The Economy

For many of you who read my blog this probably isn’t your thing, but it matters to me. I read this article this morning. For me it was frustrating to see that our government had been foolish in spending all this “bailout” money. You can’t just throw money at the problem to make it go away. I’m a fiscal conservative. I don’t believe in big government or big government spending. I really believe that money should have gone into job creation. I mean just look at the infrastructure of our nation. It’s completely falling apart in some ways. I’m not an expert, but I think there were better options for how to heal this economy. People need to feel stable financially before this economy will stabilize. The only way for people to have financial stability is to get them back to work and have them working in jobs they aren’t afraid to lose. Until people have the money to pay off their debts and what not the banks need to continue to be scrupulous in their loaning of money. It’s not going to be easy, but giving more money to banks is not the answer. It is not the most efficient way to put money back into the economy.

WB Lot

So, in the continuation of my time with my mom I also took Friday afternoon after early this week. (Read the previous post for what we did earlier this week.) Anyway, through his internship Eric was able to get my mom and I passes onto the WB studio lot. It was seriously so much fun, but I wore the wrong shoes which made it a bit more difficult for me. Anyway, once we got there we decided to have lunch at their cafe. The food was really good and not too expensive at all. From there Eric took us exploring. We saw the old exterior for ER. But eventually we also found one of the old sound stages that was open. We walked through the "ER". They had a warning up though that the set was under surveillance because too many items were being taken as souvenirs from the show by people who worked there. We didn't take anything, but just had a look through. We also saw some cool people while we were on the lot. On the right is Simon Baker from "The Mentalist". In the center is Ryan Stiles. I only saw the back of him, but it was definitely him. He was guesting on "Two and a Half Men" and on the right is Johnny Galecki. He was walking out of the "Big Bang Theory" sound stage. That is a show that Eric and I really love. If you recognize him, but not from that show it's because he used to be on Roseanne too. He was actually really good looking in person, not like the nerdy characters he plays. We didn't talk to him since he looked like he was in a hurry to leave. We didn't even talk to any of them, but really it was just cool to see them wandering around minding their own business too. It was just another day of work for them.

While on the lot we hit up some of their little shops. It was fun. They sell cheap DVDs, souvenirs, Jamba Juice, etc. It's like a little world unto it's own. Our last stop on the way out was the WB museum. The whole second floor is for Harry Potter items. They had a lot of original outfits and creatures from the movies. Biggest spider I've ever seen. The best part though was the original sorting hat and stool from the first movie. We were actually all sorted. I was sorted into Hufflepuff, Eric of course was Gryffindor and my mom more surprisingly ended up in Slytherin. It was so cool to see the real stuff, but we definitely couldn't touch anything. It was the kind of museum that was hands off. Besides Harry Potter they had other cool costumes for us to look at it. Lots of different movies.

Anyway, it was a really fun day. It was just super cool to be there and think that as Eric works on his career he might be able to get us onto other studio lots and see stuff there. I feel so privileged to be married to Eric and be able to enjoy this very exciting and surreal life here. You couldn't ask for much more!

Crazy Monday

So, my mom has been in town for the past week. I need to write about the fun we've had. On Monday and Tuesday of this week I took the afternoons off and we just went wild. On Monday when I came home from work we went out to In N Out for lunch. The classic Californian burger. After that we headed up toward the Hollywood sign. We got some cool pictures there. Eric found this cool path one day and so we walked a little ways up and took pictures. Eventually Eric and I will walk all the way up. I just need to wear more sensible shoes next time. It's a cool picture to have and we like it.

After that we drove down to Hollywood Blvd. We saw Grumman's Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre and the stars on Hollywood Blvd. We didn't actually get out of the car though because it was pretty crowded. So, we drove on and ended up at the Beverly Center so Eric and my mom could go potty. It was fun being there, but we didn't have any money for shopping so we paid our $1 for parking and moved on.

The next stop was the La Brea Tar Pits. Really, it's more like just one Tar Pit. It's this place where anciently tar was bubbling to the surface of the earth and lots of animals' remains were stuck there. Now, it's been filled with rain water and stuff so the pit is more of like a really dirty pond. Lots of dinosaur fossils have been found here. It's still a very active place. Methane continues to bubble up. Randomly big bubbles would come to the surface of the "pond" and it smells kind of bad. Tar is even coming up in little spots along some walk ways and across the street on the curb. Just a cool place in history right in the middle of Los Angeles.

After we went there we drove up Wilshire Blvd to Rodeo Dr. We definitely didn't get out there because we can't even afford to get out of the car on Rodeo Drive. It was fun to see the stores there though and dream of what life could be like.

We headed up through Beverly Hills after that and saw some pretty cool homes. We ended up on Mulholland Drive and saw some spectacular houses down below. We even stopped at some of the look out points. There were amazing views of downtown LA and the Valley depended on which side of the road you were on. To the left is a picture Eric took of downtown LA. It didn't look as smoggy in real life. It was actually really beautiful. Everything just goes on forever. It's cool to be part of something so big. I really like living here. We live near some cool stuff, but also it's just super fun.

After we went there were came home and had dinner. We all nearly fell into bed we were so tired and it was only 7pm when we got home. Just so much to see around here

On Tuesday we had a little time and just kind of chilled out around home. Then in the afternoon we headed to the WB to watch a taping of the run through for Kelsey Grammer's pilot of his new TV show. The current title is "The Pryor's". I liked it and I think it will be fun to watch, especially with your family. You should be able to see it this fall. Kelsey looks really good and fresh. It's a different character for him, which is nice to see. It was a really good time to see them work through things and start some scenes over. Since it wasn't the official taping of the show he still used his script at times, but it was still great. I recommend going to a taping for anyone that comes to LA. It's just so much fun!

I'll write more later for the other things we did this week. It was just tons of fun!

Why we might re-think Obama?

Nothing I’m about to say is based on any facts or solid information, just my experiences as an American. Right now, the economy is in bad shape; even my family is struggling with some of that fall-out right now. In the media though we continually see President Obama making speeches about what he’s doing to “fix” the economy. He’s doing very well in the polls, which is great for him. But it reminded me of President Bush. Back in 2001 after the events with September 11th America embraced President Bush. He was dedicated to protecting us and getting rid of this horrible of terrorism. As time went on we stopped liking what he was doing so much and his numbers greatly declined in the polls. I don’t want us to lose hope that what President Obama is doing might actually work and get us out of this situation, but realistically it might not and then we’re going to hate a man that is only doing what we are currently so desperate for him to do. We should watch out what we ask for.

The Oscars

So, as many of you know, I worked at the 81st Annual Academy Awards (The Oscars) today. The company I work for does the press room for the event. They allow people from the office to come and run microphones and hand out headsets to people. All this happens in a big room at the Renaissance hotel right next to the Kodak Theatre.

I arrived around 1pm. The room was pretty empty. There just a bunch of chairs, tables ant TV screens around. My coworkers and I went to our table where the headsets were waiting to be picked up. The headsets are used by the press to listen to the show when their is someone being interviewed in the room. At the front of the room there is a stage with 2 Oscars statues on it. It's elegant, but not over the top. There is a microphone in the middle of the stage for the winners to answer the interview questions from the press. Anyway, as the afternoon went on the room filled up with different press people. There were about 350 people in the room.

Once the show started the four us that were mic-runners got into place. One in each corner of the room. The press people all had a paper with a large number written on it. When the winner came into the room they would hold up their numbers signifying they wanted to ask a question. The moderator would then list off some numbers and we would run to those people and give them the microphone. Pretty simple stuff. Now for specifics.

Overall it was enjoyable, but my feet are so sore. I should wear more comfortable shoes if I do it again. I was very happy that Slumdog Millionaire won so many awards. Anyone who had an Indian Accent said, "Filum" instead of "film". I thought it was adorable. I love their accent. For the rest of the foreigners a lot of the press questions were asked in their native language so I didn't really know what was going on.

Kate Winslet was beautiful. I was probably within a foot or less of her at one point. Strangely enough it didn't feel any different than being that close to anyone else I don't know. She's beautiful and talented, but she's also just a person. She was very funny while being interviewed. She is a charming woman. I'm happy that she won.

I wasn't too thrilled with Sean Penn. I've found him quite annoying for many years now. Tonight he mostly talked about gay rights and how people who supported Prop 8 are all filled with hate. I don't know, I just don't agree with him and I don't think he's very attractive either. I really wish someone else had one.

They tried to get Hugh Jackman to come up to the press room, but for some reason he couldn't. That was just too bad. I would have loved to have seen him.

The last to come in was the producer, Christian Colson, and director, Danny Boyle, of Slumdog Millionaire. They were also very charming to listen to. They really do make you think dreams can come true. Danny Boyle is a great director. I recomment Slumdog to anyone. It was amazingly good. He also directed a movie called Millions. That is a good movie as well.

One last note, the Oscars are incredibly shiny in real life. Like, not just a little bit, but bright gliming gold. Pretty cool to see in real life. I'll post pictures later with this as they become available.

Family

Today Eric and I went to his grandpa's funeral in Mesquite, NV. Strangely enough I cried, Eric didn't. (Well, that's not strange since Eric never cries. He has emotions, but doesn't express them through tears like I do.) Anyway, I just wanted to say how moved I was by the service. I'm saddened that I didn't have more time to know Grandpa Hughes. He was a good man, but from the memories that were shared of him he was clearly a better man than I ever understood.

As I sat in the congregation feeling the love of his family I just felt so blessed to be part of it. I didn't know it when I married Eric, but I know now how lucky I was to marry into this family. There is just so much love and support for one another. It's not that my family isn't great, but it's just different with this family. They are unbelievably loving and kind. From the moment Eric and I were married I was part of the family. This drove me nuts at first because they were all strangers to me, but now I love them as though I've known them my whole life too. I'm grateful to have the rest of my life to know them and be embraced by their love.

Thank you Eric for letting me a part of your family!

Gray Skies

Today is a gray day in LA. It started raining late morning yesterday and hasn’t really stopped. Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s just a misting. The thing is though that I like it. So many people around here, Native Californians mostly, absolutely hate this weather. They are just so used to the sun shine. I however, love this weather. It’s a nice break in the monotony of all the sunshine and busy chaos. Does like this make me feel like I can just get warm and cozy with the one I love. It’s a nice feeling.

In another way this gray weather is kind of an example of our lives right now. We are working hard to survive and pay our bills. However, it’s not so easy. Like the rain’s blessing for the current drought conditions I have a good job that makes it bearable, or better yet survivable, for us to live out here while Eric finds a job. He’s had some decent leads but nothing has really come to fruition. I’m starting to feel very desperate for him to get work. It’s taking a lot of faith and prayers to get us through this. We’re sure he’ll find work, but it’s hard to keep waiting, especially with the economy being what it is.

The one thing though that gray skies have taught us in years pass is that they change. One day gray and the next the prettiest blue. When it rains here the air is actually clean the next day. So, maybe all this difficulty for us and for Eric to get a job is just preparing for something greater and better. I suppose we’ll have to wait out the storm to find out.