Bethany!

Hi!

So.... Bethany Kay Shields graced me with her presence last weekend and we took Manhattan by storm! Well, we thought so anyway.

She got in on Friday and that evening we went out to this Tapas bar in Tribeca that served happy hour half price tapas, sangria and margaritas. I don't know why I had never been there before... I guess I never had a fellow hot Texan to go out with until now. Anyway - the place was great. That night we went to Del Frisco's too and had a drink so she could see where I work. It was fun - everyone was so nice - and we got free drinks. THEN we went to Serendipity (the famous dessert place) for a big ice cream sundae. So, basically, we ate and drink our way to happiness all night. And then we came back to the apartment and watched sex and the city. It was awesome.

Saturday we got up and went to brunch down in Soho and then went shopping on canal street. We found this boutique on the way there that was having a huge clearance. I got a dress, sweater and shirt for $50 when originally everything would have cost me about $500.... ridiculous huh? I know.

THEN I called my friend Bob who works the box office at the Brooks Atkinson theatre where "A Moon for the Misbegotten" was playing. I should mention that this is a very hip Broadway play starring none other than Kevin Spacey himself. I am a big fan of his. Who isn't? Anyway - I had been into the theatre 2 weeks before Bethany got into town to see if I could get tickets for when she was here. Bob, the box office manager, said that the cheapest tickets he could get me were $200 A PIECE unless I wanted to sit way in the 2nd mezzanine - and those seats were still going to cost us $100 each. I said "Bob, we simply can't afford it. And I don't want to pay $100 for tickets in the nose bleed section." He says "I understand. Well, here's what I'll do. Here's the main number for the box office" (I have to interject... they really don't give these numbers away to everyone. I was feeling pretty cool that he was giving me the private box office number. Ok, continuing)... "So - call me on the day you want to see the show and I will see if I can get you better seats. They will probably still be about $100 each - but they should be much better than the ones I can give you today." So, I said "Ok Bob, I'll call ya."

Skip to Saturday. We called - Bob said to come to the box office. We finally get to there and Bob remembers me - thank goodness. And he says he has 2 tickets in Orchestra, Row A, Seats 2 and 4. Um... yes please! But I say - so how much - $100 each? Bob says: "$52 total." FOR BOTH. !!!!!! He gave us the student price - $26.00 each - for our tickets. Bob's the greatest. ANd P.S. The show was amazing. And we were close enough to reach out and touch Kevin Spacey for three whole hours. It was heaven.

So... Sunday we went out to brunch AGAIN and had $10 all you can drink bellini's and mimosa's... that's the beauty of new york. No one judges you for drinking at 1pm on a Sunday. And also you take public transportation everywhere....

We thought it was very sex and the city of us - which was appropriate as we were embarking on the Sex and the City Tour at 3pm!!! It was soo fun! We had the best time looking at all the spots where they filmed scenes from the show. And it was just cool to take lots of fun pics with Beth on the tour. Below is us on "Carrie Bradshaw's" front stoop.

Sunday night we went out to a great Italian restuarant - and then headed home for an early night. She headed home on Monday - which made me a little sad. But I would say that we had a very New York weekend and fit so much fun into a small amount of time.

If you want to check out more pics - go to:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8MctWLNu3YR4

I have been working all week and trying to save money after spending a lot the past two weekends... but I hope everyone is well and I hope it is warmer and much more spring-like wherever you are then it is in Manhattan.

xoxo

Corpus Christi

Hi!

So this past weekend I went to Corpus Christi for my cousin Trebor's wedding. It was awesome. I had such a good time and I am so happy I got to go and see my family and be there for his wedding. I also got to see my grandpa and grandma - and I always love when I can see them outside of the time they always spend at our house for Christmas. It was so warm down there - although it could have been even warmer and that would have been just great... but I'll take upper 70's low 80's anyday...

I also got to stock up on all of the stuff that is way too pricey to buy in New York - at Sam's! It was fun. The whole family went. I drove. Everyone was nervous... and talk about back seat driving.... but it was fun.

And I got to eat Mexican food! I think that is the biggest thing I miss about Texas... or anywhere but New York, really. New York has no Mexican food. I don't know why - they have every other kind of food you could imagine. But I guess the lack of it here makes me appreciate it all the more when I go home.

I am cleaning house because Bethany gets here Today! Hooray! I am so excited for her to come. I got the whole weekend off too... you might be wondering when I actually work... but I am going to work hard this April and then try and travel most of May. That is the goal right now anyway.

Hope everyone is well - I will update you early next week about the awesome time I had with Beth...

Love,
KO

Lots of Fun

Hey everyone

I'm going to stop apologizing for the long bouts of time between my posts because it means i'm busy and for me, busy is good. So i'm letting go of the time when I was able to post every other day... let's all pause a moment and reflect on that sad time.

Ok moving on. I have had so much fun in the past couple of weeks. Lindsay - my friend from UPTA's - found an apartment about 5 days after she'd come to stay with me - so she stayed a total of one week. It was great having her here but I'm glad she found an apartment because I know she is much happier in her own space.

Then on Monday of last week - (so, a week ago yesterday), Kyle came to stay with me for a week in between his callbacks to acting graduate school. By the by... he got called back to both Yale and NYU... he's a badass. That being said - it meant I got to spend a whole week with him - which was so wonderful. I should mention for those that don't know, Kyle is a friend/ex-boyfriend/best friend from Evansville that I have missed dearly since I graduated. Anyway - it was so great to spend time with him - except for the fact that it was freezing on Monday,Tues, Wed that he was here... like - so cold we couldn't stand outside for longer than 5 min. Which proves difficult to jaunt about the city doing fun things. But, that's ok. We still had a great time.

Shannon was also in town - another friend from Evansville - but she left on Wednesday... the day that Amy arrived! (Another friend from Evansville... rather... a great friend from Evansville). She was coming to stay with me as well - so I had both her and kyle in my apartment from Wed to Sunday - which some may think would be crowded. But not I. I was loving it - it was like a big fun girly slumber party... plus kyle and sammy. Just kidding. It was great though. I loved having them here. And when Kyle was busy with grad school stuff - amy and I went and had so much fun in the city. We went down to canal street - because it FINALLY warmed up on Friday! Hooray! We went down and bought bargain knock-off purses and went and had brunch and it was just wonderful. We also went and had tea at this adorable place called Alice's Tea Cup and yes, we did eat our weight in scones. But it was worth it.









Me, Kyle, Amy








It makes such a difference when it is warm here. Even when it finally hit 40 degrees - we were all like - it's summer! It was great. So nice. And I'm hoping it will stay in the 40's - or, gulp, get warmer! Oh I can't wait for summer. I think you appreciate it more when you've been freezing and staying inside for 3 months.



But long story short, I had such a great time with them and I want them both to hurry up and graduate and, hopefully, move to the big apple. Kyle may end up at grad school on the west coast - and amy may not get to NYC right away.... but I know I would love the city all the more if they were here to help make it fun.



I have not yet begun my internship at the Roundabout. It was put off for a couple of weeks because the girl I am taking over for decided to stay on for a few more weeks. So - I think I will start when I get back from Corpus Christi - which I am so excited about! Hooray!


And Bethany is coming to visit the weekend after Corpus Christi - so that will be wonderful! I just am really looking forward to a lot of things coming up. That being said, I am still working at the waitressing job. They hired some new people - so my seniority has gone up a little... which is nice. But it's still very stressful. Though I will say that they have been wonderful is scheduling around all of my events and internship stuff. They gave me most of the week off last week so I could hang out with kyle and amy - and they are giving me Mon, Tues and Thurs off for good until I say otherwise - Tues, Thur for the internship and Monday for all of my various voice lesson/class/etc. stuff. And just to have a personal day to catch up. So - I think i'll stick it out. At least until the end of April when my lease is up on the apartment - and I'm not sure what is going to happen to me. Yikes. I don't want to think about that.



Till next time....



xoxoxo

It's Been Too Long

I'm so sorry for not posting for sooo long... I know you were all sitting on the edge of your seats just waiting for the day when I would post again. So - here it is!

I have been very busy the past couple weeks - or however long it's been since I last wrote. My friend Lindsay has come into town and is staying with me at the apartment. I met her in Memphis at UPTA's. Anyway - she's moving to New York and she found an apartment that she is moving into on March 1 - so that's good. It's been nice having her here - I've had someone to go out and hit the town with. I realized that I have been lacking that as most of my friends have two or three jobs and only have weekends off - and then I work all weekend - so our social schedules do not match up. But it's been nice having her here, though it's always a bit stressful to host someone - well - it is for me because I often feel the need to entertain people when they visit me. Luckily she's been out auditioning and finding an apartment and I've been working a lot - so it has worked out.

I applied for this casting internship at the Roundabout Theatre company - and I got it! It's two days a week - Tues and Thurs - and it's unpaid - but at least it will let me in on how one of the biggest theatres in New York goes about casting their shows. And the casting agent that works for the Roundabout also does other casting - including some t.v. and film stuff - so I'll get a first hand look at all of that. I am excited!

My waitressing job is stressing me out though. And now that I have this internship - I am going to have to tell them I can't work Tues, Thurs at all. I also want to have the freedom to audition on Monday and Wednesday - so really, the only weekday I can work for them is on Friday's - and technically we are supposed to work 2 days a week. I just need to talk to them and see if they will work with me on this. If not - then I might have to look for another job...

I have a bunch of auditions coming up for some more summer work and perhaps some stuff here in the city. And my friends Amy and Kyle are coming to visit me next week - so that's very exciting. I can't wait to see them. I just hope I am not working the whole time so that we can actually hang out.

Well - I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all, and again, I will try my darndest to post more regularly.

Love, Krystal

Holiday

I was unaware that today is a holiday for most until last night at work when I realized we were very busy for a Sunday night. Turns out it was more like a Saturday night for most of Manhattan - everywhere was pretty crowded. I never realized President's Day was a holiday that more than federal/state/city employees would have off. Oh well... now I know.

It was a somewhat uneventful week. Just working a lot. A bunch of my friends are going to be visiting me here during the next couple of months - so I am very excited about that. I am also going to get to see my family at the end of March in warm sunny Corpus Christi, Texas for my cousin's wedding... I am very much looking forward to it.

I hope everyone enjoys their holiday - and don't forget to think about all of the presidents.

xoxoxo

Back

Hi

I got back from my trip to Memphis this afternoon. It was a good trip overall - I won't say spectacular... but it was good. The best part was meeting my roommate Lindsay - who turned out to be absolutely wonderful - we hit it off from the minute we met. We have so much in common and i just loved spending time with her...

Aside from that, I learned a lot about myself in the span of 48 hours... so that's always good. I did get quite a few callbacks - 15 to be exact. But a lot of the theatres weren't places I would actually want to work - not because I think I am above anything (though I do think I am above some theatres... but that's not what I'm referring to right now....) but because a lot of the theatres that called me back also wanted me to teach. Either that, or it was an educational theatre company in general - and that is not really something I want to do right now.

I was also called back for a lot of internships that I would definitely be willing to do... it's just I started thinking about everything and I got kinda overwhelmed by the whole thought of what my life is going to be like on this path. Anyway - that's a little deep for the blog - but I am just trying to figure out what is best for me right now. So - i'll keep you posted.

We are expecting a bit of a blizzard tonight in the old NYC... we'll see if it's as bad as the rumors predict. The rumors are true about it being too cold for words, though, so a blizzard wouldn't surprise me.

If anyone knows something great that they think I should pursue - i'm currently taking suggestions in the comment section of this blog. Feel free to post as many times as you like. I'm just trying to keep all of my options open, you see, so I want to make sure I expose myself to all possibilities. Basically, if you have always thought that I was a silly hillbilly for pursuing acting when you knew i would make an excellent (fill in the blank).... then let me know.

xoxoxo

All time cold = Actual Cold

Against my very best efforts... Against all of my Vitamin C taking and healthy eating and washing my hands 17 times a day..... Against ALL THAT... I have taken ill. I came down with a really sore throat on Tuesday night and have spent the past few days in bed. I'm feeling much better today, thank goodness. I wasn't going to take off work, but I have my big audition this Monday and I thought that if I don't take off work, I will still be sick for my audition and it would have been a waste of time and money. SO... I took off work.

I bought a humidifier, which I think has helped a lot. It's taken a lot of the dryness out of the room at night when I sleep - and I don't know why I didn't buy one sooner. I always had one in Evansville... and the weather is far milder there...but oh well. I have one now.

I hope everyone else is staying warm out there. It has actually warmed up a bit here, so that's good. Though I haven't actually been outside in two days... the wonders of orange juice delivery service.

My friend Rob left yesterday. I felt bad that I was sick for part of the time he was here -but he didn't seem to mind. We just ordered food in together and hung out on the good 'ol 54th floor. He's from L.A. anyway... he did NOT appreciate the cold.

Well - I'll write more soon - perhaps to fill you in on my audition! Hooray!

Love, Krystal