tinsely & bruley

First, I want to say thank you to all who read and commented or emailed regarding my “Life, in 3’s” post—grammar mistakes and all.  I’ll go back and fix them, but at the time, I was far more focused on the content.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. Truly, I was hurting more for the people involved, but thank you all for our concern about how I was doing. 

But a word to the wise—don’t tempt the universe by trying to change the rules. Days after I wrote that post, I learned a friend’s mom passed away.  My friend, Kirsten, who worked at Wife Swap with Jodi and me, lost her mother.  While I never met her mother, Kirsten was a bit of a mentor to me in my early days as a Casting PA.  I know she was exceptionally close to her mom, so my heart is with you Kiki (and Bella the boy cat and Jack)! Only a fabulous mother could have raised such a fabulous daughter!

So fine. Universe, you win this round of 3’s. But I think you owe me two babies (not personally, thankyouverymuch) or two pieces of fabulous news at least?  C’mon, pretty please?

You know how “they” say bad things come in 3’s?  Screw that. I’m changing the rules.

Last week, 2 fantastic men I know passed away.  I decided I wasn’t going to wait around for 3rd piece of bad news.  Instead, my friend, Tiffany, had a beautiful baby girl.  I want the universe to know: Enough. Deal over. Finito. Three pieces of big news, move along.

And now I’d like to take a moment to pay tribute to these 3 people in my life.

Last week, I noticed two friends became fans of “Friends of Adam Ruble” on Facebook.  My heart sank.  Adam Ruble is a childhood/family friend. We grew up at our country club together—we swam, played tennis, golf, volleyball, etc. (Waspy jokes another time please. I’m the first to point out how ridiculous that sounds, but I’ll save it for another post…) Adam and I were not particularly close, but I can say I’ve known him my whole life.  I have distinct memories of him telling me about his love of animals and how he wanted to be a vet one day.  He succeeded, and then some; he grew up to be a zookeeper (a real life zookeeper!) at the San Diego Zoo. In a terrible twist of fate, he was struck by a car after he got out of his car on the freeway.  It’s beyond strange and so baffling. I don’t know why he got out of his car, but I do know he did not have car troubles, drugs and alcohol were not involved, and they ruled his death an accident. A sad day for all who knew him, and a sad day for the animal world. I’ve since heard he wanted to go to law school to fight for animal rights. The world could use more men like Adam. Adam, wherever you are, I hope you are happy and surrounded by the animals you loved so dearly!  Thanks for being a part of my life, even if it was just in a small way. The family has asked for donations to the zoo in Adam’s honor.

With Adam on my mind and the week already off to a tainted start, I received word from my friend, Julia, about our friend Jodi and her boyfriend, James.  Julia was vague on the details, but she said Jodi and James were in Boston for the weekend to go to the Pats game. James slipped and fell and hit his head.  The next day he was rushed into emergency brain surgery. It turned out, James suffered from an epidural hematoma and was currently in a coma.  Okay. Okay, Jodi must be devastated, but there is hope right?  Never lose hope.  A day or two went by, and I received an email from Jodi explaining the situation more in depth. In what must have been an unfathomably difficult email to write, Jodi explained that James would not be coming out of the coma. The strength she had to write such a composed and lovely email delivering such terrible news is nothing short of phenomenal.  James was the love of her life.  I didn’t know James well, but I recently (feels like yesterday!) had drinks with the both of them when they were visiting LA. James was a fantastic, amazing, crazy fun guy—a perfect match for Jodi.  I’ve known Jodi with a few boyfriends, but no one compared to James. I was so looking forward to a wedding like no other.  They decided on 3pm (kick-off time) as a tribute to James’ love of football to let him go.  James, you will be missed so very much by so many people. May your spirit live on in Jodi.  And Jodi, my love, I think of you ever second of the day.  I hope from the picture above, you get a sense of the type of couple they were.  A couple you want to be, and at the very least, a couple to be friends with.  Thank you James and Jodi for showing us what real love is and when we have it, never ever take one second for granted.

THAT FACE. I know.  As I referenced above, I was not about to wait for the other ball to drop. I chose my own number 3.  Perhaps a better writer could come up with some non-cliche reference to death and new life, but right now I got nothing.  Just know, it’s not lost on me. While still in shock from both Adam and James’ untimely deaths, news of my friend Tiffany in labor was a welcome (if only brief) distraction. (You might remember Tiffany from here and here). Without going into too much depth about her personal business, I will say Tiffany is a stunningly beautiful, amazingly fun, and all around awesome girl. The father of her child? Not so much.  Hey dude, I happen to know 2 men who would have loved the opportunity to be fathers, so maybe you can step up to the plate a bit?  Sorry, back to Tiffany.  Thanks to an epidural and good baby karma (or something like that), Tiffany had a fairly quick and easy labor.  Baby Samantha decided to join us on Saturday, weighing in at a healthy 8.4 pounds. Welcome Sammy!  So glad you are here!  I’m so proud to call Tiffany my friend.  What a strong and resilient woman she is!  Baby Sam hit the mommy jackpot.  Now get your butts back to California so I can hang out with my girls!

I want to say, all three of these people should have their own posts.  But I realize this is a public forum, and I even though I could go on and on and on, I just wanted you all to read even a little bit about these three and their lives here on earth.  For Adam and James, their time was far too brief.  For Sammy, it’s only been brief (so far!). But I would like to note, I feel so fortunate these three people (and the others mentioned) are a part of my life, and my story. I want their stories known. Thank you for reading.

1. Bloody Mary

2. Cosmopolitan

3. Dry Martini

4. Pina Colada

5. Sake

6. Tequila

7. Vodka Tonic

8. Whiskey

9. White Russian

+ INFO: Bevshots 

For reals.  Thanks to my friend, Alaina, for sharing with me.

Click HERE for the deal!

Fine print says it’s also good at Endless.  I predict new shoes ahead in the forecast.

In case you need to catch up, click here.

A few things I forgot to mention.  1. The weather could not have been more perfect.  If you notice, I’m wearing nothing but my leather bomber jacket. No scarf, no coat, no mittens, no hat.  It was perfectly comfortable and a nice surprise after that blizzard!  I’ve thanked the travel gods, and now I’d like to thank the weather gods. 2. When Amy and I snuck (sneaked?) out of the control room and went on a little adventure to the Renaissance to see Kyra, we actually went upstairs and took [full] advantage of the open bar and plethora of food. We stuck out a bit at the party.  There were people who paid hundreds, if not thousands to be there, dressed in floor length dresses and tuxes…and then there was Amy and me.  Dressed fairly casual in jeans. Whateves, we rocked it, and hello sushi platters and champagne!  Shhh…we were “working.” Added bonus of the party? No, not Bruno Mars…the dogs!  There were adorable labs everywhere with “explosives” written on their vests.  Thank you K-9 friends for keeping us safe!

So when it finally came time for the ball to drop, Unger and Amy wanted to stay inside the control room.  I debated, but I thought, I’m here ONCE, who knows if/when I’ll ever be in Times Square again on New Years.  Sure, it’s a once in a lifetime experience to be inside the control room too, so it was win-win.  Amy agreed to come outside with me to make sure I was safe and secure behind the barricades. And that’s when we saw him:

See that face in the left corner of the screen? See all those police men and bodyguards protecting him?  Yes, ladies and gents, that’s Prince.  Amy and I both did a double-triple-quadruple take.  “Is that?” “Couldn’t be?” “Oh. Oh my god.”  After a few lingering moments and not so subtle pictures taken, Amy decided to go back upstairs. I decided to stay downstairs within the barricade around the building with Prince.  There were a few awkward stares from people on the other side. More and more people began realizing who I was standing with.  Camera flashes became less and less discreet.  It was just me, him, and the cops/bodyguards.  Surreal doesn’t cut it. Was I really standing in the middle of Times Square on New Years with PRINCE?  Is this REAL LIFE?

And so…the ball dropped.  The crowd erupted.  SO MUCH confetti. Prince then grabbed me and hugged me.  We embraced.  Happy New Year!  He threw confetti in my face; I threw it right back. I asked him what in the world he was doing there.  He said he was there for the party downstairs. We shimmied (with jazz hands!) to “New York, New York.”  One of the most bizarre/amazing/unreal/coolest/out of words moments of my life.  And then……

And then I went back upstairs, and something didn’t feel quite right.  Wait a minute.  Why would Prince be outside the ABC building, alone, on New Years?  Why would he be wearing his most iconic purple shirt?  Wait—no—couldn’t have been—but—why the bodyguards?—were they really bodyguards?—this is too strange—-and then it REALLY occurred to me.

Hi my name is Tinsely, and I just spent New Years with a Prince impersonator.  whomp, whomp.

Or did I?  I talked to a friend who is a Prince fanatic; she informed me the real Prince WAS in New York and HAD been doing shows at the Garden.  There WAS a high baller party in the building.  There WERE bodyguards. The other people in the crowd definitely thought it was him.  So who knows?  Either way, it’s quite a story right?  So I’ll leave you with a few other snap shots of the night.  2011 had one hell of a start, and I feel so beyond grateful for the experience.  New Years in Times Square with Dick, Ryan, & Jenny, Ke$ha, NKOTBSB, a few coworkers turned friends, and Prince (maybe?). Check that off the bucket list!

After much debate about whether or not I wanted to make the trek to NYC for NYE, I thought, “What the hell!”  Working for the network allotted me VIP access passes, which meant I could walk in and out of police barricades at my leisure, check out the scene outside, and escape the crowds inside ABC studios.   Insanely awesome? I thought so, too.  Mother Nature almost ruined my plans.  With these odds in my favor, it looked like a long shot:

Somehow the travel gods were on my side, and I made it out on the ONLY flight of the day.  JetBlue win.  So my night started when I went to meet up with my coworker & friend, Unger, at his hotel.  When I got there, he was sitting with two younger guys and an older lady.  Knowing he had been visiting family, I assumed it was an aunt and cousins.  We chatted for a bit, and when we went to leave, he said, “Nice to meet you,” to the woman.  Huh?  We walked away, and I said, “Hey, I thought that was your family.”  He laughed and told me to look again.  One of the dudes was Jonathan from NKTOB.  My bad.  What can I say, I was a BSB fan.  So Unger and I went to get a drink before heading off to “work.”

And then we made it through barricade and barricade of police. Seriously, the NYPD have that shit UNDER CONTROL.  I didn’t know what to anticipate.  Crowds of millions?  Mass chaos?  Stampeding bulls? Not quite.  There are a lot of people, but it’s pretty well organized.  So we finally made it upstairs to Good Morning America’s studio, and met up with our friend Amy.

One of my best friends (and college roommate!), Kyra, is an event planning extraordinaire.  She threw the party at the Renaissance hotel with Bruno Mars and told me to “swing by.”  Swing by?  There were about 1.2 million people in between 44th St. and 48th St., but Amy and I decided to put our credentials to a test.  Just how far could we make it?  

ALL THE WAY. That’s right.  That bad baby around my neck literally gave me free reign of Times Square.  Absolutely unreal.  We got to walk straight through the middle of Times Square with no problem.  NYPD just waved us on through.  I’ve never felt like more of a bad-ass in MY LIFE.

Thanks to NYC’s finest. 

You know what wasn’t so awesome?  See those blue balloons in everyone’s hand?  Yeah, people behind the barricades thought it was REALLY FUN to beat us as we were walking by.  For the most part, it was all in good fun and made Amy and I laugh.  What can you do.  When Ke$ha performed, we decided to leave the control room and head out to the stage, a few blocks away. All was fine and dandy, until Ke$ha and her entourage (including me, Amy, and Unger at this point) were misguided through the crowd to the wrong checkpoint back to the studio.  The officers would NOT let us through.  Uh, excuse us?  I’m not the biggest Ke$ha fan either Sir, but you can’t leave us stranded in the middle of the crowd.  A bit dangerous don’t you think?

And so some very important person radioed to another very important person and so forth, and we were led back to the studio, no harm done.  Thank goodness. The crowd started to get a bit rowdy when Ke$ha was just standing there, unable to move. (And in all fairness, Ke$ha was very calm and considerate, and she made sure a few little girls that were part of her entourage were not getting trampled.) Okay fine, I like her a little more now.

I wish I had a picture of perhaps my favorite point of the night. I’m a huge BSB fan.  (Shut up, don’t make fun!)  When they were on their way back out to the main stage, I grabbed Nick Carter’s arm and told him they sounded great in sound check.  He smiled, looked me in the eye, and said, “Thanks.”  No Nick Carter, thank you.  And 14 year old Tinsely, you’re welcome.  And that’s all for now. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow…