The Everyday Stranger

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Almost every work day for the last two months I've smiled or waved at the same guy that I pass on my way to work each day. I assume he works in the building next to my office building, which is being repaired for a new tenant. I'm not sure what’s going into it, a store or more office space, but there's a whole construction crew working in there, the stranger one of the team. He is probably about 30. Anyway, so there's this window that looks out onto the sidewalk and each morning he is at that window eating his breakfast or sipping his coffee on the counter top that's at the window too. I'm not sure how our routine started, I think I caught his eyes and smiled then the next day he waved, then I waved. It then progressed to mouthing good morning and now it’s a tradition. It's all very friendly like, I'm not intending to take this any further of course nor does he seem inclined to. Some mornings I look forward to the greeting, but some times I know feel obligated to wave since he's right there looking at me and expecting it. Sometimes his coworkers are there too and they also wave, which seems to embarrass the stranger.

News: I helped co-ordinate an interview between this reporter and my client, Taleo, after sending Ephraim some stats on Baby Boomer's and their impending retirement, peaking his interest. Was very glad to see that it worked out and resulted in coverage in InfoWorld. Filling the void left by baby-boomer techies. The reporter also left me a nice voicemail thanking me for my help and saying I should be a reporter. If he only knew that was my former/side career.

Read More »

Took the stool right out from under me

Sunday, February 26, 2006

I visited my father's restaurant today for the first time since his passing. He was the original owner and chef since I was a little girl. He had several restaurants at one point but Settembre's Italian Restaurant and Catering was his last and the one that I spent the most time in. My uncle Tony owns it now, but he's been trying to sell it for awhile now, since he was never much of a cook and has a successful limo business to run, Settembre's Limos, sensing a family biz name trend? Anyway, the restaurant has switched management and names several times now, it was a Mexican place at first and most recently Rockin Robins--an American grill and ice cream shop. The renters were five months behind in rent so my uncle had to lock the doors on them and is selling the equipment inside to cover expenses.

Going inside wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, since it changed so much. The only thing similar was the catering halls in the back of the place where I'd hide away dancing to the juke box when I was bored. Being outside in the parking lot was hard though. I had flashes of all the times I'd pull up to grab a pie and some of my dad's yummy food to share with friends and all the times I was dropped off there to visit with my dad and the summers I spent there helping out folding pizza boxes, being a soda jerk or waitressing. My heart expected him to come out and join us in the empty lot, wearing his usual apron tied around his waist and a t-shirt covered in flour. Alas, the freezing winds and memories were the only things greeting me today.

The reason for my visit after five years of looking the other way when I drove by, was to pick up two bar stools for my apartment, to replace the ugly bulky ones that came with the place. No one ever really wanted to sit on them, except for when I was cooking them dinner (daughter like father) and had no choice. The stools are perfect, red like almost everything in my apartment (couch, microwave, etc). They are very retro too, which is also very me. Whatcha think?

News: I set up an interview and press release for my step dad Michael and so far it's resulted in the following article: Financial planners: Winning the lottery isn't always a dream. An AM radio channel is interested in speaking with him too, and I'm hoping to hear back from more local CT media as well.

Read More »

Thursday, February 23, 2006

What do you prefer?
I've had good and bad with both, so I'm not one to really talk, but it's been the topic of conversation lately with some of my friends, two of whom are experiencing this problem on Match and are not sure which way is best or the protocol of when to end the emailing and bringing it to the next level before things get stale or preconceived opinions are formed.

I've had some nice email exchanges but often find people can hide behind words and be different online. So I prefer just meeting people and deciding for myself, a la Blink. Then again I recently gone on a couple of dates with someone and since we didn't converse before or after our dates on phone or email, it was like meeting with a stranger instead of a friend. So what's the moral of this post I guess there should be a happy medium, a way to connect but not mask or get too comfortable online that you don't have an offline future.

Sexy Stats: 81% of women have gotten the giggles during lovemaking--compared to 51 percent of men. Yet, 35% of men have teared up during lovemaking--compared to 23 percent of women.

Video: Brokeback to the Future lol, this brings in a whole other level to Doc and McFly.

Read More »

Movin on up

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Today was an all around good day for me, especially career wise. I arranged for two briefings with two different InfoWorld reporters for one of my clients. Then found out during my 90-day review at my new PR firm that I was being promoted. So, I'm no longer an Assistant Account Executive but an Account Executive. I was hoping to get this promotion by my sixth month review since I was on my way to becoming at AE at my previous company, so was very pleased, honored and excited to achieve this promotion sooner rather than later.

I was already having dinner with friends coming in from Tennessee and my NY girls that evening so I was ecstatic to be able to share my good news with them. I toasted with a glass of red at dinner with my fabulous lasagna that I had and then a glass of champagne at Bar Veloce. Cheers!

My mother meanwhile was also in the city on business and having a field day at Clinique picking up stuff for the both of us at 40% off thanks to her new candidate that works at Clinique's marketing department and receives an employee discount. I can't wait to see the goodies she picked out for me during her next visit.

PS: Back in December I blogged about being in the audience during George Clooney's speech at NYU on his now Oscar nominated film Good Night and Good Luck and journalism in general. Well, now you too can watch the 55 min panel HREF="http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/zone_faculty.html#rock-clooney"here
.

Read More »

Film School Rejects

Friday, February 17, 2006

I'm now one of the staff writers at Film School Rejects, a brand new site offering movie critique and news. I'm mostly going to be writing DVD reviews like I did at DVDFanatic. I've pasted links to my most recent ones below. I'll also be writing the occasional editorial too, especially come Oscar time.

DVD Reviews:
Just Like Heaven
Red Eye
Joonbug

My staff bio reads:
"Tara has her master’s in journalism from NYU and was a former features reporter at a daily CT newspaper. Her passion is movies, thanks to her dad who brought her to see a new movie every Monday and for ignoring R ratings even when she was only five, which later led to a detention in elementary school for saying “Yippee-ki-yay, motherf *$%ker” to her gym teacher who reminded her of Bruce Willis’ Die Hard character. Her movie claim to fame is auditioning for the little girl in Three Men and a Little Lady, dancing with Robert Downey Jr. and for seeing every movie on the AFI 100 list. Tara lives in New York City and writes When Tara Met Blog …oh and she still has a thing for Bruce Willis."

Read More »

Just Say Yes

Thursday, February 16, 2006

I know my friends are tired of me preaching about how you should never turn down a reasonable date, even if you may just want to be friends. A date is a date and its good practice. One girlfriend of mine emailed me saying I was going to say no, because I had a lot going on that weekend and then I thought ‘what would Tara do?’ So yeah, she went on the date and supposedly had fun, so there you go. Even if it doesn’t lead to something erstwhile, my philosophy is that it gets you that more comfortable dating and out there. I’m not saying to date a real jerk just because they asked you out, I mean accepting dates within reason and if you're not interested after that you don't have to go on a second.

The following Newsweek article Dating: Positive Thinking

about the book, The Year of Yes, just goes to show that my advice might be sound after all...

Maria Dahvana Headley grew up listening to the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign of the 1980s. As a student at NYU in the late '90s, she applied that advice to her love life, turning down most men who asked her out and dating only intellectual, literary types. Frustrated by those guys, she reversed course, resolving to spend one year responding positively to all flirting and saying yes to literally anyone who asked her out. The ensuing 150 dates included a homeless man, several non-English speakers, 10 taxi drivers, two lesbians and a mime.

Headley's memoir of the experience, The Year of Yes, is now in bookstores, and Hollywood's already calling. She urges other people to say yes more often, despite some horrible dates. (One guy took her to a bar that, it became clear, was a strip club—and that's a tame example.) "Lots of women are pretty set in what they think they have to have in order to be happy, but it doesn't hurt to date people who are not that," she says. It worked for her: during her dating spree, she met a playwright who was divorced and 25 years older and had two children—baggage that would have ordinarily nixed his chances. They married in 2003; now 28, Headley lives in Seattle with two teenage stepchildren. "It's something I never would have picked, but it's turned out to be this kind of amazing experience," she says.

Read More »

Valentine's--not just for Lovers

I've never spent Valentine's Day with a special someone, since I've always happened to be single around VDay. Yet, I'm not one of those that scorn the Hallmark inspired event. My girlfriends find it annoying, one commented the other day, "it seems like a Tara holiday." I guess she's right. I just love holidays in general, Halloween though being my favorite. But just because you're single does not mean you can't enjoy Valentine's Day, it's like St. Patrick's Day, you don't really have to be Irish to participate.

I guess for me it's always been a friendship holiday actually. It started when we all would give our classmates Valentine's cards in elementary school, delivering them to each others desks. I still give out those little kids cardboard like cards to my friends each year and wear red to work. Yeah, I'm that annoying person.

Tonight I'm heading to Westchester to spend the evening with my mother and Nanny (who has been missing us). Aww, I know, although it's not last year's Valentine's day with Tony Danza. My favorite Valentine's Day though was in the 2nd grade when my father ordered me a HUGE heart shaped box of chocolates and I mean huge, it was literally bigger than me, I could barely hold it with my arms stretched out wide. My mother made me bring the chocolates to school in order to get them out of our house. There was enough chocolate for both 2nd grade classes and then to be brought into the teacher's lounge afterwards. Even by the time I was in the 4th grade, when I met my new teacher she said, you're the girl whose dad got her the big chocolate heart that we had here for days. Last year my stepdad had a VT teddy delivered to my office, so for me Valentine's isn't about romance but just love and friendship in general.

News: Valentine's go high-tech with text messaging.

Read More »

The party before the storm

Sunday, February 12, 2006

So I'm snowed in, over a foot of snow and still coming down. This storm ranked as the biggest snow storm in New York City history with 26.9 inches recorded in Central Park. Yet, my local Chinese restaurant is still making deliverers. I'm in my pjs watching TV, had to cancel brunch plans. Here's the view this morning from my fire escape:


On Friday night at midnight my friend Cindy got a bunch of us into the club Suede VIP--free drinks and entrance. Her friend dates the owner or something and after three years the place is going to be turned into a gay bar very soon, so we finally coordinated our schedules and got our groove on there. Although some of the guys were pretty sketch and they kept touching our hair when dancing, it was weird. Anyway as promised, here are some photos at the club and after wards, Massiel and I around 4 a.m., tired and waiting for our fries at Florent.


News: Frequent Netflix renters sent to back of the line Grr!
Quote of the week: Karen: "It's not like it's Ben and Jerry Go to White Castle." Me: "What? You mean Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle!" Karen: "Why what did I say?"

Read More »

What's on my DVR

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Dancing With The Stars
Project Runway
Lost
Grey's Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
My Name Is Earl
Monk
Commander In Chief
Daisy Does America
Alias
Joey
Hope & Faith
What I Like About You
Living With Fran
How I Met Your Mother

Sexy Fashion Stat: The average American spends between $60 and $360 a year on lingerie (RedBook). I wonder how much is spent on Valentine's day alone, by their men too.


Today's Random Search Query: I often receive hits in from search engines due to some random search queries. Today someone reached my blog by typing in, "how to met girls in ny city for free." First of all, using bad grammar like that will make it that much harder to meet someone, never mind for free. Secondly, I have no idea why When Tara Met Blog came up, yes, I am a girl in NYC, but I am anything but free ;)
Personal Quote of the Week: Who wants to go to a Republican party anyway? How much fun could it be without any gays?
Link My boss Leo just wrote a blog post on Avoiding the Wussification of Public Relations . I had suggested he use the word 'acquiescent,' which he did! It's pretty kick ass, the blog post that is, not the word.

Read More »

The ole razzle dazzle

Sunday, February 5, 2006

My friend Stef from Jersey just started student teaching a 4th grade class, but on Sunday mornings she trains at CBS studios to be a makeup artist. So, of course when we go out together she insists on doing my makeup, especially since I usually take the minimalist approach. I also freak out when people touch their eyes or put in their contacts, so I'm especially difficult to put eyeliner on, but Stef seems to be getting the hang of it. She used three different colored eye shadows (blue, silver, and brown) plus mascara and liquid eyeliner. I've never done more than one color, but I think it came out pretty cool, how about you?

And here I am apparently enjoying the look and am thanking Stef for her hard work.

After three rounds and spotting that it was 1:30 a.m., we decided to head back to the west side to order in some mozzarella sticks and drink some H20. Since each round of cosmos were $21, we were rendered cashless, so we headed to the subway, where we literally waited on the platform for 45 mins and by the time we got to my apt it was 3 a.m. At least Stef stayed amused taking photos of our plight:

Unfortunately Stef's car was towed the next morning, putting a damper on her visit for sure. Damn, alternate side of the street parking!

PS: Go Steelers!

Read More »

The Caffeine Workout

Friday, February 3, 2006

I read somewhere that a half an hour before you head to the gym you should have a cup of coffee or some sort of caffeine, that way you will increase the duration of your workout and be more awake and up to exercising.

Since I head to the gym after work and am usually a bit tired, I thought this made a lot of sense, I also have a Starbucks conveniently located at the base of my building. So, I would order a latte and head to Crunch. As a result I was going at least 5 mins more on the Elliptical machines and doing more reps. Who knows if it's a placebo effect or indeed the caffeine, but it was helping. I also felt more jazzed while there.

Until I finally realized that the calories that I was burning were only the calories that I just consumed while drinking the sugary, fancy latte's I had just ordered like the White Chocolate Mocha or Cinnamon Dolce Latte. I'm not a big coffee fan though and these are the only coffees that I drink, since they taste more like a hot chocolate or warm milk.

I love tea though, but usually drink decaffeinated since I'm a wimp when it comes to caffeine in the first place.Before I go to the gym now I'm going to have a cuppa Earl Gray or Green Tea--hold the calories--for that extra energy surge that I need.

I also just ordered some sample packs of loose leaf white tea from Adagio Teas, they come in these cute little tins too that look adorable on my counter. Let me know if you'd like me to email you a free $5 gift certificate, just put your email in the comments section and I will. FYI the sample packs cost only $1-3.

Read More »

Blogging is the New Black, the Glam.com conference

Thursday, February 2, 2006

This blog recently joined the GlamMedia blogging network, per their recruiting, thus the ads on the left side. I'm pretty excited about it, I was also invited to their conference and panel discussion this morning at the W Hotel in Times Square called, Blogging is the New Black, how the hottest media trend is changing fashion coverage.

Although, the British guy seated to my right from ZooZoom said that the conference's title implied that blogging is on it's way out and just a fad, instead he said that, blogging IS black. To my left was a very quiet but sleek female editor from Cosmopolitan who simply listened on and chatted with Glam.com VPs. I also briefly met a couple from girlawhirl. Oh and here's a quinky dink, in the row ahead of me was my former NYU J-School classmate who is now with The Daily News, yay for her! :)

As opposed to the technology and financial conferences that I have been to for work, the attendees here were 80% female and of course much better dressed. Although one woman did have a hole, shaped in almost a perfect circle, on her black tights, but maybe she was going for the Cyndi Lauper look? The other women present varied in chicness and styles, but it would appear from looking around the room that red shoes are in. Since there were red cowboy boots, red pumps and red patent leather sling backs in toe <--I spelt it that way on purpose, was trying to be cute). Even the VOSS water at the conference was stylish; my friend Massiel always buys VOSS because she likes the bottles' cap and shape. I snagged a bottle for the road on my way out.

During their slideshow I learned an interesting fact, apparently there are 25 million blogs worldwide and doubling every 5 months. Wow! I feel pretty insignificant now, lol. Oh and 10-15% of those blogs are fashion oriented. Which makes sense since everyone is a fashion critic right? And blogs are about personal expression after all.

Speaking of expressing their opinions, the model casting director/fashion blogger from COACD had plenty to share during the panel discussion. Oh and bachelors, he is auctioning off a date with a very pretty and nude female friend. Then there was The Sartorialist, who actually kept to the panel discussion about the impact of blogging on fashion. On his blog he has fashion portraits from man/woman on-the-street photo shoots, a lot of which have been taken in my neighborhood. I actually walked by when they were photographing the two women on Little West 12th Street. The final panel member with more of a fashion journalism background, dressed in a very cute flapper girl/depression style outfit complete with fur color and hat was Lesley from Fashion Tribes Daily, whose site has a lot of good fashion highlights.

News: According to MediaPost it only takes 50 Milliseconds for a visitor to a Web site to decide how appealing that site is. Hope you like.

Read More »