It's almost Xmas! It's almost Xmas! The most exciting time of year for many people.
Play the music below for some added Xmas spirit to my post :)
I find it ironic that my family is considered Jewish yet we celebrated Xmas every year. In fact I don't remember ever celebrating Hanukkah.
Many Russians had to repress their religion because Judiasm wasn't socially accepted in Russia so I grew up celebrating Xmas, Easter and even a few Jewsih holidays.
My family always made Xmas really special for me.. oh the good ol' days when I believed in Santa.
I remember one year, my cousin and I stayed up till midnight and hid in the stairwell waiting to catch a glimpse of Santa. We never saw him but we assured ourselves that he was probably so fast that we missed him in the blink of an eye.
Another year, my friend Stan and I hid all of our toys in a giant trash bag so that Santa would think that we were toyless thus giving us more toys.
And how can I forget the one Xmas night when I heard a loud thump on the roof and almost peed myself because I was already at the age when I stopped believing in Santa. It turned out to be a tree that fell on our roof but those few moments of "what if" will always be remembered.
This year we decided to get a smaller tree. The big ones just take up too much room in my opinion. Here's E.W. watering the tree.
And here it is all decorated 100% by me of course. I added icicles since I took this pic so it looks even better now...if possible.
You can't tell in the pic but the angel on top has wings that move back and forth and change color.
Decorated our fireplace too. Ye our fireplace might be dirty but that's coz we actually use it! I can't stand when people have fireplaces just for decoration.
Unlike the fireplace, those stockings are there just for decor. If I got a present that was small enough to fit in those things it better be diamonds!
My awesome cousin brought me yummy snowflake sugar cookies. I think E.W. had 2 and I had the other 10. I know, I'm a pig.
Even London butt is getting into the Holiday spirits. Someone said that he looks like the Grinch's dog with the antlers hah.
It was my first time in a radio station during a recording so it was pretty exciting for me. I was surprised at how everything was so fast paced and how chill everyone was. I always pictured a super secure, small room that people record in. But there must have been 20 people in the room with us.
Preston & Steve are two hilarious guys and it was a joy listening to them live. The best part was their office decor. It looks like Xmas had the stomach flu and threw up all over their cubicles. Is that ET in a Xmas web on the ceiling??
LOVE IT!!
My girls getting ready for the Preston & Steve hottie cam in their sexy Santa outfits.
A few minutes before they were on air. Ye, they don't look too excited...most likely coz they were freezing their butts off.
They had to be in the hottie cam for 2 hours straight with no break so props to them.
This is how the viewers saw the footage on their comps at home. Unfortunately I can't find the recorded version online so maybe I'll have to call in to the station to get it.
A pic with Preston, Steve and the rest of the staff at the end of the show!
Well that's all for now. I leave you with the following Xmas quote...
"Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space."
"Santa Clause has the right idea...visit people once a year."
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My weekend started out great with my baby cousin Jenny Poo visiting me from NY. She is technically my cousin but we see each other as more like sisters.
I rarely get to see her because our lives are both busy and lack of transportation is also a problem.
We decided to go out for some party time and Jen asked me to do her hair and makeup coz she isn't into makeup like I am and wears very little. Not that she needs any makeup!
So we decided to do a fun makeover!!
I did her hair all purty and makeup similar to mine. Except I used way smaller fake lashes on her because the ones I use would probably blind her.
Here's the before and after:
Au natural and pretty before and super glam and sexy after!!
We met up with my good friend (who's name I shall not disclose because I might be beheaded in my sleep if I do so) and headed out to G Lounge & Whisper.
I was having an awesome time as always until I ran into a guy I can't fucking stand.
Hate is a strong word...but I REALLY REALLY detest this dude.
So this guy, who spread viscous rumors about me and almost made me lose the love of my life, and I have a few of the same friends....unfortunately.
Because of this I have to see his stupid face all over the city.
Everyone that knows me well knows that I am the least confrontational person EVER. I will never start a fight or be the first to say something mean to someone.
One of my friends even complains all the time that I'm too nice and need to stand my ground more.
So whenever I see this dude in the city, I'm not mean and I'm not nice. I just mind my own business and stay away from him.
Well this weekend I saw him again at Whisper and to my horror he was hanging out with the group of friends I was hanging out with.
Whatever, I was gonna ignore him standing right next to me and have fun with my friends.
I was about to drink a shot that a friend had bought me when this guy...
HAS THE FUCKING NERVE...
To try and have a shot with me. I immediately excused myself and started to leave..and the dumbass goes...
"What! you can't have a shot with me and my girlfriend?"
First off DOUCHEBAG...why bring your girlfriend into this? I actually kind of used to like her and sympathize with the fact that she has to sleep with you every night.
Second...You are a two-faced liar...you go around saying that I'm cheating on my BF and then try and be nice to my face like nothing ever happened?
Maybe someone that wants to be liked by everyone, thus looks over the fact that you are saying shit, would be nice to you but I don't need people like you to like me. I'm not going to be fake nice to you EVER.
I don't care who your friends are, I don't care how many people don't like me because I don't like you. Don't ever fuck with my relationship.
And the fact that you have the balls to spread rumors behind my back and not confront me shows how insecure you are and how you strive to have people like you.
I am saying now...not anonymously or behind your back..that you are scum...and never to come near me or E.W. again because you don't deserve the light of day from good people like us.
And thanks for flipping me off at the end of the night. Go ahead coz you know... your finger brings me oh so much pain.
This guy just doesn't get it. He might have thought he was trying to make things better by being nice, but that's like beating someone up and then saying "well let me make it better by being nice to you and downing a shot on your behalf!".
STUPID STUPID ...TRES STUPIDE
And now my fingers tips hurt because I've been typing so hard out of anger and I didn't even realize.
Ok...rant over.
Bleh...it makes me feel dirty even talking about him...I need a shower.
In other happier news...this holiday month is particularly fun for me because I will be performing my aerial act several times this week.
I'll be performing at Delilah's Xmas show tomorrow at 8pm and 12midnight and I'll also be performing my aerial act in the Nutcracker ballet this Saturday!
So much is going on right now, everything is so Xmas-sy and E.W and I are in such a good place, and the whole combination of all this has been making me feel quite elated.
I was stumbling around the internet as I usually do in times of boredness, and stumbled onto something called HDR photo technique. I immediately thought HDR stood for hi-def resolution but I was wrong.
HDR turned out to be "high dynamic range" photography and it is so so so cool! I cannot stress enough how cool it is. Maybe it's just extra cool to me coz I'm a photography and Photoshop geek, but this technique will inevitably change the way I take photos.
FOREVER!!
HDR is the technique of taking 3 photos of the same subject... One photo correctly exposed, one over-exposed and one under-exposed, and merging them into one photograph. This essentially creates an intense dreamlike image by allowing a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of the image.
After learning this technique I became angry..WTF I could have been making my already awesome photos even cooler the whole time. Now I have to go back and re-edit all of my old photos which will take years to do coz I have something like 10,000 photos on my comp.
Why must I learn about such cool things so late? Now I'm paranoid that there are other awesome things that I'm missing out on.
I decided to take a few pics from my recent Amsterdam, Greece & Paris trips and HDRize them. I obviously can't do the actual manual technique with my old photos but I can achieve a very similar effect with Photoshop.
To see what the photos looked like before I masterfully HDRized them...
hold your mouse over the image to see before & after.
Landscape view of Athens. Now you can see the real beauty of what I saw.
Inside the Acropolis
My first view of Paris.
Pigeons take flight in the heart of Amsterdam.
Sunset at the bay in Margate, NJ.
Walking the plank at Bartram's Gardens in Philly.
The vibrant sunset that E.W. was trying to capture can finally be seen in all its glory.
About a month or so ago I was invited to attend my 5 year high school reunion via Facebook.
How the hell have 5 years gone by already??
I was so excited to go for all of 10 seconds until I realized that I fuckin hated high school.
Oops...oh ye
Don't get me wrong, I had an amazing childhood but high school was a lonely experience for me. My life was so different from everyone else so it was hard for me to connect with people.
My life consisted of going to school, coming home, getting changed and going to ballet class. Some nights I didn't even have time for homework. I was training to be a professional ballet dancer and I couldn't be happier with my "ballet life".
In my "ballet world" I had many friends, many smiles...life was good. But everyday I had to be brought back to my "boring life" at school.
While all the kids in my high school were focused on dating and wearing cool clothes, I was traveling the world and working my butt off for a dream.
All of this caused me to become somewhat of a loner at school.
Don't get me wrong, I had friends, I just couldn't be the friend that goes to birthdays, sleepover and parties because of my schedule.
In 9th grade, I left school to train and perform in Ukraine for 6 months and when I came back I felt lonelier than ever. Most of my friends seemed to have moved on to new friends and I was all alone.
So as I was faced with this high school reunion thing, I thought, ye I could go and show off to everyone how amazing I have become haha. Or, I can not waste my time on people that have made no impression on my life.
Obviously I chose #2. I will always keep in touch with the 4 people from school that made it bearable, but everyone else ...well basically...
I don't give a shit!
I look back at the girls who were considered "pretty and popular" in school and seeing photos of them now it really amazes me how perceptions change over time. All I see now are a bunch of average looking, beer guzzling college students.
And the guys who were considered "hot" back in school...
WTF HAPPENED????
I found a guy on Facebook that I had the biggest crush on for years and you would have to pay me to date him now.
So to the people who weren't so nice to me in Lower Moreland High School, thanks for not including me in your social cliques because I would have become one of you, and even the thought of that scares me.
And to Rada, my one true friend in school who is still to this day the most kind-hearted person I have ever met...thank you for being there :)
If it wasn't for our French teacher forcing me to apologize to you for calling you a name in 5th grade...we would have never met and my life would have been a little less complete.
"The best of America drifts to Paris. The American in Paris is the best American. It is more fun for an intelligent person to live in an intelligent country. France has the only two things toward which we drift as we grow older—intelligence and good manners."
We arrived into France in the early afternoon and took train after train in attempt to reach Paris. On the way, we made friends with a French business man who was also just in Athens recruiting soccer players for national teams.
E.W. had some great conversation with him for an hour or so while I fiddled around on my phone.
At the last train stop we decided since we were already in Paris that we would take a taxi the rest of the way.
As we stepped out of the train station, the cold, crisp air hit my face and as my eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness of day...I saw.....
PARIS!!!!
This was the very first view that I had of Paris as we exited the station.
I cannot even describe the intense feeling I had when I first laid my eyes on Paris. I had dreamed of visiting this city my whole life and now I was there! Paris stole my breathe away..and to make it even better, I was there with my soul mate.
I felt like I was in a dream and no one better dare wake me up. I looked over at E.W., smiled, and gave him a great big kiss. Our first kiss in Paris.
We stopped by a cafe for some cappuccinos which was 10 euros ($14 US) for two! Thankfully we were prepared for the expensive city. After finishing our cappuccinos, we asked for l'addition (the check) and got a taxi to the hotel.
We checked into the Westin where we were staying for the night and got upgraded to a huge room. Europe is very well known for it's closet sized hotel rooms and this upgrade was truly amazing. We got put into a 1,200 euro ($1,680) a night room because of E.W.'s Starwood Platinum status with the hotel. We even had a walk-in closet...that we never used.
When I first stepped out onto our balcony, the first thing that caught my eye was a fairly large ferris wheel. And as my eye traveled slightly to the left, I caught my first sight of the Eiffel Tower!!!
"We are really in Paris now", I thought as my eyes teared up. I turned back to E.W. while wiping my eyes so he wouldn't see and kissed him again and again.
Paris has meant so much to me in my ballet career and in school when I learned to speak French.
As I looked to my left and another famous building caught my eye. The Louvre!! Could this view be anymore amazing? The Eiffel Tower on my right and the Louvre on my left, this must have been the best view in Paris! At least I'd like to think so. :)
As you can see, the traffic in Paris is INSANE. California, you will have nothing to complain about once you experience the traffic in Paris. Too many cars and tiny little roads does not make for a good equation.
After getting dressed warmly (We had to buy sweaters, gloves and ear muffs at H&M in Athens coz weren't prepared for cold), we headed out into the streets of Paris.
It was about 35 degrees but quickly dipped into the 20s as the night went on. The unbearable cold kept us moving quickly and in a way helped us to see more of the city.
I read online that a must try snack in Paris is crepes with Nutella. And because I have been a Nutella lover since I was a little girl, I had to try this yumminess. We got 2 crepes filled with Nutella and banana slices and let me tell you, it might have been the most delicious thing I have ever tried in my life. No, I am not exaggerating. I would kill for one right now.
The lit-up pyramid was strikingly beautiful and it boggles me how the French see it as "a pimple on the face of Paris".
I so wished we could have gone in for a minute but we were stretched for time.
This photo is an awesome display of the contrast between the old and the new in Paris.
Next we headed over the bridge. I think that building in the background is Parliament but I could be wrong.
A closer view.
On our way to our next location, we walked through a small alleyway that had all kinds of ethnic foods. Some looked so yummy. Look at those humongous prawns, salmon and snails! MMmmm.
Some stuff didn't look too appetizing. This poor piglet still had its eyeballs in its eye sockets and the eyes were wide open! How fucking sick...and to make it worse, its poor little throat was slit. You have to be a heartless fucker to put that on display.
Ummm..no comment on this...it speaks for itself...Bleh
The Notre Dame! I have been imagining what it would be like to see the Notre Dame since I was 12 years old when I got assigned the dance of Esmeralda to dance at a ballet competition.
My ballet teacher told me all about the life of Esmeralda. How she was a beautiful Gypsy begging for money by dancing with her tambourine outside of the Notre Dame.
Seeing the building in person was so cool.
The inside was massive. There was some kind of prayer going on so we had to tiptoe around and be super quiet.
E.W. paid 2 euros to light a candle and say a prayer and took a minute to pray to Jesus. I love the fact that he is religious, I just wish I shared in his beliefs.
We got hungry very quickly while walking around in the freezing cold so asked our concierge where the best place was to go for dinner. He pointed us in the direction of Flottes.
It was a charming French restaurant and everything you would expect a French restaurant to be. Very warm, loud, fragrant and cozy.
People in Europe spend a heck of a lot longer eating dinner than we do. Our US waiters try to flip the tables as quick as they can. In Europe, dinner is a 2-4 hour affair. Courses are brought out at a glacial pace and checks are not brought out unless asked for. And that's the way they like it because to Europeans, dinner is first and foremost about the socializing...then the food.
We ordered snails to eat much to my objection. I wanted duck pate but E.W. and the waiter insisted we have snails. I had them for the first time in Chicago and wasn't overwhelmed by the aftertaste but these were delicious. Buttery and citrus-y with a mushroom like texture. YUM.
I thought it was interesting that they called them snails and not escargot in France.
And of course, how can you go to Paris and not have oysters with champagne? We got two types of oysters, both of which were delicious. I had never had oysters that were still attached to the shell so was surprised when it didn't slide into my mouth like I'm accustomed to.
We sat next an old French lady who owned a boutique hotel across the street from the restaurant and invited us to stay there. She had with her a tiny weenie dog that reminded me of the one I used to have as a child. We could barely understand her English but she was very kind.
Shopping in Paris is pretty much impossible. You buy one thing and there goes your month's paycheck. All we saw was Jimmy Choo, Roberto Cavalli, Dior, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent and fifty thousand other European designers I have never heard of. I wouldn't be surprised if each of these Roberto Cavalli dressed cost 20 grand a pop.
We didn't have much time after our two hour dinner so we asked a taxi driver to quickly drive past The Arc de Triumph just so I could see it then head to the Eiffel Tower.
And there it was...the grandest beauty of them all. I kept complaining to E.W. earlier on in the day about how small it looked from the distance. He kept telling me to wait till we got to it. And he was right. This thing was massive...and beautifully lit in all its glory.
Standing directly beneath it gave me the best sense of how massive it really was.
We had to do the cliche kissing picture. How can you not?? I caption this picture "This is love". Every time I look at this photo, I know that I am in the right place in my life.
At midnight, the Eiffel Tower started to sparkle!!
After a crazy 8 hours of running around the city we decided to call it a night and head back to the Westin. This pic was taken in our hotel lobby.
I will never forget the dream trip we went on and will cherish the moments forever.
It's almost Xmas! It's almost Xmas! The most exciting time of year for many people.
Decorated our fireplace too. Ye our fireplace might be dirty but that's coz we actually use it! I can't stand when people have fireplaces just for decoration.
My awesome cousin brought me yummy snowflake sugar cookies. I think E.W. had 2 and I had the other 10. I know, I'm a pig.
Even London butt is getting into the Holiday spirits. Someone said that he looks like the Grinch's dog with the antlers hah.
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Preston & Steve are two hilarious guys and it was a joy listening to them live. The best part was their office decor. It looks like Xmas had the stomach flu and threw up all over their cubicles. Is that ET in a Xmas web on the ceiling??
My girls getting ready for the Preston & Steve hottie cam in their sexy Santa outfits.
A few minutes before they were on air. Ye, they don't look too excited...most likely coz they were freezing their butts off.
This is how the viewers saw the footage on their comps at home. Unfortunately I can't find the recorded version online so maybe I'll have to call in to the station to get it.
A pic with Preston, Steve and the rest of the staff at the end of the show!
Well that's all for now. I leave you with the following Xmas quote...
"Santa Clause has the right idea...visit people once a year."
Tags: christmas, radio show, wmmr
