That’s Stella

During my time in New York this year, I’ve seen…

Gywneth Paltrow. Steve Buscemi. Paul Giamatti. Kirsten Dunst. Michel Gondry. Ryan Gosling. Sandra Bernhard. Uma Thurman. Anthony Edwards. Simon Pegg. Michael Kors. Judah Friedlander. Rosanna Arquette. Famke Janssen. Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Lindsay Lohan.

I never had the slightest inkling to approach any of them (except Michel Gondry) and kinda thought it was cooler not over reacting when seeing them (but admittedly I had butterflies in my stomach when I saw Buscemi and Giamatti), but on Wednesday night I couldn’t help but approach my first celeb.

I was walking around 34th by Macy’s. I never come here - it is a bitch to get around - it is a shopping tourists wet dream and I get violent urges when idiots block the foot path. Anyway I spot this familiar looking woman and I’m 99% sure it’s her. I’ve always been the type that is spurred on and bases her actions on the fear of regret, and I think to myself “OH MY GOD. I have to tell her how awesome she is or face being shunned by friends”. SO I follow her down the street!!

“Excuse me!? Are you from Flight of the Conchords?”

I had spotted Mel from Conchords - the infatuated, mad fan! I think she is hilarious and I love her character to bits. She was oh so lovely and did not make me feel like a complete dork that I am when I asked to get a photo with her. Haha! We chatted a bit but I was paranoid about taking too much of her time so we wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving and went on shopping.

New York is so so so beautiful right now! I am just having the biggest love affair with this city.

It’s getting really cold - it was 1 degree during the day on the weekend - everyone is dressed in nice coats and berets and sporting leather boots and scarves. It is so crisp and fresh during the day.

It’s like it happened over night, but so many trees are decked out in fairy lights. As I walk home from work, the lit up trees light up my otherwise usually dark walk back home.

I have never been so excited about Christmas, yet completely sad that I won’t have my family around to celebrate. Every store is decked out in Christmas decorations and there are amazing window installations. My ears were ringing with Christmas jingles on the weekend as I went shopping and all the songs about a cold white Christmas all of a sudden seems to make sense.

As corny as this sounds, I feel like I am living in a Christmas movie right now.

I wish my camera could precisely capture how gorgeous it is in the afternoon when the sun hits the buildings. I am in awe every single day…

Click here to check out the view from my office.

At 6pm on Saturday night, one of my girl friends called me and said “I’m signing us up for speed dating tonight. It’s in 30 minutes so quickly get changed and catch a cab.” So I am frantically getting ready. Getting ready in an hour is a struggle, let alone 30 minutes.

She had signed us up for this speed dating event here. It was $35 for thirty five 3 minute dates!! The age range was 23-39 for women and 25-42 for men.

Let me just say that I would NEVER do this in Perth. Seriously, that city is so small I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up sitting across from a high school friend or relative. Fine I exaggerate, but if you’ve been living in that city long enough, you know it’s 3 degrees of separation.

Anyway I miraculously get ready and actually beat my girl friends there so I check out the crowd whilst I’m waiting and let me just say, you would be surprised. There were hot guys and girls. And, I was even more surprised to find a few indie boys joining in on the fun! There was a large age range, and clearly some men and women who were clearly not in the age range (we’re talking 50ish year old men trying to get away with being in their early 40’s). The main thing is, there was definite potential.

When my girlfriends arrived, we were admittedly a little excited…. till we were told we were the last to register and they were at maximum capacity!!!!! We had already paid, dolled ourselves up, caught a cab over to freakin midtown, seen some talent and were told we’d have to sit out!! We watched as the speed dating began and we were completely bummed. REJECTION. Ouch. I would’ve rather had done the speed dating just for fun and not have anyone “pick me” than not to have done it at all. The organizer tried to be apologetic, but she was dealing with three assertive and unhappy ad chicks who explained the concept of opportunity costs and what it took for us to come out of our comfort zone to go in the first place, so they gave us free drinks, but can you imagine how depressing it was?

Three girls standing at the bar with their crappy “special” Blue Lagoon cocktails watching what they had missed out on. We all agreed to skull the drinks and get out of there quick smart.

We all walked to our girlfriends place in the West Village feeling completely rejected and pissed off and sad and angry and a bit depressed. HAHA! We all had our turns screaming and letting out our rage when we hit a quiet street. It was our own therapy. I can’t even explain to you how bummed out we were.

So… you know what we did instead??

First, we stopped off at an expensive shoe store and bought a pair of boots each. Then, we went back to our girl friends apartment, smoked and got really high, downed shots of vodka and ended up at nautical bar till 4am.

Awesome.

I had a TV shoot the other day. A big black SUV picked me up at 5am in front of my apartment building. It was pitch black and the street was dead. My neighborhood was so still and quiet. After the driver picked me up we went to get my clients in SoHo then drove out of Manhattan to the film site.

When we got there and waited for the crew to set up, we warmed up in these tents. We shared a tent with the film crew and main actors and when I entered the tent my heart skipped a beat when I saw John Cusack. He is my ultimate star crush - I’ve had a crush on him since highschool - and I have been preparing for the moment I meet him (in my head over and over) for so long. Well, it didn’t take me long to figure that despite Cusack’s absence in the limelight of late, there is no way he would stoop down to doing TV and this guy was not John Cusack, but an actor that looked like Cusack, only Cusack in his late 30’s. Hooray. Eye candy for the day.

Fast forward to the late afternoon around 4pm and my client and team is gathered around watching everything that is being filmed on our monitors as it happens. Without even mentioning anything, everyone is talking about how this actor looks like John Cusack and of course, I can’t keep my mouth shut and I begin to say “Well… actually…” and stop mid sentence questioning if I should really be saying what I’m about to say. It’s not that I’m not close with my client and my team. I just didn’t think it through but it was too late. My colleague said “Well what? What were you about to say?” and I finish my sentence and say…

“Well, actually… he asked me out and we’re going out for drinks….”

Now rewind to the morning. I’m standing by the craft service table (snacks, beverages for cast and crew during the day) waiting for hot apple cider, and how random is this, but “John” starts talking to me! We’re talking about our backgrounds and New York City and our love for Manhattan and conversation is free and flowing. He is a super sweet guy and offers me his jacket. And like a scene out of a movie, my scarf flies away mid conversation and he runs and fetches it for me! SO sweet. And when he asked me out for drinks, well… I was SO happy. That is an understatement. I was brimming. I had a skip in my step. I had butterflies in my stomach. I had the stupidest grin on my face the whole day. All that girly BS!

He got in touch with me (5 freakin days later!) but we’re going out so we’ll see how it goes.

P.S. My house mates call me a “stare whore”. Dinner with this guy a few weeks ago and now “John”. Ha.

In case you were wondering, the Obama celebrations are still kicking. It’s 1:09am, two days after he was elected and I can still hear people on the street cheering “O! O! O! Obama!” in unison. I had guests in town the night of the election and we headed to Times Square (one of the only times I will brave the frustrating hoardes of people walking at snail pace on the sidewalks) and it was a great atmosphere. There were so many people that people didn’t have to block streets with barricades to warn taxis. The number of people on the streets could not be reckoned with! Anyway I am really happy America have decided to move forward. I must admit, I am shocked Obama got in. I didn’t think it would happen. Yes - I really did think the color of his skin would get in the way, but I am stoked and excited to see what happens over the next few years.

O! O! O! Obama!