Bientôt

Look at me being all productive and blogging again! Don't get used to it. :)

I've been playing around with a new look for the blog. It's definitely more subdued than my original look:

I still love how it was but figured it was time for a change. I might do some more tweaking but overall I'm okay with how it looks (though it is a bit drab). Any thoughts?

If you've read this blog all the way through, you may remember I worked as an extra on The Middle a little over a year ago. Well, if all goes to plan, I will be again!! For FOUR days! Man, I am soo excited: I got a call this morning from one of the casting agents seeing if I am available next week and I said YES. She's calling back this afternoon with the details. Next week is the last of my school break (the last week I'm open to do background work) and I've called in soo many times this break but never got through the lines. Now they called me! EEK. Anyway, since I signed up two years ago, they've called me twice for this show (out of three calls total) so apparently I look like I'm from middle Indiana. Not sure how I feel about that. haha. But, if it means I get to earn money for four days on set, I'll take the title!

So onto nails—I did another attempt at half moons using a pop of color. The application wasn't the neatest but I liked the color combo of navy and bright teal.

Zoya Ibiza over China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise

I was excited to see the moons matched my toothpaste! haha. Always love the matchy matchy.

Colgate Total ;)

I got my three Zoya bottles from their facebook promo! Zoya is my favorite brand of polish so I was quite excited to expand my collection. I received Crystal, Charla, and Rea. So far, I've only used Crystal:

Zoya Crystal, holding a ring by my friend Mel

Last weekend one of my best friends Alysia and I went to Arizona to visit the friends we traveled back from camp with last summer. We had a great trip, even though it was short!

Of course we used our designated road trip sunglasses for the occasion!

The desert has some amazing sunsets. Here are two pics I snapped on my phone while driving and stopped for gas.

So linear with the clouds. Weird.

Ooh. Last week I picked up some cute boots that were on clearance at Target! I love the gray suede and the RUFFLES!

Xhilaration Kameel Boots $20.98

In random news, I joined this cool site a couple of weeks ago where you can bookmark, or "pin", images you find and fall in love with. Feel free to join and follow me! So far I only have two friends on there. :) I loveee images though so it's a great way to keep track of and share pics I stumble across.

That's all for now. Next time I should have a review up on nail foils that were sent to me by OCNailArt! That'll be fun. Have a great weekend!

The Middle

I got to be an extra again this week which is WONDERFUL because I am in dire need of funds! :) During my hours of sitting around waiting to be needed on set, I made a list of highlights and lowlights, if you will.

Highlights:

-CA/Summer themed napkins to make lists on

-Catered lunch (w/tons of choices including AMAZING bad-for-you mac & cheese. MMM.)

-Oreos, bags of chips, gummy worms, mini Kit Kats, pizza and other junk to sustain us through dinner time

-Getting to hang out in Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls!!!) when not on set

-Making money (even if it is only minimum wage)

-Walking through the WB lot (lots of city and town facades) to get to wardrobe, set, and finally my car

-Getting a WB day pass with my name on it, haha

-Wearing the thick and cozy sweater provided by wardrobe to achieve that middle "Indiana" look, apparently

-Bottled water (yum)

-Watching the cast and crew working and interacting

Pic from my cell of the church in Stars Hollow & the remains of the gazebo :(

Lowlights (what would a better word be? haha):

-Being forced to talk to and look into the eyes of 30-50 year old guys for hours at a time who were assigned to me as "dates" for the scene at the diner. BLEGH

-Actors are so cocky!! Especially the extras who are trying to "make it" in the industry. Enough with the name dropping already!

-'Boredom' isn't a strong enough word for the seemingly endless hours sitting in holding

-Quickly fleeting cell batteries (facebook, Twitter, text, repeat)

-"Are we doneeee yet?"

-Total strangers and nothing but

My sneaky bathroom shot so you can see the sweater I was growing quite attached to!

I'm so glad I got to work. I've been calling in a million times a day since my last final this past week and have only been able to book this one show. I'll keep it up, but it's getting to be holiday time so work will be scarce, at best.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going with some friends to a pre-screening on the WB lot of the movie When in Rome. Looking forward to it! I love being on that lot. :) haha. OHOH. I went to another pre-screening a few weeks ago for the movie Letters to Juliet and it was SO good! I cannot wait to see it again. I think it comes out in March, so go see it when you can!

P.S. I've been winning a lot more nail polish and will do a mega post once the contest is over and all of my prizes have arrived! :)

EDIT: Oops!! I wasn't paying attention! The screening it at the Walt Disney Studios lot. I don't know if I've been there before. Even better!

Belated Update

So, I've been wanting to create a new post for a while now, but I never took the pictures of my thrift store finds that I promised I would in my last post! haha. So much has happened since then though that it no longer seems important. Maybe I'll still get around to it one day. . .

Let's see. Well last month I chopped off all my hair! That was an experience. I was a "hair model" for the Frederic Fekkai salon in Beverly Hills which simply means they practiced their cut and color techniques on me. I didn't come out loving my hair (my stylist didn't do a great job), but after my mom fixed the unevenness and intense bulk in the back, I now like it much better. Since it's been about a month now, it's actually already grown out a bit. I like it even better now that it's a little longer. It's a fun change and I'm enjoying it while it grows out. It's sooo much harder to deal with than my long hair though! I still struggle every day with what to do with it. Oh well. I guess that's part of the fun?

Before

After

I also went on a trip to Lake San Marcos (about a half hour from San Diego) for a convention with my church. My family rented a house on the lake that came with a pontoon boat called the Aquaholic. :) The boat went out multiple times every day, to be sure! It was a good trip overall. Lots of interesting memories. haha. I'll leave it at that! How about a very small sampling of my photos?

My brother and dog on the Aquaholic

Trying out a velcro wall :)

Sitting on the beach while my bro & friends surfed

Trying on tutus!

A brave seagull attempting to steal my friend's wallet & keys

My friends frolicking on the beach

A random guy stretching before going out to surf

Oh! And last week the episode of Heroes that I was an extra in aired! I saw myself five times which was awesome. I was really surprised because the two days I was there there were 100 extras. I lucked out! (On House, even though there were only about 20 extras, I bareeeely saw my shadow at the very end. haha.) I look forward to doing extra work again, but it has to wait until school is on break. Bummer.

There I am on the left!

And on the right . . . (sorry these are so dark)

Well that pretty much sums up everything that is even slightly interesting. haha. Maybe now I'll be able to post more regularly? I'm not going to tell what's coming next or else I'll be in the same predicament I was in before. You'll just have to be surprised. :)

Playing House

8:36am. Hello! I'm writing from the set of House M.D. which is pretty cool if you ask me! I don't watch it so I don't know any of the characters or storylines, but I have plenty of friends that do! I called an agent at Central to submit for an 18 to look younger part for another show and ended up getting booked for House as a parent (and also a secretary?)!! Kind of a blow to the ego! Haha.

This experience is WAY different than Heroes. There are around 20 extras which makes the whole experience far more intimate. Also, we're on the actual set in-studio rather than outside on location. I got kind of lost walking to set because the studio grounds are pretty big! I walked through a pretend scariesville to find the right soundstage and ended up walking past the facade for Nolita, the restaurant for the 2005 show Kitchen Confidential (which I just rewatched on Hulu and am currently reading the book it was based on). I had to ask two people along the way but I eventually ended up in the right place.

We got to go to set about half an hour after checking in with wardrobe, which was awesome. The scene was cool but I felt pretty self-conscious at the beginning because everyone else here seems to be actual actors who have already been on House for quite a few episodes (some even having been on previous seasons). No one ever yelled cut because of me, so I guess I was OK. Haha.

Right now we're back in the holding area listening to some guy snore. I'll go back to trying to stay warm (soo cold in here! My teeth are literally chattering. Returning background brought blankets. Smart.) and reading Kitchen Confidential. Until later. . .

. . . 7:31pm. Well we didn't get called back to set until about 6? hours later. (Maybe it wasn't quite that long, but it seemed like it!) We didn't do very many scenes but we did do a lottt of takes. One thing learned today, Jesse Spencer is fun to look at. hahaha. Just an observation! It made the 100 takes around his character quite bearable.

The hardest thing about today was that everyone around me knew the crew and each other and clearly knew what to do! Granted, it's really not hard to get the hang of, but there is something to be said about that initial intimidation! Everyone knew their way around set and knew the routine. It's like your first day at school being in the middle of the semester.

Call time was at 6AM which meant in order to get to the studio on time, I had to wake up at 3:45am!!! Boo to that. I managed to get there without falling asleep at the wheel. Always a good thing! About an hour before we were dismissed, those of us who had a "change" (me being a secretary) were told to put on our alternate clothes. After waiting for about half an hour, we were dismissed because we were coming up on our 13th hour and they didn't want to fork over double pay! Unfortunately, that means I didn't get to be a secretary, which I had really been looking forward to!

Today was uncomfortable at times, but I think it was a good step up in learning the ropes. (I'm really glad I did Heroes first because it was a nice stepping stone for House. Today I would have been WAY more lost than I already was.) It should be fun to watch the episode because I think I'll be able to catch a [really quick, small, fuzzy] glimpse of myself.

Well this is certainly long enough now. If you bothered to read this far, thank you so much! I hope the rest of your week is amazing. :)

As promised

Thursday and Friday were so fun! Thursday just after midnight, I learned my call time had changed from 10:30am to 8am which meant in order to wake up and get to set on time, I'd have to get up at 4:30am. I am perpetually late, so I wanted to give myself plenty of time to ensure I was punctual (completely required for this business). I ended up getting to set around 7:30am and followed a girl in and found an empty seat in the extras holding area. Check-in wouldn't begin until 8, so I opened up my book. All around me people were eating breakfast that was provided by craft services, and I was trying hard not to feel nauseous from the smells (I was soo nervous!).

Anyway, after signing in, we were told to make a line for wardrobe and makeup so they could OK what we all looked like (we had been told to dress in young, bright, fun clothes that looked appropriate for early summer). After we got checked, we had to wait another couple of hours until we were finally brought to set.

I love being on set. It's so cool seeing everything and everyone that makes up what we watch on tv. I could hang out on set for hours (which, of course, is why I was so excited to be an extra). There was more standing around while ADs (assistant directors) placed the 150 extras (we were there for a carnival scene) in various places around the set. In the end, everyone had been placed except me and two other girls. We seemed to have been forgotten about! We ended up staying where we were while the rehearsals took place. It turned out to be a great place to watch everything because the action went SMACK (2 ft) past us (including Zachary Quinto). Once they actually brought the camera in, us three were told we were "stacking up" in the camera's view so we had to move around the corner in front of a dart throwing/balloon popping booth. haha. Oh well. It was still a good shot once, halfway through the scene, the two actors passed right next to us.

New villian Robert Knepper was there all day!

One highlight of the day was when Zach came up to the three of us and started popping the balloons with the darts. (For the first 12ish darts, it was him, girl #1, girl #2, then me lined up at the counter and then he moved between girl #2 and myself for another like 20 darts. Awesome.) Of course, as lowly extras, we couldn't throw with him, but we certainly savored the situation and eagerly replied to his chatter (well, honestly it was mostly expletives for when he missed the balloons. haha) and one of the set guys was complaining that he'd have to replace all the popped balloons. He didn't in the end so all was fine. Anyway, it was just a cool element of the day. :)

At a few times during the day, one of the ADs was working on a list trying to figure out who was coming back the next day. My name was never called, so it didn't look like there was any way I would be recalled. In between takes on the last scene, she said that the whole group I was booked to be a part of (18+ to look younger) was being recalled. I was sooo happy to be able to come back!

I was there for about 12 and 1/2 hours and at the end of the night was certainly looking forward to bed. At 1:30am, I got a call saying my call time had been pushed back half an hour which meant half an hour more of sleep! (But because I had been roused from a dead sleep, it took me like that whole half an hour to figure out what time to adjust my alarm clock to. haha)

Friday was wayyy more boring. We sat there for . . . 8? 9? hours. Ugh. We only got to film like 3 scenes. Sitting in the holding area was frustrating because I so badly wanted to be back on set watching the crew! Oh well. I ended up being there for 10 and 1/2 hours.

Not the actual set, but a mockup for Comic-Con

All in all, I had a great experience meeting people, learning the ins and outs of pantomiming ("talking" and interacting on camera while being completely silent) and crosses (extras walking on camera from and to a certain spot), seeing some sneak peek Heroes' storyline info, eating good food (craft services is awesome!), and stepping out of my comfort zone to try a new experience! One girl I met overheard a crew member say we were working on episode six, so I'll look forward to watching it!

Finally, a pay check!

A couple weeks ago my friend and I signed up with Central Casting. I had been wanting to for years and figured now, before school starts up again, is the perfect time to pursue it.

It took me a few days to work up the courage to call the line to see what they were looking for (yes, unfortunately my extreme fear of new things makes me an absolute chicken!) and another day or so after that to finally call in for a description I fit. Yesterday I called in repeatedly for over 3 and 1/2 hours but to no avail. :(

Today I tired again and after an hour of calling with my home AND cell phone (yes, at the same time; I heard a phantom busy signal for over an hour after being off the phones! haha), I booked my first background acting job! Yeehaw! It's for Heroes which is awesome because I really want to work on all my favorite shows. Heroes hasn't made me the biggest fan, but I do watch it regularly hoping the story lines will improve. My two days of working will be so much cooler because I'll be trying to figure out the plot the whole time. :)

Anyway, I'll definitely blog a play-by-play this weekend so that anyone who is curious about the process (like I am! I want to know what's going to happen! Yikes!) can read up and get the details. Wish me luck!! I'M TERRIFIED, but definitely excited.