The Reunion- Part 1

Back in March 2003 I was a senior at Rutgers and had never attended a vacation outside of the tri-state area without my parents. With my college graduation sneaking up on me I felt it was my duty to organize a liberating adventure filled with partying and sunbathing. I rounded up 9 of my friends and booked our Jetblue flight and hotel arrangements in South Beach, Miami. The 7 day vacation that transpired would go down in history as the best vacation any of us had ever had.

The 2003 South Beach Crew

Until last week.

One of the South Beach attendees had been Pablo, who was set to marry his beloved girlfriend Amanda in Puerto Rico on July 10, 2010. Besides Pablo, I had also remained very good friends with three of my other dorm-mates: Dex, Bru and Adonis. When we learned we were all invited to the wedding our collective tank of brains began to buzz feverishly. Not only was this a wedding, but a reunion 7 years in the making! In a complete role reversal, Dex took the reins and started looking up flights and hotels. Maybe marriage has made him as organizationally compulsive as I am. I received a call at my office several months before the wedding with a very motivated Dex on the other end. He placed a metaphorical gun to my head and instructed me to purchase a specified Continental Airlines ticket. Ok, I’m exaggerating. Really, he just said, “I found us a flight. You in?” And I responded, “Ok.”

Once past the air transportation, we moved on to hotels. For various reasons 3 of us were attending the wedding solo. No stranger to sharing a room with these guys, I put my femininity aside, deepened my voice and asked Bru and Adonis if I could room with them. They said it was cool…as long as I stopped talking like a man. Done.

When it came to choosing a hotel, I was the guru of sorts since I’d lodged in Isla Verde, PR many times throughout my adolescence. An internet search landed me on the homepage of La Playa Hotel. It took me only a moment to realize the newly renovated hotel was once a hot spot my mom frequented in her heyday. Good karma. I jumped on the phone and negotiated the price for an ocean view room with the ever helpful and jubilant hotel manager, Linda. Over the following months I would come to call Linda repeatedly to reassure our reservations were still valid. Bless her soul for being patient with my paranoia.

With flights and hotel accommodations settled, all we had to do was wait. Gchat convos with Dex, IM with Pablo and phone calls with Bru always revolved around one thing: Can we go yet? Fortunately, life sped by as it often does and before we could all say “Yo quiero mofongo!” (I just made Bru’s mouth water) we were a week away from our flight. It’s ironic how sometimes vacations pop up at a time when you need them most. Bru and I were dealing with sicknesses in our families and collectively we were all at a boiling point with our everyday lives. We didn’t just need a tan, we needed a sanity readjustment.

To be continued…

The Great Debate

As any of my immediate friends would tell you, I had an unhealthy dependence on the TV show "Lost". I'd build my week around it and wouldn't take calls during unless there was an impending death involved. On May 23rd the series concluded and sparked one of the largest internet debates I've seen in quite some time. I decided to write a Huff piece on it and as it stands there are over 100 comments. Regardless of its faults, the show was clearly a phenomenon.
Check it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-j-rivera/ilosti-a-day-later_b_588122.html

The Vampire Diaries: First Season Reflection

I wrote a quick piece for Huffington Post about The Vampire Diaries season finale last week. You can find it here...and yes I'm fully aware of the typo in the latter part of the article =o) (Because I know someone's going to mention it.) Enjoy!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-j-rivera/emvampire-diariesem-first_b_576291.html

A Evening with Nate

Working where I work, I've come across my share of celebs. Some are well known, some think they are well known, some deserve to be most known. Nate Berkus falls in the latter category.

Rewind. 2006. My family and I just finished dinner at a quaint Italian restaurant on 8th avenue. As we're leaving the joint my cousin slaps my arm and says, "We just walked by Nate Berkus." Me: "Who?" Her, flabbergasted that I'm clueless: "He's always on Oprah, he does home design." I shake my head and smile; I hadn't watched Oprah since college, back when my schedule allowed for it. My cousin rolls her eyes. And that was my first run in with Nate.

Fast forward. 2010. Nate is getting his own talk show. Sizzle reels, decks and artwork pass by my desk. All have one thing in common; his face (an adorable one at that.) Soon enough what was once on a piece of glossy paper is now in front of me. We are quickly introduced as he is in town to meet our group and their clients at an event later in the evening. I'm assigned a specific task for the meet and greet: shadow Nate. First thoughts: easy breezy.  

We arrive at Monkey Bar and I meet Ali the photographer. She's personable, full of stories and shares my sense of humor. Instant teammate. Nate arrives soon thereafter and we're all given the lowdown: it will be my responsibility to make sure Nate meets all the clients, spends enough but not too much time with them and has numerous photo ops. Light bulb! Publicity work. Something I was once involved in but forgot about when production took over my (side job) life. Nice way to be reintroduced.

At first things are moving slowly, clients are taking their time to arrive. Ali and walk around snapping random photos. Then it seems as if everyone picks the same moment to make their fashionable entrance. They also share another goal: immediately wanting to meet Nate. Game time! The next two hours involve me ushering Nate around, learning how to catch his eye or politely interrupt him in order to move him to another client, hearing my name called from each direction by my colleagues who need his attention, holding his drinks during photos or running off to replenish said drinks. With each introduction, he is charming and engaging. He listens and you get the sense you already know him. It was all a blur for me, quite a fun blur.

At one point, when I reach to hold his drink again he says to me, "I'm growing an attachment to you." I, and the group of clients around us, laugh. He continues, "Seriously, I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night, look around and say 'Where's Lauren?'" I smile at the warmth of his joke. This is Nate. Funny, sweet and the kind of person you instantly want to be friends with. What's most important, from my own experience, is that I can't smell a fake bone in his body (and I've got quite the nose for such a thing.)  And it is because of this genuineness (and his talent of course) that I think his show will do very well. In a room of more than a 100 people, not one walked away feeling they couldn't relate to him. I think that says a lot.

By almost 9pm things were finally beginning to wind down. I was introduced to some of his good friends and family and then it was time for goodbyes. He thanked me for helping him through the evening. I thanked him for being quite the trooper. And silently and to myself, I thanked him for reminding me of something else I'm good at. 



For more info on Nate, visit: NateBerkus.com

To check out Ali's awesome photography, check out her site: AliPaigeGoldstein.com

"The Back Up Plan" - My Review on Huff

I have a relationship with Jennifer Lopez...she just doesn't know it. My family has been referring to me as their version of JLo for years. Okay, maybe we share the same anatomical body proportions, always seem to cut our hair into the same shapes and have similar voices (I'm not sure if that's good or bad.) However, the same family also calls my cousin Lucy Lu...did I mention we're Puerto Rican with no Asian ancestry? You get my drift.

My rambling point is that despite the way critics seem to hate on her repeatedly, Jennifer Lopez made her way into my life a long time ago and her newest wave may be one of her best yet.

Check out the review on Huffingtonpost.com here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-j-rivera/jennifer-lopezs-emthe-bac_b_550549.html

Ugly Betty and I Go WAY Back...

I'm on a bit of a Huffington Post blogging frenzy this week. Last night as I watched the series finale of Ugly Betty, I felt like I was saying good bye to a good friend. Check out my review of the finale here:
www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-j-rivera/emugly-bettyem-saying-goo_b_538677.html

New Huffington Blog Post

It's been a VERY long time since I posted on Huffingtonpost.com. I'm not the kind of writer to just blab for the hell of it and expect people to follow my every word. Instead, I write about subjects that I know will have special interest. This time around I wrote a review of the new iTunes app called MySneakers developed by my friend Louis W. Colon III. Check out the full blog here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-j-rivera/mysneakers-app-on-itunes_b_533917.html

And here are some screen shots of the app that I couldn't attach to Huff post:

 As if I needed any more of a reason to fill my closet with sneakers! :-)