Sooo last Wednesday was a ridiculously long day at The Doctors. We taped 4 complete shows and 2 stand-alone segments, making it a 12.5 hour work day. Maria Menounos (an actress who has done a lot of random stuff, you would probably recognize her if you saw her) was on one of the shows, so I got to meet her. She was really nice and stayed to sign a copy of one of the younger guest's book after the taping even though she was already late to her next job.
Ginny totally cleaned the apartment for me while I was at work because Mom & Matt were arriving the next day and I didn't think I was gonna have time to do it so this is a big THANK YOU to her for that. She has been an amazing roommate and I really appreciate everything she has done for me this semester.
After work I went to the Pendelton Center to finish up my 'Modern Family' spec script and I handed it in early because I knew I would be late for class the next day.
Thursday was our last day of shooting on The Doctors! It was really sad to see the end of a great season. :( However, Paramount did get us an ice cream truck at which we all got free ice cream sandwiches, so that was awesome. We also had to move EVERYTHING from the hair and make-up rooms into the talent office, so in the process of doing that we came across a lot of random stuff. Josie gave all the interns a 'Doctors' mug, so that was pretty neat AND since there were 6 flower arrangements sitting around the office Josie gave me one to give to my mom. The only upsetting thing about the day was that I couldn't go to the wrap party following the taping, but it was ok because instead I PICKED MOM & MATT UP AT THE AIRPORT! AHH!
It was actually really funny because there was no where to park all along the Delta terminal so I just half parked in this really small space and I was freaking out because my car was sticking out into the road and I looked up and there they were! So that worked out well. On our way back to Oakwood we stopped at In-N-Out for dinner. I had sent Matt the secret menu before hand so they all knew what they wanted to order. We all ordered off the secret menu, so we were feeling pretty badass, however we had to rush so that I could get back for class (that I was already late for). Matt really liked it though and after we left he was already planning what he would get if we got a chance to go a second time.
So after dropping them off at the apartment, I went to class where we got put into groups for our final project. Not really looking forward to doing a final project at all, but that's just how it goes I guess.
After class, Matt, Mia, & I went to Yogurtland for Matt's first FroYo experience. He seemed to like it.
Friday, my family, roommates (+ Danny), and I went to The Griddle for breakfast, where they have the biggest, dessert pancakes, waffles, and french toast I have ever seen in my life. Ginny & Mia got red velvet pancakes, Danny got some kind of carmel apple pancakes, I got these pancakes with butterscotch chips and walnuts in them, Matt got some sugary banana pancakes, and Mom got Nutella french toast. Only the french toast was finished completely, and she had help from me and Matt. The other portions were so insanely huge and rich that we didn't even come close to finishing them so we ended up taking home quite a few doggy bags. Mom treated us all, which was really nice of her. It was definitely a place I am glad we went to, but not a place I would go to again anytime soon. I think I may still be trying to digest some of that pancake...
Then, I took the family to Hollywood to see the stars, footprints, Kodak Theater, and Grauman's Chinese theater. I also got these tickets for Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum for $10 on Groupon that comes with a free wax hand, so we went there after walking around a little on Hollywood. We had a lot of fun posing with the celebrities. There were tons of figures there! Some I would have never expected to see, however the one I WAS expecting to see was (of course) Elvis, and HE WASN'T THERE! Oh well. I think they also rotate which celebrities are at which locations, because I know there are Madame Tussaud's all over the world, so maybe he is somewhere else for the time being.
Also, getting wax hands was really cool. It was interesting to see how they are made and how they are colored. For example, because Matt wanted two colors on his hand, after it was molded the guy took the hand off of Matt and dipped it in the two colors himself. However, because I wanted only one color on the whole hand, he dipped mine in the colored wax while it was still on my hand. The color got brighter the longer it was exposed to air, so it literally faded from white to pink, which was pretty cool.
(from left: Mom's, Matt's, mine)
After that we walked around a little more on Hollywood, and Matt discovered some pretty awesome deals on clothes at H&M. At that age, it is always a struggle to find clothes in style that everyone else doesn't already have because everyone shops at the same stores in the Poconos and since we don't have an H&M very close to us, I think he was happy for the opportunity to get some clothes in a different location.
Then we walked over to where we parked near Intuition and I showed my family the office. We got lunch at Umami burger because it was voted best burger in the country (and probably most expensive). It was really good, definitely one of the best burgers I ever had. However because of the price and the popularity of it, again it's a place I am glad I went to once but not necessarily a place I will be going back to. Then we walked over to Amoeba music and got a couple really cheap CDs. I have walked by Amoeba a lot of times, but this was my first time inside and the place is huge! Everywhere you look there are boxes of CDs or DVDs, truly the biggest collection I have ever seen. I got two CDs for $6 too, which is always a good thing.
After that we drove over to Olvera Street, near Union Station. I had neither been to nor heard of this place before then, but Mom read a story about it to her kids because it was in one of her reading books, so she wanted to go there and take some pictures of it to show her class. It ended up being one of the coolest things I think we did. It was just this little stretch of Mexican stands selling all kinds of merchandise, surrounded by restaurants and more shops. People mulled about everywhere and there were different mariachi bands competing with each other all along the strip. It ended at this giant tree that is probably thousands of years old, with a surrounding promenade area where (I am sure) events and festivities are held on a regular basis. Matt got a drug rug and some bracelets (probably some other stuff too, but I can't remember everything), Mom got a cute new bag, and I got some rings and a pretty felt flower hairclip. It was lots of fun, good addition to the trip Mom!
After such a long day, we were all pretty tired so we went back to the apartment and I cooked Mom & Matt my famous Chicken Pot Pie. They seemed to like it a lot so I guess it is fair to say that I can actually cook now. I've come a long way since the summer when I didn't even know how to cook a burger on the stove! Then we (plus the roommates & Danny) died Easter eggs! Us kids had a great time because it has really been years since any of us died eggs. I also felt like our eggs came out better than any I have ever died before, most likely because we have more patience for the process, haha!
That night, I took the fam to Millions of Milkshakes. Unfortunately some big event/bar outing/who knows what was going on in the area, so I just let them out at the place and drove around until they were ready to be picked up because there was absolutely no parking, anywhere. Despite that being a big bummer, and that by the time we got home it was wayyy later than we hoped it would be, I think they enjoyed their celebrity-created milkshakes.
Saturday we got up way early and went to DISNEYLAND! We got there shortly after it opened so the crowd wasn't bad, which allowed us to basically walk on a lot of the bigger rides like Space Mountain, Toy Story Mania, and California Screamin'. I was worried it would be a lot busier than it actually was, the longest we waited in line was for the Indiana Jones ride and even then we only waited about 25 minutes! We also got the see the Aladdin show, which wasn't playing the last time I was there, so I was happy about that (even if Matt wasn't). Toward the end of the day, we all started dragging, but we had to stay because we had fast passes for the new water show there: World of Color. We tried to watch it last time we went, but because we didn't have fast passes we couldn't really see anything. After seeing it this second time, I am really glad that we waited to see the show in its entirety. It was really beautiful and of course, colorful. Definitely something every girl that grew up a Disney princess should see.
And we got to see Mickey!
After our 14 hour day at Disney, we decided to (sort of) sleep in the next day. However, it was EASTER SUNDAY, so we did get up and stuff our Easter baskets with candy and Matt made us the best omelets ever! I was so happy to have (most of) my family in LA for Easter with me. :) We went to an Easter Sunday service at a church I had gone to a couple of times, which was nice. Then we went to an Easter brunch buffet at the Smoke House Restaurant in Burbank. The food was really delicious, the only problem was I felt like it was the only brunch buffet in all of Los Angeles, there were SO many people there! We waited a while to get a table, then they ended up splitting a bigger table in two for us and another party, so it was a little difficult getting up to go to the buffet, but I would say it was worth it in the end.
After brunch we went to this place Ginny recommended to us called Whimsic Alley, a Harry Potter themed store. It immediately took me right back to my years as the biggest HP nerd known to man when I would hole up in my room and not come out until every book was read cover-to-cover for the 80th time. In addition to all their cool merchandise, they also had a set recreation of the Great Hall & platform 9 3/4, which was really cool. There was an egg hunt going on while we were there (it being Easter) so we got to collect 4 eggs and if there were "gallons" inside we got a $1 off for each one, which was neat because we ended up getting $3 off our purchase. I took the Easter egg hunt to the extreme and started collecting as many eggs as I could find, only to find out that we could only keep four. Embarrassing? Yes, but what are you gonna do.
Then we headed over to Venice beach, with the intention of doing some tanning and taking our Christmas card picture there, however it was way too windy and cold to even stand on the beach. Sand was just flying everywhere, it was not good timing at all, probably the only flop their trip encountered. We did walk up and down the boardwalk a little, and Matt got his friend something from one of the stands along the way, so I guess it wasn't a complete waste of time...
After a small dinner at my apartment (we were still pretty full from our brunch) we went to the Griffith Observatory to see the sunset. It ended up not only being an amazing view and sunset (which we expected), but also it had some awesome displays and diagrams and stuff inside too. We spent quite a bit of time there going through everything, and I actually learned a lot. Yay for education. Matt bought his teacher a placemat with the periodical table on it (to suck up) and Mom was looking around for stuff for her class. Very fun outing!
Matt & his future mentor
That night Matt and I went to Shitty Jobs at UCB. Even though Donald Glover wasn't there, it was still really funny and I'm glad I took him. I could tell he liked the show because he kept quoting it the next day, always a good sign!
Monday morning, I took the fam to the Paramount lot and gave them a tour. They got to meet my boss Josie (which I was really happy about because I love her) and see where I work, which is equally as awesome. There's not really a lot filming on the lot right now, so it was pretty easy for us to just walk around and not be questioned by security.
Then we went to Beverly Hills so that Mom & Matt could have their first experience at heaven on earth, also known as Sprinkles cupcakes. Also seemed to be enjoyable on their part.
And finally, we drove to the best location to see the Hollywood sign (Matt searched it on his phone) and took some pictures there. It was actually a much better view than I was expecting! It was on the same hill that we hiked up when we first came out to LA, just a different part of it, so I guess it would make since that it would have an equally awesome view.
That afternoon, we went to a Jay Leno taping that T.J. scored us VIP tickets for. Christina Aguilera was on promoting The Voice, which was cool because I still have her entire first album memorized...haha. However, at the end of the taping the stage manager tells us we need to stay in our seats because they are gonna tape a segment for Tuesday night's show because the guest can't make it on Tuesday. Okkk. Then we find out the guest is Linday Lohan! A little more exciting! So she comes out and she's talking about how she was just in court on Friday, and Jay points out that her attorney is married to the lead singer in his studio band and they show a picture of Lindsay and her attorney. Turns out, her attorney is sitting right next to my mom! So that was pretty awesome. She was also talking about her support system in her family and how her brother was just at her house for a few weeks and how he went to college and whatnot. At that point, I was about to yell out ITHACA! because Mike Lohan did in fact graduate from Ithaca College last year, but I restrained myself because the last thing I wanted was for Lindsay Lohan to see an IC student get thrown out of a Jay Leno taping.
On the way back we again grabbed some In-N-Out (Matt insisted) and they went back to the apartment to get their stuff together and repack while I went to our last Media Industries class. The panel was made up of three older gentlemen, so because they had been in the industry longer they have done a LOT of stuff for some really big projects. They also were in school with one of my teachers, so it was fun to see the dynamic between them.
After class we went on our last family outing to Yogurtland since Mom didn't go the first time. The time Mom & Matt were here was easily one of my favorite weekends out here, and I am so glad that they had a chance to come see my home for the past four months. Apparently all the stuff we did wore them out too because they were both REALLY tired and stayed home from school on Wednesday to catch up on sleep!
Tuesday morning we got up ridiculously early and I drove them to the airport. It wasn't really that hard saying goodbye, since I will be seeing them two weeks from Sunday. I went back and went to sleep since I took off Tuesday at Intuition because I wasn't sure what time their flight was in the morning. Thank God I did that because there is no way I would have been able to wake back up and go to work. Once I did wake up for good, I caught up on some TV shows and did some laundry.
Then I went to the earlier section of Government and Media for the review for our final.
I did this because James, Danny, and I have tickets to see a Jimmy Kimmel taping that night. I was really excited for the taping because Mark Ruffalo, Jamie Oliver, and the most recent castoff from Dancing with the Stars (who turned out to be Chris Jerico :( ) were going to be there. However, what I wasn't prepared for was Danny was picked to come down on the stage and sing right before the taping started! He went with a song that he figured the band was bound to know (Moondance) so it was pretty epic when they joined in right behind him. It was almost like seeing a friend perform live in concert (ok..maybe that's going a little too far...) but it was still really cool!
Wednesday I went into the production office for The Doctors to do the last bit of paperwork. It was so incredibly sad to be on the Paramount lot and in The Doctors office for the last time. Josie took me to lunch (after writing me the BEST review I have ever read, I literally cried a little while reading it) on Larchmont Blvd, which is just full of cute little shops and restaurants. We also found this store in which all the clothes were under $15 and the accessories were less. I literally had to limit myself while in the store by reminding myself that I don't have a job and I need to make it across the country in a week with the limited money I have because this was literally the best store I have ever shopped in because of the combination of insanely cute stuff for amazing prices. I will definitely be doing some online shopping from them when I have more money!
Then, I went to my last work study shift, during which the phone rang three times! I actually had to take a message one time, it was crazy. Possibly the most I have worked there all semester, haha.
Yesterday I went into Intuition to make up for not going in Monday and Tuesday. Patrick filled out the other review form for me and he also gave me a great review. It just makes me really grateful to have two completely different, but very informative experiences with my internships and I will miss both the places, people, and experiences equally when I leave LA.
Thursday night was our last Writing for Series TV class, and we had a small class debate based off of two pilots that we saw. I got emotionally invested in the debate (surprise, surprise) so I yelled a little, but our team ended up winning so I guess no one took it too personally!
I got up a little earlier today to watch some footage on the royal wedding. I kept going back and forth between amazement of the extravagance of it all and surprise at how a) in love William and Kate seemed (I guess they are getting married after all!) and b) how well Kate seems to be adapting to the fact that she is now royalty. Bravo William & Kate, bravo. I also really liked her dress, even if no one else did.
Now I am currently at my last day at Intuition! Unfortunately, I spent most of the day alone at the office, which was kind of depressing. However, since it's my last day Patrick didn't give me a new project to start so I have mostly been doing clerical stuff and writing this blog post. Haha!
A group of us are going to this thai restaurant later called Palm Thai, where there apparently is this awesome Elvis impersonator, so I am pretty excited about that! Also excited for this weekend, which I am hoping will be epic because it is our last full weekend in Los Angeles!
Man has the time really flown by! Leaving LA is bittersweet for me because I have really enjoyed my time out here and the people I have met and the places I have seen. I feel like you could live in LA for years and still not do and see everything the city has to offer. However, I am ready to go home and I am really starting to look forward to my trip back across country with my Uncle Dean.
New post before we start out trip!
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