Don't look the celebrity in the eyes

[caption id=”attachment_1629” align=”aligncenter” width=”199” caption=”Yep. She musta just seen a celeb. Photo by K Kendall”][/caption]

Yesterday I saw my first celebrity in New York. Felicia Day (creator of the Guild and one of the stars of Eureka) came in looking for a seat at one of my favorite coffee places, Think Coffee, near Union Square.

I’m not one for going up to people I’ve seen on TV. Unless they are at a book signing or at an event where they are being carted out for publicity purposes, I try not to bother them. I guess if we were standing in a queue together, I may say “I really liked you in X. Good work.” But that’s about it.

My friend actually saw Alec Baldwin yesterday with his yoga-licious girlfriend. He pulled out his phone and jokingly asked, “Do you mind if I take a picture?” He did mind. He turned his head and put his hand out. My friend got a picture of the pavement instead of a star. My friend now thinks he’s rude or didn’t want his picture taken cause he was looking rough. His wife suggested that he should have taken one from across the street instead. I, on the other hand, think let him be.

Think about it this way. These people are strangers. Yes, they’ve taken on a job that means millions of people see them being someone they aren’t (for the most part). Alec Baldwin may not be that funny in real life nor may Felicia Day know the science behind her lines in Eureka.

Really, you might as well walk into a restaurant and sit beside a stranger and start gushing at them. They will look at you as if you are crazy, ask the waiter for the bill, or have you removed. Or you could start following some man walking a dog down the street and when you get the courage, jump in front of him with your camera and start taking pictures. I’m thinking he probably wouldn’t like that very much. In either scenario, do you think it’s outside of their jurisdiction to tell you to piss off?

If you do strike up a conversation and the celebrity in question is nice enough to chat back, what are you going to talk about? Nine times out of ten, you will gush and they will nod. Just cause they are famous, doesn’t mean you’ll have anything to talk about.

So as I settle in to being a New Yorker, I’m sure I’ll continue to see celebrities spotted about. But I’m taking to heart that you don’t talk to celebrities in New York. You just flick side glances at them. And then mention it in your blog.

On the path to curing cancer

[caption id=”attachment_1626” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”Me posing after 7 miles”][/caption]Ok. I’m not curing cancer myself. I’m a writer not a scientist. But I am running for Cancer Research.

Yesterday I ran 7 miles, my longest race ever, and I’m back out there again tomorrow to take Prospect Park by storm….at 13 miles an hour.

My friend Marianne and I came up with the idea a year ago to run all the races up to a marathon. Not only would we run 5K, 10K, a half marathon and a marathon but we’d do it in four continents as well. We called it Couch to 42K (or #c242k on Twitter) as we non-runners were going to get off the couch and run a marathon!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w0mP0NAh5I?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

So far we’ve run in London and Morocco and in less than a month, we’ll be winging our way to China to run a half marathon on the Great Wall of China.

Some people asked me if I am scared.

Damn straight I’m scared, I’m running further than I’ve ever run before halfway around the world…

BUT

Running up hills, up stairs, up anything is nothing compared to the people who fight so hard to beat cancer, a disease that will affect one of four people around the globe. Today Brandie, one of the cheeriest person I know on Twitter, is going in for breast cancer surgery. Her spirit is so bright and so many people are rooting for her.

Yes. She is one of the many people we are running for.

3550 people in the US and 850 people in the UK are diagnosed with cancer each day. With survival rates at just shy of 50%, I hope the more support cancer research can get, the better that number will get.

I actually went to a conference last week about Amazon Web Services and how they are making “the cloud” more accessible to us all.

The one speaker who brought applause from the crowd was a representative from Cyclecloud. He talked about their work with Schrödinger, a company that offers molecular-modeling and drug-design software. With their 50,000 core super computer they ran a virtual screen to identify proteins that are responsible for cancer.

Normally a super computer costs at least 20 million so this is out of the reach for most researchers (and I would argue almost all). By using cloud services with 3000 servers at full capacity, Schrodinger were able to do 112 years worth of calculations in three hours at the cost of $4828.85 an hour. This will help make the impossible big science possible. It’s breathtaking to hear that this could enable us to find the cure even faster.

Today, I feel the possibilities are getting brighter. My aunt died over five years ago from cancer. I wish every day that she was still here. So I hope we all can work towards a cure by walking, running, fundraising, supporting, researching, fighting and being there for one another.

I know you won’t all be on the Great Wall with me but your spirit will be. My aunt will be there pushing me on, her voice in my ear “I believe in you, you can do it. When you believe, you can do anything…”

Moving is stressful!

Though this isn’t a shock to most people (except me it seems), moving is STRESSFUL. As I take everything in stride, I thought a move across an entire ocean would be a walk in the park. Not only a move mind you, but a new job, waiting for a visa, a feature film to entirely rewrite and a half marathon to train for. Yikes. Stress city.

Somehow, I thought I was hiding it well. I was totally fine. But how could all of those things not do something to you. It took going back to London a couple weeks ago to realize I wasn’t happy these past three months. It wasn’t the job - everyone is great. It wasn’t always the script (though there were a number of weeks that I thought I was a horrible writer and I’d never be able to write again).

I missed my friends. I missed understanding social norms. Sometimes I stayed out way longer with people I didn’t want to be with just cause I wanted to go out. On top of that, I ate and drank for England and stopped training altogether. It made me feel fuller, even if I was eating my way to a heart attack.

A week before coming back to England, I finally put on my trainers and ran around prospect park. I ran 35 minutes without stopping and I cried when I was done. Cried all the way home. I realized that part of me thought I really couldn’t do it. All of my normal confidence was gone. An unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people when you’re stressed to the gills can do that to you.

Even worse, I stepped on the scales in England and realized I’m almost 200 pounds. I was in shock. For years, I was 150 pounds but once I started working in offices and having more money to eat out whenever I wanted, the pounds started piling up, even more so since I’ve been in the US trying to fill the people shaped void with food. (They are not the same shape if you are wondering.)

But going back home to London and finally getting my visa in my hand and finishing my screenplay, I realized I am ready for the New York adventure. It was just that I had too many things in the way of me realizing it. I also figured out that I hate where I’m living right now and need light and a proper kitchen and a place that is home, more than anything else.

As I search for the perfect place, I have wonderful colleagues and, dare I say, friends here to make the transition easier. I’m out running four times a week and have gone on the GI diet (thanks Rick Gallop for writing a normal eating plan ) and back to eating vegan for the most part to help me get back into eating healthy. A week in and I’m starting to feel more like my old self even if I don’t look like it and my legs continually ache.

Tomorrow, I’m getting new trainers to tackle the great wall (psst - you can donate to cancer research who I’m running for here: www.justgiving.com/c242k) and then I’m going to run stairs pretending I’m Rocky Balboa. I’ll pretend he did it in New York. I’m sure no one will know the difference.