And so the adventure begins...

WE MADE IT!!

I am finally in Los Angeles and so far the trip has been interesting; I want to mention that my great friend Marissa decided to jump on this journey with me. I am so thankful for her because if not this trip would not have been the same with out her.  So when I say WE I mean Marissa.

Coming into LA was kind of a shock, we were both super nervous and I think we expected it to be so much more. You know how you picture a famous city and you picture it to be everything you see in movies, well that is exactly how we pictured West Hollywood to be and it wasn’t. We live in the neighborhood area not the clubbing, ritsy town in lights area. So, of course we were nervous and coming from Oklahoma everyone has warned us to be safe. They have practically scared us into believing that the moment we arrive in LA we will be cracked out, kidnapped, sex slaves within the hour but I am happy to tell you that did not happen.

We are renting a room in a woman’s home, her name is Pam and she is a hippie. Tapestry everywhere, long gray hair, tie dye shirts and the smell of patchouli in a trail behind her. She sleeps in the living room on a bunk bed and we have our own room, its pretty comfortable here. We unpacked our things and went out to go eat– we decided to go to a small Thai restaurant and afterwards we drove around the city.

After driving around and seeing all the neat businesses I lost some nervous jitters and got really excited about the city I get to explore all summer!

— so anyway we headed back to Pam’s house and I had to do something I never do in Oklahoma.

PARALLEL PARK.

I do not ever parallel park- I think the last time I parallel parked was five years ago during my driving test.

So you can imagine how awful I was at parking. Pull in, back up, turn wheel, pull out, back up, turn wheel, back up, pull in, ect… for about 10 mins.

As this was happening a few people were sitting on their porch watching– laughing and hopefully feeling a little sorry for the trouble I was having. Finally we park…. kinda… straight and get out of my car. One man from the group yells “Finally, you did it!” haha in a laughing manner and they then invite us over for wine. Marissa and I did not go in their home (WE HEARD YOU PARENTS) but we did stand outside and talk to them for awhile and they told us a little more about the city and the cool spots to check out! We then exchanged numbers and hopefully have some friends!!! WOO HOO 6 hours in already making friends!

We are adjusting and this summer will FOR SURE be an adventure.

Ill leave you on this…

Marissa: (to one of the men we met on the porch) So Sierra and I are thinking about checking out this free yoga class in our neighbor hood, do you think thats safe? Like its for the community so will it be safe….

Man on Porch: (chuckles to himself) What?… I mean you’re not going to meet a gangster pulling out a gun in yoga class if thats what you mean.

We all laughed…

We are safe and adventurous

Cheers!

home town lovin

There are so many small things that have happened to me as soon as I got home (home meaning: my mother’s house in the small Oklahoma town I grew up in) I unpacked my things in my Mom’s home and felt immediate nostalgia. However, this nostalgia did not take me back to the person I was when I moved out of my mom’s house. -–The wandering, wide-eyed 18 year old 

Nope.

I found my collection of  Britney Spears stickers collected from Super H’s 5o cent sticker dispenser a package of Gushers and immediately I was warped into the early 2000′s

my playlist consisted of  Destiny’s Child, Missy Elliot , B2k,  JLO/Ja Rule (power couple), and…. the thong song…. okay maybe I’ve listened to that song weekly since the early 2000′s but It is.. “all that and a bag of chips”, HOLLA!!!!!

Not only did coming back home for a bit remind me that I am aging and  I knew I totally different generation of pop culture but It reminded me how much fun it is to talk about past times and really appreciate the life you have lived.

Which brings me to this.

There is something really special about being from a small town

For one, small towns have their “hang out” spots that are passed down from class to class, I did not graduate that long ago so by no means is it a surprise that I see high school kids meeting up in “Old Walmart Parking lot” or taking a drive down Phillips road but it definitely puts a smile on my face.

The town I grew up in will always have the best donuts and barbecue. HANDS DOWN.

And if you drive a little ways out of town you find a piece of heaven called Skiatook Lake

Neighbors are friendly, teachers become friends, friends family becomes your family and people are so willing to help.

Along with all these great things about my small town, something that really makes me happy to be apart of it is the amount of support and amazement I have gotten from the people that live/grew up here. The moment I mention my internship people are quick to congratulate me and be genuinely interested in what I have going on for me. It makes me so happy to think that I have grown up surrounded by people who are so happy and supportive for one another. I could be shoveling elephant poop on a movie set and people in this town would think that was the coolest thing ever; that’s not to say that people here are dumb or simple minded, I am just saying that no matter what you are doing people here are very excited for you.

No matter where you are on your journey to your dreams, as long as you are moving forward: YOU ARE SOMEWHERE!

You’re  just in school to be a nurse…. That’s awesome, you made it to nursing school you BADASS.

You just graduated college but have no job yet.. UM HELLO?? YOU JUST GRADUATED COLLEGE, SMART GUY!!!

You just have a job and a baby on the way… YOU LITERALLY CREATED A LIFE and you are working to give that life a special one– GO YOU!!

You just got an internship but you fail miserably at it…………You followed your dreams!!

I got my city right behind me, if I fall they got me

-Mackelmore

Feeling loved, blessed and brave. 

Cheers!

an internship and all that jazz

There are so many reasons to love Tina Fey and Amy Pohler. In fact I could link you to so many articles on why this duo rocks. They are everything you want to admire in a woman- they have worked their way up in the comedy world and most importantly they have changed the world of comedy by simply being themselves.

You are probably wondering what these women have to do with my internship but it was looking up to them that made me embark on an improv journey- fall in love with improv  and ultimately seek out professional school and troupes that I could potentially work with in the future.

When I started college I knew the summer between my Junior and Senior year I would need to get some sort of internship or job that pertained to my degree. No more lifeguard or hotel clerk jobs I knew it would be time to grow up. In the fall of 2012 I decided  I wanted to get a summer internship at an Improv school or theatre. I started looking into all the possibilities- Second City, Improv Olympics and The Groundlings Theatre were all places I looked into and applied to. For some reason and maybe, its because another inspirational woman in comedy, Kristin Wigg, started there, The Groundlings Theatre stood out to me. They seemed fun and inviting also its a non-profit organization which is pretty cool in the world of entertainment. In January I got an email from The Groundlings Theatre asking to set up a phone interview and after the phone interview I was notified that I got the internship!!!

I imagine  I danced around my apartment something like this…

crazy hands and all

In fact, the man living underneath me came up to tell to me be a little quieter. (Side Note: It was about 1:30 in the afternoon when he came and asked me to be quiet, this request was followed by many other mid-day be quite request, I think he slept during the day so he could remodel his apartment at night WHEN NORMAL PEOPLE SLEPT… we had issues)

So thats where I am..

I am headed to Los Angeles May 24th and I will be there all summer long. I am so excited but I am really scared and sad to leave my friends and the normal summer memories. However, I am ready for a whole new exciting adventure.

Wish me luck!

Cheers!