Atlantic City!

I really love Atlantic City. I don't exactly have a reason why, but I do!
Perhaps it's because I grew up coming here a lot? I've been walkin this boardwalk for years!
Perhaps it's like being on vacation, but not having to go too far away? Who knows!?

My parents had some timeshare days to burn before the end of the year so I took their offer of a long weekend away. Yesterday, I left my hotel around noon time and decided to check out the outlets. I usually find good stuff and a lot more shops have opened since my last visit. Funny enough, a friend of mine from NYC happened to be down and staying not too far away so I met up with her to have a spiked frozen lemonade at the new Bikini Bar at Bally's, yum! Today, my friend and her little girl (my fake goddaughter) are coming to play! Pool or beach I'm not sure yet!

ATTENTION! Quick change of topic: I'm curious to know what you'd all say about your 30s? My birthday is fast approaching and I'm excited - I've always liked birthdays - but apparently I should be even more excited about turning 30. I'm not bummed, I'm just normal about it. Hooray, I made it?!

I've been toying with the idea of officially writing about turning 30, particularly how many times I've heard (and keep hearing) "your 30s are great." Also, by officially I mean to perhaps submit it to magazines or something. What do you feel about your thirties? Not 30 yet? How do you feel in general about turning it? Way past - how were they? TELL ME!

What are you doing Thursday? I'll be at Nurse Bettie hangin with Calamity Chang and her regular show! Come check it out.
And Saturday I'll be at R Bar (for the first time) with some of my fave ladies behind Burlesque Bikini Bootcamp!
2 chances this week to come support live entertainment! While in AC I definitely wanted to see a show and I went to "Divas" at Resorts with drag impersonators: Joan Rivers hosts, Dolly Parton charms, Prince shakes it, Liza killed i, but I did miss Marilyn & JLo. Boooo!! I don't know if I mixed up showtime or I just didn't pay attention to the time but I got there late and the very kind woman let me in for free and found me a seat - woohoo, score! I'm pretty sure the last time I seeked out a show while down here was Roseanne at House of Blues AND THEY LET ME IN FREE TOO! #LuckyGirl

I just hastagged in a blog, I should go. I'm going to LA in a couple of weeks for one of my regular freelance gigs with Us Angels/Blush. Hangin with kids at a photoshoot? Peanuts!

Thanks for stopping in, maybe I'll see you at a show!

Ciao for now,

TT

Hieeeee!

- I have laundry out the wazooo (Thankfully off tomorrow and will take care of ALL of it)
- My 30th birthday is less than 2 months away: I'll accept gift cards to Bettie Page Clothing, Sephora, Macy's, Pinup Girl Clothing, Bloomingdale's and Fluevog....thank you in advance. (haha just sayin!)
- There's a commercial that says  "Rooster's Comb" like 5x and it cracks me up every time.
- I HAD A GREAT WEEKEND!

My cousin got married and it was SO much fun. I love weddings. All of them. I'm a big fan of family & celebration believe it or not. I didn't feel well throughout though - eventually my dinner got yacked up (Yeah, ew, sorry.) but after that I had a blast (and now I wasn't drunk). It was essentially a big reunion. After my Dad left, me, my mom and brother were in upstate NY almost every weekend with my cousins. We had so many family friends we grew up with that we'd consider them extended family. Saturday night I saw a few people that I hadn't since I was about 10 years old. Such an overwhelming night!

On Sunday, I had my first show in some time. It felt really good to be back in a dressing room, putting on all my fixins. The weekly Kitty Nights show - produced by awesome queen bee Fem Appeal - used to be REALLY intimidating to me. It's usually a really fun, supportive audience made up mostly of performers. That freaks me out. I used to focus too much on the idea that they were watching the show with a much more critical eye but this past Sunday was probably the best I've felt. Maybe it's culmination of all sorts of things not just a performer mentality. I've been feeling good about myself in general! 
I also had a Photo Journalism student from Columbia Univ following me! She was assigned a project and decided to focus on a performer. She is originally from Paris and had loved burlesque for years. It was a pleasure to help her out and I'm looking forward to seeing the shots. She was having a hard time finding someone available and with a show and she has a deadline. Glad I replied!

Time to get ready for work - I'll see you cats & kittens later, meow!

Ciao for now,

TT

Jet Setting

...only gives me puffy eyes and broken out skin, but I'm not complaining this time around!!

So here's what happened, if you hang out with me all over the interwebs and read last week's blog you'd know something was cooking last Monday night.  I happened to be watching The Real - a brand new talk show only screening in select cities for a 4-6 week (I forget how long) run. I hopped on the website to see more info about it, I had seen it before but I was introducing it to my roommate. If you haven't seen or heard about it, in simplest terms it's The View with a panel of woman of color: black, Asian, Latina, even Tamara Mowry reppin' the mixed peeps!


Anyway, on the website there was a "Tell us who your favorite cast member is and why" entry box so I wrote literally about 5 solid sentences about Loni Love essentially being an inspiration both professionally and personally, how she is the woman's woman despite her being a plus size black woman she is easy to relate to by so many different types of people, and I wrapped it up by calling her my sista from another mista. I failed to read that this was an actual contest and my entry got the attention of producers and I was called about 5 hours later on Monday. I got to chat with producer James, who was fantastic. The idea of the contest was to bring in the cast member's biggest fan from around the country and have them sit in on the finale taping as a "super fan" and ideally meet the cast.  I was offered an all expenses paid trip to LA and I said yup!

So Wednesday morning I'm in LA getting picked up to taken to Warner Brother's Studios. CRAZY!!! I could have walked around the lot all day. I was overwhelmed by all the history on those streets, in those offices, on those sets. It was really an amazing experience just standing there looking around. (The PA taking care of us was originally from Jersey too. Wild, we're everywhere! She had moved out there about 5 months ago, it was cool to talk to her. Inspiring too, even though she probably has no idea.)

As were waiting in our own dressing room for the producer, I realize he's already checked in with everyone except for me and now we were waiting to walk to set. I figured he's busy and things change from one second to the next, no biggie. Long story even longer, throughout the taping we start watching clips about the other girls being surprised by their fave cast member either backstage or on set. I'm thinking hmmm, well I wasn't informed about this nor had I pre-taped anything so perhaps something on set?? Well, before I knew it the taping was wrapping up and I hadn't met Loni or even the producer. Needless to say I was bummed. I don't know why I had been flown out and spent so much money on to sit in the audience. Every thought flew through my mind, did I say something wrong, did I look wrong, etc...while walking back to our dressing rooms the one Producer's Assistant said "we need to get your info for Loni's publicist. I don't want you to feel left out." I confessed that I sorta did and was just a little confused. Either way, I snapped out of it and took one last look around. I dreamed about who might have stayed in my dressing room as the studio to Casablanca was just below....and obviously, I told the producer if he ever needs a tattooed white girl with "alternative" style for the show that I have his back. BOOM!

Looking for something to do this week? Thursday night find me at Lucille's in BB King's emceeing the Sun Records Tribute Night! And Sunday night I'll be back at Kitty Nights at Mug Lounge with Fem Appeal and crew! Hope to catch you this week, thanks for stopping by!

Ciao for now,

TT

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