What the heck does that mean?

All about working as a waiter, pursuing my dream, eating vegetarian, and loving where I live!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Flower Market and Crochet Bombs!

My friend Amy and I took a trip to the Flower District downtown today. Man, now I know where to look for flowers whenever the mood strikes! It's a great place for orchid shopping if you're looking for one. I definitely think I'll hit up this area a few days before the wedding to grab whatever flowers I want. I'm still not sure yet if I want a bouquet or any kind of boutonnieres, but I know LP likes them enough to want them on the tables. I don't find them necessary, especially since we'll be surrounded by plenty of green, but... meh. It was almost overwhelming. So many choices!

photo by my friend Amy!
After our trip downtown, I showed her the crochet graffiti at Griffith Park!




I love this stuff!  Amy had shown me photos of parking meters with little yarn cozies before and I knew she'd flip over this crochet graffiti!

Some people call it yarn bombing.

I call it awesome.


My favorite part was the little bear statue! Someone got him all dressed up for Valentine's Day and he clearly decided that being nekkid was no fun! I hope he gets some new digs for St. Patrick's Day.

Will you be my Valentine, little bear?

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Signed and Ready to ROCK

There's so much going on lately that blogging has definitely taken the back burner. One fabulous piece of news is that I've signed with a print agent! They offered to send me out for non-union commercial work, but since I'm SAG eligible, I decided that I would continue my hunt for a union commercial agent.

Helping me in that hunt is the commercial casting director I talked about last time. I called him a few days after we met and he told me to e-mail him my headshot/resume and he'd forward them to some agents he thinks might be interested. I'm also going to be taking his commercial workshop on scholarship in the next couple of months! Oh, and if you're afraid that this guy is some kind of sleaze bucket, don't worry, he's well-known, has an excellent reputation, and several people I know (including the fiance) have met him before and say he's a great person.

On the wedding front, we've decided to book the L.A. Zoo for sure! All we have to do is sign the contract and pay the deposit before the end of March. That means catering and booze is settled, too! Although we still have to pick the menu, but that's the fun part! The Los Angeles Zoo hosts a lot of events, but not many weddings and they were actually extremely well-priced compared to everything else in this city.

We've also got our officiant settled (that was settled a long time ago), because one of our best friends is ordained through the Universal Life Church. The spot we picked in the L.A. Zoo already has some cute orange and green wooden picnic tables and chairs. They're really new and pretty cool looking, so we're sticking with what's already there! I also know which bakery I want to get my cupcakes from, Lark, of course! Between the partner's work peeps, our friends, and my dad, there's so many photographers and people with pro equipment that we should be good to go on that front. We just have to lock in solid commitments.

The only stressful thing left is invites! Everything else should be at least somewhat fun to do and research. Maybe I'm getting myself, but I feel like the hardest part of the planning is over! I even have a good portion of our website ready to go!

The other thing I had been stressing out about was what I would wear. I'm unconventional enough that I felt like I had the entire world of fashion open to me. Was I daring enough to wear something like Janelle Monae?

Or did I just want to wear a gorgeous dress that I loved, in a flattering as hell color, that I could wear again?

Like this absolutely incredible Eva Franco? Which is actually slightly more than I was hoping to spend. 

Or, just maybe, did I want something that actually looked like a wedding dress? Would some kind of white look OK on me? I just tried on this dress today and it was lovely, but it wasn't quite perfect, I'd have to add some kind of straps or jacket as I abhor strapless dresses. It also looked better with a sash at the waist.

Here's my point, however... I decided to not let this stress me out. I will buy whatever I feel like buying that's in my budget. And to hell with what anyone else thinks about it!

Now, I have an extremely ill partner to check on. The poor guy came home, fell asleep, then woke up an hour later puking his guts out and has been doing so for the last three hours. I feel so bad for him. I've already e-mailed his boss, bought some Powerade, some JELL-O, saltines, and some chicken noodle and tomato soup for when he feels up to it. Just because I wouldn't eat half those things doesn't mean I won't buy it for him. Let's hope he gets well soon.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Estelle Harris thinks I'm adorable!

No, seriously, last night I waited on Estelle Harris and she said that I was "just adorable." My response?

The exact scene that popped into my head.
"Ma'am. I think YOU'RE adorable."

She asked if I knew who she was, and I said the minute I heard her voice I was transported to watching Toy Story 2 & 3. We talked about it being nominated and how I thought it was the best movie I'd seen all year. She noticed my ring and asked if I was married and said that my fiance was a lucky guy.

It made my freaking night. To top this all off, an extremely well-known commercial casting director gave me his office number so that he could help give me references to commercial agents. And tipped me twenty bucks on a sixty dollar bill.

Wow. I feel pretty lucky. Now I have the next two days off to get some serious work done.

January has been a pretty busy month for me... obviously, given my lack of updates. I've been..

  1. Working a lot. Of course. But I feel 10x better about January 2011 than January 2010 where I thought I was going to be fired every other day. It seems like business is up and my managers like me. Can't ask for more than that as a server. Busy. Flexible schedule. Awesome.
  2. Helping out with an "Acting for the Camera" class that's now over... My mentor is amazing and I learn a ton from him every time we work together. Plus, that's extra cash in my pocket and the life partner's (he helps film the final scenes and edits them for the students)
  3. Planning a wedding. The success story on this front is that we now have a date set in stone and we think we've decided on a location. We haven't booked it yet, but I'll give you a hint... It's home to our favorite pachyderm.
  4. Editing my dad's novel. He's retired and has a lot of time on his hands. I don't, but I'm helping him anyway.
It's been a good month.

I also turned 25 this month and am now old enough to audition for alcohol commercials! Woohoo! We went snowboarding and ate at Susan Feniger's STREET... Which was slightly disappointing, to be honest. I liked it well enough, but wasn't thrilled enough to go back for the price. Maybe if cost didn't bother me, it would be a different story. The snowboarding, however, was excellent. Conditions were pretty awesome for such warm weather and every time I get better and better. We spent the majority of the day on the intermediate slopes and I was pretty pleased with myself!

I decided to get over my vanity. This is a terrible photo, but it's the only one!
The day after my birthday, I had an interview with a print agent, and while nothing has come of it, I do know feel more confident all future interviews of that sort. The agent was incredibly nice and now I feel like I know what to expect a little bit better.

Overall, January was great, here's to fabulous February!