Texting While Driving, a personal blog by Mark Baratelli

Two weeks

2015-02-04T20:04:00.001-08:00

I've done so much damn work on is one giant project. Frustrating to see how slow it's going. Wish I didn't care about the quality, then I'd just dump it out. But I do care. So it takes time. It all takes time.

Yay

2015-01-25T20:46:00.001-08:00

Email newsletter for daily city done and ready to go out Monday at 7am.

Email newsletter for food truck events done and ready to go out Monday at 7am.

Two weeks worth of scripts done and ready to be recorded Monday at 10am.

Proud!

These drives

2015-01-24T05:24:00.001-08:00

I had a bad night Thursday night. On a day I have one of my evening food events, I'm upset the whole day for two reasons: (1) the drive is always just about an hour and tests my anxiety to the limit every time and (2) I have no idea if people will show up or not. This all might be easy to deal with for someone without anxiety. For me, it's terrible.

So Thursday rolls around and the day was terrible. Low all day. Then I drive to the event. The drive was stressful. Cars behind me, cars in front of me, I'm just scared. I get there, and I start worrying if people will show up. They don't. 5pm no one is there. 5;45 a small crowd is there. But not the size I need. And the later I the night, it was solid.

But the ride home was just awful.

The thought of an hour long drive makes me so anxious I have to stop multiple times, get food, turn the radio stations, play podcasts, anything.

I had to stop at a drug store I was so anxious, and just sit there. And not drive. This was about five minutes. I cleaned up my car, got back on the road and felt a little better.

Ugh.

Facebook, twitter and this blog

2015-01-22T05:20:00.001-08:00

I use Facebook for business extensively. Let's get that out of the way. As the year ended, however, my personal use of the social network came into question. I felt myself going to it multiple times a day. Scrolling the news feed looking for something. I was really entertained with the notifications. If I had a lot, I felt good. But at some point towards the end of 2014, when I was reflecting on the new year about to hit me, I told myself that Facebook was a way to avoid, for me. Avoid stressful thoughts, avoid boredom, avoid anxiety, avoid working on stuff. It was a flat out addiction. I was using it for a purpose and that purpose was not entertainment.

I know e, so I didn't tell myself "no more Facebook ever." I deleted the app from my iPad. That's it. I can check it from my laptop.

What I experienced in doing this was huge. I found that I wouldn't go on Facebook only laptop even though it was readily available. For days. Then when I'd check it (scroll through the news feed and check my alerts) I'd see the most inane nonsense. What used to be a multiple-times-a-day read was now dumb crap.

I should also mention that during this brief period, I opened up my old personal blog and started using my personal twitter account more often. The thoughts I want to share belong in these two places. The blog is for me. The twitter account is for sharing. The blog, no one will read. It's not being written to make me look funny or smart. Neither is the twitter account. It's just me. I tweet repeatedly about moments of anxiety, about living with anxiety. That feels so important. To say I have it, to share moments of it, to get it out in the open so it's not a thing I'm ashamed of. That feels very good.

And this blog is a long version of twitter. Just me rambling. Unedited. Not trying to market myself.

I don't put pressure on myself to keep these two things up forever. They're working for now. For today.

Jealous? Wine? Ok!

2015-01-21T22:06:00.001-08:00

Don't give me two glasses of wine and then tell me I am jealous of someone. Just don't do that. And to myself: don't drink the wine. And then a email goes around misconstruing a good business move. If you can't innovate, tear the competitor down.

Blog talk

2015-01-20T20:45:00.001-08:00

Lots of time spent driving doing errands. Should have returned the newspaper for the crappy printing. Lost track of the priorities today. Lunch at some thai place. Lots of noodles and good blog conversation.

Work good. Thoughts bad.

2015-01-19T20:50:00.001-08:00

Shane found three cars for me online today and sent me the links

Therapy was good. My whole thing is negative thoughts about myself and interpretations of what's going on around me. I can create a new habit of recognizing them as not real. Will take a longtime because ive been in this pattern of thinking since I was a kid.

Worked 11am til 4:30. Work is slow but progress is made each day.

Hired new assistant to test for a month. New work schedule as well starting next week.

Had dinner with denna, Travis, Elaine and peter and Shane at the wing place.

Lady called me asking where she could find more copies of my newspaper. She found a copy at menello museum.

Caff-fiend

2015-01-15T22:46:00.001-08:00

I made a joke about how we use tech right before bed and neebr have any sleep problems. Now I'm wide awake. Could be the latte I had at city arts factory and the diet coke I had at Tako Cheena. Caffeine.

You forgot to have a big juicy creative life

2015-01-12T06:26:00.001-08:00

I found this great quote in today's daily Fast Company e-newsletter. I like it.

"Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you're 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen." — Anne Lamott

Here's the link: http://www.fastcompany.com/3040667/hit-the-ground-running/the-quotes-that-motivate-the-most-successful-people?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-manual-newsletter&position=anjali&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=01122014

The newspaper got printed

2015-01-11T20:47:00.001-08:00

Today sucked, I slept til 11:30am at my own apartment. I never sleep that late. I always get five hours of sleep and that's it. I'm grateful for one thing today: I got my paper designed last night and printed today. It takes more than one person to do it. And it took a week. But it got done. I'm also grateful to the people who helped me get the tables to and from the event tonight: Janine and her son. I gave Big Pink back to it's owners so now I'm toting 18 tables without the glory of a giant truck.

What a Crap Day

2015-01-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

So this morning is starting off poorly.

I made a scheduling error for tonight and tomorrow that I don't think I can fix
My invoicing website isn't letting people pay their invoices
I have to unload everything in my pink truck into my garage and then drive it to the owner's lot to leave there. That means I will be car-less. I downloaded Uber and it won't take my credit card or my debit card.
I have to be on the road at 3pm to go run my Kissimmee event
I am on hold with the invoicing company. They have no idea what is going on.

Problems come in multiples. Always.

2015 Is Today

2015-01-01T09:06:00.002-08:00

This is so weird. I am writing on a blog on which the last post I wrote was September 7, 2011. Since then, I stopped writing about my life and totally wrote about Orlando on the daily city. It's the first day of 2015. I do NOT commit to write in this once a day for the entire year. I commit to finishing this post.
Last night my boyfriend and my friend and I went to dinner at a fish restaurant. I had 3 drinks called "Snowballs" and a sampler plate. Afterwards, me and the BF came home and went straight to sleep because he had to work today.
This feels so weird, blogging about my life. Well, I have to say the *reason* I am doing this here is because I *don't* want to scurge up my Facebook newsfeed with "me me me" stuff. I will put it all here. Today at least.
So what I wanted to share, and what originally is the reason for me even coming back to this blog is that I wanted to share this moment in the Steven Sondheim bio show called "Six By Sondheim." In it, he tells a story about his mother writing him a note and having it hand delivered to him just before she went into the hospital for a major medical procedure. In it, she says her biggest regret was having him. I almost started crying. Watch it at 1:06:00 (one hour, six minutes).

Orlando Sentinel Online: Five Course Love

2011-01-24T00:52:00.000-08:00

"More Than A Touch of Comic Dementia"

2011-01-22T10:56:00.000-08:00

"Baratelli, who is known more as an improv guy and a producer, brings angst to his Italian waiter and more than a touch of comic dementia to the German one." -Elizabeth Maupin | 1-22-11

I Am Free

2011-01-21T14:13:00.000-08:00

Back in 2003 when I was on a ship, an actor quit, leaving me the opportunity to host a live afternoon weekly family-friendly game show called "Who Wants to be a Mousketeer." It was just like the TV show, but with Disney trivia. I was the only cast member in the show. When I had fun, I was funny. When I was scared, I was not.

At every show there were two actors who normally had regular roles in the other shows who in this show, had to don hideous jackets and deal with the audience's needs. It was a thankless task and far beneath their talents and abilities, but considering the rest of the day was spent lounging about in the Bahamian sun, it was a smal price to pay.

Backstage before the show, we'd sit in the men's dressing room and talk. One of the actors had *every* Mariah CD ever printed, and would bring them to the dressing room to play before shows. Well there was this one song that I'd never heard before called "I am Free." I immediately fell in love with it. It became my jam. I had to hear it before every show. It calmed me down, made me happy, centered me. Perfect states of being to be in right before you go host an hour long stage game show alone.

One day the actor walks in, puts the CD in and forces me to listen to it. He goes on to say, very casually, that he was having a crappy day and he didn't want to be there, so he needed me to be funny for him, and he knows the CD makes me happy and relaxed before the show which means funny during the show. It was a neat moment for me.

Eight years later, I am in a 3 person musical that opens tonight and this afternoon, after some random online farting around, I came across the song! My jam. Thanks Danny for introducing me to this song in 2003. I am listening to it on repeat prepping for tonight.

I'm #36 on Axis Magazine's 2010 "101 Things We Are Thankful For" List

2011-01-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

Last night someone showed me this magazine called Axis from November 2010. Apparently they did a "101 Things We Are Thankful For" list (since it was Thanksgiving time and people were feeling thankful I guess) and they listed me as #36. It said "Mark Baratelli does it in a car: Mobile Art Show and Taco Truck Tuesdays."

Improv Cabaret 2006

2010-09-25T05:20:00.001-07:00

Filmed 8/06 at the Parliament Cabaret Room. Found this while digging around online. Memories.

The 168th street stop on my way home to The Bronx

2009-11-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

Headshots: Vote for your favorite (please)

2009-11-08T15:29:00.000-08:00

UCB: This is not worth it

2009-10-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

I *still* have not seen the *one* required improv show, written the term paper about the required improv show, or registered for Level 201. Now Level 201 is sold out and Level 101 is sold out until December.

On a positive note, I figured out how to see an improv show at UCB after two attempts and one 15 minute "WTF? session" spent on their website figuring it all out. To see the Tuesday night show, here is what you need to know:

1. Make a reservation online. Reservations open up on the Wednesday before the show, which is the following Tuesday. Then follow the directions on the email they send you.
2. Show up to the show 30-45 minutes ahead of the show, and wait in a line outside. Every single human being in the line is 19 years old... except you.
3. If you do not make a reservation, you wait in the stand-by line. Show up 30-45 minutes for that, too. And, even tough you wait that long, you may not even get into the show.
4. The show is cash-only.

I made a reservation for next week's Tuesday night "new harold" show. I have no idea if I write the paper that that will carry over to the December session (if I am even in NYC in December).

All I Want For Christmas by and Ed and Mark

2009-10-20T10:21:00.001-07:00

Recorded October 19, 2009 on the sidewalk in New York City in front of many a passersby after a gross drink (see below). And you know what? The passersby liked it. (For those of you who do not know my voice, in this recording, I am the one singing the lyrics.)

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas as sung by Mark & Ed

2009-10-20T10:17:00.001-07:00

Recorded October 19, 2009 in a diner at a counter eating cake.

Sept 11 | Asian Restaurant visit

2009-09-13T05:41:00.000-07:00

After my wretched Beauty and the Beast audition, I made plans to meet my friend Gennadi on the 26th floor of some hotel his friend knew about for a drink. But first, I passed by this asian restaurant and had to try it.

You pick up your own tray and your own TONGS first. Then you go to the counter and select a pastry. And the prices were CHEAP! They ranged from $1 to $3 for what looked like unfamiliar but tasty treats.

This was only $1.50 and had chunks of ham and cheese atop a fluffy bread thingy. Very rich, but small enough to not make you feel like a wild boar.

Its coming together and coming to a close

2009-09-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Its all slowly, magically coming to a close and coming together.

Ship it
I bought plastic storage containers to put the art I bought this summer and the newspaper clippings I was in this summer into. I was going to then put them into storage. But then when I got home I looked at the art and the clippings and thought "I'd love to have this stuff up in NYC." Then I realized not only could I mail a box of clothes up to NYC instead of carry them through airports, I could do the same for my art and clippings and hard drives and wooden lolllipops. So, nothing new is going into storage now and I can bring this fun crap with me to NYC to make me smile and remember this fab summer.

Ticket
I waited till today, September 7, to buy my plane ticket. JetBlue had a deal for a Sept 10th non-stop to LGA at 11:30am and WOOP I got it. Who says you have to pre-plan? Maybe I got lucky. Whatever. I got it.

Cat
I just happened to want to go to SAK Saturday night to say hi to Denna and Chris (music director for FOURplay) just happened to be there in the lobby and we just happened to start talking about Moomers and low and behold, we made an appointment to meet up the next day to bring Moomer over to his house to meet his kitties. !!! Sheer coincidence. I am going over to his house again tonight for a second Moomers meet-up. If it doesn't go horribly, Moomers may have a home for the Fall!

Wrap it up
So what I am getting at is, its 3 days until I leave and I have one day's worth of errands to run, will be traipsing through the airport with one backpack and no luggage, and I'll be meeting the person I am subletting from after he gets out of rehearsal Sept 10th at 6pm, four hours after I touch down at LGA.

WORD!

TheDailyCity.com Panel Series

2009-09-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: Brian Feldman