Richard Pucci's Open Salon Blog

Valentines 2011 Days and Gifts a Count Down

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:02:18 -0500

Valentine’s Day snuck up on me this year. I didn’t mean for it to happen it just did. Usually I am really good about it. I buy something special for myself. I think about the people that are closest to me. Those people typically are family and friends, with the exception of the past two years I never had a “partner”. That word “partner” just sounds so queer. Lover isn’t a good word either; hell I’ll just say it. Mr. Dreamy, Lover Boy, or Boyfriend. This year is different than all the other years.

Usually I count down the days to my favorite holiday. I look up love quotes to round out the days. Usually I gravitate to the Katherine Hepburn ones, since she quite honestly was a genius. “Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything. “ Other days I will read others by funnier wittier women like Dorothy Parker. “I require only three things of a man. He must be handsome, ruthless and stupid.”

The week before valentines I like to prep. The food store is a great place to go and buy supplies for baking. My love for cupcakes always tends to shine through this time of year. I just can’t help it! I feel like Valentines, Love Letters, Chocolates, and Hersey Kisses go hand in hand with a pink frosted cupcake made with love! Calories JUST don’t count on Valentine’s day.

This year was different though. In December I got cast in the show “How I Learned To Drive” for my school. This is a main stage production, meaning we got all the bells and whistles. Rehearsal was a bitch since we had such a short time to put the show up. Last week was tech week, and this past weekend was our opening weekend. Everything went really great, honestly I couldn’t be happier. Life has been so hectic it allowed me to just go with the flow this valentine’s day.

Photo of "How I Learned To Drive" from the days and gifts section.

My boyfriend came to visit me on Friday; he saw my show on Saturday night. He gave me the best basket of stuff ever! Hersey Kisses, a Cupcake Candle, and Cupcake Hand Sanitizers… need I say more! I gave him the CD of acoustic covers of songs that I have been working on for him; I also added the baseline with my own voice looped in. I had dinner at his friend’s house. My parents came to see the show on Sunday they couldn’t stay much to my surprise because Mr. Dreamy (Brandon the BF) made me dinner while I was doing the show. If you’re a control freak like me I must let you know, sometimes it’s nice to sit back and just go with the flow.

Love and Wishes to you all on Valentine’s Day, and Remember to be your own Valentine.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo Ricky.

The Space Between Us

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:01:47 -0500

Somewhere between Glassboro and Ewing, NJ there a space between my boyfriend and I. Personally I love the hour difference or the 56 miles which ever you prefer to say. It gives me the chance to miss the annoying things he does. The way he yells at me for leaving my dirty clothing on the floor becomes charming. The little things that I hate become lovable when I haven't seen him for awhile.

I mean I can't even deal with hanging out with friends for more than three days in a row. I call it my three day rule. After three days of consecutively seeing someone I need a break from them.

What happens when that space becomes whittled to nothing, like if you moved in together?

A couple that I met through my boyfriend is perfectly happy living together. They are just the cutest couple. This picturesque couple eats, breath, and sleep together without a problem. I mean they are so ideal they make meals together, and afterward cuddle in front of the television together.

On a similar note my brother is already thinking about living his girlfriend in the fall. Might I add they have been seeing each other 6 months less than I have been seeing my other half. How can one be so sure they are ready to make the leap into living together? As far as I am concerned they have a good thing going on because they are five hours away from each other. The mess in my brother’s room is not an issue since she doesn't have to live in his space. Her love of getting new bedding isn't an issue with my brother keeping his favorite comforter.

I don't know maybe I am just one of the outliers and the rest of the world was just meant to live happily with their significant others. Well I am happy to say my issue with space isn't an issue. I have three more semesters left in school so I will not have to worry about moving in with anyone relatively soon anyway. Plus if in the distant future I move in with a boyfriend at least I can look forward to our differences in schedules.

Procrastination: It's Driving Me Crazy

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:01:15 -0500

My winter break is mostly full of sitting around waiting for the snow to melt. I have wanted to do so much during my five or six weeks that I had off of school. I finally had time to do something great. Like going to New York or Pennsylvania for a day trip. Something that I would have taken for granted before going to school would have been fun to do now, but it just wasn't in the cards. So whats a boy to do? Memorize lines.

I got into the play "How I Learned To Drive" at Rowan University. I am in need of memorizing my lines. This is a big deal and I am a big slacker at home. So within a day or so I will start to analyze my character and do all that fun stuff. Luckily I don't have many lines so it will not be hard for me to learn all my lines but Procastination is driving me crazy. Plus I am having so much fun online.

I will be sure to post something better when I have a need to do so, but right now nothing intense is really going on with my life.

The Wedding Craze

Mon, 8 Nov 2010 21:11:26 -0500

By the time a american child turns 18 m they see more than 200,000 acts of violence on tv. Those acts range from fist fights, murders, to rape. I learned how these acts could negatively effect a child in a psychology class I took years ago, but something that worries me equally as much is how many acts of love are witnessed by young impressionable children.

You see even the most kid friendly shows and movies tell you that in order to be happy you must be paired up with another soul. Look at all the princess movies made by the Disney corporation. Those girls may or may have not wanted a man in the beginning of the movie but by the end the wedding of princess -------- to the prince is all that matters.

Some of my favorite people in the world are single and aren't even concerned about romance. Does this carefree attitude about love cause me to enjoy their company more? It seems to me that the fact that weddings are quickly becoming the most important day in someones life is not just a fluke. Weddings are being marketed toward the extremely young, extremely impressionable, and extremely lonely. Wedding channels are not helping this either. Our society is pressuring impressionable minds to think that a wedding is the quickest solution for happiness, when there is possibly a happily ever or never after is waiting just around the bend.

Ricky

The Case of the Many Doppelgängers

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:10:36 -0400

An hour and a half away from home, I am surrounded by complete and total strangers. I am living far away from all of the people that I know and love (and don't know and don't love, but that isn't the point). The fact is that I have found something weird and funny happening. I have been seeing many doppelgängers while I have been away from home.

Doppelganger: : a ghostly counterpart of a living person, double, alter ego.

I have met numerous people that not only look like someone else that I know, but they act like them too. I will give you a couple of examples.

Thing 1 vs Thing 2

When at Brookdale, I met a girl with unnaturally dyed blondeish reddish hair, small frame, and personality up the yin-yang. This girl was quirky and nice. She was interested in all these bands that I had never heard of before. She had a knack for talking to our acting teacher and had a close relationship with him (she would talk to him about plays and stuff - she just didn't walk out of class at the end of the class. She made an effort to joke around with him).

When signing up for classes at Rowan University, I met a girl who looked exactly like a girl from Brookdale (same hair color, hair type, body shape). The funny thing about it is that this girl's personality is that it is just like the girl from Brookdale. She has so much personality, it is amazing! She also likes weird indie bands (this time around I have some insight with them as well!) She also has a knack for joking around with our teacher!

Why do similar looking people have similar likes and dislikes? Is it our looks cause us to act, feel, or like certain ways or things or is it all by chance? I have met so many cases of doppelgangers that I can no longer say it is by chance. As a member of the human race I understand we all want to feel original and different, but lets face it - with 7 billion people in the world there are going to be different versions of ourselves running around with their versions of our friends.

I know what you’re thinking, what about gender or race? A girl in high school reminded me of my cousins then-wife (soon to be ex). They had, for the most part, the same facial features and the same attitude. They were not the same race, one was black and one was white.

Will the cycle ever break? NO. We may believe the earth revolves around us, but really it revolves around us as an egotistical society. That shouldn't worry us anyway because we are all the same 500 types of people running around!

The real question isn't the existence of doppelgangers, it is who are the real people and who the doppelgangers are. What if doppelgangers meet? (will they cause world destruction or conquer the world?) All I know is that every time I meet someone that looks like me and acts like me, I immediately close them off, because that is one mirror I don't want to look into.

-Ricky.

(This post was lovingly edited by the wonderful Brandon Ennis... my wonderful boyfriend)