short story

this one time, we were running all over London trying to get to a show on time.  The underground was jammed full of people.  Me and my friend Mandy were pressed up against each other full-body-contact.  Inches away from us were dozens of other people, plenty of them in hearing (even if i was talking ever so quietly) distance.

Situations like this bring out the devil in.

I started flirting with Mandy, tickling her waist, stroking her face and whispering sweet nothings in her ear.  “We could be lovers,” I said to her.  {two older gentlemen were watching this exchange with marked interest}

I expected Mandy to reply something along the lines of, “I prefer men” or “I don’t feel that way about you”–I probably would have said something along those lines if I were her.

Instead she responded, “No we can’t, there are too many people around and we have too many clothes on.”

I was stunned into silence for a minute, then I burst into laughter.  “Mandy!  I didn’t mean we could be lovers, like, right here right now!  I meant we could be two lovers on our way to a romantic dinner somewhere.”

Oh Mandy.

I’m putting this little paragraph at the top so the pictures have time to load.  You might want to open another tab and check your facebook while this happens.  But also read my ramblings!!

I know I keep saying I didn’t much love the art I saw traveling, and truthfully, I should have spent more time looking at it, but there were a few that I really liked.

I’ve noticed a theme to the art I liked the most: it tended to either allude to famous myths or stories, or feature women, or both.  I really loved seeing all these rubenesque women.  My body is probably borderline rubenesque, I don’t know if it is or it isn’t, but seeing so many bodies so similar to mine, so sensually painted and sculpted, was really wonderful.

There were two statues of Eve at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris that I really loved.  It was just like they always talk about in the movies: I couldn’t stop looking at them.  I walked around and around them, taking picture after picture, failing miserably to capture them.

The first was Auguste Clesinger’s Femme Piquee Par un Serpent:

the second was Eve après le péché by Eugène Delaplanche:

These two were hands down my favorite pieces of art, outside the Waterhouse Exhibit (I’ll get to that later.)

Other stuff I liked:

La Chaste Suzanne

La Source

Naissance de Venus

Cain

More to come

Zara

I had four main goals for my travels abroad this summer.

1- See theater.

2- See if I felt NYC/London were a good fit for me, places I could honestly see myself studying (grad school) or working.

3- Shop.

4- Eat.  I’m kind of a foodie…just a little bit.

(I know I’m supposed to want to go to museums/famous historical sites/see great art/etc. but…I just didn’t really that much…I did a bit…I’ll blog about it later.)

There were a few major chains I kept hearing about in the big cities: H&M, Topshop, and Zara.

Despite all the buzz about H&M, I didn’t really find it to my liking…but I did buy a few accessories and stuff.  I got a dress and a skirt at Topshop, but both are going to require alterations.

Most of my major, key wardrobe pieces were purchased at Zara.  There clothes were much more classic, solid, wardrobe foundations pieces, as opposed to trendier, novelty items I saw at H&M and Topshop.

At Zara’s I picked up a fab, classic khaki trench coat, (on clearance…why was it on clearance at the start of fall…I dunno but I’ll take it!!!…for a quarter of full price) made of a fabric that is both wrinkle and rain resistant. No ironing for me.

I found two perfect cardigans, of the type I have literally been looking for for years: not too short, not too long; fabric not too thin.  (Although, sadly, they didn’t have one in white.  I got black and blue.)

I got a fab and cheap (5 pounds) black pencil skirt (a wardrobe staple if I’ve ever heard of one) and a nice white shirt with neutral detailing (3 pounds).

See the thing about Zara is that they do sales right. I hate it when the clothes on sale are barely cheaper then the full-priced clothes…or still just out of my price range.

At Zara, on the other hand, I scored a beautiful, well-made, figure-flattering green dress for 15 Euros…marked down from 80.  (Not a wardrobe staple I’ll grant you, but I’m okay with that, and it’s definitely a classic that will stay in my wardrobe, not a super trendy piece.)

In fact, I had the distinction of buying clearance items at Zara stores in Edinburgh, New York and Paris.

In a word, I’m in love.

Plus their clothes are really well-made, gonna-last-me-a-few-years-at-least, which is very important to me.

Unfortunately, they don’t have a store in Utah, and their website was so confusing I frankly can’t tell if you can buy online or not.  But if you’re traveling, and you want to do a bit of shopping, they do have stores in San Fransisco, Vegas, and LA (as well as a few other places in CA.)  You’ll have better luck at the end of a season (clearance) of course.

**Bargain shopping hint: sometimes I’ll be checking out a clearance item, and I’ll just have a feeling that the item is really cheaper than the lowest price marked.  I’ll just have a feeling that the marked price is inaccurate, and the item has been reduced further.

In that case, when I’m trying the item on in the dressing room, I’ll rip the tags of the item, and then bring it up to check out and ask for a price check. It probably depends on the store, but I’m pretty sure if you don’t do this at certain places, they will charge you the marked price, even if it has been discounted further.

This technique may seem a bit aggressive to some, but hey, it works for me.  In the case of the Zara trench coat, for example, the cashier told me the price was less than half of the lowest marked clearance price.

Oh yeah baby.

I’m really going to blog more about my time abroad…someday

dunno when exactly, but…someday.

But I will say this: I fell absolutely bat-shiz-crazy in love with Edinburgh, Scotland.

Originally I was going to stay there for four days.  Then I extended it to nine.

I finally left after 15 fantastic days.

I ended skipping Dublin almost entirely sadly.  I ideally I would have spent a day or two there, but it was significantly cheaper not to. So I basically just slept their one night, although I did like what I saw of it.

I loved Edinburgh even more than I loved New York or London (Paris didn’t really do it for me, honestly.)  I could never live their year round, because the weather is too bad and I get a little depressed with Utah’s long winter, forget about Edinburgh’s practically year round winter. But I fell crazy in love with that city: its ancient-ness, the magic of the fringe, the natural beauty (clear days weren’t the norm, but when they happened, they were gorgeous) its amazing architecture, and its awesome locals.  It also has a great mix of not-too-stuffy-and-posh but not-too-sketchy-and-borderline-dangerous, if you know what I mean.

I want do the Fringe every year.  Obviously that seems impossible financially, but hey, I can make the impossible happen.  I’m an actress, and my goal is to preform their as frequently as possible. There it is.

I’ve heard people say, if you want to learn what theater can be, go to London.  I loved the theater in London, but  I would say, if you want to learn what theater can be, go the the Fringe in Edinburgh.  You’ll see a lot more experimental stuff and pushing-the-limits-of-theater-stuff.  And not in an obnoxious, lame, boring way, but in an exciting, engaging, entertaining way. (Please not the unintentional alliteration.)

I’ve also heard people say that as a performer, you’ve got to invent yourself, know yourself, sell yourself.  I thought I knew what this meant, but I didn’t, not really.  In Edinburgh I saw so many one-person shows, and cabaret acts, and actors-selling-themselves-for-the-droves-of-producers-which-come-to-Edinburgh-every-year, which really helped me to understand what that really means, what it looks like, and how to do it.

And if you should ever have the glorious opportunity to go to Edinburgh, make sure you hit Chocolate Soup on Blair Street.  They are an amazing little cafe, with to-die-for hot chocolate and a life-changing banana split latte.

I maybe had, like, four of them in three days after I discovered them.  You can also get slices of bread their for 30 pence, which is great way to fill up for cheap.

the uniform

I thought this post over at  Sensibly Styled was really interesting and thought provoking.  The thing is, I tend to follow that idea already, but with some slight variations.

First of all, I hate gray.  It’s boring and it doesn’t do a thing for my coloring.  Rather than go with lots of grey and neutrals, I’ve chosen a color palate that the vast majority of my wardrobe fits in. Most of my clothing is either blue, green, teal, or purple, and the purple is always a purple with a blue base, not a pink one.  I don’t own anything yellow or orange, and I only have one pink shirt.  That way, almost all of my clothes match each other. I recently bought a pair of summery sandals, and instead of picking a neutral black or brown, I picked green, because I knew that 90% of my wardrobe is green, blue, purple, or neutral.  They would match almost everything.

Sometimes its hard to keep myself from buying clothes outside the color palate, but its always worth it. Last winter I bought a yellow purse, which looked great with some of my lighter greens, but terrible with my green and black jacket.  A blue or a purple bag would have matched, however.  Luckily, that bag fell apart rather quickly, allowing me to not feel guilty about the purple bag I bought at Ness.  Which matches every single one of my jackets and sweaters, which are all green, neutral, or blue.

If you like to buy handmade…(because apparently this blog is just a shopping catalogue now)

Check out Scottish designer Donna Wilson.

I totally fell in love with this rainy day scarf today…

I totally would have bought it, but the sordid truth of the matter is…I don’t wear scarves. So I thought I’d post it here, and maybe somebody would buy it, and I could live vicariously through them.

Sound like a plan?

Ness

If you’re into online shopping, check out Ness.  They’re an adorable store I discovered here in Edinburgh, specializing in Scotland’s famous wool and cashmere.

They have lovely, delicate knit blouses

Adorable skirts, if you (unlike me) like an a-line.  (I would have bought one if they had a pencil skirt in this print…)

I originally bought a beautiful wool blanket, but returned it to get something I needed more, this wonderfully versatile (and roomy) purse.

It doesn’t look like much in the picture, but it’s really beautiful.

I also got a headband, because the purse was cheaper than the blanket, and they couldn’t give me a refund because I didn’t have a receipt.

They also had lots of adorable and warm looking cardigans and jackets.  I couldn’t find many on their website, but if you’re in the market for a nice, warm winter coat, I would definitely recommend stalking this website.

Media Journal

Where Angels Fear to Tread

{Please ignore the cheesiness of this poster…it doesn’t even give an accurate plot summary…he’s her husband, not her lover.}

I can see why this film isn’t as famous as the bigger Merchant and Ivory Collaborations (i.e. A Room with a View, Howard’s End) but it’s still worth seeing.  Isn’t Helena Bonham-Carter always worth seeing?  I adore her.

Oh, and did I mention she’s a sex goddess?  Because she is.

I’ve never had a song fit my personal circumstances as perfectly as this one did the first time I heard it…

the (abridged) lyrics:

think i’m going for a walk now

i feel a little unsteady

i don’t want nobody to follow me

‘cept maybe you

i could make you happy you know

if you weren’t already

[she's not really my type]

but i think you two are forever

and i hate to say it but
you’re perfect together

so screw you
and your untouchable face

and who am i

that i should be vying for your touch

and who am i

 i bet you can't even tell me that much...

oh me.  why do i get so attached so easily?

Confession Time

Can I tell you a secret?

I’m not very good at traveling.

I tend to look at sights (Westminster Abbey, Notre Dame, etc) for about five minutes; then I’m ready to go.  I don’t really love museums like I thought I would.  It’s kinda embarrassing.

But honestly…the main reason I came to London was to see theatre.  Period.  And boy have I seen lots and lots and lots of amazing theatre.  So it has been a successful trip (and its not over yet!)

Oh, and I’ve done lots of shopping…lots and lots of shopping.