I’ll start off by saying that I did not get in this week. Very depressing, considering I spent 18 hours on the street waiting for ticket number 3 for the live show. I would have been safe, had it not been for the wave of celebs (mostly “stars” of “The Office” and several other B-listers such as Alexis Bledel, Michelle Trachtenberg, and GLEE’s Dianna Agron) who arrived around 11:20, with some jumping in the elevators as late as 11:29. Keep in mind that the show starts at 11:30. So these unimportant celebrities can show up while the show is starting and are allowed to go up, and the 30 of us stand-by ticket holders who waited as long as 21 hours in line who were being held in a roped-off section of the elevator bay like so many cattle had to watch painfully as those long hours out in the cold were washed down the drain.

We got to 30 Rock at about 1 p.m. Friday and were numbers 6-8 in line. 1 and 2 were this sweet old couple visiting from Kentucky who ended up getting in to the live show. At about 2, I walked up to the Bed, Bath & Beyond just north of Trump Tower to get another blanket so that the down comforter I’d brought off my bed wouldn’t go directly on the sidewalk. It was a nice walk. I went back through Central Park and thoroughly enjoyed all the fall colors. I ended up with a hot pink fleece blanket that is very cute and very soft.

We had a pretty good time in the line. I got a pretzel sticks and a pretzel dog from Auntie Anne’s. It was the first time I’d had Auntie Anne’s since July or August and it was delicious. Then I splurged on a Tall White Mocha and that was delicious as well. Apparently Lorne Michaels came out around 9 p.m. and I missed him. Bobby Moynihan came out much later and stood and talked with us for 5-10 minutes. Very nice guy. I got a picture with him. But those were pretty much the highlights of the night. It was pretty uneventful. I read a lot and actually got a bit of homework done. We didn’t spend as much time this week up walking around.

When it came time to decide between the dress rehearsal and the live show, we were planning on playing it safe and going for the dress, but we thought “Hey, Dave Matthews Band has been on SNL several times and hardly anyone knows who Joseph Gordon-Levitt is, so we’re probably safe going for the live show.” So, stupidly, we got the white tickets for the live show instead of the blue ones for the dress. Mistake.

We got back to 30 Rock at about 10:30. Right as we got there, Will Ferrell and his wife and kids, and Jack Nicholson and his two lady friend were headed upstairs. At about 11:00, we saw Chevy Chase standing around and talking before heading up. That was the best part of the whole weekend, seeing Chevy Chase. They corralled us through security and into the holding pen and we stood there for around 30 minutes, dripping sweat and feeling more discouraged with every second. We all cheered for the Kentucky couple when they got to go up, sighed with indignation and gave dirty looks when celebrities went up, and groaned with disappointment when we were told to leave.

All in all, not a very successful weekend. There’s no show this coming weekend so it’ll be nice to have a week off. Until next time…

Week 2 of SNL was definitely a success. It was supposed to rain all day and night Friday, so we tried to prepare. All day Friday, however, it didn’t rain so we thought we’d lucked out. We got to 30 Rock at about 4 p.m. (2 hours earlier than the week before) in anticipation of a big crowd lined up to see January Jones and Black Eyed Peas. So, imagine our surprise when we got there and saw only one person sitting out waiting! We were so stoked! Figuring the threat of rain had deterred some less-dedicated fans, we couldn’t believe our luck. And it wasn’t even raining! Not until after we’d gotten all our stuff set up, anyway. Then, as if the rain had been waiting just for us, a light sprinkle began that continued pretty consistently All. Night. Long. For a while, we were the only people in line. Around 5 we were joined by a visiting Texan who is a comedienne and had been waiting her whole life to see the show. People didn’t really start showing up until around midnight, then there was another wave, like usual, around 6:30 a.m.

The first week, I had come unprepared for the bitter cold that forced some people out of line. This week, having had the experience of sleeping on the sidewalk and anticipating the rain, I was much better prepared, or so I thought. I had a blanket to sit/lay on, plus another to cover up with if I decided to try to sleep; the cheap novelty pillow I’d bought out of necessity the previous week and one off my bed; and a poncho and an umbrella. All of this I crammed (along with several books to read, snacks and drinks, a notebook, pens, playing cards, and a coloring book and crayons) into a duffel bag, which I had planned on sleeping on. I would have liked to be able to sleep. It’s kind of hard when the blanket you want to lay on, your pillow, and your body are all soaked through with rain. At several points during the night, I walked to the nearby McDonald’s and used the hand dryer in the bathroom to dry some of my clothes and my shoes. It was terrible.

So what does one do sitting outside in the rain for 13 hours, you might ask. That is an excellent question. Whenever we get to the end of the time and they start handing out tickets, we can never quite figure out how, exactly, it is that we sat out for all that time and didn’t get bored once. One thing we did was, whenever someone walked by and asked what we were waiting for, we would tell them that we were in line for “Star Search” auditions the next evening. A lot of people bought it, too! At some point in the night, the Texan woke me and alerted me to the presence of the most brilliant man of the 2nd half of the 20th century. . .as I stood and turned around towards the doors of 30 Rock, I saw LORNE MICHAELS walking from the building to his car. It was my proudest moment. He was clearly in a hurry–probably trying to get home and get some sleep before the show–but something he did (or didn’t do, I guess) struck me as odd. He didn’t even spare a glance for the dozens of people who were waiting overnight in the rain and the cold to see his work. But whatever. He’s Lorne Michaels.

So. . .Saturday morning, we got 2nd and 3rd choice for our show. I decided to play it safe and be number 1 for the dress rehearsal instead of being number 2 for the live show. I couldn’t bear to be disappointed again by not getting in! And, wouldn’t you know it, I got in! When I got in the elevator to go up the studio, and then again walking in and sitting down, I won’t lie to you–I cried. It was overwhelming to think of the starpower and the talent that had performed in the very room where I was sitting.

The show that night was pretty cool. January Jones was good, but not fabulous. BlacK Eyed Peas were awesome. Most of the sketches were pretty funny. It was cool to see the original show in person, then to go home and watch the live show on TV! I didn’t realize until I watching the live show on TV that Darrell Hammond had done a cameo on Weekend Update.

But alas, I must depart. Until next time!

My very first SNL experience happened the weekend of November 6. All week, I was planning on (finally!) going to try to get into the show. I’d put it off for over a month and I knew if I didn’t go for it soon before it started getting too cold outside, I never would. So I went. I didn’t think ahead very much and thus did not prepare very well.

I went with two friends. When we arrived at 30 Rock around 6 pm Friday afternoon, the line was already halfway down the block. We were around number 70 in line. We waited and waited…and waited…and waited. To pass the time, we took turns getting up and walking around that part of town. Then it got cold. I think the coldest it ever got was about 38 degrees. Pretty cold to sit outside for 13 hours overnight. We were grossly underprepared. So, one friend went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and bought more blankets.

We made it through the night with frequent trips to the McDonald’s around the corner, mostly to use the free public restroom, but also for coffee and, every once in a while, food. The people a few spots ahead of us in line had a clever idea. This killed two birds with one stone. On the ground in front of them, along with a hat, there was a sign that read “We’re waiting in line for SNL tickets. Money for a pizza wold be greatly appreciated.” And people actually gave them money! And they got their pizza

Finally around 2 am I fell asleep until 6, which was lucky as this was the coldest part of the night. When I woke up, I made another McDonald’s run then it was time to pack everything up and wait for ticket distribution at 7. When we finally got to the top of the line, we debated between the live show and the dress rehearsal. We went with Dress Rehearsal, figuring we’d have a better chance of getting in that way. I was ticket number 40. The Dress Rehearsal starts at 8 pm so we would have to be back there in line by 7:15 Saturday evening.

When we got our tickets, we jumped straight in a cab home. Instead of sleeping all day like I’d planned, I spent my Saturday watching old SNL clips and being excited. We left around 6:45 pm and by the time we got back to 30 Rock and took our places in line, I could barely contain my excitement.

And…we didn’t get in. The last ticket they let in was number 27. But we were on the right track picking the Dress Rehearsal. They let literally no one into the live show that night. I won’t lie to you, I was a little upset. I may or may not have cried a little. But I sucked it up and decided to use it as a learning experience, hoping I’d have better luck next time…

So the next day, I went with a friend who had an extra ticket to see “Andy Samberg & Friends” at Town Hall near Times Square. Excellent show, excellent material. By “friends,” by the way, he meant about half the SNL cast and writers. It was very funny. At the stage door after, we met most of the people who were in the show. Except Seth Meyers. I think he must have bolted as soon as his bit was done. Kenan Thompson walked right past me and I didn’t even recognize him. I got a picture wit Fred Armisen. I tried to get a picture with Andy Smaberg, but he wouldn’t stop walking. I got a picture/talked to for a few minutes Jenny Slate. They were all very nice and it was so much fun!!!!

More to come….

SNL is this constant, ever-present entity–always there but never really in the spotlight.  It has always seemed so fantastic and inaccessible to me, and I never thought I would ever have the chance to get anywhere near it outside of my dreams.  Moving to New York City, however, has put things into a whole new perspective.  This is  the city of dreams!  Who knows what may happen?  Living in New York has opened more doors to me than I will probably ever know, and SNL just happens to be one of them. 

Once I decide to go after something, I do it wholeheartedly.  Right now, my goal is to get as close to SNL as possible.  I want to feel the pressure, the rush, the excitement.  I want to be a part of this unstoppable phenomenon in any way I can.  In this portion of my blog, I will document my journey over however many months or years it takes me to reach a comfortable level of oneness with the show. 

I started my journey last week and met my first failure.  This only convinced me to work harder to achieve my goal.  I will blog weekly and analyze the contribution of the week’s experiences toward my goals.  Wish me luck!

Drug overdose is tragic, especially when it is unintentional.  However, we are each responsible for what we put into our bodies.  If you have been prescribed several different medications, at the end of the day, it is up to you to ensure that these medications are compatible with each other and will not harm your body.  At most pharmacies, when you pick up a prescription, the pharmacist gives you a list of what medications notto take.  Then you can take that list with you to the doctor (even though your doctor should already know what prescription medication you are taking) so that he or she does not prescribe anything that should not be combined with your current meds.

When a celebrity dies from overdose, there are always people who claim foul play.  Did the physicians force-feed pills to their famous patients?  I doubt it.  Did they talk the celebs into taking deadly drug cocktails, knowing full well what the result would be?  Possibly, but still not very likely.  You ever hear of a little thing called free will?  It’s a wonderful thing–it allows people to do and say what they want, when they want.  Believe it or not, most people exercise free will on a day-to-day basis.  Including celebrities.

So many celebrities have died from drug overdose, whether accidental or intentional, that you would think people would learn a thing or two.  A high-profile death caused by a fatal combination of drugs is a story we hear too often.  People know better than to take drugs that should not be combined.  People should know better than to take a medication without checking to ensure that it can be combined with the medications they are already on.  While health care professionals should check to make sure that the drugs their patients are taking are safe, it is ultimately up to said patients to check that what they’re putting in their bodies is safe.  If someone knows that the combination of drugs he or she is consuming is unsafe and chooses to continue with the regimen, or does not bother to ensure that the drugs are safe, he or she should not  escape blame should the drug cocktail be  fatal.

Some classic celeb deaths by OD that were once ruled as suicides are now considered to have been accidental.  See what the word is on the deaths of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.

Do you think people should be held accountable for what they put into their bodies?  Or do you think it’s okay to blindly follow the word of the good doctor?

I don’t know about you, but my experience with Nokia has not been all that great.  I’m on my second Nokia mobile phone, a geriatric 3555b, and let me tell you–it’s a B.  Don’t get me wrong, Nokia phones are extremely sturdy.  I’ve dropped mine on solid concrete several times and it still functions.  I know people who have flushed theirs in toilets, dropped them from second-story windows, and wrested them from the jaws of hungry dogs and still the phones function. 

 On the other hand, people who have never dropped their Nokia phones have trouble with them.  They have been known to turn off randomly, even when running on a full battery.  They have memory problems.  They can function very slowly.  And they have been, until recently, extremely limited as to what functions and applications they can support.  Based on my own experiences with Nokia’s mobile phones, and on those of my friends, I will not be buying another one in the future.

Will the Nokia Booklet be better?  I hope so.  With the economy in sink-or-swim mode, there’s not a lot of middle ground to act as a safety net should this new venture be unsuccessful.  As the Booklet is a Nokia product it will probably be on the lower end of the price spectrum and will undoubtedly have initial success.  But will the product be reliable enough to stay successful?  Apple’s new Mac OS X Snow Leopard and the Google Chrome OS will be competing for the top spot with Windows 7.  Let the bloodbath commence!

 This latest slip has been partially attributed to the president’s contradictory arguments for healthcare reform, which the L.A. Times reports is  ”leaving people confused.”  The same political strategists who saw the healthcare system falter under Clinton contend that Obama’s making the push for reform more complicated than it needs to be.  To add to the fray, many people do not realize the controversial social implications of national healthcare reform.  Government funding of abortion and healthcare rationing are just around the corner if the reforms are signed into law.  Hopefully the King’s approval ratings will stay afloat when people catch wise to what we’re getting ourselves into.

Another force behind the new lack of confidence in the president is the ever-growing national debt.  New reports project $9 trillion in federal deficit over the next decade, $2 trillion higher than initial estimates.  Already already in the 2009 fiscal year (which began on October 1 last year), the government has accrued a whopping $1.7 trillion in national debt.  That’s 227% more than the debt from this time last year.  That’s definitely something to fret about.  It doesn’t sound like the recession will be receding any time soon. 

So with government (i.e. taxpayer) funding of abortion and healthcare rationing, and a national debt with numbers so big most people can’t even fathom the actual amount, why the disapproval?  This is, after all, what we voted for.  Obama’s insistence on a socialist-style healthcare system and desire to spend big government bucks were no secret at election time.  My theory?  His extraordinary claims were taken at face value by voters who didn’t care to educate themselves on the real impact these policies would have.

What do you think?

Do you have any stories of sentimental items you thought were lost for good that turned up unexpectedly?

So where do you stand?  I was surprised (and my ego took a bit of a blow) to discover that my New York University is only ranked 32nd.  NYU accepted only 32.1% of its applicants for the fall of 2008, a lower acceptance rate than the University Michigan at Ann Arbor (42.1%) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (34.0%), which ranked 27th and 28th, respectively.  Of this year’s freshman class, only 29.4% of NYU’s 36,944 applicants were offered admission.  Pretty impressive.  So why the low ranking? 

The acceptance rates at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (ranked 1-3) are all under 10%.  Even more impressive.

Curious, I did some digging.  U.S. News calculates scores based on eight different academic categories: “first-year experiences, learning communities, writing in the disciplines, senior capstone, study abroad, internships or cooperative education, opportunities for undergraduate research, and service learning,” which are based on two principles: quantitative value assigned by experts and U.S. News’s unbiased opinion of what components of collegiate education are most important.   

The schools to be ranked are divided into groups based on the type of education offered.  Some categories are then subdivided by geographic location.  U.S. News has 15 ranking criteria for which they collect data, which are weighted according to what is deemed most important in a college education.  The weighted scored are used to assign rankings within groups and subgroups. 

U.S. News & World Report’s word is law when it comes to assessing the quality of educational institutions.  Year after year, parents anxiously await the results of the survey so they know towards wich universities they should nudge their children.  As for me, I never laid eyes on a U.S. News & World Report report concerning colleges and universities while I was doing my college search.  I didn’t see the need for it.  What about you?  Do you view these rankings as presumptuous persuasion, or as shrewd sagacity?

Michelle Obama was dressed appropriately for visiting the Grand Canyon.  Which is what she was doing.  Would you wear something from Mrs. O’s usually extravagant wardrobe to a National Park?  I wouldn’t.  But maybe that’s just me.  We’re expecting Mrs. O to conform to the standards set by Jackie O, who maintained her conservative high-fashion dress while on family vacations during JFK’s short time in office.  That was over 40 years ago.  I think Michelle has the right idea.

We as a general populous have abandoned that Stepford Wives superficiality, so why should we expect our First Family to maintain the stringent dress and behavioral codes to which we would never force ourselves to conform?  Contrary to popular belief, the First Family are people, too. 

In 2007, President Bush got a lot of heat from the media for being photographed drinking a beer.  The controversy stemmed from concerns about the problems he had with alcohol that ended 20 yearsbefore the photo was taken.  So he’s an alkie.  Along with 1 in 13 other Americans.  If the President were an alcoholic and still abusing alcohol while in office, I’m pretty sure it would not have gone unnoticed.  In my book, there’s nothing wrong with the President enjoying a beer that may even have been non-alcoholic at a peace summit in Europe.  Here is a perfect example of the double standard to which we hold the President.

I understand that we expect those who are granted positions of leadership and authority to set good examples for the lay man, but we have to remind ourselves that our leaders are human.  They are not Barbie dolls or Superheroes or Saints.  Maybe if the President and his family were allowed to relax and not be so caught up with “image,” they could devote less time and energy to fixing their hair, and focus more on fixing the country.

Thoughts?