Sea Lions, Houseboats and Old Friends

Yowza. The past couple weeks have been busy busy busy. The light at the end of the tunnel, though, was my highly anticipated and much needed VACAY to Puerto Vallarta with my roomie, Mckenzie. We currently are at the Phoenix airport with a 4 hour layover (aka the perfect time to finish up some overdue blog posts), so here I go... :-)

A couple weekends ago I made a short trip up to San Francisco to see one of my dearest friend Vanessa who was there for work.  I was there roughly 40 hours and spent about 15 hours driving (alone) roundtrip, so that definitely wasn't the best travel to vacation time ratio. A rare combination of overly pricey flights due to the golf U.S. Open in SF that weekend and a random craving for a solo road trip led me to the (crazy) decision to make the long drive. However, when I hit some killer construction/congestion on the 5 (that literally caused me to put my car in PARK for an extended period of time), I definitely began regretting that decision. Ha. Alas, after approx 8 hours in the car I made it to SF and my lovely weekend reunion with Vaness officially began. :-)

I went to SF for the first time last year with Mary, but we spent the majority of our time Outside Lands, so I got to see a lot more of the pretty city this time. We ate a lot of DELISH food (highlights: gnocchi at Firenze by Night Ristorante, tomato/mozzarella croissant at Caffe Greco, and the famous pancakes at Dottie's True Blue Cafe), enjoyed the views from Coit Tower, visited St. Peter and Paul Cathedral (one of the prettiest churches I've seen in the U.S.), and saw the sea lions at Pier 39 (which are so freaking cute... I love them). 

We then had a wonderful/hilarious reunion with another good friend from college, Amber, who is one of the coolest, nicest, and most unique people I know.  It's hard to describe her in words, but I think the following text from her gives a glimpse into her awesomeness: 

"Hey! I have a ping pong lesson with this El Salvadorian master dude at noon, other than that, heck yes! We should meet by the ferry tomorrow- I live on a boat in Sausalito, and yall are gonna LOVE it.  :) guaranteed exciting/entertaining. HUZZAH." 

hahaha. Vaness and I read that a couple times and just laughed... so very "Amber." We took a ferry to Sausalito (on which we hilariously got RAVAGED by insaaane winds) and Amber brought us to her houseboat. I was expecting a small little boat where I'd have to duck my head to fit in the cabin... oh how wrong I was. It was a full-sized large HOME that also happened to be the oldest houseboat in Sausilito. The decor was artsy/eccentric/amazing and both Vaness and I couldn't get over how cool and crazy it was that Amber lives there.  

We spent the afternoon drinking delish handcrafted cocktails (fresh watermelon juice+gin+basil...yummm) and catching up on the last few years. It was perfect. And it definitely made me think of the cheesy (but true) quote, "True friends can grow separately without growing apart." :-)

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend full of old friends and exploring a great city. These are definitely a few of my favorite things. :-)

xoxo,

Annie. 

Review: "Crushed" at the Hollywood Fringe Festival

In her hilarious and painfully honest one-woman play, my talented friend Kiersten fearlessly tackles the age-old question that I'm sure the majority of us have been asking for decades...why is it that the boys you like, never like you back? (a.k.a. the story of my life).

 

Starting with her first crush at the ripe age of 4 (a Han Solo action figure) and ending with her wonderful husband, Bradley, Kiersten explores why it didn't work with every boy she loved in between (with the help of an old-school overhead projector and construction paper hearts). Her comical (sometimes sad) anecdotes made me laugh out loud (a lottt), think "No wayy?! Poor Kiersten!", and reminisce (with a smile and a laugh) about all my former crushes who didn't like me back. (I'm looking at you Chris, Kacy, Patrick, Colin, Ben, etc.). ;-)

Crushed opens at the Hollywood Fringe Festival TOMORROW (June 15th) and you should absolutely go. (I plan on going again next weekend). Tickets are $12 at door or $10 here with code: JTT.

xoxo, 

Annie. 

True Life: I'm a Hollywood Assistant

My new favorite Twitter feed (brought to my attention by Fred Savage a.k.a. Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years a.k.a my first crush) is #HollywoodAssistants. Kevin Arnold describes it perfectly in his tweet:

 Fred Savage ‏@thefredsavage

Check out @hollywoodassts and see what life is like for the people who truly run show business. Enjoy!!

This hilarious anonymously-run tumblr gives such a great insight into the crazy, wonderful, frustrating, ridiculous, exhilarating world of being an assistant in this industry. I'm really lucky to have two great bosses who don't throw staplers at my head (as one of my friend's bosses did) and let me get involved in many projects above and beyond my "assistant" duties. (Thank goodness).  While almost all of the Hollywood Assistant posts make me 'lol', I've narrowed it down to some favorites....

WHEN SOMEONE NEEDS TO RESCHEDULE DRINKS WITH ME
On the outside I’m like,

On the inside:


WHEN I FORGET TO GET SOMEONE’S NUMBER


WHEN I HEAR JOHNNY DEPP IS IN THE LOBBY


WHEN MY BOSS TELLS ME I DID A GREAT JOB TODAY
I just feel like,

WHEN I TRY TO TAKE MY MIND OFF OF WORK

WHEN A HOT ACTOR WALKS BY


FREE FOOD IN THE OFFICE

WHEN SOMEONE RESCHEDULES THEIR MEETING TO MAKE THINGS WORK FOR MY BOSS


WHEN I GET A CALL SAYING THERE’S NO DRIVE-ON

THE MONTH OF DECEMBER

Oh man... how funny and accurate these are. I could go on and on.  Another funny insight into my current job is this video. It's 3 years old and still makes me laugh. I love that my place of employment makes an appearance. Holla WB. :-)

Hollywood ASST from Back of the Class on Vimeo.

your favorite Hollywood A-S-S-T, 

Annie. 

8:11 May Highlights

May is a generally a great month. The beginning of summer, Mother's Day, great weather, wedding season, and of course the pretty flowers that the April showers are supposed to bring. ;-) Here are my top 11 favorite things that happened at 8:11 PM in lovely month #5. 

8:11- din and UCB Facebook w/ @ellen_godfrey @mattgodfrey and@benkall. Holla.

8:11- din at my FAVE restaurant in Oklahoma (Ted's) w/ @dterracina, @christiegunn, and@randis716. Could not be happier.

8:11- at my sweet darling @abirkett's Oklahoma themed rehearsal dinner. So happy for her! 

8:11- loving the beautiful wedding of my gorgeous little @abirk. ❤❤❤ 

8:11- at @best_coast 's album release/clothing line launch party w/@ssegrub. Further solidifying her place as one of my favorite musicians.  (more on this fun party here). :-)

8:11- the wonderful @chadosko has graced LA w/ his presence once again.

8:11- shots w/ Seanzie before @istantray's play. Holllaaaa.

8:11- creating a masterpiece and drinking delish wine at a painting class w/ my darling @thelivlife. Funnnn.

8:11- part 1 of Josie's birthday celebrations- rooftop at Sonoma Wine Garden overlooking the ocean in Santa Monica. So pretty!

8:11- recuperating after the crazy Memorial Day Malibu party: frozen yogurt w/@ezoesch.

8:11- best way to end #memorialday weekend-#bachelorette watch party. Hollaaaa.

8:11- making slap bracelets with @kierstenlyons and her sisters for her amazing upcoming Hollywood Fringe Festival show "Crushed." Can't wait to see it!

Isn't it nuts that 2012 is already halfway over? So insane. I'm quite excited for June, though... I'll be avoiding "June gloom" in LA and heading to San Francisco and Puerto Vallarta this month! Bring on the beaches and margs...STAT. :-)

xoxo, 

Annie.  

My Little's Beautiful Wedding

May is a great month for weddings. Exactly one year ago today, I was at Bradley and Kiersten's wedding (one of my "top 5 favorite weddings of all time"), and just a few weeks ago my beautiful “little"Anne got married.

For those of you not familiar with sorority lingo, a “big” and “little” are paired together (through a magical mix of preference and fate) during the little’s freshman year and big’s sophomore year, and they remain big/little throughout college (slash life). This highly anticipated pairing is revealed at an event (aptly called “Big/Little”).  For Anne’s Big/Little, all the freshmen collected gifts/clues that led them to a pair of cute pajamas. They then went downstairs to find the girl wearing the same pajamas, thus revealing their big. After this grand reveal, we all went roller-skating and showered the littles with more gifts.  Partyyyy! ;-) 

I knew I wanted Anne to be my little the day she became a Tri Delt.  All the new pledges spent the night at the Delta and somehow it came out that she had attended Kids Across America, the inner-city sister camp of Kanakuk, which I attended/worked at for the majority of my youth. We broke out into a few KAA cheers, and I instantly knew we were meant to be. On several occasions, we googled “national best big/little contest,” because we were certain we would win.  (Unfortunately we never found one to enter).

Anne is an amazingly intelligent and talented nurse and she met Alex (her now hubby) when she was interning in Washington D.C. Alex is amazingly intelligent and talented as well and has been living all over the world the past couple years, getting his masters at Oxford and working in South Africa. As such, this was my first time to actually meet him in person. Fortunately, they invited all their guests to their festive Oklahoma-themed rehearsal dinner so we all got to meet each other, eat delicious southern fare, and dance the night away the night before the big day. 

It felt equal parts weird/wonderful to dust off my old cowboy boots for this lovely affair. :-)

The wedding itself was also a beautiful affair held at the Mayo Hotel.  Alex is Jewish so the ceremony and reception incorporated several fun Jewish traditions like him breaking a glass with his foot, the horah dance where everyone holds hands and runs around in circles, and the lifting of the bride/groom in chairs.

There was also other more universal traditions: Delta-ing the bride and singing the Tri Delt wedding song (which I still don't really know all the words to), fun dancing, and double-fisting drinks when it was last call. ;-) 

To make this joyous occasion even better, since it was my first time back in Oklahoma in quite some time, I got to spend some quality time with my sweet brother and have long over-due reunions with several of my dearest friends (including but not limited to: C Gunn, Randis, Sarah, Chelsea, Vanessa, Uran, Patrick, Beckham, Blake, and my very own "big", Cory!). It was SO amazing to be back in my beloved home state. 

Basically, it was an absolutely wonderful weekend with wonderful people. The only sad part was saying goodbye to Anne because she and Alex moved to South Africa a few days later. (Don't worry, they'll be back in August 2013... whew). I'm so glad I got to be there to celebrate with my darling little and new little-in-law. ;-) 

xoxo, 

Annie. 

Best Coast Album Release Party

Alternate title of this post: Why I Love Twitter

I had one of those crazy and very uniquely "LA moments" on Saturday.  As I was doing my usual morning perusal of Twitter, I saw that one of my favorite bands, Best Coast, posted this: 

BEST COAST ‏ @best_coast:

Who is coming to party tonight at space 15 twenty?! Record release/launch of BC for UO. 

Bobb + @Juan_Vigoda DJ! 7-10PM.

Um...okay, I'll come party with you, Best Coast! They have a highly anticipated new record coming out May 15 (which you can listen to in its entirety here).  The first single, The Only Place, is a love letter to California and officially my summer anthem of 2012. I love it.  Equally exciting is that lead singer Bethany Cosentino is releasing her first clothing line for Urban Outfitters this month.  Get. It. Girl. 

In addition to being a big fan of her music, I also have a straight up friend crush on Bethany. She just seems so fun and hilarious.  Plus she loves cats (like me). Plus she's Italian (like me). Plus she loves LA (like me).  We're basically a friend match made in heaven. So when she essentially just invited me (and all her other Twitter/Facebook fans) to a party to celebrate these two very cool occasions at a venue 5 minutes away from my apartment...how I could I NOT attend this?! 

I immediately RSVP'd for myself and a guest and went about my day.  I hadn't received any confirmation about my RSVP, so I thought the guest list was already full and made other plans.  Then, as fate would have it, I received a confirmation email around 6:30 (the event started at 7:00). I quickly canceled my dinner plans and started going through my phone to find a plus one. I landed on my sweet friend Molly and an hour later, we were ready to party with Best Coast. 

It was at Space 15 Twenty, which was very cool.  When we arrived, there were only about 30ish people there. As Bethany was mingling with people, Molly and I were trying to determine if all the other attendees at this semi-intimate gathering were her close friends or if they too had been invited via social media. Hard to tell. We got a drink to help ease the potentially awkward situation of being the only Twitter invitees there, and when we returned to the party, there were more people and some definite fans asking for photos and what not. (whew!)  We then made some new buddies as we waited for a chance to say hi and congrats to the woman of the hour.  

Then she did a raffle drawing (which I sadly did not win)...

....and then Bobb Bruno (the other half of Best Coast slash the awesome DJ for the event) played Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" and they danced a bit (yet another reason I legitimately want to be her friend)...

... and then we got to meet her! (I love Bobb in the background of this photo...ha).

She was just as nice and cool and funny as I thought she'd be. I love that she wanted to share this very exciting celebration with her fans. 

So, if you're reading this Bethany, thanks for the fun party! I'm excited for your new music and clothes. Annndd.... let's hang out? Maybe? 

:-)

xoxo, 

Annie. 

8:11 April Highlights

Yowza... how have 3 weeks passed since my last post?!  My last 3 weeks have been full of wonderful things... a visit from Mary, a trip to Oklahoma for a wonderful reunion-filled wedding, putting on a charity event at WB for foster youth, seeing my teenage dream, Adam Brody (aka Seth Cohen from "The O. C."), etc. ;-)  Busyness aside, please forgive my blog negligence. 

Here are my top 11 favorite things that happened last month at 8:11 PM.  (After Garrett's snarky comment about having too many 'highlights' for March, I've decided to put a cap on it...harder than one might think! I'm not the best at the process of elimination.) 

8:11-food truck Monday with @mike_beier. We have the coolest neighborhood. :-)

8:11-a fun night in downtown Houston w/ my dear mother. Dinner and a play...next up: dessert at the aquarium. Holla!

8:11- so excited to see my darling @salvie! a definite benefit of my parents living in houston. 

8:11- such a lovely Easter relaxing with my parents. Love them and love this wonderful holiday.

8:11- we just zumba'd. It was hilarious and fun.

8:11- art opening/music video premiere w/ @jinahbean, @johnnyhollywood, and @jessicacmitchell. cha chiiing.

8:11- post-church din/drinks at Spitz w/ 3 of the coolest girls I know. :-) 

8:11- commencing another epic Los Feliz pub crawl with @marygaris and @mike_beier. Hollaaa.

8:11- wonderful duncan reunion at Bar Marmont w/ @marygaris and @missalf. #cheers.

8:11- din at my fave restaurant (Masa) w/ my fave people ( @marygaris, @garrettfbaker ). #snarkytrio.

8:11- @jinahbean brought me to a backyard party/fireside comedy show. Raaaandom (slash amazing) Friday night.

Another great thing that happened in my life in April....

That's right... I became a fan of the British boy band sensation, One Direction. hahah. Pure curiosity about this group that was formed on England's X-Factor and was suddenly taking America by storm caused me to YouTube them one night. I really was like a skeptical old lady..."well, let's see what all this crazy hype is about..." And the next thing I knew, I was like "hmm... this song is really catchy."  And the next thing I knew, I was listening to them on repeat and know all the lyrics (Mary and I had some legitttt sing-alongs on the way to Palm Springs) and  I can rank the members in descending order of how much I like them (Harry and Liam are my faaaaves). ;-) Yes, I realize they are young children and this is slightly embarrassing/ridiculous. But I defy you to give them a listen (I suggest "One Thing" (shown above) and their other single "What Makes You Beautiful") and NOT be singing it all day in your head. It's impossible!

xoxo, 

Annie.