Last Day in Hollywood

Well, kind of. Our office is moving from Hollywood Boulevard to Westwood on Friday. And because I'm out of the office for the rest of the week, this was probably my last time in the office (barring something catastrophic that I forgot). I've only been in Hollywood for about 16 months, but that was enough. The novelty of having the Walk of Fame just outside our office wore off after a few times of trying to trudge through crowds of tourists that were blocking the sidewalks to take a photo.

I will also not miss the miscellaneous road closures, the daily religious mob that chanted every day at noon (which signified lunch for us), and the most exotic lunch option being the California Pizza Kitchen.

We move to Westwood. I'm excited to get to know a new neighborhood, especially one so close to UCLA. And for me, the difference is pretty negligible in terms of commute, which is essential in LA. And I think that this office will even have an outside facing window, which is awesome. Oh and the fact that there's an actual loading dock and I won't have semi-drivers drop off my convention gear in the middle of a street because they can't find parking, will be an added bonus.

So as I left today, I was sad that I will probably not be back there a whole lot, but happy to not be going back there a whole lot.

Westwood ho!

I Believe I Can Fly...So I Did

Just off the ground

I have always wanted to skydive...except for the whole jumping out a plane part. I always thought that if I could fly without having to do something so inherently against my natural level-headedness it would be worth it.

When we were looking for apartments on a trip out to LA years ago, I was flipping through the promotional channel of attractions on the hotel cable channel and BAM! The answer to my request was right there. Indoor Skydiving. Simulated skydiving. Fake skydiving. Whatever you want to call it. A few months back a work friend was talking about wanting to fly but having the aversion to the whole plane-jumping thing and I mentioned the indoor skydiving. She was totally down for doing it.

Now flash forward last week to a staff meeting where a co-worker said she couldn't use her invite to a HR party at the indoor skydiving place and did any of us want to go, eat free Brazilian food and try out the wind tunnel.

Um, yes. That would be us over here please.

So last night my friends Meredith, Alexis and I went to iFly at Universal City Walk, ate some Brazilian ribs, and then suited up to fly. We got an adorable (and aspiring actor-SHOCKER) instructor. I think that being an attractive guy must be a prerequisite to being an instructor there because everywhere we looked there was a tall, handsome man who made flight suits look good leading a group of awkward-looking adults in goggles into the wind tunnel.

On our way or down with Ian, the instructor, photo bombing

Anyway, cute-as-a-button Ian gave us the hand signals and then lead us one by one into the booth where we flew up and down and then he grabbed our waists and walked us up on the wall of the tunnel so that we were about 2 stories up flying.

It was AWESOME.

And I think from the look of pure joy on my face you can tell I had a good time. I even paid money to get those pictures, but it was well worth it.The tunnel is out in the middle of City Walk, so as you're in there, there are a bunch of tourists that are taking pictures. I thought I would care more about that. I didn't.

I liked it so much that I might actually do it and PAY FOR IT next time. As opposed to a free corporate events cultivation party.

I'm Crawling Out of my Skin

I'm having a few days here when I am not satisfied with anything and I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin. What would I do with the skinless body that I would be? I have no idea. Maybe walk around Hollywood Blvd and freak some people out. Although I'm not sure people would be all that freaked out by a skinless body walking around Hollywood. They don't seem too disturbed by the fact that a guy wearing a cotton costume plays Iron Man every day. I mean, it's IRON MAN! The Fruit of The Loom shit is unacceptable. At least spring for plastic that looks like it could possibly be metal.

See what I mean? I'm going nuts. I realistically know it's just my hormones or chemicals or whatever are out of whack, but logic plays only a marginal role in my thoughts right now. The Cotton Iron Man is about all the logic I can muster. And before people get all judgey, I'll say that my feminine mystique may have me thrown right now, but dudes have moody periods too. They just aren't able to know when they're coming as well.

I digress. Skin. Crawling. I am thankful that I have a plethora of things to do at work this week because then my jumping from one project to the next doesn't seem so schizophrenic. It seems necessary. And it is. But it's also helping me harness this bout of ADHD into something useful and productive. So there's that.

I hope tomorrow will be a more focused day. Because I've got a 4-hour client meeting and a charity concert to go to. So even if I'm not more focused, I'm gonna have to pretend.

A Taste of Hollywood

When I left Nashville a few years ago, I wasn't the only one. There were a few people at my old place of work at the same time and with that a natural changing of the guard. One of those who came in as I left actually moved to SoCal a month or two ago. We had mutual friends and a mutual place of work and had met before, but hadn't really hung out. 

Until last night. She and her boyfriend were gracious enough to come up to Hollywood from their place in Orange County. She called me a little before we were supposed to meet and said they got tapped on the street to come to a Jimmy Kimmel Live taping and did I want to join them? My office is only a block away from the studio so I made good time and we were able to go.

It was fun. I had never been to a talk show taping. The guests were Hugh Jackman, Carson Daly and some guy from the show Happy Endings, which I'd never seen. He was actually the most entertaining of the three. Here's what I learned from the experience:

• People will do almost anything for a $150 gift card.
• There are a lot of people who will gladly laugh at anything.
• I am not one of those people.
• It's hard and oddly tiring to clap and cheer for what felt like an hour of the two hour taping. 
• I may not be as in shape as I think since it hurt my upper arms to move my arms that much.

I had a great time and was super happy to have dinner and some drinks with my new friends afterward. I love how an ordinary-seeming day can turn into a memory if you just go with it. 

I Saw the Biggest Star in Hollywood Today

It wasn't Ryan Gosling or Channing Tatum or Amanda Bynes. It was the space shuttle Endeavor. The shuttle was taking it's last flight to end up at the California Science Center to be on exhibit. But it's not everyday that a space shuttle is riding on the back of a ginormous jet with two small jets flanking it at only about 1500 feet. It made a bunch of loops around the city. People were camping out at the Griffith Observatory just to get a glimpse. But being in Hollywood on the 7th floor of a building has its privileges. We got to see the shuttle go by five times and once it was right over our building. So close you could hear the roar of the engines clearly.

Needless to say, it was hard to concentrate on work again after that.

It was hard to take good pictures, but here are a few that I snapped:

From when it went over Universal Studios

On its way back over our area

As it's heading up to circle the Hollywood Sign (covered by trees on the left)

You can't see it but this was the shot after it had flown over our building.

Hello. My name is Alicia.

Have you ever let something get so far along that by the time you realize what's happened it's too late? That's kind of where I'm at right now. It's one of those awkward social moments that would inspire Larry David or Jerry Seinfeld to write something brilliant. But for me, it's my daily life.

I've been on the new job for about two months now (still loving it). The office is on the seventh floor of a building on Hollywood Blvd. The fun thing is that weird shit happens around here nearly every day. It might be just a random false fire alarm or having a traffic stop trap outside our window or the religious protesters who walk up and down the street every day chanting around noon (it's how I know it's lunch time) or a helicopter going down. It's never dull.

But we have a security guard that patrols the grounds and sits in the lobby to protect us from any errant homeless that might roll up. It happens. It happened in Nashville too. Not so much in Thousand Oaks, but that's a different story. The security guard is a very nice man who has a slight accent. His name is Rocqui (pronounced Rocky, but he's from the Philippines so it's their version spelling). Since my dad's name is Rocky, it's easy for me to remember.

However, when we were introduced, he must of misheard my name. And because he has a slight accent it wasn't until three weeks into the job that I realized that Rocqui thought my name was Alicia. And now he says hi and bye to Alicia every day. It's been two months.Too late to correct him without us both feeling awkward. And honestly, do I really care if someone thinks my name is Alicia? It only matters in those brief moments in the day when I walk by the security desk.

At this point, I am Alicia. At least twice a day.

First there was a Shooter. Then a Helicopter Crash.

Just a typical Monday in Hollywood. Except instead of those things being in a movie, they were happening all around our office building.

Yesterday around 4 p.m., I was getting ready to go take a walk around the neighborhood. I had eaten my lunch in the lunch room and needed a bit of sunshine on my face to power through the late afternoon. As soon as I had my walking shoes on (because everyone knows that I was wearing some fierce heels to work),    a co-worker said " There's been a shooting over on Sunset and Seward. The block is blocked off and police are looking for the shooter."  It was then I decided that since we were about 2 blocks away from that, I should probably just skip my walk.

So, I stayed in and a few hours later, our office cleaning lady started pointing through the board room windows (big beautiful windows that look onto the Hollywood sign). She told some co-workers that she'd seen a trail of smoke coming from a helicopter. So, we went to the place where everyone finds news quickly: twitter. It was a news chopper that was covering the search for the shooter and it had indeed gone down.



So, it was a little nuts in Hollywood yesterday. And with the hundreds of small earthquakes having people freaked out, it could be an interesting week. However, the best of everything happened. No one was hurt in the shooting and the police caught the guy who had shot a single shotgun shell out his window (not sure if it was on purpose or by accident). And the news helicopter found an empty parking lot...in Hollywood.. .during rush hour. (Anyone who lives here knows how rare that is).

Wonder what tomorrow will bring. Maybe I shouldn't ask.

Hunger Games: Not So Much A Winner

The Hunger Games: Not
so much a winner

Like half the known world, I was excited for The Hunger Games to come out this past weekend. I knew it was going to be popular, so I went ahead and hedged my bets and got Chef and I sinner showing tickets. It was still pretty full for 10:15 on a Sunday morning. We went to ArcLight Hollywood and sat in the Dome, which apparently didn't open until 10 a.m. so there were a lot of people in the cold, rain waiting for the damn doors to open. In defense of the theater, it's not cold and rainy enough in LA to think ahead on that one, but I digress.

I may be the only person in the world that didn't like The Hunger Games. Let me rephrase that: Chef and I may be the only people in the world that didn't like The Hunger Games. Look, I realize that movies based on books rarely live up the books, but I also curb my expectation to match that reality. It'll never be as good in my head as on the screen. And I'm okay with that. But this wasn't just that.

Also, I like taking Chef to movies based off books because chances are good that I've read the books and he hasn't. So, there's a fresh perspective from someone else on why things did or didn't work out in the movie when they are clearly explained in the book. Here are some of my top highlights of things that aren't placed in any sort of context in The Hunger Games (movie):

• Why Peeta was partnered with the careers in the beginning
• Why Katniss plays up the romance with Peeta during the Games (it was there, but not explained enough where Chef knew why)
• The names, stories or any kind of way to identify the other tributes (other than Rue). The name "foxface is literally uttered one time. Cato gets like 3-4 mentions. We could've gotten this with a creatively written montage of their pre-game interviews, but we didn't.
• Why we should care about Rue. I cried in the theater but only because I knew the book version when Katniss was thinking of Prim as Rue. 
• Any of the other stylists, and some significant time with Cinna.
• Any kind of fear of Snow. 
• What the hell each of the districts produces
• Why the Capitol is so rich (this gets brushed over).

There's more, but honestly it just makes me sad. I realize there's a challenge when the book is written in first person and half the movie takes place in a world where you can't really say your inner monologue aloud because the world is listening, but come on. The script just didn't work for me. They could've cut at least one uttering of "May the odds be ever in your favor" with some actual dialogue that moved the story forward. It could've been done. It just wasn't.

It doesn't make me exceptionally hopefully for the next two movies. Chef said "Was the first the worst of the books?"  No, it was the best. "Oh, I was hoping maybe they had better source material for the next ones."

Yup, that about explains it. 

Almost as good as meeting real celebrities. Okay, Maybe not

Chef decided a few weeks back that he wanted to us to venture to Madame Tussaud's and see some waxy celebrities. So today, we took a trip down to Hollywood & Highland and had fun hanging with the faux celebrities. The only thing I was disappointed about (aside from the fact that they have Jennifer Aniston looking at Brangelina from across the room) was that there was no Matt Damon.

My right leg is tone enough to launch a twitter account, too.

Looking down Hollywood Boulevard.

Can you guess who this is? Hint: He looks slightly better  as a vampire.

Classic Marilyn

Love her in wax or on celluloid

Apparently I was trying to look like a wax figure myself with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Okay, I was so creeped out by Hannibal Lecter that I didn't get too close. That's Chef in his face.

Me and Forrest. He didn't share his chocolates.

Took this one with Rocky for my Rocky. 

He's got the red shirt on, so it must be Sunday. 

This is me letting Kobe know that my backdoor is definitely a foul. 

Down Hollywood Boulevard just a few minutes later.

I love Meryl Streep. Even in wax she's gorgeous and way more talented than the other wax figures.

Christmas Came early But I don't get my Gift for Four years

Overlooking the general vicinity of
Universal Studios Hollywood :)

We all know that I'm a geek.  I'll happily concede that and know that my nerdiness will shine through. This is one of those cases. I did a happy dance today in my office while reading an LA Times story that announced the building of. . . the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Wait? Don't they already have one of those?, you ask.

They do. In Orlando, which is umpteen million miles away from me in Hollywood. But today they announced they're building one at Universal Studies Hollywood. Hollywood--as in a mere 6 miles from our apartment. Hoorah!!!

That's the good news. The bad news is that it doesn't open until 2016. So, I'm gonna go camp out now. :)