I rode in an elevator with Conan. Twice.

I have so much to say so here we go:

• Last weekend I got over my fears of venturing out by myself and explored Santa Monica on Saturday. I walked along the pier, ate some lunch, people watched, and enjoyed watching the waves roll in. I love the beach and especially just listening to the ocean.
• Then I walked over to the 3rd Street Promenade and did some shopping and watched some street performers. The promenade has lots of shops and tons of people putting on mini shows. Singers, musicians, dancers, there is a lot to watch. There are also some super sweet dinosaur fountains too.
• Later that night I went to a movie at Hollywood Forever Cemetery with one of the girls that I work with. It was super cool. They project an old movie on the side of one of the buildings, and everyone brings blankets and chairs and sets up little picnics. Lots of the people there were regulars and they had some really nice picnics going on. I just had my blanket and I sat on my co-workers grass mat thingy, anyways, the whole thing was really neat. I would definitely go again if I had the chance. The movie they showed was Arsenic and Old Lace, a classic starring Cary Grant, it was funny.
  
• Sunday I went to a brunch at my intern friend Annie's house. She made some delicious food and it was really nice to be able to meet some new people. She had invited some of her friends from high school and it was fun listening to them all reminisce. It made me miss all my high school friends.
  
• Then I went home, took a nap, and then I went over to The Grove which is a shopping mall. It was pretty nice. Not as much going on as at The Promenade but still a neat place to hang out. I sat in Barnes & Noble for a while. I love sitting on the floor in an aisle and just kicking back. Books are awesome.
• Monday I spent the ENTIRE day at Disneyland with Alyssa, as usual it was a magical day. I got to see World of Color, ohmygoodness, it was AWESOME! Seriously, go see it. Now. Disney magic at its finest!
• Then I started my final week at my internship, so sad! I had a great final few days at the office. I was really sad to have to say goodbye to my friends and to the office. I really grew to enjoy the office and I could definitely see myself going back to work there in the future, AH! So many life decisions to make.
• Today Conan O'Brien was in the office. I know I shouldn't blog about my celeb sightings in the office but I can't keep it a secret. He is so tall and funny. I wanted to hug him. I obviously didn't but I wanted to...

-Lauren

Last weekend in LA!

It is currently Friday night of my last weekend in LA and I can't believe how fast time has flown by!

I have really grown to enjoy my internship and I could definitely see myself going to work there after I graduate. I am still thinking about law school though so I guess I have a lot to consider as far as what my post-graduation plan is, if you have suggestions or advice, I'm all ears! (seriously, please? I am vast well of confusion)

I am going to try to really get out there and do stuff this weekend so hopefully I succeed at getting out of my comfort zone and exploring and maybe even taking some pictures! What a concept! LA get ready, I have a car, a camera and I coming for you!

At a minimum I will be going to Disneyland on Monday, my last trip of the summer but definitely NOT my last trip of 2010, I am thinking I will need a couple trips back to SoCal during the Fall semester... : ) It has been beyond awesome getting to go so much this summer, I obviously would've liked to go more but you can't win 'em all. I can't get enough Disney magic in my life. I truly LOVE Disneyland! How sweet would it be if i could work for Disney when I graduated? What a studio to be able to work for...

Tomorrow? Santa Monica Pier & the Hollywood Forever Cemetery movie (hopefully)
Sunday? Flea Market & maybe the observatory (I can dream)

Here's to a great weekend after a wonderful week!
-Lauren

Weekly Break Down

Well, I don't really have much to report this week. Hence why it has been over a week since I last posted.

But to give you the skinny: on Saturday my car broke down and throughout the week every time the garage calls me or Brendan the repairs become more extensive and expensive so I am still without a vehicle and have been walking to/from work. You all know how much I hate sweating and how I sweat both in response to heat, exercise, and stress so you can imagine and great I look & feel when I arrive to work after my walk/speed walk...

Today after work I went with a group of interns to happy hour at a restaurant around the corner from work to get dinner and then we walked back to work for the Wednesday screening which this week was Cyrus which stars Jonah Hill & John C. Riley, it was pretty funny, defintely glad it was free since I spent $35 on food today! Lunch & dinner out? HORRIBLE decision! But that is where you talk to and connect to people so it is kinda critical...but yeah eating out is expensive & cocktails are expensive, lesson learned. I hate money.

After the screening a group of the interns and floaters were going to an industry party but since I am without a vehicle and had managed to find a ride home from the one intern who is still in high school (who lives semi near me) I was unable to attend. I am so mad! It was a chance to hang out with my coworkers and meet more people in the industry and I couldn't go because I didn't have my car! I didn't want to have to rely on someone for a ride cause in a party setting that would've been harder since, well I don't know, it's hard to explain, but I just didn't want to deal with it.

I am still waiting to see if I will have my car back so that I can drive home this weekend, if I can't I have no idea what I am going to do for the long weekend.

Well, that's it. Hope you are having a good week!

-Lauren

I am 21. Buy me a drink. Actually don't.

This weekend I celebrated my 21st birthday in the wonderful Las Vegas! It was a great weekend (well except for the fact that I spent my entire actual birthday in bed ill...)

We stayed at the Planet Hollywood (thanks Dad!) and it was fabulous. Our room was super nice and the casino was cool too. We walked through some other hotels on the strip and I definitely liked ours the best. Way to go PH!

I got to experience Las Vegas nightlife and went to my first club ever and it was a lot more fun then I thought it would be! Hannah, Erin, and I had an awesome night!

I flew back to LA earlier this evening and I get to go to work tomorrow, YAY! Hope you all had a good weekend!
-Lauren

Wonderful Week!

I had a great week this week! To make a long story short:

• Monday: Did laundry at a laundromat for the first time ever and completed all my laundry and made a legit dinner that covered all the food groups for realsies.
  
• Tuesday: Had a good day at work, started to make friends with my co workers, huh what?!
• Wednesday: Ate lunch with a group of the interns which was fun and attended an after hours FREE screening of Get Him To The Greek in the screening room at work. It twas very funny.
  
• Thursday: Another sweet day at work, had Chipotle for lunch, drove myself to Santa Monica after work and bought myself some clothes which I can't even remember the last time I did that. Plus I didn't even have directions to where I was going and I found it anyways, YES! Then when I got home I had a package from my Mom & Brendan with some birthday presents and they got me a TomTom, so very stoked!
• Tomorrow (Friday): Going to Disneyland with my friend Krista who's in town with her family.
• Saturday: Fly to Vegas and meet up with my Dad & Rachel and Hannah & Erin
• Saturday at Midnight/Sunday: My birthday!

I am in a really great mood right now, this has been a wonderful week at work and just in general. I love my birthday and I love knowing that for the next 4 days I am going to be with people I love and that love me too! It's been WAY too long since I have given/received a loving hug. You know how much my life and joy depend on hugs. They are kinda my fuel source. Anyways I plan on hugging Hannah like I've never hugged her before. And probably picking her up. Plus I will totally nuzzle Erin and make her uncomfortable, win. AH! And I get to hug my Dad, my big, bearded, funny, and awesome Dad!

I am going to miss my Mom & Brendan & Becky A LOT this weekend but I know that I will get to see them in a couple weeks for July 4th.

Hope your week was as great as mine : )
-Lauren

PS I tried a Sprinkles cupcake today, there were some at work so I split one with another intern and it was sooooooo good! ohmygawd I will definitely need to find the shop so I can try a chocolate one!

Famous Cupcakes

Today after work they were screening Animal House at 7:30, they have their own little theater in the building and it is pretty nice but that it not the topic of my post.

I had an hour-ish to kill and so me and my other intern friend walked over to Beverly Drive where they have a bunch of little restaurants and stores and such, really cute, really expensive, and the same Beverly Drive which I cursed just 2 days ago for almost preventing me from being able to eat Chipotle. Well I walked there today so no parking issues, Beverly Drive, we may be friends yet.

So we went to CPK and I got a salad which I had been craaavvvvinnggg like crazy for like a week and then we decided that we needed to try Famous Cupcakes which was across the street.

Famous Cupcakes? I had never heard of them. Intern friend had never heard of them? How are they famous? Why are they famous? We had 10 minutes, and a hankering for dessert so it was time to investigate this little bakery's claims.

The man at the counter greeted us, and he asked if we had been there before, we assured him we had not and so he gave us the breakdown on what was up with each of the cupcake offerings. I went with the Cookies & Creme cupcake which he had explained was the second most popular behind their red velvet, intern friend chose to pick up a Hot Chocolate cupcake which featured a vanilla icing. We didn't have time to eat our cupcakes which I was fine with so we zipped on back to the office for the screening.

The former President of Production for Universal (circa the 1970s) introduced the film and discussed the problems they had with getting the movie made. I always love those stories, I love hearing about films and studios fighting them and then they are big hits, Cinderella stories.

The movie was great, I had never seen it before. Plus not that many people went so it couldn't hurt that I did attend.

When I got home however it was cupcake time...

The cupcake was packaged in it's own little box. A promising start.

YAY! Look at my cupcake! OH NOES! I banged it around in my purse and some of the frosting got smooshed! Oh well, the taste is what is most important...

Okay here we go...

Cookie is a win.

Pirates like cupcakes? Yeah I don't know what this is about either...

Om nom nom nom

WIN, it's tastey!

Overall the cupcake was quite delicious however, there are lots of other desserts that I would rather enjoy so while I like my cupcake, I definitely don't need to purchase another one.

On an unrelated note I feel like I walked A LOT today. My feet have some really gnarly blisters on them which should be fun to deal with tomorrow...
-Lauren

Nothing really to report

I took care of some maintenance on the Mazda today and it kinda hit me that I won't have my parents with me every time I need to do a repair which scared me because I hate mechanics because they always make me feel stupid and like they are ripping me off. I think I did okay today but yeah I am actually growing up. Like woah.

Then I walked to mall across from my apartment and wandered around for a while. For dinner I decided I wanted Chipotle since it always brings a smile to my face and I didn't eat out the rest of the weekend. Mistake. I will never ever ever go to Beverly Hills unless for work ever again. I couldn't find parking and eventually had to pay $5 (for 15 minutes of parking) Now I know even if the nearest location is in Beverly Hills, drive further and avoid that place at all costs. Good gracious.

Tomorrow is the start of week two, wish me luck!
-Lauren

Mail Room

Thursday was another full day at the office and I was a total intern. I spent about an hour in the morning helping organize an agent's expense report by putting totals from receipts into an excel spreadsheet. Then I spent the rest of the day in the mail room.

Working in the mail room will help me learn people's names which is awesome and if I can get over my shyness and fear of all the important people then it will definitely be beneficial. We do sweeps of all the floors collecting outgoing mail and interoffice memos and then we sort all of the incoming mail and packages and deliver them. That's it. You repeat that process about 4 or 5 times throughout the day. Whenever you are not out collecting or delivering you are sorting. I know that being an intern involves doing routine work, copies, filing, answering phones etc. Lots of watching/observing/learning. But when they keep us all separated from the rest of the company I don't know how we are going to learn a lot.

It was just the first week for me though, I guess I need to have more patience. I just was hoping that this internship wouldn't just look good on my resume but that it would really help me be better prepared for a job.

On a different note, I spent yesterday at Disneyland which was AWESOME! My friend bought me an annual pass for my birthday so I will probably be going there a lot. I can't help but be super happy at Disneyland, it is truly one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. After we rode Space Mountain my friend was laughing at me because I giggled the whole time, she said it was hilarious. I pretty much giggled more yesterday than I have in a long time. I LOVE me some Disneyland and when it's only an hour away, how am I supposed to resist?

-Lauren

Other interns!

So I today was the first "real" day in the office and I found other interns! They mostly work in the mail room, which is a much different environment than up on the other floors. I didn't get the impression that the other interns are very interested in working in film or being agents but who knows, maybe I just didn't talk to them for long enough. It was kind of a relief to find other interns though because I didn't feel as out of place amongst the (younger) interns as I do amongst the agents & assistants. But HEY! It was only the first day, I am sure it will get better as time goes on.

I don't really know how my day to day duties will go, I know my boss has some projects that he would like me to work on and I know that HR and the mail room want me to be in the basement sorting mail & then delivering mail. I am pretty much going to be floating around. Luckily my boss is going to try to make sure that I meet people and that I get to learn a lot. I feel that I am a part of all the interns but at the same time I have a champion in my corner of sorts, a sponsor kind of, that makes sure I don't get trapped under packages and inter office memos, which I think will help me, well I know it will.

I am hoping that I get the hang of everything quickly, I hate not knowing how everything works and where everything is. Also it is kinda outrageous that I am not getting paid. Lots of interns don't. That is so incredibly odd. Do work for the sake of learning? Whaaaa?...

-Lauren

Meet & Greet

Today was Day 1 of the internship, I was only in for an hour as I just went in, met my boss and got a tour around the office.

The office is pretty big and it seems pretty nice. The reception area is straight out of the movies, I kid you not. The minute I stepped off the elevator I was instantly intimidated. Once I went in I was introduced to a lot of people. I am the only intern in the office and I get the impression they haven't had an intern in a while. Everyone seems really cool. That is the only word I can use to describe them. I have never been one of the cool kids and I feel like I will be working amongst all the coolest of the cool kids.

Most of the stuff I will do/work on I probably won't be able to share but I am really excited about all that I will get to learn this summer.

My goal for tomorrow: work on being LA confident, I have to know I am cool and that I belong before anyone else will believe it.

I belong. I can do this. I am smart. I look good. I belong. My mantra for the summer.

After I was done for the day [after an exhausting hour ;) ] I drove to Anaheim to visit my friend Alyssa, it was really nice to see a smiling, familiar face. We went to Borders & Target and after she had to go to work I went to Ralph's.

Overall a productive day, I successfully navigated multiple LA freeways, yahoo!

Here's to tomorrow!
-Lauren

Cinematic Adventure

I am sure everyone else already knows but LA is hella expensive! I kinda knew but I am really learning that now as today I decided to go to the movies and my ticket was $13.50! Whaaaaa? Insanity. Lesson's learned from my first solo jaunt out into the city:

• If I am going to see a movie I can't go 20 minutes beforehand, apparently that doesn't fly in LA.
• There are no student tickets and it will cost $13.50 to see a movie, so you must choose your movie wisely.
• Movie theaters do assigned seating here and the picture of the theater at the automated kiosk is deceptive, as the top of the picture is actually the bottom of the stadium seating. No more choosing a seat in row A or B, especially on the end of the row.
• Buying candy at Walgreens beforehand will save you $3, plus it is only a 3 minute walk down the hill and then you feel good cause you walked somewhere and you have Red Vines or M&Ms for the cinema, yay!
• Having and making friends is smart for many reasons but one is that you don't have to go to movies alone.

The weekend is over, first day of the internship is quickly approaching, hoping to have a good first week in the City of Angels!

-Lauren

Settling in

Well, I am getting settled in to my apartment. Mom left a couple hours ago to drive home, I was sad to see her go. I was very glad she could come with me. Wish Brendan had been able to come too but the little guy had a baseball game....

Anyways! I am in my apartment, yes it is smaller than my room at home, but no worries, it's nice and cozy. I do need a chair though.

I talked to both of my bosses and I will be stopping by the office on Tuesday but it's the anniversary of their merger so the office will close early that day. They are having a company event at Santa Monica Pier that afternoon which they said I was welcome to attend so I figure I'll see how the in office meet & greet goes and then go from there. I will start full swing on Wednesday morning!

I need to unpack my clothes. So far so good though, the weather is gorgeous!

-Lauren

Only 2 Months

I am only going to be in LA for 2 months but I decided that I wanted a place to share all my LA adventures.

So yeah. If I have a story to share I will. Or pictures. I will hopefully take pictures. And Flip footage. There will be some summer flippage. Fo sho.

Check in if wanna know what's up with me & LA!
-Lauren