Son of a bitch!

I met a really great guy this week.
In San Francisco.
But I'm moving to New York!!
Sigh.

I feel like Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) on 30 Rock when this bizarrely attractive guy, who likes her.... turns out to be a distant cousin.

Why am I being punished for following my dreams?? WHY.

Alright, I take you back, TV

To retain a sense of calm from my busy life, I have reserved Wednesday nights as my nights off; no social obligations, just me at home, alone w/ the TV. And I LOVE it. So here are my thoughts on Wednesday night tv lately:

(Warning: these include minor spoilers)

America's Next Top Model

I only saw the first episode of this season and then caught the finale. I've decided that's all you really need from this show, after you've seen one season all the way through.

The finale came down to a hot Russian and a hot Latina. I figure they chose the Latina cuz she'd appeal to the mass hispanic market. You don't hear much about the Russian-American market.

Plus, the Russian was awkward at ad-libbing in the Cover Girl commercial. She was a good sport about losing, and the Latina was totally stoked, especially because she was rejected from the previous season in the first round. So it all worked out for the best.

American Idol

I am but a sporadic American Idol watcher, but I just saw the semi-final. How the hell did Melinda not get into the final round? Clearly, Melinda is the best singer. She's like Aretha, Jr. I'm guessing it's just that people assumed she'd be a shoe-in, and so everyone called in to vote for the underdogs. Well, even if she didn't get into the finals, she's certain to have a singing career now.

Jordin is sweet and a really good singer, but I don't think she's very original. I'd like to see her sing in Disney musicals, but I wouldn't go to her concerts. I think Blake has a really fun, more unique style going for him, so I vote for Blake. Plus I dig the scruffy-prep look he keeps sporting. And he loves his dad. How can you resist that?

I don't bother voting on these things, but if you do, will you vote for Blake? Thanks.

As a side note, I'm so glad they booted the other young white guy, who was like a JT knockoff. He was a decent singer, but all that constant head-bobbing was driving me NUTS.

Notes from the Underbelly

I have a major girl-crush on Rachael Harris, who plays Cooper. She is hilarious. I loved her back when I had MTV and she was a regular on Best Week Ever. I love that she is a smart, sassy, mean girl in cute package with glasses.

Also, I love the husband on this show, Andrew (Peter Cambor). He is that sort of sweet, affable, dorky-cute, sleepy-eyed, clean-cut guy that I love. AND he was being SO cute on tonight's episode. I'm sure it just grossed the male audiences out there.

I like this show. But I feel like I'm the only one. Luckily I live by myself so I can enjoy it. But I don't expect the show to last very long.

CSI: NY

(I realize this part is for the 1.5 other people I know who actually watch CSI: NY instead of Lost.)

Can I just say? The season finale was hot.

I was freaking out so much at all the intense action, I had to hug a pillow to get through it.

I really liked Danny (Carmine) in the half-tucked shirt, Even Mac (Gary Sinise) went up about 10 notches in my book (even if he is old for me), and I love Dr. Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper) all the more as well. I just wish they gave him a better name! Don Flack (Eddie Cahill) is still kind of flat and doofusy to me, even with his pretty blue eyes.

I want to root for Lindsay, but honestly it was weird to see her all mackin' with Danny. It was like, seeing an auntie getting busy with a biker dude. --Just kind of awkward and icky. Can't they get a slightly less dowdy actress, who's still kind of an underdog? Maybe someone more like... oh, Claire Danes? Or... I dunno, Zooey Deschanel? Or... me?

I even gave into the stupid IQ text trivia contest when it went to commercial. I am such a sucker. I want to win that walk-on role! Does this mean I might play a dead body? Must work out, must work out...

30 Rock

Okay, this is not a Wednesday show. It is a Thursday show. Whatever. I had neglected this one, until I heard that ALL of the episodes were available to watch online for free!

So I started watching it, and I quite like it! Call me crazy, but I feel like it's a cross between The Office and Arrested Development... which may explain why watching it reminds me of my days at work. I am one of the few woman on a team full of wacky guy characters, many of whom drop inappropriate conversation. And a few of them get into ridiculous conflicts with each other.

And, like Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), I often go confide in my 1 or 2 girlfriends at work, who are going through their own bizarre dramas at work. (And then crazy stuff happens, like the boss buying corduroy pants for his team, with the company brand embroidered in the fly).

I always liked Tina Fey, but I didn't like Tracy Morgan much before. But he is really funny on 30 Rock. And Alec Baldwin is consistently awesome, as he was on his SNL appearances. (But I'm starting to think he plays the a-hole so well because he's an a-hole in real life.) So I'll be busy catching up on all those episodes in between my Netflix shipments.

Hangin' w/ the L.A. homeys

I just got back from another sun-filled trip to L.A. I think I broke a record for the number of neighborhoods I visited. In six days, I went to: West L.A., Torrance, Whittier, Pasadena, Downtown L.A. garment district, Arcadia, Chinatown, Santa Monica, Los Feliz, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Ventura. Good thing my VW Bug is fun to drive around, and the traffic was surprisingly not bad!

I visited my brothers & other relatives, and finally got to meet my 3-month-old nephew, who is super cute. Here are the other trip highlights:

• KT introduced me to "Dark Angel," featuring my favorite soap/sci-fi actor, Jensen Ackles. We also had a dvd fest of "Entourage" Season 3 to kick off my L.A. mood.


• Shopping score #1: Macy's friends/family sale. I picked up a Tokidoki gray/black shirt and a leSportsac tote with a summer print involving: skyscrapers, poodles, convertibles, and flowers. How perfect is that!?


• A delicious Japanese-fusion-tapas sort of meal at Orris on Sawtelle, where this funny old guy on a date, at the next table, gave KT and me the rest of his bottle of wine. And when he saw us photographing our food, he made us take a picture of him. His date was very good-humored about it.


• Shopping score #2: Angie took me to a new little outlet store on Sawtelle where I got TWO Members-Only-styled jackets -- but cuter, for about TWENTY DOLLARS.


• Pinkberry: the fruit-topped fro-yo cup of heaven that has taken L.A. & N.Y. by storm. I could eat it everyday. I had it on Sawtelle one day and the next day in Los Feliz... as we saw Griffith Park go up in flames in the distance. It was a surreal moment.
  


• Shopping score #3: At the Beverly Center, I discovered Heritage, which is like a slightly nicer Forever 21. I bought a super cute green jumper with heart-shaped buttons. This continues my tradition of buying a sun-dress every time I visit L.A.
  


• Private-room karaoke at Yuu Yuu, on Sawtelle, where Jo sang a heartfelt Boys II Men love ballad, KT did Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" as we danced backup, Angie wailed Def Leppard, and I ambitiously tested my rap skillz on "Fergalicious."


• Shopping score #4: Also at the Beverly Center, I went to Momoberry, the Hello Kitty boutique for "grown-ups." No, I did not buy the Kimora Lee Simmons diamond-encrusted Hello Kitty ring. But I did buy the dumpling-headed Hello Kitty phone charm.


• Shopping score #5: I went to Chinatown, in search of a cheongsam. The first one I tried on was a perfect fit!


• Public karaoke at the Gaslite, where I tried to ignore the guy who couldn't stop spitting when he talked to me. KT did a Fleetwood Mac number, and then I improvised my way through the Lisa Lisa Cult Jam classic, "Lost in Emotion."


• Catching up with old college friends at Montana Restaurant and Lounge, in Santa Monica, for Olivia's 30th b-day dinner. It was a very L.A. restaurant, where they had drinks like jalapeno martinis and yummy kobe burgers. But best of all, the waiters (and waitresses) are smokin'. They looked like they could have been stars from the CW (formerly known as the WB). I hear it's gonna close in 5 weeks, so check it out while you can!


• I wore the cheongsam to a Wong Kar Wai-themed closing party for an Asian Film Festival, which was surprisingly packed! The ladies were looking lovely in their vintage dresses. It was partly an outdoor party, on a warm night, and they had good mojitos. A guy was hitting on me, but I told him the sad truth: it was my last night in L.A., I live in S.F., and I'm moving to NYC. So I told him it'd be like a true Wong Kar Wai movie: nothing was going to happen.

More hologram, less bumper sticker

I realize that Carmine Giovinazzo is not the best-looking person.
In fact, he can at times, look like a gawky hobo:



But then when he cleans up, and you catch him at the right angle:



... it makes me want to wrap him up and, ahem, take him home, unlike someone like the current "Bachelor", Andy Baldwin:



--who, I can see, has incredibly nice physical features. Yet somehow it just seems oddly contrived, robotic, and boring.

Somehow Carmine has a sort of subtler, ephemeral hottieness, that unexpectedly comes out of this normally, kind of unattractive guy, in ordinary moments. Or when he expresses himself in a certain way. That's his "je ne sais quoi" that keeps me a lot more interested.

It's like a hologram sticker, or those old moving-image stickers where if you tilt it just at the right angle, you capture a really fun moment. And you're delighted when it happens, because maybe it surprises you. And maybe it changes or shows up differently in different lights, but you can't quite predict it, and it's not always there. So it makes me want to hang out and play with it to see if that moment will come back. I think some female versions of this might be Uma Thurman or Sarah Jessica Parker.

(Of course, Carmine's scruffy short haircut, muscles, glasses, gravelly voice, and Hollywood stylists/ tv crew help too.)

So if you're down on yourself because you're having more of those hobo moments, perhaps you just need to believe in your inner hottie. (And perhaps a trainer or stylist to help it come out. If you've ever seen MTV's "Made," you know what I mean.)