Secrets of the Colbert Report
I got some unpleasant news this week that I did not get a job that I had interviewed for. I really wanted that job, so I am a bit bummed. I suppose getting rejected from a job you really wanted is just another one of those self-esteem crushers everyone has to deal with, like a breakup, or a college rejection letter, or losing your job. So, I guess in the grand scheme of things, this is not so bad and everyone goes through it. I also wanted that job because I am really tired of looking for a job! But I will continue, for lack of anything better to do =)
In happier news, I went to a taping of the Colbert Report last week, which was very exciting. I was in the standby line, so I got the last pick of the seats, which meant that I actually ended up sitting in the aisle on the end. Here's a link to the episode I attended: http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?episodeId=174852. I think you might be able to see me in the audience when the camera pans out after Colbert introduces the guest, Representative Robert Wexler.
Colbert was even cooler in person. Before the show, he came out for a Q&A with the audience. That was the only time he was out of character. He wouldn't explain how he got those weird marks on his face. There was an tape outline on the floor in front of his desk from where he slipped and broke his wrist. Someone asked him if he still got butterflies in his stomach before doing a show, and he said that he does gets nervous. He also said that the only time he had trouble staying in character was when Jane Fonda was sticking her tongue in his ear!
In between takes, they would play really cool music, like Peter Bjorn & John, and Neutral Milk Hotel, and Colbert would dance around a little. He also threw out lots of wrist strong bracelets and chocolate to the audience. He messed up a couple times, but the recorded version only showed one mistake. The second time he messed up, it was because he had eaten a piece of chocolate during the break. He said something like, I guess I shouldn't eat chocolate right now. . .
One of the writers came out before the show to warm up the crowd. He told us that Cookie Monster was super popular when he visited the set a couple weeks ago. Everyone came down to meet him and take a picture with him. Apparently one staff member was so excited that she hugged Cookie Monster and was actually told to back off!
So that was the big excitement of last week. Cindy swears she could hear me =)
Pierre and I finally managed to unpack all our boxes and fix our apartment! Which means that we are ready for a pet, whom we are planning to get this afternoon. I'll put pictures up of our new friend soon.
Here's the hallway, where Pierre and I are putting up all our numbers from our races.
The lovely, spacious bathroom.
The living room. Honey Bunny is sitting on top of the TV.
The bedroom and our wonderful air conditioner!
Our cozy kitchen.
On Saturday night, Pierre and I met up with our friends Suzanne and Barry for dinner in Hoboken. We checked on the train terminal and Pierre and I discovered that we had seen this train station before, in the movie Kal Ho Naa Ho!
Isn't that a gorgeous terminal?
Suzanne and Barry in front of the Manhattan skyline.
The Empire State Building blazing above the city.
Panorama of the skyline.
Daytime shot of skyline.
Gay Pride Run
New York City has some waterfalls this month, thanks to Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. There are four waterfalls up along the waterfront on East River. The waterfalls will be up from now until October 13. Pierre and I walked to the middle of the Manhattan Bridge to get a look at the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge.
I had to stop on the middle of the bridge to get a handstand picture for Megan. Pierre thought this picture looked very urban, with the grafitti on the ground, the chainlink fence, and the skyline behind me.
Another handstand picture for Megan, underneath the Manhattan Bridge sign.
Staring up at the supports for the bridge.
Pierre, sporting his Ecuadorian manpurse.
After checking out the waterfall, Pierre and I headed over to Little Italy for their summer festival. The streets were closed down to traffic and the place was packed. You can just barely see the Empire State Building in the background.
The next day, we headed to Central Park for the annual 5 mile Gay Pride Run. Here I am showing off the funky running tag we attached to our shoes to record our finish time.
Pierre and I looking sweaty and gross. I think I ruined that shirt. Probably not the best idea to wear that kindof a shirt for a race. My time was okay, but I was able to run the whole thing, which made me happy.
Malaya Dulzura
Here she is, my niece Malaya Dulzura! She's modeling a Tiny Democrat onesie in this photo. =)
Here's an unhappy Malaya. She's got some lungs!
Malaya was born at 11:55am on June 9. She weighed 7 pounds, two ounces.
Malaya with her dad. Most people say she looks like Nathan.
Look at that head of hair!
Have you ever seen a more beautiful, preciosa baby?
Baby tour of America
Pierre and I are now in the middle of our baby tour of America. We took a break between seeing babies to hang out with my high school buddy Mike. Mike works for the Padres, so he was able to get us tickets to the San Diego Padres-Yankees game. Hoorah!
Pierre and I wore Padres shirts and cheered loudly for the Padres during the two innings they were doing well. We were sitting with the other Padres employees, so that made me feel a little braver. Pierre said I was the loudest person in our section. One Yankees fan yelled at us: You suck! The Yankees won in the end, but it would have been really exciting to see them lose.
Here's Pierre's panaromic shot of Yankees stadium. I don't really want to go to any more Yankees games. I've already decided that we are not going to adopt any NY teams. Well, we'll root for the Mets. But otherwise, we are going to remain loyal to the Mystics, the Bears, and the Cubs.
Pierre and I went to St. Louis last weekend to meet baby #3, Avery Rose, the daughter of Pierre's best friend Aaron. While we were in St. Louis, we drove up to Springfield to visit Pierre's grandma. On the way to her retirement community, we spotted a street named Rickard!
I had never been to St. Louis before, so we went to all the touristy spots. There was a cool exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden by the artist Niki de Saint Phalle. I really liked this fountain sculpture of serpents. It is so colorful and bright!
I like how this elephant looks like he is just emerging from the jungle.
All the kids loved climbing on the Nikigator. Interactive public art is so cool!
Here's my friend Priya and I in front of a state prizing winning tree. Priya was the mastermind behind the Rakhi birthday dance of 2004. Now she and her husband live in St. Louis.
Pierre of course had to take a picture with the bull totem pole. He wore his Cubs jersey to try to start trouble with Cardinals fans.
The Dome in the back is the Climatron conservatory, which houses the Garden's tropical plants. We found the toquilla palm there, which is from Ecuador and used to make the misnamed Panama hat.
I'm not really sure what is going on in this sculpture, but it looks like this couple is walking their black widow spider. Did you know that you are rarely more than six feet away from a spider? I just learned that from the American Museum of Natural History.
After the Botanical Garden, we headed down to the Arch. The river was unbelievably high. You can see in this picture that the stairs are flooded and water is up to half the length of the lightpoles.
The sky was partly cloudy, which was perfect for taking lots of photos of the Arch. We were too cheap to ride to the top!
Rakhi called me when we were at the arch and told me to sit at the bottom of the Arch, put my feet up, and look up. She told me it would look like I was on the race track for Mario Cart. Here I am, as per Rakhi's instructions. =)
Pierre's feet and mine.
It does look like Mario Cart! Though actually I've never played Mario Cart, so I'll just take Rakhi's word for it. =)
One last shot of the Arch.
Most things in St. Louis are free, which was sweet! We made a brief stop at the zoo, and got to see all the bears being fed. The grizzly bear was super cool.
Brown pelican hanging out with the penguins.
Our favorite was the polar bear. He caught a bunch of fish as his keeper threw them in his enclosure. Some of the fish ended up in his pond, so he swam in to get them.
He dove and ended up with four fish in his mouth! He was so cute in the water. He did a headstand and stuck his back feet up out of the water. He moved too fast for Pierre to get a picture of that.
I loved this picture of the polar bear right after he got out of his pool. You can see all the water pouring off of his body.
Saturday was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and also my birthday! I got lots of birthday calls, emails and text messages, which was very nice. Pierre surprised me with a delicious ice cream cake from Maggie Moo's.
Pierre, Megan, Aaron and I all loved the cake. It was a nice little birthday celebration. Their baby, Avery, turned 1 month old that day too.
Here's Pierre's friends Megan and Aaron standing in front of their lovely house.
Little Avery Rose was not happy about posing for pictures with us. Here she is screaming in Pierre's arms. This always seems to happen to us. . . I guess we are not quite ready for parenthood. =)
The only other exciting thing that has happened recently is I had another interview. I should hear back about that one soon. One cool thing about going to that interview is I discovered an Ecuadorian restaurant on my way to the meeting. So I had Ecuadorian food for the first time here in America! Nothing too special, just arroz con pollo. I was hoping for some encebollado or ceviche, but they didn't have any. I also found a little Latino grocery store, so I got some guanabanana juice, which was delicious. I didn't think that I could find that here. I spoke in Spanish at the grocery store and restaurant, which was great.
People keep speaking to me in Spanish, so I'm hoping I'll be able to maintain my Spanish. I'm trying to volunteer regularly, and doing that usually allows me to speak a little Spanish. I think there may also be some other unexpected benefits of being bilingual. For example, I think I got a free piece of cheese last week. =) Mike and I went to the American Museum of Natural History to see the Squid and the Whale (from the excellent movie, the Squid and the Whale) and we stopped in the food court to get lunch. The guy cooking the hamburgers asked where I was from and if I spoke Spanish. I told him si, so then I heard all about where he was from, how long he's been here, his thoughts on the City, etc. He also gave me an extra piece of cheese on my turkey burger! Woohoo! I am beginning to think that looking Latina and being able to speak Spanish is opening up a whole new world to me of secret advantages. Last week: free cheese, next week: who knows!
Here's the hallway, where Pierre and I are putting up all our numbers from our races.
The lovely, spacious bathroom.
The living room. Honey Bunny is sitting on top of the TV.
The bedroom and our wonderful air conditioner!
Our cozy kitchen.
On Saturday night, Pierre and I met up with our friends Suzanne and Barry for dinner in Hoboken. We checked on the train terminal and Pierre and I discovered that we had seen this train station before, in the movie Kal Ho Naa Ho!
Isn't that a gorgeous terminal?
Suzanne and Barry in front of the Manhattan skyline.
The Empire State Building blazing above the city.
Panorama of the skyline.
Daytime shot of skyline.
