Alas...tis a new year...and it feels no different, except its colder.

I think the title of this blog entry and the pic say it all. Catch y'all later!

JK!

Hey there! And happy January 2015! It's effing cold out there, people! It is currently listing that the "feels like" temp is 14 degrees (scratch that...it just dropped on my weather app to say "feels like 11 degrees")...actual temp is 25 I think. It's too cold even for snow at this point...and btwn 7 and 10pm tonight it'll drop from 22 to 8 degrees. So, basically while I'm at the dog run that fast drop is going to be happening. Hmmm...I wonder if I'll be the only one there...LOL!

Anyway...

Welcome to 2015...I ended up having a lovely Christmas and a fun night on NYE...not amazing, but fun. It was great to see Tom Shear again (Assemblage 23) and give him a hug after he performed an amazing set on stage. I actually got a non-blurry picture of he and I this time around so...woot! Here we are...and yes, I'd had 3 drinks at this point so if you think I look a bit buzzed and sweaty, you would be correct!

 Other than that...I got a few pics of his performance...

And is it just me, or does he remind you of Paul Butterfield in a way?

Jennifer and Paul

 I think part of it was in how he's built and how he moves (plus the cheeks). It hit me during a song he was doing and I had to fight crying. I've been having trouble lately...missing Paul a bit more...crying more often than I'd like.

ANYWAY...We won't go down that path...let's talk holidays and fun!

Here's Lauren and I that night:

My hair is pulled back at this point b/c its hot in there! And yes, I'm wearing silver sequins! So there!

Other than NYE...Christmas was lovely! I slept in until I heard the two-some in the back of the apartment start to open gifts. So I toddled out with the dog to show him/teach him about his stocking (my roommate Emily has the whole thing on video...we really should post it), and then I opened things. I got warm socks, dress socks, tea, tea pot from Teavana, a air popcorn maker, a thing for Kadin's stuff to hang on the wall, and....FINALLY...A NEW FRIGGIN COAT!

Me and the new coat!

HUGE points for my step mom on this one! She found the perfect coat for me w/o me even being around to try it on! Woot!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes...after gifts I put a casserole together, opened my big gift from my step-mom (she surprised me with a hip length black, down jacket!) and got ready to leave. THEN my family face-timed me and I had to admit I'd opened already because I was almost out the door. But I got to see them open their stuff from me instead of just hear it as usual, that was really cool.

After that, we all headed to Brooklyn to meet up with friends to see "Into the Woods" and then I sat down with them for a lovely dinner. I didn't get home until late and it was lovely to just lay around the next day.

However, I think the best Xmas photo was taken a few nights later at my friend Josh and Sarah's apartment (after Kadin had spent the past 24 hours in Connecticut to play with other dogs in wide open spaces...it was lovely).

 Cutest. Thing. Ever!

Anyway...the holidays were great...as was my mini-vacation from work...which I'm back at now, so I best go work on that spreadsheet now that lunch is over. I'll have more pics from our trip to CT and I'll have my thoughts on my biggest happy moments of 2014...so stay tuned!

Tamsin :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So...how hung over are you today? Me? Oh...please...I'm still asleep. It's 10am on the 1st of the year and I partied last night. I totally wrote this days ago! :)

Ok...correction...I miiiight be awake because of the puppy...but I'm still in bed and if I'm online it's only because I'm messing with Facebook while in bed.

That said...I hope you had a GREAT swing into the new year...whether or not you partied, drank at a bar with friend, sat at home with movies and/or "Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest", or were like my mom and asleep before midnight hit because...well..."fuck new years"...LOL!

I personally hate this "holiday"...I do! I'm single and this "holiday"...much like the other invented "holiday" (VD) is very much a couples sort of night. Yes, I know it doesn't need to be...but it OFTEN is looked on that way. So it rubs the "being single" in your face but with a extra side of horse manure for that extra special zing.

I personally prefer gathering of friends at a house party....or...ummm...I should probably call it an apartment gathering as I live in NYC, eh? ANYHOO...I prefer that over a bar or club. Mainly because I am not fond of a night out where drinks get spilled on me, some creepy dude hits on me (and might try to kiss me at the stroke of midnight), and then vomits on the floor by me later. Add on traveling dangers (driving/taking a cab/subway miscreants) and thant YOU PAY OUT THE ASS TO DO IT...and you have a recipe for a crappy night out. Yay. Gee...we should do this all the time...no, wait, once a year torture is good enough.

But I digress...

Last night, I went to the Vampire Freaks New Years Eve bash in Queens. Yes...mother effing Queens. Ugh. Lauren, my best friend here in the city, is on the flyer...so we had to go. Besides, I really like the core group of VF friends a lot (I'm looking at you...Annabel, Jet, JC, Vassa, Austin, Sir William, Joey, Candace, Cloe, Nicole, and others who hang with this group on a regular basis that I'm missing because I'm tired)...so I wanted to be there. PLUS...this is the first year I actually get to celebrate this "holiday" with Lauren. Ever since we met, in 2010, she's either been back home in MO or working at her bar here in the city on this night...so we get to hang...so hence, I didn't opt for staying in. Which I've done.

I think one of the best NYE nights I had was in my apartment in Queens (on the Brooklyn border mind you) with my roommate Michelle. We had food, drink, and a bunch of  DVD's of movies that were up for Oscars that year (back then, finding bootleg DVD's in NYC was easy-peasy). I remember we watched Finding Neverland and  RAY that night. Two beautiful movies...but damn, Jamie Fox was so amazing in RAY, that it was that movie that stuck in my head the most. Plus, if you remember correctly, he swept the awards that year.

Other than that, I think the best one was when I was in high school. I was with my church youth group at a big house party (that's right, boys and girls, there was no alcohol and very likely parents around and we still had a good time...imagine that...) and we all went outside at the stroke of midnight and cheered, sang, and watched the snow start to fall. If I remember correctly, there was a boy there that night who I had a thing for who spent 90% of the night talking with me...so that's probably another reason I enjoyed it...but overall, I loved it because it was just friends and there were no stupid behavior or drunk people to deal with. Oh the days of pre-21...how you were so much better for this holiday. The minute I could go to a bar for NYE, I hated it.

ANYHOO....

I hope YOU had a great night! As I said, I'm writing this in advance, so I'm hoping I had a great night! Ha! If I got pictures from the party, I'll post them! But...I warn you, I'll be in my gothy gear and probably big hair...so prepare yourself....LOL!

So, go have a little bit of the hair of the dog if you're hung over, plus some water with electrolytes, and some dry toast and you should be right as rain by later on tonight.

Best of luck in 2015!!! May it bring you happiness, love, contentment, financial stability, and the sense of fulfillment in your life. For honestly, if everyone had these five things, there'd be no war or protests, or the killing of one another.

SO here's to those five items and you finding them in this new year!

xoxo

Tamsin :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!



To add to the fun, go HERE, to have Tom Hiddleston sing to you!

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLRGLCxc8_s

The video was posted by a member from Rodney Crowell‘s team, who wrote, “Rodney Crowell and Tom Hiddleston, working on the soundtrack for I Saw the Light take a short break to spread some holiday cheer at Rodney’s studio with his wonder dog, Mono.”

I hope you all have a GREAT holiday!

Best,

Tamsin :)

Vacation is soooo close...I can taste it!

Mmmm....my stay-cation is almost here...and if I get to stare out my window at something like this while I drink the amazing tea my friend Taylor got me in Paris, while I hug the dog, empty out my DVR, and do writing...I'll be a happy camper!

For honestly, that's ALL that's on my "to do list" for my stay-cation. I will write, submit my manuscript to the publisher before end of year, clear out at least 50% of my DVR, play with the dog (as he'll be cone free by the 31st!), and enjoy sleeping in snuggled up with my new, fuzzy comforter.

I know, it's a really long and difficult list, right? LOL!

Today is my last day at the office until I return on January 5th! Woooooooooooooooo! Soon I'll whisk on home (in the glorious rain of Christmas in NYC) and make some tea (cause I got TONS of great tea for Xmas already...some from Paris and some from Teavana!), put on PJ's, and snuggle up to relax....you know, that thing I never usually do on a vacation.

You see, 98% of all my vacations that I've taken since becoming a writer include going to conventions. So...I take 5 days off...2 of them are for travel/loading in my stuff/building booth/etc, and the others are spent hocking my wares on my feet for MANY hours at a time and sleeping very little. Do I enjoy it? I do, most of the time, but it's not a real vacation...even though I take vacation days for it. My boss has been urging me to take a stay-cation here and there (like, take off Friday and Monday and just get some rest) and now I am.

Many might say, "Isn't that what your weekend is for?"

Ummm...have you met me? Better yet, have you met many New Yorkers? We spend weekends running around town like idiots. We go work out at the gym, we do our laundry, we clean the apartment, we do the grocery shopping, we stop by a friend's Bday party or maaaaybe we go out to dinner with friends, but usually....it's just the necessary shit. Why? Because we don't wanna do it during the week because we work long hours and once we get home, we don't head back out again. Not to mention, we likely go to the gym 2-3 times after work. So our weekends consist of getting a bunch of stuff done. I make sure to sleep in on Sundays, as it's my ONLY day to do that and I make it happen unless I need to be filming or at an event of some kind that cannot happen at another time, and take the dog to the dog run (when he's not in a cone of shame). Hence...why I'm so excited about this stay-cation!

Plus, hey! It's Kadin's first Christmas...AND...for the first time since I met my best friend, I get to spend New Years Eve with her. YAY!

So...I hope you all have a lovely 11 days w/o me (ok, maybe I'll find time to post on here...maybe) and I'll catch you all on the flip side! 2015...bring it on! I say this is the year I get an agent and a book deal! SO.....let's make that happen, shall we, universe?  :)

Have a great holiday, folks!

xoxo

Tamsin :)

SANTA'S COMING!

OH NO! It's two days until Christmas...did you get all your shopping done?

I can say that I am almost done! Woot! In NYC we have two locations in Manhattan that have what I call, ETSY ON ACID. It's little shops in tents lined up to make a maze like a village of cool things to buy people for the holidays. One village is in Columbus Circle and the other is in Union Square. I think the one there at the Southwest entrance to Central Park (Columbus Circle) is bigger than the other, but both are fun...if you don't mind crowds and pushing through to see things from time to time. There's food and jewelry, and toys, and food, and hot chocolate, and cider, and scarves, and art, and foooooooood.....well, you get the picture. It's a day of wandering, eating/snacking, drinking hot beverages, and buying special things for those you love.

I actually make a point of buying a few gifts there each year. I found 4 of them there this time around. I got 1/2 of mom's stuff there, Lauren's bigger gift is from there, and I was SUPER excited to find a gift for one of my best friend's and his wife while I was there. I shouldn't have spent the money. I am sincerely poor at the moment...but it's Christmas and I like giving things to people I care about...so thus I'll be creating food from things in my pantry until next payday (and likely using cereal or a protein shake as a meal more than once). But it'll be worth it to see their faces at the cool things I found that really fit them.

HUGE thank you's to my mom, btw, for passing down that gene. The, "I know exactly what to get you for Christmas" gene. She's GREAT at buying gifts that fit people. Thankfully she passed that down to me. For a laugh, I'll tell you that when I left the Patient Accounts Department at MSKCC for the Pharmacy Department...more than one person made note that I'd not be around anymore to be someone's Secret Santa and THAT was the real tragedy. LMAO!

ANYHOO...

All I have left is to get things for those who have helped me with Kadin this year. If they have a dog, I'll get them something doggy related and sign the gift from Kadin. However, there's a couple who has been a life saver for me and him and they don't have a dog, so I plan to get them a gift for them. Probably going to have to buy all these things on the next payday...but it's the thought, not the timing that counts, right? So what if they get it on January 1st! (*hangs head in shame*). I hate being poor.

Well, I best get back to work (cause yes, I'm in the office today).You have the rest of today and tomorrow to shop...so get out there and get it done, people! So be careful, keep your patience with the sales staff whose feet hurt so bad by now that the pain has taken over their whole body and they are exhausted (Plus, at this point they hate you...not you you...just shopper you...#BuffyLogic).

Good luck out there, folks!

Best,

Tamsin :)

SONY + North Korea = What a bloody mess!

Let's be honest, this whole thing is horrible. Kim Jong Un is a dick-tator, a horrible human being who gets off on control and creating fear...much like Hitler. I believe he should be stopped...the way he treats his people puts fear in my heart for them. In fact, I have this secret hope (from seeing too many movies, obviously) that we have undercover forces in place in North Korea to dismantle his TON of nuclear weapons so we can swoop in and get his ass off the "throne"...(can someone please draw me Kim on the toilet...cause that's the only throne he should ever sit on).

Anyway...I digress...

I've been involved in the performance field most of my life, so you can imagine 80% of my friends are as well, and the chatter on this whole thing is HUGE. The fact that terrorists from NK came in and basically won against USA, and got their way, is disturbing. Of course, what was SONY supposed to do when all the theaters refused to show the movie for fear of being bombed and being responsible for the deaths of American citizens on their property. I say they should've mailed that puppy out anyway. If the theaters don't show it, they don't show it, but then SONY isn't kowtowing to terrorists. Then again...for all we know, the President of the USA might have contacted them and said, "Pull it, we have a plan!"...and God, I really hope that's the deal. If there's any president I would trust to get KJU out of NK, it's the man that caught Osama Bin Laden.

Alas...here are some of my thoughts on what this whole thing could mean moving forward:

1. Actors and Producers are going to have to work it into their contract with a studio that if they pull the movie that they get a payout.
2. Who is going to want to do a movie with SONY at this point? And I don't mean just because they pulled the movie from being released, I also mean because of the things said in emails about actors and such that got out. How many actors/producers are going to want to stay with SONY or pitch a movie to them at all? Will SONY fire the top people and start over so as to keep things moving or will actors, producers, and all the others nasty things were said about, just let it slide?
3. If something like this can stop a movie, what else are they going to try and stop? They succeeded with a movie, what will they try to do next?
4. If North Korea continues to do this...will the USA retaliate? And if so, will it be via the internet or will we try to go into that country again. It didn't work out so great for us last time...so...yeah.

Anyway, I'm not NEARLY as "in the know" as one should be to talk about it...but here are two articles with people who are. So, if you're interested in hearing about how this is affecting things...here you go:

George Clooney talks about things HERE, as he speaks to Deadline.

OR...go HERE to read what Harold Furchtgott-Roth from FORBES.

If you want more info, go to Google and just type in Kim Jong Un's name...and trust me, you get A LOT of stuff.

Well, since this blog isn't really for political things, I'm going to keep it short, and leave you with a laugh...

HERE is Dr. Evil on Saturday Night Live (12/20/14 episode) with a funnier take on things...

Take care and remember to thank God you don't live in North Korea. This whole situation might be scary in many ways...but we still live in a free country where no one turns off our power or water at 8pm each night. So keep that in mind. And here's to hoping things do not get worse as we move into 2015.

Best,

Tamsin

It's gross out...let's listen to Benedict Cumberbatch...

Sing with me now...

Oh...the weather outside if frightful...and my office is not delightful...it's as cold in as it is outside...as it snows and it rains and it snows...

GROSS.

I hate this time of year.

No, not Christmas, the weather in NYC this time of year. It can't decide to rain or snow or sleet or hail or just...shit on us New Yorkers as we try to shove through the wind and rain with our wet, down jackets (cause that's nice) and try not to hit each other with our umbrellas. Which reminds me...

Dear New Yorker with the oversized umbrellas,
F*ck you. -Love, Tamsin (Happy Christmas!)

 Add to it that two of my roommates have flown off to Phoenix, AZ, and though that leaves me with a quieter/cleaner apartment...it also leaves my poor doggy alone more while I'm at work. :(  Poor boo. So I'm texting people to see who wants the joy of walking my dog in the "wintery mix"...aka "NYC Winter Crap"...thankfully, my neighbors LOVE Kadin, so they didn't tell me to bugger off.

Anyway...saw Foxcatcher over the weekend...and DAMN! Really, see this flick before the ending leaks out to you. Cause...man...it's heavy. The acting is phenomenal...however, I'm rather miffed at the SAG Awards People right now because both Steve and Mark are up for awards, but not Channing. *sigh* Tatum did amazing work...and I'll be honest, I think he's done more on this than Ruffalo (Sorry, Mark). And I don't mean just learning to wrestle. The work on his walk, facial movement, speaking, and so on and so forth is great! Here's the thing, Channing is SO charismatic in real life, and in many of his movies, that to see him play someone who is the opposite was so interesting and powerful.

SO...go see it! I don't want to say anything more...it needs to be watched, not explained.

That said...I have to get back to work, I leave you with something fun to do at your desk, since we are reaching the 3pm slump mark of the day...

This is a GREAT interview with Benedict on The Nerdist. He's so very genuine...like he totally forgets the microphone is even there most of the time.  He talks about life, acting, his tendency to do drama, being "famous", and a bit on Frankenstein, which I just saw (and will review soon), as well...but not really about The Imitation Game until the very end, which I bet he loved, since that's ALL he's been having to talk about for AGES.

At one point they make reference to his imitation of people on this MTV interview...it's HERE if you want to see it.

Oh, and enjoy a lot of uses of the word "fuck," Ben seems to love that word as much and I do! ;)

Here's the link if the embedded one I put there doesn't work:
https://soundcloud.com/the-nerdist/benedict-Cumberbatch

Catch you on the flip side!

Tamsin :)