn. Los Angelenos! Geez!

Yeah, despite my lower tolerance of the cold, I am still a died in the wool New Yorker and you can never take that away from me!