April
1. Ashley & Emily came to visit me in LA!!
We had such a great time and I got to show them lots of cool things about LA! Ashley got into town a few days before Emily and I was able to take her to Warner Brothers for a tour of the lot and to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I think this was the 3rd time for me at Leno and it did not disappoint. Steve Carrell was the main guest. I just love him to death! Extremely funny, but oh so humble and down to earth. I just want to squeeze him. The second guest was Kathie Lee Gifford. Ugh. She was horrible...snobby, condescending, rude...just a beast. If you didn't see the show-youtube it. Steve was so gracious to her even though she was acting like a jerk- the tension in the studio was insane- you could feel the audience cringing with awkwardness as each word left her mouth. Finally the musical guest was Ani Difranco....she was wonderfully unique as always and helped balance out the crazy Kathie Lee brought into the building. A couple days later Emily got into town and I took her and Ashley around the city doing lots of "touristy" things. First we went to The Getty which is an amazing museum on top of a mountain in LA where you can see the whole city. On a clear, less smoggy day the views are incredible! After that we went to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and window shopped and took pictures like crazy. We actually went into Michael Kors to look around and we felt so out of place that we quickly exited after one lap around the store. About that time the sun was getting to us so I took Em & Ash to Jamba Juice which is a California craze. A few smoothies later we were back on the street and wandered over to a park in Beverly Hills to take some pictures. Not long after that we headed to Hollywood to take a walk down the boulevard, take pictures of the Hollywood sign and put our hands in the handprints of celebrities at Grauman's Chinese Theater (check out my Ashley & Emily Visit LA! album for TONS of pictures). I think all three of us have a picture of us seeing if our hands fit in Marilyn Monroe's. Tres cute. After Hollywood we rushed back to my apartment to get ready for dinner and a night on the town. We had dinner at a place in Hollywood called Luna Park which had a really cool atmosphere but an inept (as usual) waitress who appeared to be high or something. Perhaps that would explain why the penne pasta me and Emily got about burnt our tongues off with how spicy it was. Anyway, after dinner we headed to IO West (Improv Olympic Comedy Club) to see Kate Flannery's show The Lampshades. Me and Laura were really excited to see the show again and to take Emily & Ashley. Strangely enough during the part of the show where the call on people in the audience Emily was picked out by Scot Robinson (Kate's partner in the show) to answer some questions. It was really funny and I loved that Emily had a great story to tell. If you are ever in LA and The Lampshades are playing you should definitely go check it out- it is a riot!! After the show it was still early so we headed to a club called Play for my friend Ginny's birthday party. The club was really fun and there were a lot of people there. Unfortunately Emily's jet lag was catching up with her and she started to get really tired. We had a few drinks and then decided to take the party back to the apartment and call it a night. We had to drop Ashley off at the airport early the next morning and decided after that we would head to Malibu and hang out on the beach. It is gorgeous up there....I want a house there someday. The next day me and Emily were supposed to go to a taping of Deal or No Deal but after we got there and waited forever they told us it was cancelled. Boo NBC. So we decided to head back and eat dinner at a yummy Italian place before we headed back to IO West. That night they were having "The Armando Show" which is basically just an improv show done off suggestions from the audience and then stories told on that subject by the host. The host the night we were there was Kate Flannery (The Office) and also in the cast was Oscar Nunez (The Office) and Ed Helms (The Office). There are tons of other talented cast members as well. The show was hilarious and made me really want to take improv at some point. The idea is just so fun...anything can happen! After the show we snapped a quick picture with Oscar, but Kate and Ed were no where to be found. Sad. The next morning I dropped Emily off at LAX really early and then headed back to the apartment for a day of rest. I was so exhausted. I LOVED having my best friends come visit me, but I had just gotten back from home and being in the wedding (with Ash & Em) when they came out to visit so I hadn't really had any downtime. I am so grateful that they came to see me though! They are the best!!! Here are just a few pics...
At the Getty
Ginny's Bday party @ Play
With Oscar @ IO West
To supplement my income I've been babysitting quite a bit. My friend Ashlyn babysits a lot out here and can't always take the jobs and so then she passes them along to me.
One of these jobs turned out to be a total treat because not only were the 2 girls adorable, but it turns out that the Dad is in a band that I love!! I walked in and started talking to Gina (the mom) and I told her I was out here to do music blah blah blah, etc. and she was like "oh, my husband is in a band called The 88." I was like really?! are you kidding me?! I love them! I have them on my ipod! haha. It was great. Her husband is the drummer and very cool. He was so happy that I liked them and had heard of them that he gave me a free cd!
yay! Those of you who don't listen to a lot of indie music may not recognize their name, but you probably know a song or two because they had songs on The OC soundtrack- notably "How Good It Can Be". As Gina put it "this is a only in hollywood story". They have a new cd coming out next month and have signed a record deal with a major label so I'm hoping good things are on the horizon for them. Keep your ears open! I'm babysitting for them again next weekend so maybe I'll get a copy of the new cd before it is released!
3. Meeting Leslie David Baker (Stanley Hudson)
The same night I babysat for the family above I also went to a party for Dan's 31st birthday. Dan is a PA on The Office and I know him through Laura. He is one of the first people we met after moving here and was also the one who invited us to the movie premiere and party where we met Zach Levi for the second time last September. Anyway, I knew that a lot of Dan's friends were people he worked with so I thought that maybe a few would be people from the show would be there and I was right. I walked in the door and look up and Leslie David Baker aka "Stanley Hudson" of The Office walks past me to go sit on the couch. What a trip. He is such a fun guy and has a lot of the same mannerisms and facial expressions as his character. He was so friendly though and a group of us sat around and discussed life in LA and moving here and how things are different and the industry and blah blah for a couple hours. We got to meet a lot of other nice and cool people too (hi Chris & Phillip!) It was a lot of fun....and the cake was great too.
4. Comedy Writing Class
About mid-April me and Laura enrolled in a comedy writing class at IO West. We have both been feeling like we aren't doing enough to stir up our creative juices and learn so we thought this was the perfect opportunity. It has been a lot of fun and stretched us at the same time. We have written funny things and not so funny things, but we have been writing and that is a good start. This class has mostly been sketch comedy based which is totally new for me, but I like it. I just wish I had more time to focus on it. I'm being pulled into too many directions at the moment (I'll explain later). Nonetheless it has been a great learning experience and I'm looking forward to taking the next two levels of the class in the future.
So, that brings us up to May. There are only 2 major things that have happened in May, and each of them deserve their own blog so I will end this one here.
I know I've kinda been out of touch and bad at responding to messages lately so tell me how you guys have been?! What is going on in your world?!
I wish I had a witty anecdote to end with but, I don't sooo I'll just say in the words of infamous Renaldo Lapuz of American Idol....
"I am your brother
Your best friend forever
Singing the songs
The music that you love
Brothers til the end of time
Together or not
You’re always in my heart
You hurt your feelings
And you will rain on mine
I love you brother"
Au revoir mon amis! (don't shoot me if my french is properly conjugated please!)
