Welcome to Lauren's blog!

This poor blog! I have totally abandoned in. I definitely got a tumblr account and thought about completely stopping posting all this all together, but I just couldn't say bye to this poor little blog. I just read over my earlier post about trying to write my film paper while I had my mom's pop culture excitement interrupting my paper and I laughed for like 5 minutes. That's what blogs
are for, to help you remember funny/awesome things that happen in life.

Anyways, today I had this completely awesome God moment where I have understood grace and love to a further extent than I ever have before. I follow Rob Bell on Twitter and he posted all these tweets that were kind of...modified versions of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. It was so encouraging and I just had this realization of
what grace is, and how we are called to love other people.

I thought of it like this:

You are in 2nd grade and you are learning addition and subtraction and all that (4+2=?) and all of a sudden you become an arithmetic master. You and your 2nd grade brain think you know everything about math because
now you've mastered addition. Then all of a sudden your teacher throws a calculus book at you and you are just dumbfounded. You obviously have no idea how to tackle calculus! You didn't even know that
this kind of math existed in the world!

That was kind of my realization this morning. I think that I have a competent understanding of grace and love and what it means to love and have grace for other people, and then God just says BAM and throws a whole new thing my way. I don't even understand a fraction of what it means to care for other people the way Jesus calls us
to.

I'm inspired now. I'm inspired to care for others in a completely new way. I'm inspired to give grace to
people in an entirely new way. I'm inspired and hopeful for the difference I can make to other people. The other night my mom said to me, "Lauren, just remember you can't save the world" and in a way, I'm
inspired to save the world.

This may make no sense and all, and for those of you that bear through reading this whole thing though it might make no sense to you, thanks for reading. I guess writing helps me process my thoughts better, so thanks fr
joining me in the journey of self-awareness. :)

dftba<3

I guess I abandoned my blog for quite a while. Sorry blog (and blog readers).

I guess I've been planning events, going to Disneyland, going to Hume, playing guitar, joining worship team, hanging out with friends, hanging out with students, chasing campers, reading, catching up on Arrested Development and SYTYCD, and trying to relax.

It seems as though Summer is coming to an end, but I don't start school until the end of September. It's good though, I still need a month+ of time left to get ready for my busy Fall Quarter schedule. I'll be nannying two days a week, at church working three days a week, and then going to school full time. Busy, busy, busy.

Good news/bad news- Wednesday we leave to take our high schoolers on a waterski trip. It's such an awesome trip, I just don't have enough time in the next 24 hours to accomplish everything I need to do before we leave! Ahhh. Hopefully though, with the downtime we have on the trip, I'll just get to relax and hang out (maybe tan all day...). I'm definitely looking forward to it, it's just arrived so soon! I think this is my last summer trip, considering I start my nanny job on the 24th.

Tomorrow is filled with work, meetings, last minute stuff for the trip, packing, and an eye doctor appointment (I'm getting new glasses! YAY!).

Fabulous:
-My Adam Pasion ringtone
-Joan of Arcadia (My dear friend Tracy has just turned me onto this show)
-Me cooking today! (Okay, so I just boiled pasta noodles and poured sauce on it....BUT STILL...)

Not so fabulous:
-Eating frozen blueberries and having my lips turn blue
-My hot house :/
-Miley's performance at the Teen Choice Award's(come onnnn she shoulda sang The Climb)!

I'm leaving in about an hour for the 8th Grade Grad Trip. I don't know if any of you have worked with crazy junior highers and taken them to Magic Mountain but if you have, you will know how insane this trip will be! :) I'm excited though, and will hopefully have enough energy as the students do.

I've been so encouraged this past week with good talks, people helping me out with protege stuff and trying to get official, good communion time, good worship, good dinners together...it's just been good.

Even though this will be a little bit of a crazy week, and there is not one morning for the next week and a half that I get to sleep in, it's gonna be okay. Even though there are no showers at the church we are staying at for the next two nights...it's gonna be okay (maybe)! Even though I have very little time to study for my finals next week, it's GONNA BE OKAY! :)

Life is good. I am happy. Life is busy, but I will continue to be joyful. Life is stressful, but I will wake up every morning and choose love and joy over anything else, because really...what else can you do?


Goodbye until Wednesday night my faithful readers! :D

Last night I tried to write a paper for my film class.
Here are the following 4 interruptions that happened:

#1 My mother yells down the hall towards my room "LAUREN! HANNAH MONTANA IS ON CHANNEL 3!"

Me: "Haa...okay mom, thanks!"

#2 My mother comes into my room a few minutes later, "Actually it is a special on Taylor Swift but Haley Cyrus or whatever was just on it also.."

Me: "It's Miley."
Mom: "Whaaa?"
Me: "Miley Cyrus, nevermind I already saw that thing on Taylor Swift."

#3 My brother playing drums.
This happens quite often at my home, but last night it was just more annoying than usual.

#4 My mother comes into my room, yet again! "Lauren, did you hear Miley Cyrus and Justin Gaston broke up!?"

Me: "Yes mom, they are definitely dunzo." (Laguna Beach reference anyone?)
Mom: "Aww, that's sadzo!"
Me: ........I'm trying to write a paper...


I also was explaining to my mom how I watched Pulp Fiction today in my film class and how it stars Uma Thurman, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, etc. but it is a movie she would still hate.

She then informed me that John Travolta's son passed away. I then informed her that I indeed did hear about that when it was all over the news in JANUARY.

Do I seem like the kind of person who lives under a rock? Really mom, really?! I may sound a little harsh, I love my mother but when it comes to pop culture...I just feel like she might not be the sharpest crayon in the box! LOVE YOU MOM! :)

In other words, at least I have Tracy to discuss Laguna Beach and the Hills with, and I have Joey and Chloe to talk about Heroes with, and I have everyone to talk about SYTYCD with! YAY SYTYCD!

Off to bed now, work tomorrow at the crack of dawn! And payday is Monday! Thank goodness, I have exactly $9.00 in my bank account left and not very much gas in my car. This could potentially be an issue. Oh well, I'll attack that problem when it becomes unavoidable!

Goodnight kiddos!

Last night after Terra Nova, someone had the brilliant idea that we should go on a night hike in Los Gatos. As much as I love our weekly after party of In N' Out and Starbucks every week, it's nice to change it up every once in a while. So we all drove over to the Los Gatos hills and ended up hiking like 3 miles(?) uphill to the top of this mountain with an amazing view. I can offically say I am out of shape due to me being winded from this adventure, and feeling sore today. HA! Definitely worth it though.

Mandie and I then went to Michael's house and proceeded to lay on his bed for the next two hours (by this time it was like 2:30am). Let me remind you that when it starts to get into the early hours of the morning (4am+) Lauren gets a litttttle loopy. I begin to make Paris Hilton-esque comments that do not exactly showcase my brilliance to it's full extent. But I guess it provides entertainment for everyone present! I also thought my car wouldn't start when I left at 5am but it turns out I was trying to start my car with my HOUSE KEY.

Got home, did some laundry, and slept from 5:30am-9:30am. I got up, packed for Seattle, and was out the door by 10:45am. 2 points for me!

My airport/flying experience was actually NOT traumatizing this time! Usually I am stuck on jam packed planes and I get super anxious because I'm terrified of being in a plane crash and so I semi-freak out the whole flight and spend 75% of the time praying that the plane doesn't crash. I also have the amazing ability to pick fabulous people to sit next to (creepy men, smelly people, screaming children, etc.). As I was standing in line (number C-25 which means I was one of the last 10 people to get on the flight) the airport man said "Just so you know, this is a completely full flight and so take whatever seat you see first." FABULOUS......not. SO I'm walking down the aisle trying to find a nice lady or someone my age to sit next to but alas. There are NO SEATS. I make my way to the backish and this man is pointing at me and asking me to come sit in his middle seat between him and another man! Let's just say both of them were 6 feet+ and looked like members of ZZ Top. Luckily some other man took that seat and the ZZ Top guy goes "Aww we wanted you to sit with us because we were trying to find a small person!" I was like.."hehhh sorry!"

I ended up getting a window seat next to a cool Christian guy and his wife. I NEVER SIT NEXT TO NORMAL PEOPLE and I was so happy! He was reading a book by John Ortberg I think, so we talked about Christian lit for a little while and while I was filling out paperwork he, apparently was watching what I was doing because he asked me where South Hills was. His pregnant wife was cute and I just had a very peaceful flight. Yaay flying!

Now I am in Seattle watching Dateline, and hopefully will be going to bed soon even though I took a 2 hour nap from 5:30-7:30pm. Back home on Monday morning! :)

Life is actually halfway decent right now. I'm sick and behind in school, but hey. I can't complain. I chose to hang out with friends at Starbucks last night for like 4 1/2 hours instead of doing homework, and I'm okay with that. We talked about our favorite actors of all time and it was fun and dandy.

Yesterday I met with the fabulous old man Kit and got my paperwork for becoming a Junior High Protege. This should be really cool/interesting. I'm excited for a lot of the Summer events coming up.

Why today/this week/life is good:
-Terra Nova tonight=<3
-I discovered the beauty of french press's and I really want one.
-I didn't have work at all this week which was super convenient since I have been sick all week.
-I'm starting to feel a lot better.
-I learned how to play two of my favorite songs EVER on the guitar.
-I get to see my lovely Allee today when she comes over so I can put together the Pioneer leadership end of the year slideshow/video (how I get sucked back into these things, I'm not sure....but I love it!)
-Tomorrow I leave for Seattle/Vancouver for the weekend.


Why today/this week/life is NOT good:
-I hate flying and I have to fly tomorrow.
-I'm hoping this morning at the doctor's they give me medicine to take tomorrow so my eardrums won't burst while flying.
-I have to give blood at the doctor's? SO NOT MY FAVORITE THING EVER.
-I leave tomorrow morning and I have not done laundry/cleaned my room/packed. I don't even know what time I have to go to the airport. I guess I should get on that.
-I get back from this weekend extravaganza at 9:30am on Monday morning and have class from 10:30am-12:10pm, and work from 1-8. NOT going to be a fun day.


Time to go shower and get ready to go kick it with Dr. Chau! Waiting rooms are definitely not my favorite thing, but I'm going to bring a book I have really enjoyed reading so that should make the time pass quickly.

I guess if the only thing I really have to complain about is my fear of flying and giving a blood sample, life isn't all that terrible.

Blaaah I am sick and it's terrible. If you know me, you know I have the worst immune system ever and get sick all the time. Okay, not ALL the time...but definitely more then the average person. My little brother has been sick the past week and half or so (and he missed a full week of school) and got tested for mono and stuff. Because he's still awaiting those results, I might have to get tested for mono also? Freaking fricker. Have I mentioned how much I hate when friends visit me when I'm sick? I'm like dying in bed, looking like death, feeling like death, and the last thing I want is someone coming over. That's just me though, because I know a lot of people like it when people visit them.

The past 2ish weeks or so have been a blur, I've spent a lot of time with Em and Michael, and I've gotten home between 3am-5am almost every night. Definitely not ideal! I need my solid 9 hours of sleep hahahha.

The one good thing about being stuck at home is getting caught up on my homework. I'm definitely feeling a bit more relaxed about the next couple weeks since I got caught up on some stuff.

Last night my mom and I watched Seven Pounds (Will Smith and Rosario Dawson) and I really enjoyed it! Of course my poor mother who is basically only a fan of romantic comedies was already confused and asking questions two minutes into the movie. I, who have never seen the movie before, politely had to remind her that some of the scenes could be out of sequence, and that she should wait until the end of the movie to ask questions. Of course...5 minutes until the end of the movie, "AHH LAUREN I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON?! I'm confused!" WELL, HOW ABOUT YOU ASK IN 5 MINUTES ONCE THE MOVIE IS OVER....
goodness gracious!
I think that confusion in movies just goes along with my pet peeve of people talking during movies. There are just some movies out there where it doesn't make sense until the very end of the film! Patience is a virtue!
Anyways, Seven Pounds had great cinematography and the score was also amazing. I know the critics didn't like it, but I did!

Now I am wasting my life away watching Discovery ID discuss the characteristics of serial killers. Classy. Thank goodness there is no school tomorrow and that I don't have work at all this week. Sometimes things just work out conveniently that way.

DFTBA friends.

SOOO, today was quite a busy day and I didn't accomplish nearly enough of what I wanted to accomplish. I woke up at like 9am which is ridiculously late for me (I usually get up at like 7am since I am quite the early bird) but the past week I've been going to bed all late-ish (12am+) so that means I sleep in late which is BAD BAD BAD! Then of course I did my daily morning routine including catching up on blogs and youtube subscriptions, checking facebook/e-mail/twitter/etc. and then showering/getting ready and playing the guitar. I find it kind of funny that I always play the guitar within the 30 minutes of waking up every morning. Weird habits anyone?

So by the time all of the above events were done, it was about 1pm. I had to be in Santa Cruz at 2:15pm, so I figured I'd grab some yogurt and a banana and hit the road! There always seems to be traffic on Highway 17 when it is an 75+ degree Friday but there was no traffic! 2 points for me! :)

Filming was fun, but long and tiring as well. We filmed at a park/bus stop area for 4ish hours and then went and filmed the rest at my director's apartment. At least the cast was really fun and funny, because in between all our takes we were cracking up at EVERYTHING. I had a case of the giggles ALL day which really made it awkward when having to do a ton of serious scenes (which are never my favorite!). If my director happens to make bloopers, there will most definitely be more video clips of me laughing then there are of me actually doing something good. HAHA. I fail. -2 points for me (I'm back at 0 now for my life score of the day). It all turned out well, and I even got to show some of them my amazing guitar and songwriting skills near the end of the day. Let's just say, I was a little out of it after 7+ hours of filming that they nicknamed me Loopy Lauren.

I'm totally making myself sound like a terrible actor right now, but I really did memorize my lines (in the car on the way there) and after my takes the director kept saying "PERFECT! WOW THATS GREAT!" so clearly I must be doing SOMETHING right. Luckily everyone was pretty laid back and chillaxed to the max so we all had a good time, but also got everything done in a timely manner!

I parked in a parking garage in downtown while filming because I didn't know where else to park and didn't want to go searching around for meters/etc. Anyways, I went to the same parking garage I always go to but I LOST MY TICKET! So when I went to go back in to pay at like 10pm, I had to search around for the cashier place which was like, underground and there were lots of scary people and I was alone! But the janitor was nice and was like "Have a nice night, honey!" I'm not really sure if the janitor and I were on pet name terms, but I guess I took it as a non-creeper gesture. I also thought I was going to have to pay like $20 for my lost ticket but I only had to pay $5 (which is the maximum amount they charge per day). YAAAY! So even though I was scared of the scary people it turned out okay.

All day I really wanted an iced coffee from mcdonald's but I didn't get one, so on the way home I picked one up. I asked for decaf but they didn't have it so I got caffeine (MINUS 2 POINTS FOR ME! My life score is now -2 for the day). Why I did this? I DON'T KNOW! I was on the phone with Tracy at the time and said "ehh the caffeine won't really affect me, I'm so exhausted" but clearly at 12:32am, I am still awake and kickin'.

I should be doing homework, since I'm a bit behind and will not really have an extended amount of time this weekend to do it but I would much rather go to sleep. I also have to be at work in exactly 7 hours and 26 minutes. I FAIL AT LIFE.

Plan for tomorrow:
8:30am-1:30pm/ Work
1:30pm-3:30pm/ Do homework? Probably not. watch the newest episode of The Hills? Probably so!
3:30pm-6:00pm/ Filming in Santa Cruz
6:00pm-forever/ Be amazing

Plan for Sunday:
9:00am-12:30pm/ COTH (Church on the Hill for you newbs out there) and Oasis JH
2:30pm/ Seeing a play for my theatre class (Kiss Me Kate) in Sunnyvale
6:00pm(?)- forever/ Wasting my life away watching too much MTV and not being productive

Things I need to do (this is more for my sake, then for my faithful readers....studies have shown that if you write things down you are more likely to remember them. I actually don't know this for a fact, or if there are studies about it but it seems to help me a lot!):
-Film audition for Private (more on this later)
-Film audition for the Alabama movie (more on this later)
-Finish cleaning room
-Do some homework..maybe...
-Go to the post office
-Go to the library and pick up books on hold!
-Watch Adventureland to see if it will help me gain love for Kristen Stewart (plus, I've heard from several people that this movie is good).

It is now 12:47am, and time for sleep!

Life points for today: -7 (but, I did get all my lines right and only messed up filming takes today because I laughed...not because I messed up any lines. I give myself 5 points for that. Updated score= -2).

Today was a good day, and tomorrow should be as well!

LOVE:
MGMT
Disney Channel Original Movies
Earl Grey tea
Kris Allen
The Hills

DO NOT LOVE:
Homework
11-year-old brothers who bother everyone and anything around them
Not having enough time to read books
Bad acting in Disney Channel Original Movies
Naivety


Right now I'm watching Gotta Kick it Up. I consider this a Disney classic, though I never realized how bad some of the acting is. At least it's still...entertaining? I don't even know why I'm watching this since I'm so behind on some of my other tv shows, but oh well.

I'm finishing up my Santa Cruz film stuff this weekend. Hopefully I'll be getting the final copy of it sooner then later so I can add that to my reel. The rest of the cast that I've met so far are pretty cool so I'm looking forward to Friday and Saturday.

I really want the Hannah Montana Movie soundtrack. Early birthday present anyone? Hahahaha. Just kidding, I'll probably buy it myself. Maybe I just really want to be Miley Cyrus?

SPEAKING OF DISNEY CHANNEL...
There is this super awesome workshop tomorrow in LA that some of the big time Disney casting directors will be at and alas, I'M NOT THERE! :( huge bummer. Someday I'll be a Disney star, someday.

Today I watched John Green's blogtv show and HE ANSWERED ONE OF MY QUESTIONS! AHHHH SO EXCITING. I love John Green x 439084390282 and all other nerdfighters will appreciate this moment of triumph for me.

Well, my laptop officially has 7 minutes of battery left so I guess I should cut this blog short before it all gets deleted.

DFTBA and best wishes!

Yesterday was a very interesting day. It went from good to bad to good to bad and then good, then it ended very interestingly....

I got my hair done by the fabulous Cory Nowicki. She had an interview at a salon and needed a hair model, which was perfect because I was going to go back blonde anyway (but was waiting until I had more money) and she cut my hair/highlighted/dyed it for free! Yay for that. The only bad part was this whole ordeal was supposed to take 2-3 hours but ended up taking almost 6.

Now, I was supposed to be in Santa Cruz at 4pm for some pre-production stuff for the film I'm in. I got home from hair stuff at about 3pm, and then had to eat, cash a check at the bank, and get gas, AND be in Santa Cruz by 4pm. Clearly, this wasn't going to all fit into an hour.

In my frenzy, I decide to hit up Mcdonalds for some food. I am clearly driving with road rage because I'm running late and haven't eaten since 8:30am and I'm hungry and angry and it's not a fun and happy situation! I pull up to Mcdonalds to find a long line of cars. OF COURSE! It's finally my turn and here is the conversation:
Man: "Uhhm hello, welcome to Mcdonalds, cash only?"
Me: "Uhmm sorry I don't have any cash"
Man: "Ohh, no uhm cash uhm cash only"
Me: "Uhhh SORRY, I don't have any cash"
Man: "Ohhh okay, cash only"
Me: "............."

SO I have to sit there and drive past the window where I should be receiving my food and wait for all the other cars, just wasting my time. THEN, I thought of a grand idea! I will just go inside and order my food. Surely the credit card machine will be working. I parked and went inside and of course there was a line inside. FINALLY, FINALLY it's my turn! I order and get my total and am ready to swipe my card...

Lady: "Hi, just so you know we only take cash"
Me: "THANKS! BYE!"

I think I said this a little louder then necessary, but I was very frustrated at the fact that this stupid Mcdonalds only takes cash. I have been here about a gazillion other times and they took cards before! What's the deal? I was running late, people! I didn't even really want Mcdonalds, I just had no time to get anything good!

So THAT, folks is why you should never go to Mcdonalds.

I ended up getting my check cashed at the bank and running to Togo's before hitting the road to Santa Cruz. The time that I got onto the freeway was 3:36pm. We all know that there is no way you are getting to downtown Santa Cruz and parking in 24 minutes. It was also pouring rain and driving 17 wasn't exactly my cup of tea. It was foggy and I couldn't see and I was by myself and the radio station I wanted to listen to didn't have service up in the mountains.

The good news was that my director and other actor I was meeting with were also running late so it all turned out okay.
After that, I rushed back to San Jose, picked up Tom, went to Kevin's show, went to Nina's, and came home.

I guess even though part of the day was stressful, the good outweighed the bad.

This morning I answered the phone:

Me: "Hello?"
Lady: "Hello!"
Me: "Hello..."
....awkward silence....
Lady: "Is your mom or dad home?"
Me: "No, can I take a message?"
Lady: "Ohh, no I'll call later" *hangs up*

Hmm, if I remember correctly, I am 19 years old (old enough to buy lottery tickets/fight for our country/buy cigarettes/order off infomercials/etc.) and she asked for my mom or dad? Typically when I answer the phone people THINK I am my mother. Apparently my voice sounds like a child today? Interesting.
I then proceeded to run back and sit on my heater wrapped up in a blanket and finish watching Jack. I guess I am still a little kid at heart..

Now it's time to be grown up and do some laundry, unload the dishwasher, and run errands.

DFTBA! :)

Goodness gracious the last couple weeks have been insane. I am literally gone from like 9:45am-9pm every day. I have no time to do homework/laundry/everything else so I wake up at like 7am and get stuff done before I leave for school. SO NOT IDEAL! I am excited for Summer.....in two months. Hahahaha. I'm actually still trying to figure out whether or not I want to do school in the Summer.

Our Junior High Mission Trip is canceled because of the Swine Flu and I'm really sad! I was definitely looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll be back on in a couple weeks.

I finally am going back to Seattle at the end of May for a weekend to go get the rest of my belongings. I'm so excited to have all my clothes/my printer/various books/shoes/etc. Hopefully I'll be able to go see Carly's show and hit up Pike Place/SAM as well!

This morning I woke up at 8am, which is kind of late for me. My room is a wreck and my car is a wreck and I have no clean clothes and I've just been focusing on the homework stuff I need to get done but of course there is never enough time in the day to accomplish everything! Ho hum. Hopefully this weekend I can get caught up and then my blogs from here on out will be less rantful and more..funful...hahaaa...

SPEAKING OF THIS WEEKEND!
Tomorrow I have nothing to do until 4pm, where I'm meeting with my director and another actor to go over some of our scenes/talk about our relationship for the film I'm doing. I guess we also have to take some pictures of us shopping and stuff so that should be interesting.
Saturday I'm going to see South Pacific at Pioneer. Yaaay! I miss doing the spring musical SO MUCH! I need to be involved in theatre right about NOW.
Sunday I'm working in the morning and then in the afternoon I am doing a photoshoot for something. Basically I get to be a boho hippie girl which is always fun!

So, while I ate my oatmeal this morning, I decided to look on demand and see if anything good was on. I discovered the movie Max Keeble's Big Move and I was like "wow, I used to like this movie a lot. I haven't seen it in forever. I should watch it!" I only made it through about 10 minutes when I said, "Hmmm I just don't really know why I ever liked this movie..." Thoughts about Max Keeble anyone? I think that I like it, I guess, but I decided to watch Secret Lives of Women: I'm in love with a Cross Dresser. Hahahaha classy.

DFTBA :)

It's 7:30am. Why am I up like an hour before I actually NEED to get up? Because I have so much to do, that I can only do in the early hours of the morning because I HAVE NO TIME OTHERWISE!

Here's what I did this weekend:

Saturday:
8:30am-1:30pm/ Work
3pm-4:30pm/ Coffee&sushi with Tracy
4:40pm-7ish?/ Hannah Montana movie with Tracy and Ashley (YES, I SAW HANNAH MONTANA AND I HAVE NO SHAME!)
7ish+/ Dinner with my mom and then hung out at home

Sunday:
I don't know all the times but it went: church, hang out after church, lunch with Chad, Tracy, Joel, and Mandie, back to church to get Tracy's car, go to downtown to see Hannah's dance thing, stay for like 5 dance numbers, back to church, hang out at church, set up for day7, hang out with Mandie and Alicia, day7, hang out after day7, get home around 10pm and crash.

So yes, this weekend I was mostly gone and I was busy but at least it was all fun stuff that I chose to do. Now that it is Monday I am back to work and school and homework with friends in between. You should also notice in the above schedule that I did not do any homework/laundry/responding to e-mails/mailing packages or anything else productive which is why I'm up at the crack of dawn today getting stuff done!

I have class this morning, then work, then meeting Chad at church for something, then movie night at Chris's since it's Tracy's last one! Awww. Sad times.

SPEAKING OF SAD TIMES...I am soo behind on ANTM! MUST CATCH UP THIS WEEKEND....really though, I'm also behind on Heroes and if you miss one episode your totally screwed up on the plot. I'm also behind on The Office, and you miss episodes it doesn't really affect the plot but you are missing the creativity and amazing writing! I need some good laughs every now and then!

Now I'm off to finish some reading due for my 10:30am class, maybe do some laundry, make some oatmeal for breakfast, and get all caffeinified up.

I definitely think you should see the Hannah Montana movie because it was amazing and I love Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana (the show). BUT, if you DO NOT like Miley Cyrus/do not watch Hannah Montana....you will not like it..(COUGH COUGH Tracy and Ashley COUGH COUGH). Go see it, seriously.

Go read part one first. I'm adding this second one for several reasons....mostly because I didn't blog yesterday.

OKAY so I got a new layout....again. Basically there were some issues with my other one and the html wouldn't like, align right. It also had no dates showing up and it was just lame and making me frustrated. I like this one because it's all colorful and stuff as opposed to another one I was looking at that was brown are more "sophisticated." But I'm not really a "sophisticated" person so why not go with the wild one!

The stupid "home" and "faq" things don't work and I don't know how to fix that. I guess I'm not as html savvy as I thought, because I'm definitely having some issues with this. If anyone out there knows how to make those clickable, let me know!


So Tracy (good friend/audition buddy/fellow aspiring actor) moves to LA in a week and I'm kinda sad because we hang out all the time and now I will only be able to textually communicate with her. LA is only a 6 hour drive, though, so I'm not SUPER sad. Last night at Terra Nova we talked about the fears you have in your life that stop you from going for your dreams. Tracy had held off for so long in acting because it's definitely a tough world to get into. Other people (obviously) have different dreams that they want to pursue, and we talked about how common fear is, and how it's such a deciding factor in our actions.

Everyone is telling Tracy she is soooo crazy for moving to LA, or that whoever is sooo crazy for picking up and moving, or becoming a missionary, or leaving the country, I can't think of any other examples right now, but you get the point! I don't think it's crazy of her to do this at all (we talk about this all the time). Picking up and moving somewhere where you know no one just isn't that weird to me. I literally do not get it when people say she's crazy for doing this. Call me naive, but you move somewhere and make it work. Maybe you don't get to pursue exactly what you want for a while but you don't move somewhere and laze around and become homeless. You make it work. I guess I just don't have the fears that many people have. When Tracy decided to move to LA (I was there this whole process because I was supposed to be moving with her), my mindset was "of course! if that's what you've always wanted to do, why WOULDN'T you go?!" The reason I'm not going is purely for financial reasons, BUT with my new job I have hope that I will be able to pay off my laptop in a timely matter and start saving money to do whatever I want to do in the future, because money being the deciding factor in life decisions is just ridiculous.

I'll leave whoever reads this with that question, why aren't you pursuing what you want to in life? If you are, that's great. If it's because of financial reasons, save that monayyyy and work it out (I'm in that boat right now of "working it out). If it's because of fear....sorry, I don't relate. I'm totally not trying to sound mean, I just think that if you want something bad enough, you'll find a way to make it work, and if fear is what is overriding your passions and dreams, then I would really question if those are real passions and dreams you have, or just hobbies that you enjoy. If you want something bad enough, you WILL find a way to get it.

Adios amigos! :)

I meant to blog last night but I got home at like...2am and then I was already late anyways so I said "SCREW BEDA! I'LL DO IT IN THE MORNING!" haha...actually literally..I really did say that in the late hours of the night.

Yesterday I did nothing really productive except start watching Anne of Green Gables on VHS. I forgot this movie was like 6 hours long because it has all those part 1, part 2, second VHS, part 1, part 2.....INTENSE. But I'm enjoying it. These were definitely the movies that I watched all the time when I was younger.

Last night I had Terra Nova (college group at church) and after some plan confusion we ended up going to Campbell Billiards. Tuesdays and Thursdays are "ladies play free" night so we always take full advantage of that. I'm not so great at pool, but it's really fun! I think I improved a little bit last night....maybe....

I missed last nights episode of Taking the Stage last night but it's coming on again in like 30 minutes, so yaaaay. I'm excited.

I'm also auditioning for those intense movie that's being shot for 10 weeks in the summer/fall. It's an indie film, but it has a $100,000 budget so they are paying for all the leads to be flown out to all these places (arizona, alabama, canada, etc.) and for them to have room and board and all that. I haven't read the whole script but from what I've seen so far, it sounds pretty good. I already have my sides so I just need to send in my tape and paperwork for my first audition. I should probably get on memorizing those 15+ pages plus a 4 minute monologue I have to do for my theatre class. The monologue isn't due until the end of May but I figure I'll learn it now and then I can use it for auditions that are coming up. Grr...I don't even know if our video camera is working so I can record my tape! A video camera is definitely on my wish list for stuff I want.

OKAY, today is going to be a homework day. DO NOT CALL ME, DO NOT TEXT ME, I must finish my homework so that way I won't have anything to stress about this weekend, and trust me....it's going to take all day. I'm super excited because after work tomorrow night Tracy and Ashley and I are finally going to get to see Hannah Montana (DON'T JUDGE ME)! I loooove Miley Cyrus.

Actually wait, I need to go to the post office today as well, so today is a homework and post office day. And the library....and maybe going to see that show tonight with Tracy and Cory. Hmmmmm.....


DFTBA<3 (speaking of DFTBA, did anyone see Hank's DFTBA rap??!)

oh and p.s. HayleygHoovers new video on her personal channel is so freaking hilarious. Especially when she did Alex Day's BEDA intro. LOOOVE HER!

Ouch, ouch, ouch. The tips of my fingers hurt so bad from playing the guitar so much the last week or so! I keep reforming these stupid blisters, but HEY at least I finished a song. :) I guess it's all worth it in the end.

Tonight I had Oasis (junior high youth group at church) and that's always a barrel of fun! I love all my little tweens and preteens and melodramatic girls! I'm excited for our Visalia trip coming up! :)

Got in home just in time to catch the last part of American Idol with my mom and little brother. Goodbye Anoopdawg! I really liked him....but I like other contestants more, so oh well. I missed ANTM tonight so I guess I'll have to watch that online.

Uggghhh every blog I always talk about how I need to do homework but then I just start browsing around online and I NEVER DO IT! I have such a ridiculous and overwhelming amount of work to do because I have literally done NOTHING yet this quarter and I am just too overwhelmed to tackle everything. How do I solve this problem!? I just need to "man up" (as my coworker would say) and get it done. I bet right after I post this, I will find something more interesting to do instead of read about film noir and it's impact on society. Ho hum. I'm such a good procrastinator! I NEED TO STOP THIS MADNESS!

I always think it's weird whenever people say they have nothing to talk about in their blogs. I don't really think mine are THAT interesting...probably more so for my best friends to read, but I never ever have run out of things to TALK about! I guess I'm just a chatterbox online, as well as offline (but we already knew that)!

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, so I'll talk about one of my favorite life memories that I was just thinking about. My good friend Nedim and I often (though we haven't in the past few months) hang out after school and work and whatnot and just watch tv together and hang out at night. Then he makes me a cucumber and cream cheese bagel and we watch MTV and VH1 and lurk myspace people and talk about life and take walks around the neighborhood. One night in the fall he had some pastel type paint stuff (he's a super good artist) and he just started drawing all over his face to make himself a raccoon. He then proceeded to draw all over me and make me a raccoon as well. We added the white around our mouths to make us raccoons with rabies. Now, in general, I wouldn't advise you to cover your face in pastel/paint stuff....it's a little bit difficult to get off. BUT the face his parents made when they saw us was priceless. I just love these pictures because it was such a random night that was anything but typical...and isn't it the spontaneous events in life that you never forget? I believe this to be true and out of the many many nights I have spent at his house, this was definitely one of my favorites.




If you are reading this and think I am completely crazy, you just might be right. Don't worry, my friends and I do "normal" things also. Talking about the mall and movie nights just aren't as fascinating, though.

Tomorrow morning I must wake up early for dance, and then I think I might be getting my hair trimmed and seeing the Hannah Montana movie! What fun!

DFTBA<3

Today at work, a little girl named Gabrielle (she's 5) came up to me (and mind you, I see her every Tuesday) and said "Lauren! Today, you are very beautiful!" I laughed and said "Thank you Gabrielle! You are very beautiful too!" I'm not sure if I should take this simply as a compliment, or wonder if I normally look terrible and today was something out of the ordinary? I think I'll go with the former. Either way, it was very cute and there's nothing that starts off a good day at work like a fabulous ego boost.

I got home after work around 8pm, and lazed around because it is JUST TOO HOT! My coworker and I discussed today how this miserable heat is the ultimate energy sucker. It's very unfortunate, because I have quite a bit I need to get done before classes tomorrow. Right now I'm watching Princess Diaries (I haven't seen it in so long). I love Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway and I forgot how funny and awkward this movie is (I'm still at the beginning pre-makeover). There is a lot of witty dialogue that I had totally forgotten about. Yay for good movies! :)

Watching this movie also made me think about how much I wish I lived in a old firehouse. Anne Hathaway's house is amazing and she has a tower and it's just the big huge room that is this warehouse of artisticness. I WANT IT. Maybe I'll move to San Francisco and buy a firehouse to make my home. San Francisco IS only an hour away. Convenient...eh, eh?

Blaaah this is short because I'm trying to watch this movie and maybe start some homework? yuck.

Ciao & DFTBA :)

FIRST THINGS FIRST! This weather is ridiculous. It is WAY TOO HOT! For you non-Californians out there, today/yesterday was 90+ degrees. I feel like I'm melting every time I step outdoors. At least my work has air conditioning. Even as I sit in my room right now, my house is like 80 degrees and I feel like I'm dying.

Today I just had work (I skipped the one class I have on Mondays) and then I had a coffee/Mexican food date with Tracy (good friend/audition buddy/fellow aspiring actor). It is starting to get late and I have quite a bit of homework to do before Wednesday. I'll be gone from 10am-8pm tomorrow with work and school, so responsible Lauren is saying she should probably get at least SOME homework done tonight but irresponsible Lauren is saying it's too hot to function and she should catch up on an episode of The Hills she didn't watch last week and never do homework ever again.

Yesterday my brother introduced me to a fabulous show called Summer Heights High. This show is so hilarious and since there has only been one season so far, I have like 3 episodes to go and then I'm all caught up. Honestly, there aren't THAT many shows that I find myself laughing out loud at and then quoting and laughing some more and re-watching youtube clips over and over again....but this is one of them.

I hate when you have a whole bunch of random things that need to get done but you just don't have enough time to do them. I really need to go to the bank and post office but both of those places are closed by the time I get off of work and my break in between work and school is just long enough for me to drive there and be on time. LAME. I guess I'll go to the bank and post office on Thursday. THIS IS THE MOST BORING BLOG EVER! Maybe I should create the first 24 hour post office. Why haven't people thought about this?!


I hate all the crap Miss California is receiving right now for her comments at Miss America. It cost her, her title as well as being called a homophobe by all of America. I'm glad she said what she did and that she didn't compromise HER beliefs just to fit in with the majority of America. Lucky for us, we are in a country where we have freedom of speech and that she can (or SHOULD) be able to say HER OWN opinions without persecution. She could have easily said an answer that was more neutral but she chose to speak her mind and hold on to what she believed. I commend you Miss California! There are way too many articles in the news about this issue and it's just ridiculous that it's even an issue at all. It's her beliefs and her answer....leave it the heck alone. I still like Perez, but this whole "controversy" was uncalled for.

That's all folks, I'm off to take a cold shower. DFTBA!

I love movies. I LOVE THEM. I mean, I should...right? That's kind of what I want to do with my career. Back when I wasn't so busy I would watch at least one movie a day, sometimes more. I also made sure I saw almost every movie that was up for an Academy Award. I love indie films and documentaries and all the Sundance ones that most people don't end up seeing. Tracy (good friend/audition buddy/fellow aspiring actress) always makes fun of me because I tend to watch movies over and over again. She let me borrow Autism: The Musical (which is a fabulous documentary) and I watched it like...4 times in one week! I just don't get sick of watching the same movie all the time. Same thing goes with music but that's a completely different discussion that would take an entire blog to talk about. I don't know if anyone has ever seen the movie Brick, but it's one of my favorites and I could watch it over and over and over again (and I did, when I first got it).

I guess I thought everyone watches movies over and over again but Tracy said that no, that is not the case (at least for her).

Recently I found some funny old pictures of my brothers and I when we were little (I have three younger brothers ages: 17, 15, and 11).

Lauren and John-Mark back in the day:


Lauren(19) and John-Mark(17) present day:


Lauren and Chad back in the day (don't be too jealous of my purple windbreaker pants):



Lauren(19) and Chad(15) present day:







That was us in October at GuluWalk and at Christmas.


I don't have any pictures of Trevor at the moment. Oh well....sorry Trev!

and here's my last one to show you WHAT MY MOTHER USED TO DRESS US IN! Oh the horror.



Really now, mom! REALLY?!

Make sure you click on that picture and get the fabulous blow up version of Chad's knee high socks and shoes. HAHA.

Yay for getting a new layout! My other one was so blah and boring and I didn't like it (even though I very much like the color purple) so yay for googling free templates. Hahaha.

This morning I had work from 8:30am-1:30pm and then I RUSHED home to change for my audition in Santa Cruz. I literally was at home 5 minutes and was barely able to throw on some decent clothes and grab some food. I then went and picked up Tracy (she is my good friend/audition buddy/fellow aspiring actress) so she could go with me to my audition/hang out in Santa Cruz afterwards. TRAFFIC WAS RIDICULOUS! Usually it takes 40 minutes or so to get to Santa Cruz but it took almost 2 hours to get there! CRAZY.

So I had a screen test and all that jazz and I ended up getting the role! It's a student film and I'm the lead and it will be all dandy and great and definitely something to add to my reel. So filming for that should start in a couple weeks.

After my audition I met back up with Tracy and we just hung out in Santa Cruz (downtown, NOT the beach) and talked and met a bunch of crazy people. It was like...80 degrees today? The warmest it's been for a while so that was interesting.

Here are pictures of downtown Santa Cruz:



These pictures don't do it justice but imagine a bunch of little boutiques and coffee shops and music stores and book stores and crazy granola eating hippies everywhere and musicians playing all along the street. Many many interesting and crazy characters all the time. It's fabulous, and my friends and I go there a lot during the summer just to hang out.


That whole adventure took up most of my day, so now I am home about to clean my disaster bedroom and do some homework (don't be too jealous of my crazy Saturday night plans)!

DFTBA :)

Okay, I am definitely getting a little too blog happy today but I figured that since I have my BEDA buddies, they might just want to know a little bit more about me without having to read through every single blog...nope, definitely would not recommend that.

FAVORITES:
Musical: Spring Awakening
Color: Purple
Flower: Yellow daffodils
Book: Looking for Alaska-John Green

Dang, I ran out of things to say...
well anyways, here are just some random facts about me:

I love theatre and film and TV and everything surrounded the entertainment industry.
I watch a lot of TV (mostly online though) and this includes: J&K+8,Freaks and Geeks, The Hills, Taking the Stage, Heroes, Survivor, The Office, American Idol, ANTM, Real World, etc.
I strongly advise you to read all of John Green's books. I'm just starting my first MJ one, so I will slowly be catching up with all those.
My favorite food is pasta! YUUM
I love to travel and take road trips and plan trips and pack and unpack and visit people and go to other states and go to other countries and yeah.
I'm a Christian and am Jr. High staff at my church and I love it! :)
I play the guitar and the piano and I also sing/song write.
I love foreign languages and have taken 2 years of French, 1 year of ASL, and 3 years of Spanish.

I guess I thought I had more to say about myself then that but at least that's something! Happy blogging

DFTBA!