"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! :)