It's Been A While...

So...

I have not been so great with updating this blog. Things have been a bit crazy and a lot has changed since October.

I started a new job at a production company in Santa Monica and I LOVE it.

I am a Coordinator and because it is a smaller company, I really get to know all the people in that I work with. Hopefully, I will also have a lot of cool opportunities that I wouldn't normally have at a larger company. We are producing The Cape on NBC -- so, if you feel so inclined, please watch :)

Speaking of this new job, the reason that I started here there in the first place was this friend:

Jennie is by far my best friend in L.A. and I am so blessed to know her. Ironically, she knew Annetta Box (from some mutual friend in Oklahoma) and before I moved to L.A. Annetta gave me her email and told me that we would be friends.

Well, turns out that Jennie was also in the home group Bible study that was meeting IN my house that I moved into over a year ago. Small world? Maybe..

Anyway, we became fast friends and she got me the interview at my current company. We see A LOT of each other between work, church, and just being good friends but it never gets old. So blessed to have some one like this in L.A.
Also because of this new job, I cut my trip home to TX for Christmas short, which I was really bummed about. I also missed Passion for the first time ever.

However, I made the most of it and had a great time in L.A. for New Year's.

Another benefit of living in Southern California is the AMAZING weather. I had a holiday yesterday and I was determined to take advantage of 75 degrees in the middle of January. Grant and I went down to Santa Monica and rode bikes along the coast.

Needless to say, I will be doing this more often. 15 minutes from my house and free parking? Yea..amazing.






And finally, these are some photos I just received from a friend from my birthday back in August.

I can't express enough how grateful I am to have such an amazing community here. It really feels like home.

Hopefully I will begin to keep up with this more. I think things may have settled, albeit momentarily-- but for that I am grateful!

Back to the City

So my trip to Missouri is over-- and frankly, I miss being there! I never really realize how great it is to be out of LA until I get away and have to come back. Don't get me wrong, I am choosing to live here and I am SO blessed to still be in this city. However, it was so great to be around a family, in a small city, on a ranch. His town has about 1,700 people in it -- and it felt like everywhere we went he knew someone. We went into town to eat and we parked, rolled down the window and left the key IN THE IGNITION. No problem. LOVE that.

On Friday-Saturday we were at the Roots and Blues festival in Columbia. Around 20,000 people came through to eat barbeque, shop and listen to music. His dad owns a beef company and they were selling BBQ at the festival. I got to join in and help with Grant, his parents and his 3 brothers::

It was fast-paced and hectic, but I had so much fun. I got to know everyone really quickly.

Sunday-Monday we just rode horses, drove around town, hiked, and enjoyed his ranch. At one point I was driving a Four-Wheeler through a freshly harvested corn field--yea, Dad, be jealous.





It was an AMAZING trip. This place is GORGEOUS and I hope I can go back soon.

Next stop is TEXAS in 6 weeks!!! I am soooo excited about this, I miss my family so much.

Grant will be joining me for a portion of my trip so now its his turn to be the newbie :)

I am so glad everyone will get to meet him.

Now it's back to reality in L.A. and it is not so sweet. For now, I am grateful to have a job, and a great community here. Being away makes me realize that no matter what I am doing in this city, it is always beneficial to get out for a while!

Missouri I hardly know you..

So, due to recently developing events in my life--I will be taking a trip to Missouri tomorrow and returning to L.A. early next week.

I have never been to Missouri and I am SO excited to be getting out of L.A. to spend a little time in the fresh air. It's been 4 months since I have left so it is looong overdue. For example, I was in Hollywood yesterday, walking to my friends house and::

#1 - I was approached by a man asking me directions to the Church of Scientology..ummm nope.

#2- Had to dodge a guy on the street using a bush as a urinal. Sick.

#3- As I was driving away, a random guy ran up to my car and kissed my driver's side window. Thanks, but no thanks.

All this to say, for those of you who think Hollywood itself is glamorous and awesome-- hate to bust that bubble, but it just isn't.

SO- The reason I am heading to Missouri??

The date that I mentioned in a previous post, Grant, is from there and he has graciously invited me to go to his family's ranch and spend some time with them there. Be expecting some photos of ranch life coming your way. My dad will be uber-jealous I am sure!

I fly out of LAX tomorrow, and Lord willing will be landing in Kansas City tomorrow evening!

::Music Edition::

Recently, I have been getting into some new music thanks to my many musical friends. It helps to have friends that work for music supervisors and they get free stuff all the time and give it to their friends (legally, thankyouverymuch)

So now I would love to share with others. Love it, or hate it. It's just some suggestions...

FIRST AND FOREMOST::

MUMFORD & SONS

This band is hands down my new favorite. At first I thought maybe they were a little too folksy..
I mean, come on now. This picture.

(I dig it, but some may find it to be a little too much folk/indie/hipster)

But give it a chance!! They are on my blog playlist over there (#2) -------------- >

SOO great. Especially when driving. I started listening about a month ago and I. cannot. stop. I am seeing them live in Hollywood in October--can't wait!!

Favorite Songs::

"Roll Away Your Stone"--

It seems that all my bridges have been burned
But you say 'That's exactly how this grace thing works’
It's not the long walk home that will change this heart
But the welcome I receive with every start

(little sample of lyrics)

"Sigh No More"

"Awake My Soul"

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

LOOOVE this chick and her band as well. Sometimes I jog to it. Sometimes it's just on in the kitchen. Either way:: good, clean fun. I have also put one of these tunes on the side playlist as well.

Favorite songs::

"Dog Days Are Over" (made popular on the Eat, Pray, Love trailer) ---> #3 on playlist

"Drumming"

"You've Got the Love"

CHRISTOPHER WRAY

This guy is my friend and everyone should give him a listen. It's pretty jazzy and soulful music. I just have to say I know him personally, and his girlfriend is one of my best friends in L.A.

CHECK HIM OUT!

http://www.christopherwraymusic.com

OTHER FAVORITE BANDS AND MY FAVORITE TRACKS::

LOCAL NATIVES--

"Airplanes" (#4 on playlist)

"Camera Talk" -- good for running!

VAMPIRE WEEKEND--

"A-Punk" I dare you to listen and not want to jump or tap your foot. Try it. Nope. You cannot.

------------> listen over there #5

"California English"

"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"

PASSION PIT--

"Little Secrets" (#6 on playlist)

"Let Your Love Grow Tall"

EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROES--

"Home" (#7 on playlist)

"40 Day Dream"

Also check out MUSE if you want some good rock to run / workout to. GREAT, GREAT BAND.

THE END--- You are welcome! (I hope)

I also went to a wedding last weekend in Hollywood in a 90 year old movie theatre (which also serves as my church, Ecclesia).

It was super beautiful and fun. This was my date, Grant. He is great.

Yeah..aaand.... that's all for now.

Have a great week!!

Weird, weird Emmy weekend.

SO, again I am failing at blogging. However, that is probably O.K. considering I doubt many of you are waiting with baited breath to know what is going on in my life. It's pretty boring most of the time..

Last weekend was a little more interesting because I worked the Emmy Awards in downtown Los Angeles. I have been through awards season in the winter and it was ROUGH. This weekend, however, was rather smooth. I did have some moments where I thought.."Huh, look at what I am doing right now..this is not normal.."

One of those moments was on Sunday night during the Red Carpet show. I was by the E! 360 Camera, just sitting off to the side and watching everyone. Kevin McHale (Artie from "Glee") comes up to get his photo taken. He is, however, upset because the button from his jacket has fallen off.

We happened to have a sewing kit and I mentioned to him that I knew how to sew a little (thanks mom). He was super excited about this and promptly removed the jacket and we sat and chatted while I fixed his button.

So, there you have it. I sewed on THAT button. My big accomplishment at the Emmys. He was really, really nice and during his interview when they asked him who his suit was by, he said the designer and mentioned that a girl named Ashley fixed his button. So basically I am a designer now.

When the Red carpet part ended and the show was about to start, I began to clean up our area. This is when I spotted an envelope with Claire Danes' name on it. I open said envelope and inside are her tickets to the show. I didn't know they gave out tickets if you were nominated (which she was) I just kind of figured it was an automatic entrance thing.

Anyway, I realized she probably would want these tickets. So I went upstairs to the lobby and began to squeeze myself through the crowd looking for Claire Danes. This is when I had a moment of "What am I doing right now? This is not normal.." I am pushing through the cast members of my favorite T.V. shows in search of an actress who doesn't know me-- but I know her-- in an effort to return her Emmy tickets. Weird.

I had no such luck finding her and went back downstairs. Her husband and her publicist or manager or assistant or one those members of celebrity entourage types were looking for the tickets. I gladly handed them over and was done with that situation. One thing I always think after an awards show is how unnecessarily crazy they are. It's just so weird to have that many people working endless hours to prepare for people to walk into a building and receive awards for doing their jobs. I love them, I watch them, I am choosing to work them. They are still crazy when you break it down.

Other than that, things are pretty good. I can't believe I completely missed a TX summer this year. First time in my life. I think the hottest it was here was 90 degrees for about 4 days, so I am NOT complaining. I don't even have AC in my house and for the most part we don't need it. I am grateful for that Southern California weather.

I hope to see my family soon though!! It's been so long and my little nieces and nephew are getting so big!! I will definitely will be there for Thanksgiving and hopefully sooner if it works out.

I will also get back to blogging more regularly. I think I have 3 readers now (all related to me) so I am sure they are just DYING to read these :)

It's Been Awhile..

It's been almost 8 weeks since I update the blog--which is CRAZY!

I got to go to Houston about a month ago and visit my family and my new nieces.

They are SO perfect and adorable.. I even got to be on baby duty a couple of nights! I say I GOT to because I don't have to do it every night. God bless Chris and Callie!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!! They are beautiful and my nephew is growing up so fast too. I miss seeing them. This time around I had actual conversations with Carson. One of my favorite things was seeing how elated he got when we went to their back yard to play with some toys. We were throwing tons of plastic balls into the air and then running around to pick them up-- he was literally falling over he was laughing so hard. I love being around kids like that!

I got back to LA and I have just been working a few press junkets on the weekend. I have been able to work at the "Eclipse" junket, "Jonah Hex", "A Team", "Inception" and "Despicable Me".

Now, some may be excited to see the cast of Twilight. I, however, am very pumped to see more classic people, such as JULIE ANDREWS.

Here are a few screen shots of the junket I worked...this is the my creepy/sort of picture::

I was obviously a little out of it...helping with the set-up, drinking coffee.

I will say, I LOVE the weather here in June. It's been about 70 and sunny every day. This weekend for the 4th of July, I will be going hiking and spending some time at the beach! Should be fun!

I will update again soon..hopefully with more exciting and wonderful news!

I feel like a grown-up..and I don't like it.

So, these past few weeks have been a rude slap to the face of the real world. 

Started last week with a small car collision in my parking structure at work.. 

I was backing out of my spot- no one was coming- and as I slowly backed on out, a guy came around the corner and skidded along the back left side of my bumper. I think it's a mutual fault thing, but of course that means you get to pay a deductible to get it fixed..woooohooo.

This was then followed by a trip home to see that our washer was leaking into our kitchen. AWESOME. This is the ONE appliance our landlord is not responsible for. So that means a fee to pay a repair man to come look at it. wooohooo again. (sarcastically)

I am calling repair men and insurance companies and sounding like my parents...When did this happen to me?? 

One GREAT thing to look forward to is that I am going to TX on Thurs!! I haven't been since Christmas time and I am so ready to visit! Can't wait to see my new nieces and the rest of my family and friends!