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!