bigmouth strikes again

sex and the city

2008-05-30T12:29:00.002-04:00

so, not only does sex and the city premiere tonight i have a front row seat for law and order filming across the street. and guess who i spy? that's right! mr big himself chris noth! and that girl from ally mcbeal. it's all very exciting. and yesterday we saw ethan hawke outside in front of the salon. it must be celebrity sighting season in the city! ;)

what an afternoon

2008-05-28T17:47:00.002-04:00

so such a weird day! i have some fabu news to report - sloan fine art was in the printed edition of new york magazine in the infamous approval matrix. and guess what bitches? we are highbrow brilliant according to them. we're even technically rated higher than jasper johns. who rules the nyc gallery scene? we do! this week at least :) we are located on page 78 or if you want to check it out online here is the url: http://nymag.com/arts/all/approvalmatrix/47206/. we are on the upper right hand corner!

and then on my way in to work at the salon it totally tripped and fell in the crosswalk in front of a million people on 23rd and 8th (a major intersection). that was highbrow brilliant, too. two nice ladies helped me up and grabbed my shoe and sunglasses that went flying. totally sweet of them.

and then as i finished walking to the salon i walked by uma thurman. i eyed her thinking she looked familiar and she eyed me back and then we smiled at each other. i think she was impressed that there was another girl as tall as her. :) they are filming a movie called motherhood in front of the salon as i type! so needless to say there are peeps all over the place. we think they have it all wrong. the real action is here inside the salon! ;)

so who else knows what will happen this fine evening!

MWAH!

tiff

omg i love this pic

2008-05-24T01:09:00.002-04:00

i will provide more of an update this weekend :)

the verve and gossip girl

2008-05-02T00:33:00.004-04:00

so i got to see the verve with my friend jake on monday and they were so good! way better than i had expected. here, watch the video for one of their songs called sonnet that i love!:

we also had a lot of fun playing a little game called where are you from. so the girls with the teased hair looking like trainwrecks were from jersey, the scruffy looking boys with tight fitting jackets were hippie-sters from brooklyn, regular hipsters were from the lower east side. hot rich gay men were from meatpacking. not so rich but equally hot gay men were from chelsea ;) and so on and so forth.

on the work front i don't know if i mentioned it but i've sold 2 pieces of art! woo-hoo! it's very exciting :)

at work last night one of the girls came in and said she saw chuck from gossip girl. i was totally jealous because i so love gossip girl and it's one of my fave shows. if you don't watch it you should start. monday's show is supposed to be all sorts of scandalous skankiness/luridness. i can't wait. apparently the spoiler alerts mention a sex tape with the main character serena and everyone thinks her brother is going to be coming out of the closet. it's going to be such a fierce hot mess! just look!:

you know you love me! xoxo ;)

this is just messed up on so many levels. maybe that's why i love it so much!

2008-04-28T12:59:00.002-04:00

rome continued

2008-04-28T11:37:00.007-04:00

i realize that i didn't mention how much fun i had with the billy shire kids in rome, too. duh! i figured i had kind of alluded to that in a previous post but i just wanted
to be clear what a fab time we had running around the city doing touristy things. in fact, the coolest thing ever was this creepy church that was decorated all in bones! it was so amazing - it's called the capuchin cemetery. check out these pics:

we also went to the vatican museum, the sistine chapel, st. peter's square and the acropolis (among many others). here are some more pics:

the map room and gorgeous ceiling in the vatican museum:

the golden doors only opened every 25 years of the vatican:

the fabu daniel martin diaz, glenn barr and annie a.:

the ruins in the acropolis:

the opening at mondo bizarro went well. the works were all beyond amazing! you can view scott brooks pics here: http://flickr.com/photos/scottgbrooks/sets/72157604374431469/

5 years

2008-04-26T23:17:00.003-04:00

ok, ok, so i know. that's what it seems like it's been since i've last posted. but what can i say, i've been a very busy bee as of late!

so the rome/milan trip was fabulous (as were the cure shows!) and i enjoyed every last minute. i got to hang out with my good friend milena which always rules and i got to see a few other friends (even if it was only momentary!) upon returning home i became employed by my fantastic friend alix who owns an art gallery called sloan fine art. i am the ever so gracious gallery manager and i love it more than i could even begin to say. it makes me so so happy to go to work doing something i absolutely love and am passionate about! check out the website: www.sloanfineart.com and buy something from me someday! ;)

i am also working part time at a hair salon (which so rules cause that equals getting the hair did for free!) and of course, it's a lot of fun hanging out with all the gays. we did have a couple celeb sightings (keira knightley and jennifer esposito). and there is a funny story - one of the stylists at the salon accidentally put jennifer in the book as eva mendes so everyone was all excited and then jennifer showed up (i didn't know who she was) and i said "are you eva?" cause she was wearing big sunglasses and to be honest i don't really know who eva mendes is, either. anyway, mass confusion ensued and then i felt like a dumbass. at least i didn't say are you eva mendes. that would have just been sad. for her i mean :D

i am still enjoying the city (when i'm not actually working) and i will be blogging on a more regular basis, i promise. i am also blogging on a fun, fabu gossip site called kate blogsworth (http://kateblogsworth.wordpress.com). so maybe i can use that as my excuse for not being so on top of this one. that has been so much fun (the girls are crazy like me for the lead singer of interpol and pete doherty - yes, the crackhead who is in jail in england!) don't be hating on him. i may marry him someday ;)

so here is a silly video that i was going to post back in the day (my roomie sent it to me specifically because of the content). i hope it makes you laugh as hard as i did:

ciao da roma!

2008-03-01T07:29:00.002-05:00

hey all,

just thought i would do an update since it's been ages! i am in rome and having loads of fun. saw the cure last night and they were amazing! going to my friend's art opening here in rome tonight and then i am off to milan tomorrow to see the cure up there!

i've taken loads of pictures but my laptop isn't getting a connection so i will update everything next week. it's been fabu, to say the least!

ciao, baci baci!

tiff

shun the non-believer!

2008-02-04T01:06:00.000-05:00

i can't help but pee my pants every time i watch this. it's definitely an acquired taste sort of thing:

so i decided i will post a funny video once a week from you tube. it's good for you!

this week marah and i went to my friend alix's opening (it was so crowded, so happy for her!) and then to vampire weekend. they sound like they would do a soundtrack to a really fun and quirky indie movie. the show was so much fun! here is part of oxford comma, listen!

they are these cute little nerdy boys. i wish i could miniaturize them and bring them home and put them on my dresser and have them play their fun songs for me whenever i want! they are going to be big, i'm telling you! i just hope a stylist doesn't get a hold of them and make them too cool for school. i like the whole geek angle.

friday was ridiculous. i love the whole walking in the city thing but not in a torrential downpour. i was soaked up to my thighs and my umbrella didn't do much of anything. my phone died (fyi, please send me your cell #'s since the phone completely pooped out) and i had drama with t-mobile. i officially hate them - total jerks! anyway, i'm now with verizon but still have my same telephone # so no changes there.

later friday it finally stopped typhooning so i decided to head down to marah's b-day party at trash! @ rififi. it was a lot of fun. we cut some rug, got our 80's/indie dance asses on and all that good stuff.

i went to long island yesterday for a visit to erin's house. it was nice and mellow and laid back and involved eggplant parmigiana. i'm so addicted! i came back today and the l train wasn't running so i then brilliantly got lost in the west village for close to 30 minutes before i could finally catch a cab. i am still so clueless!

earlier tonight i heard all this commotion and a helicopter and the cops on their bullhorns. i was just like good night, what the eph is going on? it was just the giants nerds yelling and being excited. i completely forgot about the superbowl! to me it's super boring, anyway.

marah and i may head to a bowie night on tuesday that i've been dying to check out. then i am on my way to dc to grab stuff from storage to move up to nyc. if anyone wants to check out what i'm getting rid of, let me know. we'll be at the storage unit on thursday in va. then it's siouxsie in concert this weekend. woo hoo! i get to get my goth on and i'm making jay and rita jean come with me. be prepared, boys, i'm going to put black eyeliner on both of you! YAY!!!!!!!

MWAH!

tiff

i like zombie boys

2008-01-26T01:11:00.000-05:00

who like turtles:

i had to post this - he rules!

so i'm also now a brunette - my fabu jeffy cut and colored me on wednesday and i so love it. it looks stellar! any of my nyc friends that need color let me know - jeffy is learning so he'll do it for cheap. he's totally awesome - i wouldn't steer you wrong...

after playing hair salon we went to tre merli in the west village. it was sooo delish! and the drinks weren't half bad, either. then i met marah and we went to the hotel rivington. the bar there is called thor and her friend jason works there and we had a great time (free drinks included - snap!) totally ruled. we then went to some italian place for post midnight snackage where i was served the most random lady fingers sandwich (with the crusts even cut off). it was wonder bread with mozzarella and tapenade and weird. it took 2 seconds to eat so i don't think i'll order that again :(

been interviewing this week - please send good luck my way! so much going on next week, can't wait. vampire weekend (they are so not goth even though they stir up thoughts of black eyeliner and angsty youth), my friend alix's art gallery opening, kathy griffin! if you are in the nyc area on the 30th you should definitely stop by alix's opening. here is her website: http://www.sloanart.com/. she's lower east side suckas!

MWAH!

tiff

getting my goth on explained

2008-01-21T01:52:00.002-05:00

for those of you who aren't quite up to speed on what it means to get your goth on perhaps you should view the following south park video that hits a little too close to home (i cringed a little while watching it):

and for the love of god it is only 17 degrees right now. so completely unacceptable. with the wind blowing through the city's skyscraper canyons it's so frigid.

perhaps i need a trip out to warmer, cali climes?

MWAH!

tiff

he loves me, he loves me not

2008-01-21T00:15:00.001-05:00

so i found the most fabu quiz online and maybe i had to tweak the response slightly (so what if i've never done coke!) he loves me 92% and says i'm sooooo! good! ;)

Who is your lover from Interpol? by casuallover

Name

Age

Favorite Interpol Song

Drug of Choice

Your interpol lover is

He tells his friends the sex was

So Good

You'll get sick of him by

June 20, 2090

He loves you this much!

92%

k, so i saw blonde redhead last night with marah and it was absolutely amazing! and, even better yet, my boyfriend played guitar on a song of theirs called 23 (which is my fave blonde redhead song that i can't stop playing over and over even before last night and not just because my boyfriend played it with them!) look how cute he is in his flannel and scarfy close up:

and not so close up (and the entire song!):

marah has a crush on the twin boys in blonde redhead so it was a total night of being all dreamy over cute boys. plus we saw daniel again (we must be we strangely aligned as we seem to show up at places at the same time). he was behind us in line and when the peeps at the venue realized who he was they whisked him away.

here is a picture of marah and i after the show. what a mucho bueno noche! plus we went to a cool club called tis was and there was the best dj and kick ass people watching. we're so going back. we also had dinner at a place called thainy by my house and it was so good!

MWAH!

tiff

oh btw

2008-01-16T00:14:00.001-05:00

i freaking love the city. every time i walk outside of the apartment i am completely consumed with excitement - i feel so alive here. it's so utterly amazing and i find new, fun, kitschy things every day. it rules!

also - i have seen 3 movies recently that you should all go see if you haven't. they would be:

juno - if you seriously haven't heard about it by now you are weird
sweeney todd - i so heart johnny depp and tim burton
control - about the band joy division and in particular the lead singer, ian curtis, and his sad and untimely death. beautifully filmed and even if you aren't a joy division fan you can appreciate the film.

i'm a happy little camper!

MWAH!

tiff

getting my goth on

2008-01-15T23:38:00.000-05:00

ok - so i'm not so good about posting again this week. however, i will just get right to it and give you the update from my last posting.

clearly, i was sloshy from my night out last week. it was fun - i have a fave dj here in the city and he was spinning that night at diabolik (the open bar place). yes, it was gothy and yes it was fun - in a very seriously morose and angsty way of course ;) marah and i had another weird guy talking to us. we decided to call him special k as all he did was talk about that drug (and several others) and how they were really amazing. he was really boring and we couldn't wait to find an opportunity to get the f out of there! plus we had gotten our 4 free drinks and were properly tanked so our mission had been accomplished.

so we shimmied on over to the dance floor, cut some rug for a few and then i said bye to my friend and i actually found the way back to marah's house as she was a little too intoxicated to figure it out. i was proud of myself!

saturday we went out to a bar called heathers (it was ok), another bar called angels and kings (loved it and there was a totally cute bartender there) and then on to rififi for another unintentional night of getting our goth on. the people watching was so fantastic there! goth trannies, purple mohawks and loads of boys who were trying to look like robert smith (receding hairline included!) it was so packed, too! who knew!

i also had brunch with jake down on the lower east side at schillers and that was fantastic - i highly recommend the blood-orange and vodka drink. yum!

so today i got a salad from cpk and there was a totally cute boy working there. we smiled at each other and when he walked by later he was totally checking out my.... marc jacobs bag. *sigh* oh well, he has good taste. maybe we can go shopping sometime! ;)

and i know i haven't mentioned this yet but i have the best roomie ever. her name is lauren and she rocks! she likes the cure and the smiths - what else possibly needs to be said? ;) she really is great and i am so happy we get along so well. we are going to join the crunch gym - i am excited to get back in to yoga as they have 5 million yoga classes. plus, we are totally excited to play dodgeball. we are so going to be throwing down and taking names! more on that later :)

no job yet :( please send mojo/good juju my way!

MWAH!

tiff

i heart ny

2008-01-10T02:22:00.000-05:00

want to know why? cause i can get as drunk as i want and the cab fare home is only $6. if i want to ride the subway it's only $2. and guess what? there was an open bar tonight. marah a link to a cool website to me that tells you where all the open bars are. it rules! total damage tonight: $15!!!

how can you not love this city?

more tomorrow. time to pass out...

MWAH!

tiff

nye dc

2008-01-01T22:23:00.000-05:00

so i needed to head down to dc to grab my art and my tv. the oh so fabu scott brooks was babysitting them while i was galavanting about (check out his gorgeous work at: http://www.scottgbrooks.com/).

anyway, i met up with the boys (jay, timmy, casey and michael) and we had din din at u-topia (i think that's what it was called). timmy and i were nearly gored several times by the menacing gothic decoration above our table so that wasn't so great. however, the steak i ordered was. i need to keep reminding myself that i am not employed and to be a little more frugal. i'll try to remember next time ;)

we then went for drinks and caught up and had a lot of fun. the next morning was brunch at the playbill and then more drinking. i then went shopping and then turned in a little early as i was a little alcohol exhausted.

i headed to michael and catrina's for nye and it was great and i got to see a bunch of old friends. as new years is always a bit anti-climatic, it was good to at least have fun while ringing in the new year. i ended up getting accosted by a very drunk gay boy i had just met. he became a bit obsessed with timmy's lip gloss and decided to dump half of it on his lips. then he thought it would be nice to put some on me by kissing it on. he was a little excited with the transfer process and i was laughing and pushing him off and he told me to stop squirming and that he was gay. i was like sweetness, i know you are gay. you are just incredibly sloppy! he got his slobber all over me and when he pulled back timmy was like look at those shiny angelina lips! i laughed and attributed the shine to the mass quantities of saliva all over my face. timmy kept saying here comes the train wreck. train wreck indeed! at least he was good for some entertainment value :)

oh! driving down to dc i got pulled over in md. yes, i was going 20 miles an hour over. OI! the cop was really cute so he made me even more nervous. he was so dreamy! he asked if i had even noticed that i had passed by him at 70 and i told him no. and then he asked if i knew what md cop cars look like and i said no again. i totally spaced! i couldn't believe i hadn't noticed him. and i was totally sweating bullets since i just had that other speeding ticket. but i'm wondering if they never reported it since i did the online defensive driving class (a lot of good it did me, right?) ;) anyway, he came back to the car and gave me a freaking warning! i couldn't believe that i got out of it. so of course, i only went between 5-10 miles over the speed limit coming home. i think speed limits are stupid and should never be below 65 mph. or we should just be like the autobahn. annoying!

anyway, now i am all caught up! MWAH to everyone and i will report on my city adventures more regularly moving forward :)

tiff

new york cares

2008-01-01T22:12:00.000-05:00

so i spent christmas eve with my friend marah. we had such a blast - we went to beauty bar where we met a few goofy boys. i got really drunk and started making fun of marah and the boy she was talking to. marah reminded me to use my inside voice as i didn't realize i was shouting "marah has a boyfriend" three times over at the top of my lungs. i kind of feel bad because my drunk ass started the conversation and then i decided i was bored and moved on to the boys sitting to my right and may have abandoned her with him for a bit. but it's all good!

we went to veselka after and determined we needed an emergency phrase for when we were stuck with a not so groovy boy. in our lushy state we decided saying "oklahoma!" or "challah" would work well.

so two nights later we went back to beauty bar and i was stuck talking to a guy who was less than pleasant and a bit angry. i was trying to get marah's attention and was finally able to smack her. she ended up being the trashed one that night and didn't use her inside voice and started screaming "oklahoma!" at me. the guy got kind of pissed (understandably) and so i then decided that marah and i needed to pick a new emergency word/phrase. her friend barak was with us and he even said oklahoma was a bit obvious/harsh so we determined the new phrase is "can i borrow your lipstick?" i'll let you know how that works out ;)

marah and i also went to see the setting suns the week prior (the drummer from interpol) and we saw the guitarist from blonde redhead and daniel from interpol and that was pretty cool. although it was kind of funny - i wonder if daniel is a bit of an attention whore. he parked himself right next to the door to get out of the stage area to the bar right where everyone would have to pass him to leave. i smiled at him cause i thought it was a little funny and of course, i was a tad bit drunk as well.

i'm a little concerned with potentially becoming an alcoholic by living in the city. i think my liver actually moaned at me last week. i think i would like to be put on the liver transplant list. i am genetically predisposed being irish and russian and all, so i think i should be put at the front of the line ;) does anyone want to vouch for me?

YAY! moving in to my new place tomorrow!

MWAH!

tiff

visit to l.a.

2008-01-01T22:06:00.001-05:00

was so much fun. i got to hang with annie and liz mcgrath had her opening at billy shire. it was great and there were a bunch of people who showed up. namely, annie's crush, ryan gosling. it was so cute! it reminded me of when i met my boyfriend in vegas and how exciting that was so i was so happy for her. i headed home early and hadn't heard from her and so i sent her a text asking if she was making out with her new boyfriend. i was so hoping for it! here is liz's show: http://www.billyshirefinearts.com/current.html

then i stopped by jason houchen's showing at la luz de jesus. jason pants is extremely talented and his stuff is so fantastic - he does wood burnings and they are even more amazing in person. if you are in l.a. you should go check out his show. here is where you can find the pieces: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/

i also got to see laurel and natashia which is always fun. it was great catching up with the west coast kids!

MWAH!

tiff

catching up again...

2008-01-01T22:04:00.000-05:00

ok, so maybe my new year's resolution should be to not take 3 week breaks from my blog. ok, so a quick round up - got the apt (YAY!) and i am moving in tomorrow. went to l.a., hung out in the city for 3 days, went to dc, got back today. will do a few blogs to go over all the fun of each.

hope everyone is having a fabu new year so far!

MWAH!

tiff

i want to be a part of it...

2007-12-12T22:14:00.000-05:00

ok i am so excited to be back in nyc. i am staying with rob and erin until i solidify a place of my own. so i have been getting myself sorted out over the past few days and may have found a fantastic place with an uber groovy roommate! i should know for sure tomorrow if it's mine or not. i'll give you all the fabu details if it is (don't want to stir up bad juju talking about it before anything has happened!)

after that gets taken care of i'll just need to find a job. what a concept! ;) it'll be strange working again and getting back in to the swing of things after having 4 fantastic months off. i can just picture myself telling my new boss "um yeah, i need a couple weeks off to head to australia. interpol are playing down there. why are you laughing? i'm being serious" ;) right!

i got to have dinner with my friend marah yesterday. she is a filmmaker and tons of fun. we met at the david lynch weekend in iowa back in may. needless to say, catching up was a ton of fun. plus, she likes to go to gigs so we'll be going to one next wednesday which i am so excited for! ok - admission - it's a side project for the interpol drummer. stop the rolling of your eyes right now!!! ;)

tomorrow i am heading back in to the city to dig up some more trouble. YAY! :)

MWAH!

tiff

catching up!

2007-12-08T21:20:00.000-05:00

thursday i was a bit lazy and stayed in and did my laundry since the weather was really dreadful anyway. for some reason, pete's machine takes 3 hours to do a load of laundry. however, it's quite convenient because it does the wash and dry all in one device! so while washing i called up the fabu heath to see if he would be available for a cut (he cut my hair back in the oc). he had me come over at 5 and we were able to catch up. it was so fun and great to see him. he's loving london! pete and i then had a fabu dinner at a thai place that was amazing with yummy panang chicken curry and of course mango sticky rice!

friday i did an all day tour of windsor, stonehenge and bath. i loved it! windsor was really interesting and beautiful, stonehenge was fascinating and bath was just gorgeous! we had the funniest guide and every other word out of her mouth was naughty, great news ladies or sexy. she ruled! see some pics below. the camera died half way through stonehenge so i bought a disposable for bath and will post those pics later.

windsor castle:

stonehenge:

today i woke up at 1:15! PM! it was so marvelous! i haven't done that since i don't remember when!!! ;) i slowly (very, very slowly) got ready. pete and i got on the tube and had a long discussion about how long it takes to get to heathrow on the piccadilly line not realizing we were going the wrong way. a few people laughed at us as pete stated our inability to get on the proper train quite publicly and we got up and got off the train at the next stop. as we got on to the right train we saw all these crazy people dressed up in neon colored clothing. one person was even in a banana costume. it was so great!

pete and i poked our heads in to the british museum for a few minutes (it closed within 10 minutes of us getting there) and then we grabbed a coffee at starbucks. we then headed to st. paul's cathedral and it was massive and beautiful. after that we then went to the tate modern museum. we had a great time looking through the exhibits and decided to have dinner upstairs in the restaurant. it had the most spectacular views!

cool spider sculpture at tate:

pete and i were on crack! ;):

view of london from the tate restaurant:

i just had to post this - it's pete's hair dryer!:

it was a great night overall. coming back we saw a stag party and the soon to be groom was dressed in full regalia as snow white and his friends were wearing elf hats. that was quite the topper to end the day! i wish i would have taken a picture of that!

i am heading home tomorrow. WOW! not sure what i'm feeling but i am so excited to get back to nyc.

MWAH!

tiff

sex dolls in diver suits, porn stars and baggie vodka!

2007-12-05T13:46:00.000-05:00

when i met up with pete this afternoon he mentioned that i shouldn't be alarmed by the sex toy doll dressed in a diving suit in the lounge. because naturally, i'm always on the look out for those when entering lounges in people's homes. apparently, it's a bit of a joke at his flatmate's expense! she needs to be called stella as interpol has a song that fits it perfectly. have a look at the lyrics: well, she was my catatonic sex toy love joy diver!

also included is a bad pic of the baggie vodka (my camera is just not working well), a pic of the porn actress (it's not that great, either) and a picture of christmas-y grafton street in dublin.
enjoy!:

stella was a diver and she was always down:

oh how i love baggie vodka:

born to do porn:

grafton street, dublin:

MWAH!

tiff

post traumatic no more interpol shows syndrome!

2007-12-05T12:51:00.000-05:00

well then! the show last night was so utterly fantastic - what a perfect way to end the tour. harley put me on the guest list and i got sound booth privileges once again. AND! they played specialist. again, happy camper-ness prevailed!!! the show was really fantastic and the crowd was good. all of the songs were spot on and the drums were earsplitting as well as the bass. i had such a great time - every moment was definitely enjoyed to the fullest extent!

after the show i grabbed chips and curry at a local hamburger joint (i sooooo love chips and curry!) as i was munching, i got a little bummed realizing that it was all over. but then i got so happy because i realized what a fucking fabulous time i've had! this has really been the best!

ok, so here are some shots from the show. i realize they aren't the greatest but i found out last night that my camera kind of sucks. oh well!:

my boyfriend ;) and the drummer sam:

carlos the bassist is on the right (blurry, i know!):

sam and paul again (blurry!)

daniel (guitar) and paul:

sadly, these were the best pics :(

i took the train back down to london and pete and i will be hanging out til sunday. we may go to paris on saturday, we haven't decided yet. we're going off on an adventure somewhere, just haven't decided where yet! i am going to bath and stonehenge on friday. i also may go see dolly parton on a tv show tomorrow night. i'll let you know if i get to!

MWAH!

tiff

pure dead brilliant!

2007-12-03T19:18:00.001-05:00

so i got up this morning and headed to the airport. my taxi driver told me that the airport was having a fairly significant power failure. it figures - with my luck traveling lately!

anyway, i show up and all is apparently well. however, ryanair's check in layout isn't exactly helpful so i hang out in line with two other people heading back to glasgow and we get told our line was elsewhere. so the guy and i start chatting and he ended up being so awesome! his name was kieran and he was originally from ireland but had moved to glasgow just recently to move in with his girlfriend. we grabbed a bite to eat and then decided it would be a good idea to start drinking. who cares that it was 10:30 in the morning! so we proceeded to get drunk - and then even more so on our 35 minute puddle jump across the channel. which i so have to mention this - ryanair gives you buy one get one free drinks. so the flight attendant hands me these clear baggies and i was like what is this? folks, there is a new innovation in drinking - baggie vodka. i am so not kidding and i am absolutely thrilled with this! it's beyond hilarious. kieran and i were absolutely blown away. one of the warnings on the baggie is to not drink the vodka directly from the baggie. it's like when you pour the soy sauce out of the packet so you have to be careful to not waste anything. i so need to find out where i can buy these things! i'l take a picture of the baggies and post them when i get back to london!

anyway, we landed and took the train in to the city. kieran was like - do you fancy another pint? to which i promptly responded of course! so we went and had another drink at a pub near the train station and saw really horrible music videos. apparently, michael jackson has gone and made a mess of a new song. we were rolling.

kieran then headed back home to go buy groceries (he was such great company!) and he put me in a taxi to go to the hotel (even though it was close by) because i was perhaps a little too intoxicated and given my tendency to get lost he thought that was the best idea.

so i got to the hotel where i promptly passed out for a couple hours. i got up, ordered some room service and then headed to the interpol show at carling academy glasgow. which was an amazing venue, fyi!

harley let me hang in the sound booth again and the show was brilliant! stand outs were heinrich manuever, nyc and the drums on the lighthouse. i so love it when they are so loud that you think you eardrums are going to burst!!! i really can't wait for the show tomorrow night. i am hoping they will play specialist one last time. please send good juju my way that they will!! ;)

ok, off to sleep. my last interpol show is approaching much too quickly! :( oh! btw, pure dead brilliant is the official saying of glasgow apparently. i think that so rocks! kieran was a bit disgusted/embarassed about it himself! :)

MWAH!!

tiff

what a mutha-f*ing fantastic day!

2007-12-02T19:20:00.000-05:00

i finally received my baggage at 1 today - which was a bit of a bummer as i was in a completely inappropriate state for venturing out since i didn't have a change of clothes and nothing to comb my hair with. so i waited. i hate bmi, it's official.

ok, so it's brutally cold, rainy and windy in dublin right now but that didn't keep me from rocking the streets. i went off to grafton street (i guess it's the main shopping hub) and what appeared before my adoring eyes? marks and spencer, that's what. how do i love thee? let me count the 5 billion ways! i was so excited as it's one of my favorite stores in london and i didn't know they had them in ireland! so i did some shopping there and finally broke down and bought a travel flat iron to replace the one i electrocuted myself with in italy. i am so sick of having crappy hair days every day. it blows :(

and good god - why is there no good coffee anywhere but italy? it's a bit depressing. i may just have to resort to starbucks! i got so spoiled - *sigh* pete and i discussed this the other day and he is as happy as a clam with his nescafe instant coffee. bleck! i need to convert his unacceptable coffee drinking ways.

anyway - walking around grafton was great fun. there was the freakiest girl who was causing quite a stir wanting people to sign her petition. it was so fabulous - she had big blonde hair, huge boobs, a pink shirt , matching pink spandex leggings and a sign saying "born to do porn". i'm not making this up! i have pictures but didn't bring my cord for my camera with me as i downsized at pete's for this side trip. i'll post them when i get back to london on wednesday. regardless, she was fantastic!

i also went to the national gallery and that was nice as well. there were a lot of dutch artists and italian renaissance artists (heavily religious stuff). they had one painting of caravaggio's and it was really fantastic. they also had this wonderful classical music concert and i just sat there and listened for the longest time. it was sooooo nice!

after that i came back to the hotel (the flat iron was immediately put to use) and i got ready for the interpol show. it was fantastic! the kids here in dublin are insane and they were by leagues the best crowd so far. those irish peeps made me proud. harley let me stand in the sound area with him again and i got a setlist. fabu!!! so, of course, i am just the happiest little camper ever!

and of course, i had some guinness today. i don't like it so much but when in ireland do as the irish do, right?

i am off to glasgow tomorrow (pete warned it is going to be fairly frigid there - much more so than ireland). i am going to my second to the last interpol show. oh boy. the countdown starts! i have had so much fun and i am so happy that i've been able to do this.

MWAH!

tiff

dublin!

2007-12-01T17:26:00.001-05:00

ok, so i decided at 1pm to buy my ticket to dublin tonight :) so i'm here but a little worse for wear. i, unfortunately, was quite late for my flight out of heathrow. but by some stroke of luck, so was the flight. i barely made it - my luggage, however, did not :(

getting around is always confusing the first day in a new city. so of course, i got lost trying to find my hotel! once i got here, they didn't have my reservation as i just booked it today and they never received confirmation of the booking from hotels.com. thankfully, they had one room left for me and they were all so totally nice and helpful at the front desk. ok, so maybe playing things by ear a bit too much can come back and bite you in the ass. however, i am in the homeland of my ancestors so i'll be going out and getting properly drunk shortly. because that's what we irish do! i'll make my predecessors proud, i'm sure.

i can't wait to get around the city a bit more tomorrow. wish me luck (and that i won't be so directionally challenged in the morning!) also, please send good juju my way so that i actually do get my luggage in the morning!

MWAH!

tiff

i love the way you put me in the big house...

2007-11-30T20:01:00.000-05:00

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh the show tonight was so utterly fantastic i can't even put it in words. tonight was why i love love love the interpol boys! ;) they played my favorite song called specialist (that's where the lyric comes from above!) and either being in a different part of the venue (with a much better view of boyfriend) was better soundwise or maybe some other improvements were made. it was really quite amazing.

getting around london on public transport is great but good night sometimes it takes forever! coming back from the venue i was on a bus and i heard the best quote of the day: "no! don't do that! why do you think you can smack her ass? because your a bloke and you've got a penis? well done then!" i may have peed my pants a little when the girl said it. it was so sassy and hilarious!

then in the tube there were two boys "sword" fighting with their umbrellas (clearly, a little intoxicated). the one boy pretty much destroyed the other's umbrella but the other guy insisted he could still fight and took what was left of the umbrella and turned it in to a "shield". there was such great entertainment value on the way home tonight, it ruled!!

i got to have lunch with pete today at a fantastic place called giraffe in angel near where he lives. i had turkey enchiladas that weren't quite authentically mexican but were definitely good anyway. i chatted with pete about the remaining shows and he's being such a great cheerleader. he's also followed bands around (quite a bit more so than even me, actually!) so it's great having him in my corner. yes, 13 shows does sound like a lot but i think i am one of the more mellow hardcore band groupies (believe it or not!)

and that's another thing - recently i've been reading a lot of extremely negative definitions of groupies - that all they amount to are stupid girls who are looking to get poked by the boys in the band. while i admit, if that were to happen i would be none the less happy to oblige. however, not all groupies are strictly in it for the boning factor. i think there should be a better definition in which i am also going to try to rationalize what i do! ;)

groupies are enthusiasts, first and foremost. and they have a great appreciation, love and passion for the band they admire. the music of the band is so utterly relatable to them and provides a very emotional high/experience to the groupie - especially when you can be present and hear/see the music performed live. so see, it's kind of like a hobby. some people collect stamps, elvis memorabilia, shop on ebay obsessively, etc. i just so happen to love seeing bands play live. yes, i absolutely take it to an extreme - but it doesn't mean i'm crazy! i'm not hurting anyone or myself by doing it so there you are! :) plus, believe it or not, with all that i've been working through personally over the last 3 months, following interpol around has been fairly therapeutic in a not really explainable way! it's an emotional thing (again) ;)

k so i'll get off my groupie high horse now. and also report that i will be going to the last 3 shows so i'll be heading to dublin either tomorrow night or sunday morning for a show sunday night. then to glasgow, scotland on for a show on monday night. then wrapping it up in newcastle, england on tuesday night. i'll be coming back to london for a few days and probably stay through the weekend and then i'll be heading back home to the states.

what will i do with myself without any interpol shows to go to? ;) i think i'll be able to figure that out ok, i promise! after all, i'll officially be moved in to the big apple! YAY!

mucho MWAHs!

tiff

weird day

2007-11-29T20:48:00.000-05:00

so today i woke up a little off and bummed that i was leaving amsterdam. i got on my flight to london and all was well until we got to the airport and i had to wait forever for my luggage. i made it just in time for my eyebrow appointment at the hotel/spa (unruly eyebrows!). btw, bmi is quite a lovely airline!

i got to catch up with pete (my dear old friend - one of my first london friends!) and we had dinner at a place called chop chop. he then got me well on my way to the interpol show and i got so lost! i was wandering the streets of alexandra palace to no avail. i finally made my way there and i had missed quite a lot of the show. it was a total bummer. plus the sound wasn't that great in the venue (it sounded like we were in a bathroom) but it was still a good show :)

i got back to the hotel and no sightings of the band to report. oh well! it's a cute hotel, anyway. but i think i may check out a day early and just hang out with pete instead.

i am debating whether or not i want to go to dublin. i'm thinking i am fairly tired and kind of want to get back to nyc so i can start to settle in to my new life there. on the other hand, i think going to dublin would be a lot of fun. i'll let you know what i decide! what do you think i should do? post a response for me!

i finally got official word from gap adventures that the antarctic tour has been cancelled. i emailed mexicana airlines to see if my airfare is refundable at all. wish me luck! at least gap will be refunding their portion of the tour.

that's about all for now. i can't wait to get out and see london tomorrow! :) plus maybe i won't have issues with getting to the show tomorrow night and it will rock! plus it will be show number 13 for me for this tour so i'm kind of thinking that may be where i end things! lucky # 13!!!!

MWAH!

tiff

red light district, van gogh and walking around

2007-11-27T16:14:00.000-05:00

today i went to the van gogh museum and it was beyond amazing. it's nice how they focus on one artist and you get to have more of a feeling for that artist and the different periods they went through in their life. van gogh was so sad at the end and looking at his later works you almost actually feel the pain and sadness as he produced works while he was checked in at the mental hospital. he was only 37 years old when he killed himself. he was truly brilliant and worked with so many fantastic artists of that time including gauguin, seurat, toulouse-lautrec, bernard, etc. they also had works on display from some of the artists mentioned above and also monet, manet and rodin. i spent hours there - it's absolutely amazing! it is a must see for when you are in amsterdam.

everyone in amsterdam is so nice! seriously! but i think it's maybe because everyone is high all the time! they have these "coffee shops" and they are every third or fourth shop on the street if not more so! i walked in to one thinking it really was a coffee shop - i was like, i'm going to get a cappuccino and when i walked in i realized that was the last thing i was going to be getting in there! ;) the boy asked me if i wanted to sit down and if i was interested in anything and i politely said no and excused myself. it's so funny! and there are always people in all the coffee shops that i've seen. it's so hilarious, i love it! i wonder if people go to work high, if they drive or ride their bikes around high? i need to find out!

so i went walking down to the red light district and i have to say i was surprised at how mellow it was. maybe mellow isn't the right word - tame? there was very little nekkidness (i've seen more nekkid peeps on tv here than in the actual red light district). there were tons of sex toy shops and porno palaces and girls dancing in windows. and of course, plenty of boys (some desperate, some very nervous!) one boy was actually following me around saying "um hmm" for a few minutes. i was getting irritated and getting ready to turn around and kick him in the cajones when he decided to start um hmm-ing someone else. did he think i was a prostitute or something? gross! maybe i just went too early or something. there were a lot of guys yelling from the stores to boys walking by saying "for you?!?!?" i laughed a lot and it was fairly entertaining but not nearly as much as what i was thinking it would be. i may try again later tomorrow night. there really has to be more to it than what i saw.

so here are some pics from today. i just uploaded the pics from yesterday to yesterday's blog as well in case you want to check those out:

walking down to the van gogh museum along a canal:

the rijksmuseum:

a cool little sculpture thingy on the street:

another pretty canal shot:

kussen!

tiff

amsterdam day 3

2007-11-26T16:36:00.000-05:00

ok so today wasn't all that fab - i did a "best of holland" tour. and to be honest, it was a bit boring. i think i fell asleep 4 or 5 times. i will definitely attribute some of that to my lack of sleeping while i've been here. however, the tour guide's voice was so soothing, too. so maybe that had a lot to do with it. it kind of reminded me when jake and i saw hollywoodland and we kept falling asleep through that, too. except jake's snoring kept waking me up so i didn't fall asleep as many times as he did! ;)

so we got on the bus this morning and everyone started hacking and sniffling and coughing. i was immediately disgusted and broke out the emergin-c and sucked down 2 in a row. i so refuse to get sick while i am out here!

we headed first to aalsmeer which has the worlds largest flower market. while it was pretty and smelled nice we only really needed to be there for 10 or 15 minutes. we then moved on to a bus tour of rotterdam (i was totally bummed we couldn't get out because it looked really interesting). then we went to delft. that's the place they make all those white and blue plates, pottery thingys, etc. again, we were at that place for way too long and that was boring.

we went in to the town square at delft for lunch and that was good. i met simon and louise, a cute couple from quebec. they were both studying abroad in france (one in paris and the other in strausburg). we talked about the whole frenchy thing (see previous post) and they even said that they thought the frenchies had bad attitudes a lot of the time. french is their first language and the locals would talk to them in english which they thought was strange. they thought that it was maybe due to their accent being different? anyway, they ruled :)

so after lunch we went to the hague and saw all the cool buildings there and the peace court and peace flame (we saw it for 5 minutes!). then they took us to a totally cute beach town called scheveningen (don't ask me how to say it). we only drove by that as well :( the winds were really picking up so the swells were pretty high. andrew - you would have so wanted to surf there! i miss the beach!!

then we went to the most non-appealing/lame thing of the day. it was miniature models of a lot of the things we had seen that day. it was outside and at that point it started pouring. but people were in to it for some reason. i'll post some of the pics and while it was semi interesting it is so not worth the 13 euro admission and a complete hour was so not needed there. however, the chocomel from the cafe was fantastic (i think it's chocolate milk with caramel in it. YUM!)

so, overall, some of it was ok but a lot of it wasn't. so if you ever come to amsterdam don't bother with that tour. i am awarding it two rolling eyes that roll back in to your head and pass out! but maybe it's just that amsterdam is so exciting and fun and the rest of the netherlands just doesn't live up to that kind of standard. who knows? here are some pics:

a windmill in haarlem i believe:

the statue of the man without a heart in rotterdam (i think the guide was saying rotterdam means the city without a heart!)

the pretty church and square in delft:

the peace court in the hague:

the miniature place:

other than that, walking around town again was awesome. tomorrow i am going to the van gogh museum and maybe nemo (it's a scientific-y, nerdy museum for kids but it looks really interesting). the only thing that sucks is that it's so cold, rainy and windy. and i don't think the weather will break before i leave. oh well!

and i also have to make up my red light district night tour!

ok, so i am heading home after london (possibly dublin) in december and i think i may be back and ready to settle in to nyc. i don't know what the situation is with the antarctic cruise yet but they informed the dec 8th cruise people that there would be no cruise so they will probably be notifying us soon as to what's up. i'm a little bummed because i paid $1600 for my plane ticket to buenos aires and i don't think it's refundable :( anyone up for a trip to south america? it's summertime down there, you know! i could so use some sunshine right about now!

MWAH!

tiff

i must miss the states

2007-11-25T13:52:00.001-05:00

i'm watching son in law and haven't turned it off yet. yes, that is the one with pauly shore.

i think i'm home sick or something! ;) god only knows why else i would put up with it.

i'm off to explore amsterdam at night, YAY!

oh my good god i love amsterdam!

2007-11-25T10:49:00.000-05:00

it is so unbelievably cute here. and the boys are crazy good looking! ;)

ok, so it's time to reinstate the usage of my friend pepe's hotness rating system so you have an understanding of the hot/cuteness factor of the boys in various geographic locations in and around europe.

first of all, you must determine that the boy(s) is/are hot. if not, do not bother with the steps that follow. if so, the first rating is hot (it makes sense, right?) ;) second, if they break through the hotness plateau, they become porn. but, if he/they are mega attractive and you are just dying then it's PORN (you say PORN all dirty and sexy like when saying it out loud or thinking it in your head).

k, got it?

greece - didn't really make the hot scale. however, i was in athens and not on the islands so that may have something to do with it.
italy - PORN for sure
brussels - hot (i only saw a few guys though and wasn't even technically there for 24 hours. will have to make an additional visit at some point to provide a more accurate rating)
amsterdam - PORN for sure as well

they seriously need to relocate some of these guys to the states!

anyway - back to the actual visit ;)

last night i got ready for the red light district walking tour and the weather was so nasty - rainy and mega windy - so i decided not to go. i'm going to rebook for tues or weds.

today i went to go for my canal cruise/anne frank house visit and when i got to the ticket office they said they cancelled the tour and that they don't do it anymore. i was a little perterbed but then they suggested a nice canal tour at night. a candlelit one. i was a little annoyed cause i'm sure it will be all romantic like and with tons of couples but then the boy told me that a lot of times people meet on the cruises or even swap partners! i was like - easy fella - not all that interested in swapping around! i guess that's amsterdam for you. i decided to go ahead and do that tomorrow night so i'll take some pics and post them later.

i also went to the rijks museum and it was a bit disappointing. they are renovating so only a small portion of the museum was open. there were some great rembrandts and a few vermeers. but i got through it so quickly! i headed over to the van gogh museum and the line was way too long. i'm going to try again tuesday and buy my tickets online - entrance in to the museum is apparently faster that way.

walking around amsterdam has been so awesome - can't wait for tonight. i am doing the ultimate pub party crawl. free vodka shots between every stop so of course i had to sign up for that! i'm supposed to get up early tomorrow for a grand holland tour so i may have to restrain myself a bit. wish me luck! i suppose there's nothing to stop me from doing another pub party crawl, worse case scenario ;)

that's all for now - MWAH!

tiff

arrividerci italia - bonjour brussels!

2007-11-23T18:50:00.000-05:00

so italy was so fantastic. i stayed at fulvio's until this morning. we did a not so traditional thanksgiving dinner on thursday - we ate spaghetti carbonara and i made home made pumpkin pie. the pie was a little sketchy but it just needed to cool a bit before we ate it. so yummy! andrea and i went grocery shopping together in the morning for all the stuff we needed and it was fun. he was trying to make me buy milk from the shelf that wasn't refrigerated. totally gross! he is such a goof ball! we found a good netherlands book for me for my departure to amsterdam tomorrow. and of course, he got all excited when he saw mcdonalds but i told him no mcdonalds mangia!!!

i am so random - at 1am thursday morning i decided i wanted to go to brussels to see interpol since it was so close to amsterdam. it was killing me so i just shoved all my plans back by a day. it ended up being cheaper to fly to brussels anyway. however - a travel tip for those who may go abroad - the luggage limits are very different in europe vs. the states. so i had a bit of a panic having to unload a lot of my stuff/sending it back home from italy. oh well, now i know!

brussels is a bit bland (not too much going on) but the show was so utterly fantastic tonight. paul told us we were a "fucking great" crowd and they actually came out and did a 2nd encore (which they don't typically do at all!) it was so fantastic! it would have been perfect had they played specialist but i think i probably would have had a coronary from the sheer excitement i would have been experiencing.

harley was so nice tonight, too (not that he isn't always an amazingly kind person!) he let me hang out with him, lucas and tim in the sound/light board area. which was so nice because the place was huge and the view was absolutely brilliant from that spot. lucas was a nice little dude who does the lighting and i had met tim in vegas - he helps harley with sound.

i was a little nervous getting around belgium (even though there are very convenient trams all over). i think it's because i'm really terrible when it comes to speaking french. i get so intimidated because everytime i've been to france the frenchies are always kind of mean to me - regardless of whether i'm attempting french or speaking english. but there was the nicest lady who told me when my stop was and then i just followed the rest of the kids to the show. the belgian people have all be so nice, it's been great :)

ok so the totally scary thing - i was actually supposed to be on that antarctic cruise ship that is sinking!!!! i had initially signed up for the cruise that was out there now but they were going to charge me close to $3000 more to go in november vs. december. so i ended up changing the date to december. i still can't believe it! i was so relieved to hear that all the people got off the boat safely. however, even if the cruise does stay on for december, i'm a little scared to go. obviously they are working on getting things resolved with the existing passengers but they don't know what's going to happen with my cruise or all the 2008 scheduled antarctic cruise. i guess i'll just have to wait and see... a bit of a creepy sidenote - the 2 nights before that boat hit the iceberg i had these dreams that i was on the boat but that it had hit something and i was drowning. just floating down further and further in to the sea. and the whole time the song stella was a diver and she was always down by interpol was just on repeat in my dream. although i just kept floating down and drowning. it was almost like the whole dream was on repeat or something. really strange!

so that's about it for now. tomorrow i check in to my princess "residence" and i have a night tour of amsterdam in the red light district. it's going to be so cheeky, i can't wait!

MWAH!

tiff

florence back to milan

2007-11-20T17:10:00.001-05:00

our hotel in florence was fairly shady. it was near the train station and there were total freaks hanging out around it. also, the booking site said it was a 4 star hotel and it was no where near that. it was kind of gross. but we survived. plus it may have just been worse in our eyes after the princess hotel. it did have a rooftop swimming pool so that gave it some cool points. even though a whopping 47 degress doesn't exactly provoke a dip in the pool ;)

anyway, we did loads of shopping yesterday (sarah more so than i) and we went in to the coolest store called roberta with the nicest man. we were there for almost an hour trying everything on (gloves, scarves and purses). when we were done making our purchases he gave us scarves as gifts - it was really cool! we're such good shoppers! after that we went to quattro leoni (the four lions) per a suggestion from my friend molly. it was so fantastic! the food here is rarely disappointing.

sarah also did a wine tour on monday and said it was great as well. we did more shopping today to buy some additional luggage. sarah needed it because of all the shopping she did and i needed it because (i just found out) that a lot of airlines in europe only allow one carry on bag. oi! so we both bought these really nice leather rollie bags. they have shoe compartments in the bottom and are nice and roomy on the top. i so love it, i've wanted a bag just like it forever but they are so expensive back in the states. florence rules for leather goods!

we made it back to milano and i had to say ciao ciao to sarah - she headed to the airport since she had an early flight tomorrow back to the states so she can get home for thanksgiving. that realization threw me for a bit of a loop, i completely forgot! i asked fulvio if he would like to do a turkey dinner and he said that would be nice so we'll see what i can come up with. in the meantime - happy thanksgiving to everyone!

oh, i am going to miss black friday :( everyone do some extra shopping for me!

MWAH!

tiff

last day in venice - on to florence

2007-11-18T17:16:00.000-05:00

so we got kicked out of the not so splendid hotel - they were retarded and told us we could stay an extra day but didn't book it so they ended up being overbooked! total jerks.

however, we ended up in the biggest princess hotel ever! seriously!! sarah and i were dying. it's called hotel bauer palladio and it's across the water (a ten minute boat ride) from piazza san marco on a small island called giudecca. it used to be a convent and the property had been abandoned for 100 years until this hotelier found it and completely revamped and renovated it. it's absolutely ridiculous! we got upgraded to a junior suite and the thing was gargantuan. sarah and i were running around the room all excited like we were two. it even had a freaking door bell! it was so cozy and we so loved it. they were all about service - we wanted to watch a movie so they sent a bellman up with their movie collection for us to choose from in our room!

we had the best dinner at an adorable little place in dorsuduro (the jewish ghetto - that's seriously what it's called!) and the woman who was running things was a crack up. she kind of reminded me of laura palmer's mother in twin peaks. she was so crazy! dinner was delicious and actually affordable. we just needed to go to the ghetto to get it ;)

if you've never been to venice, you have to go. you will fall in love with it immediately, i promise. it's absolutely one of my favorite places to visit in the world. it's so picturesque and charming. the people are so alluring and affectionate. take a look!:

i'm always looking for salvation ;)

a canal in dorsuduro:

our crazy princess hotel room (this is about 1/3 of it)

near san marco:

the facade for the bauer palladio:

a cool church statue thingy near san marco:

piazza san marco and the duomo:

near the accademia bridge:

today we headed to florence - the weather was nasty, unfortunately. we stay here tomorrow as well and then head back to milan on tuesday. still trying to decide if we are going to do pisa on tuesday. i am staying in milan until friday (sarah heads home on wed) and then i'm off to amsterdam til the 28th. i get to stay in a princess hotel there, too. thank goodness for the starwood amex and my bazillion points! after that is london to see my boyfriend 2 last times :) YAY!

MWAH!

tiff

venezia!

2007-11-16T18:10:00.000-05:00

sarah and i got in to venice yesterday after suffering through a fairly tedious and long train ride here from milan. we took a water taxi to the hotel (it's called hotel splendid!) our room is actually pretty nice. even the toilet paper wrapping is replete with 4 stars on it ;) there is an airplane sized tv in the bathroom so i can watch larry king while showering. and it's pretty much the size of my cottage that i had in dc. how fabu is that? we have a nice corner room but it can get fairly loud through out the night as we are right in between piazza san marco and the rialto bridge. which also puts us in the high rent district. so for example, tonight we paid $50 for fucking spaghetti. clearly, i'm still a little bitter. how many cans of spaghetti-o's could i have purchased for $50 back home? i'm going to find out.

yesterday we did tons of shopping - i found a cute bat necklace with a scrappy diamond in it that now i'm not so sure i like. damn me and my impulse shopping! venice is certainly all about excess. sarah paid $200 for a pair of very cute shoes this morning. and she bought a matching frauda (fake prada) for $35 bucks to boot!

we did an ok cruise of the venetian islands - to murano, torcello and burano. murano and torcello were completely worthless but sarah and i are going back to burano tomorrow for more shopping. it was so cute - see the pics below:

on the rialto bridge close to sunset:

a cool facade while we were in the water taxi to the hotel:

the docks in murano:

from the docks in torcello:

the cute and colorful houses of burano:

the boys in venice have been cracking us up. our waiter at lunch asked us if we wanted to take him home with us to the states to which we replied with a robust and resounding yes! he was so adorable! and tonight when we walked in to the hotel with our gelatos (gelato is absolutely necessary, especially when it's 37 degrees outside) the front desk man said "oh thank you for my gelato" and took mine from me. then he asked how many kisses i wanted to trade for my gelato and i told him 500. he said "oh, 12 hours worth? all night long?" and sarah and i just about peed our pants. he insisted he was up to it but i was insistent on having my gelato back (it's really that good) perhaps tomorrow.... ;)

we actually decided on tuesday night in milan that all of the hot boys in the world have been shipped to italy. needless to say, we have not had even the slightest lack of eye candy or ogling opportunities! we may never leave if they boys keep all this flirting up! it's really quite marvelous :)

today i got a little fed up with my flat iron not working with my adapter this week so i decided to try to plug it in with the converter the hotel provided to us. the buttons were flashing and it started making a weird buzzing noise. unfortunately, there was an abbreviated version of my london hair dryer electrocution and i got zapped fairly seriously. i suppose the old adage that beauty is pain really is more than appropriate :( LAME!

we went to a really cute bar called bacarro tonight - i think we'll make a return appearance there tomorrow as well.

off to sleep... MWAH!

tiff

bergamo and mcdonalds loving andrea

2007-11-14T17:38:00.000-05:00

fulvio picked sarah and i up to take us to dinner in bergamo where milena works. we were going to meet her after we ate for drinks. fulvio brought his friend andrea and he was especially hilarious. and yes, he really, really does love mcdonalds. "mi piace mcbacon!" (i like mcbacon! he said repeatedly). he was wearing embroidered cowboy boots and a jean snap button up shirt. he totally ruled! he didn't know much english and i was fumbling through my italian. he was excited to hear we were from new york and texas. new york because he likes "the NBA - new york knicks" and texas because of cowboy-ish stuff i think. sarah told him she would send him a cowboy hat and i told him i would send him a bolero tie - a really ugly one ;) we were all cracking each other up by the end of dinner - which was so freaking unbelievable! i had veal or something with mushrooms and polenta - to die for! and the boys ordered some really good appetizers. it was probably the best meal i've had in years. i so love italy. i don't think i'm ever going to leave!

bergamo is such a beautiful city. tons of cobblestone streets and gorgeous views. after dinner we went for drinks at an irish pub and met milena and her friends from the language school. they were all really nice. here are some pics. note - sarah and i have been unable to do our hair due to unfortunate dissimilar voltage issues so we don't look all that fabu - bear with us:

the pretty duomo (church) at night:

milena, sarah and i at the irish pub:

fulvio and the donnas:

mcbacon and mclovin (i mean me):

tomorrow is venice!

baci! ciao ciao...

tiff

milano e mio ragazzo!

2007-11-13T17:20:00.000-05:00

so today i had major issues getting to my friend milena's house in carnate usmate (a suburb of milan) but it was all good. i think i was just having lack of mental capacity issues!

anyway, i got to meet up with milena and meet (actually re-acquaint myself with) her husband alberto. i had met alberto at a football match i had gone to with milena's brother fulvio 4 or 5 years ago. at the stadium, fulvio told me that he was going to yell run and that i needed to not ask questions or slack behind and to run really fast when he said to. we were not properly entering the fan section and it was a blast - football in italy is insane!

so then alberto, milena and i went and picked up my friend sarah at the airport. she is yet another interpol virgin that i was bound and determined to turn in to another fan :) we picked her up and then met fulvio at the venue. i ran in to harley (the sound guy) and he looked completely exhausted (poor little dude).

seeing blonde redhead a second time was good but again, still a bit irritated with the girl. maybe the more i listen the less tedious her voice will become.

milena told me that "my boyfriend" translates in to "mio ragazzo" or my boy in italian. so when paul came out on stage i screamed mio ragazzo and people laughed at me. it was fun :)

the milan show wasn't quite as good as the florence show - the crowd wasn't as hyped up. it was still a good show, though. i ended up in the middle with the rest of our group (i usually stand in back so i can see and not be claustrophobic) and i got way too hot and had to get away and breath for a few minutes. it was so gross and smelly :( but like i said, still a great show.

i'm still trying to decide if i want to go to the paris show or not. i'll probably end up staying a couple extra days in milan after sarah goes home and then head to amsterdam and then london after that for the shows at the end of the month.

MWAH!

tiff

florence and interpol

2007-11-12T16:49:00.000-05:00

so i flew in from athens to rome this morning and i have to say that european airlines are way cooler than american airlines. as we were getting ready to take off they handed out candy to everyone (and who doesn't love candy at 9 in the morning prior to take off?). they also still feed you (and it ends up being a lot of food) even if it's only a two hour flight! nice.

so i got in to rome and took the train to florence and got to my shady 45 euro hotel. it was ok and a 10-15 minute walk to the venue. my taxi drivers were hilarious and crazy and fun. one of the guys didn't know english and was talking to me only in italian. he asked where i was from and i told him new york and he got all excited and said that's where a lot of the mafia is now. he was whistling and driving around like crazy. he was like roberto benigni - at any second i was expecting him to break out in to a buon giorno principessa!

on to the show! i got to see blonde redhead for the first time and i love their music but i don't know if i like the girl's voice. there are some songs she sounds ok on and then others where she sounds really horrible. when the guy sings it's really fantastic.

ok, you all know i'm a total music freak so now i am going to go on and on about the show. it was one of the most amazing shows i've seen! i always say seeing a band in europe (italy and paris, for example) is one of the best things you can do if you are a mega fan of a particular group. for example, when i saw the cure in paris, florence and milan those four shows are still so embedded and present in my mind. i don't know what it is or how to explain it - maybe the people are just more passionate or open to being moved by the music? or maybe they are all just as crazy and as intoxicated with the experience as i am :)

the florence crowd was crazy - whistling and chanting - demanding that the band come on stage to play. the band totally fed off of it and it was this unreal sublime perfection. daniel was on fire and quite the little dancing machine - egging the crowd on every opportunity he had and strumming away on his guitar like there was no tomorrow. carlos was flying his base all over the stage and sam was just assaulting his drum kit - he's such a dynamic and amazing drummer. and then of course, paul and his voice are just stunning. there were so many times during the show that i got so consumed in it that i had to catch my breath. really, the magnetism and the energy was just insane. so needless to say, i had a fabu night!

on to milan and another interpol show tomorrow night!

MWAH!

tiff

delphi and arachova - greece day 3

2007-11-11T14:34:00.000-05:00

so i was a little leary of my day trip to delphi but it was actually quite amazing. in delphi are the ruins of the sanctuary/temple of apollo. it was all very interesting but kind of sad at the same time. so much of the ruins have been destroyed over the years due to earthquakes, town people using the marble from the site to build new homes because they didn't know it was an archaeological site, etc. which is actually an overall feeling i have about greece. rome seems to have so much more intact and is so beautiful overall while athens just seems to have a bunch of true ruins and is a big city. which has been a bit disappointing. and actually, i was speaking with 3 other people on the tour and they all mentioned the same thing. while it's nice to visit these sites, you basically see the same things over and over, just in different places. if you come to greece i wouldn't suggest spending that much time in athens - you'd probably be better off focusing your time on the islands. the day trip to delphi was interesting and beautiful but it cost nearly $150. so not so sure it was completely worth it. i'll let you take a look at the pictures and judge for yourself:

arachova - the cute mountainy/ski resort town before delphi (you can ski at mt. parnassas - i felt so at home!)

the apollo temple/sanctuary ruins

a cool sphinx that used to guard something:

the beautiful view from delphi to the corinthian and aegean seas:

i met a cool girl named may and a cute couple from singapore (i'm forgetting their names). may and i had dinner at her hotel at a place called meat me. cute. her hotel and the restaurant totally reminded me of the standard in l.a. so of course i loved it!

i am so excited to head to florence tomorrow! interpol interpol interpol! it's been nearly two weeks since i've seen them last ;) i think i may have reserved a shady hotel room (it's close the venue) so please send good juju my way. oi! MWAH!

day 2 - athens

2007-11-10T08:11:00.000-05:00

good night it is windy today! it actually sounds like cats hissing and screaming from inside the hotel! but my ventures out were awesome and athens has started to become magical to me :) i went to the national archaeological museum and it was unbelievable. so much to see and they close early on the weekends so i kind of had to rush through it a bit. here are just a few pics:

wall art from mycenea (sp?) i believe:

a siren (love those sassy sisters):

for erin - a sea goddess:

aphrodite, pan and eros:

i met a funny boy who worked at the museum cafe named eliah. we talked for a while and i got to say i am from new york for the first time. i know it sounds dorky but it was so exciting for me. the museum cafe is awesome, btw. they have these adorable nooks with white leather booth type seating. very modern, white and immaculate. the sandwich and cappucino were fantastic and it was really cheap.

i also saw this crazy open air market - they were slinging fish and meat everywhere. there were some pigs heads on a rope and the people were a little - um - saucy i suppose is a good word - with them. one of the pigs had a sausage coming out of it's mouth (i think i laughed out loud!) and the other was smoking a cigarette. everyone was yelling and it was pretty chaotic. but it was entertaining, to say the least!

i had to buy a camera bag and an alarm clock (given the wake up calls i'm getting aren't properly waking me up - i miss the westin and my many follow up wake up call requests!) the greek people have been very sweet - the guy in the camera store went above and beyond being helpful. he asked me where i was from and when i said new york he looked shocked. he told me i didn't have the ny accent and i just laughed and said i was raised on the west coast.

i'm going to wander over to plaka later for dinner and shopping if the wind dies down a bit.

MWAH!

tiff

the acropolis

2007-11-09T16:04:00.000-05:00

so today i staggered out of bed around 10 and got my lazy ass ready. i'm unfortunately still a bit jetlagged. i wanted to go to the acropolis and the national archaeological museum but the front desk guy at my hotel said they were in two opposite directions and that i should just focus on the acropolis today since the weather was so nice.

it was a nasty walk up (i had to stop several times as did everyone else) but the views were spectacular. you have a 360 view of athens. check out some pics:

after the acropolis, i went wandering around the streets of athens. there are so many flea markets/junky stores that i kind of felt overwhelmed with the fact that i am such a tourist here. most places i travel to i have a tendency to feel at home fairly quickly but i haven't felt that so much here. i think it's been challenging in that i didn't really plan or think about learning at least a few words in greek. i now have a complete understanding of the saying "it's all greek to me". i'm also a little irritated that i didn't think to look in to traveling to the islands. this time of year the hydrofoils apparently don't run (or they are really expensive). i think my whole throwing organization/planning out the window may have backfired on me a bit for this trip. but it's all good and i'm learning things about myself so i do have an appreciation for it - even though it sounds like i'm just whining a lot ;)

tomorrow i'm off to the archaeology museum.

MWAH!

tiff

greece

2007-11-08T16:02:00.001-05:00

so i'm here and i have to say i am a little perplexed. i think i was thinking it would be all cuteness - high cliffs with white washed houses overlooking the ocean. athens is just pretty much another european city. granted, i haven't really gotten out yet and it's still my first day. the plane left 3 hours late so we were stuck on it for nearly 12 hours. which just about killed me. but flying over the adriatic this morning and seeing how gorgeous everything was from above was wonderful.

so it took a while to get to the hotel and of course i didn't sleep on the plane so i napped and then went out on a night tour of athens. which was so tacky that i had to leave - i couldn't stand it! i was falling asleep on the tour part (i'm using the term "tour" lightly here) on the bus and then they took us to this totally lame hall where 5 million other tourists poured in. the musicians then played "greek style music" - this included songs such as bluberry hill, guantamera, etc. i'm not kidding, i so wish i was :( then 3 people got up there and started to sing and it just blew. over it!

so my first day here, not exactly what i thought it would be. but i'm off to the acropolis and the national archaeological musuem tomorrow and both of those should be amazing. i'm going to also see if i can get on a tour to mykonos or one of the islands on saturday. wish me luck. sunday is delphi - major archaeological site and home to tons of old cool stuff, apparently.

then i'm off to italy to see more of my boyfriend and interpol. i am so excited! plus, sarah is coming out to spend the week with me so i'm sure we'll have a blast.

MWAH!

tiff

dinner in dc - nyc

2007-11-08T15:56:00.000-05:00

was fantastic! it was so good catching up with everyone and of course it's always fabu going to lebanese taverna. the boys there treat me like such a princess. within 5 seconds of sitting down there was a cosmo placed in front of me. love them!

the drive up to ny was great - about a million dollars in tolls but the drive went fast. hanging with erin was great. and travel channel academy ruled. i got to meet a lot of really great people. i did a nice piece on 9th street espresso down in east village. i'll post it here at some point and you can tell me what you think! i had initially pitched a piece for masterbakers (they do erotic cakes) but the place actually turned me down. total bummer!

i am getting more and more excited about moving to nyc once i'm done with my grand adventure. there is just so much to love about it.

also had a super fun din din with the gays - jake, charlie and the newly acquainted with me michael. a night out with charlie always includes a boobie dive (charlie thinks my boobs are the best!). it was so much fun - the night ended up with jake falling asleep during desperate housewives (yes, it really was that tedious). i stayed an extra day in ny so i could finish up some last minute stuff before leaving for athens!!!

Guest Post from Jessica

2007-10-30T06:18:00.000-04:00

As you know Tiff and I had a most awesome adventure together!

A few of the highlights (for a recap)… But first an admission… I had NEVER HEARD INTERPOL before our road trip.

Boise- Tiff and I share our first of several McDonalds meals. Yummmm… blah! We enjoyed the hospitality of her good friend Christen… Thanks Christen. We braved booming downtown Boise on a Tuesday evening to see Interpol… My first time seeing them & my first time hearing them! The music was great! THANKS TIFF! We made many friends that night. Of note: Harley, the sound guy for the band. And with that the ball was set in motion. *Note: Harley will be a recurring character in this blog. Off to Washington the next morning… the speeding ticket was mine. The onions all over the highway were a secondary hazard from ID-WA only to be topped by my WA wine tour about half way to Seattle... I needed a driving break!

Washington- So much love to Tiff for missing the Interpol show! I am sorry but the wind was huffing and puffing and I was afraid it might blow my house down, or the bridges off their moorings… instead it just took out a large tree in my yard. Again, thanks Tiff for playing it safe with me! We did some arctic weather shopping. Aaah, shopping, always a feel good! Dinners at home and some down time… Thanks for hanging with my family! Noodle loves you! Off to Portland…

Portland/ Eugene- Great dinner, SUSHI, great company… a silly boy we met at dinner… great Interpol show (we did not pay for parking or the show)…A shout-down to Harley… and off we went. TO EUGENE… well, since returning home I have had to people warm me about the backwards civilization that is Eugene… oops! Yeah to the Courtyard, Yuck to the IHOP, Triple Yuck to the IHOP bathroom! Off to Reno…

Reno- The drive to Reno was so beautiful. If anyone is looking for a road trip… Portland to Reno is a spectacular choice… in the fall. Beautiful scenery and cute towns… some with some humorous character (as previously mentioned in Tiff’s blog)… the best! Reno for sleep and off to Vegas… the drive was so silly! We stopped for coffee, nail polish (yes, nail polish), and native crafts, SHOES, McDonalds, Gas, WATER, candy, brothels and lots of potty breaks! Tiff even tried to invent a new game called “block the drivers vision” J We definitely stretched out our time on the “LONLIEST HIGHWAY IN AMERICA” we were even warned on our first stop out of Reno… “Hope you have good music and good company.” Tiff, we were CHAMPS! We make a lonely highway proud!

Vegas- ALWAYS THE BEST FOR LAST! The Hard Rock… Rocks! Made some money, lost some money. Tiff & I became blackjack junkies! We met some odd folk and hot folk. A special note or recognition to the three hot ladies from AZ! We stayed up late and slept in… found the mall (obviously)! The Interpol show was a hit… Harley and I became phone buddies. We had drinks with the band and well you know the rest… Tiff hung out with her boyfriend Paul, the lead singer of Interpol… See her postings for photos!

In the end exhaustion and alcohol set in and our time together was up… never enough time for two hot chicks on a road trip… Thanks Tiff for the fun! VIVA LAS VEGAS!

*A special thanks to Kelly (even my husband thinks you are fabu!)

Many fun adventures,

Jessica K.

jimmy kimmel, joe sorren and shag!

2007-10-29T02:23:00.000-04:00

so interpol on jimmy kimmel was kind of strange - there were issues with the sound but i think it made things kind of extra funny. it was a free show for goodness sake! here is one of the songs, no i in threesome. i love it! yes, i am determined to make you all love them, too! ;)

joe's preview dinner on friday was awesome! his work really is so unbelievably gorgeous. he's a really amazing artist. check out his work in person at bsfa if you can or online at: http://www.billyshirefinearts.com/current.html. i got to catch up with many of my favorite kids so that was great. i was seated next to two awesome couples - one was "oil field trash" as they put it from houston moving to dc and the other were totally rock and roll. i may go see one of chris' shows with his band out in europe and his wife was a music journalist. how cool is that?!?!?

plus carrie fisher (yes, freaking princess leia), patricia arquette and the farrelly brothers were there. it doesn't get much cooler than that :)

the shag opening in laguna on saturday was fun and josh was so sweet (as always). he asked if i had quarters so i could play the totally cute disney arcade-esque machines that told you what your vice was (mine was shopping, duh!) and where i would be in a year. it said on the street. i wasn't that happy with that answer and josh said "yeah, on the street in your bentley!" which works out well with the other result i got from his wheel of fortune - that being fortune!!! his new pieces are really cute - nudes! you can check out his work at http://www.shag.com/.

i leave for dc tomorrow - hope to see lots of you kids there at din din at lebanese taverna!

MWAH!

tiff

I want to live in los angeles... Not the one in los angeles...

2007-10-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

so i'm so happy to be back in l.a. i'm staying with annie and really enjoying it. i went to the interpol show on monday night and it was really great. they played one of my favorite songs in the encore and harley gave me a copy of the set list. SWEET!

yesterday we headed down to the oc for some down home eats at memphis. i love that place. it was so good and a lot of fun.

tonight i am going to see interpol for the last time stateside at jimmy kimmel live. i can't wait!

tomorrow will be awesome - i'll be attending a preview dinner for the joe sorren show at annie's gallery, billy shire fine arts. from what i hear the dinner guests will be varied and interesting!

saturday i am heading to the shag opening in laguna. i picked a good time to be out here art wise!

more about that stuff as it happens :)

btw, my friend jason back in dc has a really fun blog called inside the district. he's always running around like a crazy person doing fun stuff. check it out: http://insidethedistrict.blogspot.com/.

mucho besos! :*

tiff

vegas baby yeah!

2007-10-25T15:22:00.000-04:00

ok, so jess and i checked in and as i mentioned before, we saw the interpol guitarist daniel coming off the elevator as we were getting on. very exciting!

we headed up to the room and got ready. we grabbed a bite to eat at mr. luckys. this is where we met the jackass who asked us if we were prostitutes. lovely! and he seriously wouldn't let it go. he didn't believe us.

we ditched him and grabbed a drink at the bar and then decided we would try playng black jack. neither of us gamble so we were totally green. we had the best little black jack dealer ever - his name was drew. he made us a lot of money! then we had crappy dealers after that and i ended up down about $150. so we headed back up to the room around 4:30 and went to sleep.

we woke up the next day and had lunch around 2ish. we had the best seats in the house for people viewing. all of the sudden, daniel walked by and i told jessica her boyfriend was coming up behind her. then about 20 minutes later paul walked by. i couldn't talk for a bit because i was too excited.

then we went shopping at nords and got our makeup done at mac. it was a lot of fun. a girl who worked there was going to the show and the l.a. show. the girl who was doing my makeup loved them, too. it was so awesome and we had so much fun.

jess and i headed back and finished getting ready. lolita was coming up from tucson to go to the show with us. we had dinner with her, her sister victoria and her friend adrianna at the pink taco ;)

we then were on to the show and it was fantastic! they played the lighthouse from the new album for the first time and it was really amazing!

after the show we met with harley, the sound guy, for drinks. we gabbed and drank for a while. then daniel came up to talk with harley and harley introduced us to him. he was really nice and he chatted with us for a while. then a few of the other sound boys came over and we all hung our for a little bit longer. it was a lot of fun and the guys were hilarious. one of them was named bob and he was really enjoying messing with me in my intoxicated state. it was a blast!

so they took off and i figured the band was gone. so jess and i played black jack and were chatting everyone up. jess took off for a second and i heard her chatting someone else up. i turned around to see who she was talking to and it was paul! he sat down next to me and we did intros. it was so awesome! he was really nice. as he was leaving i told him i was a huge fan and asked if he wouldn't mind taking a picture with me. he really was very gracious. after they left i totally flipped out and jess giggled. she totally hooked that shit up!!! i was soooooo happy! see the pic of us under oh my good god this is serious ;)

we went to bed around 6:30. which was hideous cause we had to get up 4 hours later to get ready. jess was heading back to seattle and i was driving on to l.a.

driving to l.a. was hard cause i totally missed jess. and, i got pulled over. seriously. and yes, it was for speeding. AGAIN! the cop asked me why i was speeding and the only thing i could think of to say was "i've got to get to l.a.". he told me he clocked me at 19 over (yes, the magic 89 mph). i told him i didn't think that was right and needless to say the cop was not all that happy with me. what can i say, i was hungover, mucho tired and just wanted to get out of the car. plus it happened two miles to the cali border. i was almost home free! jess and i decided this is a good luck omen since we had such a blast after we got the ticket last time.

on to l.a.!!!! :)

reno to vegas

2007-10-25T14:37:00.000-04:00

the drive from reno to vegas was by far the most boring visually. but the most fun for us. there is some really hilarious stuff going on highway 89 in nevada. we decided it's the highway for ho's to go go. i don't think i can recall just how many brothels we drove by. favorite names included the shady lady, playmate ranch, cottontail brothel. i love how completely guileless they are about it.

there was a town (um, i guess that's what you could call it) called shurz and as we were leaving this is what we saw:

a literal shoe tree! to understand why this was so funny to us i can provide some background. my friend jared turned me on to kelly and she likes to sing about shoes. please see the video below - jessica and i would watch it when we woke up and right before we went to bed:

oh my god, shoes!

jess and i realized we hadn't taken many pics of us so i decided i would take one of us in the car. i decided to completely block jess's view and the following pic was the result:

i slightly scared the crap out of her as i was completely blocking her view of the road. i think it's funny :)

other fun notes - we saw signs for bull crossing, burro crossing and get this - lobster crossing. i'm not kidding. in the middle of the freaking desert.

we also had stopping issues that day. jess would declare no more stops and then 20 minutes later say she needed to stop. we shopped at wallgreens for an hour because that was absolutely necessary. i think it maybe should have taken us 5-6 hours to get there and it took us 8-9 hours. but when we finally pulled in to the hard rock hotel parking lot we knew that the rock stars were coming out to play!!! ;)

oregon through cali to reno

2007-10-25T14:05:00.000-04:00

so we were at ihop getting our breakfast/lunch on and i was waiting to use the smelly bathroom as one of the stalls was broken. jess busts in and within 2 seconds yells "fuck this! absolutely not!" while pulling me out of the bathroom. i think i was in food coma or i wouldn't have turned right back around myself!

we passed the 45th parallel for the 2nd time as well! the drive from eugene to reno was beyond gorgeous. words can't even really describe as you'll see from the pics below.

one of our stops was in sunny valley, or. jess needed a potty break so we pulled over and the place was so random. there was a really cool bridge thingy like in beetlejuice and the sign above it said death creek. i'm not kidding. we saw this cute little punk boy walking around and we wanted to get out to take pics (i used my holga - i'll post those pics later). we were talking with him and as i was off shooting jess asked him what it was like there. was it weird? he replied "yeah - deliverance weird". that was our queue to move on.

we passed by mount shasta (snow capped montain above) and the area was just so gorgeous! there was an awesome dragon sculpture around there, too:

courtesy of the furious spinner - we were to slow on the draw to take the pic!

we stopped in a little town called mccloud that was just adorable. it was kind of like a totally cute mountain resort that had been invaded by beverly hills socialites. so that was a little annoying, but it was so cute. i took this pic there, it made me laugh:

we then made it to a small town called susanville for dinner. jess and i thought it was a bit chilly. i checked the weather and it was 32 degrees! i was wearing my flip flops, too. clearly, i was having issues thinking i was still in arizona! we had dinner at a place called mazatlan cafe and it was pretty decent. not too long after that we rolled in to reno!

portland

2007-10-25T13:57:00.000-04:00

so around portland-ish jess and i decided we needed to be hired by the travel channel to do a road warrior show. we completely amused ourselves so we wondered why everyone else wouldn't be as equally entertained. we'll see what happens next week! ;)

so the drive down to portland was gorgeous. we arrived a couple hours before the show and drove around the city a bit. we so loved it! i really want to go back and hang out for a while. the place is adorable!

we grabbed dinner at sushi-land (i so love conveyer belt sushi places!!) and met a boy named dan. he was funny and within 2 seconds of meeting us told us he was gay. he said he was a filmmaker and that he knew interpol and had interviewed them for a doc he was working on. he wasn't going to the show but we hung out and enjoyed his company for dinner.

we then headed to the show. we didn't have tickets because we wanted to try to get gen admission on the floor. a portland trailblazer game had just gotten out at the some complex and somehow we were able to score free parking! then, we walked up the back way to the venue and a door was open. jessica, being the confident miss thing she is just walked right in. i had internal panic and paused. she turned around and yelled and me so i followed. hence, the nickname puppy was born for me. i just followed jessica in like a little puppy dog ;) we so got away with it, too!

and i don't feel all that bad about it because after the set the guys were taking a long time to come out. about 6 minutes later paul and sam came out and said that one of the guys was fucked up and that they were sorry but they couldn't so the encore. it was a little disappointing, clearly.

so we left and drove a couple hours south to eugene, or so our drive wouldn't be so hideous the following day. on to reno!

catch up - seattle, portland, vegas and l.a.

2007-10-25T13:47:00.000-04:00

kids -

i have been running around like a crazy girl for the past week and a half and now i am finally able to take a few minutes to get caught up.

jessica and i had such an amazing and fun trip. it went so fast and it was so great. i'll post blogs for each stop so i don't have 1 monster blog for it all.

also, jess will be guest writing about her experience as well. i thought that would be fun!

first post - seattle. we got to pass where twin peaks and northern exposure were filmed. it really is so beautiful up there. jess lives in issaquah which is about 45 minutes outside of seattle proper.

we enjoyed being lazy and hanging out. we had to go to staples to fax some stuff (there was a really nasty storm and jess's fax was broken) and we were greeted by a riley rooster who needed to make everyone well aware it was 2:45 pm. so he was running around the parking lot cock a doodle dooing away. it was so completely random and funny. at first we couldn't see him and then he came around the corner and just started tearing it up. it was awesome!

due to the storm we figured it was better to be safe than sorry so we didn't hit the interpol show that night. they close down bridges if the winds get too high. which was fine. we had dinner with jessica's mom - wendy and sister - talia. it was so great to catch up with all of them.

jess and i got up the next day with excitement for portland. on our way down the chocolate craze began. we stopped at a co-op and pretty much bought them out of any chocolate they had. we bought so much "travel food" that it was ludicrous. in fact, i still have 2/3rds of what we bought here with me in l.a.

next stop portland!

oh my good god this is serious!

2007-10-23T08:45:00.000-04:00

look who i hung out with! my boyfriend!!!

omg there is mucho bueno dish. including jess and i meeting daniel as well. i can die a happy woman! paul played blackjack with us for 15-20 minutes. so unfreakingly believably nice. i so heart him.

more to come in the morning. if i'm not still running around like a chicken with my head cut off. tonight was the best night EVER!

plus look how cute jess and i are:

MWAH!

tiff and jess

more sightings

2007-10-22T21:47:00.000-04:00

k so i finally saw my boyfriend and i couldn't talk for about 15 minutes after. he was so cute.

plus we saw daniel again. he looked like the male version of nichole richie. which isn't all that bad. he was carrying a patent leather man satchel. a-dor-able! in a black suit with a pashy scarf with tassels and everything. and of course, huge sunglasses and white tennies/keds.

we love him.

smoochies,

tiff and jess

way more to come - we're too busy being hot and playing blackjack. now i understand why people love vegas!!!

prostitution

2007-10-22T07:42:00.000-04:00

is what we were asked was our profession. and we looked so hot, it's no wonder.

we were so hot the boys didn't believe us.

then his stupid friend asked us if we had pot.

whores. (them, not us)

love tiff and jess (jess is vegas winner - i got us complimentary breakfast!)

we're smelly like cigarettes. guess why? ;)

fucker!

2007-10-22T07:39:00.001-04:00

i am $120 down and no further interpol sightings. perhaps tomorrow (i mean) tonight.

totally drunk. time for beds.

MWAH!

puppy and snoo

oh my god!

2007-10-22T00:13:00.000-04:00

we just checked in to the hard rock and passed daniel, the interpol guitarist, on our way up to the room.

much more to come kids! we had quite the uproarious drive today. and yesterday. and the day before, too.

we rock,

love tiff and jess

ps, please don't judge us by the size of our candy drawer! it's WAY bigger than yours!

slc punk, my own private idaho and the home of starbucks!

2007-10-18T00:36:00.000-04:00

so slc ended up being fun. i got to catch up with a lot of peeps that i haven't seen for a long time.

aaron and i went up to park city and it was a blast! we got to do the alpine coaster. it's this thing where you get pulled up to the top of the mountain in a cart and then you go roaring down the mountain really fast. aaron made fun of me because i was screaming all the way down - it was so much fun! :) and park city is so adorable. attached are some pics:

park city mountain resort

going up the coaster with aaron up ahead:

a view from the top back down :)

i did also get to finally see interpol on monday in slc. the venue sucked and the sound wasn't absolutely fabu but it was a lot of fun, anyway. i was so excited to see my boyfriend that a bomb could have gone off in the building and i wouldn't have cared/noticed i'm sure.

i headed up to idaho on tuesday and suffered another fairly horrific/god awful boring drive to boise. there were so many mav's (mormon assault vehicles) on the road. they are generally driven by a mother or father who is spending 75% of their time yelling at 4-6 children in the back seat, not bothering to pay attention to the road. beyond annoying.

i finally got to boise and was able to catch up with old friends kristen and josh. later on i picked the lovely jessica up from the airport and we went for some fine dining at the mcdonalds that also doubled as a chevron. 5 star eats! one of the windows was busted and we figured someone got mad and threw their big mac back at an unruly drive thru attendant.

jessica and i got ready and then headed back in to town to see interpol again. it was such an amazing show! the sound was brilliant and the set was mixed up so it was so fabu! and jessica, being the friendly little friend maker that she is started chatting it up with the owner of the club and also the sound guy for the band. she is determined to have me meet the band and i have no issues with that ;)

after the show we stopped back by the car and met the coolest people in the parking garage. yes, i am being serious! i swear, i'm freaking 20 again. the other week i was playing drinking games til 2 in the morning and eating chicken tenders with sriacha sauce for every meal. i so love not having any responsibilities right now! that is, of course, other than being the best ever fabu interpol groupie!

anyway, the kids we met rocked and the guy was in a band and he gave us his cd. they referred us to a dive bar and unfortunately it was dead. as was the majority of boise (granted, it was a tuesday night). we stopped at a place called the red room and it was so cute. the music was beyond hilarious... "sipping gin and juice... laid back...", "jump around... jump around". we got bored and left and headed back to kristen's.

we got up early this morning and headed out to seattle. we got pulled over (i'll give you 1 guess as to what for) ;), then we got starbucks, narrowly escaped a barrage of flying suicidal onions fleeing from the back of a truck and stopped for wine tasting. we are sooooo looking forward to seeing our boyfriends (jessica decided daniel is her boyfriend) tomorrow night. plus, there's some serious shopping to be done. this is the home of nordies after all.

MWAH!

tiff

crazy day

2007-10-12T02:08:00.000-04:00

lovies -

ok so i drove to vegas from phoenix yesterday and i got to see a bunch of joshua trees, lake mead and the hoover dam. which was pretty groovy. i checked in to the monte carlo in vegas and i now know why it was so cheap - there is so much construction going on down there around the hotel! i was a little beat so i didn't get around to much and i had to wake up early this morning... fyi, don't bother with diablo's at monte carlo - it looks cool but it sucks!

i am officially back in utard - home to the mo's (no they don't have horns), family home evening and being sponsored or becoming a member of a club so you can get yourself properly sloshed. oi vey! good thing this is just a abbreviaterd sojourn ;)

which leads to the crazy day. so i start driving from vegas to the salt slums (estimated drive time 5 hours - actual 7 1/2 hours) and of course i start out all exasperated because there were a ton of really annoying slow people blocking the freeway. i have a tendency to have a bit of a heavy foot and not so much patience when it comes to driving long distances slowly.

it's a bit funny how fate/life likes to play little tricks on me and make me slow down (quite literally). for example, when i hurt my foot in may i physically had to slow myself down. and like today - i'll admit i was driving fast-ish (90mph) and in the middle of nowhere (literally, i'm not kidding - look up kanosh, ut on mapquest - that was the closest "town") when my rear passenger tire blew. it was fairly terrifying. the person behind me totally freaked (as did i) but i was able to make it to the shoulder ok. by some random stroke of luck i actually had cell service (even though throughout the majority of the drive i didn't). i then had the most marvelous conversation with hertz: "hi, my tire blew out and i tried but i don't know how to change a tire. could you send help?" response: "where are you?" my response: "um, i don't know - in the middle of utah somewhere on I-15 going north? do you need me to be more specific?"

i think he may have laughed. i remembered a ranch exit but i couldn't remember how far away it was. i told the guy on the phone i would start walking to find a mile marker. just as i said that the nicest boy stopped and pulled over. my knight in a jeep. this kind of thing would only happen in utah! anyway - he fixed the tire and i was back on my way. but oh so slowly. i had 169 miles to salt lake and i was told to just bring the car back to the airport and that i shouldn't drive faster than 50 mph. FOR THE LOVE! GOOD FREAKING NIGHT :( can i just tell you how painful the drive was? of course, all of the people i had been cursing out for going too slow/passing earlier in the drive were just zooming past me all la dee da like. i got really bored - which lead to tiredness - which lead to me rolling down the windows and singing britney spears and madonna very loudly to the cows and horses along the way (i think they liked it). seriously, central utah is a complete wasteland of mega nothingness. i then started freaking out thinking i was hearing or smelling something else wrong with the car. all alone with my thoughts. thoughts provoked by frighteningly mindless britney lyrics. i'll leave it at that.

song of the day: hung up by madonna. "time goes by sooooooooooo slowly". it didn't help passing speed limit signs that said 75 mph speed limit every 5 seconds or the miles left signs that appeared every few miles. 139 miles to slc. 135 miles to slc. you are never going to get to slc because your anxious ass was trying to get there too fast. by the way, it's still 133 miles to slc. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

so i finally did get to slc and we ate at la poo poo (la puente - the best mexican food ever!) so i'm feeling much better.

bueno moments of the day: la puente and i got the eyebrows waxed and they look GOOD! they were uncouthly vulgar (to say the very least!)

FABU NEWS:

i am so excited - i am officially registered for the travel channel academy in nyc 11/1-11/4. they teach digital filmmaking and editing and what they look for stylistically. i have to create a piece while there so i'll post it here when it's done. i'm sure it's going to rule! ;) then, while i am traveling, i can send in segments and if they like them they will pay me for it. keep your fingers crossed that i can just do that forever moving forward!

also - i have planned an antarctica cruise for the end of the year. the baby penguins will be hatching - it should be awesome! here is a link if you want to check it out: http://www.gapadventures.com/tour/XFSSS

anyone up for europe in nov/beg of dec?

one last thing COUNTDOWN! - only 4 days til i see my boyfriend in the first of 5 shows (for those of you who thought the lead singer of interpol was really my boyfriend - he's not. he's just my pretend boyfriend. but lolita and jessica are going to see if we can do something about that ;) )

nighty! MWAH!

tiff

birthday frivolity

2007-10-10T18:00:00.000-04:00

jared and claudia:

beautiful cloud:

don and heather:

joe and tiff:

yogi joe:

drunk ass:

don is the best/coolest acupuncturist ever, btw! (i forgot to mention that below) ;)

challenge activities

2007-10-10T16:12:00.000-04:00

quantum leap 2 - standing up on top

ql2 with jeanie

chris - the fabu challenge dude

climbing up for out on a limb

me getting ready to fall off :)

windy point, mt. lemmon rock climbing

2007-10-10T02:32:00.000-04:00

at the summit:

climbing up the rock:

john and i getting ready to climb:

almost to the top!:

2007-10-10T01:18:00.000-04:00

ok so maybe i should provide a little more background on the video below. it was an activity at miraval called swing and a prayer and i like to call it scream and a prayer (or for the love of god are you serious?). it was by far the scariest challenge activity for me (clearly). there are no physical aspects to it. you get hoisted up about 35 feet and then you let go of the rope when you are ready. i did it one other time prior to the video taped one and i so hated it. so of course, i had to try it again! ;)

so i guess i'll take the time to bring everyone up to date on my miraval adventure. spending a month there was the best thing i could have possibly done. i am so happy and loved every minute of it. i got to do all kinds of cool challenge activities (i'll be posting photos of those soon). quantum leap was climbing up a 25 foot telephone pole and then getting yourself on top of it and balancing yourself on a piece of wood about the size of a dinner plate. then there is quantum leap 2 - climbing up a 35 foot telephone pole and balancing yourself on a 3 foot by 1 foot platform and then helping another person get up on it with you. i already mentioned swing and a prayer and the last one was out on a limb. that you climb up another 35 foot pole and then walk across a log to the other side and then half way back. you get to jump off all of these things when your done and then get lowered to the ground. they were all completely amazing and fun. thank goodness for chris, the challenge dude. he made all the experiences brilliant. he knows when and exactly what buttons to push if you start to pansy out. he rules!

and then of course there was the fabu yoga. i got to push myself a bit and learned (rather tried and busted my ass on) some new poses (warrior 3 is my new fave). all of the yogis were fabu teachers and i had such a great time doing yoga almost every day. i so loved restorative yoga with mary grace and dream yoga with joe. lazy yoga rules! oh and womanly yoga with natasha ruled, too!

and then of course there were the spa treatments which were all divine. i got the ever fabu jared many times as well as peter and david for massages. the lovely miss lolita did the most amazing reiki treatments on me. and my fave new treatments were the seaweed detox wrap and the aqua latte bath. highlights were getting all the gossip and hearing funny stories from the kids while laughing my keester off. they all totally rule and i miss them mucho!

i also tried the climbing wall and got to climb on top of it with john (he's fabu as well!) and then we went out to windy point on mt. lemmon one of the days and i got to climb up a 60 foot rock. when it came to rappelling i was a big baby and john had to rappel down with me. such a sweet little dude, i bashed the crap out of him!

i did have a ton of epiphanies and became aware of many personal truths and all that but i'm not going to bore anyone with those details at this point :)

we are going to be planning a return visit in june for anyone who is interested. i think we'll be getting a really big crowd to go so it should be a lot of fun!

i stayed an extra week in tucson and it was a blast. i got to go to dinner and lunch at ra quite a few times (an amazing sushi restaurant that rules!). bunny and i went shopping down 4th street and i got the coolest black cowboy boots with white stars on them. we had a hilarious drinking game night (someone lost their cookies on the couch - gross!). i went to the sonoran desert museum and that was awesome. for my b-day we went to poca cosa and i got a little too wasted on their fabu cosmos. so much so that i locked my purse (with keys inside) in the trunk of my rental car. we then went to the gay bar and the goth bar and it was a lot of fun. i continued to drink and get even more drunk. i remember trying to recite plant names that jared (mega botany nerd boy) kept saying but it was a little pathetic.

i am now in phoenix at my cousins house and i'll be leaving for vegas tomorrow and the salt lake after that.

so that's that. it may have sounded a little boring but i'll space it out from now on and try to make it a little more sassy and fun.

hope everyone is well. love and miss you, MWAH!

tiff n sniff

scream and a prayer

2007-10-10T01:07:00.001-04:00

the beginning of my blog!

2007-09-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

so this is my first blog entry - how exciting! i'm going to just post a recent email i sent to friends and family and then my blogging won't be so much of a catching up practive moving forward! :)

so there is a lot to catch up on so i'll jump right in to it. sept 18th was my last day at e*trade (that's a big one!) i'm really happy about this as you'll see for reasons detailed below :)

i have been at miraval in tucson, az since 9/2 and i am having the best time ever. my experiences have been super amazing and i am going to start documenting them appropriately via a blog that you can all feel free to start checking out. i am getting a mac book in the next few days and will begin to start writing/uploading photos and video soon. the url is http://glittergirltiff.blogspot.com/

i was recently mentioned in an article about yoga and miraval - if you haven't already seen it here is a url for that: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/09/13/yoga.vacations.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch

also, the biggie! i have decided to take the next 6 months off to travel! the next month will be really fun as i will be following one of my favorite bands around out west, interpol. this is what the schedule is shaping up to be like so far so if you are in or around one of the following cities i would love to catch up! kind of a fun side note, i am in some pics from the interpol show at the borgata in atlantic city back in august (i was in the front row drooling over my "boyfriend", the lead singer, very dilligently as you can see!) if you'd like to check them out here is the url (my hair is up at the beginning of the slide show and down near the end): http://www.flickr.com/photos/havenofear_nunzinatorhere/sets/72157600962369742/show/

oct 2-7 tucson, az
oct 7-10 tucson to phoenix, az
oct 10-11 phoenix to vegas baby!
oct 11-15 vegas to salt lake city, ut
oct 16-17 slc to boise, id
oct 17-18 boise to seattle, wa (road tripping with the fabu jessica!)
oct 19-21 driving from seattle to vegas (road tripping with the fabu jessica! various stops tbd)
oct 21-23 vegas again! (road tripping with the fabu jessica!)
oct 23 - 31 vegas to so cal

after so cal i will be flying to nor cal (est 11/1-11/4) then on to dallas (est 11/4-11/7) and then to nyc (est 11/7-11/12). then the real travelling starts and i head out to italy on 11/12. all i know after that is that i should also be in london around the end of november. i am hoping to visit dubai, lebanon, africa, bali, greece, austrailia, japan, antarctica, etc (you get the point!) the more my schedule pans out i will get in touch with those outside of the country as well.

that's about it for now. hope this email finds everyone well. miss you and hope to see you soon!

MWAH!

tiff