Freaking daylight savings time. Honestly. The first time around I thought it was pretty awesome... another hour at my disposal! How fabulous! It felt very glamorous for this little Arizona girl to get a bonus hour to myself. Very California.
This morning I didn't love DST quite so much. I went to bed far too late, having spent the evening salsa dancing at my lovely friend Miriam's wedding. My body was far too filled with spice to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Leftover cookie dough and three episodes of Friends later, I went to bed... and woke up on a Sunday morning with the Universe owing me an hour. Hmph.
My best friend Nikolai and I went out for breakfast this morning at our favorite local coffee/pie shop, Republic of Pie in North Hollywood for quiche and tea. Yum.
Nikolai had to run off to go to his soccer game (I'm not allowed to go cheer him on yet... it's only his first game with his new soccer club and he wanted to be a cool kid) so I sipped my white coconut creme tea and listened to the jazz band play a little early morning ditty. Nothing quite like a lazy Sunday morning. I've spent the day going to Trader Joe's, cleaning my apartment, walking (which was supposed to be a run but I conveniently forgot to change into a sports bra), and catching up on movies. A Sunday well-spent.
I finally watched Sleepless in Seattle. I cannot believe I've never seen that movie until today. You guys, if you know me, you know how hopeless I am when it comes to honest love. I'm realistic, circumspect, and incredibly wary in real life... but when it comes to romance I simply disintegrate into a puddle. I also finally saw Overboard last Monday with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Another Alec-Mack-capri-sun-pool of Jenny on the floor.
Don't worry. I'm not all mush yet. I'm currently watching Friday with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker to balance it all out.
"DAMMMMMMMMNNNNN!"
Speaking of romance--- Miriam's wedding last night was just beautiful.
I met Miriam last June when I started working at LUSH. We clicked instantly. I can honestly say she is the sweetest person I have ever met in my life. It was an honor being a part of her special day. I got to help her into her dress and everything. All of us LUSHies sat together and tried to keep our happy sniffling down to a minimum. It was a very sweet evening. Miriam is Costa Rican and her and her family are fantastic salsa dancers. We danced all night, faking our way through all of the steps. We got the hang of it by the end of the evening. Mannnnn do I love to dance! This is the best picture I had of the dancing... all the rest are even more blurry. This is Ricky, Hilda, and I doing our thang.
The last two months have been a very lovely casual blast. I have not been quite as fun-employed as I thought I might be after the SAG Awards ended. I've actually been quite busy! I've been touring various high schools promoting Camp Bravo, where I am the assistant director. I have loved going to the different schools and talking with students. It makes me want to be a teacher so badly. I just love high school kids--- they're at this amazing age where they're smart, sassy, and so willing to grow and learn and change. Bravo was an incredibly transformative part of my life and it has been such an honor to share that with kids. That and I get to see things like this:
Poor high school kids can't catch a break! They just want to kiss, gosh!
I actually just got back from my very first Bravo business trip to NorCal! (sigh)... my favorite.
I just realized I didn't take any pictures. The whole time. Well, except some pictures of food and a cat, but that's not very interesting. I flew into San Francisco and was lucky enough to stay in the city with my handsome friend Spencer. My Bravo bosses rented me a car for the week and I was busy driving all over the place--- Walnut Creek, San Jose, Palo Alto, Fremont, etc talking to a ton of middle and high schools. I love driving as it is--- then you put me in a fancy car in my favorite place in the world... I was a happy girl.
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That's my sweet ride. I managed to hit all of the schools and classes on my schedule, despite small time crunches here and there. I am so lucky that I got to go on this little trip, really. Bravo + San Francisco = happy Jenny. I woke up every morning pinching myself. I even had some free time, too. Spencer and I snuck ourselves into the botanical gardens to nap in the sun with some beer, we had burgers, seafood, watched some of my favorite videos from the Found Footage Festival, and even made it to Golden Gate Fields for the horse races. Spencer sprang this on me and my first thought was... "But... but... I didn't bring my hat or a dress!"
He assured me it wouldn't be necessary. You see, I am used to going to opening day at the horse races in Del Mar, where everyone looks like this.
...It was a good thing I wasn't wearing a dress and heels. This was more of a "throw-on-your-Raiders-shirt-and-tuck-it-into-your-Wranglers" kind of place. Just my style. It was Dollar Day... where everything--- entrance, beer, hotdogs, you name it, were a dollar. 'Twas a lovely day.
All in all a great week... besides the case of my precious rental car ALMOST BEING TOWED. Not funny. I stopped by Spencer's work to see his new office, scrounged together about $2 worth of coins (which equates to about 25 San-Francisco-meter-minutes) and headed in to to see the place. I came out a couple minutes early just in case, only to find my poor little car being loaded onto a tow truck. I sprinted up the ridiculously steep hill to be met with a $85 ticket and an incredibly kind parking lady. She didn't tow me. I was parked on a one-way street--- where the left side was no parking from 4 pm on and the other was 3 pm on. I of course, saw the sign on the left and erroneously assumed that both were the same, and parked on the right side.
I was not a happy camper. But I was a lucky camper. Apparently it would have been a couple hundred dollars if it had been towed. Hmph.
Awful parking aside... I love the bay. Really. Six days out there felt good. It felt homey. Let me know if anyone hears of a production job for me out there.
Until then... LA has been busy speaking to me recently. It's a bittersweet sort of love/hate relationship--- the kind I'm very good at. The last month has been a whirlwind of lasertagging, bar trivia-ing, Oscar-watching, beach-laying, and simple friend-partying.
Why yes, those are homemade carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. And yes, those are my handsome man friends. This was taken pre-laser-tagging for Johnny's birthday. We were savagely beaten by a handful of nerdy high school boys. We had to pull out all the stops-- I used my female allure for evil, looking vulnerable and pouty and confused before Johnny, Jimmy, and Nikolai snuck up behind them while I shot their compadres. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. $15 for unlimited laser tag for the night is money well-spent in my book.
On Valentine's evening Daniel, Nikolai and I went to my favorite LA burger place, UMAMI Burger for a little romantic dinner. Yummm. We realized how odd it looked... the three of us on a little trio-date together. We talked about our lives of circumstantial singledom and toasted to good food and friends. Here's Daniel and I successfully looking awkward:
They were sweet enough to get me a couple little trinkets, too--- ice cream, a teddy bear, popcorn :), and this:
Silly boys. We had a lovely night, though. A Valentines well-spent!
Johnny and Jimmy and I have also been having fun filming little video shorts dreamt up by our friend, Bennett. Bennett is full of great ideas. I've been helping Bennett craft sales agent letters for his feature-length film, "I Am a Knife with Legs". The two of us went to this very strange night about a month ago to do some networking for his movie. Bennett graduated from Carnegie Mellon and is therefore invited to a lot of alumni events in the LA area. We ended up going to this robotics convention hosted by CMU and it was very... interesting...
Look:
The hour-long presentation consisted of several frighteningly intelligent robots introduced by stilted mechanical engineering professionals with a distinct underlying plea for funding.
Here's what I took away from the night--- a very disturbing YouTube video to share with friends. Totally worth it. It's called Big Dog and it has haunted me ever since. Especially when it's walking on the ice and the person kicks it... (Shudder).
After their casually expensive presentation I took advantage of the free hors d'oeuvres and 'networked' while Bennett had far too many glasses of wine and followed around the pretty waitstaff. That's what I get for being the designated driver/wing man. Oh well.
So... what's next for Jenny? I've got some plans. For one, I think I am taking a week long break from the internet and television starting tomorrow. (...Except for the season finale of the Bachelor... Of course, that's imperative and I simply need closure on that horrific anti-fairytale story.)
I am looking forward to a week of reading, writing, running and sleeping; (Finally finishing Committed and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, writing down some life goals and dreams and writing an article or two for my friend's website, running because I had to unfortunately cut myself off from the extravagant $100-a-month yoga lifestyle I had been living, and finally making sleep a priority over late night re-runs of Seinfeld). I just downloaded an app on my iPhone that monitors my sleep every night (thanks Spencer), and it has forced me to own up to my irresponsible sleeping patterns.
I've got lots to straighten out at the moment. Well, all of this and securing a solid job between now and camp this summer. Hmm... Hey Universe!
It's good to be back.
Kisses.
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