who you know.

L to R: Joey, Kara, me, Carly and Kevin

It's not about what you know in life... it's who you know that really helps you get by... and I know a friend of a friend who holds season tickets to the LA Kings! The view from the 9th row was dramatically different from last week's seats when Jess was here where she, Paige and I saved money by buying nosebleeds to afford to go to a nice sushi dinner before the game and to afford drinking hazelnut beers during the game... we had a lot of fun up high in the rafters with a rugby team from Vancouver but tonight, Joey (a good friend from high school that works at a very swirly golf course out here and therefore has a lot of connections to swirly people and their swirly lifestyles!) hooked us up with 6 seats nine rows up from the ice... it was fabulous! Aside from the fact that I still have never made it for a puck drop, only recently have learned that frosting and icing are not interchangeable terms like they are in baking, will probably always cringe at the first sign of a fight (even though I don't personally know any of the players) and will never understand how the guys know when their line is supposed to be on the ice (or how they dress themselves in those uniforms!) ... besides, it's not what you know that counts anyways... I've really come to love the game of hockey! =) btw... Auntie Paul, you'll be happy to know your adorable t-shirts were advertised on the big screen at the game tonight!! =)

happy endings.

After Carly's season finale tonight, the trio headed to Toi for some tasty Thai food. Afterwards, we met up with my friend from work at a very popular bar down the street in Hollywood called Happy Endings. The place is always packed; a great bar with an awesome dj spinning an eclectic mix of music (Kate Walsh and the entire Private Practice cast were there celebrating a birthday!) when a guy started talking to me... that was the first guy I have met in LA that didn't instantly annoy me. He wasn't a short guy with a pretty face and all too big ego to make up for his lack in height. He didn't assume I was an aspiring actress and his jaw didn't even hit the floor in disbelief processing the concept that I could actually be "a real nurse". He wasn't using his monologue to pick me up and he didn't hand me his head shot to remember him by (okay, no one's actually done that but every hipster does seem to never be able to get out character). I could tell he was from the East Coast because he was wearing a collared Polo and had (yet) not fallen to the trendy demise of tacky t-shirts that could just as easily be a tattoo. And to top it off  he was from Winnipeg. He seemed pretty alright. Until... as Carly is simultaneously texting me from the bar down the street "I have never been hit on more in my entire life! I hate single life!" (we are not used to being out without each other to rescue one another from awkward hit-ons or save us from forced dancing!)... I made the mistake of asking him what brought him to the States... "School." "Oh, where at?" "Cornell." "Really? I had friends that played hockey there." "Get out, I played hockey there!?" The conversation started going downhill real fast when he proceeded to tell me that not only did he grow up in Manitoba, move to Cornell to play hockey but he was now on the West Coast applying to med schools to obtain a 4-year degree in health. Fuck me. Thankfully, it was last call as I have never had a fairy tale fade so fast. So much for my happy ending. 

what lies beneath.

I'm on a mission to uncover what lies beneath.

the strand.

Kara, Kelley and I went down to Hermosa Beach today and rented beach cruisers where we spent the entire afternoon leisurely riding along the Strand, which is a path that runs through all the beach towns along the Pacific Coast and is filled with runners, skate boarders, cyclists and even rollerbladers. It was incredibly relaxing (if you have the capability of letting go). We biked over twenty miles up to Venice Beach (and back) where we took in the cultural diversity mixed amongst the masses of dogs and aroma of marijuana, soaked up the sun by the piers and stopped at the cutest fisherman's village to enjoy live raggae music.   

nobody but me.

i stare at your photograph. still sleep in the shirt you left. nobody knows it but me.

the big sleep.

Today, our book-to-movie club met for our review of Raymond Chandler's A Big Sleep. Set in LA, it was exciting to read a murder mystery where the high speed chases are on roads that I drive on everyday! I fell in love with Phillip Marlowe's character and as Lindsay so perfectly put it, Marlowe really set the stereotype for detectives to be witty and cynical in all spy stories to come. My first experience with classic films, I was really glad I had read the book first so I was engaged from the very first black-and-white scene... something that normally isn't my cup of tea. Humphrey Bogart's perfect execution of Marlowe's charming yet ruthless character was phenom and a complete surprise ending, the love story that unveiled between Bogart and Bacall was timeless.  A definite must-read! =) Afterwards, we did some "s.p.i."ing of our own and gathered to discuss different schools of philosophical thoughts... 

vicarious.

Kara volunteering with her grad school class... good luck with your finals this week... see you Wednesday!!! =)

Little Lily ...so precocious. I can't wait to meet you this summer!

Save-the-dates: The future Mr. & Mrs. Lucas Wedding plans are coming along fabulously!!

Graduating from the NICU a month before her due date, Baby Kylie is growing so much... good luck Katie with your move to New Mexico to be with Daddy Dustin. 

Because I am nowhere near the point of settling down... I've come to accept that it's virtually impossible to do so while residing in LA which can more easily be compared to some sort of wicked extended vacation than any element of adulthood... I have been living vicariously through all the wonderful people in my life that have started to by meeting the one, having healthy babies, obtaining a graduate degree, buying a house, tying the knot...  all these fabulous milestones they are lucky enough to have reached long before I do... but I absolutely fully intend to one day! I dream of the day that I have sleepless nights because of a newborn baby (and not from living in a city that never sleeps), long to be sitting in class doing a crossword, I mean taking notes about becoming a neonatal nurse practitioner (for now, my SPI club homework will suffice) and are super envious of love struck couples sharing a life together (although I love living with Carly!), I'm just not quite ready to grow up yet. Getting to relish in their happiness helps me fight the urge to go back to school (must learn the basics before I return to grad school to master the advance practices), contain the burning desire to meet my true companion (I hope by not looking for him I magically run into him in the grocery store), patiently wait to be a mom (the one thing I feel I am destined to be the most!) and resist the yearning to plan a wedding... 

metro station.

When Jess and I tried to avoid traffic to get to the Staples Center downtown to go the Kings game Monday night, we decided to try out the metro. Always somewhat afraid of public transportation (as the only p.t. I grew up with was a trolley that took you to the beach) it was super scary at first... it smelled kind of funny, I have no form of self-defense... but now I am obsessed with this eco-friendly way of travelling!! I just hop on the train, read the latest NY Times Bestseller (the metro ticket makes the perfect bookmark) and people watch and take in all the interesting folks public transportation attracts. The metro station is within walking distance of my apt and it only takes 3 stops underground to get to work which takes approximately eleven minutes.... sometimes it would take me eleven minutes just to get on the highway to drive 6 miles to work. My colleagues have started calling me RN-E (Registered Nurse-Environmentalist!) for all the silly ways I try to single-handedly save the Earth. When riding the metro, I was reminded of a picture I took of Jordan in NYC on the subway a couple summers ago ... Who would of thought that while Jord was lost in a sexy spread of the Beckhams, the girl next to him would be reading the biography of our future president?! 

cultural infusion.

One of the many cultural infusions I have discovered in LA is the amount of amazing live music this county possesses and the ultra cool venues these performances are held at! A few weeks ago Carly, Kristy and I attended the album launch party of Mishka, Matthew McConaughey's raggaeton prodigy who has an incredible story to go with his awesome music... that is if you can understand what he is saying. Joe Firstman and Brian Wright of Last Call with Carson Daly's house band (where Carly has returned to working the past couple of months ... this photog is from the tour she gave Jess and I of the NBC studios before getting us VIP seats to Jay Leno last Friday) play random shows all the time in fun venues here, too. While attending one of their shows, I discovered the amazing talent of their opener, Austin Hartley-Leonard... he is phenom! The show has taken a new spin on focusing on unknown artists and I have attended a couple of tapings, one of which was for Robert Francis. Other artists Carly has worked with recently include Robin Thicke, Adelle, Kings of Leon, T.I. and Chris Cornell. My favorite show I've seen in the past couple of months was Josh Kelley on St. Patty's Day where he gave yet another incred performance at Hotel Cafe... and yes, his wife (Katherine Heigl) was in attendance again! But the concert I am most looking forward to is Britney Spears in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand at the end of April!! I highly recommend all of these amaz artists! =)

lost in conversation.

My favorite part of the agenda when Jess was here was the amount of time allotted to just talk ... wake up and chat over a cup of hazelnut coffee (just like in college), stay up all night laughing over a bottle of wine, sing our lungs out on road trips down to orange county, hardly noticing sitting in traffic for hours lost in conversation, exhaust ourselves ruminating while running through the hills or just to be in the company of friends that know you so well you don't have to say anything for them to know exactly what you're thinking... There are so many things that bring me tears when I think about how much I miss having them a part of my life now that we are no longer roommates but I miss our friendly conversations the most.  

starlet.

learn to fly.

I tried to fly once. Little flashes of life streamed through my mind as the serenity that accompanies the feeling of falling sank in deep, almost simultaneously- an outer turbulence. an inner peace. At last, I was free. Falling freely. Free from gravity. Free from constraint. Free from pain. Free from reality.

Where was the logic behind my quantum leap? I'm not too sure I even looked. 

I thrive off definition; I crave concrete. Why wasn't I clinging to the edge of reason? 

Was this the ultimate test of emotional disconnection ... could I let go? Never one able to successfully disengage, this is one lesson I knew I could not pass. I could never entertain apathy; would never want to plunge to a definite death, wreaking of self-satisfaction. In the real reality of it, what I was seeking was just the contrary: the need to feel alive. Feel secure. Feel loved. Feel. 

My attempt to fly was the closest I'd ever come to death in my cosseted upbringing but oddly enough, in this forty-five seconds of my life I had never felt more alive. I was riveted and had failed this assignment... miserably.  

As I plummeted to the ground, this feigned hiatus ended almost as quickly as it had begun. My Houdiniesque escape came to a soaring halt that brought me right back to reality the moment the 'chute was released. It was at that very instant it occurred to me... how would I land without wings? It is not humanly possible. Why had I been so quick to let go initially? If only I had held on to that ledge a little while longer...

Coming down I realized that while I may be set free, removing my restraints would prove to be even more challenging than taking the first jump. I didn't want to hit the ground running but how could I reenter reality without a solid foundation? How was I to attain the asphalt to repair the cracks that would keep me grounded?

 Through purpose. experience. perseverance. laughter. Through growing. learning. enduring. living. Through milestones. mishaps. memories. It will not be a walk in the clouds but it will enable me to land on two unfaltering feet.

Hold tight to the ones you love. Find what makes you feel alive inside. Discover a reason for living. Pursue a passion. Redefine convention. Defy gravity. Learn to fly. 

training of a triathlete.

So, I signed myself up for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon that will take place this fall. The proceeds benefit the Childrens' Hospital and past triathletes that have participated in the race include Matthew McConahey, Jennifer Lopez and my preceptor, Dana. Having a terrible history of leaving Jess' bike in the middle of campus after 8 blocks of near-death bicycle accidents on my way to a final AND quitting lifeguard class after one day for being deathly afraid of diving to the bottom of the pool to retrieve a brick (and of my reflection in a unflattering speedo!), I have exactly 6 months from today to learn to ride a bike and swim without half floating on a raft. I feel confident in the running leg of it but will have to adjust to swimming and biking before I jog. I'm super excited for this new challenge and having my past marathon training partner and motivator (Jess) in town for the weekend, I began training today.... We went for a fabulous tandem bike ride along The Strand from Hermosa to Manhattan Beach.

can't hardly wait.

After working 4 of the last 5 nights, I can't hardly wait for Jess to get here tomorrow for 5 fabulous days!! I've been working hard and now it's time to play hard!! 

idols.

Last Sunday we got together for another enlightening s.p.i. club meeting at a local coffee shop in Burbank. Lindsay, Angie, Carly and I met to discuss not just how our weeks were going (Angie, glad you are feeling better!) but re-occurring current events (the rising amount of middle-class Americans losing their jobs, the number of towns just over the border in Mexico run by drug lords, how much our media offends other countries and whether or not drinking alcohol reduces or increases cancers in women.) From here we endorsed some things we discovered that week that are so fabulous we had to share with others... On a Go Green! kick, I endorsed blackle.com, a search engine powered by Google that uses less energy than websites with a white background (set your home page to this now!). Angie endorsed modern medicine for creating the antibiotics that made her feel better this week. Carly endorsed the horoscopes page and Lindsay endorsed classic films and brought awareness to how appreciation for them is literally dying out. We also introduced a new vocabulary word including spoony, deipnosophist, lassitude and amphibology. Our homework assignment last week was to creatively present our favorite idols. Angie played James Taylor while she shared his story and how he has inspired her. Lindsay read all her favorite quotes said by Oscar Wilde, her favorite writer. I wrote a haiku about Patch Adams, my idol in medicine:

The red nose brings laughs

of mending smiles that cure

like a healing patch.

Carly wrote a creative piece about Diablo Cody, her favorite screenplay writer.

Top 5 Cool Things About Diablo Cody/Reasons It's A Good Thing She is One of A Kind

 If all the strippers ended up Oscar-winning writers, men would have a good excuse to be hitting the topless bar- "Honey, I'm searching for the next great Entertainment Weekly columnist."

If all the people on road trips took on the name of the town they were driving through- everyone in the south would be name Orlando or Key West, everyone in the East would be named Boone and everyone in Arkansas would be named Hope-which is better than Billy Bob.

If all the people sitting in Starbucks writing a screenplay actually completed their screenplays and then went on to get them produced, there would be a lot more emo kids living on Mulholland Drive.

If every former Catholic school girl moved across the country to marry their internet boyfriend who later encouraged them to quit their full-time job and pursue striping, it would not surprise me.

If all of the blogs with the word pussy in the title eventually became best-selling books that eventually launched the career of their author to Hollywood stardom, this town would really be the way everyone who doesn't live here imagines it to be.

*Stay tuned this Sunday when s.p.i. goes to the UCLA vs. GA gymnastics meet and rendezvous in Westwood to discuss different schools of philosophic thought and their own life philosophies!*

boarding in big bear.

When most people working night shift get off at 7am, they sleepily drive home and crawl into bed where they will remain for the entire day ... but not me! I head to the slopes and spend the day boarding!! =) Super sleep deprived and plagued by some sort of stomach flu that left me vomiting between lifts up to the top, I still had a fabulous day at Big Bear Lake... only 2 hours from my apartment near the sunny coast! Powder in the East, sand in the West ... I love LA!

co-habitating habits.

Definitely worth publicly documenting... Carly and I have taken our relationship to the next level... we bought a vacuum together! For those of you already doing the math in your head.. yes, we have lived together for 5 years and are almost common law .. just kidding!! ... yes, we moved into our apartment nearly 6 months ago and have never vacuumed! To make you germaphobes feel a little better about our rather boy-like co-habitating habits... there are only 2 rooms (our bedrooms) that have carpet.. the rest are tile and wood and are cleaned almost weekly with our Swiffer. haha 

tristy & tocey take on tinsel town.

In anticipation for the birthday boy's arrival, Kristy and I spent the few days before he got here doing all the girly things that are "so LA"...

We watched sunsets on every beach from Zuma to Laguna.

We shopped in every beach town on the PCH (Manhattan, Hermosa, Laguna (pictured here), Newport, Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice)

We shared many fabulous epicurean delights including these milkshakes + popcorn from Millions of Milkshakes in West Hollywood.

We embraced the bad weather and hiked through Griffith Park in the rain.

We woke up super early after a late night of pillow talk to volunteer at the kick-off rally for the March of Dimes.

We learned that men really do prefer blondes... it's engraved in cement at Grauman's.

We went out 8 nights in a row... 

We drank draft beer... I mean watched a hockey game.

We went back to the 80's for Steel Panther at Key Club.

We relaxed by the ocean (Hermosa Pier).

it's saturday night...

...which can only mean one thing ... You can find me in Hollywood eating yummy yellow curry with special brown rice at Toi before attending Carly's super amazing sketch show at Sierra Bonita Theatre.