Hi, Remember Me?

So...at one point I had a blog. And I used to post in it rather regularly. I had times where I thought "oh yeah, I need to post something!" and then later on would forget.

A lot has happened since September. Things in LA are fabulous, have some great friends out here and the job is good. In fact, I'm going on my very first business trip on Monday. I'm going to some meetings at our corporate office in Indianapolis. I'll be there Monday-Wednesday. Pretty excited about it, and it's great because it gives me a chance to see all of my friends in Indy as well. Only downside is I'm going to FREEZE! It was 80 degrees today in Burbank, and the forecast for when I'm in Indy is 17 and snowing. Lovely. I asked my dad to ship my heavy KSHE coat to me so I would have a good coat out there. None of my Cali coats are warm enough!

To recap a few big things, in October G Shirley came to visit me in LA. We had a blast! We did pretty much everything we could: Rodeo Drive, Mulholland, taping of a Jay Leno Show, LA Philharmonic featuring the incredible Juan Diego Flores, Laguna Beach, San Diego Zoo and Coronado. Coronado is...breathtakingly beautiful. The sand on the beaches has gold flecks in it. I'm not sure how it's that way, but it's pretty interesting. We were able to stay at the Coronado Hotel which is one of the oldest hotels in the country. In fact, the elevator is still the original one (upgraded and maintained of course). They have a bellhop who just works the elevator and it has the grated doors. Really cool.

Me, Jay Leno and G Shirley!

I wasn't able to go home for Thanksgiving, but I went out to Hemet and spent the day with my aunt, uncle and grandma, which was very nice. On the drive down to Hemet all of the high mountains had snow on them. The mountains still impress me out here, it's one of my favorite things about living in SoCal. Seeing the snow covered tops is too cool. Anyway, we had a very nice dinner and an early birthday celebration for me. Watched some football of course, and impressed my aunt with my football expertise. I simply said, "I am my father's daughter." :)

My radio station had our big Cali Christmas concert last week. Working at Power is such a change from my rock radio days. Our lineup featured Young Boyz, Far East Movement (Like a G6), Rick Ross (Rozay!), Pitbull (my fav), Chris Brown and Ice Cube. It was a really great show. Pitbull gets so into his performances and really gets the crowd going and that's always fun. I enjoy performers who get up on stage and just have fun and look like they are happy to be there. All of our performers really rocked it. So it was good.

And of course, this week was the end of the era. I waved goodbye to my 20's and embraced a new decade. Yes, I'm officially the big 3-0. Don't feel any different though, it's just another year in my life gone. Been a pretty darn good one in fact.

Jason and I rockin' out!

My friends and I went to Dimples, this famous karaoke bar in Burbank. It's a pretty cool place. They have a stage with props, costumes, etc. and they tape your performances. So you can get your performances on DVD. Since it was my birthday, I got all of mine on DVD for free. My voice wasn't 100% that night, been fighting this ugly sinus infection and had a cough but I still sang pretty well. And we just had a ball. Oh my, so many fun memories. Love my Cali friends for making sure my 30th was an awesome one.

Meet Me in St. Louie...

Okay, so I totally fail at updating this blog - sorry! So a few weeks ago I made the 2,000 mile trek back to St. Louis. Via air this time, thank goodness. As fun as that cross-country drive was, it's certainly not something I'd want to do frequently.

I had a wonderful time back in St. Louis. It had been 5 months since I made the move out west, which is still hard to believe! I was thinking about it, and even with my time at school at DePauw, and when I lived in Indy I think the longest I had ever gone without going home was about 3 months. Kind of crazy when I think about it that way.

Loved spending time with my parents, family and friends. Also had the chance to go back to the Emmis St. Louis office and say hello to everyone. It's funny how even though I've been gone for 5 months, once I got off the plane and stepped back into "The Lou," it was like nothing changed. It's still the same. It'll always be home.

Kathy and I hit up the Bottleneck Blues Bar to see That 80's Band, which was tons of fun. Turns out, we were there the last night Home Night Club was open. We should have gone! We thought about it too. Oh well.

I didn't really take many pictures in StL...I guess because it didn't really feel like a vacation? But I did have to take pics of my favorite little guy. Here's one of the best pics below.

James Rich and I at G Shirley's

Celebrated my mom's birthday, which was fun. Good to get all of the family together. I had taken a picture of Frank Sinatra's signature at Mann's Chinese Theatre and framed it for her Frank Shrine. My mom has the Frank shrine, I have the Beatles shrine. At least we're easy to shop for!

My dad got my mom all of the seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD. So we watched a couple of the episodes from the first season and I found myself connecting to it. Mary is a 30 year old, single gal, moving to the big city and living on her own. Sound familiar? So I've discovered that seasons 1-3 are available on Hulu, and I'm watching episodes that way. It's really a great show, I dig it. And I envy the clothes. I am such a flower child, haha!

Thing back in LA are good, keeping busy. A book club I joined had a book signing get together last week where we got to meet Kyra Davis. She write fun chick novels, we read her latest called Vows, Vendettas and a Little Black Dress. Kyra was very cool, and she actually lives in Burbank so in my hood! We took photos, but the book club organizer hasn't posted them yet.

Had a nice Labor Day weekend, got a lot of sun time in! Also finished another book. Love reading out by my pool. Today I meet up with friend Kristyn in Venice Beach and we biked from Venice to Santa Monica and back. Was really, really nice. I love biking along the beach, and the weather was perfect for it, not hot at all.

I must get a bike now. Am looking at craigslist listings for a cheap one, something I can easily transport so I can go biking at the beach more often.

Me at Venice Pier!

I promise to try and update this a little more often. For now, it's back to work. At least it's a short week!

Back to the 314

Long time, no post, I know. This California girl has been keeping busy, that's for sure!

Tomorrow I will head back to StL for my first trip back since moving out here. In many ways it feels so surreal. I can't believe I've been out here for almost 5 months - wow.

A couple of weeks ago I made a trip out to Hemet to see my relatives. I sang a solo at Sunday services at my aunt and uncle's church, which was very nice. I sang Panis Angelicus, and it was wonderful to have the chance to perform live for my aunt, uncle and grandma. Grandma Bennie was thrilled, and that makes me feel really good.

We also celebrated my cousin-in-law Troy's birthday. I can't say just how much it means to me to be able to spend more time with my So Cal family. I am very blessed.

I had dinner with my Grandma in the dining hall at her retirement facility and the dining room was decorated for a luau that they're having this month. Sunwest, where my Grandma lives, is really nice. It's like college dorm living for seniors. You have a dining hall, on-site activities, parties, groups you can join and your own little apartment. It's great.

Anyway, this was one of the table arrangements on our dinner table. I just had to take a picture because it amused me greatly.

Love the swimsuit hanging off the sign. Nice touch.

I am looking forward to my first trip back home, even though I know it's going to be hot and humid. I have been very fortunate out in LA this summer. We haven't had much extreme heat. In fact, I've only turned my A/C on once, for a total of 2 days since moving out here.

It really cools off here at night. Even if it gets up to 90+, once the sun sets things tend to cool off pretty quickly. I'm lucky in that my apartment doesn't get much direct sunlight. And the way my building is set-up, it just stays cool. You can feel the temperature drop when you come in the front door (and there's no A/C, my apartment complex is open on the inside, so it's outdoor air).

But I'm not going home for the nice weather, I'm going to see people. I can't wait to see my parents, family, friends...it's going to be a great trip.

Will post some pics and updates from the trip!

Happy End of July

Anniversary Cookie Cake

It's the last day of July, which marks my 4 year anniversary at Emmis Communications. Hard to believe that it was 4 years ago when I first stepped into the role of sales assistant at KSHE 95. In some ways though, it feels like it's been longer than 4 years. In a good way. It's been so long that I can't imagine not being part of the Emmis family. It's been a wonderful journey from my experience in St. Louis with KSHE/KPNT/KIHT/KFTK to my current position at Power 106 in LA.

My co-workers surprised me with a Happy Anniversary cookie cake yesterday. I work with such awesome people! Love my Emmis family.

I leave to go back to St. Louis in just under 3 weeks now. Can't wait to get back to StL and see family and friends, even though it will probably be unbearably hot and humid, as is typical in August. The weather here has been extremely pleasant. In fact, since moving here I've only turned on the A/C for a total of 2 days, which was a few weeks ago when it hit about 95 or so in the valley.

Of course, that probably means that August/September will be brutal. I've heard that those are typically the hot months in LA. We'll see. The 95 degree heat here didn't bother me all that much, but I wasn't spending a whole lot of time outside in it.

Last week I went to an Irish meetup and met a lot of really cool people in the LA area who are originally from Ireland and the UK. Met at an English Pub in Santa Monica, ended up staying out really late and somehow playing charades in the middle of the bar, haha. Totally fun group of people. In fact, several of us went out for karaoke the next night in Little Tokyo. There's this place where you can rent out your own room (basically your own karaoke party room). Very cool. We had a lot of fun and I was of course called out on having vocal training. Such a fun group though and hope to hang out with them again.

What else? Been spending a lot of time at my pool. Working on maintaining my nice golden tan. I love my pool, because for the most part it's relatively quiet and often times I have it completely to myself. There are however, a few rambunctious children in the building who show up occasionally and when they are in the pool sometimes it's best to avoid them. In fact, last week when I was laying out on a lounger reading my book, this little girl was getting ready to get in the pool and her mother told her to be careful and not to splash me. The girl's response? "It's a free country, I can do what I want!" Ugh. That's when it's time to peace out.

Got a beautiful 3 hours of personal time at the pool today though, kid free! Tonight just planning on chillin' and watching a movie. Tomorrow I may hit Hermosa Beach. Depends on how early I get up. If I don't hit the road by 9:30, it's unlikely that I'll find parking easily. Last thing I want to do is drive around for an hour looking for a place to park.

That's all for now!

Katie, Steph & Sean at Paul McCartney Concert!

I am way behind in updating this - sorry readers! July has been a busy month. I spent the 4th of July in Hemet with my relatives. My cousin Laura had a party at her house. We grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and just hung out and enjoyed the nice weather outside. The younger kids swam but I enjoyed staying poolside. Later we all drove down to the park and watched the fireworks display, which was very fun (although a bit chilly - it gets cold in the desert at night!). The next day I helped my grandma buy a new computer. She needed something for faster internet (her old computer only had 350MB of RAM - yikes!) so we went to Best Buy in Beaumont and I ended up finding her a really good deal on a basic computer.

It's so nice to be able to be so close to my California relatives. I'm really enjoying getting to know my cousins, aunt, uncle and grandma better.

Speaking of relatives, last weekend I had a nice little vacation to visit my relatives in
San Francisco. My cousin Stephanie and her husband Sean and I went to see Sir Paul McCartney perform live at Giants Stadium, which is right along the bay.

It was so amazing to see Paul live again (I saw him in 2002 in Chicago during his Back in the U.S.A. Tour). Some key performances were "Blackbird," "Yesterday," "Letting Go," "Live & Let Die," "Dance Tonight," "Here Today," and "Something" (a tribute to George Harrison played on the ukelele). Paul played about 5 or 6 different instruments: bass guitar, piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, ukelele and mandolin (for Dance Tonight). Pretty awesome.

Sir Paul McCartney!

The trip to San Fran was fab as well. I loved spending time with the Larson Clan. I was able to spend a lot of quality time with my cousins and we had a great time. Definitely one of the best San Francisco trips I've made in recent years.

I head back to "The Lou" in a month! At this point I'm getting anxious to get back home for a trip. I can't believe I've been away for 4 months, almost 5. I don't think I've ever gone that long without being in St. Louis, even when I was in college and living in Indiana. There was always breaks, holidays, etc. So I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to St. Louis and seeing my parents, my family and friends because it has been a long time. Plus, it's my mom's birthday weekend so I'm glad to be home for that!

Not much else going on. I have a work BBQ at my boss's house on Thursday, which should be a lot of fun. I also have a date with the California DMV this week to get my drivers license and plates (yes, I have to get rid of the BTLFAN plates - SO sad! But I'm going to try and get personalized plates here, it just won't be the same). Next week my book club is getting together, so I need to make sure I read that book this week. Just trying to keep busy and continue to be out and about!

Promise to update this a little more frequently! For now, that's all from this California girl!

Celebs and Hip Hop Fun

Gordon, Matt & I at Powerhouse

I've never been much of a pro basketball fan. St. Louis doesn't have a pro team, and college basketball was always more interesting and fun because well, there are plenty of college teams around to follow, such as SLU and Mizzou.

I have found myself sucked into the Lakers kool-aid, which I suppose isn't a bad thing, since they are back-to-back champs. My radio station does so much with the Lakers, in fact, the Lakers love our station. That is how I got to meet Ron Artest, pictured below.

Katie & Ron Artest

Ron Artest came to the studios the day after the Lakers big win to appear on our morning show, and of course, promote his song "Champion." He was very nice, of course who wouldn't be after winning a world championship ring? I had a little Laker bear at my desk that the previous sales assistant left behind for me so I had him sign it. Pretty cool!

Last Saturday was Powerhouse, my station's biggest concert event of the year. It was held at the Honda Center in Anaheim (where the Ducks play, which I can't help it, every time I hear or see the Anaheim Ducks I hear Emilio Estevez saying "ducks fly together!" Thank you, Walt Disney).

It was a fantastic show. We had a solid line-up featuring Jason Derulo, B.o.B, Bruno Mars, Trey Songz, Drake, P Diddy, Ne-yo, Snoop Dogg and others. Quite a different show from the rock shows I'm used to! It was great though. All of the artists gave excellent performances, got the crowd into it and then we had some special guests. P Diddy was one, he wasn't originally on the lineup. Oscar de la Hoya, Ron Artest, Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, and Warren G showed up as well. So we had 3 of the Lakers on site for the concert. Sadly, I did not get to meet anyone this time, I didn't have a backstage pass. However, I enjoyed the show immensely. It was super fun.

Snoop Dogg!

Last week also marked semi-annual sale at Vicki's. Needless to say, it was quite an exhausting week! This week I have my first book club meeting. I found a women's book club group on meetup.com that meets in Burbank and they're all young females and the theme is to read chick novels, so it's fun. Thought it would be a great way to keep reading and also meet other people.

That's all for now peeps. Am glad I am enjoying the beautiful Cali weather. I've heard it's nightmarishly hot and humid back in the Lou!

California Musings...

Dodger Stadium

California is starting to feel more like home, which is amazing considering that I've only been here about 2 1/2 months. I love my apartment and the community, the residents are cool and the building is relatively quiet. I have an awesome pool that many times I have to myself, which is awesome. Plus a nice little balcony that conveniently gets awesome sun from about 9am to noon, which is a good time to layout and get some sun on days off.

I'm still trying to get a good solid social base out here, but I've been good about getting myself involved in many things so it's only a matter of time. I have an awesome irish dance class, which is all adults which is awesome, and the church choir is pretty cool as well.

Went to the Dodgers-Cardinals game last night. What a horrible game to go to! The Cards had out the "JV squad." It was rather ugly. But, I went with friends Sarah, Whit and Summer and that was a lot of fun. Got to catch up with everyone which was nice and I still to see my boys play live. They are only in LA for one series so it's awesome that I got to go to one game.

Dodger Stadium is a very cool stadium. It's built into the hills so the views are quite nice. Plus, it's nice to see some of the old time stadiums. Only Dodger Stadium, Wrigley and Fenway have not succumb to "new ballpark" syndrome that has run rampant among most MLB stadiums.

Another weird thing is that the ballpark was super dead at the start of the game. Busch is always full of people by starting pitch, even if it's not 100% full it's usually at least 75%. LA fans tend to come in late and leave early. They're there by the 3rd inning and leave after the 7th. Just something that St. Louis Cardinals fans don't do. Guess that's why we're called the best fans in baseball. We're fans from the first pitch to the last.

We're in the midst of "June Gloom." When I wake up in the morning it's very overcast and often you can't even see the hills or mountains, which is spooky. Then by the afternoon it burns off and the sun comes out. I'll take it over hot, humid rainy days in StL any time, but it's still a little weird. Newsflash: the sun isn't always out in California. *shock*

All in all, things are well! I do miss everyone in St. Louis though. It's weird to feel so disconnected from my St. Louis life. But I guess that's part of living our dreams. We can't be in several places at once.

Oh, I almost forgot! Had a celeb sighting at Dodger Stadium. Jerry O'Connell was at the game, he came in through the gate I was standing by waiting for my friends. :)

Memorial Day Weekend

Palm trees at Santa Monica beach

It's been a good Memorial Day weekend. Unlike many of my LA counterparts, I did not make a trip to Vegas this weekend. That seems to be the thing to do out here. I swear, a good chunk of my LA friends on facebook and twitter were talking about Vegas. I guess it makes sense, it is only a 4 hour drive away. Kind of unbelievable! I will definitely have to plan a trip there soon, since I've never been.

Spent a good chunk of my weekend hanging out poolside at my apartment complex. It's nice, because it's a small and quiet pool and there aren't many children around. Most of the people who live here are young adults, with the occasional older couple. I haven't heard any babies crying or screaming 4 year olds yet. Now that I've said that a couple with a newborn will move in next door, right?

On Saturday I took a nice long walk around my neighborhood in Toluca Lake. I first made my way towards Riverside, which is the main drag of downtown Toluca Lake. I was planning on finding a place to eat and side outside with a book. Ended up at Bob's Big Boy, which is incredibly unhealthy but I hadn't had a Big Boy burger in AGES. So it tasted muy delicioso.

After that, walked through the neighborhood, including passing by Miley's house (neither her nor Billy Ray were around, drat) and enjoying the nice weather and sunset.

Yesterday, after hanging out poolside for a couple of hours, I found myself antsy. I couldn't stay in the apartment, I had to get out. So, I decided to act tourist for a day and found myself driving into Hollywood, and checking out what was going on at Hollywood and Highland.

Answer? A lot. Of course it's a holiday weekend and Grauman's Chinese Theater, The Kodak Theater and the like were jam packed with people. Not only that, but several characters were hanging around Hollywood Blvd. I saw Captain Jack Sparrow, Spongebob (he hit on me actually, kind of disturbing), Spiderman, Chewbacca, Dumbledore, Shrek, Woody and Buzz Lightyear...they definitely had a ton of activity going on.

Dumbledore with some kids at Grauman's

I found that I didn't really mind though, I liked seeing a place with such activity. I strolled through Grauman's and looked at all of the signatures and hand and foot prints. I'd actually only been once before, when I was about 12 or 13. A lot had changed since then. The Harry Potter kids have their own little space at Grauman's, for instance. And Shrek - yes SHREK has a star on the Walk of Fame. A fictional character. That seems a bit much for me.

Emma, Daniel & Rupert at Grauman's

I walked through the Hollywood and Highland shopping center, got a look at the Hollywood sign, though the lighting was kind of bad at the time of day and the sign kind of blended in with the mountain but it was there nonetheless.

If you look REALLY closely, you can see the Hollywood Sign

After that, I decided to drive down Santa Monica Blvd through Beverly Hills and on to Santa Monica beach. Many LA peeps had told me that Santa Monica isn't really the best beach place to go to, but it was too late in the day for real beach time, and I just wanted to walk along the pier, get some grub and see the ocean. I figured Santa Monica would do since it was the closest.

Close, sure, but let me tell you something. Traffic? Goodness. It took me about an hour once I got into Santa Monica to park because traffic moved so slow. I should have known, oh well, lesson learned.

I had a lovely walk along the beach, and along the pier. Had a nice little dinner at a restaurant on the pier, sat outside and watched the sunset. Got a great pic of the sun setting behind the mountain along the water.

Santa Monica Pier at Sunset

Santa Monica definitely isn't the place I go to for a beach day. It does have a lot of beach area to hang out, but it's kind of...young? The pier has the rollar coaster, carousel, amusement park type games. Not a lot of shopping, though there is shopping close by. I like the beach towns where you can easily be walking along the beach and there's a ton of local shops and restaurants and so forth. Mission Beach/Pacific Beach in San Diego is like that.

I'm told that Manhattan Beach is the best LA beach so when I have an actual full beach day I'll check it out. Apparently that's where my dad used to go when he was young. I'm learning all sorts of things about my dad's California upbringing.

Today I spent most of the day poolside, reading and soaking up the rays. There is something super relaxing about just sitting out in the sun, catching a nice cool breeze and reading. It's becoming a weekend ritual now.

Not much else going on right now, everything is going well. Sang in my first mass with the choir on Sunday, and it was really nice. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about choir singing (my college choir got really annoying after awhile, but maybe it was just because I had too many other things going on) but it is actually really nice to be singing in a group again. I needed to get back to singing on a more regular basis, and this will help. One thing that's good to know - I haven't lost my choir skills. I can still sight read like a pro. So that's been super helpful in learning stuff fast!

Now, it's back to work , but at least it's a short week!

2 Months

The Queen Mary - Long Beach

At this point, I've almost hit the 2 month mark in LA. Time sure is flying fast! And yet, at the same time it sort of feels like I've been here for a long time. My life back in St. Louis seems so far away now, it's hard to believe that just 2 months ago I was living in St. Louis, working fast to try and move everything out of my old apartment to make the move out to LA.

Things have been going very well. I feel very content. I had a conversation with a co-worker the other day where she was mentioning how he doesn't understand how some people can live in the same place all of their life. That is, you live and grow up where you were born and never leave. I see what she means.

I've always been a free spirit, with a love of travel. I want to get out and see the world. And I do see that having the opportunity to move somewhere else, get a new change of pace, see a different lifestyle...it's refreshing. Scary, yes it can be that. But there is something really awesome about moving to a new place.

I joined my church's choir. I decided the best thing to do was to talk to the music director about how to get involved, and joining the choir was the best option. Went to my first rehearsal tonight and it was a lot of fun. I've missed singing, and this will help me refresh a lot of my singing skills. And eventually I hope to become a cantor as well, but we'll start with one thing at a time.

Power 106 had a Sex & The City 2 screening event on Tuesday and I was able to go. It was held in this great theater, very high class place. All the theaters are small, and the seats recline. They serve you drinks and food during the viewing. It was very very cool. Plus, I got to see the movie before it came out which is awesome. Won't spoil anything for anyone but if you are a SATC fan, go see it. You'll like it. :)

At the Sex & The City Screening in Pasadena

Last Saturday I made a trip to Long Beach. My grandma's sister's husband died, so there was a memorial service for him. I had the chance to meet up with a lot of my grandma's side of the family, many of them people I've maybe seen once or twice in my entire life. It was very nice to connect with this side of the family. That is another really nice perk about being out in Southern California. I am really enjoying getting closer to my family out here.

While I was in Long Beach I decided it was time for me to see the ocean, since I hadn't seen it yet! Long Beach isn't exactly the best beach area, it's more industrial but the ocean is there and the Queen Mary is there, which is a tourist attraction. I enjoyed walking along the water and just breathing in the sea air.

I've decided that perhaps this weekend I need to hit Manhattan Beach in LA if it's warm enough. I want to get the cute sea side shops/hit the beach/walk the beach experience and that's a better beach for it. We'll see.

In other news, I got tickets to see Paul McCartney in July in San Francisco! My cousin and her husband are going to, so it's going to be super fun!

Lots of good things going on! :)

Cooking and Celebs

Christina, Jason and I = Power 106 Buddies

I've been keeping really busy in LA. With Mother's Day last week I was putting in a lot of hours at Victoria's Secret, this week not so much but that left time for some socializing events!
On Wednesday, I attended a cooking class with some fellow Emmis co-workers. The cooking class was at Homegirl Cafe in downtown LA. They served us some awesome appetizers - jalepeno pesto sauce, mini quesadillas and some fabulous pineapple-mango salsa - yum! We also had a really cool drink, it was lemonade with mint, sugar and spinach. It tasted so good! I actually tasted a lot like a mojito, very refreshing!

After that, we got to go into the kitchen and learn how to make mole. There's like 40 different ingredients that go into making this, it's crazy! We had a lot of fun preparing recipes and the final outcome was delish. Very fun!

Thursday I went to a friend's Bingo/Fundraiser party, where I met my first celeb, so to speak. Patrika Darbo is a good friend of Jason's, and she was there. She's most well-known for playing Nancy Wesley on Days of Our Lives but she's been in a lot of things (check out her profile here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004858/). Super nice lady, with a great sense of humor. We had a lot of fun playing bingo. Also, I told her how much I enjoyed her on DAYS and she was so sweet. When I mentioned I was from St. Louis, she said "So you know Kevin?" Kevin Spirtas, who played Craig Wesley, her on-screen husband, is from St. Louis. I had no idea. Found this out from Patrika. Too funny.

On the far right at the top of the photo you can see that Patrika and I playing Bingo.

It was super fun to play bingo. I probably hadn't played since...well a LONG time! All of the funds went to support Jason's participation in an AIDS Lifecycle Bike Ride, which is awesome.

My irish dance skills are starting to finally get back into shape. I'm still behind in my class but I feel very confident in getting caught up with the rest of the class soon. I'm excited about the prospect of actually competing in a feis. That would be really cool.

This weekend...not sure. Working at Vicki's for a few hours tomorrow, maybe going to a party tomorrow night, and perhaps meeting up with friend Sarah on Sunday.

Having a ball living the Cali life! :)

One Month

Me & Grandma Bennie

Well, I've been a California girl for about a month now. In some ways it's like "wow, a month!" and in other ways it's like "that's it?"

That's because I've settled in here quite nicely. In the past month I have accomplished the following:

-moved into my new apartment and made it feel like home

-started my new job at Power 106 and have gotten fully acclimated

-found a part time job at Victoria's Secret and have started such job

-found an Irish dancing class to join
-have a church to go to on a regular basis, possibly getting involved musically

-met some new friends at work, visited my friends out here, and visited family

Not bad for a month, huh?

I do miss my St. Louis friends and family, of course. And I miss being able to watch Cardinals games! Though, if I wanted to, I could pay for MLB's online video package which would allow me to watch any Cardinals game. It's just a bit pricey, so I may have to stick to just following the games online.

I will however, get the chance to see the Cardinals play the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium when they come to town! I have tickets to the game, I can't wait to go. Dodger Stadium is one of the only old school stadiums left. Only Fenway, Wrigley and Dodger Stadium are left now that the Yanks and the Mets have new stadiums. So it's pretty cool for that aspect. And the game is in June, so the weather should be pretty good and not too hot yet.

I received an e-mail the other day that I have received a ticket to show see a Jay Leno show taping! I had signed up to try and get tickets when I thought my mom might be in town. Turns out, I got them! I don't know if my mom is still going to be able to come (it's the Friday before Memorial Day weekend) but if not, I'll go. I've never gone to a live taping before, so I'm pretty excited about this. It should be fun!

Getting ready to go visit my relatives in Hemet. My cousin Laura is having an early Mother's Day celebration at her house, so I'm going to spend time with them. I am really loving that I am so much closer to my California family. Being able to see them on a more regular basis is fantastic.

That said, gotta go get ready to head out east. More updates to follow, and perhaps some pics from today later!

Irish Dancing in LA...

One of my goals (of the many many goals I have) when I got out here was to try and find a way to still be able to irish dance. When I moved back to St. Louis in 2006, I was fortunate to find a place where I could re-introduce irish dancing to my life as an adult. I loved it.

I performed in two recitals performing irish dance routines at St. Louis Academy of Dance and then in the past year I was able to take adult classes at Clark Academy, which was super fun. I highly recommend Clark for any St. Louis peeps who might want to irish dance.

I saw that there was an adult class in North Hollywood, which is fab because NoHo is super close to me. It's about a 5 minute max drive to the NoHo class. The name is Cleary Irish Dance and Margaret Cleary, the instructor, is great. Adult class is split into solo and ceili (group dancing), and adults have the option of competing! That means I could perform in a feis if I wanted to. Last time I did that I was about 9 years old. That was...well, a long time ago. *cough*

Anyway, I'm trying out the classes but I think it's a great thing for me. The other classmates seem cool, it's a great way to meet other people, and I'll get to keep up my dancing skills!

That's the big news for this week. I didn't make it to the beach on Sunday. Wanted to go, but was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday so instead of driving out to the beach, I grabbed a book and got some sun on my porch instead. :) I have plenty of time for the beach, plus Huntington is a 50 mile drive so it's not like it's super close. Another time.

Now that things are settling, I need to work on meeting people. I know this will happen, slowly but surely. It's a good thing I have my kitty Ringo. He's the best thing ever. It's nice to know that someone is excited to see you when you come home (yes, my cat greets me).

Will post more later!

The Gloom Rolled In...

A bit of a gloomy day in LA today...yes, LA does have non-sunny days. I've always known that I don't do well without the sun but days like these confirm this. I just don't function well without lots of vitamin D sunny goodness!

Although when it is rainy and cloudy in LA it doesn't seem to last for long. It tends to roll through pretty quickly. So now it's pretty clear outside but alas, it's about 7:30pm and there's no sun to enjoy today. Bummer.

The weekend has a better outlook. I'm hoping to have my first beach experience. A co-worker of mine is involved in this charity event that allows people with spinal cord injuries to experience riding the waves...yep, surfing! They have special surf boards and of course they go out with a professional but it seems like a really cool event. It's at Huntington Beach which I'm told is one of the best beaches to go to. The event is on Sunday so I may make a day of it and just check out what there is to see.

That is, if I'm not schedule to work. Yes, I have found some part-time work - doing the retail thing at Victoria's Secret at the Burbank Mall. I wanted to have some extra cash, just to have more fun money and so forth. The cost of living IS quite a dramatic difference from Missouri. Would rather have some extra income for awhile. Plus, I'll meet some other people in the area this way. It'll be fun, it's not going to be crazy extra hours (except during the semi-annual sale times) plus I get a discount. :)

I'm still trying to find a gym, I think I'm going to look into LA Fitness. It has the most group classes that I'm interested in and several of their locations have Zumba, which I love. Need to find out the details on membership though, I'm not in a position to spend tons of money on this so it needs to be reasonable. Plus, there is an adult irish dance class I'd like to take as well. I haven't gone to it yet because I wanted to get the part-time job secure first. Now, I think I can make the class work within my schedule since it's on Wednesday nights...Vicki's will want me on weekends.

I haven't gotten involved with the church choir yet for the same reason. I tend to have a history of jumping into things too soon so I'm thinking I should take some time to get to know my church before jumping into any commitments. I'm sort of thinking I'd rather be a cantor instead of in a choir. Main reason is for scheduling. Choirs are required to sing every weekend, cantors are scheduled. So I'll have to talk to the music director and find out the scoop on that.

Obviously, I have lots of things on my plate and I'm not having problems keeping busy! I've only been in LA for about 4 weeks, can't expect a lot to happen fast.

One thing I've learned is that yes, I CAN live without cable. I decided it wasn't worth the cost, internet won the battle over cable. I find it's good for me. It keeps me from sitting in front of the TV too much and forces me to get out and do stuff. And I actually get a lot of local channels, granted a majority of them are in Spanish, Korean or some other foreign language. I'll get an education! I get all of the networks so I can keep up with all of the main shows. Plus, thanks to hulu and the internet, I can watch shows online. In fact, I just watch my soap opera on the CBS.com website instead of taping it.

So, yeah things are good. I am loving LA, I really am. Not digging the rain though. However, the clouds are cool when they roll over the mountains. Below is a pic I took from the office.

More updates to follow! Hopefully a full out beach experience soon!

Living the Cali Life...

I've been a California resident for almost two weeks now! Things are going very very well. I've started work, which is fabulous. It's only been a week, but I'm getting acclimated and I like the people I work with and I think it's going to be great. I can't wait to get fully engaged into my work.

Plus, everyone at Power was very welcoming. I even had a welcoming sign!

My apartment is great and starting to feel more like home every day. Does it still need more stuff? Yeah, I haven't bought a bed yet (using an air mattress or my futon) and it could use things here and there but honestly? I'm okay with just a few things. I remember just how much stuff I gave away, threw away, sold, etc. in my old apartment in StL so I'm okay with going the minimalist route.

One thing I'm excited about it my balcony. I want to get some plants and flowers to set outside. I'd especially like to get some little palms. I can get one at IKEA for $15, but I'm waiting on the plants for a bit. I figured that would be a fun project for my mom and I went she comes out to visit.

View From My Balcony

My commute is AWESOME. It's even better than my commute in St. Louis! It takes me 7 minutes to get to work. I don't have to get on the freeway, it's really easy. Also, the area I chose to live is really fantastic. I'm in Toluca Lake, which is where a lot of stars live (mainly because the TV and movie studios are close by). Apparently Miley Cyrus lives just down the street from me, probably about a mile away.

I don't really care so much for the stars, I just like that I'm close to so much stuff. Close to Burbank, NoHo Arts District, Hollywood...the only thing I'm not super close to is the beach, but my apartment complex has a pool. And, the beach is about 30 minutes away (unless it's a super fabulous sunny day and everyone is going to the beach. Then the 405 will be even more of a parking lot than it normally is).

We've had 2 earthquakes since I've moved here and I've felt neither. To my credit, the second one was really minor and didn't even make headline news. I'm sure I'll have my fill of them though, unfortunately.

I met with my friend Sarah for dinner on Saturday, and that was very cool. Then yesterday I was able to meet up with my Aunt Martha and cousin Jenny. Jenny was in town from Alaksa so I was really glad to see her since I don't get many opportunities to do so. I'm now only 2 hours away from my aunt I'm also really happy to have the opportunity to get to know my California relatives better as all of my life until now I saw them about once a year, sometimes once every two years.

So, all in all things are going well. The cat is adjusting, he seems to be embracing his California Cool Kitty lifestyle. :)

Here's a view of Burbank and the mountains that I took from the office. Nice, eh? Every day I get to see this! The sun, the mountains and the palm trees make me happy.

Burbank, CA

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

My apartment is coming together and now looks more like someone lives here. My dad helped get my futon and coffee table together, so now I have a nice sitting area in front of the TV, and a table for my laptop, which is really all I need. I still have a big empty space across from the kitchen, I think once I get my keyboard from St. Louis it’ll become my music area as I really don’t plan on getting a dining room table. We’ll see.

My dad left yesterday, I dropped him off at LAX around noon. We took a detour and drove through his childhood neighborhood, which was pretty cool. This was an area I considered living, but after realizing how ugly the commute would be opted otherwise.

I’ll admit it, when I hugged my dad good-bye some tears fell. First time I had really gotten emotional during this whole move process. My dad is so wonderful and he has been amazing through this whole process and I’m going to miss being close to him and my mom. I knew it would hit me when he left, and it did. But, I’m okay now. It’s natural to cry a bit, I expected it. I would have been a bit concerned if I hadn’t!

On Friday my dad and I went to Hemet and visited my grandma and aunt and uncle. It was great to see them. My grandma is an amazing woman, really and truly. It is going to be so nice to be closer to her, I realized in recent years that there is so much I don’t know about my dad’s side of the family, and my grandma has done extensive research on our ancestry. I hope to spend some time with her learning more about our family history. It will be a great bonding experience for her and me of course, but it would also be nice to learn more about my family.

Last night I went to Holy Saturday mass at St. Charles Borromeo, my new church out in California (the church is walking distance from my apartment, so I really have no excuses!). The service was very nice; they had a LOT of Catechumens who entered the church. It’s a pretty large parish; they have 7 masses on Sundays! One of them is in Spanish of course, but wow.

While the music was beautiful and I really like the pastor of this church, he seems to relate to the parishioners very well, or at least, I could relate to him, I once again find myself missing Sts. John and James. SSJJ, my parish growing up in Ferguson, MO, had the best Easter Vigil service, by far. Singing the Creation Story and the Exodus Reading, I wonder if any church uses these musical pieces. It seemed to me that the Vigil here was not a huge attraction for parishioners. It was mostly the Catechumens and their families.

Maybe that will change once I get involved with the parish musically. We’ll see! I’m going to attend the 5pm Easter Service tonight, it’s the “Contemporary Mass.” I’m interested in seeing if there are a lot of young people at the service and what the music is like. There are obviously many opportunities to get involved; I just want to make sure I choose the right path. I’ve never been particularly fond of choirs, at least not on a regular basis. I enjoy it periodically, but I much prefer smaller groups of people, like a 4-6 person group that can sing harmony but you can do a lot of solo work too. There are so many masses at this parish that I’m sure I can find one that will work for me. Just going to have to go and see what I like!

I start my new job tomorrow, and boy, am I anxious to get going! I don’t think I’d handle not working very well, this past week kept me busy because we had to drive, get into the apartment, go shopping, etc. But now it’s kind of like “okay, now what do I do?” I’m ready to get into the office and get into the swing of things. I clocked the commute today, and it took me 7 minutes to drive from my parking spot to the office. Of course this is Sunday, and not rush hour but I'm thinking worst case scenario it won't take more than 30 minutes. So I'll plan on leaving earlier than I need to tomorrow morning so I'm not late on the first day. But it should be good, because I do not have to take the freeway which is super fantastic!

I will post some apartment photos soon, right now I'm using The Coffee Bean's wifi and apparently it doesn't like uploading photos. More later!

Officially a California Girl!

Cactus growing outside my bedroom window!

Well, we made it to LA! I'm all settled into the new apartment (more or less, it's a work in progress of course).

I have to say that I absolutely LOVE the area that I chose. North Hollywood is really cool. I'm super close to the NoHo Arts District so for someone like me who is into theatre and music and so forth it's a great place to be. Plus, it's also super close to Burbank, and I think I can get away with a really easy commute into the office.

We got in yesterday around 11am, got all of the logistics with move-in taken care of, then began the oh so fun project of...shopping.

We found the Target in Burbank and got some stuff there, then we found the closest Wal-Mart (my dad insisted it was the cheapest place to get a TV, and unfortunately, he was right based on our online searching). This Wal-Mart was...interesting. First off, it's attached to a mall and is 2 stories tall. So the escalators have a separate escalator for your cart so you don't have to take the elevator if you don't want to. It's my definition of hell, seriously. I couldn't wait to get out of there! It won't be on my list of places to go to in the future unless I absolutely have no other alternative.

Today I got to take my dad on his first trip ever to an IKEA. Oh how much do I love the IKEA, let me count the ways. Not sure my dad felt the same but he was a good sport about it. I got a futon, a coffee table, two bar stools and some other assorted items. This is good because now I have a place to sit and watch TV, work on my computer, and so forth.

Bed for now is an air mattress, but it's cool. It's actually a pretty nice air mattress. I'm willing to wait and save up money for a nice bedroom set (or look on craigslist). I have a bed frame that I really love that's at IKEA, but I couldn't afford to buy both the futon and the bed frame, so I went with the couch first.

I love my new apartment, it's really a nice place and the manager lives on site, he's married and they're a young couple and he seems like a pretty decent guy. So so far, so good.

I promise I will post some pictures of the apartment, but it's a mess right now so it will have to come at a later time.

I don't have internet at home until Wednesday, so updates will be limited for awhile and it's a bear trying to update this on my Iphone. But I promise to post more as things move along!

Tomorrow my dad and I are driving to the Inland Empire as they call it out here to see my grandma, aunt and uncle and hopefully my cousins. Will be great to see everyone!

My dad leaves on Saturday, I have plans to go to the Easter Vigil service at my church on Saturday night, then Sunday not sure yet and on Monday, I start work!

The Road to Cali: Day 3

California Desert

Flagstaff, AZ

We made it to California today! Not LA though, we're about 120 miles or so from LA. I won't be able to get into my apartment tonight so we decided to stop in Barstow, which is basically a desert town.

We drove from Gallup, NM to Flagstaff, AZ (which is absolutely gorgeous, my goodness! Snow covered mountains, the city itself is at the top of a mountain. Very very cool). I ended up driving all the way to Needles, CA, which is the first town once you cross the border into California. Once you get into Cali it's...well, the desert. The Mojave Desert. Lots and lots of mountains, little cactus, dry land and well...that's about it!

We didn't go to the Grand Canyon. We thought about it, but after actually calculating the amount of time it would take to get there and back, plus the fact that we wouldn't be able to spend a whole lot of time there (especially with a cat in tow) we opted against it. Would rather get into my apartment early tomorrow morning and get the whole moving process started!

It was quite an interesting drive. Drove through a lot of mountains and saw some pretty awesome landscape. Glad I'm not making a return drive though...definitely going to fly home to St. Louis for visits, not drive. This has been a fun trip but it is exhausting!

The Road to Cali: Day 2

Albuquerque, NM

In what will likely be the LONGEST day of our trip out west we accomplished driving almost 700 miles today - wow! Started out in Oklahoma City, then as we hit the Texas border I was promptly greeted with a tumbleweed. Nice. Drove across the Panhandle (B-O-R-I-N-G). Even Amarillo has nothing. I thought Oklahoma was flat but oh no, the Texas Panhandle wins.

I was so excited to see New Mexico. Mountains! Mesas! Red rock! Trees! New Mexico is very scenic. Albuquerque is pretty cool. It's a city that's settled right in the middle of the mountains. So pretty much anywhere you look, there they are. I can't help it though, every time I think of Albuquerque I hear Bugs Bunny saying "I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque." Ah, childhood.

We decided to continue on and are spending tonight in Gallup. So we're about 20 miles from the Arizona border! Tomorrow I think we're going to take a detour to see the Grand Canyon. It means we won't likely get to my apartment in California until Wednesday, but since it's ready and waiting for us why not take the detour, right? Who knows when I'll have the chance to see the Canyon in person again, maybe never. The cat would probably prefer to get to the apartment ASAP so he doesn't have to travel in his carrier anymore, but well, he'll deal. He's been SO great so far so I know he's going to be fine.

That's the scoop on Day 2, going to head out and find a place to grab some dinner. I'm so glad we decided to make the drive ourselves, I'm really enjoying spending the time with my dad and also seeing so much of the country during the drive. It is truly amazing to see how the landscape changes, especially once you start seeing mountains and so forth.

Can't wait to see what it'll be like driving through the desert - yup, Mojave Desert is on the route to LA so we'll see that too.

The Road to Cali: Day 1

Oklahoma City, OK

Today I officially hit the road and am one my way to my new California home. My dad, the cat and I left St. Louis around 10:15am or so, and as I type this it is about 7pm and we are spending the night in Oklahoma City. It would have been nice to get a little further today but there's nothing really in between Oklahoma City and Amarillo, and we weren't going to make it to Amarillo. So, 8 hours down, 20 more to go (yahoo!).

Perhaps an ambitious goal, but tomorrow we hope to get to the New Mexico/Arizona border. That's about 10 hours of driving though, so we'll see. Albuquerque may be as far as we get. Good thing is I have an apartment waiting for me in North Hollywood so we can afford to take our time and not tire ourselves out too much.

I drove all the way to Joplin, then my dad drove us through to Oklahoma City. The cat was amazingly good. He wasn't happy of course, but he only cried a few times and was mostly silent. He's been such a good sport through all of this so far, I hope he can make it all the way to LA.

So we're on our way, should be in LA by Wednesday. It's all so surreal still but I'm definitely excited and ready to start my new life out in California!

More updates from the road later! :)

Last Night in St. Louis...

Well, here it is. By this time tomorrow I'll be somewhere in Oklahoma, or maybe Texas, if we're really ambitious.

I moved everything out of my apartment today. I'm already tired of moving and sorting through stuff. It's going to be hard deciding what to keep and what will stay behind at my parents' place. At least if it's at my parents it's not gone, just not with me for the time being.

I had breakfast this morning with my cousins and grandma, which was really nice. It happened so fast though! I felt like I hardly had time to hang out with them. But that's how it goes, I suppose.

Tonight I had dinner with my parents and my second family, The Fletcher's. I'm going to miss them so much! It was very nice and I'm starting to feel a bit...well, sad I guess. I'm not my usual perky self. I knew the move would be hard though. It will all work out for the best, but this initial transition will be hard.

Getting ready to head out and hang out with some more friends before hitting the road. Will post more updates later!

Last Week in "The Lou"

I can't believe that this is my last week in St. Louis! Where has the time gone?

As it stands, the only big items I have left in my apartment are a computer chair, an air mattress and my 42 inch TV. Ha. Sounds like a typical guy's place, huh?

I still have tons of boxes, and the Salvation Army is getting quite a large donation from me. It feels weird to get rid of so much stuff and start over and then yet, I realize more and more that I am totally spoiled and I have lived my life owning more things than are necessary. Truly, I must remind myself to not buy so much crap in the future. Some of this was inherited, of course. My mother gave me a lot of it. Holiday decor, old items from when I was a child, etc. I guess she thought since I had moved out it was time for me to have ALL of it. That's how my 575 sq foot apartment ended up jam packed with all sorts of stuff.

I also am a bad pack rat. I'll keep stuff until I'm forced to purge. Which is why this move is good in many ways. I'm finally getting rid of things that I've needed to get rid of for some time. I have 3 full boxes of clothes! And it's not clothes that are in that bad of shape either. They just don't fit, or I don't care for the style anymore, etc.

The cat is super confused by all of this, poor guy. He's in for quite an ordeal, I hope he gets through it all right. I'll need him to be my buddy in Cali!

I'm about *this* close to getting an apartment. I'm trying to negotiate a deal, I know my credit was approved and they are interested in working with me so I hope to have something figured out this week. It would be a HUGE weight off of my shoulders to get this taken care of. It's a great apartment too, it's in North Hollywood/Toluca Lake. It's walking distance from my new Catholic Church and it's 2 miles from work. Can't beat that! Keep your fingers crossed!

Packing Up My Bags...

Packing sucks. Packing up your life to move cross country? Triple sucks. I cannot fathom how in the world I've ended up with so much stuff (cue in George Carlin's "stuff" comedy bit. RIP, George!). I have already thrown out at least 10 bags of stuff to just trash, and at my last calculation my Salvation Army donation totaled almost $700 (and that's with me going with the low end pricing on their site for items donated!). Next year's tax return should be awesome!

It's getting barer in my apartment, my friend Sarah's boyfriend bought my bedroom furniture and he came and took that last night. So I've been sleeping on my futon, well, until Monday until that's taken away and I'll be using an air mattress. Not for too long though because I'm sure I'll end up sleeping at my parent's place as it gets closer to move day.

Sunday, March 28th is the day! My car will be packed and me, my dad and Ringo (the kitty) will be hitting the road and making the LONG drive from St. Louis to LA. I'm kind of looking forward to the long trip though. Driving across the country is something I've always thought would be cool. Stopping at different places, just getting to see things. I'd like for us to make a stop at the Grand Canyon. Why not? We're already driving that way, might as well get a little fun out of it!

The apartment search in LA is...exhausting. I have a place that I really like in Toluca Lake, which is next to Burbank and would be awesome commute wise. But, I have to negotiate with them on rent because their price is just a little too high. However, they are offering a special (one month free or certain amount of months rent discounted) so I'm trying to see if instead of using those incentives if I sign a 12 month lease can I work those discounts into the monthly rent. We'll see. They have two units open, I have good credit and I'd be able to move in right away. Why not work with me, right?

If that doesn't work out, I think my dad and I will be hitting the Burbank area and trying to find something there. I had a place that I liked in West Hollywood, but it's street parking and I'm a little concerned about the safety aspect of having to do that, even if parking is easy to find, you know? Plus, it's 7 miles from the office and in rush hour traffic that could be...well, nightmarish. So I'm still hitting up craigslist to see what's open and we'll take a day when we get there to find a place (unless the above situation works out!).

I still in so many ways can't believe this is happening. I ALWAYS dreamed of making the move to California but had long ago thought that perhaps that wasn't ever going to happen. Is this going to be easy? Of course not. But I have a feeling that many good things are coming my way and this move to California is going to provide the opportunities to me to become even more successful and independent in my career and personal life.

As I am packing and so forth, I found my college senior memory book (thanks Liz!) and was flipping through it. The book contains all sort of fun stuff, including letters from my friends. I had to pause and read my friend Barbara's note. Why? The closing of her note said "may all your California dreams come true."

Well Barbara, looks like they are! :)

Hollywood Bound...

Well, my LA adventure is about to begin. In just a couple of weeks, I will be an official California girl. Not that I haven't always had the California blood in me. Ever since I was a child going to California always excited me. Of course I have relatives in both northern and southern California and I love seeing them, but there was something else. Something about California pulled me in. Maybe it's the mountains, the palm trees, the sun...whatever it is, it's always felt like home to me in some way.

So now I am about the live the dream that I have always wanted. I'm moving to Los Angeles. I have an amazing job opportunity with my company's office in LA and am looking forward to having the chance to work in the radio industry out in LA. Working for Power 106 is going to be awesome!

Anyway, I thought I'd start a blog about my big move. After all, I've only lived in the midwest my entire life, more specifically, only in Missouri and Indiana. California will be quite a change! Plus it'll be a way for me to keep in touch with all of my family and friends. :)

Still lots of things to do and moving out of my current apartment has been a pain! Somehow though, it will all work. And in a little over two weeks, I'll be a California resident!

The picture is the view from a potential apartment I'm looking at moving into. Pretty cool, huh?