Home!

HOME!!!

Did I mention that I was sleeping with dogs that had fleas for the last 3 weeks?! It was terribly disconcerting. And sad for them because they wanted to snuggle but I didn't want to make any fur-to-hair contact. I didn't get fleas, though, to be clear.

And NOW? Home to my roommate who lovingly serves me spanakopita, pizza minis, hot wings, and fontina cheese balls while I'm on the balcony sipping a nice, room temperature Corona. Home to the two shirts and one pair of pants that I didn't pack. Home to my mail and my incense and my assloads of lotions. And probably most importantly, home to the fact that I don't have to be home at least once every five hours-- I do what I want, again!

2 spinoff points:

1. Corina and my favorite scent is Egyptian Musk. I THOUGHT I just like the scent of incense in general, but it's actually just that one smell that I like best. Corina identified an oil with the same smell and our master plan is a procurement of said oil, followed by some decorative smearing of it all over everything in our house. I want people to consider our apartment both sweet smelling, and well-lubricated. Dream combination.

2. After merely looking after 2 dogs at a time for 2 months (6 dogs total (posterity)), I already see how the less responsibility you have at home, the better. With an influx of approximately one JILLION people suddenly becoming engaged (actually over months, but it FEELS sudden since time has sped up 10x in the past two years...), and me reeling over my feelings about it, it's nice to realize that I'm not even ready to lose any freedom to DOGS-- I'm just not there yet.

Vicky

Check out this webseries that I worked on and that my boss executive produced. It stars Olesya Rulin from High School Musical (she is also an angelic person in real life).

http://www.queenvicky.com/

More Pilot Analysis

Medium accomplishments this weekend.

Failed to do anything about Colorado. Well... I did ONE thing. I bought a jacket. I haven't owned a jacket since high school, so it's kind of a big deal. Mostly, I do NOT want to get to CO and bitch about being cold constantly. And I know that it will be an impossible urge to suppress because I thought I was dying when we got down to 46 degrees last year. I like this jacket, though. It's got some peacoat qualities, without screaming "fancy" at you.

Helped Jasmine move. It was actually a pretty short process (for me-- they have a bit to go yet). The most amazing part was transporting a fridge from the truck to her kitchen with 3 girls and NO RAMP ON THE TRUCK. I gave a get-pumped speech ahead of time, explaining that women are strong and that this will be a landmark of braggery if we can do it. And we did!!

On a POSSIBLY related note, I feel like I have bruises all over my body. On my legs they're visible, but it's possible that what I perceive to be bruises on my arms and shoulders are just muscle aches. I don't think this should have happened, not because I can boast about being in any sort of shape, but because I JUST moved WAY more stuff a few months ago and I felt golden at the end. Not even a whiff of back pain (still no back pain, which I find miraculous... almost sinfully amazing).

Watched:

Parenthood ep. 2. LOVED IT. I LOVE Jason Ritter on that show! I loved it so much that I had to go re-watch specific moments with Kevin over the phone. Bah! This will be my favorite series this season.

Free Agents pilot. I liked it. I'm torn because Hank Azaria can do some really wonderful nuanced faces and it makes him a GREAT, subtle leading man, but it also makes me feel like he's being wasted by being the straight character. I'm not sold on the Kathryn Hahn yet, although I remember her being great in How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I'll have to check out ep. 2.

2 Broke Girls pilot. The Kat Dennings character reminds me of Roseanne, which I WOULD love (I fucking LOVE Roseanne-- I don't even care) except that Roseanne had a family and a husband to support and there was a reason why she was so bitter. Kat is just being annoying. Mostly it was hokey and unless they give me SOMETHING I haven't seen or at least better disguise something I have seen, there's no reason to watch it. That said, it will probably fit in with the other CBS sitcoms wonderfully.

Up All Night ep. 2. Great. Still funny. Will Arnett had a little theme about ironic things that I HOPE was just for this episode. Also, the plot line in general is one that I don't usually see. And I saw more Cannon this time, but it was sparse yet again, and not annoying.

The Office season premiere. I'm blind with The Office. I cannot give an unbiased opinion. I thought it was good. Pam is pregs again. James Spader's name is now officially in my personal actor catalogue.

Whitney pilot. Didn't love it. Mostly because I don't need to watch a show about a neurotic, annoying white woman. I see them all the time in really life and that's not the kind of humor I want to encourage women to have. Kristen Wiig please. Kristen Wiig/ Tina Fey humor please. Also, while I don't monumentally despise laugh tracks, at the beginning of this show it was really uncomfortable because the jokes weren't very funny.

Run Down

Last weekend of housesitting. Wednesday is my last day. I'm so relieved, even though it's been great. ESPECIALLY my visitor, who has been magical and inspiring and everything I'd hoped. It's a terrible tragedy that I can't think of anything to write about it that doesn't seem too personal.

Corina and I decided to really dig into nesting in our apartment. Our schedules are crazy though, so we had to book time in advance. October 9- Nesting. We're getting some rugs and HOPEFULLY some sort of table that you can eat at. We're also getting a free TV this weekend. Sweet.

I'm helping Jasmine move this weekend, probably due to my addiction to moving.

Reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It's a preaching-to-the-choir scenario. I'll probably stop as soon as either The Hunger Games arrives in the mail (courtesy of the ever-wonderful Katherine) or Zel comes in the mail ($4 ($0.01 without shipping) impulse buy). Hopefully The Hunger Games comes first because I'm in the mood for an addictive series (hence the Twilight explosion I recently had).

I went to the Hot in Cleveland taping. It was INCREDIBLE. Mostly because when I got there, I suddenly remembered how fucking HARD I wanted to watch a sitcom being filmed only a few years ago when I thought it would never ever happen. I'd watch the special features on my Friends DVDs and dream of getting to see that experience in person. And not only did I get to see the taping, but I got to be back stage! 15 feet (truthful best approximation) away from Betty White! Talking to her manager. Eating their shrimp cocktail and guacamole! While normally such situations would make me vastly uncomfortable because I don't have anyone to talk to, in that instance, I was overjoyed to just stand and observe silently. Forever. It was a real happy-gasm.

Things that are relevant to me:

-Jon Stewart is on the cover of Rolling Stone. I bought it. I'm not finished with the article yet. I will put it on our coffee table next to the Bob Dylan issue of Rolling Stone, thus making it the most entertaining coffee table ever (for a niche audience of one...).

-The new season of The Office premiered yesterday. I didn't watch it because I didn't want to wait until 9pm, so I Tivoed it and will watch it tonight. Jenna Fischer is CRAZY pregnant and she said something about her story arc and I wasn't sure if she was kidding or not. Very curious.

-On a related note, Whitney also premiered after The Office yesterday. I Tivoed that as well.

-On another related note, it is a small tragedy that Steve Carrell never got an Emmy for The Office. I think it's because he made it look effortless.

Pilots, mostly

I'm having a lotion obsession. Not just because of my $40 explosion at Bath and Body Works (one tube is nearly empty already. And I'm using two at a time!!), but also because my boss gave me a goody bag from some event that had bajillions of lotions in them. Lotion for your eyes, for the end of the day on your face, for the morning on your face, for you neck and chest. I already used to use face lotion, but this is a 12 minute regime (I haven't actually timed it so that's an approximation). So far, other than being uncomfortable when I'm not at least 50% moist, I haven't noticed much difference. Well, I also can't stop petting the bridge of my nose... it's so damn soft!! Mostly I'm impressed that I'm enjoying the routine. It didn't seem like something that would last, but I was just as surprised when I enjoyed regular blogging... a mere 8 years ago.

I may at least have to have the CONVERSATION regarding getting cable. Spending all of my spare time in cable-d houses has illuminated the possibility that it's irresponsible for me, being in this business, to not have cable. Mostly because even though I've been hearing about the same pilots for months and months and months, it wasn't until, for example, I saw the trailer for Ringer on TV that I was even REMOTELY interested. This is 100% because I realized that Ioan Gruffudd is in it. And I would never have known that without the trailers because I didn't formerly know his name. I was just in love with the "is there anyone alive out there!?" guy from Titanic.

Point #2 is that I WILL gravitate towards The Daily Show when I have cable at LEAST twice a week, if not all four times. And that makes me much more aware of the current world around me. Sure, I can watch the trailers and The Daily Show online, but at this moment, I never do. That's why I want to DISCUSS getting cable.

Anyway, because of the cable, I did watch a couple of pilots.

1. New Girl (aka the Zooey Deschanel one). Shmena, but I'm POSITIVE that no real opinion can be made from this pilot. It was super scattered, but it had potential. It could absolutely go either way.

2. Up All Night (Christina Applegate, Will Arnett, Maya Rudolph, Jennifer Hall, Nick Cannon) - I had the pleasure of watch the first cut of this pilot, as well as the final version. The changes included adding Nick Cannon, which needless to say seemed super ominous. It's actually super great though. The Cannon was sparse and Christina and Will and Maya are very human, HILARIOUS characters. This will fly, absolutely. Highly recommend.

3. Ringer (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ioan Gruffudd) - Not my cup of tea, really. I might catch the next episode, but it's 0% funny so I just can't care that hard. Plus, the green screen moments are really really obvious. Also, Sarah has Elizabeth Harnois/Vampire syndrome. Does. Not. Age.

Pilots I'm interested in:

1. Free Agents (Hank Azaria) - I didn't pay much attention to this one and thus thought that this was about police agents. Nay. It's like... PR or something and it seems funny.

2. Two Broke Girls (Kat Dennings, Beth Behrs) - I kind of doubt I'm going to like this, but I really REALLY love Kat Dennings so I'm willing to try. Although I must say that the waitress outfit that she wears in the trailers is pretty unflattering to her.

3. Whitney - (Whitney Cummings) The trailer was funny but it may fall into a weird place in terms of her being a crazy wife-ish character.

Pilots I'm not really interested in:

1. Apartment 23 - I don't think Krysten Ritter can carry a show and I'm not liking the premise.

2. Last Man Standing (Tim Allen) - Seems like another Home Improvement. They kept emphasizing gender roles and how Tim Allen likes man things. Not an issue I struggle with or relate to... at least not as told by an old man in a sitcom. Plus, in the trailer he punctuated someone else's statement with "and beyond" in a Lightyear voice, which highlighted the hokey-ness.

3. I Hate My Teenage Daughter (Jamie Presley)- Instantly made me think of Reba, probs because of the accent. Also, the daughters are outrageously one-dimensional and the mom's are pathetic.

4. Good Christian Belles (Kristen Chenowith)- Probs going to be a Cougar Town kind of show, which is fine but just not for me. Also, it used to be called Good Christian Bitches, which sounds funnier to me (although I'd probably still not watch it).

Pilots I'm morbidly curious about:

1. Pan Am (Christina Ricci) - Obviously Christina hasn't done anything good since she was peaking in puberty, but I like Kelli Garner's face. It's probably not going to be funny enough and it might just be gratuitous hour (or half hour-- I'm not interested in looking up the length yet) of pretty women in stewardess outfits. Either way, I'm going to catch at least one episode of the Ricci.

And now just to brag, I got to go to the premiere of Chillerama at the Hollywood Cemetery last night. That will be the other thing I take people to when they visit along with Hamburger Mary's bingo. It's in the least scary cemetery ever that has gravestones of famous people with their faces on it. And then you sit in the grass with your picnic and wine and watch the movie outside (although I got a seat because I was in the VIP section (brag brag brag)). It was the campiest horror movie ever and it was fucking HILARIOUS. Intentionally hilarious. It was 3 movies together and just to give you an idea, they were call "Wadzilla" (about a killer sperm), "Wearbears" (about gay guys that turn into bears with leather chaps and eat people when they're turned on-- set in a 60s beach movie setting) and "The Diary of Anne Frankenstein" (about Hitler making a Frankenstein-esque monster out of Jews--he obviously gets super killed by it).

:::::SPOILER:::::

And it ends in an EXTREMELY graphic zombie orgy.

:::::END SPOILER:::::

You'd think it would be difficult to watch next to my boss and two of our clients, but it wasn't. Hilarious!

Today I get to go an see a taping of Hot in Cleveland. That's the last of my bragging.

Normal

This was a fair weekend. I got some groceries, did some laundry, got some books from the library (I wanted The Hunger Games but all like... 16 copies are out. That's what I get for waiting until the movie trailer is out. I ended up getting The God Delusion and some book by FLB that has a crappy cover and I therefore probably won't read it.)

I heard some EXCELLENT stories this weekend, but they're all too personal to share online. I nearly exploded and ended up driving home to vomit all of my information upon Corina under the pretense of using my favorite gas station and picking up mail. I cannot stress enough how obsessed with Corina I am. I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER IS OVER AND I CAN GO HOME AGAIN! Even though do I enjoy housesitting...

True Blood and Wilfred are over for the season. The silver lining is that The Office, 30 Rock and Parenthood will be returning soon. Plus, I never actually watched this season of Weeds so that can feed me during the gap.

I'm probably going to have a visitor stay with me for a little while this week and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get my pants inspired right off! I'm kind of exhausted by the prospect, but ultimately that would be a great thing.

Proud Weekend (Although I Have Low Standards)

Switched over to my third and final housesitting house. No big thing.

In other news, I had a unusually social weekend.

1. I hung out with my high school friend Darri and her friend Wallis. That was glorious. I forgot that people are only hard to meet if they're older and/or super accomplished. Also, I had two glasses of wine which provoked me to spill into a long, passionate tangent about how much I love LA (with a subcategory of movies). It was nice because I forgot that I still really feel pumped about this place. It's hard to find your passion when your life involves monotony at the same desk (I'm not complaining, but it would be denial if I claimed that I'm riveted every day).

2. I spent the following day talking to my mom, and the evening hanging out with Corina and Spiegs, who visited from San Francisco with encouraging tales of success. We capped the day at a bar with Corina's work friends. I actually had WAY more fun than I would have expected.

3. The next day we went to Venice beach. I performed an act of daring (I'm not willing to share the details online, so if you could just assume the coolest thing that comes to mind, that would be great), that made me feel like a superhero for the day. I also got a LOT of incense for $3. Like... 60 sticks. It was awesome, although I lament that I don't think any of the scents are as good as the one I currently have. We'll see.

4. Then we went to Hamburger Mary's for bingo, followed by karaoke. We all performed separately and then as a group. I've never done karaoke in front of strangers before and I'm sorry to report that it was mostly unpleasant because my words weren't lined up with the tune by a LOT. I'm the only one this happened to. I pulled it together by the last verse and the audience was very nice and supportive, but it was still a little disappointing. However, then Corina went up doing an Ace of Base song and was killer and Spiegs did an excellent Lady Gaga (I did "You Know That I'm No Good" by Winehouse). Then we all sang "Say My Name" which was prudent since it was Beyoncé's birthday. During "Say My Name," one of the drag queens humped my leg for a while, before crawling across the stage and touching herself. It was magical.

5. I spent Labor Day monday PRIMARILY doing nothing. But last night I went to a birthday party smash! It was Scottish themed (the birthday girl is Scottish) and it was in a warehouse and there was a bubble machine and you could draw on the floor with chalk and you could get your face painted and you could sketch your profile on a banner and there was a photographer and confetti and pizza and beer and cake. There were speeches and a poem and a song. It was super sweet and it was lovely to see my friends. I left by 10:30pm though, because I'm weak. And also because a lot a LOT of older and very accomplished people were there and I, thus, had a hard time being breezy.

Just a couple more things:

1. True Blood season finale on Sunday. BAAAAH!!

2. Watched Untamed Heart with Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei to continue on with the pending Slater obsession. Dreck. It was FAR to cheesy. I valiantly tried to suspend belief and enjoy it for what it was for the first 50 minutes, but I couldn't stop rolling my eyes. Bummer.

3. Splurged and bought $40 worth of lotion from Bath and Body Works. I don't even care. I'm so happy about this!

4. I also got many pairs of sneakers in the mail from Sarah (my guardian angel, ESPECIALLY in shoe related situations) and I bought some shoes for work. My shoe collection more than DOUBLED this weekend.

5. Also, my aunt sent me another care package which included a pizza stone and pizza dough mix. We also got some cake mixes and sangria mix!!

Guilty Pleasures and Christian Slater

At this moment, I kind of feel like all of my relationships are attacking me at once! In a good way, certainly. Some are out of town visitors and many are local and I'm pretty committed to every one of them. It's complicated with housesitting since I can't reasonably make any weekday meals before 9pm. Champagne problems.

I finally got around to watching True Romance with Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette (And Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Pitt, and ALLEGEDLY Val Kilmer, although I didn't see him (VERY unlike me)). It was a real treat (Claire)!! Onto my next Slater movie (realized this weekend that Christian Slater is the voice of the red haired fairy in Fern Gully. While verifying this information on imdb, I learned that Tim Curry is Hexxus!)

Due to circumstances I consider to be beyond my control, I accidentally read Twilight AGAIN. The circumstance was that it was sitting on the table, looking so pristine. And I wasn't in the mood to continue reading the Russell Brand. I read the first and last 70 pages of the second book, skipped the third book entirely, and am near finished the last one (aka(in my brain): the one with the banging...). I'm not recommending it. I'm not even going to try to convince you of the secret genius like Dawson's Creek. It just plucks at my lady strings in a horribly aggravating, but more horribly irresistible way.

Realized today that I have a long weekend!!