The Forest from the Trees

Hellooooo (sound of echo)

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:26:00 +0000

Dear Internet,

It's been a very, very long time since last we spoke. No one is reading this blog anymore, but in case there are stragglers here's some news:

Catch up on my wedding countdown news here
I have no idea what to do with this blog. I'm too sentimental to get rid of it, but I've also come to really detest Blogger. Once I figure it out, you'll be the first to know.

Missed you,
Bluenana

Too Much

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:17:00 +0000

Nikki's last day at [insert name of big company here] is TODAY. Plus, Moonrat and Nikki are on the rocks since last night's "race riot." (Nikki's words, not mine.) And, I feel a weekend of hard conversations with my sister looming.

I feel awful and my fingers unmotivated to finish writing about my vacation that happened ages ago, it feels like. There will be a river of tears coming from this Bluenana's face very soon. I'll try to remember to stay hydrated.

My Sweet Sixteen

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:51:00 +0000

Today is my birthday and I'm feeling old. Since everyone who's ever served me a drink at a bar or wheeled me into a hospital thinks that I'm either not of drinking age or even of college age, I'm calling this my Sweet Sixteen.

[photo courtesy of Julie; birthday tiara courtesy of Anjali]

Porches: The Official Getaway of EVERY editor in NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:55:00 +0000

I came to North Adams, MA to get away from work, but it's inescapable and especially at Porches. At breakfast yesterday morning, I heard snippets of yet another bitchy conversation about editors and agents from a group of almighty New York editors. Moonrat's ex-boss queen lookalike was there bellowing things like, "Frederica Friedman? Oh my gawsh, she's horrible!"

Porches has been my safehaven with HB for 7 years now. When I desperately need to relax and not stress about anything, Porches is our place to go. The chocolate croissants and Vermont cheddar cheese in the breakfast nook and the fluffy down comforters in the rooms make all my troubles disappear. However, I must face reality and accept the truth that our getaway has been breached by the enemy. Is nothing sacred anymore?

Apparently, I haven't been keeping up with my Publisher's Weeklys because I DID NOT get the memo that every editor in New York is now summering in North Adams. However, HB likes to think that we got here first and those editors are summering in our home. Plus, we don't summer, we vacay.

Get out of our house, bitches!

Roasted Bluenana

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 04:22:00 +0000

Tonight I discovered that there is a limit to how long one can stay in a hot tub and that length of time is definitely less than one hour.

Now that I'm rosy pink all over and completely lathered in aloe vera, I can look back on the time in the hot tub and reflect on the important questions in life, such as "do boobs float"? The hot Brazilian girl in the barely there bikini had floaters which I suspect were gifts from her father.

Since no one will ever buy me enhanced body parts, I'm hoping that boobs DON'T float. It'll make me feel a lot better.

Just when I think I'm out, they PULL me back in

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:38:00 +0000

OK, so two reasons for the hiatus AGAIN: 1. crazy work week in preparation for 2. this week of vacation.

Just wanted to take a moment to explain how skeeved I am at this very moment. I came all the way to the Berkshires with HB to get away from work and stress, only to hear a couple in the room above us having INCREDIBLY LOUD sex and to find out in the breakfast room that they work AT MY COMPANY.

BLECH BLECH BLECH. ICH ICH ICH. Sigh.

She's home!

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:32:00 +0000

My sister's home from Ireland, woo hoo!

Of course, now she's got me doing sisterly things, like attending a Darren Hayes concert with her tomorrow. (For those of you who are NOT diehard D.H. fans, he was the former lead singer of Savage Garden.) Personally, I'm not a HUGE fan myself, but Darren and I go way back.

Back in the summer of 2000, my sister dragged my ass out of bed at the unholy hour of 3 am to see Savage Garden perform on the Today show's summer concert series. The area around the stage usually fills up quickly with out of towners and various tourists, so my sister knew to arrive super early.

We arrive around 4:30 am to see a stage set for Lara Fabian, not Savage Garden. My sister, in complete denial, thinks that they haven't finished setting up the stage yet, so we wait. And wait. And wait. Eventually at around 8:45 am, Lara Fabian gets up on the stage and starts singing, "I Will Love Again," a catchy one-hit wonder tune. At around 9:30am, my sister admits that perhaps we arrived on the wrong day.

The next day, my sister rips me from my peaceful slumber at around 3 am to see the CORRECT Savage Garden show. Again, we arrive at around 4:30 am, but this time we see the correct stage. We snag prime front row center stage standing positions and wait. And wait. Quickly, the area fills up with other diehard Savage Garden fans, toting posters and various "I love you, Savage Garden," "I want you to have my baby, Darren Hayes," and "You can bathe me in the sea, Darren Hayes" signs.

I'm not drawn in by all this mania, but something transforms within me when the concert begins. It was like an out of body experience. I started singing along (apparently, deep down inside, I knew the lyrics by heart) and then I started to move. I believe some may call this dancing, but I'm not quite sure. If I had to describe the movements, it was something like the hand flailing and gyration of a born again Christian, or maybe a cowgirl with a lasso. I don't know exactly, suffice it to say that HB's family was watching the performance in Massachusetts, the camera recorded my maniacal gesticulation, and his entire family was rolling with laughter. This very Today show performance is probably still being transmitted far out in outer space where an alien civilization is watching and mimicking my pathetic asian girl dance moves and wondering what kind of people we are.

My sister--the diehard fan that she is--taped this show for posterity. If she has a heart, she'll keep it buried in her collection forever.

For payback, maybe my sister might snag us two tickets to see Romeo & Juliet in Shakespeare in the Park this week. I've got a major girl crush on Lauren Ambrose. Though, I think this is already public knowledge.

Queens: Home of Pork Candy

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 02:11:00 +0000

Where did this weekend go? I didn't really accomplish all that much, but had a great time with Nikki and Moonrat eating these delicious Filipino dishes at Perlas ng Silangan. (Are you happy now, Moonie? I've posted my "nerdy asian photos.")

I'll direct you to Moonrat's blog, if you'd like the rundown of food we consumed, since she's much better at the food descriptions. Though, I'm surprised she didn't refer to the tocino as pork candy, since it's the funniest and most accurate description of the food that I've ever heard.

Defending My Honor

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 02:09:00 +0000

A couple of days ago, my better half, HB, received an email from an old childhood friend. This friend--let's call him D.--felt slighted that HB hadn't made a better effort to be a part of D's life today and that their friendship was slowly dissolving. One of the reasons D. thought HB intentionally stayed away was because of me:

"If you're mad at me because you think I hate your fiance, you shouldn't be. You are my friend and that is what I care about. Who you want to marry is your choice and as long as you're happy, I'm happy."

WTF!? First of all, HB NEVER thought that D. hated me. So, the only reason D. feels the need to negate the fact that he hates me in his email is because there's a nugget of truth to it. Second of all, despite my self-loathing tendencies, I still think of myself as a kind of a catch. If someone did a profile on me, you'd be hard pressed to figure out if I was just a boy in a girl's body.

My boss once described me to a Wired writer over lunch to describe how I was the perfect audience for his writing and the magazine: tech and gadget junkie, gamer, obsessive blog reader, TV addict, closet convention attending Star Trek fan, etc. After profiling me, this Wired writer asks my boss, "And your assistant's a girl? You do realize that unless she has a unibrow, she'd be swimming in phone numbers in this industry."

Seriously though, I think I'm a good person and worthy of HB. I come from a good family, I was a good student my whole life, got a great education, and have a blossoming career in book publishing. What's wrong with me?

Nothing, I say.

Resurfacing

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:02:00 +0000

So, it's been a while, eh? I stayed away about as long as I could stand before I realized that NOT blogging was not improving my lack of happiness.

I'm going to skip the sob story about how this last month has been an introspective one, how getting my last asthma attack made me feel more vulnerable than I've felt in a while, and how I'm so g-d damn tired of LOSING acquisitions because my company can't pay more for good books (or effing promotions, for that matter).

I talked to one of my fantastic cousins tonight who is literally halfway around the world (the Philippines) and she told me that she read my entire blog. Seriously. Like from the first post to the last. That was the most flattering thing I've heard anyone say to me in a while and it made me want to come back and start writing regularly again. Thank you, M.

So, here I am. We have a lot of catching up to do. Since it's 1 am, I'm going to pack it in soon, but I do have new pictures to share from my business trip to San Francisco last week.

Dear reader, missed you I have. I hope you missed me back.

Asthma rules!

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:44:00 +0000

Apparently I was so devastated with the season finale of Grey's Anatomy that I just HAD to see the inside of an ER. I mean, what's Thursday night without a little hospital drama? So, I had a sudden asthma attack late last night and got rushed to the hospital. Awesome!

The great thing about having an asthma attack and going to the ER is that there is no wait. Triage usually sees to it that I have a tube in my throat and plenty of steroids in my system immediately. Plus, even though I'm freaking out on the inside and seconds away from bursting into tears from fear that I don't know where my next breath will come from, Long Island Jewish hospital still finds a way to make me chuckle.

I walk into the hospital, hospital people see me with shoulders hunched, red face, and heaving for air, so I'm ushered to triage. PEDIATRICS triage. I hand the nurse my insurance card, so I don't have to do much talking (like spelling my 11-letter last name) and she says, "Wait a minute. Your date of birth is 1980? You need to go next door to the adult triage."

Holy shit, people. Enough of this. I am not, nor do I look like, I am 16 freaking years old. My mom is worried sick, but she still manages to laugh out loud with the mistake. Even the security guard comes up to her and asks, "how old is your daughter? Really?"

A few rounds of tube breathing goodness, lots of steroids, and a couple of hours staring wildly around the ER for some Seattle Grace Hospital action, I'm back up to 74% of lung capacity. The asthma specialist reports his numbers to the resident and he says,

"74%? You mean before we started the round of treatments?"

Specialist: "No, 74% after three rounds of treatment. We can run another test in few minutes, but she's at 74% now."

Resident: (look of consternation) "There's a lot of room for improvement here, so let's give it a few minutes and run the test again."

That's when I tell them that my lungs usually operate at this underachiever level. 74% is actually quite good. Sigh.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was boasting about my latest test results from my regular asthma doctor: (Large airway capacity improved from 65% to 70% to 75% in the last year; small airway capacity improved from 72% to 80% to a whopping 95%). You could have told me that I passed the MCATs, that's how I happy I was.

I agree to a follow up today with my doctor, increase the dosages on all my asthma meds, and take some lovely fat-inducing prednisone for a few days, and the attending discharges me.

Oh, how the mighty gym rat has fallen.

Slovenly

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:55:00 +0000

The lack of blogging has been due to a sudden cold that came out of nowhere and is kicking my ass. I came to work because it was of the utmost importance that one of our authors have his signing advance processed i-m-m-e-d-i-a-t-e-l-y, but now that I'm here I just want to crawl under my cubicle and sleep. I spilled hot and sour soup on my yellow t-shirt and must now wear my gym hoodie in the office to cover the disgusting mess.

I'd create a link to Get Set Go's "Sleep" if I could find the bloody thing online.

Once Soundtrack

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Sat, 19 May 2007 17:37:00 +0000

Can't wait to get your hands on the Once soundtrack? Dying to hear some tunes before May 22nd? Hop on over to the brand spanking new soundtrack MySpace page to have a listen or two.

Also, if you preorder the soundtrack online at the Newbury Comics website, you can get a free booklet signed by Glen and Marketa with your order. Just ordered mine this morning!

By the way--I don't work for Fox Searchlight or benefit from any sort of financial gain from all this promotion. I'm just an incredibly huge fan of this movie, Glen Hansard, Market Irglova, the Frames, and their continued success.

The most romantic words ever spoken

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Sat, 19 May 2007 17:35:00 +0000

HB: "I can't wait to cook for you."
Me: "And I can't wait to eat your food."**

**I can't cook for shit and I've known for a long, long time that if a boy wanted to marry me, it wouldn't be for my housewife skills. Guess we have a perfect match here.

Summer Fridays

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:35:00 +0000

Last Friday I was chatting with Boss #1 and I longingly said, "I wish we had summer Fridays."

"For what," he said.

"I dunno, go home and get an early start on my Netflixes. Go back to sleep. Anything other than being here."

"Summer Fridays is an industry standard that is slowly, but surely, disappearing," he said. "I mean, not many people still have that house in the Hamptons to jet off to."

"Sure, not everyone has that summer house, but who cares? It's less busy in the summertime, hence half days on Fridays," I ignorantly persisted.

"Oh, Bluenana. Don't you know where summer Fridays came from? This industry was once made up solely of rich, privileged, white, Hamptons-summering folk. The only reason they created summer Fridays was so these people can get a head start on traveling out to their second home for the weekend. Nowadays, it's pointless."

Ding goes the lightbulb! Having been raised as a middle class, first generation Filipino-American, I'm not hip to the ways that rich people think. I never realized that the whole point of half days on Fridays was so people could beat the traffic on the Long Island Expressway.

The Tyranny of the Second Home is one of the most popular articles in the New York Times today, but I wonder if it's because of people the many people who can relate to the article or because of people who love to read articles like this, like an anthropological study of a fascinating breed of animal: the nouveau riche. I know which category I fit into.

I know I'll never have the privilege/hefty responsibility of having a second home, but I sure would like to be writing this post back in my warm bed.

VERONICA, NOOOOOO!

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Fri, 18 May 2007 14:11:00 +0000

Son of a whore! What the hell happened?? Moonrat said she'd mourn Veronica with me, which confused me, so I went straight to my V-Mars inspiration and she confirmed it for me.

Now herein lies the problem with getting into a show late in the game. You can't stay on top of new developments unless you want to spoil crucial plot elements from the current season, so you're obviously not going to watch TV or read all the blogs until you've voraciously Netflixed the previous seasons and you're caught up. However, if the show is teetering on the brink of destruction, by not watching the current season, you're not adding to the show's viewership.

Veronica: I heard your plea for help and I stood idly by. I'm sorry I failed you.

Like lambs to the slaughter

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:43:00 +0000

This day can go to hell. While boss #1 is in DC hobnobbing with Democratic presidential candidate, Bill Richardson, I have the great pleasure of treading water with 25-pound rocks shackled to my ankles. Oh, I mean, keeping things afloat while he's away. Lovely.

Yesterday was the torturous publicity meeting where I sat in the hot seat and thoughtfully bobbed my head as we discussed the dismal state of affairs of boss #1's publicity opportunities--or lack thereof--for B-movie extraordinaire's autobiography and the even more dismal state of affairs of even more books. Outside of humiliation, I'm not quite sure what the purpose of the meeting was.

Today was the cover meeting where I was supposed to launch a bunch of books for cover designs, none of which I was prepared for. That went something like this:

Marketing Manager: Okay, so Bluenana is here to launch Boss #1's entire Fall list of book covers. Where would you like to start?
Me: Umm, (incomprehensible mumble).
MM: What?
Me: Well, (insert miscellaneous hems and haws here), we didn't actually discuss launching covers before Boss #1 left for DC.
MM: Oh (looks of malice, scorn, hate, and fury). I guess we'll have to discuss this offline.

At that point, I'm ushered out of the room like a 16-year old pregnant Catholic girl being sent to Wichita, Kansas to "visit her aunt." Sigh.

And furthermore, I hate that word, "offline." In corporate speak it just means, "I will chastise you privately, away from the prying ears of human resources."

I wanna go home. I have disc 4 of The 4400 season 3 and disc 3 of Veronica Mars season 1 waiting for me.

Once--the New York Times review

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:35:00 +0000

I freely admit that I passionately hate A.O. Scott. I think his aesthetic sensibilities are highly questionable, the NY Times is stupid for keeping him on payroll, and he's just an all around prick. In fact, I often see movies just because he panned them. However, giving credit where credit is due: his review of Once is spot on (not just because we agreed on something for a change, but because he actually captures what makes this movie special).

I know it doesn't need to be said anymore, but I absolutely loved this movie and I want EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU TO GO SEE IT. Here, I'll make it easy for you.

New York:
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston Street
11:40 1:40 3:40 4:40 5:40 6:40 7:45 8:40 9:45 10:40

Los Angeles:
ArcLight Hollywood
6360 W Sunset Blvd
12:00 2:20 4:50 7:30 9:40

To sweeten the deal, I am offering to buy a cupcake for anyone who goes to see this movie in NY.

The soundtrack is on sale next Wednesday, 5/22. Once you hear Marketa Irglova sing "If You Want Me," I dare you to NOT buy it.

The latest acquisition

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Thu, 17 May 2007 01:53:00 +0000

After getting a 20% coupon by email from Banana Republic yesterday, I immediately went out and bought this dress after work. A girl can NEVER have enough green.

Go, Nikki, go!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Thu, 17 May 2007 01:33:00 +0000

Awesome news! Nikki--of the highly anticipated and long awaited first novel, Walking on Tiptoes--has been selected for a prestigious and competitive writer's workshop sponsored by the Hurston-Wright Foundation. This summer she will have an opportunity to spend a whole week focusing only on her novel and getting a lot of much needed work done to bring it that much closer to a bound book and a book signing at Union Square.

Please join me in a round of applause for Brooklyn's best kept secret--Nikki.

Stuffed Pigs

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Thu, 17 May 2007 01:22:00 +0000

Sorry for the very sporadic blogging this week. HB is visiting and that always makes for infrequent posting. In fact, it's hard to type right now with all the food comingling in my belly.

For lunch, we had Charrito's in Hoboken for incredibly decadent Mexican. I had grilled chicken enchilladas drowned in a mole sauce with a heaping of refried beans, pico de gallo, shredded white cheese, and sour cream.

For dinner, we ate at Cara Mia, an adorable little Italian restaurant three blocks away from my house. I'm ashamed to say that I've lived in the same neighborhood for 26 years and this is the FIRST time I've been to this restaurant. I have no idea why. It's a gem! I had baked ziti sicilian, which was basically baked ziti with delicious slices of egglant parmesan baked underneath a thick layer of cheese. If I didn't have to roll myself out of the restaurant, I would have topped it off with creme brulee.

Mexican and Italian in one day is usually too much for the average stomach, but we're troopers. Also, we've been thinking about going to Cara Mia for our rehearsal dinner before the wedding next year, so I like to think of dinner tonight as "wedding research." Yeah, that's what I'm calling it.

28 Weeks Later

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:57:00 +0000

In reparation for my working in St. Louis last month on the weekend, craphole city that it is, I took a comp day today to chill with my better half. Our main goal for today was to see 28 Weeks Later, which was so EFFING SCARY. Yes, I knew it would be scary, but it was easily scarier than the first one.

Initially, I didn't know if they'd be able to pull off a whole new cast of characters for a sequel, but it worked out great. Stringer Bell was in it and played Stringer Bell (just kidding) and I learned an important lesson. No matter what country you're in, kids are stupid and can never be trusted to follow instructions, even if it means getting mauled to death by a zombie.

Kid: "Dad, can I leave the safe zone to get some stuff back at our old house?"
Dad: "No son, it's dangerous out there because they haven't finished burning all the rage-infected zombie corpses. Besides, didn't you hear all the American soldiers tell you a dozen times that it's dangerous out there and you could spread the rage virus, which has only been tenuously suppressed, and we're still at risk of another outbreak if you leave the safe zone?"
Kid: "But I WANNA GO HOME and get my favorite pair of Vans and pictures of Mom before she became a zombie."
Dad: "You fucking kids will never learn."

Riiiight. Basically, the fate of the world rests with some kid who wants to go home for sneakers and a picture. Fantastic.

UPDATE: Moonrat points out that I didn't actually finish making an argument in this post (d'oh!), so I'll complete that now. Despite my frustration with the fact that the fate of the world is dependent on a couple of irresponsible and selfish pre-teens, this was still an awesome and terrifying movie. Anyone following trailers or who enjoyed 28 Days Later will be surprised by who gets infected and by the arc of this movie. Fortunately 28 Weeks Later was not a victim of the sequel curse, so go see it and bring someone who won't mind you burying your face into their shoulder or clutching tightly.

Mother's Day, Queens style

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Tue, 15 May 2007 02:05:00 +0000

I don't think Mother's Day could have been any more picturesque. I took my mom out to her favorite pressed sandwich bar, Press 195, where she had belgian fries, cream of tomato soup, and a prosciutto, tomato, and mozzarella sandwich and I had an eggplant parmesan sandwich. Afterwards, we had Italian ices at Ralph's, a Queens staple, and then we took a stroll in the park to watch the geese. A passing man saw us eating Italian ices together, paused, looked at us and said, "cute," then walked away. Strange.

A perfect day.

Harper's Index

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:33:00 +0000

The June issue of Harper's has some fascinating stats in the index and I'm compelled to share:

Percentage of U.S. households that will have a Nintendo Wii by 2011, according to Merrill Lynch: 30 (Excellent progress! Our plan for the Wii-ification of American culture will nearly be complete.)
(For Moonrat and Nikki) Minimum number of different books sold in the U.S. last year, as tracked by Nielsen BookScan: 1,446,000
Number of those that sold fewer than 99 copies: 1,123,000
Number that sold more than 100,000: 483

Yes, those last set of stats are disturbing. HB asked me if I thought I was in the right industry. After some hemming and hawing, I admitted that I have no idea.

Happy Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Bluenana) — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:31:00 +0000

Even though it's a holiday created by the greeting card industry, I hope you make your mom feel special today.