"Flying first class, up in the sky, poppin' champagne living the life...of the GLAMOROUS..." 5 days worth of updates :)

Hmmm. Well work is a bust today...I've asked multiple times (without being annoying) to help out....even offered to take a stab at writing a press release so my boss wouldn't have to (if only they knew what an exceptionally good writer I can be..) but everyone says there's nothing for me to do right now. I'm not sure why they don't send me home then, but whatevs. I guess writing in here is just as good.

My mom is getting really frustrated with how behind I am on this thing because I'm giving her like, tidbits of info on the phone and I haven't written anything detailed in a long time.

So anyway.

Two weeks ago from today was Monday...my second week of work.

(This is probably going to be shorter than normal, since I'm trying to catch-up and all!)

Monday was a really normal day at work for the most part. Boring intern stuff...spreadsheets and phone calls and the like.
But Monday night Alyssa, Talia and I took a nighttime walk around UCLA's campus...the academic side, because we've been around the dorm side of the campus dozens of times obviously as we live there!
Let me tell you, this campus is so so so gorgeous, I could totally see myself walking around it every day. From the flowers to the architecture, it's breathtaking. We officially found my favorite spot on campus that night. When you're walking by the Student Activities Building and come to the end, if you turn to the right, you'll see the most awesome view of a courtyard with a large staircase leading up to academic builidings. After you walk up all the stairs, you'll see another large courtyard with grass and sidewalks and buildings lining each side. My favorite part is right at the beginning of this courtyard, a few steps from the top of the stairs, is a large waterfall fountain, gently running and reflecting light off the bottom of the basin. It's gorgeous, and peaceful, and like I said, officially my favorite spot on campus. I've returned multiple times since then.

The first part of Tuesday was a pretty cool day. Our firm represents Universal Studios Hollywood, and that morning they were opening a brand new attraction - "Creature of the Black Lagoon". It was a musical production, kind of a parody of the original. I had to wake up an hour early so I could be at the office early so Jerry could drive me and him to Universal for the early event. We arrived at Universal and my job was to watch for press and direct them to the correct spot for the press check-in table. Unfortunately, some misinformation was sent out as to where press was to meet, so I had to go to the opposite end of the park to watch for them while Jerry stayed on the other side. And although this seems like a simple enough job, it's harder than you'd think. Because not all press was carrying video cameras or even cameras. Some were just carrying purses or backpacks with their equipment. And they were all dressed in regular every-day clothing...because, as I've mentioned...work clothes are so much more laid back here. So deciphering who was press and who were just tourists was quite interesting. After press check-in time had passed, I met up with the head of PR for Universal's website, Nicole, who was very nice, and we were escorted down to the opening event. They had a table set out with food and drinks for the press, and there was a large cage in front of the attraction. We missed the pre-event...the photo ops presented for press...where they wheeled the creature in the cage and lifted the curtain and it wasn't there....it ended up sneaking in behind the press the whole time! So we missed that, but we made it in time to go in for the first showing ever. How cool is that, I got to see the first showing of an attraction ever? And there was no public allowed...only press. And when you have video cameras for newsstation's rolling, they have to make special accomodations like hooking the cameras up to the sound system so they were getting clear vocals and stuff....so cool. The show in and of itself was so cheesy, as expected, but funny...lots of adult humor sprinkled in. Pretty cool stage tricks....flying people and such...and the singing was really good. I didn't realize it was supposed to be funny though so (because i sat in an aisle seat) the whole first 10 minutes of the half hour show I was looking over my shoulder paranoid some scary creature was going to come up behind me and grab me.....ugh i'm such a scardy cat! Oh and I forgot to mention that Julie Adams, the original star of "Creature of the Black Lagoon" was there, so that was pretty cool. A total vintage movie star....was sweet!
The rest of the day was pretty much business as usual at work. We had a seminar that night back at UCLA for University of Dreams, but it was really bad. The lady who was supposed to be the main speaker (and i've heard is quite good, so i'm way disappointed) brought her husband along who is also in the entertainment industry, and he totally stole the show. He talked the entire time and really made no sense. Someone would ask a question and his answer would be nowhere in any way, shape, or form related to the original question. I was so annoyed after that.

Wednesday we had another sweet event in the morning, this time in Hollywood right next to the Grauman's Chinese Theater...where all the famous hand and feet prints in the cement are! Our firm is representing the brand new, unopened (Ribbon Cutting next Tues., open to public Aug. 1) Madame Tussauds Wax Museum Hollywood location, and they were unveiling the Alfred Hitchcock wax figure to the public to drum up a bit of publicity. So as soon as I got to work we headed down (walked...ugh! I so didnt wear the right shoes for walking!) to the famous Hollywood and Highland intersection where the event was held. It was pretty cool, I got to see more how things worked and came together for an event like this. It's still so cool to me that I can get into restricted areas now. :) So they had a big stage set up with a curtain covering it with a bathtub with a bloody curtain (this was Alfred Hitchcock, you know!) in the center and they were setting up Alfred's wax figure off center stage left. It's weird, because they look so so so incredibly lifelike...the wax figures...but to set them up, they have to be moved it two pieces - the body and the head. So to see them putting an incredibly lifelike head onto a body was just way weird. So I didn't really have much to do that day besides observe, which was kinda cool. But I felt out of place...like I should have been running around with everyone else freaking out. So I kind of moved from side to side, front to back, of the area from time to time to make it look like I was just as busy and not completely clueless. Finally Jerry called to me to call Rene back at the office and to have him call one of the press photographers to tell them the location so I felt important. :) Then Tippi Hedren, the star of Hitchcock's "The Birds" showed up (she was recruited to do the honors of dropping the curtain), and the press started going crazy. That was the first time I'd seen the full blown paparzzi in action - shouting "Tippi, Tippi, over here! Smile for us Tippi!" and etc. I was actually in the background for some of the shots so I had to jump out of the way. It was cute because Tippy brought a fake bird that sat on her finger with her so it was a great photo op. (I'm telling you, it's always about publicity out here!) She looked stunning for an old-school movie star, by the way. Anyway, so the unveiling happens, it's exciting, lots of pictures, lots of cheering, a crowd has gathered around the perimeter. And then the unthinkable happens. We're outside, right? In the sun. In California. And he's made of wax. Let's put two and two together here people... Thankfully he didn't melt, just got a little soft, but we had to like put an umbrella over him for some shade because there was still the scream contest to be done. Madame Tussauds is having an entire Alfred Hitchcock exhibit, so when you enter the area, they are going to freak you out with a blood curdling scream (great, sure I'm really going to enjoy that...) so they held a contest to find the best scream and Tippi and a few other bigwigs from Madame Tussauds judged the contest as about 30 people got on stage and gave their best screams. They narrowed it down to 3, but one person had already left, so it was between 2 people - ironically enough a mother and a daughter. Overall, the mother won out and she got to go to a studio and scream over and over until they got their favorite and her scream will now be immortalized for eternity (or at least for as long as Madame Tussauds exists...) in the Alfred Hitchcock exhibit. (If you ask me, I should have been allowed to participate. My scream beats all of theirs!) After the contest, a lot of press had stuck around to get an interview with Tippi so it was all about making sure everyone got their clip (but of course, loyalties with certain stations, etc. come first!) I had another really cool "I'm important" feeling sort of moment when one of the security people holding the public back came up and asked me if fans were allowed to speak with Tippi and I said, "hold on, let me confer with my boss, but I don't believe so" and then went and found Jerry and he concurred that only press for the moment could speak with her and so I went back and told her that and yeah, I felt important and cool. Randomly in the middle of her interviews, fans started screaming and rushing someone else on the street. My heart started racing....the way they were going wild you would have thought Brad Pitt or something was walking down the street...but it was some girl from Harry Potter... Shelley Clare or something or other. I had no clue who she was let alone who she played in the movie. But I've never seen anyone rushed like that before...cameras flashing...people screaming...it was crazy.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Michael Jackson's real star is literally steps away from where we were, so the overwhelming amounts of flowers and posters and police guarding it was really crazy to see. It literally almost streteched a block with how much stuff was left to memoralize him. So the event wraps up, Tippi gets to go home in her nice car, and we start to walk back towards the office. The rest of the day was, you guessed it, boring normal everyday office stuff. I do so much better with the exciting things...ughhh.
Oh, and that day Jerry Brown, who I had been working with on the events the past two days, and I went to lunch together at his favorite Mexican place, Dos Burritos. Me being the Mexican food lover that I am was so so so psyched for this place, but let me tell you, I will never go back again as long as I'm here. Ugh it was soooo gross! First I find out that everything they make is dipped in real lard (ugh puke!), then their cheese was like mozerella (which i love...on italian dishes!) instead of shreaded...their enchilada sauce was burnt....and they covered everything in piles and piles of gross cilantro. I barely made it through the meal without puking, and there was definately more things left on the plate that I picked off than I ate. I felt bad, but yuck. I really don't think that could be authentic Mexican...and if it is, BLECH! I'll take my Detroit Mexican-town style food anyday thank you very much. Sheesh. Everywhere I go I can't find Mexican as good as I can back home!

Thursday...hmmm Thursday....wow really nothing stands out about Thursday in my mind...it was the last day of work before the long weekend for the 4th which was nice...but it was another mundane office day. I really really need to make sure I'm in an exciting job because me and office life really does not mix one bit.
Oh, Thursday night I actually hung out with my roomies for the first time in awhile. Since none of us had to work the next day we hung out in our suite and played drinking games with some of the girls from downstairs. It was actually quite fun...lots of girl talk and giggles and learning about each other. I still hold from what I've said from the beginning though...they're nice and we have fun together...but we just don't click in that "omg i wanna be best friends for life!" way to where we want to hang out all the time. I'm okay with our interaction...we're friends, but more like friends-for-now, not friends-til-the-end.

Friday we had off due to the 4th being on Saturday, which was absolutely fabulous. Alyssa, Talia, Marielle, Rachel, and I woke up around 10 to head to Santa Monica for the day. But when we got there, it was chilly, windy, and definately overcast...whereas Westwood was sunny and warm. We decided to shop along the promenande for awhile and we only ended up going to one store (albeit, we were in there for a good 45 minutes...their Forever 21 is HUGE! 3 whole floors of clothes! Believe me, I already think Forever 21 is overwhleming when it's only one floor!) before they wanted to go back and lay by the pool. I really could care less...I enjoy the sun and being at the beach, but why go back and lay by a pool on our day off when I could do that at home anyday? We're in California for pete's sake! We spent the 75 cents for the busride down here...let's explore the promenade! Well, only one other girl, Rachel, agreed with my viewpoint so we split up and those 3 girls went back and Rachel and I stayed.
Rachel is very very quiet unless you are one-on-one, and even then she's not very talkative unless you prompt it. I guess she's said she takes a long time to warm up to people. She's very nice, but hesitant to come out of her shell I guess. And our style is a bit different so mostly we ended up going in and out of different stores, meeting up somewhere in the middle, but I really enjoyed that time. I haven't allowed myself to just relax and enjoy shopping in a long time - it always is a chore...I need to find this for this event, I need to get so and so a bday present...etc. And I absolutely ADORE California fashion....especially the surfer look. I'm totally into bright colors and fun crazy patterns and ripped jeans and things like that. So my totally favorite store is totally Pac-Sun. I spent a nice time in there and got a few shirts and a buy one get one free jean shorts. I cannot wait to buy more... I love that store. I'm so totally a California surfer chick. :)
After some more shopping Rachel and I met up and just walked the Promenade and took the sites in and since it was sunny again, headed down to the beach for about a half hour (it was still windy) before heading back to UCLA. And actually, now that I think about it, the drinking game night with the roommates was Friday night...so I guess Thursday night was nothing...because I distinctly remember our staff person (semi-comparable to an RA minus the heavy rules) Sammi, who lives next door to us (haha I always get placed next to the staff person) came outside when I went outside for some air and she said to me "oh girl, I hope you're gonna make it to get up in the morning bright and early!" because we had to meet for universal at 9. So yes, that was def. Friday night.

Okay, well, I'm gonna go grab some lunch now, so maybe more later! Look at that, 5 more days that I've caught up! :)

"Now I've Had the Time of My Life...No I Never Felt Like This Before...Yes I Swear It's the Truth..." Dirty Dancing the Musical

"You're the one thing...I can't get enough of...So I tell you something....This could be LOVE"

Hell yes, it's love. The musical theatre and I have an affair so strong that love doesn't begin to describe it :)

Wow, folks, I know I'm behind. So I'm going to try and catch up a week tonight. So, we're rewinding time to my first Sunday here...2 weeks ago this upcoming Sunday.

Our first sponsored activity through University of Dreams was that Sunday, and we got to see "Dirty Dancing:The Musical" at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.

The day started out just peachy....as the night before was night 2 of my suitemate Nadia's 21st bday weekend, so the pukey sheets in the trashcan when I woke up the next morning was so pleasant to smell and get ready around.

My roommate Haily and our other suitemate Casey decided they didn't have the energy to get ready, but Nadia was determined to get on the bus to see this play.

So we get all dressed up to go to the theatre and get on the bus and on our way. And immediately Nadia regrets this decision 100%. For incredibly beyond hungover (possibly still drunk) and one large, swaying charter bus do not mix. Needless to say she went running to the bathroom at the back of the bus halfway there and did not come back until we were exiting the bus in Hollywood.

But after that, things were okay. We were there super early, so we got to walk up and down the Walk of Fame, which was pretty cool for a lot of people. It was cool for me too, but the theatre is litearlly right across the street from my office building so all the stars in the area we could cover before we had to be back to take our seats are ones I had already seen multiple times. Plus I didn't think we'd be walking so I wore uncomfortable heels and let's just say my feet did not appreciate the little stroll.

So anyway, we head back to the theatre so we can get out seats for the show. The theatre was old, you could tell, and very pretty. But, if you ask me, it had absolutely nothing on The Fox or The Detroit Opera House back home. There were carvings in the ceilings and magnificant golden shining statues, but literally, I was not nearly as awed as I am when I go to Detroit for a show. It actually surprised me how unenchanted I was with the place. Like I said, it's still very pretty, but I guess maybe I was expecting more and didn't realize that what we have back home actually is like, really really really nice.

So Nadia and I find our seats along with all the other Dreamers. They told us we were all in one big area so it didn't matter where we sat as long as we sat in the specified section, but that turned out to be one big lie because we tried to sit with some of my friends (Alyssa, Talia, Marielle, Rachel) but the usher kicked us out and back to our seats claiming other people had the tickets to the seats we were in. Unfortunately we were further back in the theatre then, but it ended up working out for the best. Because it always ends up when I have good seats that I get stuck behind the person with the big tall hat or the really unnaturally long necked person...and we ended up having absolutely no one sitting in the two seats in the row in front of us. Therefore, my view was unobstructed and I could see the whole entire play clearly without straining to see around something. It was amazing.

So the first half of the play starts and it's great...the dancing took my breath away...I so wish I could dance like that. The woman who played Baby was fabulous...I couldn't even distinguish too much of a difference between her and the movie's Baby. It was hard at first to adapt to the guy playing Johnny...he had a bit of an accent that he hid well but came out every now and then...and basically you're just expecting Patrick Swayze and obviously that's not what you're gonna get. Eventually I settled into the comfort of him as Johnny but it took awhile. The first half was pretty much an exact following of the movie except for a few lines here or there.

In the same fashion as it was hard to get used to a new Johnny, it was weird when you can outline every scene in your head of the movie to use your imagination and get used to the stage scenery. Again, I eventually fell into it and stopped comparing and really enjoying it. The way they used the small space of the stage to their advantage was so good. And they had portions of the stage that they could raise and lower so it would give you the impression that they were walking up or down a long ways. And they had a rotating conveyer belt section so you felt like you were getting a bunch of different camera angles of what was going on at Kellermen's.

The more and more I let go of the movie in my head, the more and more enthralled I became in every moment of the play. If you thought Patrick and Jennifer had chemistry in the movie, the two that played their characters in the play would blow you away. I felt I almost believed their love story more than I believed the movie one. The guy who played Johnny portrayed just a hint more of insecurity than Patrick Swayze did, and I think it made more sense to go toward his build as a character. And he was just as smoking hot....yummy muscles!

The one small break of the play where I didn't feel completely into it was the scene where they're practicing lifts in the water. Obviously, they aren't going to plop a big blow up pool of water on stage so they had to get creative...and they really did as best as they could and it was really remarkable how hard it had to have been to choreograph it. They dropped a mesh-like screen down where the curtain would normally be, and projected sloshing water onto it. So you're seeing water, but you can still see the actor's through the mesh screen, just a little fuzzy as if you were looking at them in water.They obviously had them elevated on some sort of stunt mat because they were higher than they would have been on the stage floor. They'd do the lift, and she'd fall and make it look like she was diving in like in the movie, and they would disappear underneath some sort of slit in the curtain, obviously falling into the stunt mats, and then would reappear in like totally different places than they fell, as if they swam around each other. And Johnny would pop up and flip his hair and the water would move with his exact movements. So it was incredibly cheesy, because everyone knew what was going on and it was funny to see him flip his hair and there was no real water. And like I said, I give them total props for figuring out a way to keep that crucial scene and to have it timed to a T like that...but everyone was just laughing instead of realizing that this is supposed to be one of the more romantic scenes in the movie.

The first act ended with their first sex scene...when Baby goes back and proclaims "And most of all I'm afraid of walking out of this room and never feeling ever again the way I feel when I'm with you." Haha, I always feel embarressed for her when she says that, but watching the play I was like, 'you know what, you go girl! way to not leave any questions as to what you want!' Anyway, if you ask me, that scene in the play was even steamier than the one in the movie...and as the intermission lights came on I think everyone was fanning themselves. In fact, I happened to get a few...ahem..."choice" text messages from a certain someone across the theatre triggered by that damn scene...

The second act actually veered from the movie a lot. I mean, it kept the same exact story line, but the way it veered was that it added things. It added more context to the times and to Baby's passion for trying to save people and better the world and Johnny's outlook on life being that everyone needs to look out for themsleves because that's all he's ever known and how knowing her and being with her really truly changes his outlook on those things. It was really really good. You could really see in the play more than the movie that it wasn't just about the great sex, but it was about growing as people for each of them as well. Baby wasn't afraid to stand up for herself and be her own person anymore, and Johnny learned the virtue of looking out for others and selflessness.

The coolest scene in the show was, of course, the final one. The best part was when Johnny storms back into Kellerman's end of the year paegant. All of a sudden you hear a car engine really loud and then the doors in the back of the theatre literally right behind me (and we sat on the aisle seats!) flung open and bright headlights shone and Johnny comes charging down the aisle in his leather jacket and runs up and jumps onto the stage. Everyone in theatre cheered when they realized he was running down the aisles so loud.

Then, of course, the famous line comes.... "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!" Cheers erupt from the entire theatre for so long, they have to wait to continue acting. It was so cool...everyone knew it was coming and everyone was just waiting for it. Then it happened and it was like, AHHHHHHH! Haha.

Then the dance scene? Of course, completely fabulous! Everyone ended on their feet and yes, the sap I am, I was in tears the entire last few minutes.

The lights came on and I had to pull myself together cause I felt like a crying idiot.

I just have such a strong feeling of connection to the stage and I feel like I'm in a completely different world watching it. I become the lead character and her story is my story. We make the journey together. And I so badly want to be able to do that for other people....being on stage would be so fabulous.

*Sigh*. Yes, I love the theatre so.

We went back to UCLA after that. Alex and I decided to go grab some dinner and ended up meeting up with a bunch of my new girl friends...I felt bad that he was the only guy but he seemed to be completely unfazed...he and I just talked the entire time with each other. Great conversation. :)

We all grabbed dessert, minus me and Alex because, for me, the place processed their ingredients in a place that processes wheat, and him because he said he didn't enjoy frozen yougurt...but I think he was just being nice so I didn't feel left out.

After we came back to my suite and just hung out and it was a great night in all. So much fun. So much smiling. :)

Okay. So I planned to catch up. But i have friends waiting for me to go out. So, sorry. Gonna have to try and catch up another time!

MUAH!

"I remember, how you held me, underwater...Feeling breathless..." My first trip to Santa Monica Beach <3

Don't you just love how I incorporate song lyrics to all my entry titles now? I do. :)

Sometimes I find it puzzling that I am a Capricorn instead of an Aquarius - although many of my qualities of a Capricorn (read more about it here: http://www.astrology-online.com/capricrn.htm ) are dead on (but definately not all... i.e. I am not an introverted, reserved individual and I'm definitely not unemotional), it's an earth sign and that just doesn't make sense to me. Nature and I aren't exactly the best of friends (she tends to harbor things like bugs and fungus and more bugs, which I hate). The sign directly after me, Aquarius ( http://www.astrology-online.com/aquarius.htm ), is a water sign. I feel way more connected to the water than to any of the other three elements (especially earth), so to me, it would make sense if I were a water sign.

But obviously these things aren't exactly entirely scientific. It's just something I've been reflecting on.

I say this because last Saturday I took my first trip in my life to the Pacific Ocean.

I have mentioned this girl, Alyssa, in one of my previous posts. I met her at orientation and we exchanged phone numbers and we've been hanging out ever since. She's from New Jersey and we get along great. The only downside is she is under 21, so we can't go out to the bars together, but whatev...my roommates had to deal with that with me for half a school year....it's so not a dealbreaker. On Friday she had texted me and asked if I had wanted to go with her and one of her roommates and a couple of other girls to Santa Monica for the day on Saturday and of course I jumped at the chance. I've heard so many wonderful things about Santa Monica.

So Saturday morning I wake up around 830 to shower (don't ask me why I decided to shower before going to the beach...I'm pretty sure my hair was a mess and I wanted to tame it or something...but anyway this point becomes relevant later...) and we're off around 10:30 for the beach.

It's funny, because I kind of felt like a mom. My mumma bought me this nice big lime green tote bag to use as a beach bag/plane carry-on and I had it packed to the brim with extra clothes, a towel, my book, snacks, water bottles, sunscreen, everything you could possibly need for a day at the beach. When I walked outside of my suite to meet up with the girls, they all had the tiniest bags and were carrying their towels. But I was prepared and I used every single thing I packed in that bag, so being a "mom" paid off. Thanks for that bag mom, it definately has been put to good use many-a-time already. :)

So it was Alyssa, me, and two other girls -Rhianmor and Talia. They are both from England; Talia is Alyssa's suitemate. Rhianmor is 19 and Talia is 18.

Rhianmor is incredibly chatty, and if it's possible for me to say this about anyone, is a little over-the-top at times. She's very sweet, but I can only handle her in small doses she's just so overpowering. She wants very badly to be a famous actress and she could do well in that most definately, but I think modeling is a better bet for her. She has one of those tiny, unshapely bodies that only looks attractive if you're the right height for it. She's not exactly tall, but she isn't short. She has long wavy hair, and slightly awkward facial features that truly just screams runway model to me. Rhianmor doesn't have an accent naturally, but she can easily turn it on and off. She grew up between England and San Diego so she struggles to have a natural accent and just uses an American one in America and British one in England.

Talia is completely gorgeous - a total "skinny minnie" with piercing blue eyes. And unlike Rhianmor, she has the most attractive English accent I've ever heard (aside from Mark Ballas's occasional accent ;] ). She hates her accent and her name; she says they're both considered very "posh" in England. (When they say "posh" it's equivalent to our "proper" and slightly stuck-up). Her and I have really started to get along quite well (haha that's totally her English dialect "quite well" rubbing off on me!) and we totally delight in each other's accents and slang.

In fact, Talia is the first person that I can ever remember who has told me that I have a very strong accent.

While we were walking to the bus stop to go to Santa Monica that day, we had a conversation very very simliar (possibly almost exact wordage...I have a really good memory!) to this:

S: I'm sure you're sick of hearing this, but I love your accent!
T:You have a really strong accent to me, too!
S:It's probably cause you're so used to hearing accents like your own.
T:No, really, your accent is stronger to me than anyone else I have met here.
S:*Ponders for a moment* Oh, it's probably because I tend to have somewhat of a valley-girl accent sometimes.
T:Oh, so you're from California?
S:*Laughs* No. I'm from Michigan.
T:*blank stare*
S:I know, it really doesn't make any sense to me either.

Mom thinks my accent is going to be even stronger when I come home....we will have to see.

Anywho, so after tons of walking (as is the story everywhere while I'm here) and a bus ride (well, actually two bus rides and it should only take one...but that's a pointless story), we make it to Santa Monica.

We don't get off the bus right at the beach, but rather at the famous 3rd Street Promenade. It's 3 blocks from the ocean, and parallel to the ocean for 3 blocks it's a huge strip of shopping - stores and stands alike -, restaurants and little cafes, movie theatres, and performers (dancers, singers, stuntmen) trying to get their name out there somehow. For those 3 blocks you cannot drive a car or any other motor vehicle - it's strictly pedestrian. It kind of reminds me somewhat of a combination of downtown Wyandotte in Michigan and the downtown strip on Venice Island in Flordia - without any road or median between the sidewalks. We didn't really spend much time there that first day, but I've since spent plenty of time there...it's one of my favorite places (along with all of Santa Monica) in California thus far.

Along our walk to the beach we passed a restaurant called "Sushi Roku" that's right on Ocean Ave. (I can't help it,every time I'm on that damn road Yellowcard's song pops into my head!) and me, being the little DWTS stalker that I am, immediately recognized that this is where Julianne Hough and Chuck Wicks had their first date before heading down to the pier where they had their first kiss at the top of the ferris wheel. So I kind of semi freaked out when we passed the restaurant, but Rhainmor needed to eat right then or she was going to get sick so I had to keep going.

We walked down to the pier, which is a pretty cool place filled with shops and food stands and pointless souvenier vendors and of course, the little carnival area. I really really want to eat at the restaurant down on the end of the pier, but it looks way nice so I assume I cannot afford it.

Anywho. Have I mentioned that properly catering to my disease has been a serious bitch of a task thus far? So the only thing where we stopped that I could eat was corn tortilla tacos which cost friggin $10 (with tax). But whatev, sun+no food=one unhappy person. So I suffered through the blow on my wallet and did it.

After we ate we finally headed down to the beach. I'm not going to lie, after seeing my parents pictures of the Pacific Ocean, I was expecting a lot prettier than I actually got. It seemed almost as grey as the Atlantic to me at first. Upon futher inspection, it really was quite a bit bluer, but again not as blue as I'd expected. The beach is so pretty though, with a view of the pier and warm, fine sand. The sand is definately a lot less rocky than the beaches in Flordia, but it still wasn't completely powdery.

Apparently I have a problem thinking things all the way through at times, for although I had remembered to bring sunscreen, I failed to put in on until I got to the beach. I had already gotten quite a bit of sun on the way there. And, normally not the shy one, I oddly felt weird asking one of the girls to apply sunscreen to the unreachable parts of my back. So, instead of sucking it up, I landed up with one mother of a sunburn. And the worst part? Totally streaky. Because I could reach some parts with the sunscreen so those stayed generally white, while the rest of me burnt to a crisp. Let's just say I haven't made that same mistake again.

After a long time in the sun and two other girls (Rhianmor's suitemates) Marielle and Rachel showing up, we decided it a cool off in the ocean was necessary.

This is why I believe I'm somehow part Aquarius.

The other girls let the water rush over their feet for mere seconds before retreating back to their towels, scared away by the cold.

But me? I was drawn to it.

It's funny the different perspectives each person can have about things. About a week before I left for Cali, Renee and I were doing this online quiz thing and you were supposed to jot down your first perception of each word. The word was either "ocean" or "sea", I can't remember, but Renee had written something along the lines of "terrifying" and I wrote down "peaceful".

To me, water in general is a big expanse of tranquility. You don't have to be anything but yourself - the ocean doesn't care about your weight - it welcomes you into its depths and allows you to float no matter if you're the tiniest or the hugest of them all. It doesn't care if your bathing suit doesn't flatter your body. It doesn't care about anything physical. Your thoughts are your thoughts alone, and the ocean keeps great secrets.

When I'm near large expanses of water, I feel as if it speaks to me. No exceptions. I cannot think of once that I have not be entranced by it. The gentle rush of the wind over the water beckons to me in a whisper, "Come escape". The crests of its waves subtly motions to me and the pull of the current guides me further into it's depths. When I fully submerge myself, I sometimes have to remind myself to resurface. If I had gills, I would stay under for hours. The silence is blissfully deafening; you surrender your thoughts and your fears and your emotions to the water and it only listens in return - discreetly filing all of them away among the coral and sand at the bottom, never once considering digging them up for use against you in the future. The peace in my soul I feel in the water cannot be compared to any other time.

If past lives and reincarnation are ever proved to be real, I bet that I was a mermaid in a past life. No doubts. I'd bet money to say I was the princess mermaid, but I think that goes without saying. :)

So anyway, this is exactly what happened to me that day. I fell into a trance, and even though I had showered and promised myself I was not going to wet my hair after I'd already styled it (I'm not a fan of how my hair air dries when it's short like this), I kept venturing out further and further into the water. Up to my knees, my hips, my chest, and finally one wave just took me under with it and I rose out of it smiling like a freaking goon. Seriously, I must've looked like the biggest idiot out there. I stretched my arms out wide and just let wave and after wave take me with it wherever it pleased. I felt like I was 8 again, in my little blue one-piece with the gold anchor on the front (my favorite bathing suit ever as a kid), pretending I was ocean girl and that the water was my home; that I lived among the fish and the sand.

Then I got a mouthful of salt water and almost puked, so the trance was broken and I quickly ran back to my bag on the beach to gargle with bottled water.

After another hour and half or so on the beach and plenty of sun, we finally decided to pack up and head back to UCLA.

A lot happened that night, but I'm not really going to recount it all for lack of time (I need to leave to make it to my bus like, now) and because I don't really want to recount all of this yet. Just savor the memory.

I had a lot of options to go out that night, but I ended up going to the movies to see "The Proposal" with two of the girls from the beach, Marielle and Rachel, and Alex came with me. And it was a great night. Lots and lots of smiles on my part. And giggles. And smiles. And great conversation.

Okay. I really gotta go catch the bus. :)

Adios for now!

"I want to love you, PYT, Pretty Young Thing"...The Day Michael Jackson Died. (and the day after).

So I'm sitting at my desk at work right now with my boss out on a meeting, and absolutely nothing to do, and T minus 2 hours til my weekend begins.

So naturally I'm writing in here. :)

So last I left off, was last Thursday. Wow, already a week ago from today. How crazy is that....time is seriously flying so so fast.

Work was pretty routine all day...I was doing some research on Farrah Fawcett and creating spread sheets and such... until I came back from lunch. Seriously no sooner did I sit down than Jerry Digney's phone start ringing and not a minute later I hear "Oh my gosh. Is he alive?"

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the conversation was about Michael Jackson.

Lee Solters, the original owner of this company who just passed away, was Michael Jackson's publicist for 13 years, during his career "Thriller" hayday, through his Lisa Marie Presley marriage, and the first round of child molestation accusations in the early 1990s. I literally cannot tell you (as it would most likely violate some sort of confidentiality thing, or at least some sort of ethical code) about many things concerning Michael Jackson that have remained question marks in the general population's minds that I learned the truth of that day. It literally blows my mind. And I cannot believe that I actually have answers to some of these questions. Not all of them, obviously, as not even the people in my office knows the answers to those, but to a good number of them.

So anyway, basically, we were getting before-broken-by-the-press information the whole day.

It's kind of hard to vividly explain the sheer shock shared by this whole city throughout the whole ordeal. It's so weird to be so close to all the action throughout something as huge as this.

Naturally, basically all work for the rest of the day halted. All the computers in our office were surfing any and all news and gossip websites to find out as many details as possible; the TV in the conference room was on CNN with the volume all the way up in the conference room for live footage. Phones starting ringing off the hook - friends of my co-workers asking if they'd heard the news, some reporters looking to dig into Michael's past since our firm is so closely associated with him.

Jerry Brown commented that if Lee was still alive right now, he would have had to unplug his phone because people would have been hounding him for comments.

((Oh. pause. I actually have to work for a minute - I have to call a TV station in Las Vegas to see if they'll cover our Kathy Griffin event in Las Vegas tonight...
...ahhhhh YES! I feel like I did something right...I've spoken to them 3 times today and they kept giving me the go around and finally I got someone to confirm that they will be there tonight! Score coverage for us! ))

So, back to Michael.

He actually was rushed to the hospital somewhere around 1:00 p.m. PST, but news didn't break until about 3:00 pm PST. After that, things happened so quickly. Less than 50 minutes after the news broke that he has suffered cardiac arrest, TMZ was already reporting that he had died, but no one had confirmed it and no one else had picked it up until about 20 minutes later. Soon it was all over the internet like wildfire, and before anyone from the hospital or the Jackson family had confirmed it Live, Jerry got a call. Michael Jackson had died.

If I thought the phones were ringing alot before, I was wrong. After the news, they blew up even more.

Jerry Brown again commented that had Lee still been alive, he would have been getting contacted for tribute projects, books, and more, not to mention statements to issue to the press.

Not long after that news I got a text message that had been sent in mass to all University of Dreams participants to be aware that since Michael Jackson had been taken to UCLA's Hospital, security around Westwood (the area of LA UCLA is in) as well as the masses of people who had immediately flocked to hold vigil outside the hospital was making transportation near impossible and to be aware of massive time delays getting back to campus.

Also after the news, I had to do a quick scan through our client list and dig a little research to make sure that none of them had ever closely worked or associated with Michael Jackson because if they had, we would have had to immediately speak to them and get a statement on their feelings of his death or something in particular they remembered about him while alive. Then we would have had to type it up, and email and fax it to every news outlet we had access to in the country. Because, as I'm quickly learning out here, the PR and publicity always comes first, even if you're in mourning. It's all about making sure your client is the one who is quoted, the one who has press time, because then you know you've done your job.

( For example, one of our clients is Bob Newhart, and the day after Ed McMahon's obituatry ran across the country i had to sit and read every one to see if Bob's comment had been used, and if it had I had to save it to give to Jerry Digney so he could call Bob and let him know. )

After I did the scan to make sure we didn't need to gather any comments, I decided that with the time delay, I wanted to make sure I could still get back to campus at a decent hour, so I politely asked if I could leave about a half hour early to allow for the back-up.

They gladly let me go and off I went. As soon as I exited the doors of the Taft building I was hit with Michael Jackson's music from every which way. The lady on the corner who was blasting his music out of a stereo. "Thriller" and "Billie Jean" filtering it's way from car radios through the cracks of windows. It truly felt like a city united in sadness and rembering.

There are two Michael Jackson stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One is on Vine Street, on my walk back to my bus stop, the other is in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. I didn't realize this until later, and apparently many people were in the same boat as I was, but the one in front of Grauman's is the real one (which makes more sense because that tends to be where the bigger names are) for Michael Jackson the pop icon; the one on my walk home is for a old radio broadcaster who shared the same name. But like I said, neither I nor the masses of people surrounding his star on my walk to the bus knew any better. Plus the star for the Jackson 5 is on the other side of the street on Vine, so those who were getting ushered away by police to create more room on the one side headed over to the Jackson 5 star. And now knowing that the star I passed wasn't the real star, I don't even want to know the craziness that was going on at the real star, as the masses of people and news vans and camera crews and newspaper photographers at the one I was at was enormous as it was.

My bus ride home is generally full of people on their way home from work, and your occasional homeless person towing 3 bags and paranoid that someone is always trying to steal them. That day, my bus ride home was packed to the brim of people headed to UCLA's medical center to become a part of history.

April called me on my bus ride home to kind of get the scoop and I remember she said something that has probably been the most accurate comparison I can think of - this is like this generation's Elvis dying. And it's kind of scary how this has basically been Elvis Presley's death all over again.

I never realized it before that day, but every day my bus passed the house that Michael Jackson had been living in here (not Neverland, obviously, but the house in the Bel-Air area he had been renting since he lost Neverland). You can't get in from Sunset Blvd., you actually have to turn down a residential street and get let in the gate to the driveway to get in, but you can see the house from my bus. I realized it for the first time because there were press crews surrounding the street that was blocked off with yellow police tape and traffic pylons, as well as the LAPD cars and acutal police force making sure no one got through.

The radio stations played nothing but Michael Jackson the rest of the day. My ride home I was serenaded with "Smooth Criminal", "Billie Jean", "Beat It", and my all time favorite Michael Jackson song, "P.Y.T." ("Thriller" follows with a close second for me).

When we were about 4 or 5 stops away from where I get off the bus and pick up the University of Dreams shuttle back to campus, the bus driver pulled over. The people trying to get to UCLA's hospital as quickly as possibly shot up immediately trying to figure out why the delay. The police had completely blocked off all entrance into Westwood to alleviate the already packed streets, so we had to exit the bus where we were and walk. For me, it was probably about a mile to a mile and a half walk. (Thankfully, I had not worn heels that day.)

There were helicopters flying over head in all directions and the further you walked into Westwood, the more commotion you heard. But I still couldn't see anything other than the helicopters until I was on the University of Dreams shuttle back to campus. Fortunately, the ride didn't talk as long as we had all expected with the throngs of people everywhere and traffic backed up, but I almost wished it had taken longer so that I could have taken it all in a little more...maybe been able to snap some pictures. I have never seen such a crowd before in my life. News crews lined the streets; literally no parking space on the street wasn't taken by a news van of some sort. Local news, national news, global news, entertainment news, you name it- it was there. And the mass of people - they all looked like ants trying to get as close to the anthill as possible. There were tourists with cameras, mourners with candles and flowers, stupid college students trying to get into the background of the tv camera's shot; pretty much anything you could imagine. Like I said, I almost wish I had another minute or two to take it all in. Who knows if I'll ever be that close to anything this historic ever again.

Back on campus, the general chatter was about how everyone's offices responded to the news. Some places, like mine, had close association with him. Others were from magazines trying to break some spec of new news before anyone else could. Still others were already on the phones with award shows negotiating tributes, authors negotiating memorial books, photographers trying to get pictures for their front pages, etc. Basically everyone's second half of the work day revolved around Michael Jackson. It didn't matter what type of company you worked for, you somehow, someway had your hands in something MJ.

That night I ate dinner with Alyssa, and Alex joined us a some point through the meal. Again, the conversation mostly revolved around how our offices dealt with the news. It's hard to admit and sad to say, but something like that happening creates such a rush...and I think everyone was still "high" off of it.

Alex came back and hung out with me for a little while, and for the first time since lunch time that day, Michael Jackson faded into the background of my mind.

That night, we had the opportunity to take part in an unsponsored activity....meaning the University of Dreams staff plans it because it's a cool something a big group of people may have mentioned wanting to see, but it's at our own expense. They'll get us there and back, but otherwise we're on our own. So that night our unsponsored activity was.................

Seeing Chelsea Handler LIVE!

Unforunately, her show -Chelsea Lately-is on hiatus from taping for the summer, so it wasn't an episode of that, but it was a live taping of a special that will be airing on E! called "The Comedians of Chelsea Lately". And I'm in the live studio audience...so watch it when it comes out and see if you can see me! :)

Basically, the comedians who appear on the roundtable segment of her show are the ones who did their stand-up comedy. All of them were really funny except for one...I didn't really find his comedy tasteful. He kept joking about the holocaust (i mean, he was Jewish, but still) and cancer and perverted dads and stuff that just made me more uncomfortable that he was saying instead of amused and laughing. Chelsea made a very very quick cameo and Chuy danced, which was cool, but I wish we would have gotten to see more of them. Apparently Chelsea was sitting a few rows behind me the entire show and I didn't even realize her the whole time until after the show someone in my van mentioned it. I so wished I would have known...blahhhh. Oh well.

Exhausted from our Michael Jackson filled days, we set out to head home about 12:30am. (The taping of the show didn't start until 10:30pm!) Unfortunately, California is notorious for it's confusing and massive highway system (as well as it's road rage....believe me, it's true!) and our van's driver (as well as a few others I later found out) fell victim to it. It only took us about 20 minutes to get there in the first place, and about a half hour into our trip home (that was actually taking us toward Pasadena instead) we all agree we need to turn around. Just as we're finding our way back to the right track, our driver's (Courtney) cell phone rings and she tells the girl next to her to pick it up. (Apparently, it's ILLEGAL to talk on a cell phone and drive in California. I'd go crazy. Holy crap.) 3 guys ended up left behind. So we have to go pick them up. (Actually, they were wandering around exploring instead of staying with the group, but whatever. I guess we couldn't leave them down there all night and miss work the next day.) So Chelsea was at the Nokia Club in Downtown Los Angeles, and dwtn LA is a lot like dwtn Detroit with the One Way streets, so it takes us another 15 minutes to navigate our way back to the Nokia center. When we finally get the boys and take off again, she makes the same wrong turn and again we are on our way to Pasadena. Lost twice in one night. At this point I'm convinced I'll never get to sleep. Finally we direct her to turn around and get on the right highway and it's when I feel confident that we're going in the right direction that I allow myself to slip into a half conscious, half asleep state against the cool glass of the window.

When I wake up, it's 2 am, and we've just gotten back to campus.

Getting up the next morning, needless to say, was not easy at all. I very easily could have no-showed and just slept in.

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(Okay, allow yourself a break here. We're switching gears to the next day. Grab a sip of water. Pretend you're starting the next chapter in a book. Ready? Okay, here we go.)
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But I didn't. I got up and went to another Michael Jackson filled day. (But we also obviously had to work on other client's as well. So it was a busy day.)

Friday night at midnight, Nadia, one of my suitemates, turned 21. It was funny, because the other 3 of us in the suite are 21, and Nadia is from Indiana. So at 10pm she was so fed up and thought the stupid time change was pointless, because in Indiana she would have already been 21 and "halfway to drunk by now!"

So, the night started obviously in our suite with the 4 of us pre-gaming, but thankfully none of us would like our place to become party central because the apartments that have been hosting parties have all ended up with something stolen at the end of the night, and we end up migrating downstairs to one of the apartments that seems to be party central every weekend and continued to pre-game.

Unfortunately, one of the guys who lives there has decided he is somewhat infatuated with me and I am his possesion. I'm really even not kidding here. It was so apparent that night that every time I moved to speak to someone, he would move with me. If I moved to another couch away from him, he would wait a few second and wait until I was in a conversation with someone else and reappear at my side. Everyone else is wasted and doesn't realize it, and doesn't really listen to me when I try and tell them it's happening.

I won't give you the creepy details of the rest of the night, which include the walk down to the bar and the majority of the time at the bar, because I already know my brother is set to kick this guy's ass and I don't need a whole lot of pissed off people....plus it recreeps me out everytime I think of it. But basically by almost the end of the evening, it got so bad where I tried to sit at a table and talk to some people, and he came up with his bloodshot eyes and stood incredibly close to me, and I didn't look at him and continued on my conversation, and he put his hand on my leg under the table. I swatted him away and he did it again, a little higher. And this is where I get proud of myself:

I leaned over and told him "Listen, you're invading my personal space and it's making me very uncomfortable, so if you could back off please, I would really appreciate it."

And to my suprise, he walked away and I didn't see him the rest of the night.

So then I got to have fun for a little while at least with my Cali peeps. Met some guys who entertained me the rest of the night...they kept saying they thought I looked more like a "Valerie" than a "Stephanie".

Then we got kicked out at closing time (we were at O'Hara's, naturally), and headed back to UCLA (the worst walk up a hill of my lifeeee). The rest of the girls continued partying in the room downstairs...I was so wiped and didn't want to be anywhere near that other guy who lived there, so I went to bed.

Annnnnnd my boss is back and I leave in 15 minutes....so that's it for now!!!!