As I’m sure you’ve read, Sunday night was the season finale of season 6 of The Walking Dead. The cliff hanger ending was pretty fucking infuriating, but you know what was even more infuriating?
The amount of commercials in those 90 minutes. It wasn’t a 90 minute episode – it was more like a 45 minute episode chopped into five minute segments.
J and I have been watching this season with the Amazon Season Pass, meaning we never watch commercials. BUT we wanted to watch the season finale in real time, so we plugged my Macbook Air into my TV, logged into our friend’s cable account on AMC.com, and we watched it live.
Well, I’m glad we saw it, but fuck that noise: never again.
I would rather stay up until midnight or watch it the next day than deal with 45 minutes of commercials. I wish they’d stop cutting away from the actual show every 90 seconds. Maybe do three segments of 10 minutes worth of commercials at a time instead?
I know they think people will completely walk away but I muted my TV every time so it was just as useless for all the money that advertisers paid. I’m not sure how Netflix funds their original series, but they do it without the need for commercials and it’s brilliant.
The traditional TV cable subscription is dying and everyone knows why. I haven’t paid for cable in more years than I can count on one hand and I never miss it, ever. Definitely not after Sunday night.
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I accepted a last-minute invite to see Eclipsed, a recent transfer from the Public Theatre, last Thursday night, and I knew pretty much nothing about it. I’d read that it was about women in Liberia so I knew it probably wasn’t going to be a comedy. I also knew Lupita Nyong’o was in it and although I didn’t remember her in 12 Years a Slave specifically (I saw the movie once years ago), I knew I was in for a treat.
Written by The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira, it took place during the political conflict in Liberia in 2003 and focused on four wives of a commanding officer of the rebels. The newest wife was Lupita and she was actually educated meaning she could read and captured after her parents were taken (I think). The wives live together in a hut and are basically just there to satisfy the CO when he needs it.
After the conflict ends, Lupita needs to decide whether to go with the rebels or go to safety. We’re not sure which she ends up choosing. The play was intense and depressing interspersed with moments of comedic relief. All five women were excellent, especially Lupita. Saycon Sengbloh has come a long way since Wicked.
This wouldn’t be my first choice for a night out at the theatre, but it was definitely a powerful piece, as well as educational.
So, it’s been a long week. At the end of the day on Monday, my boss called me into his office and told me that my position was being downsized. I’d been hired to be a finance and operations liaison to support a merger of two marketing companies on opposite coasts. When the west coast company went out of business (semi-unexpectedly?) two weeks ago, I knew my place at the company was up in the air. Honestly, it wasn’t the best fit for me, culture-wise, but I learned a lot (like how to work with someone who’s really difficult) and I had two really good interviews last week, I applied for a lot of jobs, and I met with a dozen or so recruiters and I’m continuing to do so this week. Luckily my dude is really fantastic at prepping for interviews, so he’s helping me a lot on that front.
It’ll all be okay.
I saw a friend at an event on Tuesday night and she didn’t hesitate one bit when she heard I’d be downsized and she invited me to a networking event that was at the ungodly hour of 7am on Thursday. It was a good experience and I made a bunch of connections.
Thursday evening consisted of a quick and easy dinner (grilled chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, garlic sautéed broccoli) and The Walking Dead and Mockingjay Part 1 with Justin. My new glasses were also delivered. They’re cute.
After a day of being productive, I went on Friday night I went to YogaWorks for a Teacher Training Class & Info Session with a woman who taught the very first class I ever took at YogaWorks. It was really interesting and although I’m not in a position to spend $3400 on it right now, it’s definitely something to consider in the future. I’m not sure I ever want to teach yoga. I’m simply interested in deepening my practice.
Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening glued to my computer reading updates about the massacres in Paris. So, so sad. Religion is the worst. All religions. They all need to be put to rest.
I finally made it to my early morning yoga class on Saturday for the first time in what felt like forever and got my ass kicked. Most of Saturday was spent doing a lot of nothing, but I rallied and wandered downtown to visit Washington Square Park where I’d heard there had been rallies earlier in the day. The mayor’s office was planning to light the arch in the park blue, white, and red, which I thought was awesome. The Empire State Building stayed dark on Saturday night in solidarity with the Eiffel Tower.
Afterwards I saw Fool For Love (review to come!) before meeting up with Justin and one of his good friends for drinks at a favorite spot of ours, Anejo, in Hell’s Kitchen. Sunday was spent relaxing, watching Real Time with Bill Maher, and later on a trip downtown again to get my glasses fitted at Warby Parker and a late lunch at The Copper Still while my eyes glazed over during the Giants+Patriots game. (I seriously do not get football, but I was more than happy to support Justin and eat some delicious noms.)
It’s been an unexpected week, but not an entirely shitty one. Here’s hoping things progress to be even better this week.
I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen recently and I was all, “OMG” and i finally got around to making it last night since I wasn’t going to yoga, or a show, and I had plans with Justin who was coming over. He’s had an extraordinarily long week at work so when I showed him the recipe, he had pretty much the same reaction as me (as in “OMG yes”).
It took minimal (no) prep and the only thing I ended up not having in my kitchen already was parsley, so $1.29 later, I was good to go. Twenty minutes later, I was done cooking it and Justin was arriving.
He logged onto his Amazon account on my Roku, purchased a season pass to The Walking Dead, and we ate pasta and watched the first four episodes of season 6 of TWD. We were extraordinarily full and exhausted by the time we were done (watching TWD is taxing, let me tell you).
This weekend was way too short. It felt like it went by in a day and a half despite the fact that we gained an hour. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary for Halloween so I didn’t lose time being hung over. I just woke up on Sunday and the weekend has vanished behind me.
I was able to get to a 6pm yoga class on Friday with one of my favorite yoga teachers. Then I proceeded to buy a purple sweater at TJ Maxx in an attempt to create a half-asses “Hipster Ariel” costume. It’s a really cozy sweater and I will continue to (over)wear it through the winter. I spent the rest of Friday eating whatever was left in my fridge (spoiler alert: not much) and watched the next episode of The Leftovers (still the weirdest, nonsensical show on TV).
I watched Real Time with Bill Maher on Saturday morning and then went for a way-too-hard 2.10 mile run. It should not have been as difficult as it was. I was just running too fast, I guess. Later in the evening I joined my friend Selena and at the “Girls Pint Out” booth at the NYC Craft Beer Fest for a couple of hours. I sampled too many beers.
The rest of the night included a drink with my dude at my friend’s bar in midtown, and after his friend and her man showed up, we migrated to an Irish pub a few blocks away hoping to see some shameless costumes (and oh my goodness, we did).
Sunday was lazy. Very lazy. Justin and I watched a few more episodes of The Walking Dead (we’re still on season 5) and enjoyed some caffeine from The Hungarian Pastry Shop before I met up for a long overdue brunch with @endotique at Melba’s in Harlem. We split the eggnog waffles and fried chicken which was delicious, to say the least. It was lovely. We watched some people running the marathon at 110th and 5th for a while, noting that they’re all insane (seriously, people who run marathons are insane – it’s unhealthy).
The rest of the evening was filled with the rest of season 5 of The Walking Dead with Justin and later (much later) some Italian food to get us through the final episode. I read, went to bed early, and kissed inexplicably short and unremarkable weekend goodbye.
That Girl Allison 