What an interesting week it’s been. Hurricane Irene managed to pass over without waking me up and NYC escaped some of the worst effects of the weather. However, the beautiful Catskills region as well as Vermont have been utterly devastated by flash floods and mudslides, including Windham and Margaretville which are two towns I have spent time in up in the Catskills. They are beautiful places and my heart broke to see them suffering torrents of muddy water. I am very appreciative of how carefully our city prepared and did their best to protect people. I’m never going to moan about inconvenience when it could save someone’s life.

As September approaches, the audition scene is picking up, which is relief-making – it had started to get a bit *too* quiet for too long in the Rachel’s Career Camp. I did an audition yesterday for a voiceover spot for a well-known cosmetics brand (one that I love) and I managed to make the Casting Director laugh! Always a good sign. I have no idea what they are looking for, so I can’t pin anything on it, but it’s a confidence boost to walk out of an audition feeling like you gave your best. I did a mental high-five as I left the casting office (keeping my exterior awesomely cool as always though, natch).

(Side note: The casting office was also doing model casting for some upcoming runway shows. Holy crap, I have never felt more like a midget in my life. I was surrounded by 6 foot tall sticks in massive shoes. Side effect of looking at all the scarily thin girls was that I immediately became ravenously hungry.)

I was extra appreciative that the subway system was up and running enough for me to get to the audition yesterday morning AND get back to my temp job in a speedy fashion. Also appreciative of the awesome weather since the hurricane left and having spent a weekend being forced to sit in my house, drink wine and chill out with Vince (and awesome friend Amanda, who came to hang at Casa Grundy-Lingner for the storm), I was appreciative of the enforced down time. If you actually look, there are things to be grateful for in every situation.

It’s certainly been an interesting week to live in New York. I feel like I can’t go anywhere – went home to London, there was a riot, came back to New York, there was an earthquake. And we might get part of a hurricane this weekend.

The sensation of your apartment on the fourth floor rolling about under your feet is not one I’d like to repeat. I’ve already had scoffing comments on my Facebook from friends who live (or are from) places like California and Japan, where it’s a common occurrence, but there’s a reason I don’t live in those places. I don’t want to live somewhere there are earthquakes, thank you very much. I like boring weather.

In less seismic news, I have an audition this evening for a short film (HURRAH) which is a good feeling. It’s been dead quiet over the summer and I was starting to worry that this particular quiet cycle was going on a little too long. All it takes is one decent audition to break the streak, so fingers crossed this is it.

Also, Coyote Love had a gig last night for the first time in ages (seeing as our old venue closed rather suddenly). It was so great to get back together and jam out, even if only for an hour – which for us doesn’t feel like a long gig at all! We’ve got some other exciting things on the horizon, which is optimism-making; I feel like we’re about to take a step forwards in what we are able to do with our music. Some of us are headed upstate this weekend to rehearse and do some band chilling out, which is always a brilliant way to spend a weekend. I’m leaving poor Vince on his own again, but he’s busy being a star with Hudson Warehouse (as long as Irene lets them finish their season). If you haven’t seen it yet – you’re missing out. What a fantastic company.

I also did three reviews for nytheatre.com, who attempt to review every show in the NYC Fringe Festival each year. Check out my reviews on their website and see what else was going on in the festival this year.

I’m off to dig out my rain boots.

I keep meaning to write a blog post and then failing miserably. I’m getting into a bit of a passive phase with the internets – instead of generating content, I’m just watching YouTube videos and ending up on the other side of epic, pointless Google searches that start with something simple like ‘Attack The Block screening times’ and end with a Wikipedia marathon on the moon landings. Must improve!

It’s been great to be back in New York – I truly felt like I was back only after smelling the real smell of NYC though: a stinky dive bar. It’s the combination of stale beer and disinfectant that you just don’t get in nicer places. I was walking past a divey place on 2nd Ave last night and smelled it, and suddenly I felt at home again.

Since I got back I’ve not done a huge amount other than working and (finally) unpacking – I got my suitcase back, yay! – but I did bag a day doing background on a new CBS crime drama called ‘The 2-2′ which is coming out in the fall season. I think I’m going to be in the very first episode, although you probably won’t see me much. I did get to be a crime scene tech though, pretending to take pictures outside the building where a murder happened, so that was more fun that my usual stuff. Me and the other background people I was with were having a great time coming up with our own dialogue and storyline:

Me: So, yeah, here are the pictures. Let’s look at them for a while so we can buy time before we hit our next mark. Check out the intestines!

Cop: Oh man, that’s a good one. Look at the guts on the floor!

Me: Yeah I know! Speaking of, I’m starving. What’s for lunch?

Yes, we’re juvenile. But it stops you getting bored. Also I should point out that my camera was a broken FILM camera, so we couldn’t have even looked at (or taken) pictures if we wanted to.

This weekend I’ll be doing the Pub Crawl (join me!), which was featured on an Australian national radio station earlier in the month. I was one of the guides that day so you can here my dulcet tones here. I sound a tiny bit American in places, which is worrying, but I don’t really worry too much about it any more. My accent wanders depending on where I am and who I’m talking to, but it’s managed to stay pretty solidly English in the last 6 years so I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere.

I’m also reviewing three (yes, three!) shows in the Fringe Festival this year for nytheatre.com, one of which I’ve already seen. Been fun to dust off the reviewing chops again after a bit of a break.

That’s it for now!

Whoops, I have neglected to do any updates for…how long? Bad nerdgirl.

I flew back into New York last night after spending about 12 days visiting friends & family in the UK, including attending one of my best friend’s weddings (which was a total drunkfest/university reunion). I had such a fantastic couple of weeks being able to hang out at home and not rush to try and see everyone in three days. I actually got (dare I say it) some relaxation in there too. Heavens forfend!

My rather hilarious journey home, however, was not so relaxing. After checking in and getting through security at Heathrow, I discovered my flight was delayed by two hours. Not so bad, considering, and particularly as my aunt works in one of the business lounges at LHR so I always get to go in there and eat all their free food and drink their free booze. Plus comfy chairs and free wifi, result. About an hour later, I went to check the boards again and my flight had been pushed back ANOTHER two hours, making it one of the latest flights to New York and meaning I wouldn’t be home until extremely late. Knowing I was temping the next day, I went to the transfer desk to see what was up. I managed to get switched onto a different flight, coming into a different New York airport, on a different airline, but at least it would land a few hours earlier than my delayed flight (which I had a funny feeling was going to get cancelled). I ended up making friends with a really cool chick called Miriam, who was next to me in the queue trying to change from the same flight, and we ended up sitting next to each other on the way to New York. A couple of G&Ts later, all didn’t seem so bad, until we landed at JFK and discovered that our bags did not make the journey with us. For me, it was annoying but not the end of the world, as at least I live here and have other clothes & toiletries, but poor Miriam was flying on to LA two days later and was paranoid her bag would not show up in time. We were stuck in the baggage queue for an hour and a half, to get a slip with our info on it and a vague ‘it’ll take 24-48 hours for your bag to arrive’ promise. We decided to share a cab back to the city, as by now it was midnight and we were both exhausted. I then got in an argument with the cab driver, who tried to claim that where I live is not Manhattan (“that is Bronx!” “No it isn’t, I live there. It’s Manhattan.” “No it’s Bronx, I won’t take you!”) and ended up having to just take the cab to Spanish Harlem to my travel buddy’s destination, pay the driver (and take his medallion number to make a complaint) and get out to try and find another cab for my part of the journey home. In Spanish Harlem. At 1am. Luckily, this means one thing – gypsy cab! I got home in record time (although I did think at one point he was going to kill me with his driving style) and for only $12 more. Result!

This morning was a little rough, having only had 6 hours’ sleep and after being up for 22 hours the previous day, but I made it to my temp job and at least I’m now getting paid to be tired. It was back down to earth with a bump after a fabulous trip. At least I made a cool new friend and have a good travel story, plus both our bags should be arriving tonight or tomorrow which wasn’t so awful.

Next post, I’ll tell you about how my town in South-East London ended up trending worldwide on Twitter during the London riots this week. What a fun time to be home!