I just posted this song lyric from the great West Side Story as my Facebook Status becaue I truly feel something big is about to happen.

I’m not exactly sure what it is, but it IS gonna be great.

I’ve had a number callbacks – sometime two or three for the same role – for a number of shows happening in town and around the country. For once, I feel as if I’m finally doing something right.

I’m back at the Desk making money, taking Tap classes at Broadway Dance Center – sometimes thrice a week – I’ve lost 20 of my cruise ship pounds – with the help of Weight Watchers, exercising with the Dragon Lady and the support of my friends the Fat Fighters – and my voice has never sounded better.

I’m meeting the right people, learning the right lessons and heading in the right direction. Who know, maybe I’ll have something to blog about after all…

Having been over ten years since I visited the museum I couldn’t imagine a more loverly Spring afternoon than strolling through the dinosaurs with my mother….

Evil Prehistoric Turtle

We meandered through the African Hall, the North American Birds and Mammals Hall and of course the Dinos.

Mother is getting up there, so along with the meandering we did a lot of  sitting. For fifteen minutes watching a fossil doc, then ten minutes on evolution and then next to a random monkey skeleton of five minutes.

I discovered something about myself today, while I don’t practice it often, meandering in NYC can be, well, fun.

After we grew tired of looking at the dead animals we decided to take a stroll through the  park. I’d already figured we go to the Boat House for lunch, but I was starting to doubt we’d even get to a lunch before I’d have to get her back to Grand Central Terminal.

I recommend taking a day to stroll around your home town, you’ll probably see things you overlooked, turtles in NYC? Who knew?

Ninja Turtles – yes.

I’ve been home now, three months.

I’ve scrubbed and sanitized the entire estates – though I’m still finding dust bunnies…

I’ve cooked my favorite meals, I’ve ordered my favorite take-out, I’ve showered in my shower. I’ve cuddled with my babies and rearranged my furniture. I’ve stocked the kitchen, the bathroom and the home office. I’m moved in…well, moved back in. There are new batteries in the clocks and detectors - smoke and CO2 – and new lightbulbs in old fixtures.

I’ve melded the past two years seamlessly into the previous fifteen.

I’ve treated myself to a new Coffee maker; a Keurig even, aren’t I special? I bought a new George Foreman Grill and a SodaStream.

Oh, and the Dragon Lady moved in.

My ship BFF transitioned directly into land life. He’s working at my old job, sleeping on the pullout and helpin’ to keep the fridge stocked. It would’ve been a harder three months without the Dragon Lady’s half of the rent…

I rejoined Weight Watchers to lose the 30 lbs I gained of the 50 lbs I lost three years ago – you try staying fit on a ship, I know it can be don, but damn, it’s hard…I’ve lost 15.8 lbs so far…

I started Tap classes at Broadway Dance Center – I forgot I was pretty good at it….

I’ve gone back to monitoring for Actor’s Equity, I’ve gone on 25 auditions, gotten three call backs, booked one day of extra work on 30 Rock and redesigned all my promotional materials and website.

I’m back.

“Why have you stopped blogging? I need my Vinnie-fix…”

“Is something wrong, you’re not blogging? I get concerned when I don’t hear about your escapades on a regular basis…”

“We need more Vinnie!”

But you see Jew and Gentile Readers, I don’t think the life I’m living is very exciting. The last thing I need is for this blog to be as boring as my life is at this moment.

This is my life: auditions, classes, weight watchers, workouts and at the end of the day, get stoned to help forget the fact I have to go back to my survival jobs because I haven’t booked the next gig yet.

Exciting, right? But, if you want it, you got it.

While the month is yet to close, the past few days have been greatly productive.

I think I may be right on schedule to join the real world right on schedule…

It’s an art, no?

The best blogs are the blogs which have a singular focus, which follow the blogger from point A to point B. Blogs which have a solid beginning, middle and end….

For the past two years, for your VINformation: lost@sea had such a focus – it was about me, traveling on a cruise ship. It was about the faces, places and events I encountered while traveling on said cruise ship, for two years. Well, that part of my life is over for now, the ship has sailed. (Get it?) There are still a few posts I’m workin’ on which will finish up the coverage of my Grande Voyage, I want to give my regular readers closure. Jew and Gentile Readers, I do this for you.

If you’ve visited recently, I’m sure you’ve noticed the slight name change; “…lost@sea” is now “…STILL lost@sea,” ’cause while I may not be on the boat right now, I’m STILL sailing along on the sea of life. I may not be in international waters, the waters I’m treading now can actually be rougher.

So, to get back to the point, and I do have one: focus, this blog will focus on me and all that entails.

In my mind, I’m followed by a camera crew who tape all the wackiness God throws at me, I’m going to use this forum to share how I deal with all that wackiness. I hope it’s entertaining, enlightening and some other action word beginning the letter ‘E’ for alliterative purposes. Enjoy.

for your VINformation: STILL lost@sea is open for business.

• I regret spending $330.00 on a fake Franck Muller watch in Turkey…
• I regret paying the cabdriver who stole my friends camera $150 for the ride in Costa Rica…
• I regret paying $100.00 on a rent-boy who couldn’t get it hard in Mexico…
• I regret picking-up a disabled, homeless guy in Peru – I was drunk…
• I regret losing (stolen by a trick) my Flip Camera in Amsterdam – I was stoned…
• I regret not closing my cabin door after drawing $300.00…

I regret not expanding on these stories, ‘cause believe you me Jew and Gentile Readers, if my mother wasn’t a regular reader I would’ve already.

Besides, I’ve got to save something for the book.…

I’m a New Yorker. Well, I grew up Westchester County and currently live in Weehawken, NJ, but that’s only because I have a rent controlled apartment in which I’ve lived for 16 years now – cold dead body and all that that -  unless I’m lucky enough to find a comparable place in Manhattan which doesn’t seem possible, but I digress…I’m stayin’ where I am, but I consider myself a New Yorker. I work at one of the busiest Hotels in Times Square and the oldest continuously running cabaret theatre in New York City, I earn my money there and spend my money there, so I’m from there.

Anyway, I digress….

I’ve been a long time subscriber of your magazine, I’d go so far as to say it  is one of my favorites if not my favorite weekly periodical. I always feel more connected to the comings and goings-on of my city after tearing through you. I feel a wee bit more cosmopolitan; as if I were, in the know.

I keep hoping to be in the right place at the right time to be seen in the Vulture Pages; I’ve eaten at restaurants recommended by Oliver Platt’s brother and your listings section is the end all and be all of what’s going on around town.

But again, I digress…

I LOVE NY

I’ve been working aboard a cruise ship for over a year and a half; I’m sailing the seven seas singing-out as I visit cities around the world – cities which are nice, but don’t quite measure up to the greatest city of them all.

When I left, I put my subscription on hold. No need killing trees while I was away, and yet I’d scour the local magazine stands whenever we’d visit an American port – sometimes succeeding in my quest mostly not – finding a New York Magazine in St. Petersburg, Russia or Fanning Island, Kiribati isn’t an easy task.

So, I digress again, I recently discovered your iPad application, and noticed that you offered current subscribers free access to the full magazine by way of the app.

What!?!

Where was I when this started? Peru, at the Nasca Lines? Sailing through the Panama Canal? Scaling the Tower of London? Kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland? Driving a dogsled in Alaska? White water rafting in Costa Rica? Gazing at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris?

I can tell you where I was when I found it, it was Norway, at the bakery, Goot Bread, where the bread is good and the internet is free. I discovered your iPad application quite by accident, but when I did…it took moments to download and before I knew it, as a current subscriber I had full access to the best magazine in the world via my iPad.

I downloaded fourteen issues that day alone.

You helped me feel connected again. To New York City.

I devoured four issues that sitting with my good bread from Goot Bread, I felt compelled to write this note of thanks.

Thank you for still being there, for still reporting on NYC while I wasn’t there; we New Yorkers like to think the city stops when we’re not there…but secretly accept the fact that it doesn’t, it wouldn’t be New York City if it did now, would it?

Next, on the Reginas...

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”

– Tim Cahill

Lush

As I get older, I realize i need to take better care of my skin. As I’ve been getting older while traveling the world, your products have become my new skincare addiction.

I was introduced to your products by a coworker, a face mask here, a lump of soap there. A squirt of cream…I liked everything.

A stop in Ireland found me on my first Lush shopping spree. A buying pattern which continued into England, Ft. Lauderdale, Maui, and San Diego. I’m certain, your NYC stores will be on my regular shopping routes.

My Favorites:

Rub Rub Rub: I can’t live without it! It’s a sea salt exfoliator, or as they describe it, “a startling refreshing shower scrub.” I use it on my face, my hands, my entire body. It makes me feel like I’ve got a new skin.

Mask of Magnaminity: The “big green giant of a face and back pack. Deeply cleansing, toning and exfoliating pepperminty mask.Refreshes and brightens all it touches.” I use it on my face, scalp, hands and shoulders. When I use it after rub rub rubbing myself with Rub Rub Rub, I feel as if I’m in my twenties again.

Enchanted Eye Cream: While I believe eye cream is eye cream and there is no magical lotion to give one un-puffy, young looking eyes, but this one just smells and feels so, well, creamy. I don’t think there’s a major difference in my eye’s appearance, but I like the fact it doesn’t make my eyes water.

Ambrosia: The best, I repeat, the best shaving cream I have ever used, and believe me, I’ve used a lot of shaving cream. This product brought me back to the blade after years of electric shavers. I was suffering razor burn and ingrown hairs and just three weeks of using this product, the skin on my face has changed. I don’t have the annoying bumps at my neck line anymore and while I know it has nothing to do with it, my beard feels softer. All you shavers out there – but this product, you will not be disappointed.

Eau Roma Water: Toner, that doesn’t sting? What?

I’ve yet to pick a favorite soap. I want to try every one before making my decision and there are so many to choose from…

Listen Lush, I’m very brand loyal, and I’m your target demo; a gay man with no children and plenty of disposable income, don’t fuck it up and you’ll have a costumer for life.

Thanks for your time.