HOLY SHIT

I JUST WAS IN AN EARTHQUAKE. Oh. My. God. I freaked out. Not because it was happening, oh no, I've been through a mini earthquake before in Andover (weird I know), but because of the way my boss (who has lived in CA for a looooong time) reacted. She started freaking out, screaming "i don't like this!!" and then told us all to get out and that they were evacuating the building. Fact is, it wasn't even that big, at least not here. It was very rolly. I didn't even realize it until she started shouting. Then I went into freakout mode. Ran to the door frame (since thats the only thing I know to do). As I ran down the 8 flights of stairs (remember, I am on the eighth floor of a very old, historic building) my legs felt liek they were about to give out. I was shaaaakiiiinnggg oh my goodness. I'm still a little rattled and it happened less than an hour ago. We were only out for a second before it was safe to go back in, though I was a little reluctant... Apparently the epicenter was in San Diego and it was a 5.7. CRAZY.

But for those of you worrying, I'm fine. Shaken, but fine (no pun intendid).

What a weekend.

Actually, what a week! Wow, I feel like sooo much has happened and its only been like 5 days. Let me start with Wednesday.

Wednesday was a very odd yet great day. So I am driving into work at casting when one of the girls that I work for gives me a call. She basically told me that there is absolutely nothing going on there, and only a few people are in the office. She told me to take the morning off (it was like 10:35am) and come back at 2, after lunch. Not knowing what I should do with my morning, and not wanting to turn around and go all the way back home, I decided to park right near work where I normally do and then take a nice long walk all the way down Hollywood Blvd to the tourist areas. I ended up at Hollywood and Highland, which for those of you that that doesn't sound familliar, it is where Grauman's Chinese theatre is and the main section of the walk of fame. I became a tourist for the morning, walking around the hotspots and taking some pictures, although I felt very odd taking pictures of things by myself. It was really funny seeing all the obvious tourists around there, like taking pictures of EVERYTHING and going into the Wax museum and things like that. Although I do have to say that I almost went into Madam Tussaud's, but figured I could not do that seriously on my own. I would have to be with someone, because I didn't really have any desire to see wax celebrities by myself. So anyways I walked around, giggled at the tourists, shopped, ate, and returned to work around 2. They then had me run an errand out near Studio City, which was actually nice because it was beautiful out and I had my windows rolled down listening to my music. When I got back, I got to sit at the big desks (since there were only like 4 people in the office) and just answer phones and mail some things etc. I finally felt like I was really getting the hang of working there. It was also nice that I was mostly busy once I got back because the time just flew by.

After I got out of work, I met up with my new friend Jacquie (that makes, what 2, 3 friends?) and we went to the Pantages Theatre (which is right around the corner from my work) and saw In The Heights for $25! We had pretty good seats too, row J, right side, Mezz, but the mezzanine was nice and steep so you could see pretty much wherever you were sitting. It was such a great show and, for those of you who care, the lead guy was the original one from Broadway, Lin Manuel Miranda, who also wrote the show. So being able to see him for $25 was pretty cool.

Thursday was nothing special. Moving on.

Friday I don't work, so I woke up, and I can't remember what I did after that... Later that day though, I decided to go to one of the Asian grocery stores I had found online in hopes of finding Boba, so I can make my own, healthier version of Boba tea. I went to this market that both my cousin Stacey and my neighbor Carol suggested to me called Mitsuwa. It was so cool. You walk in and there was a video store section, a book store section, and food court and then the actual supermarket area. I didn't have any luck finding Boba (although I did find milk tea mix) but I did get some real Japanese green tea. They also had fresh sashimi, which got my mouth watering. Instead of getting that, though, I found a spicy tuna rice bowl, although not necessarily as good as the ones I get at school. After I came home I went to the gym and swam some laps (which was lovely) and then had dinner. Later that night I went to Ross and Target with my cousin to get some presents for my little cousin's birthday the next day. It was a much needed outing, to say the least. I had been harboring so many issues with my cousin for the past couple weeks and so we finally talked about it all and worked everything out.

Saturday I met D and The Grove. We ate at the farmer's market (I had beef Shawarma, yumm) and I brought D cupcakes as an early birthday surprise. Then we went to go see Eclipse, because we had to haha. After, I went to Loehman's en route to try and find a Borders. I went to go try on some clothes and got really, REALLY confused by the dressing room. When you walk in it is like this communal dressing room with a couple women walking around in their bras and underwear. I was so confused (and so tired at that point) that I was thinking "I do not want a communal dressing room" then I found the real ones. After, I went home and fell asleep. At 5pm. I woke up ate dinner, watched tv, met my cousin's drunk party friends and went to sleep.

Sunday, I went to a party at my cousin's friend's BEAUTIFUL house. It felt like an upscale cape house, pool and all. It was very chill and relaxing and the food was delicious (they had deviled eggs with caviar on top. I felt so classy!). The only really exciting part of the evening was the guy there that looked like Jay Gatsby. His shoes, his suspenders, his shirt, his hair, his glasses, everything. If only the lighting had been better so I could have gotten a picture of him. He was pretty cool too, shy and kinda awkward but cool. Too bad he was only 17...

Anyways the fireworks were okay, not great. Not like the crazy ones from Spring weekend! We ended up going home around 10, which was kinda a let down, and I stayed up talking to my drunk cousin for 2 hours. I mean, pretty solid 4th of July, but not much to write home about.

Monday was relaxing. I cleaned, I painted my cousins nails, and I took a nice bikeride to the store. I made the most delicious pasta-salady thing for dinner which was great until the tupperware holding it all fell out of the fridge and spilled. That was a bummer to say the least.

And voila! My week/weekend. Sorry it took so long to post. I thought I was on top of this but I guess I'm not... More soon I promise.

It's been a while

Sorry about the lack of entries this week. What have I been up to? Lets see...

I'll start with Wednesday at Casting. I started learning how to do some of the normal things that casting agents do, which is exciting. I'm slowly but surely get more accustomed to what goes on there and getting more comfortable answering phones. I don't know why it gets me so nervous. I was a receptionist for the girl scouts. I think its because there I was just dealing with pushy parents of Girl Scouts asking questions, and here I am dealing with potentially very important people who I do not know. Plus, I can't hear very well over the phone, which is an issue..

Anyways, Thursday was great fun. I got to watch some webisodes at work. They were horror (which I am totally not into) but they were very good. And they had the guy from the Hannah Montana movie in them, who is very nice to look at, and made it tolerable to watch. I don't mean tolerable as in they were bad, I very much enjoyed them, it was just the gore that I could NOT deal with. I am such a squeamish wimp. After that I got to review some movie scripts, which was fun too. That night, my Dad, who was about an hour away on business, came by to see me again and take me out to dinner. We ended up taking out from this place down in Santa Monica called Cha Cha Chicken, which is the most delicious Carribbean food. It is this little beachy, whole in the wall place that is always busy because it is so incredibly delicious. I know none of you live in CA who are reading this, but if you feel like drooling over their food, here's a menu. Because the restaurant was about a block away from the beach, my father and I decided to walk down there while we were waiting for our food. Surprisingly, that was my first time being on the beach since I got out here almost a month ago, which seems really crazy. It was chilly, but nice to be by the ocean for once. Although I do have to say, being at any beach, regardless of which coast its on, reminds me of Welfleet.

The next day, Friday, was my day off. I was planning on going to the gym and swimming and then driving around to try and find some Asian grocery stores so that I can have Boba ANYTIME I WANT. Unfortunately, I got a terrible stomach ache in the middle of the night (what else is new?) which kept on all day, so I couldn't do what I wanted. I did drink a whole like, Gallon of Apple Juice over the course of the day. I could do that all the time. The highlight of that day, was the fact that I got to skype with the lovely Katie LaMark for like, 4 hours. Towards the end, we were just both on video but I was watching TV and she was doing something else. It was actually wonderful, because I had started feeling sort of lonely out here, and even though she was on video, it kinda felt like I had company. It was nice.

The next day was WONDERFUL! I met up with D and we went over to Santa Monica Pier (although my cousin tried to convince us not to go because there were "gangs there" - it was noon on a Saturday in summer...). Yeah, there were no gangs at all, just TONS OF TOURISTS. D and I decided to join these interesting folks and spent like 30 minutes in a souvenir shop trying on all sorts of goofy tourist. We finally decided on getting tops that said Venice Beach on them, although we were on Santa Monica beach. Mine is a really AWESOME muscle-tank (one size fits all) and D's is a large, 80's-inspired cutoff sweatshirt. We wore them around and looked soooo cool haha. Actually, we sort of blended right in. Then we decided to put our feet in the ocean, my first time putting my feet in the pacific ocean this trip! It was very exciting. Then we walked around for a bit, looked at the weirdo street performers, and went to 3rd street promenade to watch more weirdo street performers. There was one guy who was at the Pier, who I had seen at 3rd Street Promenade previously, but never got to see his act. He is this little, middle-aged, Asian contortionist who wears an entirely silver sequin sweatsuit. He looked like a genie. It was really weird, yet amazing at the same time. Then, at 3rd street promenade, D and I watched this group of guys doing break dancing and gymnastics, who all had AMAZING bodies, and there was this one middle eastern guy who was soooo cute. Oooowee.

Getting back on track.... That night I babysat for a very adorable 7 month old girl and the woman whose house I was in had a picture of her and JON STEWART. Omg it was awesome.

I don't know if this post is interesting at all, but I actually had a great weekend. Hopefully more exciting things will happen and I can keep you posted.

Update!

At last! My guitar and I are reunited once again! Now I finally have that hobby I was looking for to fill up my spare time. Maybe by the time I come back to school I will know 4 songs instead of 2 1/2! One can only dream...

Movie in a Mortuary?

Okay, this weekend was AWESOME. Friday night was Sarah's last night in L.A so we went to Culver City to see Toy Story 3, at her request. Honestly, I didn't think I would love it. I thought it would be cute but OMG it was AMAZING. I highly recommend it. Oh and there was Totoro doll in it, which just made me so happy.

Saturday night was the best. I went with my cousin and some of her friends to a cemetery in Hollywood to watch the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This cemetery was huge and so cool looking. Many of the headstones we saw had pictures of the people on them and they were black shiny marble and in pristine condition. It was crazy. We also passed by a headstone that had a picture of the man on it, but when we looked at the date it was 1933 - . That was it. Meaning, the man wasn't dead yet. It was very weird.

So there had to be at least 500+ people there, sitting the grass, picnicking, drinking and watching this somewhat cheesy '50s movie. Everyone would laugh at the very outdated parts (like how the main character was a doctor and kept giving out pills to everyone for everything), they would swoon at certain moments, it was so fun. Although at one point one of the women I was with (who is a little out-to-lunch) started yelling at these people who were smoking, instead of, you know, asking them to please move somewhere else if it is really bothering her. I just sat there, looking down at my food, embarrassed. Besides that little moment, the night was wonderful. There was a DJ who was playing music after it had ended and we were dancing. Oh it was awesome. Apparently they have it every Saturday there, and I guess this kind of thing happens many other places around CA as well. Next weekend is Midnight Cowboy with Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman and I think I'm going again.

In Celebrity news: most people won't know who this is, but sitting in front of me at this movie was this guy named Drew Seeley who was in that Cinderella movie with Selena Gomez and was also the singing voice of Troy in the first HSM. He was there with his girlfriend who I think is a news anchor on E!. Its really odd when you see totally recognize people and you don't actually know them...

Sunday was a chill day. We went to the club, and I swam and relaxed. At one point I decided to go up to the women's locker room and try out some of their spa facilities. Sitting in the steam room alone was a very odd experience. First I felt like I was in an oven, or like I was a steamed vegetable. Then I sort of felt like I was in a gas chamber, which I quickly dismissed because that was not happy to think about when I was supposed to be relaxing. Then I felt like I was in some sort of portal to another world. All you could see was steam everywhere so I felt like when I opened the door and the steam cleared I would be in like a different world. I wasn't, unless you call California a different world. Sometimes I feel like it is.

Damn you, Celtics!

Okay, so this post really doesn't have much to do with the Celtics, I just had to express my frustrations about their loss. Okay.

Yesterday was quite the looong day, but in a good way. Work was nothing spectacular, doing some tedious busywork, although I did get to watch an Akira Kurosawa movie. It was from the Criterion collection (NICOLE THAT WAS FOR YOU). I had a nice lunch though. There was this studio-wide basketball tournament with lunch outside and so I was taken down to that. My lunch was yucky but it was nice to sit in the sun for a while, instead of in the office. I guess they do events like this periodically throughout the year. So i made sure I left work at a reasonable hour (like 5:30) to meet my friends at Cheebo on Sunset for dinner at 6:30. What should have taken me 25 minutes, TOPS 45, took me like over an hour and a half. Granted on the way there I stopped for gas and got into a fight with the gas pump, i still should have been there earlier. I realized later that the CRAZY traffic was all on account of this silly basketball game. Damn Boston teams always do this - they are winning most of the game and let it slip at the end. I mostly just wanted to win so I could rub it in all the Laker's fan's faces.

So after we finished dinner, my friend (who is leaving on Saturday. Boo!) wanted to go to this place called Millions of Milkshakes. This place is so self indulgent and is like the epitome fame whoring. You walk into this small little place and there is a song on (the music was SO LOUD) about this store and was advertising how you can buy it on iTunes. Also there is footage of all the celebrities that have come into the store and made their own milkshakes. The menu is also overtaken with pictures of celebrities and the milkshakes they've created that you can get. Its like so ridiculous. (I mean, just look at the website). And worst of all, its not even astoundingly amazing. I mean it was very very tasty but they basically took Coldstone's idea but instead of mashing things together with ice cream, they just throw it all in a blender. Like a mix between Coldstone and a frappuccino. I mean don't get me wrong, it was tasty and I would go back, it was just so self gratifying, like "Celebrities come here so you should too! And you should get the milkshakes that they make and then you can be just like them! Yay! Everyone wants to be famous."

Aahh L.A.

Ew

I just passed by a guy who had a dreadlock mowhawk. Killing two very ugly birds with one stone.