We went and saw Scary Movie 3 tonight after work. My cousin Stacey said she nearly peed her pants, so I figured it'd be pretty funny. Nah. Ellen liked it, but I was very disappointed. Oh well.

10.31.03 WE'RE ELLEN WONG AND RONNIE SMITH AND WE'RE AWESOME!!!
The day started out with a decent French class. All my questions were answered, so I didn't have to go to his office hours-- score. Then in American Constitution, I knew all the court cases and understood the readings really well. In Mass Media and Society, my abstract was actually decent and I participated in class. But the highlight of my NYU campus tour was remembering 10 minutes before MMS that we have to sign up for registration, so I headed over to the Comm Dept., where I saw TED MAGDER. He walked right behind me and actually stood behind me. I was so nervous I was shaking. I tried to call Ellen and tell her who was RIGHT THERE NEXT TO ME, but she couldn't understand my panicked whispering. And that was the first part of my awesome day.

So Ellen asked me when I was sleeping the other night if I wanted to go to the opening night of Wicked, a brand-new play starring Idina Menzel, my favorite Amneris in AIDA. Well, my favorite Broadway actress ever. Of course, in my sleepy state (I don't remember this) I said I didn't want to go. Once I was awake the next day, I was like YEAH!! So after class we go down to 51st to stand in line for tics. AND, out of a lottery of 220 people....... we did not get the tickets. Oh well, we might as well try for Hairspray lottery, a lottery that we had tried and lost several times. Well, this time the Broadway gods were smiling upon us and we won the tickets. Pretty exciting stuff. We just mobbed around Times Square till 7:30, settled into the last row of the upper mezzanine and enjoyed the show. It was an awesome show and Ellen had a huge crush on Matt Morrison, some guy that used to be in Element (stop me if you've heard of him) and she wanted to get his autograph. I figured it was worth a shot, but B'way people usually kind of blow you off, Joey Fatone-style. Well, the cast came out quickly and were very very nice. Even the star of the show, Harvey Fierstein was really nice and talked to us and signed our stuff. Best of all for Ellen was when Matt hugged her. And it wasn't like a "ok, don't stalk me anymore hug," it was a "hey thanks for being so cute, let me initiate contact with your hotness" kind of hug. Random people came from the backstage area, including Caroline Rhea (I had her sign my Playbill, too) and Elizabeth Smart. RANDOM. But COOL.

Speaking of backstage, we were waiting for Tracy to come out and she never came, so I finally asked one of the stagehands who was smokin a cig if she was coming out, and it turned out she already LEFT and we missed her. Poo. But don't be sad, gentle reader, as he then offered to take us and our camera BACKSTAGE. But alas, we didn't have a camera, a fact we had discussed earlier in the afternoon. So we scurried to Rite-Aid around the corner to buy a camera and scurried back. Backstage was awesome, of course. We took pictures of us on the stage, in front the the seats, on the different sets. Totally incredible.

Oh yeah, before all this marvelous-ness occured, we happened to run into our good friend Barbara Walters, who happened to be taping 20/20. This is why I live in New York. For nights like these.

Oh yeah, did you know that Matt Morrisson hugged Ellen? And on his birthday.

Oh yeah, p.s.-- earlier today Ellen was telling me how Matt and Caroline had kissed on her show a while back, so when Matt and Caroline were talking to us, I was like, "Oh, you guys should totally replay that kiss" and when Ellen said "I've had a crush on you forever," I was like "ELEMENT!!!" like I knew what was up. We had a good laugh about that one later. Thanks, Elle.

Halloween for 15F will be Scary Movie 3 after work and a night of eating the candy G-Ma sent us.

10.24.03 YOU LIVE, YOU LEARN
(inhaling) The Ellens bought this salon package for $30 (usually $60) from these people on the street corner. It's 10 services (image consultation, shampoo, conditioner, hair cut, manicure/pedicure, etc) and you can use them however you want. First catch is that you have to pay $15 (+tax, of course) when you first use the coupon and gratuity is not included. My mom always warned me about the people who sell services on the streets (not those kinds of services, jerk), but you have to use the deal 3 months after you buy it or something, and Choi obviously can't do that, so she let me and Tot split it. So Ellen and I went in today to get our haircut. Paid the $17.95 and waited to be helped. My stylist was nice enough. He said I should highlight, but I told him no, all I want is a haircut, MAYbe get crazy with a layer or something. He said (and I QUOTE), "If you don't like getting your haircut often, I'm gonna put a gloss on it really quick." END QUOTE. I said ok, whatever. It was a dollop of cream that the shampoo girl put on my hair before she washed it. She put the gloss in and ran off. Meanwhile, I hear Ellen's guy say "...highlights," to which Ellen replies, "Oh, no, I used to do that but I don't want to do it." 10 seconds later, the guy is putting highlights in. After I waited around for 15 minutes, the shampoo chick washed my hair and sent me to the stylist, where I waited 10 more minutes for him to get done with another chick. I get in the chair and he starts cutting. I tell him I think I do want a layer to which he says "Yeah, sure." I realize he's cutting and didn't consult with me on how much to cut. I ask him nervously, "Wait, how much are you cutting off?!?!?" "Don't worry about it, it's just a trim." Snip snip snip, then he moves to the front layers. Raze raze raze. While he's razing hurriedly, I notice that my part's not even straight. I'm getting angry. He asks if I want a blowdry, I say sure, but then he mentions that it's 60 bucks, so tip the girl well. I decline the blowdry, because I'm cheap and that's not, and I'm just there for the "free" stuff. Then he mentions that oh yeah, the glaze is going to be 60 bucks. I am ENRAGED. He gets pissy and says "Well, you already got it, you might as well let me finish your haircut." Two more razes and he's done. 5 minutes total, if even that. He practically throws me out of his chair and into an old lady hairdrier. I sit there fuming and see him skip over to the receptionist, telling her to charge me for the gloss, he has to go. Good, I didn't want to tip you anyway. So I watch as Ellen's guy blowdries her hair, and I imagine the hundreds of dollars he's racking up in his head. As I predicted, we get to the counter and I see that highlights are $320. They give Ellen a deal, $120. Ellen says no way, I'm a broke college kid. They fight her down to $80 and throw in the blowdry for free. Meanwhile, they're waiting for my stylist to come back and affirm that he told me about the gloss. I tell them that I have a train to catch, don't have time to stick around, and all they're going to get from me is $20. The manager guy sees that I'm not budging and that Harim isn't coming back, and crumples up my ticket. GRRR. So everyone go to ripoffreport.com and complain that La Dolce Vita (117 E. 60th) failed to alert you to the extra charges you would be faced with. PLEASE. I heard the girl in front of me say, "Umm he never said that would cost extra; I'll give you $100." I hate it when my mom is so right. (exhale)

After my 75 minutes in Hell, we went to CPK and Dylan's for dinner. I got cake ice cream (of course) from Dylan's and Foccacia with checca (DELICIOUS). I would have rather paid $60 for the dinner and $5 for the haircut, GLOSS INCLUDED.

FRIENDLY SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
This morning on the subway this chick (about 24) was like "If I was the conductor, this is what I'd say: 'Hey hey hey y'all, this is West 4th, next stop is 14th-- don't bust yo ass on the way out."

HELPING YOU WASTE PRODUCTIVE TIME
I really am too good at finding time-wasting but entertaining links, so I've decided to dedicate a whole page to things to waste your time. I'm gonna add one everytime I update, but today you get two, since it's the premiere. Thanks to Ellen for letting me use her website for my movies, cause I'm about out of space. This was really funny the first time I saw it: Hardcore (uses Windows Media Player). But my favorite video this week is my Korean lovechild, MoKinHi, pictured to the left (requires QuickTime). Ellen and Anita are just as in love with her as I am. She's just too friggin' cute.

Enjoy the first two links, there's many more to come!!

Funny quote of the day:
"I need to pee, I haven't gone since Cleveland!"
--my boss, Stephanie Lederman