Selfish Mom

Dragging out the first day of school

Sep 4, 2008 What's Going On

I spend my days tracking down film and TV productions for my other blog, Filming In Brooklyn. I can do most of the running around during the day, while Pasta Boy and Munchkin are in camp or school.  But the past month, between camp and school, has been rough.  I’ve hired babysitters a couple of times when there were shoots that I just had to go to, like for Entourage. But for the most part, Filming In Brooklyn had to rely on other websites’ pictures for a few weeks.  I’ve taken Pasta Boy along on a couple of shoots, with varying results.  Rescue Me went great, because the real firemen on the set let Pasta Boy hang out in a real fire truck for almost the whole time we were here.  But that L’Oreal commercial with Andie MacDowell?  Not so much.

I mentioned on FIB a couple of times that things would be back to normal in September.  Munchkin would be starting Pre-K, and for the first time ever I would have both of my kids in the same school.  But I totally forgot about the first week phase-in for the Pre-K classes!  Tuesday and Wednesday, she was only there for an hour and fifteen minutes.  Thursday will be a little better, it’s a half day.  Friday, finally, will be the first full day.

I don’t agree with this method.  I know that the first day can be hard on kids (and teachers!) but I like the band-aid approach better: just rip the kids out of your arms, say a gentle but firm goodbye, and leave!  Don’t drag it out, it just makes it harder on the kids.  Trust me, they get better a few minutes after you leave.

And how do working parents handle this?  Once school starts, it should really start, so that parents don’t have to disrupt their entire week.  The kids will be fine!  I suspect this process developed in a lot of schools because of some parents, who just couldn’t take it.  But this is one of those times when I’m going to say, don’t be selfish!  If your child is old enough to go to school, then you’re old enough to let her.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom

Tags: Andie MacDowell, Entourage, L'Oreal, pre-k, Rescue Me, school

Product Giveaway: Woven Stainless Steel Card Holders

Jul 23, 2008 Product Giveaway

A little while back I was in DUMBO stalking the cast of Rescue Me when I stumbled upon a really cool little store called Stewart/Stand. The store stocks household and personal items, many whimsical and different than what you’re going to find in most stores. Housed in what used to be a garage, the store centers around the Stewart/Stand line of wallets and card holders made from woven stainless steel. That’s right, woven stainless steel! Some are smooth, some are textured, and they all have a kind of shimmery quality.

I picked up a couple of their v-pouch single-card holders, and am giving them to you guys (two of you guys, anyway). These would be great for holding a single card that you need access to frequently, like a metrocard or a drivers license. (Unfortunately, they’ve discontinued the single-card holder, but they’ve replaced it with a multi-card holder, which you can see here – they look very similar, but the multi-card holder is gusseted to hold more cards.)

So, to enter the contest, all you have to do is leave a comment stating what other item should be made out of woven stainless steel, or absolutely should not be made out of woven stainless steel. I vote for underwear, but I’ll leave you guessing as to whether I’m for stainless steel underwear or against.

I’ll give one card holder to the comment that I like best, and one other comment will be chosen at random from the rest of the entries. Leave as many comments as you want for the subjective part of the contest, but only one entry per user will be counted for the random winner. You have until 6pm Eastern on Monday, July 28th to enter. Sorry, I’ll only send these to the U.S. or Canada.

To read my general rules on giveaways, go here. Good luck! And keep checking back, because I’ve got a ton of stuff to give away in the coming weeks.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom

Tags: DUMBO, Rescue Me, Stewart Stand, woven stainless steel

My Alter Ego Gets Up Close And Personal With Some Hot Actors

Jun 14, 2008 What's Going On

So I have this other website, Filming In Brooklyn, which chronicles TV shows, movies, commercials, and various and sundry other productions that are filming in the great, picturesque, totally filmable borough of Brooklyn. Last night I went out to watch some scenes being shot for the FX drama Rescue Me, which stars one of my favorite comedians and fellow Irish asshole Denis Leary (any Daily Show fans out there?).

Since this shoot was at night, there weren’t any fans standing around gawking, so I got to hang out and take pictures and was pretty much left alone. I wandered over to the the craft services table where series star Mike Lombardi was hanging out, and started chatting up a really nice crew member. I asked him if he thought Mr. Lombardi would mind me asking him for a picture, and he was like “Hey Mikey, this lady wants a picture witcha! Get over here!”

Now, on my Filming In Brooklyn website I hadn’t planned on appearing in any pictures. The site isn’t about seeing me with actors, it’s about the shoots going on in my neighborhood and elsewhere. I’d like someday for that site to grow into one where other people submit pictures of shoots that they come across, and I have no desire for the site to become wrapped up in my personality or personal life (that’s what this site is for!). So I held up my camera to take a nice close-up of Mr. Lombardi, and the crew guy said “You wanna be in it with him, right?” I was totally caught off guard. I actually didn’t want to be in it with him. If I were him, I think I’d be really annoyed at a stranger asking “Hey, you don’t know me, and you’ll probably never see me again, but could you please put your arm around me and act like we’re old buddies?” Of course he was very gracious about it, and I didn’t want to be rude, so I got in the picture. But you can see in my face that I was a bit uncomfortable.

A few seconds later, Daniel Sunjata walked by, and my new best bud the crew guy was like “Hey Daniel, come over here, take a picture with this lady. You want a picture with him, right?” Now if anybody (besides my husband, of course) is going to have his arm around me, Daniel Sunjata is not a bad choice. And by that I mean smokin’ hot. One of my great regrets is not seeing him in Take Me Out when I had the chance. He was also incredibly nice. Didn’t act annoyed at all.

So, by this point I was a little flustered (it being two in the morning didn’t help). If I had been thinking straight I would have asked Mr. Lombardi and Mr. Sunjata to pose for a picture together (without me). But I didn’t. Oh well, next time I’ll be prepared for the well-meaning, totally cool, funny-as-hell old crew guy.

You can see my other pictures (you know, the ones without me) here.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom

Tags: Daniel Sunjata, Denis Leary, Filming In Brooklyn, Irish Asshole, Mike Lombardi, Rescue Me, The Daily Show, TV