time's up.

Well, it's been a fabulous last week in L.A, but I'm literally fighting back the tears right now. Of course I miss everyone at home, and I can't wait to see you all again, but I really do love this place. I love the people, the opportunities, the industry and mostly - THE WEATHER. It only rained ONCE this entire summer, and even that was just a drizzle. Plus, it cleared up by noon.

I have failed miserably at updating these past 3 weeks, but I'll try and do my best now.

Theresa came on Sunday July 11 - we picked her up at LAX and ran into Pauly D from Jersey Shore. We took a picture with him just because. Directly from LAX we went to DISNEYLAND. It was such a weird concept for me to wrap my mind around - I was going to Disney for a day. It wasn't a huge vacation or family adventure, just going to Disney (and for free might I add). Disneyland is pretty awesome. There are two parks and they are side by side - Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Cali Adventure has tower of terror, but not much else. Disneyland has basically all the same things, but everything is just a little different - namely the castle. Which is hardly a castle at all, in fact it looks like a cottage. We concluded that day by going back over to California Adventure for Disney's newest attraction: World of Color. There is no way to describe World of Color. We've all seen Fantasmic, right? Well, take Fantasmic and multiply it by 193749237592375 and that's how amazing World of Color is. It makes Fantasmic look like a kitten compared to a lion. Hopefully they do one at Disney World - OR we'll just all have to go to Disneyland!

I took off most of the week Theresa was visiting so that I wasn't leaving her high and dry in our apartment. So Tuesday AKA my 21st birthday, we went to Santa Monica. Tuesday morning however, one of the highlights of my summer occurred. So on Monday night Theresa and I were driving to the target that one of the other interns had seen Chad Michael Murray at. So we had this whole conversation about how crazy it would be to see him there. Well we didn't see him at target, but how crazy is it that the next morning on MY BIRTHDAY, he gets out of the car while we're eating bagels? We waited for him to leave the GNC before we approached him and asked for a picture. He was super nice, even asked to see the picture to make sure it was good. WIN. Then I cried - so much for making it two years in a row not crying on my birthday! The first time it's ever been happy tears, so that's a plus.

Tuesday night was mildly disappointing. All summer everyone had said they were going ot go all out for my birthday, but one by one people were dropping out. Most people did come over before we went out though. The FSU girls made me this beautiful sign with a list of 21 things I had to complete before the night was over. Things like - do a body shot, steal 5 articles of clothing, get carried out of the bar while serenading the bouncer (i didn't get to do this), finish a bottle of Soco, bark at a boy, convince someone you're a celebrity...and a lot more. My first drink was the traditional irish car bomb. So after singing happy birthday, and two hours of pregamming we went out to Sunset Blvd. I would say it was a pretty good 21st birthday. I ate shit after we left the first bar and fell over this rope, falling into people sitting at a table and knocking everything over. I got up and ran away. Once we got back to Oakwood, I don't remember much. But I didn't get sick!

Saturday we went to Las Vegas. The drive sucked and it was 118 degrees. We stayed at Imperial Palace and ate dinner at Margaritaville which was pretty fun - a lot mroe exciting than the one at Universal. That night we went to Caesers, Theresa won 70 bucks at craps! We were pretty much all over the place trying to experience as much of Las Vegas as possible. So we went to the Bellagio and then The Palms to several different nightclubs.

We took Theresa straight to LAX from LV the next day. If I recall correctly that week was pretty mediocre. On the weekend we went to this pretty upscale bar called Edison in downtown L.A. They had a pretty strict dress code so we got all dressed up. It was pretty fun! Saturday night I hung out with the FSU crew and we all ended up going back to Edison.

For being an intern at Disney I got two complimentary hoppers to Disneyland. So Chris and I went there last Sunday. Working at Disney really has it's perks - I might have to try and keep that up. Disneyland round two was just as much fun, but it was way more crowded. We saw World of Color again of course.

Monday was fairly ordinary, but Tuesday and Wednesday I got to be a PA on Brothers and Sisters. PA stands for Production Assistant - which included any random tasks such as getting Matthew Rhys and Luke McFarlane Starbucks, holding an Umbrella to shade Calista Flockhart or getting Ron Rifkin's bike from his dressing room. Also wrangling extras, managing the shooting boundaries (so people don't walk in the shot) and calling out when they're rolling so people know to be quiet. Both days I started at 6am. However, they feed you ALL DAY LONG. Regardless, I absolutely loved it. I'm so happy I got to be on set so that I could experience and figure out if I had a future there. And I believe that I do. I met EVERYONE. Director, writers, ADs (assistant director)...everyone. I was told that they absolutley loved me, and the AD gave me his contact info and said to keep in touch and also get in touch with him when i get back out there.

Tuesday night was the Glee event. It wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, but it was pretty amazing. The ENTIRE cast was there. First they sang a few songs and then there was a Q and A session with a chick from E!. I had goosebumbs the whole time because they are so talented. When it was over I locked eyes with Matthew Morrison and didn't have to do much to get a picture - but I was the only one : ) Thank you Mr. Shuester!

Wednesday night was my Zac Efron endeavor. That too, was not what I had expected. It was backstage at Jimmy Kimmel, but he wasn't hanging out like I thought he would. He stayed in his dressing room the whole time and then came out to say hi and do a little schtick for the show. We touched hands briefly, but that was it.

Thursday (yesterday) was my very last day at work : ( Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior asked me to come help out in their production offices. I really, really liked their crew as well. They were pretty busy getting ready to start shooting soon. I did a lot of random tasks for them also - but it made me feel a lot more important and I have back in the ABC building. I really like working for one specific show rather than the bigger picture.

Side note - one thing I did this summer was get hooked on Dexter. If you've never seen it - be careful, it's like crack. Julie Benz who plays Dexter's girlfriend/wife is doing a new show for ABC called No Ordinary Family. All summer I had been counting down they days until they started shooting, and ever since they have I've been trying to meet her or just casually run into her. Well, yesterday, my last day, me and another intern were over at No Ordinary Family and we asked the PAs if it would be possible to meet her. So they went and asked her if it was ok, and she said absolutely. So we went over to her trailer, met her and then literally talked to her for a half hour. She was soooo nice and took pictures with us. Great way to end the summer @ Disney.

I suggested to Selise and Allan (the two that run the Temple Internship program) that they make the program last all summer. Although I got to do more during the final stretch at ABC, I'm missing out on sooooooooooooooooo much more.

So today is Friday, nothing is packed and this apartment is a mess. I'm really sad. I don't think this next year can go fast enough ....

See you all soon : )

Overdue

Sorry for my lack of updates. I've never been more forgetful than since I've been out here! I guess it's because I've never had this much to occupy my time with. Now I run into the problem where I don't remember everything that I did!

At work things are still relatively slow. There are some days better than others though. Like a couple days I've gotten to go back to Prospect Studios where they film Grey's Anatomy. We did a lot of work over there helping Shonda Rhimes get her new office all set up. On my way out one day I decided to go for a little tour myself and ended up "wandering" onto the set of the entire hospital. Filming hasn't started yet so there wasn't much to see, but it was definitely the hospital!

I've also been doing a lot of work for the new Criminal Minds. They're doing a spinoff with Forest Whitacker as the main character. Then this coming Monday I'm going to Culver Studios where they film Cougar Town to help out with that show!

Outside of work there's been a lot beach going, relaxing by the pool and a little bit of exploring. Last weekend we spent in Newport Beach for the fourth of July. My roommate Steph knows someone who goes to Temple who actually lives in Newport. We all stayed over there, as well as 8 other Temple people who were out visiting him. His house was amazing, golf course in the backyard, pool in the front. It was huge!

On the Fourth of July the beach was crazy. Houses side by side open right up to the beach, and everyone was having a party. ALL DAY. Unfortunately we were misinformed and there were no fireworks at Newport this year! Instead they were up north at Huntington, so we saw them from a distance.

Hmm let's see, what else happened? OH YEAH. Our apartment flooding. Last Thursday, July 1, at around 11 pm a water main broke at Oakwood. Well, of all places for it to break it was a few yards from my apartment. Of course, we live on the first floor. Fortunately we had enough warning to rescue all our stuff, but we never expected all that water to actually fill our apartment. Once it was ankle deep in our apartment we decided to leave. We all slept in different places and woke up feeling pretty homeless.

For a good hour our future was uncertain, but then a nice guy named Robert told us he was working extra hard at getting our apartment set up cause we were his first priority. By 3 in the afternoon we were transporting all our stuff from one apartment to another. Although we're on the other side of the property I think we're all pretty thankful we're not up in a hotel somewhere!

Theresa flies in tomorrow, so with her being here + my birthday...should be a good week to come!!

Michael Jackson's star on the anniversary of his death:


When water first started creepin in:



Steph and I @ Kai's house in Newport on the 4th:


On the ferry over to Newport Beach:


With some FSU girls:


awesome sunset:

Lake Show

I have to apologize for not keeping up with this as much as I'd like to! Unfortunately I don't have too many interesting things to tell everyone about.

Working definitely takes up most of my time, but I'm definitely not complaining. It's starting to pick up and get more exciting as the shows are about to start filming. I'm doing my best to get on a set! It seems like if I play my cards right I could possibly get to go to work on Desperate Housewives. Nothing's for sure though.

Last Thursday I got into a bar! It's a karaoke bar around the corner - everyone was there, and of course I sang. They also give you DVD's of the performance and a picture. It was a lot of fun, so I'm glad I gave it a shot!

Friday we took a tour of the Sony Lot. Will Smith and Adam Sandler work there - but both of their parking spots were empty :(. Our tour guide said there are celebrities there all the time and that it might be possible to see one - but we didn't. The lot was really impressive though, lots of big movies were filmed there. Currently they're working on Spiderman 4, but as far as classics go - that's where the Wizard of Oz was filmed.

We spent all day Sunday at Huntington Beach. It's about an hour south of where I live but it was well worth the drive. The beach was amaziiiingly beautiful, and we all had a great time. Being able to pick up and go to the beach on your day off is something I'm definitely going to miss when I leave here. It's so nice..all the time. We stopped for a second to watch some street performers. They were 5 Latino-ish guys doing amazing tricks like flipping and stuff. I was not too happy when they pulled me in to be a part of the show. Steph has a nice little video of one of the guys flipping over me and 4 other people.

Sunday night we met Mark Salling at the hot tub. He plays Puck on Glee, but we pretended like we didn't know who he was. We ended up creating a party so that we could hang out some more and he actually came over and hung out! He was pretty chill, and kind of shy but I think it's because he didn't know anyone else that well. I haven't seen him since though - hopefully I run into him again.

I also found out that Mac from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia lives in Oakwood. I'm determined to find him because I love that show!!

Tuesday night I went to a show with two other girls in the program, Chloe and Joanna. We went to see Mike Posner on Sunset Blvd. You probably don't know who he is...he has a song on the radio called "cooler than me" and he's fairly new. We had a blast at the show though!!

On Wednesday after work Steph and I went down to Hollywood Blvd to shop for a little bit. We didn't stay long but I definitely plan on going back because that's where the walk of fame is! I saw Celine Dion's star - that was exciting. It was also night so we couldn't take pictures or really see them too well.

Thursday after work we had another required screening to go to down at Paramount Studios. It was a bunch of short films made by USC students. They were really good, but we left early because the Lakers won!!!! I was pretty disappointed in L.A. though - the celebration doesn't even come close to Philadelphia when the Phillies won the world series in 08. Regardless, we all went back to our apartment for a little celebration of our own which was fun of course.

I have off on Fridays so I went to the beach with some other kids who had off in the program. We decided to try and tan our butts a little bit - big mistake. My butt went from extremely white to extremely red :\ It was funny before, it's hilarious now. Sorry but I will not be posting pictures of that!

I'm sure I've missed so much, but hopefully this is enough to keep you updated! I'll try and do it more often so that I can remember more : )

Here's some pics (but remember most are on FB) :

I don't have any pics of me singing, but here's one of me and Steph being back up dancers at Dimples:



From the Student Academy Awards:


Huntington Beach:



Outside Mike Posner show:

Produced By...

Hey everyone! I had a great weekend!!! With the exception of the flyers AND lakers losing tonight.

This weekend me and a couple other temple kids volunteered at the Produced By conference. The conference is presented by the PGA (not the golf league!) which stands for Producers Guild of America. So Friday we volunteered, basically getting set up for the kick of event. Although we had to work the event, it was awesome. It was a huge party for all the people attending the events and some of the biggest producers in the business.

Then Saturday, since we volunteered, we got to attend the conference for FREE. Most people had to pay $1000. It was INCREDIBLE. They had sessions throughout the day we could attend. We got to hear some of the most influential producers and writers in the entertainment industry. We met Alan Ball who wrote American Beauty and produces/writes True Blood. It was really inspiring hearing these producers talk, they had great advice. Later we met the producer of Modern Family, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Friday Night Lights. They were great to listen to also.

We also got to see Ted Turner speak. It was cool because of who he is, but I was a little disappointed with his public speaking. There wasn't anything too spectacular about it, but just knowing how powerful he was made it a lot more interesting. Best thing he said was "if you ever get the chance to own a baseball team, i highly recommend it." or something like that. i sure hope i can own a baseball team someday!

We decided to "get lost" on the Fox Lot. It's a huge lot, with a lot going on. They film House, Bones and Lie to Me there...among many feature films. We wandered into a scoring stage, where they were scoring family guy. The engineers in there said it was one of the stages they scored Avatar in!

Overall it was just a really good event to attend. We got to meet a lot of really, really important people and make good contacts.

Today I needed a day off, so I hung out by the pool. Got to talk to all the pufkos on the phone...that was nice!! Miss you all, hopefully I'll have some good stories soon! Here's some pics from this weekend, there's more on facebook:

Busy

So this week has been extremely busy. Although, some of the things I've done aren't anything to complain about. Last Friday me and Steph went out together down to Ventura Blvd and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. It was amazing as usual!

On Saturday we went to Santa Monica. For whatever reason, something about Santa Monica made me absolutely fall in love with this place. Maybe it's because it's a beach and it's right around the corner, or the amazing shopping streets and the pier. Regardless, I love it.

Sunday and Monday were pool days. All the Temple kids had a bbq on Monday for Memorial Day and I made veggie pizza which was a big hit..obviously. After the pool everyone came back to our apartment to watch the flyers play. Unfortunately, no one left happy since they lost.

The rest of the week I've just been working. I work 9-6 Mondays thru Thursday. So I go to work, come back and then we have class until 9. After that I'm exhausted. I know everyone wants to know how my internship is and ask me what I'm doing but I really don't have anything exciting to say. It's really just in downtime right now and the most important thing I can do is just work on whatever they ask me to, no matter how menial it may be. Either way, I'm learning as much as I can. Unfortunately, I just missed pilot season. Casting for the shows takes place at our offices and one of the guys told me Sophia Bush was there auditioning for a show (but it never got picked up).

I still haven't seen any celebrities!! I think we're going to try and go to the Beverly Hills farmers market which is supposed to be loaded with them. Last night two of the temple kids were leaving where they work and the A-Team movie premier was happening right across the street so they walked over and got to see Bradley Cooper and Jessica Biel among many others.

This weekend most of the Temple kids are working at the "Produced By Conference" which is basically all the biggest producers in Hollywood get together for this big event that's all weekend. It's normally $1000, but we get to attend all the sessions for free. Maybe I'll find a new passion in producing after this weekend!

I'll try my best to update on Sunday and let you know how the PBC went!

Love and miss everyone!

Here's some of us at the bbq:

the working world of disney

Orientation was good, but very long and drawn out. It was with a bunch of other Disney interns who are working all over the company so it was nice to meet other people and see what they're going to be doing. Nothing really special happened at orientation besides that we learned a lot about Disney and its history AND I got to hold an OSCAR. Did you guys know there's an underground city underneath Magic Kingdom??? It's mainly used for cast members but apparently there's a store and stuff too.


Yesterday I had my orientation at ABC. The neat thing about ABC studios is that it's on the same lot as Disney. So I arrived at about 7:30 AM (extra early) and walked across the light. The lot resembles a college campus, which is something Walt Disney apparently did on purpose. IT'S BEAUTIFUL. And larger than life.

Btw...the discounts I get are pretty good. Would have been handy back in November!

Today was my first real day at work. Definitely was overdressed - everyone was pretty casual, mostly jeans. Thank God. Since most of the shows just wrapped up, filming is on hiatus, which basically means the studio is on hiatus and it's really slow.

So this is basically what I'll be doing - although it's mostly cliche internship tasks, I realized today that I'm in a VERY important place. Production management is an extremely important part to the whole production process. They used the metaphor as being the parent of kind of like what Dad does building houses. Someone has to organize everything, and if there's a problem they go here. So we deal with ALL the shows - Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy of course. Unfortunately not Modern Family though because that's produced by Fox. The studios (like Disney, Warner Bros, Fox, Universal etc) actually share a lot of productions. Like most of the ABC shows aren't actually filmed at the Disney lots, neither are Disney shows...big bummer. I was really looking forward to hopefully seeing Zac Efron walking around.

Either way, I met a lot of really important people today. I walked with one of the associates Aaron (super nice guy) over to the main ABC building to drop something off for Anne Sweeney AKA the president of Disney/ABC television group. Unfortunately, she wasn't there. Seriously there are so many opportunities, but I'm not the only intern so I feel like I'm competing. I also introduced myself to the post production people since I think that's what I want to do the most. So one of the Post Production Executives said that she would bring me over to meetings and stuff for the shows she works on (Army Wives and Castle)

Definitely a lot going on. I have off tomorrow and Friday is a half day and no work monday for memorial day. Not many new pics but hopefully more after this weekend!

Hollywood Sign

Yesterday we spent the day at Malibu beach. It had the most beautiful backdrop ever. It's amazing to see all the houses that are lodged right on the sides of these hills. Some of the houses in Malibu were right against the cliff and their backyard was the ocean. The other cool thing about going to the beaches in Cali is there's a highway that runs up and down the coast. So as you're on the highway you're riding right along the beaches and it's gorgeous.

Today's big adventure was hiking to the Hollywood sign. Unfortunately, they don't let you get all the way up, but we got as close as we could. A bunch of us went so we had to take three cars. As we were driving we just kept getting closer and closer until we finally got to the hiking trail. It was SO HOT, and our legs definitely got a workout. The hike was well worth it though because not only did we get pretty up close with the sign, but we got the most amazing view of L.A.

After the hike we were starving so we all went and had our first in-n-out burger experience. one word: amazing.

Here are some pictures finally! (click on them to make them bigger)