Oz: Great and Powerful at the El Capitan

One of the many benefits of living in LA is that movie-going is always a little more special. This is especially true when you visit Disney's El Capitan theater on Hollywood Boulevard near the Highland Center (across from the Chinese Theater). The El Capitan, like everything else Disney, is an experience that is family-friendly and yet engrossing for all ages. Seeing Oz: The Great and Powerful in this kind of atmosphere made me enjoy this particular movie (which, if truth be told I wasn't too sure about going into it). The VIP tickets bought a seat up near the stage (yes, there is an actual stage with a curtain and everything), a small bucket of popcorn, and a drink of your choice (sodas, gold peak sweet tea!, and the like).

Walking to our seats towards the front of the theater we listened to an organ medley of Disney tunes before watching previews (none of which I can recall) and then! *drumroll please* a magician came out and performed the classics: rabbit out of a hat, levitating girl, sawing a woman in half (although in a family-friendly, less violent manner, he had her be loaded into a train that then disconnected it cars and rolled onto another track leaving the woman's head in the front and her feet at the caboose!). It was fabulous seeing this man perform on stage, complete with beautiful side-kicks in fun costumes, before watching Oz, the magician (and wizard of course!) on screen.

At first I was worried that sitting so near the stage would affect my ability to view the film properly, much like sitting in a seat up towards the front in a movie theater, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to view the movie in complete comfort...and in 3D!

After the show we exited to the lobby and took a look at the beautiful costumes from Oz before being ushered through the gift shop and ice cream parlor next door, well played Disney, well played.

High Honors, Hanging Hearts, Crash Pads, and a Snack!

This year my roommate went all out to make my friend Heather's idea for a tacky-prom Valentine's Day party come to life. Since it had only been a few weeks since I moved into the apartment I wasn't sure what "all out" meant when my roommate said that she "went all out for parties" that she threw.

Apparently it means buying several heart-shaped balloons, strings of lights, paper heart decorations, pink shiny stuff that hangs from walls to make it pretty, 1980s TV Guides, bagel bites!, pizza pockets!, toquitos, sangria, sodas out the wazoo, and lots and lots of candy. She even got a polaroid camera so that all of the guests could go in the photo room (aka our room) and take a memorable polaroid of their tacky-prom-ware and date ;)

The shadow of the crash pad makes you look like Spongebob!

In February I also got a chance to go rock-climbing which was super awesome and something that I had been wanting to do for a long time. We took out the crash pad and I was able to make the hardest free-climb I've ever done....of about 20 feet. Well, it's a personal best. Plus, whoever is carrying the crashpad looks a little bit like that porous yellow fellow who lives in a pineapple under the sea.

SNACK TIME! Warm weather has brought out the iced tea and the yogurt covered pretzels. 

Train Trip to Oceanside

 This time last weekend I was visiting Oceanside, CA, a small beach town in between LA and San Diego. I took the metro to Union Station in Downtown LA and hopped on the commuter train (metrolink) which offers weekend passes for $10 to go anywhere in the system! It was time to get out of the hubbub of the city with my best friend in LA!

The train runs through the southern towns of Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano which both have quaint stations that I hope to stop off at in the future! Also, from San Juan to Oceanside the train runs right next to the ocean giving some incredible views.
The train station in Oceanside borders local residences and it's an easy walk to the pier and "downtown" area. Although it was a bit cloudy last Saturday, the sun came out for parts of the day and the fresh, un-smogged air, was very refreshing!

We lunched at Ty's Burger House which was surprisingly cheap (definitely not LA prices!) for fabulous food. Homemade ketchup, fries, and a delicious organic grass-fed burger for about $8.00!

The rest of the day was filled with reading on the beach, walking around the small town, and visting a legitimate barber's shop! This town is full of barbers who are employed by the marines who live nearby. We also saw a lot of military surplus stores ;)

At the end of the day we caught the sunset on the train back to Union Station and then took a small detour on the way back up on the red line to NoHo we stopped at Tam O'Shanter, an Inn and restaurant, that has live Irish music and dancing every third saturday!

My last days in Virginia and first day at Pink's!

After November ended I spent the first weeks of December applying to jobs and preparing for my trip home to Virginia! There were many Christmas parties to attend, secret santas to be bought and Anthropologie hours to be worked as the seasonal shoppers started to lined up around the store to purchase their goods. Finally! I was able to pack my things and head to the airport with my traveling companion, Alex who, because he was going to be a groomsman in a wedding and had bought his suit in California, was wearing a three piece suit complete with top-hat. We certainly got some interesting looks on the plane and our layover, not so much in LAX because, well, it's LA!

Birdhouse on the lake in VA Beach after canoeing

At home I did my best to see friends from high school and college as well as spend much needed time with my family. I ate a lot of good meals, was reminded how nice it is to sleep in full-size beds and have your laundry done for you, and traveled all over Virginia to visit folks. I went from DC to Reston to Annandale to Centreville to Charlottesville to Virginia Beach to Hampton to Amelia and everywhere in between.

On one of my last days in Virginia I was "hiking" (aka trail walking) with my mom and her best friend (like an Aunt to me) Elaine (who just got engaged! yay!) and we saw a bald eagle, a very appropriate symbol to end 2012, my year of traveling the country!

The picture to the right is a sunset over downtown LA. I took it from Echo Park, a little neighborhood right next to Silver Lake and Los Feliz (where I used to live)

Coming back to LA was like exiting a densely populated metro car after a long ride. I surged forward into a lot of people and noise and frenzied movement. As I said in my previous blog I spent my first week back applying and interviewing for jobs and visiting potential apartments. Thank God everything worked out wonderfully! PLUS I finally got to eat at Pink's, a hot-dog restaurant. I still can't get over how LA is the land of burgers, hot-dogs, milkshakes, and donuts and yet everybody looks so amazing.

Dog-Sitting

So it's been months since I posted here. I am dreadfully sorry. I meant to pick back up on blogging after the new year but I just didn't get around to it somehow. 2013 has brought a lot of change and though difficult at the time it's all been for the good!

I got back to LA from a month in Virginia about the second week in January. I found a new apartment and moved in by the end of the month. I'm now living in Valley Village (North Hollywood...NoHo for short) near the NoHo Art's District which is a pretty cool area. Though the valley is definitely different than where I was before my apartment is so awesome any downsides to the aesthetics of the Valley are worth it!

I picked up a babysitting job for a little girl with Down's. I help her get up and ready for school on Tuesdays and Thursdays early in the morning. Though it's sometimes difficult to get up it allows me to make some extra money and still do another job.

I worked for four weeks doing publicity and marketing for a mini-series from home. This was a new experience for me and it involved a lot of calling and talking on the telephone but I got the hang of it and it's the best pay check I've ever gotten in my life!

Now I'm dog-sitting. I think this could possibly be the best job I've ever had. I am house-sitting and dog-sitting for two wonderful Samoyeds (and a kitty cat who makes herself scarce) and I've got a fridge stocked with whole foods produce (and fish! yum) and a 3 day pass to Equinox (a super fancy gym). Can't wait to get started for my first full day tomorrow!

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I've been collecting photos and stories to share on here so stay tuned. My goal is to be fully caught up on the interesting things and not so interesting things that have happened in my life since November by then end of my dog-sitting gig.

Hollywood Christmas Parade

Elmo looks like he's going to eat all the people, but don't worry he's tied up. Many an inappropriate joke was made about Elmo coming for the kids...

Thanksgiving Day as I was working with my house guests to prepare our delicious turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn bread casserole, etc etc etc we discussed the fact that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is often referred to as the Macy's Day Parade. Cudos to Macy's for having a whole parade on Thanksgiving be one of the biggest and most interesting forms of advertising in the holiday season.

I went to see the Hollywood Christmas Parade, the equivalent of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, only it's smaller and not on Thanksgiving. A friend's sister was in town as an assistant director for a band from Indiana, Pennsylvania (represent!) to march in the parade and we went out to support her! It was fun to see the floats and bands go by (plus all of the "celebrities" we didn't know in fancy sports cars waving like Ms. America).

super cool band "banner"

I happened to be standing near a wire that crosses Hollywood Blvd (by the Popeyes if you know where that is...nearly across the street from my church) for no apparent reason. I'm sure there is/was a reason at some point but it just complicates things for those marching with big balloons, all of then had to almost touch the ground in order to pass underneath it holding up the parade for a bit.

Dukes of Hazard

In any case, it was a fun evening cheering on the side of Hollywood Blvd and, because I took the metro, I didn't have to deal with parking and/or driving in that mess :)

Scoobie Doo!!!

Who ya gonna call?

In other news. Last night I was able to attend a screening of some shorts up for the Oscars this year. None were particularly stand out but it was fun to watch them and learn about the voting process. There are even little pens with flashlights and glow ends used for voting to turn off the short if it's really bad (note to filmmakers: make sure the first six minutes of your short are good, and don't spend all that time on opening credits).

Oh CA

It is still amazing to me the power of music to evoke a sense of atmosphere. This was something I pondered very deeply when creating a Road Trip playlist for my trek out to California this past summer. What songs evoked a sense of, "here we go, out on the road, leavin' what has been home for 22 years" and then "mountains", "plains", "desert", "new coast", "new home?" Watching the movie Take Me Home on Netflix and discovering the band Bootstraps (put together for the movie but now a full-fledged band) makes me wish I had the album for my journey out here.

So, I suppose I'm making up for it now, driving around LA on these partly cloudy days thinking of the open road and driving along the PCH (see the movie credits to understand).