Monday, September 21, 2009

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! :)

Monday, September 14, 2009

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!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

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!