Martini taste on a beer budget...T uncensored.

Okay, so it’s been almost a week since I posted anything because I've been busy as fuck. Yes, fuck is busy. Basically I've been slaving away at BCBG and ArcLight. It’s cool though. I like what I'm doing even if it hurts my feet. Let’s recap the past days with highlights and fun/not fun stories.

I got a 90 day gym membership at the 24 Hour Fitness in Hollywood which happens to be connected to the same parking garage as ArcLight. The other day on my way out I was ambushed by a man who looked to be in his mid 30's. His name is Phil and he's an official Los Angeles weirdo. He hit on me with impeccable rhyme scheme. I made the horrible mistake of letting him have my number, but it only seemed fair. I never would have guessed that he would call me that night…at 1 while I was IN BED. Since I didn’t recognize the number I just didn’t answer because seriously, what the hell? He called me twice the next day, once while I was at my internship and once while I was at work. He hasn’t called since which is excellent. If he does call again, even at a decent hour, I probably still won’t answer. I just hope I never see him at the gym again. That could be painfully awkward.

The ArcLight staff…It’s a very interesting group of people. They’re mostly all pretty cool. I need to stop being a crappy junior high kid though because I really don’t need to try and flirt with so many people. I’m sure some of them like it seeing how there are about 25 girls who work in the staff of 130. Is that not ridiculous? Its totally badass that its in my favor though. Although, I have to take into consideration the higher than I is used to homo-fabulous population. (Don’t even think about correcting the grammar in that last sentence. I typed this in MSWord and it told me to put I is.) Either way, it’s still good for me. I’m often the only girl around, and being the attention whore that I am, I LOVE it. There’s this one guy I’ve been scheduled with quite a bit and I was thinking he was pretty cute. Then I found out that he’s 28. That doesn’t make him less cute, but it makes me feel more stupid for even looking at him. I guess I don’t have a lot to gauge it on, but I think if I was 28 I wouldn’t really take a 19 year old seriously. I guess since I work with these people though, I see them as my peers and that sort of breaks down age barriers. Saturday night I got further acquainted with a guy named Bryce. He asked me if I wanted to go out and sing karaoke with people after work. Not that I would ever put my horrific singing on display, but I wanted to go out so I asked if it was at a bar. He was pretty sure it was and so I basically said yeah good luck getting me in. It fucking sucks that I’m under 21 here. Anyway, I guess that’s when he figured out and stopped caring that I was 19. He, by the way, is 25. He came and picked me up from here after we both got changed after work. We went and bought some beer and headed back to his apartment where we tried to figure out what exactly was going on. The place where everyone else was happened to be 21+ so we ended up staying there and getting in the hot tub and drinking. I was SO tired though and I ended up sleeping over there. No sexual activities were involved, but I still felt like it might not have been a great idea then next day. I guess I just don’t really like him THAT much. He’s cool and all. I’d love to hang out with him and stay friends, but I don’t know how I feel about anything else. Everything seemed cool at work the next day though. I’m not even going to think about it.

In other ArcLight news, I guess I could fill you in on the famous folk I’ve been seeing. Yesterday the following attended: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Salma Hayek, Charlize Theron, and almost the entire Sleepover cast seeing how we housed the premier. The other night I also saw Zach de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine and I seriously almost peed my pants. Nobody recognizes him now that he cut his hair though. Then I saw him AGAIN today while me and Matt were getting coffee. Apparently he’s a frequent attendant of our neighborhood Coffee Bean. I got the most excited for him. Sucks that I didn’t get big into their music until after they broke up. Oh well.

The longer I stay here the less sure I am about what I want to do with my future. I’m not really scared because I’m confident I’ll always be able to find jobs that make me happy and support myself, but I just feel like I’ve got so many options flying at me and I don’t know what I should choose. I really love it here and this might be the ideal place for me to live at some point. I don’t know when. It might be in 10 years. It might be in 3. It might be in November. I also can’t keep telling myself that dance is in my past. I need it so bad. Nothing makes me feel the way dancing does. I can’t get enough of it and I wish I was still doing something somewhere, or anywhere. I don’t know where I should be or what I should be doing. All I know is that I want to be happy and healthy wherever I am, whatever I do. Its just confusing, but I know I’ll figure it out.

The Events of Monday June 21, 2004

Today me and the bro went and saw Saved. I knew it was going to be funny and interesting, but I really thought it was so much more than that. It was so multidimensional and deep too. It hit me in a few soft spots and there were a couple points when I actually had to hold back tears. I wish I had more people to talk about it with because I absolutely loved it. Its definitely on my favorite movies list. AHH! I just want to see it again! We went out for some Thai dinner which I’ve missed SO much. I needed some of that tea in my bloodstream. The place was really good too. Awesome. I can’t wait to go to Siam again and see everyone. We watched the Big Lebowski which I’ve never watched beginning to end so that was cool, but Matt’s still feeling sick so we really didn’t do anything else.


Anyway, so lately I’ve been thinking about all my options for the rest of my life. I’ve been doing some thinking about what I want to do, where I want to do it and how happy I’ll be. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I really like it here. I love it. I can totally see myself coming back to live here in the future, which tempts me to just stay here and not go back to Texas at all. Now that I’ve thought about it though. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Another big piece is that I really miss dancing. It was so good for me. It covered so much ground creatively, physically, and even emotionally. How much do I STILL love drill team? Is it enough to change my major and be a director? Someone told me something (a secondhand quote actually) that made me remember what I really loved. She said that I was the only person on the team who danced like they meant it (which I could argue with, but whatever) and that when I danced she could feel it. Just hearing that from someone made me remember how it felt to perform in front of thousands or even just 2. Where do I want to live? What do I want to do? I seriously need people to help me and talk me through some of this stuff. These decisions could change where I go to school and live and work and all that so I feel like I have no control right now and its making me nervous. HELP!

The Events of Sunday June 20, 2004

Sunday I had to be at ArcLight at 9am for day 5 of the training. We had Matt who had taught us another day and he was also one of the people who ran the group interviews. I have a confession to make. I totally have one of those junior high type crushes on him. He’s so much fun to be around and he’s hilarious and he’s got the most adorable face. Oh I’m such a dork, but seriously, he’s too cute. I worked for 8 hours but it wasn’t nearly as painful as Friday’s shift. One of the guys in my group has proven himself to be un-lame. We seem to be getting along and enjoy making fun of the other 3 who pretty much bug the hell out of us. I got to meet some more new people. Almost everyone is really cool and super friendly so I’m glad I’m getting to know them all. Some of the guys are cute, but the official crush is Matt. I love it that of all these people I choose the one with my brother’s name. So I worked for ever and stuff but I don’t think anything super interesting happened. I didn’t even have to pick my brother up. His friend bought him all the way here. Hoorah.

The Events of Saturday June 19, 2004

Saturday was the first day off and oh my hell did I need it. I chilled out most of the day, slept a lot…sat my lazy ass in front of the computer for a while. Of course I did have to get up and drive Matt’s car back from Culver City at 9am, but whatever. You know, Saturday was kind of lame so I’m just going to not even talk about it.

The Events of Friday June 18, 2004

Friday brings me to BCBG at 9:30 am. That means I need to leave around 8:45 or so. That’s pretty early for me, but I managed. I don’t recall anyone trying to kill me. Today was pretty cool. I got some copies done, cut some more swatches, and of course, took lots more belt pictures. In the process, two notable things happened. Max (as in BCBG Max Azria) came in and I got to meet him. He’s an adorable old man who talks French on his cell phone. That was famous person number two in under 24 hours. I know. Its pretty outrageous. The next event of note, was not as much fun. I was walking over to Lisa’s desk to show her this belt (that must have been designed by a total moron because you couldn’t even use all of the holes), when I tripped on a rolling car full of purses. I stubbed my last two toes pretty hard and cut one of them pretty bad too. I got all taken care of, but they thought I should go down to HR and see what they think I should do because if it got infected it would technically be their fault and blah blah blah. Its not like I was going to sue BCBG if my cut was infected but they made me go to this clinic that does all their stuff and its only about 2 blocks from their place, but I was there for an hour and a half. And what did they tell me there? Keep it clean and put a band aid on it. If that wasn’t a waste of time, I don’t know what is.

That mess kept me from taking a nap prior to my 6-close training at ArcLight. Movie theaters close late mind you. I really wanted that nap. I got all ready even though all I wanted to do was sleep, but as I put my shoes on, I noticed a problem. My little toe was hurting like razor burn in salt water…bad. My toe may be broken. I don’t know. I just know it hurt, but off to work I went. I didn’t know how much I’d be on my feet, but we pretty much worked concession all night. We were working with some people who had just finished their training (One was in my group interview, but that’s a story for later.) and it seemed as though I could run a concession stand more successfully than they could. The guys I’m training with looked like monkeys. They really have no idea what they’re doing.

Okay, so the guy from my interview group. Will is his name. We met at the interview and I could tell something was brewing in his mind about me. Yesterday I was talking to him when things got a little slow and he flat out told me that he totally had a crush on me since then and he was upset when he started training because he thought he’d never see me again. I’m sure by now we all know that these are the sorts of things I thrive on. He thought he freaked me out, but I think most people would agree that’s pretty hard to do. I was walking with the guy who was teaching us and he told me that they haven’t hired a girl in a while so all the guys are really excited. That’s hilarious. Apparently the manager who hires doesn’t really like girls. Why she hired me is totally beyond anything I can think of. I guess since I had experience and lied about how long I would be here…meh.

So basically my feet hurt like hell by the end, but I had met lots of fun people and made some money so it was all good. All in all, not a bad day.

The Events of Thursday June 17, 2004

Thursday made me want to cry. It was just kind of a crappy day. I got to sleep in at least, but after I got up, I took a shower and couldn’t find my razor. Annoying. Then when I got dressed Matt made some comment about how my pants were too tight. I just wanted to say, ‘Fuck you. I know I got fatter. Quit bugging me.’ UGH. So that alone put me in a pretty bad mood especially while we were shopping. I felt really icky and ugly. It wasn’t cool at all. When we got back home I still felt bad, so I just took a nap until I had to get ready for ArcLight training day 3. Matt for some reason or another wanted to actually park and go in. I think he wanted to meet up with Ben or something, so I was late. Thanks. At least training wasn’t as boring as it had been. There was still a lot of sitting and listening, but the people teaching were way cooler. We also got to go play in the concession stand in the CINERAMA DOME. The best part about that was that there were no people because its just the one theater and the movie was playing. We were still in there after it was over, so we had to talk over all of them in the lobby and tell 273593847589234 people where they could get their parking validated. Then something important happened. I saw my first famous person!! Seems like I would have seen someone famous in 19 years, but no, it just happened. Seth Green was there. He’s so cute, but holy crap is he tiny. I’d guess he could fit into a women’s size 2 pants and he’s probably 5’3” or so. He looked pretty normal though…jeans, t shirt, sandals. ANYWAY, we were done a little early that night so when I called Matt to come pick me up, he didn’t answer…5 or 6 times. I just started to walk to the subway station because I figured that would be fine. I was almost there when he FINALLY called me back and took like 15 minutes to come get me. All these pretty people were out in their nice clothes looking all good and having fun. It really brought me back to the crappy fat mood I had been in before, so I just went home and went to bed while Matt went back to 724 and swore he’d have the car back before morning so I could drive to BCBG.

The Events of Wednesday June 16, 2004

Early wake up at about 7:45. That kind of sucked, but I had to take Matt to E! before I went to BCBG. I got to do some stuff that was a little more involved this time. I cut some swatches and started taking pictures of belts. That’s seriously going to take me forever. There are SO many. I’m pretty sure its BCBG’s history of belts. Nothing too exciting happened while I was there though. I took a nap for a while before I had to get ready to head off to ArcLight for day 2 of training. We actually got our shirts and out ID cards and went down on the floor, but since we didn’t know how to work anything, we couldn’t help anybody. This one lady was so pissed because she thought we just weren’t doing anything when there was a line of people waiting for food. Whatever. We still just sat and listened to people talk about the company a lot...still boring. Two of the guys in my group are getting progressively more and more annoying. Blah.

The Events of Tuesday June 15, 2004

I’m not gonna lie. I don’t really remember what I did on Tuesday before like 4 pm. I think I may have bought some carrot juice or something. I seriously don’t know. Anyway, in the evening I had my first training session at work. It’s all different people from my group interview, which kind of sucks because some of those people seemed pretty cool, while the people in my training group, as a general rule, are fairly lame. We started learning weird crap about the company and really nothing about what we’d actually be DOING. This theater is weird though. Its kind of the only one in its class anywhere so they run it all differently. Also, the guy who runs the whole company that ArcLight operates under is a man of the Church of Scientology which also makes things ‘interesting’. Day 1 is basically 5 hours of sitting and listening with a bonus 15 minute tour thrown in somewhere. It was pretty boring but I guess I learned a lot of stuff. Nick was working so I said a quick hello on the tour, but he got off at the same time we were done so Matt came and got us and we all went back to 724 because it was Susan’s birthday. I think Susan said, ‘Lets have a party.’ Which translates to, ‘Invite YOUR friends over.’ That seems kind of weird to me, but hey, whatever makes her happy. I was just glad to see some BBQ. We didn’t stay for long since both Matt and I had to get up pretty early Wednesday, so that was the night.

The Events of Monday June 14, 2004

Yay, my birthday!! I got lots of happy birthday calls and emails and whatnot from all over the country + Spain. It was good to hear from everyone. I got up at a decent hour and talked to Julia for a while before I got ready to go out and shop. I went down to Hollywood and Highland, the fucking most tourist infested place after Disneyworld. I guess I could have gone shopping elsewhere, but that’s where I knew I’d find Banana Republic, Gap, and Express…all places I could find some good black pants for work. I forgot that it’s a whole big shopping center, so I kept looking around since I was already there. I hit up Sephora for some powder and I got some of that shimmer powder that smells and tastes, yes TASTES, delicious. I walked around some more and then this CREEPYass security guard starts hitting on me. Gross. He was pretty old and kept telling me his work schedule, offering me rides places, and telling me how beautiful and ‘exotic’ I look. What in the hell?! Do your job scary man and quite asking me questions!

Sometime after, I noticed that Victoria’s Secret was having one of those big sales where everything is a huge mess so I made my way to the table of my size and began digging. Now I’m not normally a Vicky’s shopper, but it was my birthday AND a sale so what the hell, right? Right! I spent way too much money in there and one of the bras was actually too small once I tried it on at home…Eh, I’ll just give it to someone. Something was amiss still when trying them all on though. It seems as though I may have broken ANOTHER size barrier. Yes, I may be a D sometime in the near future. How this happened, I’m not sure. It was only April (I think) when I graduated from B to C. This jump is indicating either an overall weight increase, a continued reaction to birth control pills, or just growing. Holy crap though.

I came home for a while and got really bored so I started to take pictures of myself. It was boredom at its height. Some of the pictures are pretty cool though. Maybe I’ll put them up on the picture sight since I haven’t changed it since, when, February? Anywho, when Matt got home, we decided to go look for (and not find) some shoes for me to work in and then go get some sushi! The place we went to was 100 times better than the place we went with Mel and Nick. Oh my gosh, it was so good. Then we went to some expensive mall where I found some shoes that weren’t too expensive, but also not too ugly. Hooray! Now all I need is some black socks. I even had to get some of those piercing retainers for my third holes. At ArcLight, I can only have one ear hole and the earring have to be little. Lame to the max.

We came back to attempt digestion after too much food. Matt tried and almost failed to burn his and Ben’s recordings onto a CD. After that we headed out to 724, where very little action ensued. Ben DID give me a bottle of wine though. It was just me, Matt, Ben, and Trey, so it wasn’t all too exciting. I drank most of that wine though. I would have finished it if it had been worth it, but I just wasn’t having enough fun. Not to say that it was bad, but you know how it is…So after we got home it took me a while to get ready for bed, mostly because my toothbrush had mysteriously disappeared. I still don’t have a clue where it is. Luckily I brought an extra one. However, if you have any information regarding the disappearance of my toothbrush, please contact me. I’d like it back.

The Events of Sunday June 13, 2004

I had to get up early…blah. There was breakfast to be had and goodbyes to be said before Matt and I shipped out in our snazzy rented minivan. I was still kind of sad that we couldn’t go to Matt and Dawnell’s for breakfast. I didn’t feel like I had enough time to talk to either of them at the wedding. Oh well. I guess it was the only time we could fly out and catch both planes. As soon as we landed in Houston, it started raining and we barely made it onto the next plane…which made us think we’d be leaving soon. Just kidding. We waited on the ground for about an hour before we could take off because of the rain. Apparently Sean and Marissa couldn’t even leave Ohio because of how bad the weather had gotten in Houston. Hopefully they got back alright. When we got back here, we took a cab and our driver was so cool. It was this lady who was totally a hippie at some point…and she had a tattoo ON HER FACE. Ouch! I’m now officially on the Matt diet. I’m not too sure what that means, but he promises it will work. We didn’t really do anything special once we got back I guess. Although when I called my mom to tell her we were home, she told me, ‘That cute boy you were talking to came and asked me for your email address at breakfast…’ Alright! I guess that’s about it. Now its time to go have a birthday!

The Events of Saturday June 12, 2004

The big day is here. The perpetual bachelor is finally getting married. I got dressed, put on lots of makeup, gathered up the dress I don’t like, and headed out around 1:30. Its always fun getting ready with all the girls except for that my I seriously have to do my mom’s makeup for her if either of us want it to look like she has any on. Isn’t it a waste if it doesn’t make a difference? I thought it was pretty funny that Andrew was the best man. I don’t know why. It just was. The ceremony was really nice and thankfully, not too long. My shoes weren’t the comfy kind. I think the longest part of the wedding may have been getting everyone out of the church and I had to stand for all that too…and they never gave me flowers to throw at Matt and Dawnell when they got in the limo. Although, that was stupid because all they did was drive around and come back to the church for more pictures. Whatever. While we waited for everyone to get out of the church, I saw way too many people that I didn’t know. If I did know them, I didn’t recognize them. The only person I could spot and name was my mom’s friend Franny. Then some man came up to me, told me his name, gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and left me wondering for a moment, What the hell? Apparently its some friend of my Uncle’s that has a hot son. Taking MORE pictures post-wedding sucked. The photographer was such a weirdo. He reminded me of Mr. Arrowood, but less cool.
YEAH. So we finally all shoved ourselves into the limo and got to the reception. We of course had to be introduced and make a big annoying entrance and then sit on display while we ate. Andrew ate like a bird because he was nervous about giving the toast, but we got to share lots of drinking stories while we were up there. We tried to fill up on wine and champagne, but I guess it wasn’t strong because I felt nothing. People danced sort of. It was kind of lame though. They made Sophia dance but they had to hold her up because it’s not like she can stand up by herself. It was funny though. Then I was starting to get tired and bored so I was giving my uncle a hug and whatnot. Then he asked if I had met any boys…no…? He said he wanted me to meet Colden (his college roommate’s son). He took me outside where I met this VERY cute Colden. I talked to him for a few minutes and them my mom had wanted me to take the 4 generations of girls picture inside. Then mom and I went back out because she thought I needed to be talking to him more. He wasn’t out there when I got there so I just chilled with the fam, but he was back within 5 minutes. OH YEAH! He and I talked for what seemed to be about an hour. He’s way cool and it sounds like the stuff he’s going to school for is really interesting. He’s so cute and he’s got this beautiful smile. Oh, and he’s a drummer (but doesn’t seem like he’d cause me too many problems like the other ones always do). I wasn’t going to get to see him at breakfast in the morning because we had to catch our plane and Dawnell and Matt’s house is in the opposite direction of the airport. That was pretty sad. When my dad came out and said we were leaving it was kind of sad, but I figured I’d be able to get in touch with him if I really wanted to. We said goodbye and I headed in to grab my shoes which I had ditched much earlier and say bye to Matt and Dawnell. Colden came in with this necklace thing and told me he had made 2 of them. He gave one to his mom and hadn’t been sure what he wanted to do with the other one but that he wanted to give it to me. How cute is that? It’s pretty cool too. Its this big glass ball with something blue inside on a cord.

The Events of Friday June 11, 2004

Friday morning was not an easy one. Breakfast at the hotel only went until 10am, meaning that I had to get up sometime before that. Seeing how I’ve become accustomed to Pacific time, getting up at 8:40 felt like getting up at 5:40, an hour I’m quite unfamiliar with. I think I took a nap. I can’t remember. Anywho, Friday brought Aunt Teresa, Uncle Herb, and wedding rehearsal. I finally got to meet Dawnell. I mean, I’m her bridesmaid but it was the first time I’ve seen her. She’s very pretty and I like her a lot. Way to go Uncle Matt! So rehearsal went pretty well except for that the preacher was super lame and sort of made me nervous. Rehearsal dinner was supposed to be a picnic, but that was a joke because it had been raining almost non-stop all day. We just ate in the church basement which was fine. It was good to spend some time with my cousins who I seem to see less and less every year. After all that wedding hoo-ha, everyone wanted to go swimming. Too bad my mom told me and Matt not to bring swim suits. Well, she kind of felt bad about that so we just went and got some cheap ones at Wal Mart. Sophia needed a new one too, and hers was only $2 and SO cute. We hung out in the hot tub and swam around with baby in the pool. She seems like she likes it (unless its Sean coming up and blowing water in her face…although I think that was an accident). That was the general extent of my day, or at least everything relevant that I can remember.

The Events of Thursday June 10, 2004

Today involved much flying. We flew from Los Angeles to Houston where we met Sean, Marissa, Sophia, and my dad. Sophia keeps getting chubbier and cuter, I love it. It sucked that we lost 3 hours getting to Ohio, but it was good to be there. We met up with my mom, Paul, Andrew, and later in the night, Gabe. There was an emergency trip to Wendy’s on which we severely pissed off the drive-thru chick. I’m sure she though we were drunk kids, but we were just some very sober young adults looking for lots of spicy chicken sandwiches.

The Events of Wednesday June 9, 2004

Today was actually eventful. I got up around 8 because it was my first day at BCBG. Driving there was only a little scary…I was fine though. I’m working in the shoes/accessories department, which is awesome. But of course, I’m an intern so I just get to do stupid stuff like sort through buttons and other such trim. I also got to cut stuff out and staple it to other stuff. Pure excitement!! Whatever, it was cool. One of the people I work with went to Drexel…like my parents so that was kind of neat. They have a totally badass fashion program which I’ve considered transferring to, but it probably won’t happen.

ArcLight called me today to tell me that I’m hired. Thanks for waiting so long lady! No big deal though. I just need the job and the money. I start PAID training next Tuesday. Finally. Hopefully this job isn’t lame, but I figure it’ll be fine since I already know like 5 people who work there.

Matt made me eat tofu for dinner…I just plain old don’t like tofu.

I need to pack seeing how we’re leaving in the morning for Ohio. Yes, the day has come. My uncle is finally getting married for the first time. We never thought it would happen. I am a bridesmaid and I have to wear a fairly ugly dress. Not excited about that part. Maybe there’ll be an open bar.

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that it’s almost my birthday. Monday June 14, Flag Day. Don’t forget. You can mail all presents and monetary donations to:

Teresa Campbell
c/o Matt Campbell
4620 Los Feliz Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

I take cash, checks, and gifts.

The Events of Tuesday June 8, 2004

Today wasn’t all that fabulous either for the most part. Um, I had my first Los Angeles driving experience. I didn’t die so that’s cool. I also gave birth to my first wisdom tooth. Does this mean I won’t have to get them removed for sure? Let’s hope so. That would be awesome. Anywho, Ben’s other band was supposed to be playing a show at The Derby (really nice bar/club right down the street), but its 21+. HOWEVER, Mike was here before he went to go play the show, so he let me in the back door. I took some of his crap on to the stage and was instantly part of the band. It was pretty cool. That’s about it for the day though.

The Events of Monday June 7, 2004

Monday was sort of lame…but I got some more of that apple juice.

The Events of Sunday June 6, 2004

Today we needed to finally go out to BCBG just so I would know how to get there and not have to be terrified. Driving on a Los Angeles freeway is enough without worrying about getting lost. I also needed to drive Matt's car some since its a little different than mine. We never quite got around to that part because there was a street fair going on prett close by and traffic was ridiculous. We just headed out to BCBG indtead. Its a pretty straight shot on the 5 so I'm sure I'll be fine. I just have to get used to a car that doesn't accelerate like a turbo powered sports car. I'm sure it'll all work out.

Matt wanted to go to Nature Mart since I was starving. That place is pretty cool. Everything is organic and then they have this place next door called the Nature Mart Bulk Bin. It looks like a candy store because of the bins, but its all grains and nuts and stuff. They also make fresh juice so I got some apple juice. I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO DRINK REGULAR APPLE JUICE AGAIN. It was that good.

Matt's friend Jesus was in town from Las Vegas with his wife and wanted to have dinner with us. Jesus was a guy Matt worked with on Nearly famous and on that Anna Nicole special so they had lots of good stories. We wanted to go to a pretty nice place because we were going to make it Matt's birthday dinner (which mom offered to pay for). So we order all this good stuff. We all got appetizers and wine and steaks and desserts and coffee. I'm sure the bill was pretty high, but Jesus wouldn't let us touch it. It was cool and everything, but I felt kind of bad since we sort of splurged on purpose. Oh well. I had actually eaten so much that on the way home Matt was talking about cookies and it made me want the throw up.

The Events of Saturday June 5, 2004

Another bum day for the most part. Matt and I slept in forever because 724 really wore us out. We finally got up and went to get coffee and breakfast down the street and sat out on the porch until it started getting too hot. I hung with the Julio for a little while when Matt went to go practice or something and had a little Double Dash practice too. When he got back we headed to Trader Joe’s for some stuff because the dinner plan was to go BBQ at Jen and Gordon’s. Their apartment is so cute. It’s like a little house. Liz and some dude named Timmy were there. I like Liz, but Timmy kind of weirded me out. Whatever. The food was so good. Cooking on a grill and eating outside is the best. Jen always gets this jam from some farm in Florida and its so unbelievably good. We all had vanilla ice cream smothered in it. Oh my gosh. Wow. Anyway, after dinner and everything, it was time for something else…Trivial Pursuit. Okay, before I got here, I hadn’t played this game in a REALLY long time. We’re talking at least 4 years. I’m still bad at it. Somewhere in there we were talking about Gordon’s brother Doug. Doug graduated 3 years ahead of me and apparently he’s a really good drummer (went to Berklee for 1 year and UNT for 2 years) but he’s pretty much given it up because of some lame girlfriend he has. He says he wants to marry her, but nobody really likes her…and she looks like a man. I actually know who she is. KHS folks: Remember the cheerleader Julie Simcik? Well nowadays she runs like 8 miles a day or something and looks weirder than EVER. Now my brother wants to go kidnap him and drag him out here for a while. His ultimate plan is to snag himself a drummer and fix Doug’s life since right now he lives with his parents in Katy and works at a bank. I’d like to see this happen.

The Events of June 4, 2004

Today was a MAJOR bum day for me. I was so exhausted after that hike. I actually slept a lot of the day. There was a little time dedicated to playing Mario Kart Double Dash though. Julia will be so happy that I’m brushing up my skills. I finally showered around 4 figuring we’d be going out and doing something in the evening seeing how it’s a Friday night and all. So Matt called and said we were going out for sushi with Mel and Nick. Okay this sushi place…holy crap. It was SO cheap, which made me a little nervous. I should have had some ginger before I left just to be sure I wasn’t going to die. It wasn’t too bad though. There were several possibilities for the approaching night, but lots of them involved bars and last time I checked, I’m not quite 21. It sucks because everyone else is. Ben just thinks I should get a fake ID which is sounding better and better everyday. Anywho, the evening brought Matt and me to IKEA again where we picked up some drawers and the table to match the chairs on the porch. We hung around home for a little while and went and picked Ben up from work and headed over to 724 where the party would eventually pick up. It wasn’t too exciting at first because there were a whopping 3 people, but as people arrived, everything got quite fun. The crowd consisted of me, Matt, Ben, Susan, Trey, Jake, Mel, Nick, Jeremy, Jake, and a couple other chicks whose names I never quite got. We were all hanging around drinking lots of beer and listening to old country. I love these people because some of them are from Texas and its so much fun. At some point a suggestion was made to play Trivial Pursuit. Of course I didn’t really want to play because I’m no information goddess. Luckily I got to be on the team with 2 pretty smart guys. Playing that game buzzed is a little harder, but it was quite fun. I think I was only sure about answers on 2 of the questions in the entire game, but whatever. We won. It was nice to go out there and not be in a totally smoke filled room, but by the end of the game we were all really cold so back inside we went. Then a new kind of fun began. Jake has been in some commercials and been on some TV shows so we watched this DVD with some of his stuff one it. Some of it cracked me up, but it was pretty cool. Then Matt, Trey, and Ben put on their old country and started singing and dancing around. Then they all wanted partners to dance with. I danced a dance with Matt first. Then Ben was next. That one was a little tricky since he was holding a cigarette the whole time, not to mention the fact that he was completely wasted. Then I sat down for a little while and just watched the guys act weird. It was entertainment at its finest. Trey wanted to dance some more so I danced a few with him. He was fun. Then Jake cut in and that was cool. He’s like 30 or something, but he’s cool. Actually the youngest person is 24 I think. Whatever. It’s all good. I don’t know the name of the song, but Cassie has put it on a couple CDs for me. It’s the R is for redneck one. That song came on and I got all excited and danced that one with Trey. I think almost everybody was singing along to that one. After that it was just getting hot inside so I went outside where it was much cooler. I had some great talks with Trey and Jeremy. Ben would show up every 15 minutes or so. He was so fucking wasted and I asked him why because I wasn’t. Then he got all weird and thought I was making fun of him. Whatever. I told Trey I wanted to smoke a cigarette while my brother couldn’t see me because I knew he’d get mad and he was seriously scared to give me one because he didn’t want Matt to be mad at him. I took one anyway. Then we all started talking about tattoos and I told them about mine and I went inside to get my purse so they could see the design. (I always carry it in my wallet so people don’t bug me about actually seeing it.) As soon as I walked in Matt says ‘Ready to go?’ ‘No’. Then I just went back outside and kept talking to them. I think we finally rolled out around 4:30. I was almost done with the beer I was drinking so I jus finished it really fast before we left, giving me a severe case of the hiccups. Matt was laughing at me all the way home. They were those really loud ones that hurt. It kind of sucked but I got them to go away before I went to bed. I slept good and hard.

The Events of June 3, 2004

Today was much more eventful. Matt was long gone when I got up. I sort of just chilled for a while and had some breakfast. Cari called to see if I wanted to go hiking with them. Even though I had planned to go down to Melrose, I decided to go. I need to socialize. We left here around 2pm, but the hike was in Topanga Park so it took forever and a day to get there. I was with Cari, Leslie, Nick, Jeremy, Trey, Dan and Jake. I think the hike was about 6 miles. It was so damn tiring and it was pretty hot out there too. It was awesome though. We got up to Eagle Rock. Its this giant rock on top of a mountain with all these mini-cave things all over it. We played around up there for a while, went back down, and did some other smaller trails. I had fun with them and I got some serious exercise, so yay. On the way back they asked if I wanted to go to 724 for dinner, but I know Matt didn’t want to, so I just went home and we made dinner, but Leslie called later to see if I wanted to go hang out at 724 or go see a movie or something. We were going to go see Eternal Sunshine, but we got there too late, so we went to The Day After Tomorrow. I was expecting it to be terrible. It was actually sort of scary…It also reinforced my crush on Jake Gyllehhaal. If it can be arranged, I’d like HIM for my birthday. If I was ever alone with him, I would SO ask him to have sex with me. If he said no, I would do it anyway. Anyway, the movie wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. So I guess today didn’t really sound much more eventful, but 6 miles and Jake was enough for me.

The Events of Wednesday June 2, 2004

I was originally woken up by Matt throwing some pillows at me and telling me he was leaving for work. I guess I actually got up about 20 minutes later. Not a whole let went on during the day though. I made some breakfast and checked my email…I thought a shower would be nice seeing how I had completely neglected to take one yesterday. I finally called Cathy in HR at BCBG, but she didn’t answer so I just left a message and went on with things. Most of what I did today involved watching TV. I snacked a lot too, but everything I ate was South Beach Friendly. Go me I guess. So yeah, TV is not usually my forte (especially sans cable), but I was pretty bored. They only get one channel here that’s actually clear, so I watched abc for quite some time. First: General Hospital. I’ve never been into the soaps AT ALL, but there was just nothing else I felt like doing. I also watched Oprah and 3 hours of the news.

Somewhere in there, I called Cathy back so I could finally make a schedule for the entire reason I’m here. What she told me was a bit shocking. See, I was planning on being there Monday through Friday 9-5, but for a schedule she told me that Felicia had given me 2 options: Wednesday 10-2 and Friday 11-3 OR Tuesday 10-2 and Thursday 11-3. Remember how I’m supposed to be getting credit for this or else I can’t intern there? Yeah well, to actually get credit for this internship at school, I have to work for AT LEAST 200 hours. Um…that would be a problem since it would take me 25 weeks to do that. Also, the offices are located in an industrial part of town which is seriously not close at all. It’s actually not even considered part of Los Angeles. So of course now, there is a new game plan. Part I: Drop the Internship course and just use the papers @ BCBG so they think I’m getting credit. Part II: Suck it up and drive in Los Angeles 2 days a week. The good thing about the schedule thing though is that it’ll give me better availability for working and I’ll take $7.75/hour ANYTIME. That’s pretty much all resolved I think.

We cooked dinner here again which was nice. It makes me wish I was living in an apartment next semester, but I’m sure I can tough it out until spring. A little while later, Matt went to Ben’s to go practice for a while so he was gone a few hours. I just hung out here bored to death until almost 11 I think. Then they came and got me and we went to Leslie’s apartment because there was some version of a party going on over there. All the people I met last night were there and some others. I met Cari, Kent, Dan, Keirsten (?), guy who’s name I forgot, and of course, Leslie. Apparently Leslie is dating Trey, has some romantic/sexual affiliation with Ben, but also really likes Matt. Matt claims this is the reason he has only kissed her. It also sounds like he doesn’t like her THAT much, but whatever. Cari and Leslie gave me their numbers so we could all hang out and stuff. I guess it doesn’t bother them that I’m 6 years younger than them or something. Oh well.

While at Leslie’s, I started pondering things that everyone I know would probably scold me for. So, until I collect and organize some decent thoughts and ideas I’ll probably keep all that under wraps unless I’m trying to get your opinion on it all.

I decided I want to document my Los Angeles adventure pretty accurately, so this is how I plan to do it. I guess its more for me than for you, but it's here for you to feast on.

The Events of Tuesday June 1, 2004

Today was my first day to hang out with Matt. We got up pretty early and went to a place called the Coffee Table for breakfast. Then we hit up IKEA to look into a slightly different living arrangement in a couple areas of the apartment. We looked at a bed with drawers underneath it, some drawers that kind of resembled a bench, but all we ended up getting was a couple chairs for the back porch. Upon returning home, we cleaned the hell out of the kitchen (It was truly a disaster.) while we unloaded all the groceries from Trader Joe’s. It was about time for my interview so we headed toward Hollywood to the ArcLight where I had my interview. I think it went pretty well, except for that if they DO hire me, I can’t even get trained until they hire more people. I’ll miss a lot of the next training session because of my uncle’s wedding. This theater is pretty nice. You can’t even work there if you’re under 18 and the movies are $14/TICKET. Luckily Matt knows a bunch of people who work there, so even if I don’t get the job, I’ll go to movies for free. When we got back, the kitchen cleaning continued. Matt thought I needed some exercise I guess, so we went on a little hike in Griffith Park. We went by some really cool houses and up the hills almost all the way to the observatory. We would have gone all the way up, but it’s closed for renovation until next year. Then we made some delicious dinner and hung out a while. Then it was off to Club 724 (a.k.a. Ben’s apartment). Ben is an ArcLight guy who is the current other half of Matt’s ‘band’. He’s also the one Matt thinks will try to seduce me while I’m here. Apparently he goes through girlfriends like toilet paper. We both received our respective warnings. Ben’s: Don’ touch my sister. Mine: Watch out for Ben. Whatever. He’s got this sort of out-of-it cuteness to him or something. It was interesting trying to figure out when he was acting dumb vs. when he really had no idea what was going on. He’s really cool, fun to hang out with and everything. I also met Trey (Ben’s cousin/ArcLight guy), Susan (Ben’s neighbor), Nick (ArcLight guy), and Jeremy (Nick’s friend). I guess Nick was working when I went in for my interview because he recognized me right away. It was only borderline creepy. Oh well. They were all cool. We pretty much just sat around drinking beer while Matt and Ben played guitars and sang. I felt like a hippie, but I was only having a beer as opposed to a serious acid trip.