The Primetime Emmy's!

Yeah, I went to the Emmy's this year too. Big year for me living in Los Angeles. I went to the Oscars in February and just this past Sunday I went to the Emmy's. When I say that I went, I really mean that I worked at the Emmy's. I worked in the Emmy's Press Room. This is "backstage" where all the winners come in and the media/press ask them frivilous questions. The picture to the left here is of the female stars of Mad Men in the press Room. This was the stage and background where the winners stood while a large room of people asked them questions. We were at the back of the room handing out headsets for people to listen to the show during the interviews. The room probably sat over 100 press people. Plus in the back was all the equipment for AV stuff. We also did all the TVs in the room that were playing the show live for us al to watch. Pretty exciting stuff. The wall to the right of me had a buffet of food for us all to eat. The food arrived at 4:30, which was 30 minutes to show time. It was pretty good, but the chicken was horribly dry. They had pork rib meat. So delicious. The mashed potatoes were really good too. It was free so I really can't complain. On the left side of the wall they had a Coca Cola area. They provided drinks for everyone. They had Smart Water bottles, but also Classic Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero. The best part about these was the bottle the sodas came in. They are cans in the shape of bottles. They have a twise off lid and everything. I just thought they were so adorable. They're super light weight. You can see a picture on the right of what they look like. They eventually ran out of these bottles and then just brought in cans of the stuff. But I still have two of these at home. The other cool thing about this adventure was the bathrooms. Seriously, I'm easily impressed it seems. Well, let me first explain where we were. The Emmy's were held at the Nokia Theatre across from the Staples Center. There is a parking structure behind Nokia where we parked (which seriously, we got lost and all the streets were blocked off. It took us like 20-30 minutes to get to the right place) and then took an elevator up to the top of the parking structure. On top they have an air conditioned tent for all the press and stuff. So, you can't really have bathrooms in a tent. They set up what I believe would be considered a "Honey Wagon". It's a large porto-potty. It's so nice though. The toilets are like those you'd find in a motor home. It was probably a 30-40' long trailer with both a side for women and one for men. Seriously, I was totally impressed. I found two pictures that show what it looked like inside. On the left is what it would look like if you looked to your right when you walked into the women's side. There were 6 individual bathroom stalls and 3 sinks. There was never a line, which was great. The coloring on hours was more of the platinum look like the picture of the sinks on the right. Other than that the show was alright. Not very many of the people I wanted to win did, so that was a little bit depressing. I really wanted Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory to win. It is a brilliant show that I love. If you haven't seen it then you should watch it. He is absolutely brilliant and hilarious in this show. I really wish he'd won because then I would have been in the same room as him. Maybe next year they'll get more nominations and that'd be great. Mad Men is one of our favorite shows and they won so that was pretty cool to see them all standing around waiting for their turn to be interviewed. I suppose it goes as they say, you win some, you lose some. There is always next year!

Racism, really?

I'm frustrated right now that so many people are being called racists because they happen to disagree with the president who happens to be black. Are we seriously racist for not having the same ideas and opinions of people of other races?

Read this article and see what you think.

Former President Carter is saying that Rep. Joe Wilson's remarks come out of some sort of racism. Why does it have to be from racism and not something else entirely? I'm wondering if the outburst had more to do with being heard than anything else.

I will agree that some situations, rallies, tea parties, etc. have gotten out of hand at times. People have been less than polite in their anger. Perhaps though they're sick of not being listened to.

As quickly as someone says something bad about healthcare; the whitehouse, media, or whoever is turning it into just a racist response or a lunatic's bellowing.

People should be able to dissent and the president should at the very least listen to what the people are telling him. He needs to stop assuming that he knows best for this country and that it's okay to ignore the populace. This is the same thing that President Bush did and it didn't make us too happy then either.

Let's stop calling people racist and really discuss these issues going on.

The Price is Right

We did the Price is Right yesterday with my parents, aunt and her friend. It was a very long, but fun day. It was our anniversary so it was great times! We've been married for 4 years now. Here is what went down yesterday:

• We had to get up early to get in a line to get our “order of arrival” tickets. This would help us later when we were in line. We were in Hollywood at 6am. At this point we just got our tickets and were told to come back at 12:30 for the “interviewing” process and what not.
• We went to Denny’s in Burbank to get breakfast.
  My hair was looking ridiculous from the humidity in Hollywood so we drove back to my place where we chatted and then my aunt’s friend fixed my hair since she’s a hairdresser.
• Finally we headed back down to Hollywood. We managed to have some extra time so we drove down Rodeo drive and then to Wilshire.
• We had to park at the Grove, so we got there around 11:15. We kind of just meandered through The Grove shops, checked out the Farmer’s Market area. Finally, we walked to CBS and arrived around 12:15 and just sat down.
• Within 30 minutes we were called in order of our numbers to sit on a new bench. We probably waited there for an hour. At least they had bathrooms and snacks nearby.
• While we waited there we were given new numbers, name tags and info cards to fill out. We put our number below our name tags and returned the info card with some interesting info about ourselves.
• Oh yeah, Eric and I were wearing shirts that said, “It’s my anniversary”.
• After everything had been filled out and what not they took our pictures.
• Finally we got “interviewed” in groups, but it was so fast and kind of boring. We thought we were finally getting close though.
• Next stop was security. They checked purses, bags, etc. You had to pass through a medical detector. No cell phones were allowed so they took those if you had them and put a number on them. It was kind of like a “coat check” but for cell phones. They also took Eric’s key chain pocket knife.
• It was after 2pm when we were seated on more benches. The taping started at 4pm. We thought maybe they’d seat us in the theatre while they went through the other people (we had low numbers so we got to do everything first and then waited for everyone else), but nope. We waited a good hour or two sitting on the most uncomfortable benches. Turns out though the girl sitting across from me got called up and won a car. The girl next to me got called up, but never made it on stage.
• After nearly two hours of waiting on these benches they finally started letting us into the audience of the set. I was shocked by how small the set was. It looks really large on TV, but it’s not. There are only 3 sections of sliding doors, but they only used 2 yesterday. Everything looks like it’s from the 70s. Everything is just so close. Even the audience seating doesn’t look that large either. It’s a small auditorium compared to how big it looks on TV. Rich Fields came out and pumped us up. It was fun and loud. They got the show started very quickly.
• Most everyone lost, but a couple of cars were won.
• This episode will air on November 23rd.

Let me know if I left anything out or you have questions. All and all it was fun and I'd be willing to do it again, but I'd need to take the next day off too.

The Book of Mormon Changed my Life

If you’ve kept up with my blog you know that this past year has been very challenging for Eric and me. He has continuously looked for work to no avail. This economy is just completely beating us up and it’s been very painful and frustrating at times. As 2009 progressed I sunk deeper and deeper into despair and borderline depression at times. I had no hope that anything would work out. We continually prayed and did what we were supposed to do; whatever that means. Anyway, I felt like Heavenly Father wasn’t even hearing our prayers anymore. I started to question if anyone was even there to hear our prayers or if I was just saying them to make me feel better. My life was collapsing around me and my faith was going along with it. I tried to put on a happy face and really listen to the messages at church, but rarely did anything get through. There were a few happy moments, but nothing really significant during that time. I eventually decided sometime in July that I couldn’t just give up on the church without putting in a full effort to see if things were true or not. Throughout the year I had tried reading the Book of Mormon, but I was only at 1 Nephi, chapter 6. Clearly, I hadn’t put much of an effort in to read it. I decided I would read it every day.

At first I was tired at nights when I was supposed to read so that made it particularly hard to do it everyday. Suddenly, one day while at work I got a brilliant idea. I realized the scriptures were all online and I could read them during the slow parts of the day at work. That first day I started at 1 Nephi, Chapter 7 and probably read about 15 chapters. I literally couldn’t stop myself from reading. I was addicted. The old stories that I knew so well were comforting and exciting. The next day I probably read another 15 chapters. Eventually I slowed down how much I was reading everyday and now I’m down to one chapter a day usually. But it is now my goal to read at least one chapter a day. Reading this book has changed me completely. I don’t have so many doubts and I generally live in a place of hope and not despair. I have faith and hope for our future again. I believe things are going to work out for us even if I don’t know how or when. We’re surviving and things are going better for us than should really be possible. Simply reading this book has made my life easier to live and enjoy. Nothing is as hard as it used to be. My prayers are more meaningful and answers are coming to us on a regular basis.

If you need comfort, counsel, peace, direction or whatever I suggest you pick up the book again and start reading from page one. If it could change my life so quickly than I truly believe it can change yours if you let it.

LA Fitness Killer

I don't know if you heard about this guy or not. Today I read some of his blog. Because of some things his preacher taught he believes that he is going to heaven. This I don't necessarily agree with, but I'm not going to judge since I have no say. That's judgement is in God's territory. However, I'm grateful to believe that it's not just about our faith, but our works too that make a difference where we end up in the after life. I believe that what we choose to do in this life good or bad really does matter and we're being watched and recorded closely.

Jesus Christ did pay for our sins, but there is still justice in the world. To be forgiven of our sins and have the atonement actually work we must ask for it's application through repentance and prayer. The atonement is a free gift, but it's not a coverall for our choices. We can be forgiven of our sins if we're truly repentant. Comitting sin knowingly against God's laws is wrong and makes remorse and true repentance difficult.

We must always watch where our faith and testimony in God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ is. But also we have to make sure that our actions (works) are in line with His teachings. We have to do our part in this life. It's not right to leave it up to one guy, even if He was perfect.

Prayer

I just wanted to do a quick post about the power of prayer. I've been struggling with something lately, not a huge thing, but it's been bugging me. The other night when Eric and I were saying our prayers together he prayed that the problem would go away or at least be improved for me. Then, yesterday at work his prayer was answered. It doesn't always work out that way, but then it did and that made me very happy. I know that prayers are answered and sometimes we just have to pay attention to how it's answered. I'll just keep praying and see how things go from here.

Advice Column

I am now in the process of preparing the launch of my new advice column. I would like to have some questions (with my response) put on there when I start. However, I don't have any questions to answer. Can you guys give me some questions to answer regarding relationships (of any type)? I want to talk about marital, sibling, parent-child, teacher-student and all other kinds of relationships. If you're not sure just ask anyway. This can be all anonymous so you're not stuck to questions just for yourself. Even make up a question if you want. Give me what you've got and I'd love to try to answer it.

I will let you all know how to access my website when it's finally finished and up. Thanks so much!