My Apologies

Sorry I have been a terrible blogger lately! There hasn't been anything that important going on, life is pretty normal these days. I guess there is one pretty exciting thing...I made the conservatory at Second City! Classes for Conservatory started September 12th and we have an amazing group. Luckily, they kept the group I've been with for a year all together and we've got a few new guys. The new guys fit in really well and they bring a lot of new energy to the group! I've also been doing a character development workshop on Thursdays. It's three hours of brainstorming new opinions and new characters that we can later use in the theater. It's a lot of fun, but challenging as well! I have 16 partial monologues due this Thursday!

I made a trip home a few weeks ago that was a lot of fun! It was so good to get to see Andrew. He's growing up so fast! I'm sad that I can't be there more often. I'll be going home in November for the arrival of Madilyn! I can't believe Andrew isn't going to be the baby anymore, he'll be a big brother! 

Here's a picture from when I was home with some of my pledge sisters. I sure do miss all of these girls! Well it's about my bedtime...Sunday nights are when some of my favorite shows come on so I feel like all I've done tonight is be a couch potato. I did manage to get some cleaning done because that's what Sundays are for! By the way, if you don't watch Mad Men you definitely should! It's on AMC on Sunday nights. It's fun to watch a show that takes place in 1960. I'll try to be better about blogging...I promise!

Thoughts of the Lone Traveller

There's few things I enjoy more than traveling alone. When everything goes according to plan at least. That being said, I am currently sitting alone at the local Little Rock National Airport Quizno's with twenty minutes to spare and nothing to do but talk to myself. Luckily, I have my laptop and access to LRNA's free Wifi! (LAX take notes, free wifi is the bomb) The only downside to this free wifi is it's snail-like speed. I've been trying to download a movie since I got here and unfortunately I don't think it's gonna make it all the way to the end! 

So out of my boredom, I was going through some of my pictures in iPhoto and came across this little gem:

I stumbled upon this treasure at the Getty Museum when mom came to visit. The artist and name of the painting escapes me, but that's not really relevant here, now is it? In fact, the rest of the painting must've not been relevant because all I could do was zoom in on this fine specimen of a man in the 1600's. How easy would it have been to be a model back in those days? Maybe it was a charity case and he was the artist's cousin. Maybe he was in town visiting and the artist's mom said "Sweetie, just paint him in there somewhere on the side...let him hold a violin. It'll make his day and no one will even notice!" Then I can just see the reluctant artist agreeing to it but begrudging his mom every day. His cousin then goes back to whatever rural town he's from and brags to all his friends that he's a model in his cousin's painting but no one believes him. Then the artist dies and all of a sudden his painting is relevant (because he's dead) and now it hangs in the famous Getty Museum in Los Angeles. All for a childish observer like me to notice this goofy guy and take a picture of him. Completely neglecting the rest of his painting that he worked so hard on. 

I'd guess that none of that was actually the case, but I'm bored and it's fun to make up stories. If anyone actually does know the artist and title of this painting, pass it this way so I can find out what actually happened here.

Some Recent Photos

Sorry I've been slacking lately on my blog...it has been quite a busy few weeks! I have had seven visitors in the past couple of a weeks. It has been so nice to see so many people, but entertaining is a tough job! This past month my mom, my sister Amy and her husband Jason, my cousin Thomas and his wife Jenny, and my friends Margaret, Erin and Nicole all came to visit. Oh wait, that's eight people!! I'm pretty tired tonight but I didn't want to leave you hanging, so here's some recent photos that I love!

A Bittersweet Day

**This picture is of the view from the office I work in....Not bad, huh?!**

Today marks my final day as an intern at The Chasin Agency. When I started this internship in January, Matt (my boss) made it clear that there were no promises for a job at the end of 6 months but that the experience I would get here would be invaluable. He was right! Though the agency doesn't have the resources currently to take on any new hires, I'm leaving here with more than I could've learned about this industry in ten years on my own!

Lately I've been feeling spread too thin. I work at the agency around 15 hours a week, at Cabo at least 30 hours a week, and attending my improv classes 3 and a half hours every Saturday. Though my hours may not be much different from full time, it's hard to work until 3am some nights, get up to be at the agency in the morning, and then go straight from the agency to Cabo again! I usually only have full days off on a random day, such as a Tuesday. I guess you could say I'm ready for things to slow down. I'd like to have more time to get involved in a church in my area, make some new friends, and get in better shape! Not to mention, actually be able to talk to people back home other than through text messages. (Sorry that sounds a little whiny, I'm done I promise!) I thought I would be somewhat excited about this day, but instead I find myself very sad!

Tom Chasin and Matt Gogal were the first people in this city to take a chance on me. When I interviewed here, I had been going on job interviews for months with no luck and was starting to get discouraged. Tom hired me on the spot during my first interview with him. I had no idea at the time how God was blessing my life. Tom and Matt are such good people and have a code of ethics that is extremely hard to come by in this industry. Matt has treated me more like a peer than an intern. (It probably helps that he's only one year older than me--he's the youngest franchised agent in LA!) I never had to get him coffee or run his errands and he was always willing to teach me something new. Since only three of us work here, I've become very close with Matt and Tom...well, mostly Matt because Tom is such a busy man! I know that no matter where I go in this industry I will be ready for it and have a solid, respected reference. In the past 6 months, so much in my life has changed and this internship has been the one constant. I'll miss my few days a week at 8899 Beverly Blvd. but I'm eager to see where life will go from here!!

My First Concert at the Hollywood Bowl

Hola Everyone! (I've been working at the Cantina too much apparently...) I finally got a full weekend off of work and it was so fantastic I almost didn't know what to do with myself. The highlight of my weekend was Sunday night. I bought tickets to the Ray LaMontagne/Jenny Lewis/Blitzen Trapper concert several months ago and it was finally time to go on Sunday night! The music was AMAZING. I was really surprised how packed the place was...I didn't know so many people were fans. I'm glad they are though!

Besides the music, it was my first trip to the Hollywood Bowl. What an amazing venue! It is outdoors and is basically a big bowl in the side of a mountain. You can see the Hollywood sign to the left and a huge cross to the right. I'm still having camera issues, so I don't have any pictures unfortunately. We missed the opening group, Blitzen Trapper, because we had to park SO FAR AWAY!! I haven't walked that far that fast in some time! Here's a couple videos of who we did see:

The first video of Jenny Lewis isn't from the concert we were at but this is my favorite song of hers!

The Ray LaMontagne video is a little blurry, but it was actually taken at the Hollywood Bowl on

Sunday night. His voice is so unique. They are two of the few artists I've seen that actually

sound exactly the same in person as on an album. It was an amazing experience!

Gag

These have got to be the most hideous shoes I've ever seen. I am hereby making a public declaration that you will NEVER catch me in white leather boots. If I ever go against what I have just put into writing, you have full permission to slap me in the face.


Oh and TGIF!

Blog Makeover...Sort of!

You may have noticed the title of my blog has changed. The original title, "Life's a Beach," was suggested by my mother and, though I really liked that title, I wanted to change the focus of the blog...requiring a new title! I still will be updating about what's going on in my life, but I'd like to focus on some opinions of current events and life in general as well! (I am also keeping the photo, I'm pretty proud of it and I think it's gorgeous!)

The new blog title was happened upon when I was trying to think of words that possibly rhyme with "Emily." Most blog titles either rhyme or use some form of alliteration and I was drawing a blank. So the only other words I could think of that don't rhyme with anything will be my attempt at a cutesy little blog name...

Coming Soon: Pictures from when Mom was in town! And just because I'm getting tired of seeing so many words..here's a pic I think is humorous...