Facebook | Alora Lanzillottas Photos - New York City part 2

Proof I was in New York for the YouTube awards. Thanks for posting those photos Alora! (Part of the Harry Potter Puppet gang). It looks like I’m farting or something, but I’m trying to get on a big bouncy ball.

I’ve had a hard time keeping up with the online world this week because my Grandpa passed away on Monday and it’s been a hard thing to deal with.  He had stomach cancer and had been fighting it for a while, but his body could not fight it any longer.   He was a wonderful man, and to the last day was still thinking about his true passion in life: Physics.

The sad part is that he never saw his life’s work finished (the tests on his inventions are still being done, I believe he held on as long as he could just to try to see the results) but the important thing is that he found his muse and lived for it every day of his life.  I guess that’s all we can hope for, to find our passion, and value our family.   It’s made me appreciate the people in my life who are close to me, and realize we have a finite time here, and to make the most of it.  I wasn’t going to post about it because it’s so personal, but if it makes someone call their grandpa and tell them they love him, this post was worth it. 

You guys,I posted the WRONG DATE for this, it’s actually TONIGHT at 10:30, so if you planned to come tomorrow, I’m sorry, it’s actually tonight And admission is $10.00 FYI. SIGH.

If you’re in LA, this weekend you can come see some of The Guild (me and Zaboo and Jeff Lewis) doing improv, 10:30PM on FRIDAY Night!

The McCadden Place Theatre

1157 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood, CA 90038

Reservations:323-463-2942

ALSO my sketch show is at 8pm Friday and Sat night at the same place.

www.myspace.com/ladysketchshow

Still making my way back from the whirl-windiest trip I’ve ever had! Took a 2 hour flight from NYC to North Carolina for some reason. You’d think for that much time I’d be out of this time zone already, but no, haha. I had a lot of fun, but I would definitely think twice next time I volunteer for a red-eye flight and come back 24 hours later. Living dead can’t really describe how my brain is working right now.

Why was I in New York for 1 day, you ask? Well, YouTube wanted me to fly out to New York hush-hush Thursday morning for Friday press stuff because we won the Series award. Did I post about that?! If I didn’t…we won! Yahoo Series too! We swept the online voting awards! Thank you every person who voted, we were one of the overall TOP VOTE-GETTERS in the competition! I can’t wait to show you a picture of the trophy once I get it, it’s amazing!)

Anyway, because of the Dr. Horrible shoot (which wrapped on Thursday, late) I couldn’t fly out during the day Thursday, and the only option I had to make it out was to take the red-eye at 9:55 pm. So, I did. And realized that a human neck is not meant to bend at the angles needed for in-flight sleep.

I had brought a big full-sized pillow with me on the theory that sleep would come easily after a 13 hour work day, so it was practically the only thing in my carry on, but I foolishly didn’t factor in the crushing narrowness of the seats. Upshot, the pillow CROWDED me the whole time and marshmallowed me against the plane wall, squeezing me against the window like I was cocooned into a strait jacket. Dumb move. Frustratingly, I couldn’t stick the pillow back up in the bin, because my bag was in a whole different section of the plane, all the way in the back. The Chapparelle Middle School Orchestra, all 75 or so of them, were on board with their musical instruments shoved in the bins to go play at Carnegie Hall (Good luck little dudes!) Option I ended up with-sleeping on my tray table. I still can’t move my right shoulder.

I got to New Jersey alright, and then the fun, however foggy with sleep, began. My fellow winners and I (Tay Zonday, Potter Puppet Pals, and several others) basically hung out at Google HQ NYC all day in between on-camera and print interviews. Life could definitely be worse!

So….my next job will be at Google. I don’t think there’s a cooler place to work, serious! Despite the ban on visitors riding scooters, in the wee morning hours we definitely zipped around the HUGE FRIKKING office complex a la Razer. This place went on FOREVER, in the middle of New York City, floors and floors worth! There are little buffet/snack stations between offices to get lattes and cereal and other snacky items, there’s Rock Band setup and a game room with ping pong and pool for leisure time, then there’s a commissary with free food, like a sushi bar and a raw “Spa Food” bar, all free to the employees! I could give birth to a Google food baby, based on all the crap ate in 12 hours. Took me back to dorm days! How is everyone who works there not obese!??!

To pass the time I slept on Google’s floor, rocked out on Guitar Hero (First time I ever played, pretty much kicked ass. 20 years of violin training totally set me up to own people’s faces on “What a Feeling”), and sat in a Japanese massage chair that literally got me through the day with strangely human-like kneading of my neck muscles.

And oh, yeah, the press stuff. It was great! A few interviews should be posted soon and I’ll link to them. We were all interviewed as a group mostly, and, despite the fact that Good Morning America wanted to talk to the pogo-stick riding rubix-cube solving guy instead of me(He is hella impressive, I’l admit it, and cool), I would say that going to NYC and hanging out with the YouTube folks and my fellow winners was a great, once-in-a-lifetime thing!
There’s a picture of me and Tay Zonday I’m waiting for someone to email so I can post. Back on planes now, trying to make it home. Thank god for my DS with Zelda. Can someone say totally addicted!?? Good thing I had it with me. A total lack of frontal cortex ability for doing “important” stuff was a great excuse to delve in. Yum.

I have 238 emails in my inbox, and it’s making me shudder, but things must be done! Oh ya, and that DDR video! First…must..connect…flight…