And still more snow in NY

Flights are being canceled today. I hope our flight on Saturday will be okay... What a snowy, cold winter we're having!

Happy Australia Day in NY, in very unAustralian weather!

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Blizzard 2010

David and I had a wonderful Christmas weekend in Brooklyn.  Our tree looks lovely in our apartment, against the cityscape backdrop.  For more information of our Christmas feast, please check out Food, Love, Rock & Roll, my food(ie) blog!

Yesterday, New York (and many states) experienced this year's major Nor'easter blizzard.  Luckily we have plenty of leftovers and food at home, so we could just stay indoors and enjoy the view as the city became blanketed in powder white.

Yesterday morning, at the start of the blizzard... snow began mounting quite quickly.

We checked out the empty -- and open -- apartment unit across the hall last night.  Here's David on the balcony... in his big goose down jacket over his pajamas.  The other side of our building was more exposed to the elements due to wind.

The apartment across the hall, this morning.  Look at that pile of snow!

Sunset today.  Snow-covered view.  Beautiful.

Happy Valentine's Day!

David gave me these flowers this morning.  So gorgeous!!!  He always sends me the most beautiful bouquets.  I am a lucky lady.

Last night we had Steve over for dinner.  I made the prime roast from the Food52 website -- turned out very nicely, the cook time was perfect.  I also baked the Orange Cardamom Flourless Chocolate Cake -- the most decadent, beautiful cake, ever.  A pure chocolate delight.  It's a must-try for anyone who loves chocolate.  I made the cake with 73% dark chocolate, so it was incredibly rich and chocolaty.

Tonight we are going to a romantic dinner at MAS Farmhouse.  We went to the restaurant once before for my birthday with Eleanor and Michael.  We had a wonderful time there -- the food is very seasonal, fresh and delicate, and the space is cozy and beautiful, a perfect place for an elegant Valentine's Day meal.  We initially could not get a reservation, but we put ourselves on the wait-list and a space opened up yesterday.  We're pretty excited.  The restaurant has a special V-day menu tonight.

HAPPY 2010!!!

Happy New Year!!!

First post of the year... here's to trying to be more frequent this year.

David and I had a wonderful holiday season and a fabulous New Year. We're in New York for the time being, for the foreseeable future until the spring, so we are enjoying our time at home, very low-key-like. Cooking, television, Netflix movies, video games... we're loving being home.

During our time on New York ground, David has been busy putting together his website and choreographic reel, which can be found HERE (click me).

This winter, we are toying with the idea of going snow boarding... toying... because really I want David to be careful (i.e. he is a dancer/choreographer by trade, and broken anything is bad news). But David has never gone skiing or snowboarding or generally spent the winter in New York, so we think perhaps a trip down the bunny slope is not a bad idea, if we are super duper super careful. Maybe. I'm not sold, so maybe not, but at least we are "contemplating" it (which for David seems like a step closer than he was to snow boarding). We shall see...

Otherwise, no big plans so far... Trying to keep healthy. We're looking to do another 5-day cleanse to kick off the year right in a week or so. David has also begun a new gym/training regime, to which I decided I will tag along with much lighter weights. I did my first day with him this weekend, which was very successful but now I am in SO MUCH PAIN. I have not been in this much muscle pain since... high school volleyball camp, when in the initial days I had to walk down the stairs backwards. I can *just* about walk like a normal person; I have difficulty sitting down, because my quads hurt so much. But I am guessing this is all good pain... and at some point I will not feel like a cripple.

Oh Christmas Tree!

This winter will mark our first full winter in New York -- since we were married, we have always relocated to a foreign city around or after the New Year to begin a new production of DD -- we have spent winters in Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Berlin... but never a full winter in the US. We are excited at the prospect of being home for a significant period. To kick off our winter and holiday season appropriately, we have decided to get a Christmas tree! Something we did not do last year, since we were busy around the holidays and then moving to Berlin.

Here are a few snapshots of our tree-acquiring process, taken by my trusty Blackberry.

David carrying our selected Christmas tree back to our apartment. We bought it from the Christmas tree vendor just down the block... good times!

Christmas tree, decorated! Our apartment smells so lovely... Hooray!

Back in NYC... and onto THANKSGIVING!

David and I returned from Berlin last week... it took us that week to recover from the go-go-go situation at work, being abroad, then coming back home, being jet-lagged and trying to get back into the New York groove of things. We LOVED being back in Berlin, though, and had a fantastic time -- our trip coincided with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a fantastic event for which to be around. And most wonderfully, Val visited us that weekend and we had ourselves an awesome good time. Steve also came through Berlin over the 3 weeks we were in Germany. With Steve we spent a Berlin Halloween, which was fantastic. We will post pics as soon as we can (I know we are getting behind pictorially!).

In addition to having a fantastic social time, we were successful at re-casting -- we found a lovely new "Baby," an actress who is still in acting school but who has an immensely appealing and beautiful quality, who I hope will fit well into the company. Eleanor is incredibly happy with her, which makes me feel very successful with the casting indeed. All other necessary slots have been offered, too.

And now we are onto Thanksgiving tomorrow! Tomorrow morning I shall make my usual truffle-scented turkey... as well as truffle gravy, to bring to Eleanor and Michael's house for a large, international Thanksgiving gathering. Today I spent all afternoon baking blue and yellow corn bread muffins from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill cookbook. I made 4 dozen muffins plus a loaf, it took me the bulk of the afternoon. I also made cranberry sauce, and roasted beet roots for a beet root salad. Tomorrow I shall make some corn bread stuffing. David is enjoying taste-testing my submissions to the Bergstein-Goldman Thanksgiving feast indeed.

Anyway, so onto our next event now back in NYC. We shall post pics of our last months soon xoxox

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!!!!

Back in the Big Apple

David and I returned safely to New York this afternoon. It's good to be back at home, although it's strange to not see mango and breadfruit trees everywhere we look all of a sudden.

We shall post some pic soon. xoxo

since we've been in NYC...

Life has been full and hectic since we returned to NYC.

For one, I turned 30. I had a terrific, terrific birthday, which made the transition into the new decade smooth and wonderful. Although busy with A Wonderland, David went all out to make my 30th birthday memorable -- gorgeous flowers delivered first thing in the morning, an incredible gift, amazing card, and a fabulous dinner at a Japanese restaurant we'd never been to before in the city. Fantastic day. Truly.

And then David worked non-stop on A Wonderland. While there were some obstacles (such as losing a dancer 2 days before show opening), the show opened and was over-sold for all 4 nights of the run. On the last night, a whole row had to be added, it was standing-room only. David's choreography was very well received, and his dancing, too -- yes, he danced in one of the numbers himself! Having had to replace one of the dancers unexpectedly at the last minute, he found that the new, replacement dancer could not learn everything in time, confidently. One of the numbers was quite complicated and fast, and so David decided to dance that section himself. EVERYONE raved about David's dancing. I think it was perhaps the most surprising and best part of the show for our friends, who have never seen David dance live.

Despite the packed and all-too-short rehearsal period, with no budget to speak of, the show was a great experience for David. It presented challenges different than those he's faced in DD. I for one love the show, I am so proud of David for having been part of the project. It was exciting, if at times harrowing. One of the reviews said this about David's choreography:

"...sharply choreographed by David Scotchford... watch for the dancers, they manage to live large within their tight muscled choreography" -- Michael Bettencourt (Scene4Magazine QReviews)

Good times.

Next up for us? -- A VACATION! We're off to Grenada a week from today. Today we signed up to take intensive scuba dive classes this weekend. David is very excited about diving, and I am, too, although quite nervous, too. Simply, I am looking forward to relaxing on the beach and by the pool.

back in NYC, onto summer

Back in NYC after a fantastic weekend in Edinburgh, followed by a drive through the Lake District, a stop in Yorkshire Dales, more driving and a flight out of Heathrow. Although battling a bit of jet-lag, we hit the ground running NYC-style -- David is rehearsing A Wonderland, I'm back in the office. But there's a distinct "summer-ness" in Manhattan, perhaps inspired by the 4th of July weekend.

David in London, Tomoko in NYC

David departed early this morning for London -- he has arrived safe and sound, and is now across "the pond" from me, still in New York. It's that time of the year again, the London new cast rehearsals, and so David will begin rehearsing the new members tomorrow. I will join him this Saturday -- not for business this time, thank goodness for our frequent flier miles! We will remain in London until Friday, June 26th, when we fly up to Edinburgh for our friends' wedding.

We've decided to explore the UK countryside on our way back to Heathrow Airport, from where we return to New York on Tuesday, June 30. We shall hire a car and drive back down from Edinburgh, stopping along the way to stay in Yorkshire Dales. We found a quirky inn called the Wensleydale Heifer -- should be interesting! We are really looking forward to the wedding - it is the wedding of our dear friends Katie and Magnus. Katie and I met 10 years ago at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. David and I met Magnus when we lived in London leading up to the premiere of the West End DD -- they were dating then. They are a lovely couple, and we stayed with Katie's parents with Katie, our friend Val (whom I also met 10 years ago at the EdFest), and Magnus during the festival that summer and had a fantastic time. David and I have seen Val, Katie and Magnus whenever we could when we pass through London, and Val has come to visit us in Chicago recently (and Utrecht before that). So the wedding promises to be GOOD TIMES with our favorite UK folks -- it will be a wonderful occasion and our very first Scottish wedding!

Now I will just have to get through this week solo in New York as I prepare to leave very early Saturday! x

June and Onwards

Time at home has passed very quickly. We're now into JUNE, and rainy season is in full effect.

A couple of updates since the last blog --

Last weekend, David and I impulsively decided to go down to Princeton for Reunions weekend. Or rather, I impulsively decided I wanted to go, and David, like the loving, generous husband that he is, graciously obliged. It was the 10th Reunion for the Class of 1999, a class in which I have many friends. It was great to be there. Princeton Reunions are often overwhelming as a concept, but once there, it is a whole lot of GOOD TIMES. David and I are now experienced Reunion attendees, and have matured since my 5th Reunion 3 years ago... which meant we were very sensible in our partying and survived without hangovers.

One of my friends from the Princeton Class of '99 is Jessica Del Vecchio. She and I performed together in the play Uncommon Women and Others . Since graduating, she has worked in the music industry while fronting a band. Nowadays, she performs in a awesome band called Menage A Twang, and attends grad school. We spent a lot of time with her and her partner, Eamonn. Like David, he is a spouse/partner of a Princeton graduate -- he did not attend Princeton himself, so the two boys bonded over their initiation into Princeton alumni world. Eamonn is also a theater director in New York and is the founder of the Anonymous Ensemble. He has a new upcoming project for which he needs a choreographer... What a coincidence! David and Eamonn hit off very well indeed and they shall now work together on the pieace. It's very exciting. It's a new work, very experimental -- a rock performance piece loosely based on Alice in Wonderland. The piece is called Wonderland, and in it there will be a live band, video projections, an aerialist as well as dancers, and a drag queen Bunny. It will be showcased at the Ohio Theater in SoHo for 3 nights in July. I love the Ohio Theater (my favorite theater company, The Wooster Group, has done a lot of productions there), and I am excited for David's foray into experimental theater in New York. While it is not a big or paying job, it is great chance to meet interesting artists and put on a show. There is a great collaborative spirit about the piece, and David seems pleased about the opportunity to experiment quite freely.

Before he sinks his teeth into Wonderland, David is off to London for two weeks mid-June, to rehearse the new cast for DD London. I will join him for the second week. We also happen to have a wedding to attend in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the end of June, so we will take a long weekend Scottish-style before heading back to New York..... busy again!

And then I turn 30. The big 3-0 happens come July. Not sure how we shall celebrate just yet...

HOORAY!!!

We just received news from our immigration lawyer that David has been approved for a permanent PERMANENT RESIDENCY (green card) !!!

xoxo

Behold, our new hobby!

During the gray, wintry days of Berlin, David decided that we would buy mountain bikes when we returned to New York and the weather turned spring. David has researched mountain bikes voraciously -- if not impressively and obsessively -- for the last few months. And voila! Earlier this week, all his detailed and thorough research paid off and he bought us bikes! I am still a novice mountain biker, but I have aspirations. Apparently there are mountain bike trails around Manhattan and the outer boroughs. We have already ridden up and down the Westside Highway bike/roller-blade path, and, I must say, the bikes are super duper awesome.

With any luck I could be a hard-bodied mountain biker... real tough-like, but hopefully not butch. First, I will need to get outfits to fit the part, of course.

WE (heart) NEW YORK CITY

David and I are FINALLY back home in New York!

This has been the longest stretch of time that we have been away from home. David is thrilled to be in NYC, in our apartment, as I am, too -- although I think I am also a little shell-shocked. It's odd to be home after being away for so long, after having made temporary homes in not one but TWO different apartments (one in Berlin, the other in London). I feel a bit like a stranger with a severe case of de ja vu being back in our apartment. A whole series of, "Where is the...?" and "Where did I use to...?" and "Where did this go again??" Strange. New York changes quickly and often. Our gym closed on the day we returned! We received an email about it -- it felt like being broken up with by text message. Luckily there is another gym/health club just down the block, so today we promptly marched over there and became members.

We're still getting organized back home - I expect this process will take some time. Unpacking, organizing, cleaning, reacclimatizing... it's a little daunting for me, but David is so happy and energized about being home, looking forward to what we'd do now we're here (he has big plans on buying us mountain bikes), I hope to get back on the New York City track soon. Despite my sense of having SO MUCH TO DO, I am, indeed, happy to be back in our own bed, to have access to my whole wardrobe, to have our NYC friends close, and to be in NYC.

Day 2 of Detox...

... and I want solid food!

The fruit and vegetable juices are great, but if I attempt to be full by way of drinking juices, I just feel like I'm a waterbed.

Incidentally, I watched the Golden Globes last night and I have yet another way to pretend my way through wanting a juicy steak -- I shall pretend to be some L.A. celebrity whose idea of indulgence is drinking fruit juices!

(The funny thing is, I'm not particularly hungry. I just miss being able to chew on something while consuming food energy.)

...Now onto a 5-day Kidney Cleanse

Now that David and I are back from our Mexican vacation, we're onto doing a 5-day kidney cleanse. This is not unlike the 5-day liver cleanse we did about a year ago. (Click on the tag "Detox" at the bottom of this blog entry and you will be able to read all the entries about our detox process -- or click HERE). Today is our first day and I am already dreaming of steaks and roast chickens, but David is very excited about the cleanse... and I really need it, probably, what with the hive break-outs and the tequilas. We leave New York for Berlin next week... so we have 10 days in New York before we are in Germany again and trying to dodge crappy food consumption (although food is much better in Berlin than in Hamburg). 5 of these days we shall spend existing on fruit juices, tinctures, herbal teas and such... (to be fair, 1st and 5th days we are allowed fruits and vegetables, raw or juiced). For the next 5 days, I shall find support in my active imagination and acting background... and pretend to be forest creatures and other such woodland-type beings, who would eat/drink/subsist on the type of things we shall consume. (Nothing convinces me more of my inability to be a long-term vegetarian than doing a detox.)

Well, here I go!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

David and I had an excellent New Year's Eve party - we rang in 2009 at the Soho House with Amber, her brother Clayton, his fiance Simona, Liz and her boyfriend. Good times were had by all... (although we were all hurtin' today). It's now almost 2am on January 2nd -- come morning we're off to MEXICO!!! It is icy cold in New York at the moment, so David and I can't wait to get into some summer clothes and have a break from things in a WARMER CLIMATE.

Anyway, we wish you all a very happy and healthful 2009!

BOTH in NYC, trying to beat the German GORDO factor, and the Mexican "spring break" we've never had

David returned to New York Thursday night... after traveling almost 20 hours. That's right, 20. To cross the Atlantic. When he arrived in Heathrow around 5:30am, he discovered that his flight to Dusseldorf had been canceled. This meant he would not make the connection in Dusseldorf to return to New York. Luckily, Lufthansa re-booked him onto a flight back to New York via Munich. Unluckily, this flight left at 11am, so David had quite a few hours to kill at the airport, having slept only a few hours the night before. But no complaints -- he made it home safely, and a good thing, too, because Northeast and Midwestern states have been on a "winter storm watch" and, sure enough, it snowed quite a bit in New York Friday.

Now we're both back in New York, spending some much-needed chill time in our own apartment. It's wonderful. We've not bought a Christmas tree yet, and we go back and forth on this. It's hard when we are so in and out of town -- the last thing we feel like doing when we are FINALLY back in our own place is to go buy a big tree, put it in our place and decorate it, but, then again, it doesn't quite feel like Christmas without one. Also, where will we put the presents?! I think we will get a tree, maybe not as big a tree as last year. And we really need to get on that Christmas shopping band wagon... somehow, we shall manage it all.

We encountered a couple of health/physical problems in Germany, from which we are recovering now.

ONE: I broke out in serious hives. I've never broken out in hives before, maybe once when I was little, like 6 years old, but never like this. I woke up about a week ago at 3am, achingly itchy. I'd developed spots all over my legs. We had the sheets changed and everything, but the spots remained. Next day, they spread to other areas of my body, so we had to call a doctor to come to the hotel. He told me that I had an extreme allergic reaction, but it was hard to tell to what, since I was in a foreign environment. He gave me some anti-histamine tablets and cortizone cream, because I had also been dragging a horrible exczma behind my left knee. The exczma cleared up, but the spots and itchiness remained. Now back in New York, I went to the doctor on Tuesday and was told that they were "stumped" as to what was wrong with me; so onto a dermatologist I was sent. The dermatologist confirmed that I had a severe allergic reaction, and gave me antibiotics to take as well as a topical cream that would help reduce the inflammation. It's still unclear what caused it all -- probably a combination of exhaustion, stress, being under the weather, having bad exczma that left me exposed and more vulnerable to allergens, and maybe red wine I had the night before the hives broke out (a German pinot noir). Who knows. But I shall now be afraid to drink red wine.

TWO: We got fat. I mean, not really really fat, but David and I both got a bit chubby in Germany. It's impossible not to -- the Atkins diet never reached Germany, everything is in bread or on bread or made out of bread... and if it's not breaded (which most likely it would be), it's fried. Or loaded with sugar, laden in chocolate, and filled with marzipan. We love marzipan. And there's gluhwein -- mulled red wine, with amaretto. Hard to resist while walking along the wintry German streets. And bratwurst became our easiest snacks on the go. Casting all day our eating rhythms go totally off kilter; the catered lunches were unappealing, so often we would step out for bratwurst or end up eating really late, and we'd drink a lot of wine because at that point in the day, sometimes, that's all we want to do. (Clearly, we had some abysmal days in casting.) We hit the gym a couple of times in Berlin, but the gym was the size of a closet and thus uninspiring. David, who is always on a mission to gain more body mass and bulk, managed to make great strides in Germany by eating massive amounts of eggs and croissants every morning. He is bulkier than I have ever known him to be. And so, I have taken to calling him "Gordo" ("fat" in Spanish, but said in an endearing, nickname manner), although he doesn't look fat, just bigger, and seeing David suddenly much bigger is a bit funny and striking. Now that we're back in New York, we're getting ourselves back on track. Especially with my whole hives thing, I'm not drinking and cooking at home, eating totally organic. We eat out all the time, and, while we love going to restaurants, when we are "on the road" we mainly eat out because we have no other choice -- and this gets tiring. It loses its luster fast. So it's good to be home, cooking for ourselves, and going back to our own spacious gym. We hope to tame our "German bulge" expediently.

And expedient it must be, because we're off to MEXICO!!! David and I needed to get away somewhere easy and warm before returning to Berlin... so we decided to go to Mexico, and do an all-inclusive resort. We've never done an all-inclusive resort, and we've never been to Mexico together. I went to Mexico City when I was nine, but that was it. I've never done that collegiate thing of Cancun Spring Break (like one would see on MTV). David and I are headed to Cancun, but not exactly the Cancun area that is like Vegas/Gold Coast -- we will be in Puerto Morelos, which is between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, and which is the start of the Mayan Riviera. We hope to chill out, learn a bit about tequilas and Mayan ruins, do some snorkeling and jungle zip-lining and mountain biking. And get some sun! This will be different from our "intensive snorkeling" holidays (although we will snorkel a little bit), so we are looking forward to it. And the whole "all-inclusive" resort culture will be an interesting experience.

Can't wait!

Tomoko in NYC, David in London

I flew back to New York last night -- David went onto London from Berlin for a few days to work with the new resident choreographer who has been appointed there. David flies back to New York via Dusseldorf (silly, yes, but so it goes with different DD territories paying for pieces of his travels) Thursday.

It will be GREAT to stay home for a while with no work trips scheduled (crossing fingers) until the end of January, when we "move" to Berlin.

It's already mid-December!! How did that happen. The year has passed so quickly, and for much of it we were not in New York, sadly. New York is gorgeous this time of the year, so it's nice to be home. It's nice to be home, period. It's an odd thing when one finds oneself acclimatizing to one's own apartment, having been outside of it for so long. I keep finding various hotel keys in my coat pockets and handbags... surely a sign that we live in hotels too much.

Anyway, David and I will have to pull our socks up and get re-acclimatized to the world outside of DD and get some serious Christmas shopping done this weekend!!!

New York, New York!

David and I returned home to New York last night. Again surrounded by suitcases, bundles of mail to be opened, nothing in the fridge... but we are so happy to be home.

I am back onto preparing for the next round of auditions in Germany, but I can do this from the comforts of our own apartment!

David and I are also just looking forward to watching the Food Network (TV in English! In HD! On a big screen!) and playing on the Wii.

Ah, simple pleasures.