What gets you to the gym?

Throughout the last month I have been regularly going to the gym, mainly to take classes. I'm a big fan of PowerDance, Ab class and Total Body Conditioning. But, the Power Dance class is by far the best. Not only do I go to burn calories and learn new moves for when I go out on Saturday nights, but I go for the eye candy.

No, I haven't suddenly switched teams. I'm talking about the guys. Yes, a few guys actually take these classes. I <3 guys who dance. I always have. I'm addicted to N'Sync videos and award show performances. I love to watch men who can dance, and even those who can't but give it a great try.

I can't take my eyes off these guys. Many of them obviously dance for a living or have formal dance training. Their bodies move all the right ways-- their hips and hands and feet are always in the right position. They combine moves and strength like no other. Guys look differently than girls when they dance. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all dancers-- JLo, Gwen, Madonna, the NYC Ballet, etc. But male dancers are my sweet spot. Clearly, these guys in the classes wouldn't notice me ever. They probably have their eyes set on each other. However, there is this one guy who clearly plays for the straight team, if you know what I mean. How do I know this? He can't dance for shit. He tries real hard, and memorizes all the moves. He doesn't look like a complete idiot...but his head is always down watching the feet of the person in front of him and he doesn't move with the same grace as the other guys. Still, can't take my eyes off this complete cutie. A total Paul Rudd look alike. And the fact that he's taking Power Dance (combination of hiphop and jazz) makes him all the more attractive.

Lots Of Random Thinking

JLo

So I went out and bought the new JLo CD because the guy who teaches the dance class I take at the gym always plays her new song and I couldn't get it out of her head. Yes, I bought an entire CD for one song. There are some other good songs on the CD and even if the songs aren't good, they have a great beat and easily get stuck in your head. For instance, there is this song that I can't get out of my head and it has the worst lyrics ever.

I can be your cherry pie
And you can be my cream on top

Not exactly what a female should be singing as she walks down the streets of Manhattan. Who writes these lyrics anyway. I'm a little surprised a song comparing yourself to cherry pie actually made it to the final cut.

Taxi Drivers

I'll be the first to admit I take a lot of cabs. Although I have completely cut down my cab use, I still indulge every now and then. And I am always a good tipper because, all in all, they are doing me a great service-- getting me where I need to go and quickly. Well, most of the time quickly. But can I vent about my number 1 Taxi pet peeve? No, it's not bad smelling cabs, non-English speaking drivers or drivers always talking on their cells (you know when you have no idea whether they are on the phone or talking to you). My number 1 taxi pet peeve is drivers who refuse to take you where you want to go, or even worse bitch at you about how you'd get there quicker if you walked. If I am willing to pay you to sit in traffic, shut up and deal with it. Don't yell at me that I am choosing the wrong time to leave, the wrong place to go or tell me I should get out and walk. I've obviously made a conscious decision to take a cab and you should be fine with it.

On St Patty's Day morning, I was running late and needed to meet a client at work. So I hailed a cab and there was a tremendous amount of traffic going across town. And my cabbie took my extended time in the car to tell me what a bad traffic day it was and how I should walk. After the fourth time of him telling me to walk, I finally yelled-- "Yeah, I know. But I have a broken toe, so it's not really an option." That shut him up. For about 5 seconds.


For all you cabbies out there, if you don't like traffic- please get a new job.

The question on everyone's mind

Well, it's probably not on everyone's minds, but it's on mine. So does nobody read this? Or does nobody post so I know they read this? Maybe you can shed some light on this conundrum....and actually post to let me know you're reading...

On The Mend

Over the course of 12 hours, I managed to hurt myself more than I have in the last 5 years! I've always been a klutz. I'm used to it. I'm used to the stories, nicknames and private jokes about all my accidents and incidents. (Dancers are always klutzy, right? At least that's what my family used to tell me to make me feel better!).

Well yesterday I cooked lunch. This is another story to support that I should not be allowed in the kitchen unless it involves baking or washing dishes. I need to leave the cooking up to someone else. I make myself some macaroni and cheese-- out of the box, nothing too difficult. Yet, after I am done with the burner, I notice some macaroni had fell out of the pot. Being the anal girl I am, I decide I need to get those stranded macaroni spirals ASAP to clean up the stove. So I pick up the metal burner, not ever considering it was probably still very hot. After holding it in my hand for about 3 seconds (which is a pretty long time when your skin is burning) I dropped it and started to scream. After an hour or so of ice and some neosporin and a bandaid, my three burnt fingertips started to feel a little better.

Then last night I went into the kitchen to grab some beer before heading to a friends house and I stubbed my pinky toe against the leg of a chair. When I say stubbed, I really mean hit really hard and bent the toe in a way it wasn't meant to go. A few more screams of pain later, my toe really hurt. Nothing you can do for a broken toe so I throw on my comfy sneakers and visit my friend. Only to awake this morning with a very swollen, very purple and very hurt pinky toe.

I think I'll be spending the rest of the weekend in a bubble!

Tuesday Night

Ahhhhhh, where to begin.So on Tuesday I had the opportunity to not only see the Bob Guiney Band perform live, but I had the opportunity to meet Bob himself and the rest of the band. The venue was absolutely amazing. Prohibition, on the UWS. Totally small and intimate. Perfect for an acoustic performance.

Ironically enough, before the show started the girls and I were discussing wussy handshakes. You know, you meet someone and you shake their hand and there's nothing to it. Well, Bob has a very nice handshake. Not only did I get to hear the band perform live, I got the chance to briefly tell Bob how much I love his book.

After the show I was able to get my picture taken with Bob (his head got cut off a little, but it's cute nonetheless :-) I want to post them, but I don't know how yet. I'll have to work on that...During the show, I was my klutzy self and almost knocked the guitarist's microphone off the stage (that's how close we were sitting!). Which led to many apologies and good conversation with the guitarist, Andy. He and I took a picture too.

Words can't even describe the fun the girls and I had. Once I figure out how to post pictures, it will be better. Just trust me that it was a super fabulous night. And I can't wait for the band to come back again.

Thanks Sardis!

Rosie Uses The Same Blog As Me?!?!?!

Need Some New Luster? Try Rosie O'Donnell's Method: Create It by the Blogful
By DAVID CARR

Rosie O'Donnell, who spent most of the last five years extricating herself from public life, is back, though in a post-celebrity sort of way. Ms. O'Donnell, former K Mart spokeswoman, former talk show host, former magazine editor and publisher, and former Broadway producer, has a new title: blogger.
Ms. O'Donnell's Web log, "formerlyrosie," began appearing late last month and is described as at the top of the page as "The unedited rantings of a fat 42-year-old menopausal ex-talk show host married mother of four." Ms. O'Donnell apparently got the hang of the Web's approach to discourse fairly quickly. She once had a cuddly relationship with millions as the warm and hilarious television personality with a visible crush on Tom Cruise, but she complicated her public image by quitting her show, announcing she was a lesbian, starting and then quitting her eponymous magazine before producing a Broadway musical starring Boy George. In the end, Ms. O'Donnell ended up with a measure of privacy, but she began to drive her friends crazy with all of her opinions.
"One of them finally said that I should start a blog," Ms. O'Donnell said in a telephone interview from her home in upstate New York. "I have had offers to do books, but what I do is too rough and raw for them. They always want it to be more linear than I think. This way I can just put it out there."
The blog - which can be read at the slightly bereft address onceadored.blogspot.com - is part journal and part political rant. It offers a plain view of some rococo mental architecture. Written in a style that eschews trifles like punctuation and narrative, Ms. O'Donnell has used her unlimited space to riff on Howard Stern, Boy George, the television show "Fat Actress" and the serial killer David Berkowitz. A dispatch posted on Tuesday veered quickly and precipitously from "The Nanny" to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Scooby-Doo:
she should go to washington nextput condie rice in the naughty chairshe scares me condii expect her to unzip her skinand have dick cheneys twin brother step out laughing -like on scooby doo
Jessica Coen, the editor of Gawker, a media-centric blog that is based in Manhattan, said Ms. O'Donnell's version of blogging is distinguished by voice if nothing else.
"I don't know if she is doing some form of haiku or a terrible Faulkner imitation, but I'm not surprised she is doing it," Ms. Coen said, noting that celebrities as diverse as the rocker Fred Durst and the occasional actress Barbra Streisand have penned blogs. She added, "It is really kind of cool that she and others want to speak to the public without the precautions of their publicists."
Not everyone has been thrilled to see Ms. O'Donnell back in the public eye, even though she is hidden behind a keyboard. Soon after she began blogging, her site's comments section began filling up with the kind of hate mail Ms. O'Donnell has been subjected to ever since she came out as a lesbian and began addressing political issues. Ms. O'Donnell switched off the invitation to reply for a time, but has again reopened the two-way feature.
"I know I am a big, fat, lesbian short-hair," she said in the interview. "I plead guilty."
But online yesterday, she reminded readers who has the keys to the kingdom at formerlyrosie, explaining that she had hit the delete key on a few of her respondents' messages of hate.
i clicked and poof -you are gone but not forgottenyour words resonated and were feltyou hate mestranger
In an era of celebrity in which all incoming invective has generally been treated as spitballs against a battleship, it is worth recalling that Ms. O'Donnell has always taken abuse personally. There is no veneer to her, no stage-smile, just-meat-and-potatoes amazement about how angry she makes people.
This may not be a great fit with the flame-throwing culture of the Web, but it served her well in her recent legal proceedings, when she was sued by Gruner & Jahr USA for walking away from the magazine called Rosie. Ms. O'Donnell tore into her former partners for what she saw as a kidnapping of her magazine, and by extension, of her identity.
And though the judge found that the company - which sued Ms. O'Donnell for $100 million- did not deserve a dime, her feelings are still very close to the surface, as they have always been. Much of the important evidence in the trial came in the form of Ms. O'Donnell's prolix, idiosyncratic e-mail messages, a modality of communication that may have foretold her step into the blogosphere.
Things have not been easy for Ms. O'Donnell since. "Taboo," the Broadway musical she sank nearly $10 million into last year, closed after three months, a near-total loss. Ms. O'Donnell said that the diversion was worth the price. "It was worth every penny," she said. "I am very proud of that play."
Ms. O'Donnell, who will be appearing on a Hallmark Hall of Fame drama on CBS in May titled "Riding the Bus With My Sister," said that the blog is, "just another totally artistic thing." One of many, she hastened to add. Since retiring from her talk show and leaving the magazine, Ms. O'Donnell has created hundreds of paintings, some of which she has sold, with the proceeds going to charity. And she has founded a cruise company to serve what she calls nontraditional families, with last year's cruise pulling in 1,600 people.
None of which will preclude this former talk show host from thinking about dropping the former from her identity.
"I watch Jon Stewart every night and I am proud of what he is doing, and it has me thinking about what might be possible," she said in the interview.
On her blog, Ms. O'Donnell addressed the same issue less directly, but more vividly:
i am thinking about going back on tvhow when with who details....

Check it out= http://onceadored.blogspot.com/

More on the PR Industry and PoweR Girls

PR Industry Speaks out about MTV's Power Girls; PR NEWS Editor Matthew Schwartz Available for Comment Today

WHO: PR NEWS, the public relations industry's oldest and most
established trade publication, through its editor Matthew
Schwartz, is speaking out about the gross
misrepresentation of the public relations industry
presented by MTV's new "Power Girls".

WHAT: MTV's Power Girls, featuring Lizzie Grubman and a cast of
eye candy, have nothing to do with the practice of public
relations. It sends the wrong message about the PR field
and grossly misrepresents a recently beleaguered industry
at the worst possible time -- what with the blowback from
the Armstrong Williams and Ketchum debacle at the U.S.
Department of Education.

WHY: Public relations professionals in corporations,
non-profits, agencies, education and government play a
vital role in helping communicate essential messages to
critical audiences around the world. Being in the business
takes skill, wisdom, honesty and integrity and in many
cases, true grit - especially when trying to tell the cold
truth to high-powered C-level executives who sometimes
care not to hear it. And to portray PR as an endless party
is wrong, misguided and dangerous.

WHEN: Mr. Schwartz is available for comment today and during the
week leading up to the March 10 premier of Power Girls.
______________________________________________

The 'Why' section above is so true. I firmly believe that there is a vital role for PR Professionals in this world, or else I couldn't be in this business. Additionally, it's 100% true that this business requires skill, wisdom, honesty and integrity. I'm proud that someone is taking a firm stand on this issue and defending the PR industry.

More on PoweR Girls

This pretty much sums up what I was trying to get at the other day...

LIZZIE AND THE LOSERS
By MAUREEN CALLAHAN
March 7, 2005 -- Lizzie Grubman's reality show about public relations, "PoweR Girls," is pretty rotten p.r. for the world's second oldest profession, according to many in the industry.
But while her show is taking flak from fellow flacks, they say Lizzie herself comes out golden — more proof of the classic p.r. maxim: "Say anything you want about me, just spell my name right."
Debuting Thursday on MTV, "PoweR Girls" follows Grubman and four of her protégées on the job.
Many on a Post panel of publicists said what they've seen in previews is as embarrassing as Lizzie's driving.
One cited a signing that Lizzie's firm organized for Ja Rule. When he arrived, there was nothing for him to autograph.
"Why would they show that?" asked the publicist. "It made them look so bad and unprofessional."
But the publicist added: "It doesn't matter what Lizzie does. She basically ran over a bunch of people, and people still want to work with her."
Sean Mathey of Think PR was shocked to see Grubman badmouth Lindsay Lohan.
"Those people are her bread and butter," said a surprised Mathey.
Publicists were amazed that the "PoweR Girls" couldn't organize the guest list for the opening of nightclub Ruby Falls, leading to mass confusion and P.O.'d partygoers.
"We take the list pretty seriously," said one. "We need it to be perfect, or we'd be whipped for it."
Another said real publicists don't buy clothes right before a big event.
"I have my clothes picked out before that," said one. "The day of an event, I'm either at the site or at the office."
But the publicist said: "She handles her business and her employees really well. The show will probably improve her image."
But it may harm the image of other publicists, Mathey complained.
" 'PoweR Girls' shows a stereotypical side of the business," he groused. "All my friends think I'm picking models for shoots all day. Trust me, that's not the case — I work 11-hour days at the office."