BRANDY LOVES MELVILLE

This adorable boutique is located in Westwood Village right near my apartment. The reason why I love it so much is because; if you can see under the name of the store, it says "From Italy With Love." So before I even walked into the store, I was immediately obsessed with it!! Once I walked in, they had the cutest clothes ALL from ITALY! And the best thing about this was all the clothing prices were in euros! They had signs that said 1 euro = 1 dollar, which is obviously not that right currency exchange, but I thought it was such a cute and clever idea! It made me feel like I was right back in Italy! Although this store is definitely way cuter than any of the boutiques I visited in Italy. FAVORITE. STORE. EVER.

Celebrity Sighting!

Today I saw this dude, Kieren Hutchison. Okay, well unless you're a One Tree Hill fan, you probably have no idea who he is but he's the first semi-celebrity I've seen so far! He played Andy, Karen's boyfriend in One Tree Hill for a bunch of episodes, and I think he's a total babe. I saw him while I was walking to Starbucks in Sherman Oaks, I first just glanced at him, then did a double take, and although I couldn't place him, I refused to look at him again because he totally saw me check him out twice. For the next hour, I literally just sat there trying to figure out what the hell he was in. Don't you hate it when that happens? Anyway, I figured out that this is who I saw, at least I think so. After I passed him and awkwardly did a double/almost-triple take, he immediately put his sunglasses on. Come on dude, chill, you're not THAT famous. It was still really cool though to see a celebrity or whatever you may call him. I learned that people who live in LA don't really take notice of celebrities or really care when they pass by one. I guess that's one reason why all the celebrities like living out here so much, PRIVACY. I feel bad for any celebrities that run into me, because I definitely will not be relaxed about it. I will most likely run up to them and ask for pictures and autographs, and awkwardly stutter a combination of words at them that will probably not make any sense. I want to go to Malibu beach soon because I hear that you will run into a lot of celebs there since it's so small and a lot of them like to retreat there on the weekends, but what do I know, I just moved here. I did find this list of other places around LA where you might bump into celebrities.

Celebrities I really want to see while in LA (in no particular order):
James Franco
Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen
Brad Pitt
Angelina Jolie
Leonardo DiCaprio
Will Smith
Jake Gynahall
Bryan Greenberg
Selena Gomez
Gweneth Paltrow
Michael C. Hall
Drake
Patrick Dempsey
Kate Walsh
Adrianna Lima
Jennifer Aniston
Courtney Cox
Zach Efron

And probably so many more that I'm forgetting, therefore this list is pointless because I want to see them all.

<3 Loni

Diddy Riese & UCLA

This may be my absolute favorite thing in all of LA so far (well, of course besides the bubble tea place). Tonight, MARMOL, and I went to Diddy Riese, a place that has been recommended to me countless times from a variety of different people. Basically, it's this crazy popular ice cream/cookie shop that sells custom ice cream sandwiches. Once you survive the line down the block and finally make it into this quaint little store, you get to choose the type of ice cream that you want to be sandwiched in between 2 soft, gooey, cookies of your choice. They had every kind of cookie and ice cream flavor imaginable! I decided to get 2 chocolate chip cookies with regular vanilla ice cream, because I am super plain when it comes to desserts and love the classic combinations. I saw people getting all sorts of crazy ice cream sandwiches though, so next time I'll have to be a little more adventurous with my selection. Now that I think about it, you can definitely get 2 different types of cookies, instead of 2 of the same. Anyway, the line was down the block and it took maybe 20 to 30 minutes to get through it, but it was well worth it. The ice cream was marvelous, the cookies were soft and gooey, and it was just perfect in every way. My only complaint is that it was difficult to eat, but who cares about that anyway?!

 You can kind of see how long the line was for the Diddy Riese from this angle. The line kept growing too! And no, I didn't cross the street just to take this picture, I had to get money out of the ATM! I probably would have though even if I didn't need the ATM.

 Marmol was not too happy to be waiting in the huge line for an ice cream sandwich. I said that obviously it had to be worth it if all these other people were waiting, AND I WAS SO RIGHT!

Check out their website: Diddy Riese - you'll want to book a flight out here immediately after.

Since Boca Loca (the bubble tea place) was open and right next to Diddy Riese, I obviously had to get a bubble tea, my second of the day, ice cream makes you thirty alright?! I introduced Marmol to it and he ended up liking it and ordered his own! Wooo! I turned another person into a bubble tea fan!

This may be my dream come true, bubble tea AND a delicious ice cream sandwich!

I mean, COME ON! It doesn't get better than this.

After bubs, we decided to drive around the UCLA campus, see frat row, and watch all the drunk kids stumble across the street. This was definitely a bad idea, because now I miss college more than anything. There were tons of students running around, dressed up, and drunk. We spotted maybe like 20 different parties and we saw friends all hanging out aka getting wasted on their balconies, which reminded me of the 500 building in Courtyards junior year, RIP. It was the ultimate college town, exactly like Delaware, maybe even a little nicer. All the houses were gorgeous and the frat houses were monstrous. Anyway, my new goal in life is to become friends with people who go to UCLA so I can go to all those fun parties and pretend I'm in college again. Screw the real world and work, I'll just pretend I'm a UCLA student while I'm out here. Sounds good enough to me! I still love Delaware more though, and wouldn't have traded it in for anythanng!

Go Blue Hens!
<3 Loni

SMC

Today, after one of my interviews, I headed over to the beach for a run! It was 80 degrees out today, so the beach was more packed than usual. In the parking lot, there are never more than a few cars parked on a normal day, but today it was completely full. Since it was warmer than usual, it was a little harder, but I ran about 5 miles. Afterwards, I had plans to meet with my friend Tim (here come your shout out, Tim), and go and check out Santa Monica College, where he is the Assistant Coach to their football team. When I was walking through the school, although it was a small, "Junior College," it still had that close-knit, college feel to it. The school was still on winter break, so not many students were around and the campus was pretty much empty. I got to meet the other football coaches, as well as a few of the players.

Since Tim works for the school, we were able to work out with the cheerleading team. I was informed that it was a 2-hour workout, that started with a timed, 1 mile run around the track, and then exercises for abs and arms. This is when I realized, I probably shouldn't have run 5 miles before coming to SMC. Bad decisions. I knew we were going to be working out too, but I couldn't not go for a run on the beach today in this beautiful weather! Honestly guys, I'm not normally this active. I had to have broken some sort of record with the amount of time I spent exercising today.

Anyway, considering I was already exhausted from my first 5, I ran the mile in 8:15 minutes - no laughing, I'm no track star. After we were finished with that, we went into one of those gym studios, got mats, weights, and jump ropes and did a series of workouts targeting arms and abs. I didn't have a big lunch, so the entire time I was working out, I was day dreaming about what I was going to eat for dinner! Typical. After the workout, I sat in about 30 minutes worth of traffic just to get home. I quickly grabbed Boston Market, which is interestingly not what I was day dreaming of, but when I passed by it, I immediately thought: CORN BREAD, so I made a quick, and most likely, illegal turn and picked up dinner there. Once I got home, I had a lot of things to do. I had to figure out everything for this shoot that I am working on this weekend, which is super stressful because there is so much to get done and not enough time. I also had to prepare for my interview tomorrow, which I don't want to write about here because I'll probably jinx myself or something. I've been so busy these last few days that I haven't had time to keep in touch with all my homies back on the east coast. Hopefully, after this shoot is over, I'll have some time to catch up because I miss the shit out of them. If only they would come and visit *Hint, Hint!*

Happy Jerz Day,
<3 Loni

Downtown LA

I had an interview in Downtown LA today, and I just have to say, it was as if I was instantly teleported to New York City. It obviously was way way wayyyyyy smaller than New York City, but when I was driving through certain parts of it, it was almost as if I was in New York! It was a very strange feeling seeing all the tall buildings, yellow cabs, and city-like streets, all the way in California. It was as if all of a sudden it was summer time in New York City! It was a nice little reminder of home, that made me feel closer to NYC, when I am really so far!

Downtown LA

 

vs.

New York City

 

Busy Bee

Today was a very stressful day. All the things I have to do keep piling up and as much as I try to complete them, the to-do list never seems to dwindle. I am really starting to realize how damn expensive life is! What the hell is this crap?! What happened to the days when a whole meal cost 25 cents!? (Okay, I was never around for that, but still, I've heard stories!) I found myself staring at little kids today, wishing that I could be a kid again just for a little longer! How simple life was then! The only thing I ever worried about was if I was going to make it home in time to watch my favorite TV show on Nickeloden, or the fact that I had to do maybe a half hours worth of homework each night! Even if you fell and hurt yourself, you cried for like one second and then you were back up playing, laughing, and being carefree! Ugh, wasn't that the life?

Anyway, I have a few things starting up, and have been networking myself pretty well these past few weeks. Hopefully, something starts coming along to get the ball rolling! I had an interview today with a different staffing firm, and have another one tomorrow. The staffing firm that I am interviewing with tomorrow, already wants to send me on an interview for a Publicity Assistant position at AE/Lifetime Networks! So, I am pretty excited about that!

This weekend, I'll be working on set of a short film, as an ASSOCIATE PRODUCER intern, but just ignore that little intern part. So, what if I'm not getting paid?! Okay, fine, that sucks but it should be really cool anyway, because we are shooting at a real studio, which will be set up like an airport! So, I'm not getting paid for the work I'll be performing, but I have already gained some great contacts that could definitely help me out in the future. It's all about networking these days, isn't it?!

Tomorrow, after my interview, I'll definitely need to head to the beach for a nice run to clear my head and release some endorphins! Lord knows, I need too! These next few days are going to be pretty busy with interviews, preparing for the shoot, and the shoot itself, so come Monday, I'll definitely be enjoying my time off!


<3 Loni

Stick it

Last night, I got to know my roommates a little better as we complained about the apartment and bonded over how much we hate the leasing office. I also told them that I run almost everyday at the Santa Monica Beach, and invited them to come with me today. So, today the 4 of us all got in our workout gear, grabbed a bubble tea, and headed for the beach. It was a beautiful and warm day out today, about 70 degrees. It is actually going to be around 80 degrees the rest of this week, which still boggles my mind because it is January. I still run on New York time and seasons, so it's always a shock when I walk outside and am hit with a blast of warm air and palm trees towering above me. Can life get any better? At the beach, we ran about 5 miles total, only taking a few breaks here and there.

At the end of our run, we stopped at all of the gymnastic equipment and tried it out. We swung on the rings, climbed rope, walked on the balance beam, went on the swings, and even tried to walk on the tight rope. They had all sorts of equipment available, making it an excellent and fun place to work out. Why go to the gym and work out your arms, when you could climb up a rope? Believe me it definitely takes a lot of upper body strength to make it up that rope now that we are no longer in gym class in 6th grade. The tight rope was really fun too, forcing you to balance yourself on a wobbly, long, slim belt. This was hard to do while holding a spotters hand, I cannot image trying to walk on it without anyone's help. 

The beach was buzzing with people today, no one necessarily laying out, which I think is weird, because it's so nice out, but with people exercising. There was a nice breeze to cool us down as we were running, which made it the perfect day.

 

 

Tight Rope

 

 

I am still stressing over finding a job, nothing really seems to be accumulating into anything and I'm going to need to find something quick so I can continue living out here. WILL SOMEONE JUST HIRE ME ALREADY?! That seems to be the question I find myself asking over and over again. Although, I don't mind the down time, it gives me plenty of time to exercise and enjoy this weather, I want to start working! I am working this weekend on a shoot, but unfortunately it's not paid, but I will be working with some people that I could possible network with. Networking is the way to do anything around here, so the more people I meet, the better. If only I was getting paid though! Guess that's why they call it paying your dues!

<3 Loni

Urban Lights

All of last week, I kept bugging Kay saying that I wanted to go to the Urban Lights! You kind of have to go at night to see the full effect, but we were so busy during the day all week, by the time night time came around we were dead, and definitely not in the mood to do anymore sight seeing! We finally got around to it last Sunday (1/15), and it was one of the most unique things I've seen in a while! Describing it as a bunch of street lights doesn't really do it justice, so here are some pictures. The pictures still don't show how cool this set up is at the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), but it'll have to do until you come and see it yourselves!

The urban lights was definitely one of my favorite spots in LA. A lot of movies have filmed scenes here, like No Strings Attached. 

<3 loni

Santa Monica & Melrose Avenue

I've wrote enough about Santa Monica Beach, but I just wanted to add pictures from the first time Kay and I went there, last Friday (1/13/2012). First, we had lunch with Kay's family friend at the Century City mall, which is an outdoor mall, minutes away from my apartment. Afterwards, we headed over to Melrose Avenue to scope out the shopping. Many people raved about how great the shopping is there, but I didn't realize just how good it was going to be. The boutiques WERE TO DIE FOR. They had some of the cutest and hip clothes that I've ever seen. Imagine, that one boutique in your town that sells that best clothes, and now imagine about 50+ of them all on the same street. This is exactly what Melrose was like, Kay and I only got to go into about 4 stores, before we had to force ourselves back to the car, because we were spending too much money! Everything was very reasonable too! The only problem was, we wanted to buy EVERYTHING! I ended up getting a pretty black strapless dress that was sheer from the knees down, and had some gold sequins on the chest area. I also got a sheer dark blue, polka dot, button up that had cut outs on the shoulders. I will never go to the mall around here again, whenever I have extra money, I'll be heading to Melrose instead! I <3 Melrose Ave.

After we forced ourselves away from Melrose, we headed for Santa Monica Beach. 

We walked onto the beach and took pictures on the life guard stands, which are more like shacks here in California

We dipped out feet into the Pacific Ocean for the first time!

The sun was beginning to set as we were walking the beach.

The life guard shacks remind me of the TV show, The OC.

The pier looked beautiful with the sun setting behind it. 

 We walked along the pier that was similar to the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore. There were rides, places to eat, hotdog stands, games, t-shirt shops, and there was even a trapeze! There were a lot of people singing and performing for money on the pier as well.

The previous three pictures are from the very end of the pier. There was a man singing the song Desperado, by The Eagles and playing guitar. It is one of our favorite songs so we sat on the stairs and listened. There were a lot of people just sitting down and taking in the beautiful scenery. We stayed for about 5 minutes and then headed back. 

 We stopped and took pictures in these huge chairs that they had on the beach. I don't know what they are used for, I guess just for picture taking!

One of the funniest things that happened to us the entire trip was being behind his man who had some serious problems in his butt area. He kept scratching and "picking his wedge" the ENTIRE time we were behind him. He saw us, along with a bunch of other people, behind him so he knew we were there but he kept itching anyway! He was doing all sorts of weird dances as well, as if he was trying to shake it out. Kay and I could not stop laughing, but were trying to hold it in because the guy was right in front of us!

<3 Loni