A couple down days...

The last few days have not only been down because I didn't have work, or couldn't write anything I liked, but also because I have been down emotionally.  Not working, not getting to go to work in NY, not finding my writing groove and watching others continually to get jobs like water (or those that have jobs have the freedom to go off to vacations and enjoy life) got to me a bit.  I'm frustrated and while I've been trying to be positive, optimistic and faithful, these past days nothing seemed to lift my spirits.

Well, almost nothing.  There were a few brights spots in these gloomy days.  Wednesday night I ran camera # 2 (which is on the floor) at the church for midweek service, and it was fun.  It kept my mind busy and I got to do something creative.  The night's director and the other camera people said I did a great job.  It was my first time running a camera on the floor.  Normally, I'm in the booth upstairs with the camera that basically does wide shots.

Friday I went to see 'Madea's Witness Protection', and it was pretty funny.  Not fall over, 'Blazing Saddles' funny, but amusing enough that I didn't want my six bucks back.  And because it was convenient for me, I stayed for 'Magic Mike.'  Ok, it did have a bunch of good looking guys, doing raunchy stuff that apparently strippers do, but it was about 10% better than I thought it was going to be beyond the eye candy.  It showed the darker side of the business, which makes for good characterization.   I'm glad I didn't pay for it, but was pleasantly surprised.

After the movies and on my way home, I just started 'counting my blessings' and I began to feel better.  Much better.  Just the time of being caught up in the world's created by the movies and then looking at those things that are going ok in my life gave me a little boost I needed...and helped me not think about everything that's not going 'my way' or things I need and don't yet have.

Today is better, and later I'm going to have lunch with some friends I haven't seen in a while.  I've got some new ideas for projects and I'm believing I can get it out of my head and on the screen soon.

One day at a time.   I. Press. On.

A trip to the hospital...

The day started out just fine.  I did all my morning stuff then headed to the movies to see Pixar's Brave, which was very cute and quite enjoyable.  Since my day was pretty open, I stayed for a double feature of Madagascar 3, which was...uh, amusing.  Glad I didn't run out and see it.

During the second movie, my phone rang.  I didn't answer, because I'm not (nor will I ever be) that person.  But as it turned out, the movie was over about 20 minutes later and it was Delaware.  She didn't leave a message so I called her back...she answered as she was on her way to Cedars Sinai hospital.  Apparently she was having some chest area pains and her doctor sent her to the hospital.  Since she was alone, I made the trek cross town to be with her.

This was not my first visit to the Emergency room with her, and like usual, we like to keep it light and happy. We made jokes, watched TV and chatted.  After no time the doctor released her with some medications to make her feel better.  The only drawback to the hospital visit was an elderly, blind lady they put in the hallway just outside the door.

I felt so bad for her, because she was obviously disoriented, scared and hurting.  She kept calling out for help, or asking to see the doctor, or saying she was blind, or that she was going to throw up.  The staff was attentive to her for a while, then kind of ignored her, while they focused on other tasks.  Now the staff gave the woman a bag in case she got sick, but I could tell by her searching, shaking hands, she wasn't quite sure what it was.  I thought I saw her in the waiting room with a younger girl pushing her in a wheel chair, and when they first moved her to that position, they did say something about 'she had to go and pick up something, but she'll be back soon.'  I really hope she wasn't there alone.

It seemed like a long time that she was calling out I guess because I just wanted to go over and hold her hand and let her know everything would be fine.  But as it turned out, it was only about 10 minutes before one of the hospital volunteers spoke with her to try and calm her down, after which the nurse saw to her needs, took her blood and eventually wheeled her away.   All I could do was pray for her comfort...I guess it hit home because she kinda reminded me of my grandmother as far as looks go, and I would never want either of my grandmothers alone in the hospital...let alone blind and sick.

Well, that was my trip to the hospital and all is well with me.  I spoke with Delaware today and she said she feels the same, but was OK.  She's really trying to be OK since she's leaving to go to Disney World this weekend for her family vacation.  I'm not gonna lie...I wish I was going, but soon enough I will be...but first,  a full time job!  I press on.

Birthday Week...Closing Activities

Birthday wish # 2

The weekend was for the most part dedicated to finishing out the birthday week.  Saturday evening I had a party...well, I wouldn't call it a party.  I invited enough people for it to be quite crowded in my apartment, but only about an quarter of the people showed up.  But it was good.

Delaware and 6-1 both made me themed birthday cakes, I had lots of fun with the people who did show up, I made luminaries and decorate the hang suite (which was pretty fun) and even some of my neighbors stopped by to celebrate.  So it turned out to be a nice evening...except for the fact that I now have three cakes and a half a pan of brownies in my house.  Not good.  Cake anyone?

Luminaries! (Prototypes)

6-1's 'Star Trek emblem' cake
Also Birthday wish # 1

Delaware's 'Film Reel' cake

Delaware made a 'Film Reel' cake/cookie cake and 6-1 made a StarTrek emblem cake.  Two of my most favorite things!  My peeps sang to me twice, and I got to blow out candles twice and 'make wishes' twice...kinda like one for me and one for Erika.   Now that I think about it though, theses were birthday wishes 3 and 4, since I got one at the restaurant, and one at Cheesecake Factory on my actual birthday.

'Bumble Bee' at Transformers 3D,
Universal Hollywood

Sunday after church, Delaware and I went to Universal studios because I get a free ticket during my birthday month as an annual pass holder and I didn't want that perk to go un-used.  She'd never been before so it worked out.  Even though we had fun, I have been severely spoiled by theme parks in Florida...Cali may have the original Disneyland and Universal, but Florida just does it bigger and better.  I've said it before and I'll say it again...and I fully realize that I may be a bit biased, but it's the truth.

Today I did some day work with a production company.  I got the gig from one of the people I worked with on Basketball Wives.  It was a pretty easy and relatively short day.  Basically I was a chauffeur for one of the talent to the first location, which was out in Canyon Country (basically the boondocks).  Later we shot on a small lot in Hollywood, and I finished the day trekking downtown to take one of the other talents home.   Outside of the traffic and lots of driving, it was pretty easy money...and even the driving wasn't too bad, plus I get mileage which always makes things better.

Tomorrow, back to my own personal grind...I press on...

Birthday...continued...

Whatever the reason, I was a little beat yesterday.  I did do some work mixed in with random stuff like cleaning out my purses...but I completely missed updating the blog on the birthday festivities...so here it is.

One of the favorite sculptures...obviously.

In the morning, I was just a bit sad when I thought about Erika (which I normally do in the morning)...but I just thought of her catching some big waves in heaven and that made me feel better.  I figured if she was having a good time, then so would I.

The first 'bust' sculpture of a Black man

After doing my normal morning stuff...read, workout, blah, blah, blah...I went to the Getty Museum.  Its one of the 'must dos' in LA, and in two years I have never made the time to go...well, all I have to say is that I wish I had.  It is so beautiful and so much to see.  And the best part is that it is free...you only have to pay for parking.

The Getty-Courtyard

Flowers from 6-1

After the museum I went shopping for something to wear to my 'girl's night' out dinner, but didn't find anything I liked, so I just went with something in the closet.  We went to a place called Rock Sugar, which is a swanky Asian-fusion restaurant, and it was good.

The Getty-From the Garden

Three of the girls didn't make it, so Delaware, 6-1(she is one of my work friends who I have not given a code name for; she is super tall, so 6-1 it is) and myself had a good time.  The Actress got off work later than she thought but she was able to meet us at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert.

All in all it was a very nice day and I look forward to the birthday party this weekend.
















In the meantime, I press on looking for more work!

My Godiva Brownie Birthday Sundae

Birthday...

I would like to talk about my birthday activities, give details and post pictures, but I'm tired.   Tomorrow...or should I say, later today.

A Day at the Spa...

Today was my birthday spa day and boy was it nice.  I could go everyday if it was in the budget.  The spa visit started off with a massage, and while I was thinking about writing and projects and jobs when I first layed down, after about 5 minutes not one thing was in my worry bank.

After the massage came the mani/pedi and as a bold choice, I chose what basically looks like a fucshia  version of Dorothy's ruby slippers as my nail/toe color...glitter and all.

The spa day ended with a back 'facial' and all I have to say about that is...wow.  It's my new favorite thing...like a massage on crack...the good kind.  It reminded me of the pineapple scrub I got on my first trip to Hawaii...maybe not as luxurious, but still, good stuff.

The weird thing was how tired I was afterwards...its not like I did so much.  But the more I think about it, maybe it wasn't 'tired'... I was just so relaxed.  It was a good day and a nice kick-off to my birthday week...

The Weekend...

For the majority of Friday, I attempted to work on my own personal projects.  I feel like everyday I get up to write I hit a brick wall, and it's getting very annoying.  But perhaps its just because I'm concerned about finding more work...whatever the reason, I'll just keep on pressing on.  Good stuff is in my head, and I'm confident it will get out and get developed.

Friday night I joined Delaware and the crew for sushi in West Hollywood.  It was pretty good, not too expensive and I did have fun hanging out.  Afterwards I joined them at a bar (which I wasn't excited about, but they were like 'Angelica we never see you and now you're going to leave?' so I went).  As an aside, it's funny that because since I'm not a drinker, everyone wants to buy me a drink...guess they think they can 'turn' me.

Anyways, the bar was actually fun because I played my first game of 'foosball.'  It was Delaware and another girl in the crew against me and the Actress...and we won game after game.  Apparently the Actress grew up with a 'foosball' table in her basement and it showed.

I got home late and in the bed even later, but I managed to get up early Saturday morning to go on a hike.  It was the same one I went on during the week, because it's a nice surrounding, a challenging hike and a close drive to my house.  It was a nice workout, followed by the workout I got from washing my car and cleaning up the apartment.

Later, Delaware and I hung out poolside and goofed off with the neighbors.  Later we went to see 'Rock of Ages'.  I said it before, I'll say it again.  It was an ok movie as far as the music was concerned.  But the lead actress is SO UN-TALENTED (in my humble opinion).  She's cute, but that's about it.

I finished the night off at yet another bar for one of my work friend's birthday.  (bars...so original!!!)  It was fun, but I did only go for a cameo.

Sunday at church I worked the camera for both services, which was kinda fun.  I did find out and (because I was on camera) saw that Cuba Gooding, Jr. attends my church.  I rarely go to the eleven o'clock service and it is a pretty big church, which is why I probably don't see celebs and/or industry professionals that likely attend my church.

The rest of the day was supposed to be spent with my birthday friend from Saturday night, but she flaked out...so the day turned out to be pretty chill.

Tomorrow is my annual birthday 'spa' day since I couldn't get an appointment for my actual birthday.   I'm very much looking forward to it.   I'm off to bed so I can get up early, do some writing and then do some serious relaxing.

Last few days

The last few days have been both (semi) productive and filled with fun.  

Monday I went to a girl's night with my new-new friends (my friends are all kind of compartmentalized as we don't all hang out together....but I guess most people are like that)...we grilled out, hung out by the pool, talked then finished off the night watching (and in my case making fun of) a TV show on VH1.  It was a fun night.

Tuesday...I went a did some writing at the library and then attempted to shop for a gift for Father's day.  I saw some things I liked, but nothing I felt overly compelled to buy.  The sales man though, a really nice, flamboyant guy, just had to ask (as he so curtly put it) about my arm scars, and after some probing and finding out some nuggets of information about the accident, he said, "Well, you were saved for a reason, and I'm glad you're still here, alive."  It was very nice of him...then he proceeded to try and get me to buy a purse (which I really wanted,) but I was strong....this time. 

Wednesday morning started with a hike with my new-new friends in the Santa Monica mountains near my house.  It was pretty fun, and while it was not the hardest hike I've been on, it did give me a little bit of a challenge.   At the top of the mountain though, the view was beautiful.

 View from the mountain top

Later in the day, after looking and applying for jobs, I went to the final tutor session for my tutee before she goes on vacation to her home country for the summer.  She surprised me with an early birthday gift and it really meant a lot to me that she would think to even get something for me.  It was a really pretty stone bracelet.  She also told me how honored she was to be able to have learned from me and how much she enjoyed it....it was a good surprise.

I finished off the day hanging out with one of my work friends at her apartment.  She's close to downtown Burbank, so we walked down, had some dinner and came back to her place...where we talked for hours, until I looked up and realized it was nearly 11:30...that's always fun.

It's been a good couple of days...it could only get better if I got a call about a full time job.  Here's hoping...till then, I press on.

The Project...

This is the project that took up the majority of my weekend...

The Intro...

The Outro...

A Dog, A Cat and 2 Parking tickets

Not much happened throughout the week...outside of tutoring, writing and job-hunting...the usual.   But this weekend I house-sitted for the AD.  She and her husband (and daughter) were going out of town for the weekend and needed someone to stay with their other 'kids'...a dog and a kitten.

I arrived on Friday afternoon, and after hanging out for a little while with the AD and getting the run down on the animals, I was on my own.  Once they left, I could move my car to their parking spot (which is on the sidewalk in front of their garage) so that is what I did, and was met with a parking ticket for an expired meter...I'm pretty sure it was like only 3 minutes expired.   Well, I chalked that one up to the greedy, blood-sucking parking division of LA.  Needless to say I was a bit annoyed starting out the weekend, but I quickly got over it, being thankful that I actually had the money to pay the fine.

A sad dog...

The dog was pretty sad about his owners not being there and pretty much sulked all the first day.   While he was sulking, I working on a project for my former Pastor, and a little reluctantly so.   See, I debated on and off on whether I would do this project for them (which is a 30 second intro and outro for a TV show they are doing)...I debated mostly because I have felt taken advantage of by them and they kept asking me to do this for them, but never telling me how much they would pay.   They finally gave me a price when I think they realized there was no way I was going to do it for free.  

The cat or kitten rather, was a bit more rambunctious.  He was running around the house, jumping on furniture, my laptop while I was working on it and my face when I wasn't looking.  Which eventually led to my allergies acting up.  My eyes were red and swollen, my face was itching and I couldn't stop sneezing.

A rambunctious kitten

That night I attempted to sleep in the master bedroom, but with the dog making his funny noises or just getting up and staring at me, and the cat trying to snuggle and sleep by my head, I just couldn't take it.  Around 2 in the morning, I got up, tried to get as much pet hair off me as possible, and curled up on the tiny couch in the nursery.  With the door closed, I was finally able to get a bit of sleep.  And slept there both nights.

The Dog (when he's happy)

Saturday the dog and I took a nice long walk down to the farmer's market and "The Grove," a large, outdoor, fancy shopping area.  Having the dog was like having a people magnet.  Everyone wanted to pet him, and know is name, and age...I guess because  his breed (a French bulldog) isn't seen a lot, particularly with his coloring.  They just couldn't get enough.

Sunday came and the family returned.  We caught up and then I left.  I got in my car and as I was about to pull out, I saw another ticket on my windshield!   Really?  I've been in Cali for two years now and have never gotten a ticket, now after two days in West Hollywood, I get two!  Well, this one I wasn't going to take laying down because it was where the owners told me to park.  So I called the AD and she was surprised, but quickly offered to pay it for me...and didn't even have to ask, so it was all good.  (And her gesture made me respect her even more.)

 I finished off the day at the movies where I went to so Prometheus, which was pretty good.  Some of the story was kinda loose and a bit silly, but it was visually really cool, and was for sure a Ridley Scott film...if you've seen any of the Alien films, you know what I'm talking about.  I did enjoy it, though I probably won't go for a second viewing.  Then I came home and chilled...and stretched out on my own bed...alone.

An interesting shoot...

The Location...and the water bikes

It has been quite a few couple of days at the last shoot I was working on.  Interesting is probably the best way to describe it...well, the nicest anyways. First off, the AD (from MasterChef) recommended me for the job along with our AD team to work with her. That was pretty cool for her to want to work with me again.

As for the shoot...not so cool (and I was not the only one who thought so.)  Because I'm going to tell it like it is, I will omit the names of the production companies, because they are pretty heavy hitters, and I would like to work with them in the future...but under vastly different conditions.

After my first day of work...

The location was really pretty...it was at a man-made beach/lake/park like area, with wild rabbits hopping around and glistening waters...I was really nice.  That's about all I got for the good...outside of working with our 'team' again...they are always fun.   In general, it was so disorganized, there were too many leaders (not enough followers) and the people in charge...the executive producers, production manager and company representatives were out of control.

It was like some big wig at this company decided to give his nephew, friends and brother-in-laws their first job doing something other than being a PA and getting paid big bucks for it.  It was worse than the leadership on BBW that I worked on a few weeks ago.  And because of this, the days were always off schedule, frantic and over agitated.   On top of all the production issues (brought on by a few certain people) I got quite a few battle scars.

Battle Scar...Yuck!

There was a chunk cut out of my ankle, cheese-grater like scrapes on my feet and hands, and a long family of scratches on my lower leg.  I also got a bit of heat rash.  I got these wounds testing out a 'human hamster wheel,' on the water meant for the contestants.  Needless to say after two of the three members of our team that tested this thing and got hurt, they scraped it.  But it was very weird that they waited till the day before shooting was to begin to test it...and with PAs at that.  There was also some 'surry bike' riding and 'water bike' biking...but those were both safe and non detrimental to my physical body.

Yet another battle scar...on the mend...

Though the hours were long, some of the people where on 'power trips' (though no one from our team,) and the commute was a bit long, it was good to work and network and go through it all with my work friends.

On Saturday, I was so tired.  Beat.  Whooped.  But I entertained Delaware and The Actress as they came to hang out by my pool and catch some rays.  I didn't much need it, since I'd been in the sun for the past three days, but I hung out anyways.  While hanging poolside, we met some of my neighbors and these two just happened to be from Florida...and they both went to UCF.  What a small world.

Didn't notice these till the 2nd day

That night we went to Cinespia...where they play old films at the Hollywood Cemetery.  I know it's kinda weird, but still cool to watch movies out on a grassy knoll.   I didn't however enjoy the film, but it was still fun.

Heat rash after day 2

Sunday Delaware and I went to the outlet malls and both got duped by our inner selves to buy 'Coach' purses...sigh...but, they were very much on sale so I guess it was worth it.   We spent the whole day there and it was fun...but I was tired.

Surry bikes...pretty fun.

Monday I decided to just take an Angel day.  I went to see SnowWhite and the Huntsman, which was ok.  It was entertaining, mostly because of Charlize Theron and the special effects, but nothing super spectacular.   Afterwards, I had some lunch and slept, slept, and slept some more.  Tonight, I will do more of the same.  My tutee wanted me to meet up with her (even though it was not our day to meet up)...and I told her 'No.'  I felt bad for about two seconds, but I quickly got over it.  It was my day and...I'm trying not to give people the opportunity to take advantage of me and my kindness...which has happened with her before.

On another note, today was the season premier of MasterChef (which comes airs Mondays on Fox at 9pm for anyone into that stuff) but I did manage (after quite some effort) to find my name in the credits!  It was only on there for like a quarter of a mili-second, but it was on there all the same!

That's Me...Number one!!!

 
Well, I'm not dead tired, but I could sleep...and so I will probably do just that.