Ashley sent over some pics of little Jack, who is now 7 months old. What a cutie!

Last night I checked out the brand-new musical Legally Blonde. Yup, as in the hilarious story of Elle Woods following her slimy ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law school, where she—and all of her pink and scented accessories—win over the hearts of the stodgy, snooty ivy leaguers. The musical follows a similar storyline to the movie, but it’s snazzed up with breathtaking dance numbers and adorably catchy songs. From the top of the show—which opens with “Omigod You Guys,” a riot of a song performed by a gaggle of Elle’s giddy Delta Nu sorority sisters—to the final court room scene featuring Bruiser (Elle’s faithful chihuahua) decked out in a tie, I was either smiling or laughing the entire time. After all, who wouldn’t love a musical all about following your heart, tackling challenges, having fun, and looking so cute while doing so? And I wasn’t the only one lapping up Legally Blonde like it was brownie sundae a la mode—Paige Davis (from Trading Spaces) was sitting right behind me, laughing just as loud as everyone else!

Thanks to Tracy for taking me along!

And speaking of star sightings, I forgot to mention that I saw my boy Dennis Leary outside of Chelsea Piers the other night. He is much taller than I thought in person and very cute! I'm excited for Rescue Me to start up again. I've missed it!

Look Who's 3!

Little Ella Calder is 3! Can't believe that the tiny baby I held when she was a day old is now such a BIG girl! Looks like she had a great time celebrating in FLA with Mama Jean, Uncle Phil (well, that would be Papa to her), Andy, mom, and baby brudder (who is absolutely gorgeous! Check out that pic I poached from WFA!). She's a natural swimmer--and if we have anything to do with it, she'll be suited up for swim team in no time!

Leezie, Mark, and I had a nice little walk outside today after lunch at Pepe Verde. Another gorgeous, summer-like day--the only clouds around were those on my shirt!

As you can probably tell from these pics, I'm a little (okay, a lot) exhausted from a long, late night, which started with dinner (of sea scallop risotto, salad Nicoise with seared tuna, and warm chocolate cake with homemade white chocolate ice cream) at Balthazar and ended with a dance party in the basement of Loreley. This weather brings out the party girl in me!

Painted Black

Keren and I spent Saturday morning up in Harlem's St. Nicholas Park, painting portions of an old 13-block fence that had completely rusted. It was part of New York Cares' 13th annual Hands on New York Day, and we were two of thousands volunteers working to revitalize public spaces in all five boroughs--and fortunately had a beautiful day to be outside.

Keren, a University of Michigan grad, had signed up for the Big Ten team, so I tagged along with alums from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan State, and more. (I didn't check, but I doubt that the North East Conference has a volunteer team! And would I have wanted to join it if they did?!) I must say that after spending a solid five hours with this group, midwesterners are seriously the nicest people ever. No pushy or bossy New Yorkers in that group! We met some great people and left the park covered in black paint, but feeling great. We rewarded ourselves for our do-gooding with a treat from Pinkberry, the latest craze in Fro-Yo that just opened up in Chelsea. Yummers.

Hallelujah!

63.

The two numbers make music in my ears. Not 43 and rainy, not 53 and brisk. It is forecasted to be 63 beautiful degrees tomorrow in New York City. 65 on Saturday, and a downright balmy 68 on Sunday. Yes, my friends, I believe spring has finally sprung!

I'm doing a little dance in my chair thinking about sunny skies and warm air on my skin. I'm smiling as I envision open-toed shoes and blooming (not wilting) flowers and an actual need to wear sunglasses. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Everything will be more bearable, more pleasant once the weather improves. I'll actually have desire to be outside and get out of the office! Hooray for sunshine!

Enough about the weather. I just had to post my elation for a brief moment. Another thing to be happy about: Bubba's visit to my office today for lunch! We dined in Cafe 57 and caught up as she took a break between visiting the PQ set with Speed and checking out the uptown museums. I love visitors to my office--especially when they involve eating in the Cafe!

Time for dinner--Sole over a bed of steamed veggies and rice, prepared by--who else?--Chef Mark!

A lovely day in NYC

Today, the rain may be pouring down in buckets, but yesterday we had a more seasonable, albeit chilly, spring day. Corinne and Adam's visit to the city gave us a great excuse to spend the afternoon in sunny Central Park; we met up with them and Danny and Ang at the Met before finding a choice spot at the Boathouse
where we enjoyed the food, company, and bar! Then the group trekked out to the Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg to check out a band featuring a fellow WMHS alumni (class of '01; a youngin') before going to the gem of a dive bar, Capone's, where they offer everyone a free pizza(yes, one whole pie!) with any drink order. I assumed the pizza would be ick, but it turned out to be very delicious. We had a great time and I took plenty of pics, as seen below.

Pictures from Leezie's Birthday

 

Fun times.

We had a great time celebrating Leezie's birthday last night at Havana alma de Cuba. Jackie, Tracy, Karl, Mark, Leezie and I had a room practically to ourselves as we enjoyed delicious Cuban food! I went with my standard, Pollo a la Maggie, which is chicken on top of plaintains, with peppers and onions, covered with a wine sauce (Mark says it tastes like chicken marsala). Can't go wrong with that. There was also aros con pollo, empanadas, chicken, lamb, and beef skewers and some other tasty delicacies. Havana has proved yet again why it's one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants!

The rain was starting to fall as we left and hasn't relented. I'm watching it come down in sheets from my perch 20 stories above 8th Avenue. April showers I can take. But a freezing cold monsoon? A move to Hawaii or St Thomas sounds very appetizing right now!

Happy Birthday, Leezie!

Happy birthday to the best oldest sister on the planet! We will be celebrating tonight with dinner in the West Village--more about that tomorrow! Hope you have a wonderful day, Leezie, you deserve it!

Pirate Queen Opening

I didn't have a chance to post these pics the other night after the opening of Pirate Queen. We had a lot of fun at the show, and afterwards as Leezie and I were interviewed by some Dublin-based TV host who was sporting some rocking prom-circa-1997 look including a curly updo complete with mini butterfly clips and a floor length silver and black dress studded with rhinestones! Speed also gave us a backstage tour, giving us an inside glimpse of what he does and how everything operates...very impressive! Now, everyone go see Pirate Queen!

Happy Easter!

Karl and I just returned from another great weekend at home. We took off on Friday night and sailed down the Jersey Turnpike without hitting any traffic. And despite the ridiculously cold weather (and snow!), we had a lovely time--hitting up the mecca of all discount warehouses, C-Mart, where I tried on some hideous but uber-trendy high-waisted jeans that somehow made it to Landover from Intermix (marked down to $200 from $350. Not much of a dil). They scream fashion victim, and Karl had a good laugh at me in the dressing room (I didn't get them to say the least). We then hit up Sh&*!ty Place for a little more ghettofab shopping and then I went out to meet Corinne and Lonnie. We had a great dinner at Thaiphoon in Dupont, then ran across the street to Bistro Du Coin for a bit. It was so nice to see them!

Easter was spent at the Farm where we had a delicious brunch with Uncle Joe, Stella, and the newly-engaged Kasia and Andres! We got to see her gorgeous ring and here all about their new condo. Stella, my mom, and Karl had made some delicious food--ham, turkey, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, "My Mutha's", scalloped potatoes, etc.-- and Stella had everything prepared perfectly for Easter! I have some video I'll post later featuring that. Sadly, we missed Aleta, Ella, and Philip, who had to stay in York due to a sick Ella. Poor thing! But I was able to talk to her a bit on the phone--she is so grown up!

We made it back up to NYC in about five hours, after hitting some major traffic in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country area. Ugh. That and my worsening cold made the trip a little frustrating, but Karl definitely helped make it more bearable. A very nice weekend in all!

White Hot!

No, this picture isn't there to illustrate my freakishly large hands and scarily spindly fingers, but it very well could be...Actually, I snapped the shot to demonstrate the frshest look in nails--white! That's right, white is new the black (and the new plum!).

The lovely Keren treated me to a "not so basic" manicure at Just Calm Down spa for my birthday, so I took the opportunity to the trendy white look tonight. The mani was excellent, and I even got tiny black flower designs on my ring fingers (OK, so "embellishments" aren't really fashion-forward, but I think they're a cute touch!)

Too bad I didn't have this mani when I was being filmed for a documentary this afternoon at work. At one point, I had to open up a box of flowers that were delivered to my boss and bring them into her office. It was all very Devil Wears Prada, although I have a feeling my "scene" will end up on the cutting-room floor.

My (soon-to-be) Famous Friend

Over the weekend, I finally got a chance to watch the episode of Grey's Anatomy, which was penned by the one, the only, Chris Van Dusen. ' It 's a pretty cool feeling to see the name of one your good friends flash up in the opening credits of a hit TV show--especially when he's billed as the author of the episode! Even back in 7th Grade, I knew he was destined for stardom, and it's clear that he's well on his way! I'm sure not many 27-year-olds can claim they've to be the writer on a hit TV show!

Anyway, I'll stop gushing now, but wanted to share with you this article about Chris from the Emory Wheel, which expands a bit on how Chris got this gig.

Grey's Anatomy: Guiding the Scalpel

Emory Alum Works Behind the Scenes on One of TV's Most Popular Shows

By: David Marek

Posted: 3/23/07

Two years ago, with its dramedy "Boston Legal" struggling to find a consistent fanbase on Sunday nights, ABC decided to switch out the floundering law show for an untested and relatively unknown medical drama called "Grey's Anatomy." It was a bold midseason move that some speculated wouldn't succeed.

Around that same time, Emory alum Chris Van Dusen ('01C) had just finished his graduate work at the University of Southern California's prestigious screenwriting program. Looking for work, a mutual friend introduced him to up-and-coming producer and writer Shonda Rhimes who had just successfully pitched "Grey's Anatomy" to ABC. One thing led to another, and Van Dusen quickly found himself Rhimes' assistant as her show was heading to prime-time television.

Flash forward two years. That inconspicuous mid-season replacement has now grown to become one of the most popular shows in recent memory. "Grey's Anatomy" regularly beats out CBS' long-time ratings champion, "CSI." Fans of the roller-coaster medical drama, many within the highly coveted 18-24 demographic, tune in religiously to watch the show.

During the first Thursday of sweeps in February, "Grey's Anatomy" raked in a grand total of 23.9 million viewers. To give you an idea of how big that number is, more people watched "Grey's Anatomy" that night than live in all of Saudi Arabia.

And those numbers don't include the Friday reruns and the Web-only repeats.

Likewise, Van Dusen's career has grown with the show.

Although he started out merely doing general office work for Rhimes, the show's creator soon started giving Van Dusen more and more responsibilities. He wrote a blog for the show in the voice of the Joe - the characters' favorite bartender.

The popularity of the blog then led to Van Dusen co-writing a book in Joe's voice with another blogger from the show, editing the show's official magazine and working on clip and recap shows.

But Van Dusen's career reached a new high with last night's gut-wrenching episode, which he wrote in its entirety.

"This season, after working for [Shinonda] for two years, I pitched an episode idea, and she liked it, and I got a chance to write it," Van Dusen said in an interview with the Wheel.

And the show was an important one at that, providing some clarity to the increasingly complicated relationship between Izzie and George and setting the stage for the rest of the season.

"A lot of fans are torn and confused right now, but the stuff that lies ahead for Izzie and George makes for some awesome television," Van Dusen wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel.

Although Van Dusen was the principal writer for last night's episode, the writing process is a collaborative one.

The roughly 12 writers for the show get together at the beginning of the season and brainstorm ideas. They present interesting medical cases, talk about the direction of the characters and bounce ideas off each other. Rhimes and other producers also play an integral part in the writing process.

"Shonda Rhimes really sets out where she wants to take the show throughout the whole season," Van Dusen said.

From there, the writers are assigned to work on their own specific episodes.

However, at this point the writing process still isn't over. In fact, even during the filming of the episode, changes are made to the script and storyline.

This ever-evolving writing process has forced Van Dusen to be flexible with his own writing style.

"For example, in the early stages of writing my episode, we never had Izzie confess to Addison about her sleeping with George. But Shonda felt we really needed to see Izzie confide in someone. The resulting scene between Izzie and Addison adds another great, fantastic layer to that whole storyline," Van Dusen wrote.

In addition to writing his own storyline, Van Dusen also had to worry about fitting his script withing the larger "Grey's Anatomy" plot. This meant that Van Dusen had to work closely with writers like Executive Story Editor Stacy McKee, who wrote the episode that immediately follows Van Dusen's.

"We had a unique situation in that he and I were sharing custody of a single storyline (with a new character) that spans both our episodes," McKee wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel. "So as soon as a beat in his story changed, it meant that I needed to shift the story in mine as well."

While at Emory, Van Dusen didn't show much interest in television or screenwriting. He didn't take one screenwriting class. Instead, his focus was journalism.

Van Dusen was a staff writer at the Wheel for four years, and he graduated with a co-major in journalism and economics in 2001.

Van Dusen got his first taste of working in the entertainment industry when he took a summer internship for NBC's "The Today Show."

"I always found myself leaning towards the entertainment side," Van Dusen said.

After college, Van Dusen decided to change his life radically when he applied and was accepted to USC, where he studied scriptwriting.

This change eventually led to the Emory alum's involvement in one of the popular shows on TV. In the beginning, it was hard believe how successful the show was going to be.

"During those first couple weeks we started to air, I would go to restaurants, grocery stores, video stores - wherever I was - and I seemed to always overhear some kind of conversation about Meredith and Derek, or Cristina and Burke, or just about the show in general," Van Dusen wrote. "And it wasn't just because I live in L.A. When I would go home to visit my family in Maryland, I overheard the same kind of stuff."

- Contact David Marek at dmarek@learnlink.emory.edu

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© Copyright 2007 The Emory Wheel

And we're back.

I'm trying not to be a glum plum about the fact that our vacation is over. At least the city's been kind to us since we returned from paradise; bestowing us with two sunny, pleasant-enough days. But St. Thomas was pretty much perfect, and no amount of exciting sites or people-watching NYC has to offer can hold a candle to the stunning views of that island. (Given my current 'tude, it may not suprise you that Mark and I are seriously considering taking up permanent residence there! If only I could convince my boss to start up CosmoGIRL! Caribbean!)

Anyway, since it'll take me a bit to get back into the swing of work, coldish weather, and flourescent lighting, I have a hunch that I'll be staring longingly into these pictures for quite some time. Click on the picture below to see the entire album.

St.Thomas

St Thomas

Checking in from the lap of paradise, the U.S. Virgin Islands. We had a hell of a time getting here (never ever again do I want to speak or see another US Air or American employee again!), but it was well worth the stressful journey. Above are two shots of the many picturesque views we've seen in our two days here. To the left is the view from our balcony (that's Frenchman's Bay and the pool), and to the right is Trunk Bay on St. John, where we visited today (it's a quick ferry ride away). I'll write much more later. Must get back to the NYC news (can't escape Manhattan wherever we go--all network channels broadcast out of New York!). Miss you all!