The Mouse and the Fox

I went to Disneyland week before last.  But who needs to hear about that?  It's always the same old story isn't it. Squeal with delight, act like a child, eat decliciously overpriced food while riding rides in a park that is run by a single mouse.  I went with my familiy friend, Hayley, and her brother Parker.  We had a grand ol' time.

                                                           Me and Hayley at the entrance

California Adventure

So scared to go on Tower of Terror!

Tarzan's "house" a.k.a. dude lives in a tree

Hayley, Parker, and wait... Who's that one in the middle?

HAUNTED MANSION!!! MM-UUUU-AAAA-HHHH. All decked out in Nightmare Before Christmas Fashion. Christmas and Halloween combined.

Halloween time at Disneyland!

Me in Minnie's kitchen.  I'm pretending to show you around. I know you're convinced I live here.

You can't go to Disneyland without taking a picture with Mickey. 

And now for your viewing pleasure.... what I look like on Space Mountain!!

I was holding onto Hayley so tight.  Hayley's face is priceless.

I got to go on the Fox lot this morning.  It was so cool!! I got to walk around and explore a little bit. 

My friend Kate was with me, and when we got to a sound stage, I saw trailers.  I told her they must be dressing rooms.  We got a bit closer to them and I saw the names on the doors.  And guess who what it said?  There were two doors, one said Jay, and the other said Gloria!!! It was Jay and Gloria from Modern Family's dressing rooms!! I got so excited.  Made my day.

Last week, I went to a panel with big wigs from the industry as speakers.  I got to talk to the panelists after and met a very well respected and successful tv producer.  He was really nice and after talking for a minute, I asked him if I would be out of line to ask him to read my sitcom script.  He said no, that wouldn't be out of line, but it will take him a long time to read it.  Yay! This is very exciting.  So we'll see what happens with that, but I hope my script impresses him and make him immediatley hire me as a staff writer.  Ya. That will happen.  But I finished the script recently and I can't even tell you how good it feels to be done.  Obviously, now I'm fixing things and having it looked at by my peeps, but I feel good about it and proud of what I wrote.  One year.  It took me a freaking year to write that thing.  I could have done it faster, but I was busy/unmotivated.  If nothing else, LA sure does make you motivated!!

Have I already said I love this town?? Because I do.  I really, really do.  I can't wait to live here for the rest of my life.  I can't wait to graduate college and start getting paid.  I can't wait to move up the ladder and create television!! How exciting!

When an assistant can't come to work, an intern is the person who does his/her job.  I got this experience last week.  It did not go well.  The exec I was an assistant for isn't the nicest and every intern that covers for him leaves in tears.  He yelled.  He swore.  I got frazzled and dropped calls.  It was bad.  He said he liked the other intern that covered for him last week better and I was too inexperienced. Which I am.  But maybe if he hadn't been yelling, I would have done my job right.  It's totally fine, I'm over it, I've talked to the guy since, he doesn't even remember me.  It's all good.  And this week I covered for another assistant and the exec was so so SO nice and it went very well.  Lesson learned powerful people: yelling doesn't help.

There.  Now you know my life isn't all roses and you won't think I'm an annoyingly happy person. 

Lauren out.

Around the World In a 9 Hour Work Day

I got back from Utah on Sunday and it was so great!! It was a very welcomed break.  I stayed with my sister and played with my nephew and went to the wedding of my friend Stephanie Wilson.  It was such a fun weekend!!

The best part was seeing my nephew! I love him so much.  I love him so much that I sometimes forget I'm not his mother.  He has gotten so much more cuddly! He would never let me hold him before; he was always too busy with exploring.  But when I took him out in public, I would put him down where we were so he could walk around.  But after a minute, he would come up to me and reach his hands up, like he wanted me to pick him up!! I was so surprised! He has never done that before! He let me hold him as he looked around the store and took everything in.  I'm so glad he likes cuddling now.  To keep up with my adorable nephew, check out my sister's blog.

My work place is diverse. I was so surprised where my fellow interns were from.  There are two Australians, one South African, a Parisian, and two Canadians.  Then there are interns from all over America too.  New Jersey, North Carolina, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Arizona, and Chicago.  I guess I thought I would be the only one from out of town.  I don't know why.   People from all over the world want to be in this business, so I should have guessed I would work with people from all over the world.

After a month of working for him, I finally got to meet the owner of  the company.  I had seen him from a distance, but never formally met him.  We had an intern night at work amd got to have a Q&A with the owner and he his story of how he climbed up the ladder.  He was really nice and very funny, and I learned alot from that session.  He also told us something that I had been too afraid to ask.  We can pitch our ideas to them and bring in scripts we think he should consider! I got really excited because I have alot of ideas to television shows.  So now I'm working on them and writing the arenas and hope to pitch at least one of them before the end of the month.  Don't get excited though.  It's not like I could get a creator credit if this turned into something.  I don't know what credit I would get, but I imagine it would be small.
I got reprimanded by a an executive at work the other day.  I'm so terrified of anyone at work finding my blog, so just in case, I'll be really vague.  I was asked to do something and the exec gave me very specific instructions.  I followed them and did what he asked.  He wasn't pleased with how I did it and asked me to do it again.  I did it again and he loved what I presented him.  I guess it was just a mis-communication.  Oh well, at least I did it right eventually. 

I only havve 6 weeks left in this program.  I can't believe it!! It's going by so fast!! I don't want to leave!! 
I only have 6 weeks left in this program.  I can't believe it!! It's going by so fast!! I don't want to leave!! 
I LOVE CALIFORNIA.  I LOVE L.A.  It's official, I'm going to live here the rest of my life.  Before I came here, I thought "I hope I like LA! Cause if I want this career, I have to live here."  I am so happy to know that I love it here and am so comfortable here.  Katy Perry, just call me a California Gurl.  I'm undeniable.  After this, it's back to Utah for 8 months to finish school and then I'll move here pernamently!! I can't wait!!

I'm a Big Shot Executive Lady

Not. But in 5 years I will be.

I am so pleasantly surprised at how much responsibility I get at work.  Both companies really take my opinions into consideration when considering taking on a project.  I feel so powerful knowing that if I think a script is crap, which they often are, the executives don't even look at it.  But it's not like if i think a script is good, they immediatley pitch it to a studio and start casting.  No no.  But it at least gets a second read. 

Becuase of my "power" some aspiring writers have been sucking up to me.  It's kind of funny.  Yes, the execs don't look at a script unless I like it, but if I don't like it, I'm not passing it on.  It doesn't matter how much I like you.  If your script sucks, its' not seeing the light of day at this company. Is that mean?

This job is hard.  I haven't had a full time job before, and I'm quickly learning how exhausting it is.  I calculated my work hours I work a week, including my commute, and it's 60 hours.  And I often have to bring work home with me and I have homework.  It takes me 1 hr and 15 minutes to get to one office, and 40 minutes to get to the other.  I collapse on the weekends.  My friends here are calling me "grandma" because I'll leave a party at 10 so I can go to bed.  What can I say? I'm tired!

I run alot of errands.  Alot of errands.  I don't really mind, and it's nice to get out of the office.  Sometimes tasks are not so glamorous, like "take my dogs to my house" and "take my dog for a walk" and "go pick up my medicine."  But sometimes they are really cool, like "go deliver this script to this director." Or "go deliver this document to the writer of ________ "(I can't say but it was a good movie).  This one place I went was right in this really fancy office building.  My car got checked by a security guard before they would let me in a garage, and once I got in the building, I had to go to another security guard to get a key that would make the elevator go up.  But he wouldn't give it to me until he called the place I was going and confirmed they were expecting me. It was a production. 

It's the weirdest thing.  I have never felt so comfortable so fast in a city before.  There was never an adjustment period or a time when I was scared to be in a new city.  I got here, and I immediately felt at home and like I had lived here forever.  It's safe to say I love it here and am excited to settle down here and live here pernamently once I graduate college in August. 

Even though this job is exhausting and stressful and demeaning at times, I love every single second of it. This is such a hard, wonderful, rough, and stressful experience.  And the weird thing is I love every bit of it!! This is such hard work, but I love it!! I have learned that I like working in an office, and all that I talk about is movies and TV. Seriously.  I don't remember the last conversation I had that wasn't about this business.  I get really sick of talking about it at times, but that's usually at the end of a ten hour work day.  Understandable.  But then I go home and talk to my roommate about her day and we talk more about the business, and then my friends ask me about the business and how my jobs are going, and before I know it, I'm blue in the face because I've said the word "script" 20 times in one minute. 

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Utah to go to my dear friend Stephanie's wedding.  I'm super excited!! I can't wait to snuggle with my nephew, hang with my sisters, and be around good friends.  And the best part is I only had to work 3 days this week! Thank you Stephanie for getting married and letting me come to your wedding! This break is very much welcomed!

Lauren out.

Sports Weekend

For anyone who knows me well, you are probably confused by the title of this post. Lauren? Sports? Those are never affiliated with each other. I know. But last weekend, those words were. 
My friend Alyssa, came out from school for the USC vs. Utah game. It was the first game my school played in Pac 12.  I obey the Beach Boys, I'm true to my school.  So regardless of whether I liked sports or not, I went to the game. How could I not? It was right there!

Alyssa is a big Yankees fan, so we went to the Angels vs Yankees game the night before. It was lots of fun!

This is my friend Alyssa.

This is our sad face when the Yankees lost.

The next day, we got to go to the game! The USC colessium is HUGE!!

I'm trying to do a "U" with my hands. Don't know if I accomplished it. The guys behind me are Alyssa's brothers and friends.

It would have been the perfect day if we won that game. Oh well.

This weekend, I went on a walking tour of the Theatre district. It was in a really cool  neighborhood with lots of little shops and street markets.

All these theaters are theaters that showed films and vaudeville shows back in the day. Now all but one is boarded up or turned into a store.

This is the Million Dollar Theater. This holds films in the summer time only. Sorry, they're bad pictures. This is the balcony.

This is the Bradbury Building. The final scene in 500 Days of Summer was filmed here. And it's a beautiful building.

Example of a boarded up theater.

Example of a theater turned into a store.

We went to this adorable little place for lunch!  It had all these cute little outdoorsy displays. It was so fun!

Peace. Lauren out.

Labor Day Weekend

Yes, I know it's been a week since Labor Day weekend and am just now posting. Sorry!
Labor Day weekend was so much fun! My family came out for vacation and were in Newport Beach, about 40 miles away from me.  It was  so much fun!! It was so good to see them.  The best part was it was my nephew's first time at the beach, and he LOVED it!!

He really loves French Fries. Even  if they're sandy.

He did this all the time. He would just lie in the sand and get his belly warm.

This is my family. We were incomplete because my very pregnant sister and her husband couldn't come due to how far along my sister is. She's due October 1st! I'm so excited to meet my new nephew!

From left to right: My Dad, Brad (my sister Rachelle's husband), Rachelle, Me, my Mom, my nephew Eli, my sister Andrea (mother of Eli), and Adam (husband of Andrea, father of Eli)

The boys HAD TO watch football on Saturday.  They left the beach in the middle of the day to go and watch. I don't get it.

We went to Laguna Beach for dinner. It's so pretty there!

The lovely Albas.  Because we always refer to them as one, we have combined their names to make it easier, so we call them Adandrea.

Eli loves it when we cuddle.

As you can tell.

The Tilleys. We combined their name to B.Rad. The husband's name is Brad, and Rachelle's initials are R.A.D.

My mom and pop. How I love them. They're the best.

I love this little guy SO MUCH! He's 14 months.

My family went back to Utah on Sunday, so on Labor Day, me and my new friend from Church, Kristine, went to Hollywood to see the sights. This is me at the Kodak Theatre.

I love her.

Iron Man

YE-AH!

Me and Kristine. Can you see the Hollywood sign in the background?

That statue of Marilyn actually looked really creepy up close.

Bumblebee from Transformers.

Footprints at the Chinese Theatre.

How awesome is it that Bruce Willis wrote "Yippie Ki Yay!" It's the best.

This is the plaza right next to the Chinese Theatre. It was so cool!

It was a super fun weekend! One more thing.

This past week I got to go to the Sony Pictures Lot to run an errand for work.  It was so cool!

This is my parking pass. I felt special.

And this is the lot. It reminded me of a street in Disneyland.  It had shops and restaruants where the workers could eat and shop.   

I tried to wander around and explore for as long as I could get away with, but a security guard came up to me and said "you look lost." I didn't want him to follow me around, so I said "nope, that's the building I'm looking for." But I was too scared to get caught again, so after I found a stage and looked at it from afar, I left. When I got back to the office, the assistant asked me how I liked the Sony lot.  He said ideally I could have wandered around, no one would know. I told him I tried. And failed. Darnnit! At least I got to see a bit!