I'm over it... MEH!!

Location: Santa Monica, CA, USA

So, I'm over the whole thing. It's really sad how it all turned out, but I'm pretty confident that the big dude knows what he's doing and has something better in store. Just hope he let's me in on the plan sometime soon.

In the mean time, I've applied for a couple part-time writing positions for various travel blogs/journals/magazines all over, and so hopefully, one of those will turn into something of value. Until then, I'm just going to keep traveling and keep working and see what turns up!

Thanks so much for all the support and love and prayers and please stick around and keep reading the blog!! I would love to gain a bigger and more global following, so if you like what you read, pass it on and hopefully we can get something real started :)

Alright... on to planning this Flogging Molly Chicago trip!! Any ideas?

XOXO

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Now playing: Flogging Molly - Between A Man And A Woman
via FoxyTunes

Dreaming with a broken heart...

Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA

Well... things have taken a turn for the worse. I'll finish up weekend narration and then I'll tell you the horrible news.

After lunch at BLT Burger yesterday, we were pretty spent. So Jennifer and Emily went back to the room to take a nap before we all headed to Stripper 101 at Planet Hollywood. Basically what it is, is a class/show you pay for and you go into this cute little dance studio with poles and chairs and you learn how to dance... exotically. It's a short class, they don't go into much detail, but it's all girls, everyone's drinking and the ex-stripper chicks are awesome. So we spin our stuff and wear ourselves out even more before heading back to change for dinner at koi which was AMAZING. Wonderful sushi, great lychee martinis and wonderful company (duh). After this, we headed back to the Mirage and spent the next 4 hours or so playing blackjack (and rocking, might I add). I ended the weekend up about $200, and I think Emily and Niffer both did much better than me.

Went to bed last night, woke up early, dropped off the girls at the airport and headed home. Unfortunately, I was pretty tired, and had to stop not once, not twice, but 3 TIMES to take a nap on the way home. The 3rd time wasn't entirely necessary but if I hadn't stopped, I just would have been stuck in traffic, and I figured that sleeping was a more efficient use of my time.

So... about the mess. So I get an e-mail yesterday at lunch telling me that my video application has been reveiwed and that it is too long and that I have to resubmit it. So, in a panic, I call Angie and force her to fix it so it's shorter by a half a second (took it to :59 on my player, figured that was safe) and she pulled through amazingly and had the file sent to me within like 5 minutes of me calling her. I ran upstairs, submitted the file, got multiple error messages but after much persistence and much panicking, I finally got it in.

Or so I thought.

I got an e-mail on today on the drive home (after all my naps) saying that due to some sort of technical difficulty, my video had been "removed" from their server and I needed to resubmit it (once again). The catch? It has to be done by midnight UTC. So I call the mom frantically asking what the F kind of time zone is UTC which come to find out... it was 12:08 AM UTC at that very moment. Literally just passed the time I had to have it re-re-submitted by.

So at this point, I'm pretty livid. I've cried for a couple hours, sent a couple hate mails, cried some more, yelled at the mom. You know.

I'm just a little heartbroken. I feel like I never got my chance. I had this. It was mine. But they'll never see it now.

:(

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Now playing: John Mayer - Dreaming With A Broken Heart
via FoxyTunes

Sin city in style

Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA

Oh... Lord... Thank goodness it's Marti gras, or I would have no reason for such amazing behavior :)

Thursday night was pretty short lived. Since I arrived so late (sorry Niffer!!) I changed in the car in the valet garage and ran into Tao just before they closed their guest list line at 11:30. And you will never believe who I ran into there!! Ok... yes you will... Emily and Jennifer!! I was so excited to see them, you have no idea. I miss these cats like crazy... anyway. Tao was... well... pretty boring. Lots of 20 year olds in minidresses and we were just clearly not in the mood with our bourbon and beer. So we called it an early night (like 2 AM) and prepped for a long Friday ahead of us.

We started out early at Margaritaville. But after tapping out a 100 oz Margarita, we were pretty well into our day. Next on the itinerary? O'Shea's for beer pong tournament. Since there were three of us and naturally, we couldn't play alone, we scouted the cutest and most normal looking boys in the casino and recruited them. About 6 games of beer pong and two victorious winners later (yours truly - duh... and my partner... whose name escapes me - duh) we decided to sit down and play an hour or so worth of blackjack. Fortunately, I cashed out even (Emily won, yet again) and then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Gallagher's was amazing (go figure). We all got the surf and turf (me and Jennifer lobster and Emily crab) with a hefty side of beef and some other vegetable things that we clearly had no room for after the 10 lbs of fish and cow we just shoved in our mouths. Our waitor was awesome (naturally, Niffer made friends w/ him) and let us chill for quite some time after our meal was complete. Next... we headed to Chris Angel Believe Cirque du Soleil at the Luxor.

Wow... it was... just... wow. I'm not even sure I followed the story line... but I know it was crappy. The magic, was pretty much nonexistent. Chris Angel, was cool, but kind of a pansy in real life. Then there were these weird dancers that came out that I think were pretending to be Cirque people, but they were not very good. I'm not sure if the wine at dinner is blanking my memory or if that's my natural reflex, but it was not good, whatever it was.

Afterwards, I lamed out. Niffer and Emily went to play blackjack and I passed out. Turns out Emily ran into Wes and his bachelor party (crazy small world) who happen to be staying in our hotel this weekend so we're going to attempt to hunt them down and require toasts this evening.

For now, off to lunch at the amazing buffet downstairs and then who knows what next!

XOXO
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Now playing: Lady GaGa - Poker Face
via FoxyTunes

Now the competition REALLY begins...

Location: Santa Monica, CA, USA

Not a lot of time to chit chat or Jennifer will wring my neck. I spent all day yesterday filming (yay sunny day!) and then all night thinking that with Kyle and Alex's help, editing would be a breeze. But unfortunately, that was the understatement of the year. How come no one told me ahead of time that iMovie on iLife 08 does NOT have the little turtle/rabbit button? Literally, my life was ruined. I tried recording myself in a goto meeting, with screenfreez software. Finally... you want to know what I ended up doing to speed up the frames? I manually moused over them at a fast pace, while I literally recorded my computer screen with my video camera.

Absolute nightmare.

Anyway... the video is up! The application is SENT and accepted!! I am so excited and SO relieved to have this all taken care of. And now, I am off to schmooze the boss a little more before I head out of town for Las Vegas for Jennifer's b-day!!

Don't worry, there will be plenty of updates on all of the wonderfulness :)

XOXO

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Now playing: Johann Sebastian Bach - Hallelujah
via FoxyTunes

Oh the rain, keeps on comin' down

Location: Santa Monica, CA, USA

Fate, is just not working with me this week. I bought the camera. It's beautiful. However... it's useless because...

IT'S RAINING!!

And who is going to want to come chit chat with me about some stupid trip to Australia in the pouring rain. Who even goes to the promenade/pier when it's raining? No one!

So... yet again... we're putting this off for another day.

XOXO

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Now playing: Cross Canadian Ragweed - Sick and Tired
via FoxyTunes

And.... ACTION... wait... wait... no not yet

Location: Santa Monica, CA, USA

Well, I was SUPPOSED to start filming today. But... I am not. Reasons? Well... I have lost all three of my potential cameras. First one was lost to a job (I mean, c'mon... money? Sell-out). The second was lost to the forces of nature (now, I know camera's are not waterproof... didn't you learn that lesson as well?). And my final camera was lost to Africa... ok fine, that one is valid. So what do I do now?

Well.. I have an idea. I'm just going to buy one!! I mean... I have to do this video, right? and it's not going to happen easily, as I have found out. So I am just going to go to best buy this afternoon and buy a camera.

Plus, they have a 14 day return policy on electronics.

XOXO

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Now playing: Eagles - Life in the Fast Lane
via FoxyTunes

A beautiful blue-bird Sunday

Location: Mammoth Lakes, CA, USA

Well, I guess technically, I'm back in LA. BUT... since 90% of this post is about Mammoth, that's what I'm labeling it as :)

Sunday was the perfect ending to a most fabulous trip. The evening started with a trip to Wild Willy's, the hot spring down near Lake Crowley. What was supposed to be a 30-45 minute trip turned into a 2.5 hour trip because we all refused to get out. It was about 23 degrees outside, but about 95 in the spring. But... we ran out of elixer and needed something to re-fuel, so we bravely dressed, two by two and headed back to the cars to thaw. Then the real fun began :) After a terribly trouble-filled evening of King's cup (with revised rules, naturally), a couple intense games of EXTREME categories and about 3 cases of Tecate (ok, I'm starting to warm up to it now!) we finally arrived at daylight... No, we were not waking up to greet the beautiful bluebird Sunday with a smile... we were just heading to bed. I guess we all took naps.

I was awakened (awoken, awokened?) at about 10 by Venice and her WONDERFUL breakfast cooking skills. There's nothing like waking up to the wonderful smell of eggs, toast, fresh OJ, the works. We grudgingly packed our bags, packed up cars and pretended to clean the condo. Josh dropped me off at the Von's to pick up Tay Tay (who was still in perfect working order, although somewhat chilled after being abandoned) and I headed up to Mammoth to trade out my skis. After being reunited with my Divas (and giving Andrew a quick slap on the side of the head for convincing me to go otherwise) I picked up Nick and headed to June to meet the rest of the gang.

The snow... was amazing; the powder was perfect. It was about 4 inches, no matter where you were, with a solid, but not icy base. There was not a cloud in the sky, absolutely no wind and it was hard to think about being anywhere but right there. Naturally, my courage kicked in about 3 and I attempted doing some mad tricks in the terrain park (although no nuggin' unfortunately), but it was relatively short lived when we realized how late it was getting and, in an attempt to not be escorted off the mountain for the second day in a row, as well as to get Nick to work on time today, we departed just before the lifts closed.

The drive back was brutal. By the time I dropped my skis off back at the frat house, picked up a pita and Rahul from Pita Pit, transferred his stuff from Tom's car to mine and then got out of town, it was about 7 PM. The boys, thankfully, did their best to keep me alert, but it was definitely an uphill battle for all of us. After dropping them both off safetly in their respective cross-city towns, I dove into bed, without unpacking my car, changing clothes or even turning off the lights.

Work today was definitely a struggle, but completely worth it. I don't think I have ever skiied better conditions than yesterday afternoon and I can't wait to come back and do it again before the end of the season.

XOXO

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Now playing: Louis Armstrong - Blue Skies
via FoxyTunes

I'm a boarder!

Location: Mammoth Lakes, CA, USA

What did I get myself into? All of the sudden, I come to and I am in the middle of a blizzard, on a diamond, on Venice's SNOWBOARD and the ski patrol are holding my hands guiding me down the mountain... how did I get here?

Well... I guess we could begin to blame it on the late start this morning. First... my car got stuck. In the stupid driveway (thanks for the 2WD daddio :). So after pushing... and PUSHING and asking people on the street to help us push, we finally got little Tay Tay out of the driveway and safetly to the Von's parking lot, where she will sit for the remainder of the weekend. After making about an hour and half trip to Von's to pick up groceries, beer and pizza for the frat house (the name I've coined for Nick, Andrew, Josh, John, Chris and Jason's place - clever eh?) we cooked up some pizzas, pounded some brews and headed to the bars. Well... bar - singular, I guess is more appropriate. I'm actually not sure where we were, but there were a lot of people, something about New Zealand day? Lots of singing, beer, accents. Not really sure. Anyway... next thing, it's about 3:30 and we're finally getting to sleep after one of the longest days in history. Or so I thought.

We woke up this morning at about 10. We ate some breakfast, packed up our gear and headed to Main Lodge. Venice and Tim were going to get a head start on runs while I went and visited Andrew in the demo shop. Nick was impatient and headed down to Eagle Lodge or somewhere else far away without us (which turned out to be a big mistake considering the hour long lift line he got stuck in). By the time we got it all sorted out, we just decided to head to June. We packed up Brian, Tim and my stuff in the sube and Venice and Nick piled into his PO.. I mean... his really awesome nice car :) and we headed to June!

Early afternoon conditions were great. It was cold, a little cloudy, but overall, amazing. No crowds, no lines, no snow. Our biggest problem was big patches of powder (which proved to be quite an issue with me and my new "powder" skis Andrew set me up with - I am not a fan). I've decided that I am an excellent skier, when I like the conditions... and I did not like them today. I took a big spill in some deep stuff near the edge and lost my glove somehow (it's white) but then we found it about an hour later... miraculously. I also took a nose dive down a double black when I hit a mogul too fast and one of my feet went forward while the other stayed behind. Rough stuff.

So, what do you do when you're sucking the most? Put yourself in a situation to suck even more!! Right?

No... bad idea. So after Nick left for work (about 3:30), Venice and I get this bright idea to switch modes of transportation for our last run. AKA she wears my skis and I wear her snowboard (even though neither of us had been on the other before). After about a 20 minute crash course from the ski patrol (and lessons on how to put the darn boots on), we set off. Veeeeeeeeery slowly. Then... it started to blizzard. We knew we were going down, but we didn't really know how, or where we were going exactly. Then... we're on a black. Venice, is handling it like a champ. Me, on the other hand... wow. It was bad. I am clearly meant to face forward.

At about 4:30, the ski patrol mountain combers catch up to us to try and help us down. They determine that we should probably just switch back. So... we do. In the middle of a mountain, in a blizzard, using one of the patrolmen's boards as a table, me and Venice switch boots and ski/boards back and proceed down to checkpoint 1. Amazing race style, there is a snowmobile waiting for each of us. We hop on with our respective ski patrolmen and ride down to the main lodge. It's nearly dark, there is about 10 feet visability at best, and we're a little sore... but hey, we've got a story right?

So, here I am... soaking my broken pride, drinking a Tecate (eww) and preparing for our very exciting evening of hot springs and house parties. Hopefully, we won't party too hard and will actually be able to ski a full day tomorrow... oh who am I kidding...

XOXO

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Now playing: Rod Stewart - Tonight's the Night
via FoxyTunes