Promo Shots with 60b Photography!

So a few months back, I spied one of my actor friends' little sister posting some absolutely AMAZING photographs on her facebook, and I clicked over to find out who she was and how she had such gorgeous photographs. As it turns out, I accidentally stumbled across what turned out to be the incredibly talented Jillian from 60b Photography.

I immediately fell in love with her shots, and emailed her to ask if she would be interested in doing a promo shoot so I could have some more shots for my websites, mainly my acting site, but also a few great shots for my dog boarding site, as well. She quickly wrote back that she would love to, and she started following my blog and suggested that it might be fun to do a shoot that was "a day in the life of Kate" themed, and I thought that sounded like a cool idea!

So here goes nothing!

Every morning, I wake up to at least two sets of similarly pouty puppy eyes staring into my face:

Coffee is a first-thing type of deal in our household, although I promise you that I don't look nearly this put together while I'm still on my first cup, haha...

Once I get myself together, it's time to hit the subway for auditions/rehearsals/work work work!

Don't try to keep up ;)

This picture perfectly captures how I feel when I'm out and about in the city on a beautiful day, getting work done, sipping on coffee, and just generally loving living here:

I also spend a lot of time at the library, borrowing scores, reading scripts, watching tv shows (strictly as research, of course...).

Doesn't everybody have tea parties in the park?

It's the best place to learn lines, work on audition sides, update my websites -- Bryant Park and I spend a lot of quality time together in the warmer weather!

But then it's time to get back to the doggies who depend on me for snuggles. I meet with prospective clients, exercise the pups I currently have, and send out emails in response to queries I receive, all while in the company of these two cuties:

And I'm sure to end each day with a doggy snuggle, as well :)

Jillian took beautiful photos, and I'm so happy to have them for my sites! If you'd like to see some more of my pictures, head on over to my actor website here.

Also, if you're in the New York/Connecticut area and engaged, getting married, or wanting anniversary shots, Jillian is a great bet. Head on over here to see what she's done with other couples. And you know she comes highly recommended by me!

Thanks so much, Jillian!

My New Life Motto

I've decided that this is my new life motto:

Haha. Just kidding. Mostly.

The Top Ten Ways to Relax in New York City (On a Budget!)

Anyone who reads this blog must know how much I love New York City. I mean, why else would I write a whole blog about living here, right? New York is a vibrant, eclectic, exciting, and intensely interesting place to live.

Which also means that it can be hectic, frazzled, stifling, and overwhelming, too. There's a reason those high-priced, $400 facial type spas exist (and it's not just because The Real Housewives need something else to do).

While Dan and I were at the beach a few weeks ago and I was thinking about how relaxing I find it there, I realized there was one "top ten in New York" list that I had never seen. And so, without further ado, I bring you:

The Top Ten Ways To Relax in New York City Without Prostituting Yourself to Pay For It:

1. Enjoy a (plastic) bottle of wine while watching Shakespeare in the Park. Seeing Shakespeare performed in Central Park for free has been a New York tradition for fifty or so years now, but the recent advent of the online ticket lottery has taken all the stress out of snagging some tickets. Head over here to enter yourself into the lotto any time before 1 PM on show day, and with a moderately flexible schedule, you're sure to get tickets. There's nothing more relaxing than seeing great theatre at sunset with a breeze blowing and the city muted around you, in my opinion. Bonus relaxation points: bring a bottle of wine with you to enjoy during the show. Food and drink are totally allowed in the theater, the only rule is no glass.

(Photo Credit)

2. Walk home after midnight. The city is ever so much more peaceful then.

3. Ride the Staten Island Ferry. This is another freebie steal. Get out on the water, take in the stunning skyline views, and get up close and personal with Lady Liberty herself. Sit outside on the top level for the best views and zen. Get off at Staten Island and grab the next ferry right back and you've got a full 90 minutes of tranquility lined up. Just avoid commuting hours (7-10 AM and 4-7 PM).

(Photo Credit)

4. Have drinks at a rooftop bar.

5. Get a pedicure. Unlike everything else in New York, pedicures are cheap. Cheaper than they are elsewhere. And there's nothing so relaxing as being forced to sit still for a few minutes in the middle of the day, plus there's no better way to feel fresh, groomed, and pampered than to have a cute, new coat of nail polish on.

6. Sip on an over-priced and calorie-laden latte at Starbucks, cuddled up in an armchair and watching snowflakes fall through the windowpanes.

7. Lay in the middle of the lawn in Bryant Park after dark.

8. Eat dinner at a sidewalk cafe.

9. Take the B train to Brighton Beach. Sure, it's not the cleanest or nicest beach, but it IS pretty incredible that you can hop on the train in the concrete jungle of Midtown and hop off an hour later at the beach.

10. And I know this isn't actually in the city, buuuut if all else fails, get out of the city! There are so many great places to escape to overnight or for the weekend without even having a car! Take the metro north railroad to a quiet inn in Connecticut or to a cabin in the Hudson Valley. Take NJ Transit and stay at the Jersey Shore (I promise, it's not all like that TV show...). Take Amtrak to a weekend getaway in Philly. It doesn't have to break the bank, but just getting away from the hustle for a couple of days can really do wonders for your sanity.

What are your best relaxation tips in New York City?

The Weirdest Thing of All

I've always thought that it must be seriously be the weirdest thing ever to see yourself plastered up on a huge billboard at ten times your actual size. But after walking by this the other morning:

I now know that the weirdest thing ever HAS to be seeing your face torn off the side of a building in sheets. What a strange world we live in, haha.

The Adventure in Vermont Concludes -- Reasons Why I Still Want to Live in NYC

After reading all of these posts about how lovely Burlington and its surrounding areas are, you might be worrying that I'm about to pack up and move my little family to Vermont, leaving my poor Manhattan-centric blog to wither and die a lonely death.

I assure you, however, that this is not the case. Although I adored Burlington and would jump at the chance to spend a few weeks there again (this time, with husband in tow!), there's nothing to worry about. I'm still a New Yorker at heart :)

I thought I'd put together a little post with just a couple of the reasons why I couldn't live in Vermont as a permanent kind of thing. For one, the culture and energy in New York is impossible to beat. Everything happens here, and I love that. For instance, there are whole rooms here in libraries filled with works by New York authors. Here's what I found in a giant bookstore in Burlington:

12 whole books by Vermont natives. That's right.

Also, although I'm surely generalizing, New York tends to be just a tad more liberal-minded:

Yes, that does read, "Satan's ploys are no match for Christ's power" in the window of the laundromat. I mean, I'm all for exercising your religion, but at the laundromat? I really just want to wash my clothes, thanks.

And although we were fabulously lucky because August was the perfect time to be in Burlington and this was about the worst weather we saw:

Vermont looks a whole lot more like this for many, many months out of every year:

(Photo Credit)

And let me tell ya, New York is about as cold a place as I EVER want to live!

But most of all, in coming home to the city, I was just so thrilled to be back with this:

The people that I love, of course. I so so so missed my family and friends while I was away, and am very happy to be home!

Have you ever been away from home for many weeks or months at a time? Did it make you consider moving? Why or why not?

The Adventure in Vermont Continues -- Daytrip to Montreal!

One of the last parts about my stay in Vermont that I'd like to share with you was one of my favorite parts of the whole month -- my solo daytrip to Canada!

Being in Burlington, we were only about a 90 minute drive from Montreal, and though I've been to Canada many times, I'd never seen Montreal and I'd never been to Canada period as an adult, so I knew I had to go! I couldn't get my fellow castmates to commit to a date and time, which bummed me out at first, but then I decided what the hell? I'm a big girl and I don't want to miss out on this opportunity, I'm going solo! Then I remembered that Kelly (AKA Mrs. Flamingo) and her brand new baby lived near Montreal, and I was sold!

Although I've been out of the country dozens of times in my life, this was the first time I'd ever left by myself and, I'll admit, I was a little nervous! I made it through customs fine, though, and I was into Canada!

After a relatively short drive and a little bit of a frazzled time trying to find parking in downtown Montreal, I met up with Kelly and adorable baby Mavi, who slept through most of the time we were together!

Sadly, Kelly and I didn't think to get someone to take our picture together, so you'll just have to take my word for it that she looked beautiful and stylish, and that I was so excited to finally meet her.

She took me to this cute cafe where their specialty is all different kinds of pie. This whole case was filled with different pies:

I settled on some sort of divine chocolate pie, of course. I don't remember what it was called, but it was heavenly:

After lunch, we wandered around the streets of Montreal doing some shopping. Kelly took me into several fabulous stores, one of which was this great vintage store where I wanted to buy everything, but ended up buying this awesome robin's egg blue vintage Italian leather jacket for $35:

I wish I had a better picture of it, but don't worry, you'll be seeing a lot of it around these parts, I'm sure, since I wear it allll the time.

Then after a couple of hours, Kelly and Mavi had to go (sad face!), but I still wanted to see a little bit more of Montreal before I headed back, so I drove over to the vieux port and did some wandering.

I ran across this adorable little street fair with wonderful art vendors in a small alley:

Admired the quaint cobblestone streets...

And found my way into the Notre Dame cathedral, which was absolutely breathtaking. My sad picture doesn't do it justice, I assure you:

At that point, I grabbed a postcard as a souvenir and packed myself back up into the car to head home, as I was getting a little worried about how well my little yorkie was behaving for my host family, who graciously offered to babysit her for the day.

On the way back, the gray skies cleared and I was treated to the most stunning farmland scenery to drive back through:

All in all, I had a fabulous day, and I'm so glad I went, even if it did have to be by myself. I adored Montreal, and I'd love to go back for a weekend someday with Dan because I know there's a ton more to see!

Have you ever taken a trip by yourself? 

The Adventure in Vermont Continues -- Cliff Jumping!

Many of you may remember from my celebratory facebook and twitter posts that I jumped off of a cliff while I was in Vermont. No, not just while I was in Vermont. On the VERY first day I was in Vermont. It was quite the way to start off the month.

One of the cast members is a Burlington local, so he knows a lot of the great spots to hang out, and he took us to Bristol Falls, a 35 minute drive south from Burlington. It was idyllic, with lush green woods, babbling waters, and...a huge freaking waterfall!

(Photo credit to Walter Rodriguez, a fellow castmate and professional photographer)

Do you see the verrrry small dude wearing red trunks all the way up there in the top left of that photograph? That's the rock we jumped off of. And yeah, we landed at the bottom of that waterfall. A jump of probably 25 feet.

When we first got there, I was like, Hell no, I'm not jumping! I was pretty comfy just sitting on this rock in the sun.

(Photo credit to W.R.)

But then everyone else jumped and said it was so fun and I thought, Well, what a great way to start off a month of adventure...

(Photo credit to W.R.)

So I spent way too long standing on that rock and looking down. WAY too long. If you're ever faced with an opportunity to cliff jump, my friends, do not overanalyze. I promise, it does not get any easier by standing and staring at the fall for a long period of time.

Finally, I thought to myself, If I can go to terrifying auditions all the time and not let that get me down, then a little jump off a rock is not going to paralyze me either. And I went for it.

(Photo credit to W.R.)

It was scary. It was fun. It was the most exhilarating thing I've done in a long time, maybe ever. What a rush, man. I'm not a huge adrenaline junkie, but for a few moments, I understood why people are. 

But sheesh, that water was cold at the bottom! Catch-your-breath cold. And it was a long swim back to the spot where I could climb up again.

(Photo credit to W.R.)

So when Dan and my friends came up the last weekend of performances to see the show and hang out, they had heard about my adventure and wanted to head to Bristol Falls, too!

We are all a little goofy, no lie.

Laura proved what a bad ass she is by walking right up to the edge of the rock and just jumping right off. You go, girl!

Dan took a long time to get warmed up to the idea, but eventually he loved it, too.

And this is my friend Lynde's reaction to the idea of cliff jumping once she saw how high up the rock was:

And she goes skydiving! That gives you an idea of how intimidating this jump looked (and was!).

Have you ever been cliff jumping? What's the most adventurous outdoorsy thing you've ever done?

The Adventure in Vermont Continues -- The Vermont Teddy Bear Factory!

Next up in the Vermont Adventures series -- The Vermont Teddy Bear Factory! My wonderful in-laws (and brother-in-law!) drove all the way from southern Massachusetts one weekend to see a performance of mine and to hang out. My Mother-in-Law, Michelle, is a huge fan of Vermont Teddy Bears (for you non-New Englanders, they're like Build-a-Bears) and the factory is only about ten minutes outside of Burlington, so we decided to take a trip Sunday morning.

We started off by getting to squeeze some of the adorable teddy bears that have been made throughout the history of the company. I don't know what's going on with my face in this picture, my only excuse is that it was early the morning after I had a performance:

We got to hear all about how they make the bears, and see the workshop where the magic happens. It was like one giant Disney-fied sewing room:

My favorite part of the tour was the end where we saw the Teddy Bear Hospital. Please note how adorable it is that the IV bag is a honey jar :)

The "hospital" really functions, though. The Vermont Teddy Bear Company has a lifetime guarantee on all of its bears, and will fix and/or replace your bear, no matter what happens to it. Even if you run it over with a lawnmower, they will fix your frankenbear and send it back to you. I thought that was pretty cool. Customer service at its best, right?

Outside the factory, there was a big food truck with a giant hotdog on the side that Stella and I wanted to get a picture with. Yes, we're goofy. Yes, she cooperated for this. Thank you, dear.

And one of my favorite pictures from my whole month is this one that I convinced everyone to pose for with me. It's cheesy, and I had to do a little begging to get the boys to agree, but isn't it cute?

After the factory, we stopped at a souvenir shop in town and I picked up one of the most fun souvenirs ever: chapstick called Moose Smooch! With this picture on the side:

A big, huge thank you to my wonderful new family who made the long drive up to Burlington to see my show and keep me company. I love you guys!

What's the silliest souvenir you've ever picked up?

The Adventure in Vermont Continues -- Ben & Jerry's!

So I've been a very, very bad blogger this past month. There's no denying it. I have a couple of excuses: 


1. The internet access I had at my host family's was spotty, at best, and whenever I was able to grab a moment of internet, either at their house or by going to a coffee shop, I had about five million things to attend to that didn't include blogging. Running three businesses while you're out of town takes work, yo! 


2. August was tough on me, my friends. Yes, Vermont was a very great adventure. Probably the biggest adventure I've had since our Greek honeymoon. I saw incredible sights, met some friends for life in the form of my host family, lunched with some Bees, explored the countryside on my own, and performed in an incredible play. But it was also quite the challenge. I missed my husband and doggies and home A LOT, and the working atmosphere at the theater was quite stressful for me.


I'd still like to go back in time, though, and share some of the wonderful things I saw and experienced while I was in Vermont! First up -- the Ben & Jerry's Factory! My incredible godmother, Jana, who lives in Maine, made the trip over to Vermont for the first weekend of performances and brought along her granddaughter, Alex. The three of us spent the weekend having all sorts of fun! This is the view we saw of the factory from the parking lot:

Only in Vermont would a factory be surrounded by trees and greenery, right? I convinced Alex to pose with a cow sculpture, although I'm sure she would want me to tell you that it was only reluctantly:

As a huge Ben & Jerry's devotee, walking up to these doors made me feel like a little girl meeting Cinderella at Disney World. I'm not even kidding.

Once inside, I was giddy to be greeted by a whole wall of all of the Ben & Jerry's flavors in existence!

We soon started the tour, which was a bargain at only $3 a person. It was a short tour, though, so a trip here won't take all day, just in case you're thinking about making plans to visit. We learned about which flavors are the most popular:

I was surprised to learn that Cherry Garcia beats out Cookie Dough...I guess not everyone is as big of a Cookie Dough fiend as I am! Then we got to see the giant room where the ice cream actually gets made. Although it was big, it wasn't as big as I would have expected a room where 300k pints of ice cream gets made every day. Think: the size of a small black box theater. Sadly, you're not allowed to take pictures in that room, so I don't have any. But I did snap a picture of the place where I want to work someday:

I mean, right?? Then we got to dig into some samples and hear about all the flavors that have been discontinued, like one that incorporated kahlua...until the production of that ice cream single-handedly drove up the price of kahlua so high that it wasn't cost effective to make the ice cream anymore! Oops!

We also saw some cool relics from the very first Ben & Jerry's stand, which was run out of a remodeled gas station in Burlington. These are some of the original signs from that stand in the 60's:

And, of course, because it's me and I'm a huge dork/ham, I had to get a cheesy picture with the human-sized faux pint of ice cream!

Overall, I had a lot of fun, but the tour wasn't anything fancy. For all you Ben & Jerry's lovers out there, it's definitely worth the trip if you're in the area. Plus, I got some super cute souvenirs in the gift shop, including an actual combination lock that fits their ice cream pints. No more ice cream thieves in this house ;)

What's your favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor?