In an effort to make my New York office seem sunnier, I’ve taken to leaving my desk lamp on at all times, directly above my head, where most would be annoyed by it. I just love the feeling of a bright light shining down on me, even if it’s from an overpriced Italian cubicle-wall-lamp instead of the actual sun.

Everyone’s doing the obligatory what-I-got-for-Christmas post, and I figure I might as well join in. This Christmas didn’t bring any gag gifts, since most of my friends are really far away. Well, actually, Chelsey got me some tortillas, but that was actually not a gag at all. I really wanted some tortillas.

Anyway, I got a striped button-down shirt and a bright green long-sleeve t-shirt from Gap, a Starbucks card, and a cool Kenneth Cole watch (a real one, not even from a street vendor!).

Tonight is Christmas dinner: turkey enchiladas!

During the holiday season, the only thing more amusing than reading A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner), a classic tale from The New Yorker, is to imagine that it’s being read out loud by Christopher Walken.

The closest Target store to my apartment (according to the Target store locator) is the one in Queens, and it’s only accessible by car. So although Ashleigh and I love Target, we reluctantly concluded a few weeks ago that we could only order online from Target.com instead of visiting the store.

Then yesterday it came to my attention (while browsing for neighborhood stores on NewYorkMetro.com) that there’s also a Target in Brooklyn, at a place called the Atlantic Terminal. I mapped it, and then I compared its street location to the subway map to see if it was subway-accessible.

Lo and behold, it’s located at the intersection of the N, R, Q, B, D, 2, 3, 4, 5, and M trains. So basically, you can get to Target in Brooklyn from anywhere else in New York City.

Needless to say, Ashleigh and I visited Target last night (it’s open till 11pm) and bought our first fake Christmas tree together.

This is an experience I’m going to miss when I’m in New York. I’m at Pick Up Stix right now, and all of the employees (as well as most of the customers) are communicating in Spanish.

Remember the time I moved to New York?

Okay, so it hasn’t actually happened yet. But my employer finally gave me permission to move, and they asked me to hurry up and do it as soon as possible. In their estimation, that’s November 1.

This begs the question, anyone wanna buy some furniture?

Marchy and I decided it would be cool if someone compiled a book of Broadway pranks. It would be full of anecdotes from Broadway actors, much like Making It on Broadway. However, instead of telling stories of life in New York, the actors would recount stories of pranks or bloopers onstage and offstage during shows.

For instance, if Musical Theatre West’s Les Miserables: School Edition were a Broadway show, we’d include the tale of Alex falling in battle and then whispering, “I got shot in the spleen!”

Well, today is Stephanie’s last day in Irvine.

She’s been my friend for a little over a year now, and it’s been a lot of fun. Amie, Jonathan, and I spent a lot of time trying to help her learn about the ways of the world outside of her small, maternally-imposed bubble, and now comes the true test to see if our help has helped. Our little one is going off to college in New York City.

Thanks to us, she knows that Irish Cream isn’t just cream. She knows that normal people don’t vacuum their shoes. She knows that you don’t have to stop at the meter if you’re using the carpool lane of the onramp. She knows how to put in a tampon.

The funny thing about Stephanie, though, is that she seems really naive and helpless when she’s in a group, but somehow she’s amazingly resourceful and independent when she’s alone. If she needed to get to Los Angeles and didn’t have access to a car, she’d find out the bus schedule and get herself there. She’s that kind of person. So I think she’ll be okay in New York.

Regardless of that, I’m sure she’ll have great stories to tell her friends back home about her strange and unusual experiences there. And I hope she tells us those stories often because we’ll really miss her in the meantime.