Wednesday Morning

I would love to tell you that I popped out of bed this morning at 7am, but that didn't happen. We've fallen into bad sleep schedules and usually don't wake up until noon.. Before Michael and I went hiking, I spent a good hour checking out this photography website (mainly the posts featuring his wife during her pregnancy last year), which was recommended by my favorite family blog. It made me want to break out the good Canon camera and take some black and white macro photos, something I haven't been able to do with the small Samsung.

Tonight our Full Sail friend, Corey Doyle, came over so Michael could teach him how to use Photoshop. He has mainly been using Adobe Lightroom to edit pictures. On Sunday, Michael made some fake tattoos that he drew onto a girl's body for a photoshoot that Corey created. Michael hasn't updated his blog yet with any of those photos yet. He likes using his iPhone because it's easier and still takes good photos.  Cory and Michael are already having pre-production meetings for the next shoot. Corey showed me pictures of the beautiful location and I would love to join and get some great BTS photos. I haven't done that in a long time!!

Bee Rock

Since Michael was telling me how awesome the trail was that he went on for Valentine's Day (the one he hiked while Dawson, Carly and I were taking pictures at the abandoned zoo), I went with him in the afternoon before church on Sunday, the 17th. This is still a part of Griffith Park.

Michael said the trail should be called "Stonehenge" ~ maybe because at some points you have to crawl all over really big, flying saucer-sized rocks to continue along the trail. I didn't see any bees either (since it is called Bee Rock), but that didn't bother me! There were not really any of those Pear Trees I was hoping for with the tiny white petals. It will still have to be on my To-Do list.

The architecture of the rocks at the top of the peak was very cool. It was narrowed off with a rusted and wobbly chain-link fence. There was a part in the fence at the very top that was cut, where someone could easily "slide" down to their doom! To the right was a ledge kind of rock that Michael wished he could have stood on. I felt scared just looking at it.

We took a normal big-road trail on the way down and talked about jobs and how God is probably waiting for us to meet the right people/ employees for us to be friends with and not just "you'd be good at this job". We still haven't heard back from anyone though and the posts on Craigslist are for nurses or chefs or require the applicant to be fluent in Spanish and Chinese. So no such luck yet. I even called some alarm companies since they didn't have any employment links on their websites.

Today Dawson and I checked out the Goodwill in North Hollywood, since it had good reviews. It had better results when we looked through a second time. I tried on some skirts and pretty dresses, but only left with a silky pajama dress for $3.99 (no tax)! Dawson got a bunch of plain colored V-neck T-shirts for only $1.99 each and one white polo. I'd like to check out the Goodwill in Glendale next. We also stopped in the Ralph's in Burbank because they have a pasta and salad bar in the deli.

the Americana

The Americana is a fancy mall area, similar to The Grove except it is in Glendale, instead of Hollywood. We went there on Saturday, the 16th. Michael and I were out running errands then picked up Dawson before heading over there. The parking garage was free for the first hour. It was also a very pretty area, but I like The Grove better for some reason. Maybe because they film the "Extras" TV show there? However, I liked that their trolley was working.

 

After we walked around and Dawson returned a book about how to make his room match up the to the feng shui standard, we walked a few blocks down the street to Panera Bread. That's the only place we really go out to eat anymore, which is an improvement. I tried the advertised Spinach Power Salad, which was good. I saw a cool looking theater (the Alex Theater), which Dawson told me was where Glee filmed their Show Choir Sectionals competition for Season One.

I don't remember what we did after that, but we also passed a nice looking Good Will, so we may have to go shopping soon! There is another one closer to our house that had good reviews on Yelp.

Church

Although I can rarely keep track of the days (without jobs yet, I guess we don't really need to), I have lately - the past few days at least - wondered "is it Sunday yet"? I have gone to St. Charles Catholic Church twice now. I first went on Ash Wednesday and then this past Sunday. The time doesn't seem to go by too slowly and I'm starting to remember to say "And with your Spirit". Since they changed that line from "And also with you" however long ago.

Here are some pictures I have taken of the outside of the church:

Last Sunday, I put my money into an offertory envelope instead of straight into the basket. I filled out my name and address, asking for them to mail me some envelopes, and flipped it over to find this precious doodle. I couldn't help but laugh. Perhaps they will just assume I have kids. Or simply poor drawing skills, haha.

I didn't mind that Michael didn't go to the Mass on Sunday. The priest talked about how hard it must be living with someone who is so selfish. (I believe that had to do with the devil nagging Jesus in the desert, trying to get him to turn stones into bread when he wasn't eating for 40 days. I would remember more if I had written this blog post Sunday night.) I imagined Michael would have kept nudging me during every true statement. To be honest, I have felt bad lately when people say they had roommates or friends that they couldn't stand to be around very long because of their angry outbursts or lack of motivation. "Fun to hang out with, but not to live with." It gives me a lot to think about and I've thanked Michael for loving me.

On Ash Wednesday, I made a spinach pasta recipe, after seeing this video in a commercial on Hulu. I liked it a lot more than Michael did. He says there was too much spinach, which was a shame since he told me to make 3x as much as I was planning on.

If you make this yummy dish for Lent, let me know how yours turns out!!

Saint Valentine

Michael and I had been wanting to go to Griffith Park's abandoned zoo for the past month since Banks and Lacey told us about it. And today we went! We didn't have any "real" Valentine's plans and invited Dawson and our friend Carly to come along. She brought her nice Canon camera with Tamron lens. It turned into more of a photo shoot day instead of hiking. But Michael wanted to hike and even wore one of his new "breathable" hiking shirts, so he found a big mountain peak with trails. Here was his view from the top:

 I'd love to go back again with him. He said they have a canopy of the pear trees that I have been seeing all over with white petals. I'd love to get lots of pictures of those. They are very pretty. I was a little disappointed that I forgot my little camera. It wasn't in my purse like I thought, but Carly did an amazing job with all the pictures she took. Here are some of my favorite "modely" ones that I have tweaked just a teensy bit:

And here are some that we played around with at the end, after Michael got back from his 45-minute hike. (He even showed me a cool little video that he made at the top.) These were used with Carly's wide lens, which I found very interesting. They were silly and fun and make me happy.

We didn't find very many areas that seemed like they were parts of an abandoned zoo. I'm sure there were parts that we didn't see today. But there were many more areas with picnic tables and beautiful green grass. During the time between taking the first pictures of Dawson and I, and waiting for Michael to get back, we took a handful of photos with my big Polaroid camera. Those turned out pretty nice too. Unfortunately, Carly was only in town for a month for an HGTV gig, but hopefully she will move back soon!!

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na.. Bat Cave!

As film students, we remain interested in visiting or seeing places that have been a part of movies and TV shows. Today Michael, Dawson and I walk up to Bronson Canyon, which is best know for being used as home of The Bat Cave in the 1960's Batman television series. You can check out this clip to see the Batmobile coming out of the cave (watch from 1:45-2:15). There is no sound to the video.

I found out that part of the area we walked around was also used in Little House on the Prairie, but was unable to find any pictures or videos with the characters in it. It was a pretty cool area that made me feel very small. Of course it was in Griffith Park, as everything is, but we had to take an unfamiliar way to reach it.

The trails were steep and very rocky, so we didn't climb very many. And lately the weather has been slightly windy, in the low 50's! So we didn't stay long. Michael and Dawson got frozen yogurt after. I refused service since they had changed flavors since last month and didn't have what I wanted.

Carly Rae Jepsen, OMG!

Yesterday I found this new awesome website that sounded very "me", called I Am Not a Stalker .com! Under the celebrity events, it said that tomorrow (which is now today) singer, Carly Rae Jepsen was going to be signing magazines at The Grove's Barnes & Noble bookstore since she is on the cover of Seventeen this month. It turns out that Los Angeles is quite fond of 3-story buildings. Barnes & Noble was one too, with fancy escalators and very organized sections. It was the first place we went into this morning. I wanted to get a feel for it and get more info about the signing. And good thing we did! There was a rule saying that each person had to purchase a copy of the magazine in order to get a wristband and be able to attend the event. And there hadn't been anything about that n the website. So I bought our magazines and we got our wristbands. Due to the time of purchase, we would be in Group D. We were advised to return one hour prior to the event.

After the rest of our mid-day roaming, we parked in The Grove's parking garage. I felt it wouldn't cost too much for a few hours, especially if we could get our ticket validated after. We walked to the roof of the garage (for employee parking) and ran to the edge for pictures. I read it was a beautiful view, but in my opinion, one side is better than the other.

At 4pm, Dawson and I went to the third floor of Barnes & Noble with a bunch of other girls in their teens to early 20's. After ten minutes of waiting and almost being "shooed away" since the  employees were ready for lines to start forming, we were informed that Groups D, E and F had to wait on the second floor. They had tape marked with each letter. At least we were the first in line for our group. Carly didn't arrive until about 5:40pm. There was much less cheering than I expected. But the lines moved quickly and by 6pm we were within sight of the pop star. Oh, she is best known for her 2011 catchy tune, "Call Me Maybe" and being friends with Justin Bieber.

We were pushed along quickly and surprisingly yelled at to put our cameras away when we reached our "destination". We were only allowed to take pictures of her while we were in line, not together/ standing next to her after she signed our magazines. She was very nice to everyone. She asked how I was doing today and after I replied that I was doing well, I asked her back. Carly Rae Jepsen answered, "I'm really, really good. Thank you for waiting." She smiled the whole time. My camera wasn't working well under pressure, but this was the best picture I could get of her after we exchanged pleasantries.

** original photos above -for clarity/proof- courtesy of this Carly Rae Jepsen fansite **
And here are our flowery autographs! Mine is on the front cover; Dawson's is the inside article. He was disappointed that out of the whole magazine, only two of the pages were about the singer.