Breakfast, Brunch, and Brinner

Brunch.  It's my favourite part of the day, partially because it can occur at any time on any day.  Breakfast time?  Eat some brunch. Wake up too late for breakfast?  Brunch.  Dinnertime?  Brunch, or, as my sister calls it, brinner.  Brunch for dinner.  Brinner.

These particular photographs are from brunch one of our local haunts, Cafe Madeline, on Sunday.  Danny and I met my friend Ginny, who made that movie I talked about, and who was my roommate my freshman year of college.  Tasty things happened afterwards.  There were steaming mugs full of coffee, croissants, eggs, scallions, cheese, yogurts... it was yummy.

Meeting people for breakfast is the best.

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Ogres and Goblins and Acting, Oh My!

In case I haven't made this perfectly clear before... I am a nerd.  Plain and simple.  I hate labeling people, including myself, and I hate potentially coming across as the Olivia Munn type of female who wears an "I Heart Nerds" t-shirt and 80's glasses sans lenses, but then does not know klingons from cardassians.  Or tribbles.  I really hate that.  I don't despise her, I despise labeling, and the weird trend to now be proud of the name "nerd".  

I don't know.  There's a lot of weird stuff going on with this nerd movement, but I am pretty happy to be living in a time when I can openly assert what I am about to assert...

I play D&D.  

Dungeons and Dragons.

A tabletop, RPG, that's role-playing game for those of you who have no idea.

I also play Exalted and Aberrant, and own all kinds of other role-playing games that I will probably never actually play.  In fact, Danny and I, well, mostly Danny because he is the by-far more creative brain of the duo here, are writing a couple of rpgs ourselves.  Because, it's fun, and honestly, who doesn't love to play games?  Terrible people.

One thing I love about RPGs, and Dungeons and Dragons is most certainly my least favourite of all the games I play, is the acting.  The character interactions are amazing.  Maybe it's just my group of friends, but within my group of friends, they are amazing.  Now that I'm focusing so much on teaching, I'm not doing a lot of acting these days.  I've done some small projects recently, and haven't auditioned for any of them.  Apparently, I'm to a point in my career where people ask me to do stuff, which is just rad.  Rad, I tell you.  But, auditions?  It's been a full-on year since I've been to one of those.  Not that I've kissed acting goodbye; on the contrary, my friends- I act every day.  Teaching, I get to act, watch acting, and be around acting, and in these games... I have wept, cried, screamed, laughed, hugged my fellow players, gone through the motions of killing people...

Everything I ever liked about acting plus more is achievable in an rpg.  How?  It's our story, and we are living it.  The way my friends and I play, we become full incarnations of our characters- instead of saying, I don't know, "Petra hits it with her sword," we narrate in the first person, or maybe even 100% act it out.  During dialogue, we talk completely in character, and it's a bit jarring when someone breaks it.  I'm acting, and playing my dream roles; and not only that-  we are writing the script as we go along.  Yeah, I generally have an idea of how I hope that my character will develop, and how I think that she, or he, may react to certain situations, however, like real life, and like scripts written by brilliant playwrights/ screenwriters, you never really know.  How thrilling is that?

Beyond this, I have realized another very interesting thing about my attraction to acting.  When I auditioned for NYU, there was an interview component, and during it, I was asked why I like acting.  Which is, probably, one of the most elementary questions ever for someone in performing arts.  My answer, I think, now that I work for an acting conservatory, was probably what got me accepted, because I was super-sick that day, and was not a good actor yet. Frankly, I was bad.  But, I said something along the lines of, "I want to experience things I will never do, places I will never see, adventures I will never take part in, and relationships I will never have through the eyes of someone else, using my own voice and my own body".  Then, I also said something like, "I want to use my instrument filled with their souls".  18-year old me was a bit more perceptive than I sometimes give her credit for, because I've become smarter and more worldly since then.  

Now, the big HOWEVER-  I'm realizing that... I don't need plays to do this.  My life is mine, and I can do what I want with it.  I can have these adventures I never thought I'd have.  I can have relationships I never thought possible.  I can say things I never thought I'd say.  I can go places I never thought I'd go.  I can do this using my own words, my own consciousness, my own voice, my own body, my own soul.  I don't need to act to fulfill my dreams, I can do that with my actual, real life.  My goal in life is to try and do this every day.  I don't just want to exist, I want to live, and live fully.  I want to be in the moment.  I want to experience each moment as it's coming.

I'm doing a damn good job of it.

Now, here are some pictures of Danny and me painting Ogres and Goblins.

Enjoy.

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Home Sweet Home

No, I don't live in any of these houses.  I wish that I did- that would be amazing.  That's part of my dream at this point.  Danny and I want to buy somewhere to live within the next couple years, but I know that things like this are completely out of our price range.  However, they are within a few blocks of our apartment! 

All of these photographs were taken in Ditmas Park, in Central Brooklyn. So, yes, though many of you may not ever associate New York City with views like this, these were absolutely taken in the middle of New York City.  They're gorgeous.  This is what my walk to the subway looked like this morning- beautiful old houses decorated with varying colors of fallen leaves, trees hanging on to that last bit of fall, streets with few cars and few pedestrians.  A gloomy lack of light, hinting of rain to come later in the day only made the vivid hues of the leaves shine more brightly.  I love my neighborhood; I think it's gorgeous.  I'm so thrilled to live where I do!

And someday, we'll own our own place.  We're seriously talking about this, and it will happen.  It'd be nice to pay a mortgage investment to ourselves instead of a rent payment to a big company. Maybe it will be in our current neighborhood. Maybe, it won't even be in this country.  The next few years seem so uncertain, especially with the prospect of me going ex-pat for my grad degree.  Who knows if I'll want to come back here?  A lot of places in the world look way more inviting to me than the United States.  Not to mention, many of them have more of the kind of freedoms I want.  So, we'll take it one day at a time.  In the meantime, I'll look at these houses, sigh happily, and enjoy my beautiful walk to the train.

I admit that these aren't my best photographs, they're pretty mediocre if not bad, really, but this is a small slice of my daily life.  I thought I'd share it with you.  

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USa

The Marvelous Monday Pact

Happy Monday!!

I've never been one of those people who are terrified of Mondays.  I don't hate Mondays, and I don't dread their arrival.  I've never minded them, as a matter of fact.  In high school, I was usually fine with going into school on Monday morning, because it was one of the only days of the week I didn't have to be there early for a club meeting.  (When I was in high school I was in far too many clubs because I wanted to be accepted to college... I was ridiculous.)  In college, I had classwork to do every day, so Mondays never felt particularly different.  While I worked summer stock... Monday was my day off.  It was my weekend.  So, it was my favourite day of the week!  Now, I love my job, so come Monday, I'm always excited and enthusiastic.  Waking up may not be the best moment of the day, but once I'm out of bed, have kissed my man goodbye, and am out the door, I'm a happy lady.

When I do have those mornings in which my pillow is beckoning to me, despite my lack of time, I try to think of this quote:

"Be miserable, or motivate yourself.  Whatever has to be done, it is always your choice"- Wayne Dyer

It helps me fend of the temptation of the warm covers and pleasant dreams by reminding me that no, snooze buttons do not make you late.  You make you late by not taking the time to double check the alarm, or make sure that you have gotten out of bed.  And this realization makes me happy, because it reminds me that I have free will.  I'm not a servant to fate.  My morning is good if I decide that it is good, and bad if I decide that it is bad.  If I choose to hate Mondays, I will hate Mondays.  If I start my week off with optimism and a smile, I am more likely to notice, and thus focus upon, the parts of my life that are going well, rather than poorly.  

Think about the ramifications of this... if we all just decided that we were going to start our Mondays with a smile, a happy thought, an omelette and a cup of steaming coffee instead of a frown, a scowl, and seventy-five smashes of the snooze button... WE MIGHT ALL HAVE AWESOME MONDAYS.  Isn't that great?  I think that's great.  I mean, I do prefer to have good days.  Bad days are to be avoided, in my opinion, so why on earth would I ever doom myself to one with  a bad attitude, or general negativity?  That goes against every logic I can possibly think of.

So, I propose this...
THE MARVELOUS MONDAY PACT.
*Cue trumpet fanfare*
I dare you to join me.  When you wake up on Monday, play some fun music, eat some nice food, go for a walk, call a good friend, watch an entertaining TV show, play a nifty video game, read an enchanting book, or do whatever the hell you need to do to make yourself postive.  Run.  Do yoga.  I don't care.  Read Travel and Toile....  Pick something.  You know what makes you happy better than anyone else does.  But give yourself a good day.  Why not?  Bad days aren't fun, are they?

As a motivation, please enjoy these photographs of coffee, breakfast items, and baked goods perfect for getting a smile on your face, and that dud of a Monday rolling!

       

         

Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

The Night After...

After my post about stencils and Banksy yesterday, I decided to sit down, chill out, and re-watch "Exit Through the Gift Shop".  Why?  Because Netflix loves me and is streaming it, along with most everything else I could possibly want to watch.  The artsy fartsy, hipsterrific documentary was then followed by the first episode of Afro-Samurai, and the first half of "Mary, Queen of Scots" with Vanessa Redgrave.  I'm a cultural beast, my friends.

More importantly, were my snacks.  Snacks are imperative while watching films.  First, there were the Spiderman fruit snacks.  No, I can't really top them on this list.  But, let's just say that herbal tea and banana nut muffin flavoured oatmeal with milk came along later, and they were epic, relaxing, and the reason I had to go to bed halfway through "Mary".  I loved the play version a few years ago on Broadway, and the film was fantastic, but considering that the tea I was drinking is called "tension tamer," I was full of delicious carbs, and had barely worked out today... Yeah.  I was feeling fat and lazy and ready to crash.

I generally don't spend my evenings alone like this- as I work more and more often at my super amazing job, which I love, I have less and less time to myself.  I couldn't be happier about this.  Not that I don't enjoy a quiet, obligation-free day of reading, movies and video games.  I do.  I definitely do.  Just, when that becomes every day, as it basically was when I was unemployed during the cold winter monthes, it gets really old.  

However, lately, my nights have been particularly quiet.  I live with my boyfriend, Danny, you know, that muscular bearded guy who pops up on here sometimes, and we generally hang out in the evenings.  We'll catch up on TV shows, go on walks, and sometimes, now that I've started martial arts, even spar.  He's currently going through a nocturnal period for his job, so he's not around very much at night.  Danny works in theatrical lighting, and is working the spotlight on a show that takes place outside in a park, here in the city.  For obvious reasons, it is pretty hard to do any adjustments on the lights during the daytime, so he works at night.  Often, he doesn't get home until 4 or 5am, and considering that I am always in bed by 1am, if not as early as 11pm, I get to spend the night in quiet.  

So, last night, it was movies, corny self-promotional mugs, tea, Spiderman, Scots, afros, and street art for company.  

Happy Tuesday everyone!

The Official Travel and Toile Championship Mug.

 Nom nom nom..... nom..... nom.....

Thank you, as always, for reading Travel and Toile.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate you.  I can try though- I really, really, appreciate you.  From the bottom of my heart.  Thank you for all of the support of whatever this artistic stuff is that I do!

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

PS.  The Winning NYC Neighborhood IS...

THE LOWER EAST SIDE!

Expect a new post about it sometime early next week.

The runner-ups were Bushwick and Midwood.

The next contest will occur sometime soon.  

Oh... and... 

There will be prizes!

Eggs and Such

Ah... it's that time of year.  That chocolate egg time of year.  I've always liked this time- Easter, and all of that.  Celebrations of spring, new life, and overall re-birth.  Easter is a delightful holiday.  And nothing is more delightful than personalized chocolate Easter eggs, like my parents brought for us!!

You know what else I like?  Crepes.  My family was here the past few days, hence the last few days with no posts.  During this time, they gave us the afore-pictured chocolate eggs.  Which were personalized, and totally delicious.  They nailed it.  Danny's was peanut butter and mine was coconut.  Yum.  Anyways, in return, we took them to our favourite crepe joint in DUMBO.  They did treat us there as well... but it was our idea. 

That is my mom and Danny, enjoying their crepe deliciousness!

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA