so glaad to be me - la

i'm watching jay leno right now, and jesse tyler ferguson, from modern family is on, talking about saturday night's event. WHICH I WAS AT.

the los angeles event, for me, was all about the jjjs (try and prounounce that in your head).  jesse is darn funny, but there were a few other jjjs i was weak-in-the-knees for: gilles marini (pronouced like 'jill'), josh hutcherson, joshua jackson, and jason mraz.  see what i mean about the 'jjjs'?

gilles, may be best known for his role as the naked neighbor in the first sex & the city movie (which, by the way, i did not even realize until someone told me) but i fell for him more recently. january, in fact -- when i netflixed the entire season of 'brothers & sisters', in which he had a fairly prominent role for a couple of the later seasons. and i came to adore the role, and the man in it, and could not believe it when he appeared on the guest list.

josh brought to life an amazing character in an amazing book, which, incidentally, i read long before there was even a rumor of a movie.  though he is not the peeta mellark i imagined when i read hunger games (nor most people i suspect),  i just don't think there is anyone on the hg bandwagon who WOULDN'T be excited to meet him.

joshua. oh joshua.  i love joshua.  but i love fringe joshua.  i never watched dawson's creek,  on principle, really.  i'm pretty sure the 13 year old girl that still lives inside of me would really really enjoy it, but i just have to make a stand about something and this is where i have drawn my line in the sand. but fringe. i love fringe, and i love him in fringe.  based on his character, i made assumptions that he was smart and sardonic - traits i appreciate in an actor, and well, really, just in people.  i was hoping to have the opportunity to test those assumptions.

jason, is a singer/songwriter i have followed for years, and who, if i'm being honest, may well be my favorite singer (with jason aldean making a close race of it).  since he is from virginia and used to play lots of small local shows (many of which i had the privilege of attending) i had seen him before.  but not in awhile.  something about when you knew someone 'way back when' and i just haven't being able to bring myself to go see him now, in a giant arena, in nosebleed seats, when i used to be able to touch him from my regular spot on the (old) 9:30 club floor.  i was excited to see him perform again.

in los angeles, unlike new york,  the red carpet area takes place inside what they refer to as the 'private celebrity reception'.  basically, it's one half of a ballroom, separated by pipe and drape, in which, only the really super special people can go.  except that it always seems that there are A LOT of super special people.  but i digress.

our sponsorship of the event grants us these super special golden passes, so i took up my position behind the stanchions, to see who i could see coming through the press line before i began my hard core stalking. my co-workers slowly joined me, and i was relieved when mike and his wife celeste arrived.  mike and celeste had proven themselves worthy companions at the 2011 event.  i knew i could say 'come now' to mike, and he'd be behind me, no matter how fast i was elbowing people out of my way, with camera in hand to capture whatever moment i was sure i was about to have!

mike, celeste & i with max adler (glee)

we saw grant gustin and mas adler from glee come through the line, and stepped out of our position briefly to grab a pic with max.  then came chaz bono and tabatha coffey and madison hildebrand from million-dollar listing.  then came sarah gilbert and ali larter, and oh! my! goodness! gilles flippin' marini.

i'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that a i emitted a squeal.  an actual squeal.  my knees actually went weak, and i am actually retarded.  i know. and for the sake of gilles, i do not care (see reference to 13 year old girl in previous post).

we watched as gilles s-l-o-w-l-y made his way through the press line.  far far too slowly. dinner time was coming much to quickly, and every second was counted by my pounding heart and my nervous breaths.  i was desperately afraid that we would be forced to leave the room for dinner before he had finished the press line and exited into an area where i hoped i could tackle him.  while mike, celeste, and i waited, we ran into our old groupie friends, whom we had met last year.  one of them, who we will call 'd', is a brash, in-your-face, get what she wants, when she wants it, FORCE of a woman.  this was good news for me, because i wasn't actually sure i would be able to speak to gilles if an appropriate moment to do so arrived.  which, eventually, after what seemed like 100 years, finally did.

as he exited the line, d simply said 'gilles!  this is my friend tara and she has been D-Y-ing to meet you.'  he  turned to me, took my hand, kissed my cheek, and with his french accent said:

'ello tara.  it is a pleasure to meet you.  how ARE you tonight?

i think i said something to the effect of having a great night, really excited to meet him, did he know there's a 13 year old girl that lives inside of me?

okay, i have NO IDEA what i said.  but we stood there chatting for a good two minutes before we posed for a photo together. and when we were done.  he put one hand on my arm, holding my hand with his other one, while i told him that i was kind of shaking right now and could he feel me shaking? he laughed that beautiful french laugh (yes, even his laugh sounds french) and said:

i'm sooo glad you came tonight.  i am so glad I am here tonight, so that i could get to meet you.

the fact that i managed to stay upright is nothing short of a miracle.  i thanked him, he gave me a hug and another kiss on the cheek, and i bid him adieu, only then realizing that there was a crowd of about 20 people who had followed the whole exchange.  while some were clearly excited about my obviously unique exchange, others were clearly annoyed that he had spent so much time with me.  i did not care one bit.

i will admit that i was curious, in that 13 year old girl way, whether he would interact with others in the same fashion, so i hung back for a minute to watch. suffice it to say, he did not, he was warm and gracious, but had none of the effusiveness i had experienced.

i was a moron.  but a blissfully happy moron. so happy that i have even posted a couple of truly terrible photos of me here to better convey the experience. and, while that would remain the absolute most thrilling moment of the evening, there were other great ones.

after the gilles experience--that's what it's called now, by the way, 'the gilles experience', tge for short --we hustled to the ballroom as the rest of our group had already started on dinner. we sat down but could see that there were still a lot of seats to be filled.  we, again, had an amazing table, and while i was chatting with my event contact, celeste pointed out that joshua jackson was standing behind me.

anybody who has seen me hop out of a chair with lightning speed for a photo with a 'desirable' celebrity would think i was lying about ever having had a knee injury or the fact that i still can't walk up stairs in high heels.  if only i could find myself in a constant state of 'adrenaline rush' maybe this knee would finally heal right!

my event contact instantly sensed my desire to meet aught on quickly that i wanted to meet him.  in a split second, mid-conversation, she had turned around and introduced herself,  then me.  it was flawless, and i later thanked her for the assist.  unlike tge i was soooo cool with joshua.  we took a photo first and (warning: fringe spoilers ahead!!)  i casually mentioned that i had just seen the latest episode.  he asked me what i thought and i told him i thought it was great (which it was), that i was happy to see him out of the amber, and congratulated him on being a new father (on the show).  he joked that he too was happy to be out of the amber, and that it tended to have a negative effect on the skin, as he rubbed his scruffy chin.

i later learned that he had recently attended coachella, a ginormous music festival here in california, which explained the scruffiness. and what i learned during our interchange, is that he is smart, and he is sardonic, and my greatest hopes and assumptions about him had been confirmed.

but my evening was not over yet, oh no.  here comes josh hutcherson, walking by our table. and yes, the leaping was in full effect again!

i realize and appreciate that in some ways i live a charmed life.  here i was, 'doing my job', eating a delicious meal, with milla jovovich, joshua jackson, benecio del toro, and molly shannon eating the same meal at the table next to me.

the only disappointment of the evening was that jason mraz had a cold.  so, while he did come out and chat with the audience a bit, he did not perform. that WAS a disappointment, but the rest of the evening had so far exceeded my crazy warped non-expectation expectations, i didn't begrudge him his cold.  and there was ellen, and betty white, and more gilles, and a surprise appearance by CHER, and i really didn't have any right to do so anyway.

it was a delightfully perfect evening, and i am so grateful for it.

check out the full album of pics here.

so glaad to be me - new york

you may remember that last year i attended a series of award shows for work, and managed to have some very cool opportunities.  i met kirsten dunst, and julie bowen, and michael & mondo from project runway, and west wing goddess alison janney was sitting at the next table over, for crying out loud!  it was an amazing experience, largely amazing because every second of it felt like icing.  i was just happy to be nominated *ahem* invited.  and since i had no idea what to expect, i didn't expect anything.  as much as humanly possible, i try to operate under a strict no or low expectations modus operandi.  this has two significant outcomes: 1) it fosters genuine appreciation and gratitude, and 2) it goes a long way to the  prevention of having your hopes smashed into a thousand tiny sharp protruding-edged pieces.

but this year, i had expectations. i am an award show veteran now, after all.  (HAR HAR)  what's worse is that unlike last year, where every celebrity introduction was a cool bonus, among this year's announced celebrity attendees were a small number of people i reeealllly wanted to meet.  and i was certain i was doomed.  i had a very strong feeling that this year, when it actually mattered to me, i would have to resign myself to being in the same room with some of those folks (rough life, i know), because no way, would i actually get to meet them. because i wanted to.  but last year i did! but this year....  you can see where this is going.

at last year's events, i was fearless. i saw someone recognizable, i approached them.  the worst they could say was 'no, i will not take a photo with you', and really, that made them the jerk, not me. and when it came down to it, these were the kind of famous people where i could both be excited to meet them and also not be heartbroken if they turned out to be jerks.  this year however, there were a couple of folks (mostly at the upcoming los angeles event), who, if they had 'rejected' me, i would have been sincerely disappointed.

fortunately, i had a ramp up.  the new york event comes first, and i was genuinely surprised at the bump that this year's event got over last year's.  in 2011 tina fey hosted.  she was a smart funny host, as expected, but we never saw her off stage.  in fact, the only person we saw out among us little people was gail simmons - which only appeals to us top chef watchers.

this year however, cory monteith and naya rivera from glee hosted the event.  i met naya in san francisco last year, so, no big (wink), but the event also included dakota fanning, harvey weinstein, padma lakshmi, megan hilty, bernadette peters, and john stamos, to name a few.  thankfully, when dakota fanning happened to pass by me, sitting on a chair, in a corner, resting my aching feet, i literally hopped-to, aching feet and all, and discovered that my fear had completely dissipated.

the evening was thoroughly enjoyable.  there was a completely unscripted moment where naya and corey were auctioning off kisses and john stamos began 'bidding' on corey.  he then decided to auction himself instead.  this video doesn't quite capture the hilarity, but it was a surprise to everyone.

meeting dakota was of course, a highlight, but my favorite moment was when i ran into megan hilty on my way back from the restroom, and without a co-worker in sight to take a photo, i whipped out the self-portrait stick and handled my business.

i realize megan may not be as 'famous' as some of the other folks, but i saw her play glinda. in wicked.  'nuff said!

so the warm up was behind me, and i could still 'groupie' with the best of them.  i was ready for los angeles.  except, oh no, those dang expectations!

checkout the glaad ny album for all my pics.

salsa

i was craving salsa on monday. so i MADE salsa.

in fact, it's not the only thing i've made in the last week.  for the easter celebrations with the cousins, i made an orange creamsicle fruit dip that looks like this:

and tastes like this:

AND, i made cream cheese corn with bacon:

many factors have combined to incite this strange behavior...  i've been home since march 25th and won't be leaving again until april 20th, my roommate has been on spring break and i've had the house to myself for over a week, and there was a holiday involving a meal.

this is the first time i have had more than a few waking hours to myself in, i don't even know how long.  and despite the fact that i've been sick for days with another cold, just having the house to myself for a little while has been so energizing and invigorating and fan-freaking-tastic.

in addition to all the use i'm putting my kitchen to, i've managed to complete a number of tasks that i have been meaning to get to for ages. by 9am last saturday morning i had started and finished my taxes, cleaned the floors and made the previously mentioned creamsicle dip in preparation for sunday's celebration.  i cannot remember the last time i was that productive, usually spending my limited time at home in my bed, watching tv, trying to get caught up on sleep and energy levels.

even though i was at work all week, i feel like i had my own little spring break. me and the dogs. :)

vegas cinemagraphs

vegas...again

finally, a trip to vegas i actually enjoyed!  every year i attend the exhibitor show, where thousands of exhibitors in various industries descend upon sin city, to be educated and to get up to date with current and future trends.

at least that's what the show is supposed to be about.  however, having attended the last three years, i was all set NOT to go - feeling like the classes were basic, the exhibit hall was not representative of those current and future trends, and because really, i'm so over vegas. but, when another exhibitor friend, who is no longer on my same trade show schedule, asked if i was attending, i reviewed the class list and discovered a couple of new, potentially interesting options, and decided i would swing in for a couple of days.

one thing i have always enjoyed about this event, aside from the fact that it's the one annual event where my only responsibilities are to myself, attending classes and the like, is the opportunity to be around other people who do what i do.  even though i loathe traditional networking (the receptions, parties, round tables, dinner groups, etc.), i do appreciate the more organic opportunities to meet new people and to develop existing relationships, and this event provides a low stress environment to do that.

when i got in to vegas, i met up with my friend terry.  his former role had him exhibiting at many of the human resource shows we participated, and after spending 45 minutes in a lead retrieval line thanks to the utter incompetence of the staff, we began a great friendship, which, most recently involved him getting me on stage with keith urban last june!  i picked him up from his hotel and took him to my all time favorite breakfast place, hash house a go-go.  my first experience with hash house was in san diego, but as it turns out, it's only other locations are a couple scattered around nevada.

since it was after 1pm when we finally arrived and were seated, terry opted to try one of the stuffed burgers.  since i had never considered this anything but a breakfast place, i was extremely torn, and went with my good 'ol 'bigger than your head' pancake combo.  i don't regret my choice, but i am going to have to try one of those burgers!  we enjoyed our food, and each other as we got caught up on the last few months.

after brunch, i dropped him off at his hotel, checked in at mine, and spent the rest of the day doing nothing, other than waiting for the army wives season premiere (so happy it's back!).

the following morning i was up early for classes, after which, i met up with terry and mike, my exhibit house account director.  we switched exhibit houses at the end of 2010 and i couldn't be happier.  not only have they been absolutely professional in providing exactly the kind of support our program needs, but i genuinely enjoy the group that i work with.  i get excited about seeing my 'friends' at show sites, and especially enjoy opportunities to get to know them better socially, as well as professionally.  terry and mike had never met, so i was happy that the dynamic was natural and fun!

after lunch, mike and i walked the exhibit hall together, trying to discover new and interesting ideas.  i won't say that we were successful, however we did run into several colleagues, past and present, and enjoyed the brief catch up time.  though i had only intended to spend an hour in the hall, after four hours, we shut the room down and i headed back to my hotel to power nap and get ready for the evening's activities.

i had passively aggressively encouraged mike to "whine" and dine me, and he obliged, getting us tickets to see cirque du soleil's 'mystere'.  based on the timing (o and ka are dark that day), and the fact that mike had never seen a cirque show, and the ones i have seen were 'love' and 'elvis', it seemed like a good introduction to 'traditional' cirque.  i was uber-excited, and, while i found that there were some elements of the show that were strange and confusing, i absolutely loved the aerialists and acrobatics.  i was ultimately completely satisfied!

we enjoyed a quick bite after the show before calling it a night, but the 6am wake up call the following morning was still too early, and i skipped my first class.  i made it out of bed in time to hit my second class - a session devoted to new technologies and potential trade show applications - and was glad i did! it was the most fun i've had in a class since i started attending the conference, and it allowed me to fully confirm and explore my geekiness.

after class i briefly met up with terry to discuss our timing for the evening before heading to the exhibit house's las vegas warehouse.  since they are based in massachusetts, i hadn't had the opportunity to see the vegas location, and since i also needed access to our exhibit properties, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  since many of the company's senior staff (including the president) were in town, they had ordered lunch in, and i appreciated the casual camaraderie before getting down to business.

we finished up at the warehouse and i headed back to the hotel to take another power-nap before heading out for the evening, which started with dinner at new york new york with terry before heading to the hard rock for one of the exhibitor parties.  mike was in attendance, as was dana, who designed our booth but is no longer with their company, and who, i was extremely happy to see.  i also ran into my friend david, an exhibitor with bank of america, who gave me one of my favorite moments of the night.

i'll admit that i tend to 'slum it' at conferences - t-shirts and jeans are the daily wardrobe, and even when we 'go out'  i usually play it pretty casual.  it's simply an exhausting process, and by the time my co-workers arrive, i've already been there for two or three days working very long very tedious hours.  i simply don't have the energy to 'party like a rock star',  so, my friend david, has really only seen me in 'slumming it' mode.  in this case, i had made an effort, so when he saw me, the first thing out of his mouth was 'you look beautiful!'  i thanked him and he followed with 'i like your hair like that.'  um, thank you.  'i mean you really ARE beautiful!'

what i so appreciated, was not the compliment itself, but the fact that he was so surprised that i might clean up okay.  maybe i need to make a little more effort :D

some of the other highlights came from being around so many men!  i know it sounds strange, but i think, because i work with so many women, i've forgotten how much i genuinely appreciate the low drama fun and playful company of men!  i also love to dance, and the men came in really handy for that;)

all in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable event.  i can't say that i learned as much as i had hoped to, but i did take advantage of the opportunity to really work that 'organic' networking:)

some of you know that there was a period of time where i really hated my current job.  during that time, the only reason i stayed is because i so genuinely enjoyed the people i work with, both at my company, and those i've met outside of the company through partnerships and other working relationships.  i have never at any previous job developed so many, what i consider to be, true friendships, which i'm certain will last beyond this job.

and, while those relationships pulled me through a tough time, they remain large contributors to my current general sense of satisfaction and contentment.  add to that a new support person (starting tomorrow!), and the ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to getting some balance back in my life, and i'm feeling pretty good about things these days.