The Tony's and Fried Pickles

I've been a little busy (and also a little lazy) lately, but I've done a few things and been to a couple places I'd like to tell you about!

First of all, a couple of week ago I got to go to the press junket for all of the Tony nominees! My friend Suzy works for Backstage (a website for actors, specifically a place for them to find auditions) and she asked my friend Molly and I to come help her by running sound and camera and setting up lights. Unfortunately I didn't get to meet the super famous people like Tom Hanks, but I really loved getting to meet the famous Broadway people. Everyone was so nice and I had a blast.

Suzy and me

Molly the amazing camerawoman

Richard Kind

I have also discovered a great bar/restaurant that serves SWEET TEA and also fried pickles. Y'all, this is a big deal. This little southern girls loves to have sweet tea with dinner and it's an absolute travesty that only a handful of places here even know what it is. Anyway, the spot is called The Mason Jar (appropriate right?) and I highly recommend their chicken fingers, their buffalo chicken, their fried pickles, and of course, their sweet tea.

The Mason Jar

43 East 30th Street

New York, NY 10016

Source

In the same vein, I recently went to a bar called Live Bait that also had amazing fried pickles and an excellent happy hour (the fried pickles were also part of happy hour so I was sold). It's super country looking and I loved it.

Live Bait

14 E 23rd St

New York, NY 10010

Source

Power Rangers

Growing up in the late 80s/early 90s, we played outside a lot. My mom would make us play outside a lot of days, which I sometimes hated, but I'm grateful for it now. In my family there are 7 kids and we often joke that the 4 of us who are older had a totally different childhood than the 3 younger ones. And it's true. The biggest gap in ages is between Brittany (number 4, born in December 1989) and Micah (number 5, born in May 1992), so for about 2.5 years it was just the 4 of us and then it was a while before the youngest 3 were old enough to play with us. When we played outside we used our imaginations A LOT.

One of the games we played was Power Rangers. We were a little obsessed with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (the original, we never watched any others after that) and we all had our favorites. Brandon always played Jason, the red ranger and the leader of the group. Kaley always played Billy, the blue ranger and the brains of the group...and yes, Kaley played a boy - she was very much a tomboy. I always played Kimberly, the pink ranger and obviously the most awesome of the group. And poor Brittany - she always wanted to be Kimberly, but we never let her and often issued an ultimatum: she could play Trini, the yellow ranger and the only other girl, or she could be "the monster" that we all had to fight and conquer. Most of the time she'd acquiesce to being Trini, but I remember her being mad and saying she wouldn't play at all, then she'd run off to play by herself and we'd pretend she was the monster and attack her anyway. Yeah, we were awesome.

How to pretend to be Power Rangers:

1. Know your rangers. Don't forget that Tommy (green ranger) and Kimberly are bf/gf so the only boy who can be Tommy is the boy you like who lives down the street.

2. A good fight mostly involves attempts at roundhouse kicks, karate chops complete with shouting "hi-yah!", and if you get knocked down you must roll a good 5 feet before getting back up.

3. You're mostly going to be fighting putties and you know you have to punch or kick them in the Z on their fronts.

4. Know your dinosaurs. At some point you're going to have to call on your Dinozord and you'd better know it. For example, Kimberly's was the pterodactyl and when it's time I had to stand with my legs apart, put my hands out as though I'm holding something resembling a belt buckle, and shout "Pterodactyl!"

5. It's ok to use the slide on your swingset to do a jump attack on someone, but if you land sloppily you have to roll a good 5 feet again.

6. You must create the Megazord before you can win a fight.

Star Trek

My husband and I recently went through the original Star Trek series on Netflix. I did very much enjoy it, but I must say...it's a little ridiculous at times. It's excusable though, since it was the 60s and their special effects and such weren't quite as good as they are now.

Just in case you have no interest in ever watching Star Trek, I want to share with you the most unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally at times) hilarious moments of Star Trek, the original series.

1. The theme song for the first season is very nice. It's catchy and fun to hum along to. Then in the second season, they kept the song but added a woman singing along and it was suddenly weird.

2. Almost every time Captain Kirk gets into a fight, his shirt rips so that at least one nipple shows.

3. In the episode The Enemy Within, they found a space dog, or as I like to call it: a unicorn insect dog.

4. In the episode What are Little Girls Made Of?, Kirk is chased through some caves and he grabs a piece of stalagmite to defend himself...and the stalagmite has a very...ahem...interesting shape...

5. In The Trouble with Tribbles...there are Tribbles. And they're ridiculous. Basically just furry pillows that are treated as though they're living beings.

6. In Arena, we're introduced to the Gorn, a race of aliens, when Kirk has to fight one. I give you the worst fight scene ever.

7. Oh and who can forget this guy from A Private Little War? I must confess that I was distracted during this episode and don't even know what he is or why he was there.

Like I said in the beginning, I love Star Trek. A lot. And I'm currently going through the New Generation. But you have to admit...this stuff is hilarious.