Tag Archives: BBQ

Virtual Memorial Day (or Doing The Best We Can For Now)

Posted on May 27, 2020 | Comments Off

Usually for Memorial Day weekend, I spend time with my friends at a BBQ. It’s usually a pretty low-key hangout, but it’s a great opportunity to see my friends and spend some time having fun. Typically, I haven’t seen that group of friends since the Oscar party, so I am excited to see them. The same group gets together and we all get along so well. And we all have the same type of friendship with each other that we can just pick up wherever we left off and it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other.

But this year, of course, things are different. I don’t know if I realized that this BBQ wouldn’t be happening until recently. Time is a weird thing during this pandemic and I didn’t realize Memorial Day was almost here. But once I did notice it on the calendar, I started to get a bit sad. When this all started. I doubt anyone thought it would last until Memorial Day. Now, they are hoping for reopening around the 4th of July, but I also know that can be changed and maybe it will last longer than that. But I also know that this is necessary to keep us all as healthy as possible.

I messaged my friend Marie to see if they were going to do anything virtual for Memorial Day, and I think I messaged her just as they were starting to see what they could do. I was so glad that they were going to plan something so I could have a bit of my regular life on Memorial Day. They planned a big group Zoom hangout that was supposed to start at 1 pm. While I am usually one of the first people to their parties, I have never been the very first person. But I was the first guest that arrived at the virtual party.

It was so good to see Marie and Chris! I have missed all of my friends so much, and I haven’t gotten to see many of them virtually since this all started. I was so happy that I was tearing up at seeing familiar faces. And we had a few moments to chat before lots of other people were joining in! People were popping in and out, so there was never a time that I could have gotten a photo with everyone in the virtual party at one time but this shows a lot of people who were there.

There was a good-sized group the entire time I was in the Zoom party. I was able to stay for about 2 or 3 hours before I needed to leave and get some things done around my house. And yes, we did have some issues with people talking over each other since we had so many people there at once, but we also joked that the parties are like that in real life too.

And some people really did have some fun with the idea of a virtual party. Marie and Chris used a video for a virtual background and the video was a 30-minute loop that mainly was just their empty entryway but occasionally had them walking through the frame and opening doors. So it was like they had evil twins appearing from time to time. That made all of us laugh so much. Other people used other still images for virtual backgrounds. And one person made Chris and Marie’s house their background and that made us all smile. Some people even did outfit/costume changes from time to time, which was something special and unique with doing a virtual party. And of course, everyone who had a dog showed them off at some point. That was one of my favorite things.

There were a few moments when I felt sad because I really wanted to be with my friends in real life and not just seeing them on a screen. I was a little frustrated by seeing so many people around the country not keeping a distance from others and wishing that I could do the same. I don’t know if the people doing that don’t worry about this virus or where they live there are no cases. But in LA, there is no way I can believe that being around others would be ok right now. And I know that eventually, I will be with my friends again and the only way to keep us all healthy is to stay apart for now.

But even with the rare moments of sadness, for the most part this was an amazing way to try to spend time with some of the people I love. I would have been more upset if I hadn’t seen them at all. And we were all talking about how amazing it will be when we have our epic in-person reunion (we are all hoping we can do that for Halloween, but it will depend on a lot). Seeing friends virtually isn’t as great as being together in person, but it is so much better than not seeing them at all. And we all know how lucky we are that we were able to do this at all. To go through this pandemic without the internet would have been so much worse. But we can do virtual things like this and stay connected while having to be apart.

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Tagged BBQ, friends, hangout, isolation, party, virtual

A Friend-Filled Fourth (or Just Enjoying Being Around Awesome People)

Posted on July 6, 2018 | 1 comment

As you might have been able to tell from my post on the 4th of July, I was having some mixed feelings about celebrating. A lot of people I knew felt the same way and I think many people had the same conflicting feeling about what they should do and what would feel almost disrespectful. Even though I had that feeling, my friends were hosting their 4th of July BBQ on the 4th (instead of doing it the weekend before) and I knew I’d be going there for sure.

I arrived right after the party started and there were a few people there. We were all sitting in the shade since it was hot and we all were having the same feelings. In a way, it helped to be around people who were feeling the same since I didn’t have to feel like a total downer for not being in a celebratory mood. While we did try to not talk politics too much, it did come up and we were trying to keep the conversation more toward actions steps we can take and not just complaining about the situation.

Once more people showed up, the party started to be more social and more like all the other parties they throw. There was a ton of food (I made Drunk Fruit again) and the BBQ was going with hot dogs, veggie dogs, and corn on the cob. It was a good classic summer BBQ and that’s exactly what I needed to have in my life, even if I was hesitant about being in a celebratory mood.

And of course, I had to get my friends together for our traditional photo. 4 years ago we took a photo while running through the sprinklers. Even though the sprinklers haven’t been on since that party, we have recreated that photo every year. We did 2 runs through the lawn just being silly and ridiculous, and we got some really great photos like this one.

But I went with a different photo that fit a bit better into the collage I was making to celebrate 5 years of taking this photo.

It’s a silly thing that we do, but I think all 4 of us agree that this photo is something that makes us happy. After I make the collage I show the others and I can tell that seeing all the photos together over the years makes them smile as much as I do. We’ve all agreed that this tradition can’t end anytime soon and we want to make it at least to 10 years of photos. We are halfway there already!

I spent most of the party trying to move around and talk to as many of my friends there as possible. Since I don’t see many of them outside of these parties, I want to take advantage of the time I do have with them. And I think that’s how everyone else feels too. The time at the parties always feels special and a bit precious because it’s a time we are all together and can just relax around each other. For me, celebrating the holidays I celebrate at these parties is all about the people I get to be around. It’s the most important thing to me and I’m glad I have so many amazing people to be with on these days.

The entire day people had been setting off fireworks, but you can’t see anything until it gets dark (I don’t understand why people are setting them off at 11am). Once the sun went down, we started noticing the various fireworks shows that were happening all around us. You could look almost any direction and see fireworks in the sky. Several people went up on the roof, but I stuck with being on the ground this year.

One day I’ll learn how to take better pictures of fireworks, but until then I am grateful to friends who can take awesome photos and are willing to let me use them on here.

I ended up staying at the party later than I was planning on doing. When I was trying to say goodbye to people, I just kept getting into more intense conversations and it took me about 45 minutes from the time I said I was going to leave until I was walking out to my car. But that’s ok. I was still out of there at a decent time before too many people were leaving parties and being on the road. And I was home a bit later than I would have liked, but I still got enough sleep before having to get up for work the next morning.

The next party with my friends should be toward the end of the summer and I know that there is a chance I won’t get to see many of these friends until then. As much as we all want to see each other more often, between living far apart (by LA standards since in rush hour some of these friends live 2.5 hours from me) and all having busy lives, we know that it’s not necessarily going to happen. But that’s what makes these parties so important and special to me. This is a time that we set aside in our crazy schedules to come together and have fun. This isn’t something that everyone gets to experience and I’m so lucky that I have a group like these friends who appreciate it as much as I do.

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Tagged 4th of July, BBQ, fireworks, friends, party, summer

4th Of July On The 1st (or Another Awesome Party With Friends)

Posted on July 6, 2017 | 1 comment

With 4th of July being on a Tuesday this year, I was pretty sure that the party I usually go to for the 4th wasn’t going to be on Tuesday. I wasn’t sure what day it would be, but when I found out it was on Saturday I wasn’t surprised. So Marie and Chris decided to make their party Celebrate the 4th on the 1st and it was perfect!

The party started in the last afternoon which worked out really well for me. I had the goal setting workshop until about 2pm and went to the party pretty soon after everyone left the workshop. I had every intention of making Drunk Fruit like I have in the past, but that didn’t end up happening this year. I don’t know what happened, but before I knew it it was Friday night and I hadn’t gotten any of the stuff I would need to make it. I felt bad that I didn’t bring it, but I did bring some sparkling lemonade so I wasn’t totally empty handed when I arrived (although not bringing anything is ok too).

It was the usual crowd at the party and that was exactly what I was hoping for. I had missed the Memorial Day party so I hadn’t seen a lot of people since the Oscars party. Even though I had told many people about my tumors shrinking, most of them hadn’t seen me since I got the news. So a lot of people wanted to hear the entire story and know more about what the plan is now. I wish I had more to say about the plan besides we are waiting for another MRI in the fall, but I think everyone was just happy that I didn’t have to have surgery back in April and that things are looking positive for me.

Most of the time I was at the party, I was just socializing and hanging out with everyone. I did get some food since it was a BBQ and there is always amazing food there. I tried not to think too much about how much I was eating because I didn’t want to stress out about it. But I know I did overeat a bit (I felt it the next day) but since it was a rare occasion I tried to be ok with that.

A lot of the socializing was about online dating since I’m not the only person having random adventures because of it. Everyone seems to think I have the craziest stories, but I think everyone else has some epic ones too. And we were showing off the random people we’ve been matching with on various apps and doing some swiping together as a group on each other’s profiles. It’s nice to know that my friends are having the same experiences as me on online dating since sometimes it makes me wonder if I’m doing something wrong. But clearly it’s not just me.

But the one thing I had to make sure to do while I was at the party was the traditional photo that I take with some of my friends. It all started a few years ago when we ran through the sprinklers and we’ve recreated the photo each year since. We haven’t had the sprinklers on for the other years, but I think having to pretend is what makes the photo so funny. This year, one member of our group was out-of-town so we couldn’t have the exact same photo. But we left a space for her and I think our photo looks pretty amazing!

And I think that the photo looks pretty great in the series that we’ve got going so far.

I love that we’ve been able to keep this tradition up and I know we are all looking forward to adding more and more photos each year.

Since it was a few days before the 4th, we didn’t really expect too much as far as fireworks go. There were some random fireworks from time to time, but nothing like we’ve seen in the past. Some people did go up on the roof to watch, but I was wearing shoes that would not have been safe to go up a ladder in. So I stuck with staying on the ground and I didn’t really see any of the few fireworks that went off. But that was ok since I was planning on going to see fireworks another time.

I stayed at the party pretty late (at least pretty late for me) and was starting to feel tired so I knew I needed to head home. It’s not a horrible drive home, but it’s not the closest place and I know that sometimes there are sobriety checkpoints on the way home. So I wanted to leave at a decent hour. But I was at the party for long enough to get to see all my friends and have a great time. There’s nothing more that I could ask for at a party.

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Tagged 4th of July, BBQ, friends, party

4th Of July Weekend (or An Early Holiday)

Posted on July 6, 2016 | Comments Off

With the 4th of July falling on a Monday this year, things were a bit different from normal for me. Since I have Mondays off in a normal work week, I didn’t get any extra time off for the holiday (that’s going to happen again at Christmas and New Years too). And since most of my friends had Monday off for the holiday, the big party ended up being on Sunday night so everyone could take their day off to recover.

So I headed over to Chris and Marie‘s house on Sunday night for their annual BBQ party. I made Drunk Fruit again since it was such a big hit last time and I bought extra fruit so we could have some regular cut up fruit too (this was before I realized that 4 of us would be bringing watermelon to the party).

Drunk Fruit

As with all of the parties that Chris and Marie throw, this was a fun but low-key party. It was actually one of the biggest parties I can remember them having, so it was a lot of people in the backyard eating a lot of good food and just being silly. And even though it wasn’t the 4th, there were a couple of people around the neighborhood shooting off (illegal) fireworks so we didn’t miss those. I didn’t go up on the roof this year to watch the fireworks, but I could see them pretty decently from the ground in the backyard.

And since we started a tradition a few years ago with a couple of us running through the sprinklers, we had to do that again this year. Technically, only the first time we took the photo (2 years ago) we were running through the sprinklers. Now we pretend that the sprinklers are on but the photos are now a tradition that we have to keep up. And the photo looked pretty amazing this year!

Sprinklers Photo

I just love how the first year we were just running through the sprinklers, last year we were almost making fun of ourselves, and this year we were making fun of making fun of ourselves.

3 Years

I can’t imagine how crazy the next year’s photo will be! And because everyone had to watch us take the photo, a few others wanted to join in on the fun so we got a slightly larger group to be in another pretend sprinkler photo.

Big Group

I stayed at the party until about 10:30pm and then headed back home. I’m sure everyone else was staying up late and continuing the party, but since I knew I had stuff to do the next morning I didn’t want to be out too late.

On the 4th, I actually had a pretty low-key day. I went to my workout and then I spent a bit of time with my friend Dea. She’s been getting a lot of donations to replace what she lost in the fire and I went over to help sort things and get them organized. It was amazing to see how many things people have given to her and I know that as soon as she finds a new home to rent she will be set up really quickly.

After helping out, I drove home and thought about going out to see the fireworks somewhere. I texted a bunch of friends, but people either already had plans or weren’t going to go out. After a while, I decided that I didn’t feel like going out and spending money to see fireworks somewhere. So I ended up spending the night home watching silly movies on Netflix and listening to some crazy neighbors set off fireworks down the block (they sounded so close that I could feel my house shake sometimes).

Overall, I think this was a pretty awesome 4th of July weekend. I got to hang out with my friends and be at a BBQ and I got to be lazy and relax around my house. I don’t know what more I could have wanted out of my weekend because this really was the perfect combination of everything I wanted to do.

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Tagged 4th of July, BBQ, fireworks, friends, party, summer

Pre-Memorial Day BBQ (or Making Drunk Fruit)

Posted on May 31, 2016 | 2 comments

This past weekend, my friends Marie and Chris hosted their Memorial Day party. It was actually on Sunday (so everyone with Monday off could sleep in after being at the party late) but since Mondays are always my day off not matter what, that worked for me.

I had made drunk fruit for 4th of July last year, but made a big mistake in making it. I forgot the margarita mix and all the liquid the fruit soaked in was tequila. So the fruit was a bit too strong then for some people. This year, I decided to find margarita mix that already had the tequila in it, so I couldn’t repeat the mistake. Fortunately, I found some at the grocery store when I went to find watermelon and strawberries so my dish for the party was easy enough to make.

Drunk Fruit

I had leftover margarita mix, so I brought that with me too. And I had drained the margarita mix the fruit was soaking with and that was another drink for the party (that ended up being one of the most delicious drinks!). And since I wanted any kids at the party to be able to enjoy the fruit too, I had some “sober” fruit with me as well.

The party was a pretty classic Marie and Chris party. Most of us were hanging out in the backyard just having fun chatting and being silly. Some people were playing ping-pong or board games, but I pretty much stuck outside talking to my friends who I hadn’t seen since the last Marie and Chris party.

I really enjoyed myself. I did eat a bit too much (and felt that the next morning), but there was so much good food! Of course there were hamburgers and hot dogs but there was also macaroni salad, veggies, grilled corn, banana bread, and chips and dips. I’ve been good with my food lately and I know that sometimes you just can’t focus on eating the right things or the right portions. Hopefully with eating ok the rest of this week I will get back on the track I was with my food. I didn’t end up drinking, but I’m not a huge drinker so having water was perfectly fine with me.

Most of the time I was just hanging out at a table outside chatting with my friends. We got into some really intense debates about politics and healthcare, but it’s because we are such great friends that we can have heated debates and still be cool with each other afterward. And I love that we are all passionate about what we were debating about and everyone was respecting other’s viewpoints even if they differed from their own. That’s a rarity these days so I know how lucky we are that we can have those discussions.

And of course we talked theme parks too. I want to go back to Universal Studios before my pass is blacked out for the summer, so we were trying to figure out when we might be able to do that. And my friend Caroline and I are overdue for another Disneyland adventure so we were trying to compare calendars to figure out when we could both go. I think we are going to be able to make it sometime this summer, but it might have to wait until the fall because we both don’t want to deal with the summer crowds when kids are out of school. I’ve got a bit of time before my Disneyland pass is blacked out too, so I’m hoping we can make it to the parks soon for another fun afternoon!

The thing I love about these parties the most is just the love that is there. I’ve known a lot of those friends since I was 18 so I have known them close to half of my life now. I joke with Marie that she is my college buddy because I was in college when I met her (she loves that because it’s just silly). They’ve all seen me grow up, and I’ve seen many of them get married and have babies (there were so many babies at the party!). I know that I deserve to have friends like this, but sometimes I just have to sit back and be so grateful that they became my friends when I was an annoying underage kid at the theater we all performed at. Most people in their 20’s and 30’s don’t want to befriend an 18-year-old (especially since after shows they loved to hang out at bars and I was underage). But I just happened to get in with the right people who didn’t care that I was the baby of the group.

I stayed at this party later than I do for most of the parties, but I did have to get home early enough since I had my workout the next morning. I think I left around 11pm, so the first part of the party was winding down by then. But the second half of the party that is a lot of the karaoke and jam sessions hadn’t started yet (I’m pretty much never there for that part of the party). But I was there for about 7 hours, so I felt like I had a lot of quality time with my friends and I’m excited for the other upcoming summer parties! I think there might be one each month this summer!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged BBQ, friends, party

Some Disneyland Goodbyes (or Animation, Rides, and BBQ)

Posted on January 7, 2016 | 1 comment

I went to Disneyland this past Monday with my friend June. She and I had this trip planned since our last Disneyland trip because we had a very specific mission. A bunch of things will be closing down starting on the 11th for the construction for the new Star Wars land. Many things are only closing temporarily, but some are closing forever. So we wanted to make our round of goodbyes to some of our Disneyland favorites.

We got to Disneyland around noon and started our day over at California Adventure. We had planned on riding Radiator Springs Racers, but as soon as we got in line the ride broke down. We didn’t really feel like waiting to see how long it would take to reopen, so we headed over to the Animation Academy for some drawing fun. I don’t know if I’ve actually ever done the Animation Academy at California Adventure before (I did it at Disneyworld when I went a long time ago), so I was excited to check it out. We were drawing Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. And I did try my best to draw her, but clearly I have issues drawing circles. June was able to do a pretty great drawing!

Animation Academy

After that, we headed over to Disneyland for what we considered the main event of our trip. We went to the Big Thunder Ranch to get all you can eat BBQ!

Big Thunder Ranch

I’ve actually never been to the BBQ and sadly it’s closing on the 11th because it’s turning into Star Wars Land. June and I tried to go the last time we were at Disneyland, but we couldn’t get a reservation. So we made this one a few weeks in advance and planned our trip around it. It was really good and I’m sad that this trip was my first and last time getting to go. I loved the coleslaw (it was vinegar based) and the cornbread. And the BBQ ribs were messy and yummy.

BBQ

When we were done eating, we made our rounds through Big Thunder Ranch to say our goodbyes. We went over to the petting zoo and said goodbye to the donkeys and goats. All of the animals have been adopted already so we wished them the best in their new homes. I’m sure as a kid my parents took me to the petting zoo at Disneyland, but as an adult I really never went in there.

While we were saying our goodbyes to the goats (a lot of people were doing that and it was really crowded), we saw Pluto and how upset he is that the Big Thunder Ranch was closing.

Sad Pluto

All of Big Thunder Ranch is closing permanently and I think that we spent a decent amount of time admiring what we sadly did not take advantage of for many years. And hopefully Star Wars Land will have some sort of reminder of Big Thunder Ranch inside (many rides that take over other rides have Easter Eggs that are about the original ride).

Goodbye Big Thunder Ranch

After our big lunch, we went over to ride the Haunted Mansion. First, we didn’t want to do an extreme ride on a full stomach and second because we were inspired by drawing Sally earlier in California Adventure. It’s probably the last time I’ll be in the parks before Haunted Mansion changes back from the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay, so it was nice to see that one more time before it goes back to the normal Haunted Mansion.

Next on our list was to ride the train around. The Disneyland Railroad will be closed for at least a year to be rerouted during construction, and I really do love the train. We rode around the entire loop to check out the view and see the Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas and animatronics. I’m sad that I won’t be able to see those things again for a while and I’m going to miss having the railroad to use as transportation on busy days.

Next on our list was to ride Star Tours. This isn’t going away, but it was the first time I got to ride the ride since seeing the new Star Wars movie! I heard that they had added things to the ride that are from the new movie, and we got to go to Jakku as our first location on the ride and BB-8 was the hologram that appeared in the middle of the ride offering help. That was pretty awesome.

After the Star Tours ride, we decided that we should head over to Innovations where there are some Star Wars photo setups. The lines were too long so we took advantage of both Star Wars photos and the one Avengers one that was still open.

Character Photos

And since we have no idea how long the Hyperspace Mountain overlay will be at Space Mountain (I hope for a long time because I love it!), we rode it again. The ride is so wonderful with the overlay and the new effects that were added for it. We sat in the front row and it felt so fast that for a bit I couldn’t ride with my hands in the air. We tried to do a cute pose, but I almost had a quick wardrobe malfunction so I wasn’t quite into the pose when the photo was taken.

Hyperspace Mountain

By this point, we had been at Disneyland for a long time. But we had 2 more stops to make. First was to ride the Jingle Cruise, which is the holiday overlay for the Jungle Cruise. I had never seen the overlay before and it was really cool at nighttime with a bunch of lights strung around the ride. The jokes were as corny as always, but it was fun to see what they changed for the overlay.

And no trip to Disneyland is complete for me without a Dole Whip. So right after the Jingle Cruise, we got a Dole Whip and enjoyed it right next to the Enchanted Tiki Room.

Dole Whip

It really was a full day at Disneyland. There wasn’t really anything that we missed that we wanted to go on. I would have like to have taken the boat around the Rivers of America because that will also be closed for a year or so, but between riding the train around plus walking all over we got to see a lot of the river.

I know I’ll be at Disneyland again in February and I need to go to the parks soon to renew my pass (I might do a quick trip into the parks when I go to do my renewal). But I don’t think I’ll be there again before things closed down or go back from their holiday overlay so I’m glad that June and I were able to make it on Monday.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged BBQ, California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, friends, lunch, photos, theme park

A Game Filled Party (or Being Competitive With My Friends)

Posted on May 26, 2015 | Comments Off

I’ve written before about the epic parties that Marie and Chris throw all the time. Honestly, their parties are probably my most favorite ones to go to. They are amazing hosts, everyone brings great food, there are wonderful friends, and I always leave wishing I could stay longer.

For Memorial Day weekend, they didn’t do a party on Memorial Day (because everyone would have to work the next morning), but instead did a party on Sunday. And this time the party theme was “Game Day”.

When I got there, the entire backyard was filled with every type of game out there.

Besides board games, there was ping-pong and other larger games set up as well.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to play games. I was there for the good company and good food. But of course Chris was a good host and wrangled me into a game quickly.

I’m not sure what the game was called, but it was a mix of Charades and Pictionary but we were all working on the same team against the clock. We played 2 rounds. The first round wasn’t so great, but we finally got it figured out and we won the second round.

There were so many people playing different games and I kind of just wandered around to watch everyone else play. It was fun, but since we are all so competitive the games were pretty intense.

Since Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, there was also some hot dogs and other BBQ style foods. And of course lots of good drinks (but I stuck to water since I knew I’d have a morning workout the next day).

After the sun went down, we decided to play an epic all group game. It was called Time’s Up and we played in 2 teams with half of the party in each team.

Time’s Up is similar to Charades. You have 30 seconds to get your team to guess what the word or title is on your card. After one is guessed, you keep going until the timer runs out. Then the other team goes. You keep the cards your team gets right until all the cards have been guessed.

Then the next round, you go through the same cards again but the clue givers can only say 1 word and your team can only give 1 guess before you move on to the next card. It was good that we had some of the previous answers memorized.

The last round you can’t use any words, just gestures, and your team still only has 1 guess per card.

It got pretty crazy. I chose to only guess and not be one of the clue givers, and I did ok with guessing the cards. I was able to get quite a few in the second and third round (not so much in the first round when I didn’t know what the answers already were).

My team ended up losing (we were 4 point behind in round 1, and tied in rounds 2 and 3), but it was a really great time.

After that game, it was time for me to head home so I could get a decent night sleep. It does suck sometimes that I don’t live that close to Marie and Chris so I have to leave earlier to drive home. And if I had planned things better I wouldn’t have scheduled an early workout the next morning so I could have stayed a bit longer. But for the time I was able to be there, it was a really amazing party and a great way to kick off summer (even though it was actually pretty chilly).

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Tagged BBQ, friends, party

4th Of July (or Hot Dogs, Fireworks, And Rooftops)

Posted on July 8, 2014 | 1 comment

I spent my afternoon and evening of 4th of July over at my friends Chris and Marie‘s house. They really do throw the best parties and this was the first time I’d be over there for 4th of July.

I’m always a little wary about driving on 4th of July (or any holiday where there is a lot of drinking) so I tried to time my drives for when there wouldn’t be a ton of traffic. So I headed over there around 5pm and got to their house pretty quickly.

Everyone was hanging out in the backyard and just relaxing and catching up. Definitely my type of party (I’m not a fan of crazy parties). After being there for a while, the sprinklers came on in the backyard. Marie and Chris just got new grass for their yard and they had to water it a lot so the grass would grow properly.

Since it was pretty hot out, I decided that I wanted to run through the sprinklers. I wasn’t really wearing the best outfit for that (I wore jeans), but I didn’t care. And I didn’t want to run through the sprinklers alone, so I decided to recruit some other people to join in.

Marie was the first person to say yes, and then 2 other party goers saw what we were going to do and they took off their shoes to join us.

I have to admit, even though I didn’t like that my jeans got soaking wet, running through the sprinklers was pretty awesome and a perfect activity for the party.

After the sprinkler adventure, Chris got the grill fired up and started taking orders for hot dogs. Ordering was necessary because he and Marie and gotten 7 or 8 different types of hot dogs for the party! I wish I had taken a picture of the sign they made because they gave all the hot dogs really clever names.

I ordered a cheddar dog mainly because I had never had one before and it sounded good. And it was! Sadly, no photos were taken of the food because I was too busy eating it (I was hungry after my workout earlier that day).

We all spent time just relaxing and enjoying each other’s company while waiting for the sun to set. Even though having fireworks is illegal in Los Angeles County (unless it is a professional show), Marie and Chris said that last year plenty of people near their house set off fireworks.

So once the sun was down, a bunch of us climbed a ladder to hang out on the roof of their house to watch the fireworks. And since they were being set off so close to us, the fireworks were huge in the sky!

We were up there for a while until someone complained that they were just hit by a piece of fireworks shrapnel. We didn’t know what had happened until we used the lights from our phones to look on the roof. We found a marble sized hard ball that must have been part of one of the fireworks (maybe it held some sort of propellant to make the fireworks go into the sky?).

After that, we all got a little nervous about being on the roof, so we headed down to watch the rest of the fireworks safely in the backyard (where I guess technically something could still hit us but we had the overhang from the roof to protect us).

I hung out at the party until about 11pm. I had figured that 11pm was a pretty safe time to leave. People who went to firework shows had already left and bars were still open so a lot of people were hanging out there. Thankfully, my plan worked and not only did I get home safely, I got home very quickly as there was no traffic on the freeways.

Even though this was a pretty low-key 4th of July, it was really a perfect way to spend a day off. I was around great friends, great food, and great conversation. What more could you want?

1 Comment

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged 4th of July, BBQ, fireworks, holidays, party

First Weekend Of Freedom (or Looking Back Before Moving Forward)

Posted on September 23, 2013 | 2 comments

I’ve officially had my first days of unemployment, and I really am keeping busy!

On Friday, as soon as my work shift was done, I raced home to file for unemployment online. The sooner I get it in, the sooner it can be accepted (and I can stress a little less about paying my bills).

After that, I headed over to my friend Kate’s house for dinner. She’s dating a guy who lives in Colorado and had a couple of people over to have dinner and meet him. It was a fun group of people and we stayed pretty late chatting about lots of random things.

On Saturday, I helped out my friend Jennifer with some computer stuff for a couple of hours. Then I headed to Hollywood and the Directors Guild of America for a SAG-AFTRA Film Society screening. The film that was showing that evening was “Rush”. It was a pretty good movie. I have no interest in race cars so the beginning was a bit slow for me, but I really enjoyed the second half.

That evening, I relaxed at home catching up on my DVR (it’s fall tv season after all!). I was up pretty late and at 12:44am, I got a text message from my agents that I had an audition for Monday! Yay! I love that I’m starting unemployment with an audition! I also love the fact that my agents work so incredibly hard for their actors even if it’s late or a weekend!

Sunday was another busy day. I started out going to the LMU Alumni BBQ. I’ve been going to this for the past few years and it’s always been fun. I don’t really have any friends from college that live in the LA area anymore, so I was solo for the event. But it didn’t stop me from having fun!

It was a perfect day! With your admission you get food and drink tickets. I got a hot dog and a frozen margarita with a couple of my tickets. After eating, I decided to do a little walk around LMU.

This is my freshman dorm, Doheny. This was officially my first home when I moved to LA. When I lived there, it was all girls. Now it’s co-ed. My room was the last room on the left on the second floor, so I had an amazing view of the fountain from my room.

I also stopped by Foley, the theater arts building. Most of the theater classes I took were in this building, so it was like a second home to me.

I also stopped by the bookstore and got a hat that I wanted (no photo yet).

I left the BBQ a bit on the early side because I had to do a last-minute shopping trip for an outfit for my audition. The audition specifically requested a pink dress, and that’s something I don’t own. Fortunately, I was able to find something for about $20. It’s not something I’d wear normally, but it will be a good audition outfit for the future.

And finally on Sunday, I watched and live-tweeted the Emmys. There were several surprise winners which was nice to see. Overall, I didn’t love this particular awards show. There is such an expectation with Neil Patrick Harris hosting and I don’t think this lived up to any of the times he hosted the Tonys.

For a weekend, I sure got a lot of stuff done! And I have a lot of stuff planned for this week as well!

2 Comments

Posted in Acting, Food, Fun Stuff, Shopping, Work

Tagged audition, BBQ, Emmys, Loyola Marymount, shopping, unemployment

4th Of July Recap (or It Was All About Vine Videos and Fireworks)

Posted on July 5, 2013 | Comments Off

I had a pretty amazing day yesterday. And considering that 48 hours before I had no idea what I would be doing, I’d say I made some awesome plans.

My day started in spin class. I ended up going much earlier than I wanted to, but in all the later classes the bike I wanted was already reserved. It was an instructor that I hadn’t had before. His class was tough, but it wasn’t totally my style. I think I might try to stick with some of my favorites if I can.

After I got home from class, I had some free time so I just relaxed at home. I did some cleaning, I watched some tv, and I read a book. Then it was time for me to head over to Studio City for the 4th of July event there.

It was held at the CBS Radford lot, which I’ve been to before for a couple of auditions. But I’ve never really spent a ton of time on the lot wandering around. So this was my chance to do so.

I met up with my friend Robert there. The first thing we did was walk all around the lot. Most of the lot are soundstages, but there is one New York style street there.

I’ll come back to our adventure on that street in a minute.

A few soundstages had events going on inside. We sat down at one stage that had a bunch of model airplanes to check out the program for the day (and we wanted to enjoy the air conditioning). We realized that there was a magic show being done by The Magic Castle! So we headed over there and got front row seats for the show. It was a pretty great show! There were two magicians performing and they had some fun tricks (they kept it family friendly since there were so many kids there).

Next, Robert and I got some dinner. There was a huge line at the food court area, so we headed to the back of the lot where there was BBQ.

You ordered your food and then waited for your name to be called by a very entertaining guy (he kept cheering and high fiving people when they picked up their food).

After enjoying a nice tri-tip sandwich, we headed back over to the New York street. We wanted to shoot some video back there, and Robert decided (or maybe I convinced him) to download the Vine app. If you don’t know what Vine is, it is a like a video tweet. You get to make a 6 second video on your phone. You hold your finger to the screen when you want to film, and take it away when you don’t (so you edit your video inside the app). We took some pretty funny videos of us being crazy actors on a backlot.

After our video fun, it was time to claim our spot for the fireworks. For those of us who didn’t get $100 tickets (mine was $20), we had to claim a spot on the ground near the parking structure. Those who had expensive tickets had seats on the roof of the parking structure.

While we waited for the fireworks to start, Robert and I decided to take some fun photos (since there wasn’t enough lighting to do another Vine video).

(I feel like I look like I only have one front tooth in that bottom picture. As you can see from all my other photos, I have all my teeth.)

Finally, the fireworks started and we had an amazing viewpoint!

After the fireworks ended, Robert and I waited about 20 minutes for the crowd to clear out of the parking structure before we headed back to our cars. And since we waited, I had almost no trouble getting out of there and getting home!

All in all, I had a pretty amazing day. It’s so nice to get to go out and enjoy a holiday with a friend (and on a backlot which is one of my favorite places to be). I hope that you all had as great of a day yesterday as I did! Now it’s time to go back to reality.

Comments Off on 4th Of July Recap (or It Was All About Vine Videos and Fireworks)

Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged 4th of July, acting, BBQ, fireworks, Studio City

Tag Archives: BBQ

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