Disney Daze

by Brittany Geragotelis

Last weekend I took my whole family down to Disneyland. It was sort of my superbowl moment. You know, those old Disney ads where they'd ask athletes what they were going to do now that they'd accomplished some amazing feat, and they answered, "I'm going to Disneyland!!!" My book deal was my superbowl moment, and I couldn't think of a better way of celebrating than taking my family to the happiest place on earth.

So, me, Matty, my parents John and Diane, my youngest sister Jacey, and my middle sister Amy, along with her husband Cody and my nephew Cash, all headed from our respective cities to Anaheim for the weekend. Our family's always been huge Disney fans....I've gone to one park or another at least once a year since I was a little kid. My mom runs from one ride to the next and pumps everyone up. This was also my nephew's first time at Disney, so it was really special to be able to be with him.

In the end, though we certainly had our grumpy moments (lots of running around, heat and little sleep can do that), I think we all made some wonderful memories. Here are a few that I was able to catch on camera. Enjoy!

5x5,

B.

Amy at the character breakfast

From Top Left to Bottom Right: Cody, Matt and I. None of us were ready for the camera on Space Mountain

Most of the time Cash hid from the characters. He was not pleased.

There WAS a bit of mid-day napping for at least one of us....

Jacey was embarrassed that this character hadn't remembered to put pants on that morning.

Cashy!!!

Jacey giving us her best "pizza face" while eating at Naples Restaurant

Can you blame him for being scared?

The Haunted Mansion was decorated in Nightmare Before Christmas style. It was AWESOME!

Jacey likes big butts and she cannot lie....

Amy just told her a secret....guess what it was?!?!

What a flirt!

The happy family: Amy, Cash and Cody

We were dying when we saw this pic of us on Splash Mountain. And look at Jacey. She made this face on EVERY ride that took a photo. It was hilarious!

....See what I mean?...

And again...

You can even see her in the back left of this one...

So we tried it....though I'm not sure we pulled it off.

All in all, it was a really great vacation full of magic, fun and lots of laughs!

The Curious Corner--Mexico

Hi. I'm Sacha Breitman and I'd like to welcome you to my column, The Curious Corner. Now, a little about me: I'm a young guy who was raised in the fashion industry of this big--but small--city of New York. Some people may call me an airhead but I prefer to call myself a surrealist. What can I say? I'm a dreamer. I love music, poetry, books and rain. I also love meeting new people. Today I'm sharing a short story called Mexico. Enjoy!
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Mexico

I get up at 7 o’clock, walk my dog and off I go with a suitcase in one hand. I raise my other hand and a taxi stops. I hop on and tell him—while ending my demand with a please—to take me to Chelsea. I listen to The Cure on the ride there and in twenty minutes I arrive in front of my father’s apartment. I wait for him and call my friend Ryan. We talk about the gifts of life and once my dad, Gilles, and his girlfriend, Kylie, come down, I say goodbye, and he wishes me a safe trip. I say “thank you.” Gilles, Kylie and I get into a black cab that takes us to JFK airport. On the way I begin to talk about coffee, and then we slowly drift off into a sweet silence for the next hour.

We arrive at the airport and proceed to check in. We have trouble using the self-check in machine and a man approaches us. He says “You swipe your passport like this.” My dad hands him his passport and the man swipes it in the machine. The machine digests the information and we thank the man. He says, “No problem. Now all your information is in this computer—from all your past travels to this upcoming trip. By the way, where you off to?” “Mexico,” Gilles says. “Well, have a safe trip.” Off we go to customs. I decide to take a risk and not take out my computer, Ipad or Kindle. My bag passes security and so do we. I start wondering if my bag passing security is really a good thing. But that thought quickly passes with the thought of relaxing in Mexico. We decide to eat at a diner in the airport, but first I decide to stop at Duty-Free and pick up a carton of smokes. I go to Duty-Free and stare at the shelves of cigarettes. Once I ask for my carton, a young lady who worked there, charmingly asks, “How old are you? You look like a child.” I smile, trying to reciprocate the charm and say, “Don’t worry. I am a big boy.” She smiles then, asks to see my ID, and I say, “You make me feel so young.” She says, “You just turned 18.” I say, “Correct.”

I return to Gilles and Kylie and I decide to suffer by eating some gluten (I have a mild gluten intolerance). I order French toast and a coffee. The coffee tastes powdery and the French toast doesn’t taste that pleasant either. I eat it anyway and Kylie eats half of her breakfast burrito. Awful house music is playing and I get restless. I can’t stop obsessing about leaving this city. I can’t wait for Mexico. I imagine myself basking in the sun with a drink in one hand and a taco in the other. What a dream—but a dream that will soon become reality.

We get on the airplane and I sit alone in the aisle seat. After some delays, the plane takes off and once it's in the air a sense of comfort fills me—but that moment passes and I become restless. Four hours till paradise. How should I kill the next four hours? I take out my iPad and watch Good Fellas. If you haven’t watched Good Fellas, it's an amazing movie by Martin Scorsese. I implore you to watch it when you get the chance. The movie finishes two and a half hours into the flight and then I listen to music by The Smiths and The Cure. Thoughts and fantasies run through my head. The picture of me with a taco and a drink only gets more vivid. Now, the cloudless sky is drawn into my image of Mexico and also the peaceful sounds of birds ring into my ears. I check my watch but there is still another hour to kill. I fill my custom papers. I do my best to spend as much time as possible on them. I even mess up purposely and ask for another copy. When the copy comes I fill in all the information again in a lethargic manner. I finish, and then check my watch. Half an hour till landing. I listen to music by The National, but after listening to the song, Sorrow, I get depressed, and sad, and mentally I make my soundtrack for Mexico with music from The Cure, Cat Empire, Arcade Fire, and The Kinks. I then drift off into fantasy again—basking in the sun with a drink in one hand and a taco in the other. The sky is bright and blue; the sun beams its glorious light only upon me; and the birds continue to sing. Suddenly a voice says, “Prepare for landing.” Finally I pass out.

I wake up. Everyone is getting up to retrieve their bags. I begin to do the same. Then I rush into the line-shaped mosh. I check my watch. Its 2 p.m. After enough waiting, the line moves and I try to walk as close as possible to the person in front of me so no one gets in my way. I meet again with Gilles and Kylie—and at last, I have arrived! We walk as fast as possible. The three of us are smiling bright. The exit is near. Then all three of us frown. Right in front of us is a massive crowd of tourists trying to get through customs and delaying our road to paradise. We look at each other with frustrated faces.

When you just need to laugh...

by Brittany Geragotelis

So, I'm traveling today...finally heading to Atlanta for the premier of Bring It On: The Musical (if you remember, the night I was originally supposed to go was cancelled and I had to rebook my entire trip) and despite my annoyance with the logistics, I'm excited to see the show. I'll be in Georgia for less than 24 hours, so for all you guys living out there whom I'm friends with...I'm sorry and I'll try to catch you the next time around!

In the meantime, as a sorry, here's a little Friday pick-me-up. My friend found this online and I just had to share.

Happy Friday!

5x5,
B.

DELETE—Thanksgiving run riot

by Brittany Geragotelis

Once a week, my guest blogger (who shall remain nameless...okay, not nameless...let's call her Ms. Sassy Pants. Sassy for short) stops by to share all the things in her life that deserve a big, fat DELETE. Anyhoo, her majesty is back and this week, she's trying to recover from her Thanksgiving travels. Check out what she had to say and then come up with a few DELETES of your own.

Good news! I survived Thanksgiving—but just barely. I could probably dedicate an entire year to travel etiquette but I'll try to condense my dismay to one brief blog.

So, off I went for a rendezvous with my loving family. We got to the train later than expected (my bad) so seats were sparse. I was traveling with a few friends, and we were searching for seats together and wahlah—God smiled down upon us and granted us four seats together. All was right in the world…or so we thought.

In the seat across from me was a 20-something who was practically unconscious from the night before. He reeked of booze and was blasting his headphones at a decibel that could legally be considered a noise violation. As we all tried to get situated, he “pretended” to be asleep so he wouldn’t have to scoot over. He’s lucky I didn’t plant a knee “accidentally” in his nut-sack. Oh excuse me…do those belong to you? You could have fooled me since you didn’t have the balls to act like a courteous human being…must be time for a big, fat…DUH-LETE!

Oh, and it gets better. After sleeping beauty awoke from his slumber, he reached into a giant paper bag and pulled out the first of what was probably many holiday spirits. I swear, he must have shaken it up before he cracked it open, because he was considerate enough to shower me with beer…not once, but twice for good measure. I guess he must have mistaken me for a vessel that needed to be christened on my maiden voyage to Connecticut.

Don’t try to take advantage of MY “holiday spirit,” pal. Just because it’s Thanksgiving doesn’t give you the right to behave like a douchebag (you can see how far I got with my positive affirmations from last week…ho hum…at least I tried). So here are a few things to be aware of while traveling for the holidays:

Anyone who's unconscious on public transportation…be wary…DELETE.

Baby strollers parked in the aisles or seats on public transportation…fold it up and put it in the luggage racks. We know you're stressed and have your hands full, but when that kid starts wailing, I need a clear exit strategy. So get your sh*t out of the way…DELETE.

When exiting a train, plane, taxi or bus with more than four “humans” (if that's what you want to consider yourself) in your party...don’t stand in the middle of the street, platform or exit ramp deciding the next plan of action. You’ve had hours of travel time to decide what to do and you should be moving like it’s Mission Impossible…DELETE.

Families holding hands like they're forming a riot barrier. Oh, wait. You are forming a riot barrier...and I'm unable to pass or get around you. DELETE.

People who stand right on top of you when waiting in line. If I can smell your last meal on your breath, you're too close. Step off, fool…DELETE.

Ahhhh…it’s great to be baaaacccckkkk!

5x5,

B.

Things the psychic told me.

by Brittany Geragotelis

I'm now home sweet home (except for the fact that I found out that my air conditioning unit is leaking water into the apartment below me and until I can get an air conditioning repair guy in here to fix it and possibly install a new one, I'm stuck without cool air in this muggy heat), and back from my trip to NOLA (which stands for New Orleans if you're a little slow on the uptake like me). And as I mentioned in an earlier blog, while I was in NOLA, I had the opportunity to meet with a psychic.

Well, two to be exact, but the first one was a guy who managed to convince Tammy and I to stop with a two-for-one reading. He was big and sweaty and kept saying, "See, I said it before you did. I said it," as he tried to say certain words at the same time as us. The Psychic-Lite did guess that I was a writer and said I needed to check out Ballentine books in regards to publishers. Of course, these things were certainly interesting, but he got too many things wrong for me to believe that he was seeing/feeling a little more of the universe than the rest of us.

But the second psychic...I can't help but feel like he was more of the real deal. His name was Phillip and he was a reader at Marie Laveau's House of VooDoo. As soon as I sat down across from the super-fem Moby look-alike and he took my hand, I felt this crazy connection with him. Like an energy was flowing between the two of us, or a low current of electricity coursing through my hand.

Phillip started by just holding my hand and telling me things about myself: I wear glasses (I do, but I wasn't at the time), I need to drink more water (which I do), I don't like change (Duh), etc. But the first real thing he asked me was, "How is the creative writing coming?" Uh, weird. I told him I was in a standstill, trying to find another agent and sell my books. He then said that in regards to occupations, I was either a journalist or a teacher. I admitted that I work for a magazine.

He told me that I was "going to be in this industry for a while, but in the next couple of years you're going to start writing for an online site that has something to do with travel, which is weird, because you don't really like to travel, do you? It might not actually require you to travel, but you will be writing about it." Double weird. I do hate to travel. It makes me anxious.

Then he asked me what I'd decided about children. I told him that I hadn't really decided, but was leaning more on the side of no. He told me that if I chose to have a kid, it would be a boy, but if I didn't do it in the next four years, it would be too late. And if I decided not to have kids, I would be fine with that decision.

He said that I own real estate and that I won't be giving it up anytime soon. This was a bit of a bummer, since I've been feeling very much lately that I'd like to move out of the city. He said some other things about my personal life, but I think I'd like to keep them to myself to see if they come to fruition without the help/influence of saying it out loud (or on this blog).

Then he asked me if I had any questions. A lot of women would ask "when am I going to get married?", "when will I meet the one?", "is my lover being faithful?"...but me, I asked about my writing. It's the thing in my life that I love but am also most unsure of. As in, it's my passion, but I've been trying to get published now for 8 years and I feel like it's going nowhere. After every rejection, I ask myself "do I give up or do I keep going?" So, of course, this was what came out of my mouth that day with Phillip.

Without hesitation he said, "Yes. You will be published. It will happen within the next 2 years. You've been working hard on various projects over the last 4 years and it will pay off. Don't worry about it, it's going to happen."

So, there you go. This is what the psychic told me. Do I fully believe everything he said to me during that session is true? Maybe not. But if anything, I choose to believe in the things I hope will happen. I'll experience success. I'll be happy in love. I won't have regrets. I will be published. After all, what bad does it do to put those positive vibes out there in the universe? In the meantime, I've written down all of Phillips' predictions/readings and I intend to see if they end up panning out.

Has anyone else had an experience with a psychic, good or bad? Do you think psychics have special powers that the rest of us don't or that they're just phony future fakers? Leave your comments above!

5x5,
B.

Getting crazy in New Orleans...

by Brittany Geragotelis

Okay, so I'm not really getting crazy, but I am here in New Orleans right now. I'm in town for a business trip and figured that while I was here, I'd try to soak up as much of the Louisiana culture as possible. And because exploring just isn't as much fun alone, I invited one of my BFF's (Tammy) to come along with me (I asked Matt, too, but he's holding down the fort back home). So, when I was done doing a few things for work, Tammy and I headed out to sight-see around the French Quarter.

First, we went to this famous restaurant down here named Muriel's. Besides offering a gluten-free menu, the place itself was beautiful. After sitting down and ordering, we found out that the building had a rich history, including that the place was haunted! Apparently, one of the original house owners had lost the house gambling and before he had to hand it over to the winner, he committed suicide in one of the upstairs room (talk about drama queen!). Now, people see the owner throughout the restaurant and they've even created a seance room made of velvet and is red from floor to ceiling. More pics of this to come later.

Then, we walked around and window shopped...but not for clothes. The funny thing about this area is that voodoo shops are more popular than Starbucks down here! Because voodoo is such a huge part of the culture in New Orleans, Tammy and I jumped on board, stopped in some stores, going to the voodoo museum and visiting the shop of a high voodoo priestess to schedule a cleansing. Though we only made appointments today, Tammy and I are both excited to head back there in the next few days.

After that, we headed over to Cafe Du Monde, the original french coffee stand in this area, for some coffee and beignets (fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar). Of course, being that the French treat is full of gluten, I didn't get a chance to take a taste, but Tammy did and she said it was awesome!

We headed home in the evening, to take showers, change and do a little work before heading back out for dinner. This time we sat down for a luxurious meal at Nola, Emeril's first restaurant EVER. Our waiter was super nice (and according to Tammy, really cute!), and the food was incredible. Speaking of, I have been blown away by the food here. Everything has so much flavor...it's truly incredible. And Nola was no exception: I had the pork chops!

When we'd filled our bellies, we walked it off on famous Bourbon Street...where you always see people throwing beads to girls during Mardi Gras. I've gotta say, I was surprised at what I saw there! First off, people can drink in the streets there, there's smoking in the bars, everybody's just walking around like it's a carnaval and there's plenty of depravity going on. Tammy and I wandered into one bar where a group of guys were singing all of the best 80s songs: Living on a Prayer, Jesse's Girl, Don't Stop Believing, etc. So we sat there for a half hour and just belted out the tunes at the top of our lungs. It was a blast.

It was such a full day, but one that I'll remember for years to come. Has anyone else been to New Orleans? Anything we should see while we're here?

5x5,
B.

Greetings from Arizona

by Brittany Geragotelis

So sorry for the internet silence these past few days (five to be exact), but I was in Arizona and had no web access. Matt and I took off on Thursday afternoon for the west coast because my nephew was being baptized and our whole family was meeting up to celebrate the occasion.


The weekend itself was really nice. We stayed in a really nice hotel called the Conquistador. It was actually a resort with a golf course, spa and several pools...there was even a waterslide! In short, the place was gorgeous! And in between doing family stuff, we were all able to spend some time relaxing by the pool.

Besides the fact that this was the first time our whole family (I have two younger sisters) had been together since my 28-year-old sister, Amy, got married three years ago, I was meeting my nephew, Cash Ryan, for the first time. Now, I know everyone says that their nephew or niece is the cutest thing ever, but Cash really is. Cutest. Thing. Ever. When he smiles (which he does A LOT), it just melts your heart. He's six months old and a pretty easy-going baby. He rarely cries and laughs when you talk to him. Anyway, the baptism was nice (and also interesting, to be honest; I didn't realize churches still performed exorcisms...way to go organized religion) and we all had a chance to get dressed up and spend the day together.


While we were there, I also got the chance to meet my 21-year-old sister Jacey's boyfriend, Micah, who has one of the best senses of humor I've ever seen (can you see a sense of humor?). Really funny...and very sweet to my sis, which is what matters most to me.







But the baptism wasn't the only thing we were celebrating....it was also both my parent's birthdays! So all of us girls (along with our special man friends) took my parents out to dinner one of the nights and surprised them with a Nintendo Wii. They had no idea we were getting them one and I think they really enjoyed the night. We even had the waiters sing to them!


All in all, it was a great weekend, and I was exhausted by the time I got back home...thus the reason you didn't get a blog yesterday. Now, I'm home for three days before heading off to New Orleans for work (and play). But more on that in a future blog...

5x5,
B.