Welcome to Lauren's blog!

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!