Tummy full of Turkey

Hey everyone! I am here to report, that at 9:20am, it is slightly SNOWING in Austin!! Yay yay yay! I am so excited, but I'm at work and I know it won't last! I am looking forward to the freeze warning tonight at 6pm and plan on staying in and watching movies and stuff all weekend! Any snow in Houston Van?

So a recap of the past week or so...

A few days before Thanksgiving break there was a meteor shower. It was also Michael Conlon's B-day so he invited a bunch of people to go out to Pedernales Falls at night and enjoy the cold weather and watch the sky. Darian, Mike and I decided to drive out, but couldn't remember how exactly to get there (it's around 40min from the city). Luckily Mike had an Iphone so we were using the navigating system on it. It kept taking us down these pitch-black roads, and there was no moon that night. We were supposedly supposed to go down one road for like 5 miles then turn right, but after 4 miles it was a deadend (??), so we decided to turn down a road a little ways back. As we were driving down that, Mike said "I don't know how to tell you this, but my Iphone died." Yikes! We were in nowhere's ville! Luckily we just kept going on that road and it led us right to the park! We found MCo's campsite and we popped popcorn over a fire, had marshmallows and birthday cake and looked at the stars (we didn't see any meteors though). It was a fun time, and we had better luck with getting home, luckily.

Wednesday before Thanksgiving I headed to Sugar Land. I was so excited because at night I got to hang out with some old buddies! Sara, Nicole, Jessie and I went to Escalantes for dinner in Town Center, margaritas! After dinner, we went to meet Darian and some of his friends at Olives, where we also ran into Vanessa and Kip! We knew we were going to run into highschool people at Town Center, and we were right! Luckily we ran into people we know and like instead of awkward people. We all had a martini and then headed over to Baker Street where we ran into Kyle and some of his guys! (We missed you Stephanie!) We chatted with them for a while, and then some weird guy bought us all jello shots, which no one wanted (so I took many of them). It was a fun night overall! I've missed my buddies!

Thanksgiving was a great day, as usual. In the morning I made some pumpkin pies and a pistachio salad. At 2pm I went to Darian's for feast #1. It was delicious. I could have kept eating and eating but I knew I had my own dinner to go to later. After eating, we sat on the couch and I almost went into a turkey coma! I had to leave right away so I could get home and take a nap. I've never experience such an intense reaction to turkey, it was funny. At around 6pm I ate dinner with my family and Scott's girlfriend, Natalie. Couldn't quite eat that much the 2nd time. Then I hung out with my mom while everyone else watched the football game (grr why can't they have the football game the day before or the day after thanksgiving?)

Friday early morning I drove with my family up to the cabin, which is about 4 hours when you figure in the stopping for lunch. We just hung out and relaxed on Friday because we were having another feast on Saturday. The next day we got to work preparing for an Italian dinner that Darian's mom and aunt were coming for. My mom made a delicious pumpkin, gingersnap, caramel, pecan cheesecake!! She also made chicken scaloppine with pasta and a lasagna. Darian came up in the early afternoon and his mom and aunt came soon after. While we were hanging out, I was outside, Josie was inside, fighting a wasp. Scott said he saw her holding the wasp in her mouth. Then she jumped back and the wasp flew out, and Scott stepped on it. He told me she might have gotten stung. She didn't seem to be hurting or bothered, but sure enough, 10 minutes later, the right side of her bottom lip was swollen and sagging!! I think the wasp stung her in the mouth! She still didn't seem upset or anything. I wish I had gotten a picture! Luckily the swelling went down after too long.

We went on a little hike up the hill behind our house and then had a very yummy dinner. Then we played Apples to Apples before Darian's ladies left to drive the 4 hours back to Sugar Land. It was a rather cozy weekend I must say.

This week has simply been shopping, trying to get free stuff, at Victoria's Secret with Melanie, watching movies at the Alamo, trying to eat lots of free food, and baking cookies. Now to enjoy a weekend of similar activities!

A new post! Can you believe it??!!

I'm soooo sorry for not posting in like years you guys! For a while, I kinda forgot about the whole blog things, and then I just clicked on all of yours today and got to read a couple posts from each of you! I don't know how I'll ever catch up, but I'll bullet-point a few choice memories from the past few weeks...

-Galveston(long time ago, I know!!): a weekend in which we hung out at the Hotel San Jose outside bar which was really cool, saw a bunch of red hat ladies, sat on a giant chair, went on a not-so-scary ghost tour with the craziest guy, Dash Beardsly:

We did learn on the ghost tour that all Galveston buildings are old and very creepy, and if ghosts exist, they most certainly would be lurking around Galveston.

-I've been enjoying work at the Alamo Drafthouse, just making some trailers every couple of days. Nothing too different or exciting from what I started doing. I think i'm pretty good at it. Hopefully my boss agrees. Van-if you're ever wanting to see a movie and want to go to the Alamo Westoaks, you can see my He-Man christmas "book your private party at the Alamo" ad before the movie!

-Darian, his friends Mike and Kyle, Melanie and I have been hanging out often. A few weeks ago we went to this new place called the Highball. It's in the same shopping center as the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. It's a really cool place! It has a big bar and tables and you can order all sorts of drinks and food. Then there are 8lanes of bowling. The bowling alley was taken from this super old bowling alley in New Orleans so it's all manual scoring and stuff. It's really neat! They also have this big dance floor. We were there on a Tuesday and there was no dancing to be had, so maybe they have a dj on friday and saturday? They also have private karaoke rooms that are themed to different kinds of music and come with props and stuff. You can have bottle service in these rooms too. So it's basically a cool place and is open til 2am! It is a bit expensive if you keep ordering beer though... But bowling isn't too bad. 25-30$ an hour for a lane (includes up to 6 bowlers) and like 3$ for shoes.(the night we went here was the night CC called Mel).

-The other night, I don't know how she did it, but Mel convinced Darian to go to SoHo on a SUNDAY night???!!! They were having a special free keg party and we wanted to go, and Melanie convinced Darian and Mike to go! We got there around 10 and there were only a few people there (definitely not a party) but people were playing beer pong and stuff. There was no keg in sight, so we went up and asked the bartender about the free beer/keg. They had a keg hidden behind the counter, and i guess if you knew about it, you got free beer. If you didn't you got to just pay for beer like usual! We should start doing this at all bars, asking for free drinks. Who knows when there's a free VIP keg behind the bar? We had a few beers and played a little beanbag toss. It was kind of a weird deal, but fun none-the-less.

-I went to Houston a few weeks ago because my grandma's place was having an early Thanksgiving dinner. It was actually kind of fun! They had a huge buffet, wine, and lots of dessert. It didn't seem to be like nursing home food, which is always a bit creepy. My grandma was pretty happy to see all of us (it's been a while since all 4 of us have been able to go visit her). It was a nice time!

-I've been going to see lots of movies lately, and many of them have been no bueno. I saw The Men Who Stare at Goats most recently. It wasn't the best but not as bad as Van says, lol. I also went to see Ther Box. BAAAAAD! It was so disappointing because it is just a cool idea, but they just butchered it by making it more and more complicated for no reason! And Cameron Diaz was suuuuper bad. Saw VI was also terrible, but I had expected that. Tomorrow Mel and I are going to see New Moon. It'll be at noon on a Monday, so it shouldn't really be crowded.

-Mel and I, in order to keep active, have started to play tennis. We found free courts in a park off of Shoal Creek. It's really fun, and we're not as bad as we expected to be! There's no greater satisfaction then returning a ball with force across the net! Too bad it's getting cold. It won't be as easy/fun to go out in play.

-At my other job the other day I was thinking. I get free lunch at work because production pays for my lunch. Brad Pitt is one of the producers of the movie, so can I say that Brad Pitt buys me lunch once a week??? I think I like that idea!

Anyways, those I guess are the highlights of the past weeks. i will stay on top of my blog, I promise! Now that I'm up to date, posting won't seem like such a big deal, haha. Well I hope you all enjoy Turkey Week, I can't wait to hear all about your feasts!

I feel like taking a fun survey....

Movie Survey:

1. Last movie you rented? True Blood Season 1
2. Last movie you saw in theatres? Zombieland, and before that, Zombieland
3. Best action movie? Planet Terror
4. Best comedy movie? Airplane! and Waiting for Guffman
5. Best drama movie? American Beauty
6. Best romance movie? The Notebook and Love Actually
7. Favorite Actor? Johnny Depp, Mark Wahlberg
8. Favorite Actress? Amy Adams, Rachel McAdams, Annette Benning
9. Worst Movie? My answer to this question has always been The Indian in the Cupboard, but I no longer remember why
10. Best Movie? Strangers on a Train, I Heart Huckabees, The Talented Mr. Ripley....
11. Last Movie You Kissed to? Who "kisses" to a movie? You'd miss the movie!
12. Who was the last person you went to a movie with? Darian, Mike, and Kyle
13. Your favorite movie theatre? Alamo Drafthouse!!! (specifically the Lake Creek one cause i get free movies and food!)
14. Favorite place to rent movies? Vulcan Video
15. Do you have Netflix? Yes, but I usually only use it for the Watch Instantly feature
16. Favorite movie character? Corky Sinclair
17. Best line in a movie? "I'm gonna go home...and bite my pillow! is what i'm gonna do!"
18. Last movie you fell asleep in? i usually don't fall asleep in movies, so i don't know.
19. Last movie you saw while having sex/making out? I guess this quiz is for emo highschool kids...
20. Best kiss scene? The Notebook
21. Best death scene? Inglourious Basterds, the big scene
22. Best soundtrack? Garden State
23. Best director? Hitchcock, Terrence Malick, Quentin Tarantino, RObert Rodriguez, Godard, Antonioni, Christopher Guest, Tim Burton, Wes Anderson...
24. Worst director? i avoid seeing bad movies, so i don't know...
25. Old movies or newer movies? Old is usually better
26. Best actor/actress of all time? Cary Grant (hilarious in Arsenic and Old Lace) and Gene Kelly, because he sang, danced, and acted! Why don't people do that anymore???
27. Do you watch the Academy Awards? Yes
28. Indie movies or mainstream? Both.
29. Do you watch foreign films? Yes!!
30. Favorite decade of movies? 60s!
31. Last movie bought? Shaft Goes to Africa (or something like that. For Darian for our anniversary, shh!)
32. Movie watched the most? Mrs. Doubtfire and Back to the Future, or more recently, probably Mean Girls
33. Famous actors/actresses met? Billy Bob Thornton (so classy)
34. Movie you wish you could've been in? Daisies or Planet Terror
35. If you had your own movie, what would the title be? I don't understand this question.
36. Used movies or new movies? If i can find a movie i want used, heck yes, it's cheaper!
37. Best cinematography? Wes Anderson, The Graduate, The Conformist
38. Best horror film? I like watching horror films, but not because i think they're "good". But a good one is The Shining
39. Best casting? I Heart Huckabees
40. Worst casting? Christopher Nolan casts unattractive actresses like the wife in Memento and Maggie Gyllenhal in The Dark Knight
41. Last movie you watched in school? Okay, i guess this really is a survey for highschoolers, but it's too late to turn back now!
42. Last movie watched with family? Mean Girls (at my dad's request, lol)
43. Last movie watched with g/f or b/f? Sunshine Cleaning
44. First DVD ever purchased? I don't remember, but when we got a dvd player one Christmas, my dad bought us I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Shining
45. Favorite snack during movie? Popcorn or green chili cheese fries at the Alamo
46. Movie you want to see? Whip It, Where the Wild Things Are, and Alice in Wonderland!!
47. Movie you were forced to watch? i don't know
48. Best movie poster? North by Northwest, most Hitchcock movies
49. Last movie borrowed from? I dunno
50. How many dvds do you own? Lots

Have you seen:
-The 40 Year Old Virgin? Yes
-American Pie? No
-Road Trip? No
-Boogie Nights? Yes (so good!)
-The Waterboy? Yes
-Not Another Teen Movie? Not all of it
-Deuce Bigalow? No
-The Skeleton Key? I think so
-Big Daddy? Yes
-Malibu's Most Wanter? No
-Cheaper By the Dozen? Maybe?
-The Butterfly Effect? Yes
-The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Yes, the old one
-Freddy vs Jason? No
-The Seed of Chucky? Unfortunately, no
-The Blair Witch Project? Yes
-The Ring? Yes
-Evita? No
-Cross Roads? With Britney Spears? then yes
-Almost Famous? Yes
-Dr. Giggles? No
-Beetle Juice? Probably
-Dukes of Hazzard? No
-Finding Neverland? Yes
-Flowers in the Attic? No
-An American Tale? Yes! Fievel!
-Mr. and Mrs. Smith? No
-Jurassic Park? Yes
-The Princess Diaries? Yes
-The Corpse Bride? No
-March of the Penguins? Yes
-Wedding Crashers? Yes
--Sky High? No
-Toy Story? Yes
-Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Yes
-Dead Poets Society? No
-Bubble Boy? No
-Broke Down Palace? No
-The Exorcism of Emily Rose? No
-Big Mama's House? No
-Batman Begins? Yes
-Sin City? Not all of it
-War of the Worlds? No
-The Land Before Time? Yes
-Halloween H2O? Maybe
-Something About Mary? No
-Chicken Little? Yes
-Wrong Turn? No
-Pumpkin Head 2? I now regret taking this survey, and apologize if you're reading this
-Jerry Maguire? No
-Dirty Dancing? Yes
-Titanic? Yes
-Ice Age? No
-What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Parts of it
-Benny and June? Yes
-Reality Bites? No
-Mr. Magoo? No
-Cruel Intentions? Yes
-Mean Girls? Yes
-The Sweetest Thing? Yes
-Sixteen Candles? Yes

Okay, that was dumb. Feel free to copy this and do it yourself if you like!

Delicious Recipe!!!

Hi!!!
I know I just posted yesterday, but I just have to tell you guys the greatest fall recipe!! You should definitely try this one soon and let me know if you like it!

BROWN SUGAR ACORN SQUASH DELICIOUSNESS!

Ingredients:
-1 Acorn Squash
-2-4 Tablespoons of butter
-Brown sugar
-Salt
-Pepper
-Cinnamon

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Cut open acorn squash long way (so halves are almost identical) and scoop out the seeds. Put halves open side down in a glass pan. Put water in the pan so it is 1/2- 1 inch deep and squash halves are sitting in it.
3. Cook in oven on 375 for 30 min.
4. Remove squash, empty water out of pan, and turn squash over so the inside is facing up in pan.
5. Put a 1-2tbsp chunk of butter in the middle of each half. Then sprinkle a generous amount of brown sugar on top and add as much salt, pepper, and cinnamon as you like.
6. Put pan with squash back into the oven and cook for another 30min on 375.
7. Remove from oven, and eat the yummy goodness!!

This is a really easy recipe, as long as you can find acorn squash in the store. One squash can feed 2 people, unless you're really hungry. This works as a meal, or you can have it as a dessert if you want. Enjoy it with some warm apple cider!

Let me know if you guys try it!

Birthday Weekend

Hi Everyone!

So I'm just relaxing after a fun birthday weekend. It is kinda chilly out and I am really loving it! It's like I get to enjoy the other half of my wardrobe!

So this past week I got to celebrate my birthday, which is always fun :) It started on Wed when Darian brought me roses after work. Melanie and I went to Crave for some happy hour sushi, and it was pretty tasty! Not the best sushi ever, but pretty good, especially for the prices (we had 4 8-piece rolls and 2 beers for $28 total, including tip). We had a hard time finding parking so we parked outside the Block for old times sake. Walking back to our car after happy hour, we decided to stop by the lovely convenience store across the street and picked up a bottle of wine. We came back to the apt and drank wine and chatted. Then Darian came home and his friends Mike and Kyle came over with beer and stuff. We all hung out and it was pretty fun. We also ate some cake balls that I had made the day before. I found the recipe on the website that Van had posted on her facebook. Bakerella or something? They are fun to make and tasty, and so much cheaper than buying them at Holy Cacao on 1st street.

The next day, my actual birthday, I had to work in the morning, but at least it was for only 2 1/2 hours. I didn't tell my boss that it was my birthday, because I feel like when you get to a certain age, you can't just be like "It's my birthday!!! Wahoo!" to everyone you see. Because then it's like, now what? So my assignment for the day at the Drafthouse was to make a "how the drafthouse works" ad. Those were kinda my only guidelines, so I had like all of youtube and my brain to figure out something fun and unique. I came up with nothing. I hope it was partly because it was my birthday, lol, and I was antsy. I'll hopefully go to work tomorrow with some good ideas.

After work, I went to Orbit (which is now on E. Cesar Chavez street) to get my bangs trimmed. Then Melanie and I went out to Freebirds. Afterwards, I went home and took a naaaaap. Kinda lame, I know, but I enjoyed it very much. When Darian came home, we hung out for a while, and then got ready for dinner and Darian's show.

For dinner we went to Uchi!! Yay! My first time to go there! We couldn't find any parking spots, so we had to park next door in a spot that we weren't supposed to park in until after 8pm (it was 7:50). Since I've had bad experiences with tow-trucks, I said we should be careful. Darian actual went inside the place (a dog boarding place) and asked if we could go ahead and park there. They said not until 8pm. (seriously??!!) So we sat in the car and each drank a little bottle of Tequila left over from my birthday 2 years ago!! Finally, it was 8 and we went inside and had a glass of wine while we waited for our table. Not a very long wait though.

Uchi was very tasty!! It's so expensive though, and we really didn't eat too much. I probably could have kept on eating, but I wanted to be considerate of Darian's pocket, lol. There were like 2 people at the restaurant that had baseball caps on. It's just so weird. I was wondering if everyone there was there on their 1 special night out a year or something. I just don't understand why you would wear a baseball cap and a fancy sushi restaurant! So, by the time we sat down i was already drunk, i don't know how, but I was. Maybe because of my midday nap. So to eat we had some yellowtail sashimi in like a citrus sauce that was really yummy. Then we had some salmon nigiri and only 2 rolls. Somehow, it ended up being a good amount. But thinking about it now, i don't know how i didn't keep ordering!

Part of the reason was that we had to get to the Low Lows show at the Continental Club. Melanie, Mike, and Kyle met us there and Kyle bought me some bday drinks. We watched the show and Parker (the band leader) gave me a birthday shout-out. Afterwards, we were disappointed that HomeSlice was closed. So we went back to our apt, and Melanie bought me a lovely Mc Donalds fries gift, so kind! I got tired really fast though, and was in bed way earlier than I should have been on my birthday!

The next day my parents stopped in Austin to have lunch at Mama Fu's and then drive me up to the cabin. I know i know, every weekend the cabin. I just love it so much! So Friday was mainly hanging out just me, mom, dad, cat, and dog. Darian was going to come up after work, but he called me to tell me he had a fever and didn't feel well :( so he stayed home. Luckily the next day he was feeling better, and he and scott both drove up. It was pretty cold so there was no kayaking or swimming, just snacking, games and hanging out, which is always cool with me. For dinner we had beef tenderloin and then had big cupcakes for dessert.

Sunday we drove home after a big breakfast, and then got to relax since it was cold and drizzly outside. Now it's Monday and I'm gearing up for a long day of double work tomorrow. I go to the drafthouse from 9:30-12, then go to TOL from 4-? (hopefully 9pm) Josie has been really crazy today. I think it's because she has so much fun and so much space at the cabin, so when she gets back here, she feels couped up and has a lot of energy. She has now realized how much fun it is when she escapes outside. Erg! 3 times today, when the door was just slightly opened, she dashed outside and tried to get away from us! This is all fine and good, unless she goes out into the street on North Loop! She wouldn't know what to do, because she has no survival skills or anything. I don't want her to die! So I'm going to have to develop a new strategy for dealing with the rascal.

Alright, that's all I have for now. I guess the weekend wasn't as exciting on paper, but it was mostly fun and relaxing to hang out with my fam. If I get a chance, I'll post pics later.

I'll leave you with this song I really like:

Lake Festivities

Hola! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Just wanted to catch everyone up on what I've been up to. I guess I haven't been doing much this week, just working and hanging out. I still love my internships <3 On Thursday, Melanie and I went to see Inglourious Basterds (my 2nd time seeing it). It's so so good! I love it. So as for excitement during the week, there was very little. Darian found out that his week and a half west-coast tour has been canceled, or postponed. That's kind of a bummer. I wanted to go, but was pretty sure I couldn't because of work, but I still wanted him to get to go and play shows in LA and stuff. Hopefully they'll do it another time, and maybe I can go along!

So the only thing worth writing about is from last weekend, which I guess I should have posted like last Monday, not saturday, lol. So....Last Saturday, we had a special Q & A for all the interns where we had key people from the movie crew talk to us on what their jobs are like, advice, etc. Then we learned how to write a resume to get a film job. It was really helpful!! After that was over around 5:45, I drove home, got the kitty then picked up Melanie and we headed to the cabin to meet my parents for the weekend.

I've stayed at the cabin like 3 times or so already, but it's just so exciting every time! So we got there at around 8pm, relaxed and ate guacamole and worked on this big puzzle sitting on the table. Then we ate yummy tamale casserole and played this card game called Nerts (?) Oh my gosh, it is so addictive! It's like everyone is playing solitaire at the same time, but the games connect because you're playing on eachothers cards. Very fun!

The next morning, we had pancakes and bacon, then got ready to go to Inks Lake. We drove over, very scenic drive, and got to the Devil's Hole (i think that's what it's called) which is this little swimming area. The water was kinda cold and really murky, but it was fun. There were these big rocks that people were jumping off of, but we were too scared to do it.

After swimming we ate a sandwich picnic and then drove back to the cabin. We got back and attached our 2 kayaks on top of the car and then drove to The Marina, this bar/restaurant (like the only place in our little town). It's a really cute place because you can drive your boat up and park and sit outside and eat burgers, ice cream, creme brulee cheesecake, etc. We had pina coladas and played more cards. At night at this place, you have to make reservations. They put nice white table cloths on the tables and then you play a flat price for a 4 course meal! They have steak and everything and cook it on grills outside. Maybe my family will take me there for a birthday dinner next weekend... After our drinks, we drove down to this nice part of the lake. We kayaked around for a little while and then went back to the cabin. When we got there we got a bit mesmerized with the puzzle and became determined to finish it, so Melanie, my dad and I worked until it was done. It sounds so lame, I know, but it's a cozy thing to do in a log cabin. Then we had a very late dinner of filet mignon and pork tenderloin (from like the frozen food section, but they're really good, and cheap!) Before we had dinner, we wanted to make a salad like the Fuji apple salad from Panera (it's sooo tasty!) so we tried making a creamy apple vinaigrette dressing---fail! We no nothing about salad dressing-making. So we combined mayo, sour cream, buttermilk, apple cider vinaigrette (the biggest mistake), salt and pepper, and olive oil. Oh my gosh, I didn't even want to taste it! Melanie tasted it and informed me that it tasted like throw up. Exactly. I tried it, and it did. So instead we made a raspberry vin. which is much easier.

The weekend was pretty fun and relaxing! It's fun seeing Josie wander around the house, because it's so big and much more fun for a cat then my little apartment. So she was so active and played with Molly's tail, ate her dog food, and at one point, almost jumped into a HOT pan full of bacon grease!!! My mom saved her. It was a close one!

So, I leave you with some pictures from the weekend. I'll post again after my birthday, hopefully there'll be some sort of excitement there!


Josie helping dad with the puzzle by chewing on the pieces


Josie enjoys dog food, Molly's not sure how she feels about this


So cute!!


Josie also helps with the dishes


The devil's hole, with the jumping-off rocks behind


Kayaking on lake LBJ

I May Never Have to Pay for Food Again!

Hi Everyone! I hope everyone is doing well! I've been good and busy. Busy is good because now I feel productive!

Last Tuesday I had my first day interning at the Drafthouse. It's so fun and laid back there! I only work 2 days, 5 hours total per week, but I wouldn't mind working more because it's really fun! On Tuesday I learned how to capture footage from a DVD and youtube. Good stuff! I then started making a promo trailer for a Betty Page tribute night that is going on at the Lake Creek Alamo next month. I ended up finishing it on Thursday, so it didn't take that long. On Thursday, I also learned about my perks for interning! My perks only work at the Lake Creek Alamo which is a little further away, north on 183, but it's not too far. I can basically take a guest to see any movie (but not on fri or sat) and get free movies for both of us and free FOOD AND DRINK (including beer!) It. is. amazing. I just have to make sure to tip really nicely. So of course, that very night, Darian and I went to see Extract. We got 2 tickets, a pizza, popcorn, 1 drink, and raspberry cheesecake for a total of $5!! I am loving this! (The movie was pretty terrible so I was glad I didn't have to pay for it!) We went again last night and saw The Informant and got lots of tasty goodies. And it was especially exciting because my Betty Page promo trailer aired before the movie!! It was so cool/scary to see something I made on the screen! This week I will be working on a trailer for Macho Man Mondays at the Katy Alamo, and for a holiday season promo. Tomorrow after work I think we might be having a welcome intern lunch. Fantastic!

At my other internship, I worked on Wed and Fri, both were busy busy days. I then had to work in the morning on Saturday. I got to the office at 9am, was the 1st one there, so i made full pots of coffee. I waited. and waited. At 10:30 I was still the only one there!! I emailed my supervisor and she said that a lot of people took Sat off that week because the head honchos were out of town. She told me to stay until Fed-Ex made a delivery. Luckily that happened soon. I signed for the package, made a couple errand stops, then got to go home. But man, was I a little baffled as to why I was the only person at the office. Why did I have to be there so early!!?? hmm.. Well, beside that little frustration, I am really enjoying that internship as well. Lots of really cool people working there!

Last week I had a craving for south american food, so Darian and I tried this place called Casa Colombia which is on 7th street on the East side. It was this really small authentic place, and it was A-Ma-Zing! My goodness, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! To start we had the fried plantains stuffed with mozzarella cheese. Now who the hell thought of that?? It was basically this crunchy buttery big patty, and inside were plantains and gooey cheese. Truly delicious! For dinner I had some sort of shredded beef in yummy sauce with black beans, rice, and plantains. It was one of those meals where it is so easy to completely clear the plate. I was so content after that meal. They also serve real fruit juice smoothie things that you can have mixed with water or with milk (they had these a lot in Costa Rica). Darian got a mulberry one and it was served in a really cool goblet. I recommend it whenever any of you are in austin! If you look it up online, you will see it gets amazing reviews.

Today, one of my 2 days off, Melanie and I went to Barton Springs for the last nice day before the cold front. We actually got in the water too. Then we went to Sushi Nichii for happy hour.

Here are a couple of kitten pics, I can't resist.









Well, I better get to bed. As for my title this week, I think that if I plan it right, on weekdays I shouldn't have to pay for food. Free lunch or dinner at work, free food at the drafthouse, and free food at Freddie's (which i need to do more often!!) Alright, well I hope you guys have a great week! :)

A Crazier Cat and a Relaxing Weekend

Good Day Folks!
Gosh, I really should just do a short post everyday, cause the more days that go by without a post, the more i'm like "oh no! too much to write, i'll do it later." Tsk Tsk. Anyways, it's Monday night and I just finished watching Gossip Girl! :) I'm so happy it's back! I also made the decision to not watch One Tree Hill anymore, but then i was bored and watched it, and I'm afraid I will continue to do so...

But goodness, I know my last post was called "Crazy Kitten" but she was not crazy then compared to what she is now! She is insane!!! I was just in the kitchen making a sandwich and she followed me in there (as she ALWAYS does if anyone is in the kitchen). She proceeded to whine incessantly. But she has developed a little trick I don't know where she learned. But when she wants to be all up in my business, she jumps and grabs on to my pant legs, then she shimmies up my body (sharp claws!) until she's like almost at my boobs! Sometimes she does it from the back which means she has her claws in my back and it's harder to get her off, not to mention a complete surprise when she leaps and latches on. I will never wear real clothes in my house again, because today i was wearing my favorite new pair of expensive nice express jeans, and now I have all these little scratch things all over! She's going to ruin all my clothes I swear! She really is out of control! Having a dog is hard (like crazy Gemmie) but having a cat that can go wherever she wants is different. At least a dog doesn't jump on the table and try to eat all your food. Now I put her in her travel cage when I eat so I can do so in peace. Melanie can testify to the craziness and hopefully doesn't have too many scratches from this weekend (but all the scratches are from love! Josie just loves tooo much!)

Aside from the cat, Darian was on his north east tour this week so I had the house to my self. Melanie came to town on Thursday and stayed at the apt for the weekend. The 1st night (or 2nd?) she texted me early in the morning because she could hear a mouse in the kitchen! I came down and Josie meowed and the sound stopped. Luckily in the morning we found no mouse evidence, meaning that the mouse is localized to the water heater closet again, which is how I like it!

I had my first day of work on Friday, and it went pretty well! I spent probably 3 or so hours out doing errands which I like cause I just get to drive around by myself and I get paid a little for gas, so I made a little profit. I made coffee for everyone (not nearly strong enough I later learned) and ordered and picked up lunch. I even lent the director one of my movies, which is pretty cool. He was so nice when I met him! And later even remembered my name! I think I was shaking the first time I talked to him! This week I work Wed and Sat morning (i think) and Fri afternoon. Tomorrow I have my first day at the Alamo Drafthouse internship. I was told to start thinking about ideas for a promo reminding people to reserve theaters for private parties during the holiday season, so I have been thinking of fun holiday movies and what i could put together. I hope they like my ideas!

This weekend was fun a relaxing, since it was raining. On Friday night Melanie and I went with her parents to see Ballroom With a Twist! It was a live dance performance hosted by Gilles! (if that's how you spell it. The guy from the Sex and the City movie!!!) He was mucho pretty! Unfortunately, the dancing was not very good. And 50% of the time there was no dancing and instead these 2 people who were on American Idol like years ago and probably got like 9th place were singing. It was a little cheesy. Melanie and I were basically laughing the whole time because the dancing was not together at all! It almost seemed like they hadn't rehearsed with the other dancers to make it nice a uniform you know? But we very much enjoyed watching Gilles, and he even did a few dances! No meet and greet though. I would have like to see him up close.

The next day was rainy and gross all day so we didn't really do much. But we decided to rent the whole 1st season of True Blood and watch it marathon style! Good choice! It's really fun and so exciting to watch a show and not have to wait a week to see the next episode! Later that night, Megan invited us over to a friend's house to play beer pong so we took a tv break. We went and played. There were only 5 of us, and luckily we convinced them all to go downtown since it was no longer raining. We went and it was fun, but we got there kind of late so didn't quite have a full-fledged experience.

Sunday we finished the rest of True Blood and ate Freebirds. A truly lazy weekend!

In other news, Forest has not contacted me, 2 1/2 weeks after he promised me he would!!!! AAAAGHHHH! I messaged him like 5 days ago asking him to just send me a check, but still no response! Bad choice Nicole! lol. grrrr. I just don't know what to do! I guess i will have to drive all the way up to Nacogdoches and figure it out which suuuucks! That guitar is like my only asset! Not that i want to sell it, but I have no money so it's like he stole like $500 from me! Whenever I think about it it stresses me up so much!

Aside from that, I heard about the Kanye/Taylor incident and watched it on youtube. Doooouuuuche! What a jerk.

Alrighty, lol. I gotta wrap it up because I'm about to go pick up Darian from the airport! Yay! Well, hope you all had a good weekend!

Crazy Kitten and Interviews!

Hello my friends! As you have probably noticed, i have been posting songs with my posts on the left side of my blog, so check em out! Right now I am sitting on my couch and my lil kitten Josie Juicebox is lying in my lap looking up at me. She really is the cutest thing ever! She's also a bit crazy. She really likes playing with clothes that are on the floor, but her most favorite thing is one of those cardboard and plastic things that comes with 24 water bottles in it from the store. She is always chewing on it, and now that we have been drinking more of the waters in it, she likes to use it as a fort. It's so silly. I took her to her first vet appointment 2 days ago and she weighs 1.2 pounds. I wish she would always stay this small! I am probably going to our cabin this weekend for labor day weekend and if so, I will have to bring her. Molly will also be there since it's cheaper then putting her in the kennel everytime my parents go to the lake. I hope that the 2 pets get along. The other day my parents stopped by my apartment on the way home and brought Molly to the door and Josie hissed for the first time. Hopefully if they spend more time together, Josie will realize that Molly doesn't even care about her and certainly won't hurt her.




So yesterday I had 2 interviews! Very exciting! The first was for a creative internship at the Alamo Drafthouse offices (which are in that building next to El Arroyo). I went in at 2pm. I wasn't sure how laid back it would be there, so I dressed nice anyway. In the office there were directors chairs and these really nice red leather theater seats. It was quiet, which was surprising. But on the walls were all these fun movie posters and there was a 10 or so seat theater for like viewing material, kinda cool! I sat down on the sofas in the middle of the office to wait, and there was a table and like the only thing on it was a texas chainsaw massacre killer figurine. Overall, it seems like a fun place to work! I was interviewed by 3 people which was a little scary at first, but they were all pretty young and really nice. I gave them my resume and my reel of examples of the movies I've made on it. Their last question to me was "if you were a vegetable, what would you be?" lol. I said a pumpkin because they are less common, taste the best, and get to be carved in cool ways at Halloween? I hope it was an okay answer, lol. I will find out on Friday if I'm one of the 3 or 4 people to get the internship. I really want it! It's only like 10 hours a week, and it sounds like I'm going to help make those promo trailers that they show at the beginning of their screenings that tells you the upcoming events and special movies they're showing at the drafthouse! Neato! I have my fingers crossed!

My second interview was a kind of spur of the moment thing. One of my friends was offered the internship, but he had to turn it down because he is too busy, so he gave the woman in charge my name, which was awesome! It's an administrative office internship with the movie Tree of Life! (yes, the Brad Pitt movie they were filming in Austin a year ago). I had to sign a confidentiality agreement because they like to keep their projects hush hush. I was interviewed in this little office and during it, a man opened the door and said "why is this door closed?" then he noticed an interview was going on and he said "oh, sorry" and closed the door. Then my interviewer said "that was the director." !!!! So I just saw Terrence Malick!!!! You guys might not know who he is but he has made the movies Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, and Pocohontas. He is a very private man and it's actually illegal to put pictures of him on the internet. If you search his name, you will only find a couple different ones. He's super super talented and makes really beautiful films and I was so excited that after only 5 min of being in the office, i already saw him! I'm sure if I worked there I would see him often!! Since my schedule is so open, my interviewer basically told me i'll get the internship! I'm so excited! It's also part-time, so if I get both jobs, i'll be able to do both i think! (now hopefully since i'll be working like 30 or so hours a week with no pay, my parents will pay me?) So things are looking up! I no longer have to spend all day twiddling my thumbs! But I will miss josie during the day.

Now tonight The Low Lows have a show at The Scoot Inn. Darian has been playing a lot lately! He played with this other band on monday, and last week played a show on Thurs and Fri. The Low Lows also have a show on friday as well. Tonight, I am going to help out by filming the show with my little, not so good camera. So that will be fun. maybe i'll look kind of official. Hmm...so I guess that's all the news I have, but my dad did tell me about the cooooolest thing! The address is www.myxer.com and it's this thing where you can create your own ringtones for free!! And by create, i mean that all you have to do is choose your favorite song, upload it, pick which 30 sec or so chunk you want as your tone, and put in your phone number. Then you get a text message, click on the link, and download it! It's free and really cool because you can have any song you want! So you all should definitely check it out. It's easy and only takes a few min. Alrighty, well i'll write back after labor day! Hope you all have a great weekend!

What I've Been Up To This Past Week! (Maybe it sounds better on paper)

Hellooooo! Sorry I haven't written in so long, but I felt like there was nothing going on. After a week, I have lots to write about so here it all is!! It might end up being a lot, so I'll give a title to each paragraph, so if something sounds boring from the title, feel free to skip it. :)

FOREST AND THE TRANSFORMING GUITAR:
Soo....Some of you may know that I've been in a pickle lately. During the last week of our lease, Forest's mom (he's the guy living in Nicole's room this summer) came up to the apt to help him move some stuff out. He told her to take his acoustic guitar home for him. Seeing an acoustic guitar sitting in the living room (MINE), she so sweetly took it home...to Nacogdoches! When I was at the apartment in one of the last days, Forest came up to me and said "hey, are you the one who's guitar i have?" I thought, hmm, i'm the only one who has a guitar here, so I said yes. He said "okay" and left. At this point I assumed that meant that he had borrowed my guitar and it was in his room. Later I learned from my brother that his mom had accidentally taken it home! So for the next couple weeks, I waited for Forest to contact my brother, which he said he would do, because he does not have a cellphone for me to call. He did not call Scott. So I got his email address and sent him a nice message trying to sort this thing out. No response. So I sent him a facebook message. No response. I told Scott to find his home number and yell at his mom, but before he did that, luckily, Forest sent me a message saying he was in Oklahoma visiting family and that he would call me on Tuesday (last tuesday) when he got back. Cool, I thought. Only no call came, so finally, last night I messaged him again telling him to please call me on Monday (today). Soooo I just got a call from him. He actually was very apologetic and nice, but this is what he said. He said he's still in OK dealing with fam issues, which is fine. Then he said he sent a friend over to his house to get my guitar, since they are driving to austin and could bring it to me. Only once their friend got to the house, he or she told Forest that there was no extra acoustic guitar at the house. However, there is an extra electric guitar. He asked if my guitar was an electric guitar. "No. It's very much acoustic." He is confused by this. His mom supposedly pointed to this electric guitar and said that it was the one she took from the Duval Apt. Hmmm...I told Forest "so you don't have my acoustic guitar, but you have someone's electric guitar? no one at the apartment has an electric guitar." I told him to call me on Thurs when he gets back home and can personally assess the situation. Either his friend and mom are stupid and don't know how to distinguish an electric and an acoustic guitar, or his mom is taking crazy pills and is guitar swapping at pawn shops or something. Eeeek! Ok, enough of that. I will let you know how this story ends later.

KITTENS!:
So today I went to the Humane Society in Austin to look at kittens! I want one soooo bad! Darian says he's cool with getting one, but wants it to be my responsibility. They are having a special there this month, where you can adopt any cat for only $35 and they will spay or neuter it for you!! Goood deal! I went in and saw these 3 adorable kittens! They were like blue/gray colored and were sleeping all cuddled together. I asked to play/meet the 2 girls of the group, names Jade and Sapphire. I felt bad waking them up to play with them, cause they looked so peaceful. When the 3 of us got in our little room though...wowzers! The 2 little girls chased and tackled eachother around the room nonstop! It was so cute! I couldn't get them to show any interest in me though, because they were having too much fun with eachother. I tried to get some pictures but they are pretty blurry. Out of the 2, I really like Sapphire. Besides being a little cuter, she is less skiddish and resistant/afraid of me. So I put her on hold until wed. night at 6:30! Darian said I could get her if I want, but i'd prefer if he met her first. So I might have a kitten soon! I wish I could take both so they could be best buds, but it seemed like they might be trouble when put together.

Little Sapphire!! (I think I would change her name if we get her!)




A REASON WHY WE NEED A CAT:
Besides the fact that I have been planning on getting a cat when i moved in here, we have discovered that we have a mouse/mice! Ewww! When I was out of town 2 weekends ago, Darian noticed that our bread bag had a hole eaten into it and the bread had been nibbled at! I came home to the kitchen being filled with all sorts of mice and roach traps. Maybe 7 or 8 total. Since then, there has not been a single caught mouse or roach. But, last week when i was home alone and Darian was at work, I heard all this noise coming from our water heater closet in the kitchen. It sounded like a giant mouse was like working on the water heater or something, it was really loud and creepy. I stood in front of the closet with a broom trying to decide what to do. I wanted the mouse out, but thought that if I opened the closet and one ran out and like across the room where we don't have any traps set, i would have to leave the house! So instead i just hit the door with the broom and the noise stopped. When Darian came home he looked in the closet and noticed that a roach trap he had put right inside the door was gone. With a flashlight, he was able to see that the roach trap had been taken to the back of the closet, torn apart, and the poison had been eaten! So he put another roach trap and a mouse trap in the closet. The next day there was still noise, and later, we noticed that the second roach trap and been moved and also eaten! The mice evidentally have no interest in the mice traps, but love eating roach poison! We were afraid that maybe roach poison doesn't kill mice and instead makes them stronger! But it's been almost a week now and I haven't really heard any more unusual noises. The mice/mouse must have gone off and died. Poor thing. We actually watched part of Fievel Goes West last night so that we wouldn't find mice so scary. Now I feel sad for the little rodent, with all its hopes and dreams and family. Anyways, I think a cat might not be such a bad idea...

COLORADO:
So 2 weekends ago I was in Houston dog-sitting while my parents were at the cabin moving more stuff in. I earned quite a pretty penny! It was weird staying at my house all alone, I'd never done it before. And since my parents took my bed to the cabin, I slept in their bed, with the pups in the room. Before I went to bed on Friday, I took Tommy (my grandma's dog who got kicked out of Silverado. I don't know why, he's really sweet, but he does bark sometimes.) out to go potty. He was trying to go behind the grill, and i was telling him not to, then he pounced in these short little bushes and I heard a screech. Then Tommy came trotting out with a bird half his size in his mouth, set it on the pavement, then walked away. The bird twitched and then I guess he died. It freaked me out!! But I didn't want to deal with it yet so i left it out there. I set my alarm to take them out at 7am on Saturday, but they woke me up at 6:30. I scooped the dead bird up in a dust pan, then flung it over the fence, but it didn't go far. I took Molly and Tommy out and they did their business. Then I went back to bed and set my alarm for 9am. I woke up then and went to the dining room where Tommy had thrown up a little and pooped a bunch!! Come on pooch! I hadn't fed them or anything, and it had only been 2 hours! Grr. The next morning i let them out again at 7, then went back to sleep. I was awoken at 8 to the sound of Tommy throwing up beside the bed. Lovely. I yelled at him, he ran away, then i cleaned up the mess and went back to sleep. I woke up at 9 and lucky me! There was more poop and pee in the dining room!!! Way to go Tommy! Grand Slam! I continued to ridicule him all day. It did make it easier to say goodbye to him for the last time on Monday. On Wednesday, my parents drove all the way to Boulder, CO to drop Tommy off with my aunt and uncle who were in Boulder to drop off my cousin at college. Hopefully he will have a good home there. (They had been planning on doing this for a while, the bird, throw-up, poop, and pee wasn't the last straw or anything). Now my parents just have Molly, and she's a well-behaved dog. They can even start taking her to the cabin, and I think that will be really exciting for her! She doesn't travel, ever.

Oooookay! I'm sure I could think of more little things to write about, but I'm pretty sure I've given you enough animal stories to ponder for a while. I will again soon!

Weekend at LBJ Lake

Hello! My first post! So I have finally found a background to use, and I think I like it. Next I will see if I can add music or something to my page, that would be fun.

This weekend was really fun! (although I missed out on floating the river :( ) On Friday my family got everything settled with the new cabin so we could move in. The cabin is made entirely of big logs. They actually built the house somewhere overseas, numbered all of the logs, took it apart, and sent all the pieces to Sunrise Beach so the people over here could put it back together!! Boggles my mind! So Scott, Natalie, and I helped my parents move in some furniture and towels and stuff into the house during the day. My parents took the bed from my room in Sugar Land to be their bed at the cabin, so I guess I have no more bed :( After work, Darian drove up to join us. It was a nice relaxing night of Italian food, games, margaritas, and oreo icecream cake!

On Saturday, we drove about 30 min to a swimming hole on Ink's Lake (?) It was nice and cool and there was a huge rock that all the kids were jumping off of, but not me!! Afterwards, we went back to the house to rest. At night we drove into this town to eat at the Tamale King restaurant, which is really yummy. After that, more drinks and games. Then all of us "kids" got to sleep up on the loft on blow-up mattresses.

Sunday we drove into Llano where we had lunch at this cute cafe. Then we went to this swimming area by a dam. There, we were "stalked" by this man, like in his 50s, a local. He just wouldn't leave our family alone. He was really creepy and lurking you know? My mom and I felt really uncomfortable, but my dad insisted that he was just a friendly guy. Never the less, he kind of ruined our little swim and we had to awkwardly leave to get away from him. His name was Glen. As we left, he told us to be careful because there are a lot of crazy people out here. *shiver*

At night, we went outside to watch the sun set, and noticed a huge group of bats flying out into the dusk...from our house!! So no need to go to the Congress bridge, we have about 100 bats living in our roof. After learning this, we can see them and hear them in the morning and there is tiny bat poop on the driveway. EWWW! We are going to invest in some kind of pest control for sure.

The next day I drove back to Austin and my family helped me get organized around Darian and I's new townhouse. It was so messy because we have so much stuff and don't know what to do with it! Then Scott drove me around the Duval Apt. area in hopes of finding good loot. We did find a big desk that we are now using for a tv stand in the living room. It was a great success. I was able to surprise Darian when he got home from work with a pretty decent-looking apartment!

Now to get up to date, today was Darian's day off. That was nice because he got to drive me to jury duty at 1pm today! I was so glad I didn't have to report at 8:30am, which is the other call time. I had tried to dress decently because I had no idea what to expect. I packed 2 books in my purse for entertainment. But, after about 20 min, we all got to go home. I guess they had us on hand in case we needed to help with these like minor misdemeanor cases, but I guess all the people decided to cooperate and pay their fines, so there was no need for us. Hooray! I had of course been afraid I would make the jury and have to stay on, but also afraid that I wouldn't get picked. Like, if I can't even make jury duty (which no one wants to make), then what are my hopes of getting a job? Luckily I didn't have to worry about this since we were all sent home. Now the City of Austin can't bother me for 2 years!

So now I'm sitting in the living room enjoying the HD converter which allows me to watch a couple of channels after being deprived of tv all summer. Tomorrow I will look for some jobs to apply to and read some of the new books that I picked up at Barnes and Noble yesterday.


That's it for now!