Spring and Summer every other day.....

Hey guys

So first a little disclaimer - this is only half done, I'm missing friday, sat and Sunday which (for those of you playing at home) were the days of CTN. I can't remember a lot of what I did so I'm looking around this tiny tiny room for my schedule to remind me... in the meantime I thought I'd put the rest of the week up.. I figure by the time you get around to reading it I would have found the piece of paper I'm looking for...that is... in a few days ^_^

Monday things returned to normality with a good dose of crazy bus travels, moseying around Pasadena avoiding the countless people on the street asking for money (both bums and charity volunteers) then sitting in Cha eating, drinking and drawing. As the dark began to take over the afternoon and the temperature dropped I checked my phone for the time (for those of you who just fell of your chair in shock I'd like to re-iterate that I was carrying my phone and yes it was charged ^_^) It was almost time to meet Tony outside to make our way to the El Capitan for a private screening of Waking sleeping Beauty. We were running late, a fact I was unconcerned with while we continued to play my ipod music through his great sounding stereo. but the reality sat in when we arrived and walked into a packed theatre of animators and industry execs. Turns out we had showed up to a special Disney screening and were incredibly out of place amongst a theater of veterans... But the movie was absolutely phenomenal - funny, sad, moving... everything a documentary usually isn't. The credits came up and the calibre of people in the theatre hit us when we turned to leave to discover Ron Clements sitting RIGHT BEHIND US - I nearly fell over Tony as we shuffled through the isle and only managing a feeble squeak put my hand out to shake his... I vaguely remember saying "Hi, I'm such a fan... can I... can I shake your hand?"
Hanging around in the lobby on the advice of Dawn - (our Disney insider) we spent the next half hour shaking hands with the likes of John Musker, Glen Kean, Ken Duncan, Andreas Dega and much more ^_^

Tuesday I needed a break and decided to chill out at home before work, catching up on emails, putting on some washing and leading a nice quite life till my shift started at 3. I finished that night at 9 - a lucky break as Ms Seni let me go home instead of staying to cash up ^_^

Wednesday was of course another Cha day were I continued to work on some drawings and try and finish my book - Guards Guards Guards... for such a small book it certainly takes a while to get through... I blame teeny tiny writing. But the day on the whole was relatively uneventful, I'd say the quiet before the storm - better known as Thanksgiving ^_^

While everyone was of with Family I woke up late with not a care in the world... Burbank was deserted and eerily quite I noticed as I sat at Thai eating my shrimp dumplings and reading my giant Peter De Seive book (a birthday present to myself from the expo). Now before you get the wrong idea I do have excellent friends that all invited me to their respective family get together's, but after 4 days of networking and practicing impeccable social editicate.. a few late nights and a lot of early mornings... I just couldn't bring myself to do the "good house guest routine" ...That afternoon my spirits were lifted by the countless birthday messages from home flooding my facebook page (thanks again guys!) and a good dose of you tube watching as I drew and coloured in ^_^

Friday the 27th came and left fairly unceremoniously - you know, I miss that birthday feeling you got as a kid. You'd wake up that day and it just felt different, the air tasted better, your had this incredible feeling of excitment, and everyone seemed to know it was a special day, in fact any joy around you you'd assume was directly related to the fact the world was celebrating you were born. You got automatic shotgun on the ride to school, your songs were played on the radio, you decided the games in the playground and best of all what was for dinner. But despite the lack of the feeling I had a great day none the less.. It started by almost freezing my ass of.. or more specifically any extremities exposed to the wind as I rode to work in the dark at 5:30 in the morning. The lines had already started to form outside to mark the beginning of black Friday (a tradition in America of Sales after Thanksgiving). As predicted NO ONE wanted Ice cream at 6 in the morning so things were pretty slow till I left at one, then it was straight down to the 2nd floor for 20% of a haircut (yay for mall employees) and feeling self conscious as my hair bounced around with a newly appointed shine I had lunch, got desert and waited for Tony to pick me up for a FREE screening of Fantastic Mr Fox down in Hollywood. The movie was ok... I fell asleep half way through, but it had some decent lines and some quirky animation. I rounded of the night with eggplant stirfry for dinner and another good dose of broadway on you tube - I'm now completely obsessed with Spring Awakening - the soundtrack is awesome!!

Well I'll be back asap for the CTN update, for now its bedtime... I really need to stop going to sleep at 2 in the morning...

- Your Now 23 year old US correspondent
Lesley

You dropped something.....

Its Thursday morning...I feel tired, a little crusty... and there's this stubborn bit of sleep in my eye that wont come out unless I take out the tweezers- which will mean a sore eye for the entire day, so for now its won this battle... but not the war....

So how is everyone? (you'll have to call it out reasonably loud so I can hear you...) good? I hope your all good - I'm ok myself - a little frazzled at the moment trying to get things organised. CTN is up this weekend and there still seems to be quite a bit to get done... as of yesterday I can check business cards of the list, but my portfolio is far from complete...

because of this ever increasing window of opportunity to finish things this entry will have to remain short - "so what only 12 pages this time instead of 20?" I notice a tone of sarcasm in your voice - don't deny it - and nether do I, I suspect it will end up longer than I want, but such is my nature... and my lousy ability to be direct - I'm a beat around the bush kinda gal.

Before I really kick things of though I'd just like to mention - for those playing at home - that although I'm sure your all eagerly anticipating my birthday coming up on the 27th and want desperately to shower me with gifts of appreciation for giving you this lovely blog to waste your time... PLEASE don't send me things (unless they are money or other things that can be sent electronically - including E-cards - as long as they sing...) I have a VERY VERY small room not to mention taking things back home is going to be tricky...

Ok onto the last week... I've actually started writing things down so I can remember better -
We left of on Friday - a day Hamid says he now owes me for - Once again Hamid - I had a GOOD TIME - not to mention I got a shit load of free food which lasted me the entire week.... could explain my weird tummy though...

Saturday was Halloween, made known by the bucket of "candy" greeting us in Animation class that morning. After an hour of drawing and marveling at the frequency flicker effect... (fancy name for animation) Tony and I went over to the bank to start up my Bank of America account... how our conversation with the teller got onto weird couples and being patient I don't know - I do know that I walked away with 1 dollar in my savings account and the prospect of a new card with panda on it ^_^
I had work till late that day - made strange by the man calling me up on my phone (I had no idea I'd lost it - for those of you that know me this is a less surprising occurrence - more predictable). I rushed from Haagan Dasz at 9:45, got changed into my Bliss costume (skirt over my pants and my bike helmet) then it was of to my first Halloween house party - A night of drinking (no not me) Freezing and chatting with Jesus, Harry Potter (complete with Hedwig - you looked awesome Tony) and some death metal guy... honestly you'd think mascara was more a girl thing... The highlight was seeing a girl that had obviously tried to dress up as a nerd and really just looked like she raided my wardobe... We wrapped the night by watching Aladdin at a haunted house... we ALL fell asleep ^_^

Sunday morning I stumbled out of bed early to meet the guy holding my phone captive - they actually hassled me about not using my phone... I have my family for that buddy! Then it was work (by myself) till 9 and straight home to bed - ok so I may have stopped for yogurt and Taro on the way...

Monday was Cha day - Then just when my bum was starting to loose all feeling from sitting there all day, Jen picked me up and we drove to Irvine to see Josh and any one else from IV floating around (IV - International Village) We stopped into Cha first (another one) for dinner, then it was into campus to watch some live Comedy at the pub - my favourite was this guy that did an excellent song about your "first time" - comic genius!!!
We left shortly after (I felt sorry for the next guy - it was like going to sing on stage after Beyonce or Christina... tough act to follow...) bumped into a few people then got directions home - Thanks again for an awesome night Jen!

Tuesday was errand day - the highlight was getting my legs waxed - not the waxing part but the discount after - only 30 bucks!! agghh nothing like a good discount to make your day - I also had a major scanning session, ate sushi and generally just relaxed ^_^

Wednesday it was back to Cha- the monotony broken only by a big hard sticky thing falling onto my hand then into my helmet - to my horror I discovered it was a lollypop - straight from the mouth of the guy standing over me - GROSSSSS! I pased it back mentioned pointedly that he'd dropped it and amazingly it went straight back into his mouth!!!!!

It is at this point that I would like to publicly apologise for making fun of anyone
that used hand sanitiser in my presence - It definitely came in handy at this
moment - both on my hands AND the inside of my helmet...

That night Alina and I met up to go to a Disney portfolio drop - not quite what I thought it would be, but it was nice catching up with Alina while we waited in line, not to mention meeting Alison - a really sweet recruiter eager to add us on linked in and generally help us out ^_^


Thursdays science class was dealing with Corn starch and water to make quicksand - what it actually made was this weird gloop and a HUGE mess - but the kids loved it and I convinced them to take most of it home - parents were not as happy - muahahaha. Sketch club that night was really fun - especially as Matt and Edd were back - missed you guys! ^_^

Friday I came into burbank early to do some errands - for example waiting in line at the library for the homeless people to finish surfing the internet - pretty sure I saw one checking his emails.... I also got some groceries and had to walk home with them as a nice guy from the YMCA locked my bike after I had told him I didn't have a key... grumble grumble. Hamid picked me up that night for a jamming session back at his - we got through a few songs then got distracted by Who's line - The likeness between you and Drew Carey still freaks me out Dad :P

Class on Saturday was kinda dead as only a few showed up - but we plugged through our Ariel clean up none the less - and I proudly presented my "one perfect drawing" to a pleased Alex, just to show him if I'm not being lazy, my clean up volumes are right on the money.. or model... Tony and I headed to our usually lunch meeting at Pho then it was dessert and work till late.

I Opened again Sunday morning, (honestly I may as well have slept at work) then left at three to do some last minute (slightly panicked) photocopying for a little pamphlet of my work to hand out at the Animation army meet that night. After dinner at a new Thai place - not so much as new as I'd never been there before, and thanking Alina again and again for my cool prezzies (she wont be here for my birthday)
- Awesomely soft bed socks with sticky feet
- THREE cool brush pens
- A whole box of Light blue col-erase pencils
- Wicked ORIGINAL watercolours from her sketchbook
- Chopsticks
- A cute little purse in the shape of an apple
Safe to say you seriously spoiled me Alina!!
Running late from trying to find a car spot we rushed into the studio relieved to discover everyone standing around chatting. We both slapped on some name tags and decided to divide and conquer - I was just finished chatting to Kyle (met him a while ago) and had started talking to some other animators and illustrators when it was time to sit on the floor and listen to the panel of recruiters tell us how to get a job. They had some interesting insights - and even better things to say when I went up after and talked to them individually. Two of the three seemed really eager to get me work before I had to leave - so I left the night on a high.. that was until I discovered I couldn't find my house key...

Monday - I borrowed Heather's key and headed to Cha for some thinking and drawing - finally finishing my God Delusion book along the way(thanks again for the book Dad). Unfortunately in my haste to finish I had it held up whilst getting on the bus - a fact made clear by the bus driver who decided to announce on the loudspeaker to the entire bus that I was an atheist - waaaay to go dude :(
I got a bit done that afternoon then making it home FINALLY got to have a good long chat with mum

I'll leave it there for now as I have to get going - Not to mention I'm actually getting on top of the entries - well until after CTN

-Your faithful (slightly lazy) corespondent Lel ^_^

My New Card - let me know what you think :)

No I'm the teacher...

Ok, the tv is of, I've had lunch and there is now NO MORE excuses for me not to write this blog entry... unless something major crops up in the next half hour I am determined to get this written and of my mind... crap... have to pee... be right back.

Ok I'm back... So you must be wondering what (besides laziness) could have kept me all this time - well single person reading my blog and actually interested in my adventure - thats right, don't bother looking around, your it - the one person reading this and making me feel like these times spent writing a worth while... in fact, take a break - you earned it - you got his far.. go ahead and pat yourself on the back - then grab something to nibble on - I recommend something high in long lasting energy.

I would like to report that a sudden Alien abduction has kept me - while they jabbed at my body and spoke in strange clicks and whurs all I could think of was not my own safety but my lateness of entry to this blog and your lack of entertainment for the hour or so it takes you to read it... hey you could be a slow reader - I don't judge..

But I'm am a sad to report it IS laziness - and the mounting pressure of knowing that with everyday I left it there would be more to write... so without further ado here is the last few weeks (Dad I'm dedicating it to you)

Firstly I'd like to quickly point out that last week entry I forgot to mention that Dad and I spent AGES at the bookstore on Friday and he bought me some new clothes ^_^... I realise this isn't stop the press news but I didn't want you to think that I forgot a second of time spent with him - so thanks again Dad for my books and clothes!

Ok back to it

Saturday we woke up at the usual LA time of 10:30 and headed out to the pier for breakfast at the Ivy - unfortunately it was the prospect of "saying" that rather than the food itself that lured us in - I enjoyed my omelet and its size expanding over neighboring borders but I think Dad would have preferred something with bacon in the title and the smell of waffles - not Tortillas... A word of caution - if its breakfast your after and they're asking whether you want guacamole with that - get out - get out NOW!
Full and feeling refueled we continued to the pier to explore, the highlight was watching a man and his sons ride a parachute ride (ok ready guys WOOOAHHH - no no stick your legs out - yeah - WOOOAAAHH... the thing was a few feet tall). After a lap we agreed it was looking a little tired and decided to head back the promenade to wait for our movie to start - The invention of Lying was great! In a word - Cheeky - you be the judge ^_^
Grabbing yogurt on the way back to the hotel we packed up to move to the West In as it was closer to LAX, then dumping our stuff we caught the tram to the beach for a dinner of steak and Chicken - you can guess who had what. We were almost lured into a quant Italian place offering free bread and pizza to those waiting outside but ended up with something a lot tastier and whole bunch more fancy!

I woke on Sunday (after another brilliant sleep) to an empty room as poor Dad had already caught the plan to Oakland to see the Jets play. Lying for a little longer in heaven (or otherwise known as down pillows) I dressed and headed down for a continental buffet breakfast - soled to me by a guy that honestly looked pregnant - skinny except for a hug rounded belly... An unwary cab driver took me home then it was of to work for my first FULL close (including counting the up the till - its the small things in life).

Monday I was set to meet Dad at Hollywood - so getting the call he was out of the gym (go dad) I caught the bus down and met him outside the Chinese Man theatre - we had an awesome day, walking the star pavement to see who was dead and who had a questionable mention - eating yogurt (I don't think I convinced him of its addictive powers), Spending a creepy hour at the wax museum - taking hillarious photos and spending the longest time in the gift store reading insults and excuses books. We had lunch at a Shabu Shabu restaurant then topped it all of with a screening of Astro Boy in the main theatre at the Mann usually reserved for premiers! All to soon we were looking at swatches and realizing the time - so after a 10 minute hug goodbye and some strange looks from onlookers who thought we could be part of a show I waved him goodbye in the cab and walked slowly to the bus stop for home. Dad - we really did have a blast ^_^

Deciding to move Cha day to Tuesday it was of to Alhambra this morning with my God Delusion book from Dad and some fresh sketch ideas in my head. I spent all day drawing, eating and drinking, then met Tony in Pasadena for a lift to a special interview with Paul Felix in a little place on Magnolia (Felix is a concept designer for Disney). We had a great time that night learning and soaking up the brilliance offered by Felix and his insane "I want to crawl up in a ball and rock myself back and forth vowing to never draw again" drawings. I also met a nice lady from the recruitment centre at Disney and am hoping she remembers me come decision time... Later after a chat with one of Tony's friends we spent 20 minutes looking for the car before it was home and bed.

Wednesday it was Tuesday all over again with a Cha session then a rendezvous with Tony at the end of the day - this time we were of to the Arc light cinema for a screening of Coraline, complete with interview with Director HENRY SELICK agghhhhhh. It took us a while to find the place as we realised sheepishly we'd been going up and down the wrong street, but we found it in the nick of time - parked - and avoiding the circus which was Boon Dogs 2 premier to find our seats in the downstairs cinema and I have my work critiqued by a nice guy who was friends with Brad Bird himself!! The movie was EXCELLENT and so much cooler to see on the big screen. Later at the reception we got to speak to Henry who signed my sketch book (look on my DA page) then feeling sick after numerous Swedish meatballs (what can I say, they were free) and clutching out Free Coraline buckets and t-shirts, we stole a poster from the front and ran out - laughing like lunatics the whole time - Nice one Tony! :P

Thursday I had magnetic car building in class that afternoon, which took waaaaay longer than expected and the reward for completing them was taking them apart seconds later - sorry kids - Not to mention before it started I was mistaken for one of the kids... (no this is not a joke - I don;t who was more shocked me or the lady when I told her I was actually the teacher) The day continued to decline when I realised I'd run out of money for the bus and still couldn't take money out of my card - cut to me asking an old lady outside Ralphs for money like a junky that needed a little extra cash for a fix - totally Humiliating!! the next bus I was able to get on out of sheer pity and a vouch from an indian women that thought I looked innocent (she kept swiveling around in her seat giving me the thumbs up like we'd cheated the system). back in Burbank I was able to borrow 1.25 of Migel for a ride to the sketch club only to discover no one was there as Pricillas was having a mixer - worrying about a ride back I was saved by Ratnar who after a short session of drawing with a few late comers drove me home. (Just want to take the time to appologise for giving you the wrong directions home Ratnar - its not like me to forget my left and rights!)

Friday morning Hamid picked me up around midday for our road trip down to San Diego - based on passed experience I was slightly worried we'd get lost, but after only one minor detour we made it for lunch in the mall were the performance was being held. I chose stuffed cabbage and Golden spoon yogurt for dessert ^_^
Feeling stuffed and happy I nestled myself in the corner of the Persian restaurant drawing, chatting to the band watching them set up. A few hours later they were good to go so with the knowledge we had to be back in a few hours Hamid and I drove down the beach for a walk along the cliffs as the sun set. As the sun sank behind the endless stretch of deep blue sea and moon rose to a chilly night we decided to head back from some dinner. I had baked eggplant with enough rice to feed a small Army whilst Hamid went for a buttery sweet chicken dish. feeling defeated by our meals we asked for a doggy bag and were offered fresh bread to take with us (my breakfast for the last week or so). The performance was awesome, the band was on fire, the lead singer crooning to the crowd in Persian as everyone and their grandma got down and danced - All started by a little girl who was first up and started bellydancing in front of the whole restaurant - MISS YOU LIL - There was also a performance by Silhouette - The persian version of the Veronicas ^_^ After much Dancing and sneaking up to the secret room to check my emails I fell asleep in the car waiting for Hamid to grab his equipment and it was a two hour trip back home... worried the whole time that Hamid was going to fall asleep at the wheel...