Topanga Days

My long awaited internship began this past Tuesday so I've been there twice. I was very nervous because I had never done an internship before, especially in a small firm where I would be the only intern and if I screw up, it would be more noticeable. I didn't really know what to expect when I got there. The first thing I realized was that I was overdressed. They all go in jeans and sweats and pretty much anything I'd wear to class. I'm relieved because I hate dressing up and if I'm going to be there all day, it's nice to be comfortable. There are actually only 4 people working there and all of them are very nice. My first day, they started me out creating title treatments for some movie posters they're working on. I don't think any of them will be used, but it was pretty cool to do. They're working on the Stargate dvd packaging so I got to cut out a picture that'll go on the cover. I also answer phones and mail packages...woohoo. We're also doing a label for a new winery, so we took a field trip on Thursday to a liquor store to check out the labels. I'm starting to relax a little bit although I am still nervous that I'm going to screw up. The two owners, Daryll and Tami, are married. I wonder if they worked together first before getting married or if they got married and then started the company. Maybe I'll ask when I get more comfortable. I'll write more about the internship a little later. I think it's a good start in the business though and working here will hopefully although me to get an internship at somewhere like The Cimarron Group, Digital Kitchen, or Yu + Co.

Yesterday, as is tradition, my family and I went to Topanga Days, the most awesome hippie country fair you could imagine. It's up in the hills of Topanga Canyon and you have to make a huge trek up this giant hill, but once you get there it's like the 1960s never left. They have lots of booths full of homemade crafts, all these local venders selling food, various bands, and lots and lots of weed. You see the oddest people too. This visit included a guy wearing jeans and a white sparkly cape, another woman was dressed in a fairy outfit, and tons of tie-dye everywhere. I bought a really pretty necklace and also a giant smoothie. They served it in a football cup and I thought it would be smaller than it was, but they poured the entire contents of the blender into the cup and I knew I was in trouble. It was delicious though. It turned out to be a very relaxing, fun day to just be outside and enjoy the California scenery.


An aerial view of the festivities


Me with my way-too-large smoothie


My brother, me, and my mom

Summer afternoon...the two most beautiful words in the English language

Being home for the summer is a strange mix of things. It took me a good 3 days to pack up my overwhelming amount of stuff in the apartment and bring it home. The last days of school left me with hardly any food because I wanted it to dwindle away. I lived on thai food take out and my always delicious fall-back dinner of frozen tator tots and lumpy chocolate pudding. I now have the unpleasant task of going through all the bins dumped in the living room, figuring what I'll need for the summer, consolidating everything, and sending the rest of it to storage. I was sad to leave school, but I'm generally happy where I am so when I leave school Im sad but then I'm immediately happy to be home. Usually I'm just here overnight once every few weeks, but now I'm here for the whole summer stretch which is sort of nice. My family has been great. I'll start my internship on the 23rd, so since coming home I've had ultimate freedom and laziness. Generally I hate to just sit around daily with no purpose. It makes me feel ineffectual and a waste of air.

When I came home, my brother was working on a movie for his mythology class so I offered to help out with that. It gave me a chance to actually sit down and hammer out all the frustrations I've been having with Final Cut Pro, but I think I've come out of it knowing a lot. I learned how to add titles, cut down audio tracks, and all the basics of editing. I just started working on the beginnings of my long talked about, but not yet realized 'tv show credits' which will feature a made-up tv show and all my friends as the actors. I want to do one for my portfolio because I would give my right leg to eventually create real tv show credits. How cool would that be? To create an intro that would run before a tv show every week and thousands of people would see. For my mother's day, since I am totally broke, I'm designing a book cover for my mom based on a story she wrote called "Gypsy Blood." It's a pretty cheap gift, but I think it'll be something that she likes and it saves me from going into debt.

I'm trying to finish this book I'm reading called "The Historian." It's about a historian who gets sucked into a mystery surrounding the legend of Dracula and it takes him all over Eastern Europe. They throw in a lot of historical facts about Dracula. It's pretty interesting as far as fun reads go. I didn't want anything too heavy for the beginning of summer time, but next up on my list is Lolita, then Capote's In Cold Blood, and hopefully David Sedaris' Naked after that.

I've also just started up on what will hopefully be a regular gym routine. I want to be completely in shape by the end of summer because the stress of finals and being a lazy blob at home this week have turned me into something resembling this guy.

Baby, you can drive my car

So the most incredible and unbelievable thing happened to me and I was in a state of shock so I couldn't even write about it for a few days. I got a car!! Now I knew this day was coming, but I didn't foresee it to be any time in the near future when I landed the internship in North Hollywood. I had the option of taking the bus 2 hours each way the days of my internship OR get a car. I decided on looking around for a really cheap used car. Something that could just get me back and forth and that I could replace in a few years when I start making money. I foolishly (or luckily, depending on how you look at it) sent my parents out to test the waters of used cars because I was at school. And they call me up to report that...wait for it...they got me a car and were driving it off the lot that very minute!! I thought my parents had gone insane. Not only was it a car, but it was a brand new 2006 Hyundai Elantra. I told them that they were insane and that I didn't deserve a new car. I've done nothing to deserve it and since I'm making $0 right now just interning, I have no way of paying for it until I graduate. I would be quite content with making a car out of a cardboard box and running it around town like the Flinestones, I told them. But the more they talked the more they convinced me that it made a lot of sense. For one, this car is super reliable and safe. It's got front and side air bags and has received 5 stars on crash test ratings. Also, its about the same price that a used Toyota or Honda would be because we got a really good deal. So if I got a used toyota, it would have a lot more miles on it than this new car. Because it's new, it's less likely to break down as much within the first few years and I should be able to keep it for the next decade rather than trading it in, allowing me to save money in the longrun. It gets something like 28 or 30 miles to the gallon too which is important. I got to pick the color, so I chose a nice cherry red color. It's not so bright red that I'll get stopped by every cop, but it's bright enough to be visible on the road. So I'm in a state of shock that I own a car. But as long as my parents agree to let me help pay for it once I graduate and start making money on my own and budgeting, I think I can accept it. Here are some pictures of my baby. All cars need a name, so I need to come up with one for my car. so if anyone has any suggestions, post a comment.



This is one showing the actual color. I could only chose between this, teal, and beige. The teal was gross and the beige reminds of an old person car. I wanted mine to have some personality.

Art Final Exam: Given one box of crayons and 3 pieces of paper, recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

I'm approaching what will probably be my easiest finals week yet. I only have one written test, in The World of Visual Effects, and she already sent us all the possible questions so all I have to do is memorize what I want to write and I've got it made. Although she is a nazi with her grading so we'll see.

Though things are winding down now, the last few weeks have been fairly packed with end of the year activities. We had our Senior Sendoff invite, fountain run, and all my art projects were due. I was covered in ink for a good 2 weeks from printmaking and seriously considered turning the corner of the printmaking studio into my makeshift bedroom so that I could just hop out of bed and start rolling ink. The idea sounded feasible until I realized I would probably die from the mineral spirits fumes. For our final project, I did three drypoint etchings of scenes from the fairy tales Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Rapunzel based off the illustrations of Arthur Rackham. It kinda sucked and I had to come up with some BS artsy reason for doing it. I wish I was talented in more areas of art. They make you take all these fundamental out of your emphasis courses which I inevitably fail to excel in. One girl did this really interesting piece on destiny and how the small decisions we make everyday drastically change our lives. She was saying how she moved to the US from Japan and had to choose where to move and what to major in. I think if I had chosen to go to Carnegie Mellon my life would be pretty different and I would have never met any of the people I've met in college.

Yesterday, I was in Valencia for the night so my family decided to go on a super long 6 hour drive through the Los Angeles national forest. We got up at 7am, drove to this mountain lodge/restaurant my parents like to go to because it reminds them of Colorado, and then drove all the way through the mountains which spit us out in Santa Paula. There's so much open space back there that I didn't even realize was there. I took many pictures. And I think my brother is morphing into a cowboy.



My mom and I after about 6 hours in the car. If you're wondering what we're doing, we're making noise with our soda bottles to accompany the music we were listening to.


The view right around Ojai. It was a little foggy but the scenary is incredible.


Could be a poster for Brokeback Mountain 2. I tease.


And as soon I get home for summer I'll be dyeing my hair this color! The girl, not McDreamy.