My First Party!!

L-R: Suzanne (my fellow intern), Me & Josie Maran.

Had my first party since working with *bash*. It was the launch party for a new organic make-up line for the model Josie Maran. I got a bit spoiled by this party, not only for the fact that I walked away with hundreds of dollars worth of free make-up, but also because for my FIRST EVER party, I got to mingle with celebrities!! Okay, let me not lead you astray, George Clooney and Brad Pitt were NOT there, but Amy Smart was. Some of you might know her from Varsity Blues or The Butterfly Effect. Also, Emille De Ravin from the very popular Lost series. My personal favorite was Darren Moore from AlterEco on the Planet Green channel. What a hottie!! And yes, I actually had a conversation with this guy. Let's not forget Josie Maran herself. She was a very cute and sweet person. Easy to work with also. Oh yea, Access Hollywood was there filming. I have no idea when that is suppose to run. I'll let you know as soon as I know, if we haven't already missed it. For a full article on the party, check out this link: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/josie-maran-sephora-eco-friendly-launch-party.php

Peace!

Finally Getting Settled In.

Welcome to my Blog!!

This blog is going to be my way of keeping in touch with my friends and family. A way for you to see how I'm doing and what I've been up to.

For some of you I haven’t spoken to in awhile, you might not even know I’ve moved back to LA. Well, I have, and here is an update for you. Sorry for not have writing sooner, but all my free time was spent job hunting, (well, sort of. More like job hunting and taking advantage that I live next to the beach!) After spending over a month searching for a job, I finally came across one. It was a long and grueling process, as jobs, of any sort, are not easy to come by out here. However, I’ve landed myself an internship with an event planner. Her name is Paige and she just started up her company *bash* a little over a year ago. www.bashstyle.com We do event planning that is friendly to the environment. So no balloons, all recycled materials, the use of only soy based inks in our printing, etc. I LOVE IT! Like I said, it’s only an internship for now, after another month or so, it’ll turn into a paying job. I do get paid for the actual parties I attend and help work, but not for all the hours I put into helping plan and research the party. I STILL LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! Although the company is new, we are really beginning to take off. We scored a celebrity party that is coming up this Thursday. It’s a launch party for Josie Maran (a model) who is coming out with her own line of Organic Make-up. It’s going to be awesome! The guest list is quite impressive and I can’t wait to mingle with celebrities!!

So to supplement my income I got a part time job at…….Starbucks. I am now in training to be a fabulous barista!! I’m a bit of a sell-out, seeing as I try not to support corporate coffee shops. I prefer the local, independent stores, however, Starbucks is giving me full benefits for my part time work. So yea, I’m a sell-out. What’s a girl to do? It’s not as easy as you might think. People are very particular when it comes to what they want to drink. I really had no idea there were so many options. A good majority of the people don’t order a basic menu item either. Everything seems to be modified. Like a venti decaf extra shot skinny latte light on the foam. Excuse Me!?!? I’m sure it will all get a lot easier once I’ve had more training. I have only had three days so far, but it’s great! I’ve always wanted to be a barista!! Plus I’m located on the 3rd St. Promenade, which is a very busy location in Santa Monica. So there is never a dull moment and it makes time fly by!

For those of you familiar with L.A., I’m living right up the street from Venice Beach. I ride my bike EVERYWHERE, so in bike time, it’s about 15 minutes from my house to the beach. It’s perfect!! Just perfect. If you don’t know, I’m living with two guys, Joe and Eric, whom I knew from my old Topeka days. One is working at Belkin, the other is a Genius at Apple. We get along great and are really enjoying our time here together. Our sub-lease is up December 31st. A terrible time to be moving, but we have no choice. We are sub-leasing a house from a couple who recently got married and is traveling and doing some Grad work on the East coast. We are house hunting, as Joe’s parents are interested in investing in some property out here. However, houses don’t come cheap!!! We might end up settling on an apartment or renting another house, seeing as we have 3 dogs!! Did I mention we have 3 medium sized dogs!?!?! 3 dogs in an apartment is less then thrilling to me. Besides, I highly doubt we can find a place that will take 3 dogs.
I’ve started to attend Bel-Air Presbyterian Church. It’s the same church I attended when I was out here the first time around. It’s just as great as ever and I’m really excited to be back there. I actually look forward to Sunday mornings now!! I also, just last week, attended a small group. It was equally enjoyable and I’m really excited to get more involved with the group. They meet every Thursday night. It’s made up of a married couple, a dating couple, a single guy, a single girl and ME. All in their mid to late 20’s. I’m really looking forward to getting more involved with the church and their ministries.

The first month out here was tough. Sure, the beach is great and everything. The sun is always shining and the temperature is always perfect, but the transition was hard. Job hunting got real discouraging, paying my larger then used to rent and not having any sort of income was discouraging, not having any friends (besides the roommates) was hard. My cell phone minutes have been cut in half since moving. It sucked at first, not having anyone call me up to hang out, but it’s quite peaceful now. I’ve learned to enjoy it and my time by myself. My roommates have been a huge help in the transition. They are both newbie’s to L.A. Both had never even visited LA before moving here. Like I mentioned, I bike everywhere. Traffic really is just as bad as they say it is. I find I can get to where I need to go on my bike in a reasonable amount of time without the irritation and frustration of driving. Plus, it’s great exercise! It’s just another reason why I’m loving LA so much!!

So as the year is slowly coming to an end, and I tack on another year to my life. (I’ll be 26 in less then a month!!! AGH!!) I’ve got a few goals for myself. I’ve decided to share them with you in hopes that you hold me to them and ask how they are coming along. The first is to think positive in everything I do. Positive thinking brings about positive results, no matter how outrageous they might be. They might not be instant results either, they might take time, but in the end, you’ll get what you want if you believe it can happen. I want to be more assertive and I want to really focus in on my career in event planning. I feel very fortunate to have landed my internship. I believe we have great potential to become a very successful company within the next few years, and I’m lucky to have gotten in on the deal before we make our big mark on LA’s green, event planning scene. So one of my goals is to really learn about the LA event planning scene and land my very own party, that I’m in charge of. And that will happen, because I’m thinking positive thoughts about it. I’d also like to sign up for a marathon. I’d like to run a ½ marathon no later then January of 2009 and a full marathon by April 2009. I have wanted to run a marathon for 4 years now, and it’s cluttering my brain. So, that’s another goal of mine. I’ve taken the first step and bought new shoes and I’ve been breaking them in by taking Gracie for walks in them. Actually, I have the day off and I think I’ll take my first run as soon as I send this letter off. Another goal of mine is to learn Spanish. I don’t expect this to be something that just happens overnight. I just want to discipline myself to study my Spanish books for a few hours a week and when I get CA residency, sign up for a community college class. (Community college is dirt cheap for residences!!!) So those are a few of my goals. Ask me how they are going when you talk to me, hold me to them. It’s so much easier to sit down and watch Bravo for 3 hours or search for nonsense on the internet all night, then actually get out and run, or study Spanish, etc.
Well, for not being much of a writer, I sure have managed to write a lot. Writing was always my least favorite thing to do in High School and College, and now I've gone and stated myself a blog!! As Alanis Morissette would say, "Isn't it ironic, don't you think?" Apparently, they had me writing on the wrong subject!!

I hope all is well on the receiving end of this message!!

God Bless!!