S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous

When I post videos of me speaking, I do it for the content, to get my message across. But some people seem to enjoy them for a different reason. Some like or at least get a kick out of my accent which is sort of a Jewish, Italian, Queens, New Yorker kind, even though I am really a New Yorker of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent, not Jewish or Italian.

But

• I've often been mistaken for Italian and/or Jewish throughout my life

• I’ve sometimes been stopped mid-conversation by my Titi Ydalia so that she can laugh at how much “like a Jew" I sound, and my sister and cousins will repeat certain words back to me when I say them, such as dawg (dog), dawta (daughter) and the ever famous, cawfee (coffee)

• A co-worker told me he first thought I was Jewish and Puerto Rican and that I must’ve learned Spanish from my “nanny”. When I told him that my babysitter was Greek/Jewish, it made sense to him and he said, “Ohh so it was the other way around!”

• When I was about 14, I auditioned for a PBS show and the woman there gave me a quick look over and handed me the lines of a character named Rachel Levine. Rachel. Levine.

I bring all this up because last night I tuned into The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon. Rachel Brosnahan who plays Mrs. Miriam "Midge" Maisel, is not a Jewish New Yorker so the accent she’s employing is not her own but she’s a great actor and I really like the show so far. Sometimes the comedy gets a little hokey but more often than not, it’s so spot on. I especially love the design and setting, and the actual story.

My dad was an aspiring comic in the city when he was younger, but about a decade after the show's time period. He was nothing like the legendary Lenny Bruce as far as I know, nor was he an imposter like Joel Maisel thank God. He did more one liners and old impressions. But that mid 20th century midtown, downtown, Upper West Side Manhattan backdrop, the whole writer, comic in the city thing is something I can easily get into as a viewer. You could say it’s in my blood, even if it’s just a drop, and that kind of sensibility speaks to me, though there are things that I don’t relate to in the show, and don’t always enjoy watching.

For example, I didn’t like Midge’s joke in the pilot episode about the relief of having a fat college roommate. Someone whom she can eat a lot of food with and wouldn’t have to worry about this girl stealing her boyfriend. That wasn’t funny or cute to me, nor did it make me admire her for any brazen chutzpah, it just made me roll my eyes. Midge is probably an Alpha, and has planned out every single thing in her life since she was 10, plus she has been loaded with privilege thanks to her upbringing and education. This makes it more dramatic when her world falls apart- and then to see her rise from that as she carves out her own messier but truer path. That’s why I keep watching. And I love their tag line: When your life falls apart, you stand up and get your act together Get it? Stand-up? ;)

How I’m getting my act together:

• Brushing up on MLA, APA, and Chicago styles of writing papers to improve my proofreading skills- watching the tutorials and getting index cards

• Getting a webcam to make my promotion video for somewhere like Upwork

• Going to the gym

• Continue marking things down on my phone calendar the way blogger Jordan Page recommends when planning out her entire year- something I never pictured myself doing, but little by little, am heading in that direction.

Have a great week!