Dreaded Drinks

Last night I was supposed to meet up with the story editor at Rat Entertainment for "drinks." Mostly I dislike meeting for "drinks", often, if the person I'm meeting is male, he'll try to navigate our meeting into a pseudo date, or I realize I just don't have a single thing in common with the person. This requires me to reach deep into my small talk storage to keep the conversation going, and a great deal of energy is expended. So, I was not feeling excited about the eminent drinks with Agustine.
Around 2PM she emailed me, said she just found out she had to run a package down to Brett Ratner, who was shooting a commercial with Taylor Swift. She asked if I wanted to tag along, thinking it might be a fun way to get away from the usual "drinks" and the 2o questions involved. I debated, not sure if I really wanted to commit to driving to Inglewood with someone I've never met. But then, I thought, why not, I definitely don't want to sit in some bar/lounge nursing a diet coke, making small talk. We were to meet at Paramount, where she works, at 6:30PM and I'd ride with her to the set in Inglewood.
As I was about to turn onto the Paramount lot, my phone rang. I recognized the number as a Paramount number and answered thinking it was Agustine. A man's voice answered me, and I wondered who I was calling me. He proceeded to ask me how close I was to the lot and wanted me to call him when I parked so he could come out to meet me. I realized then, that this was Agustine, and Agustine was not a SHE but a HE. It came together for me in that moment, Agustine Calderon--Spanish, and Agustine is a common name for boys in Latin America. Oops. He and I had only emailed up to this point, and I had simply assumed it was a girl.
So I quickly regrouped--I'm riding down to Inglewood with a GUY I've never met. I ask myself how I feel about this, but then realize it doesn't matter, I'm committed. Then I reprimanded myself for only wearing my very skinny, hardly noticeable, wedding band, and not putting on the very large, hard to miss diamond ring. I would just have to be prepared, keep "husband" on the tip of my tongue, ready to use the word to ward off advances at any moment.
It wasn't necessary. I did mention Alex, much later in the evening in the normal context of our conversation. And I felt relieved that I wasn't put into an awkward "oh your married, why am I wasting my time with you" situation.
Once on set, we were ropped into being part of the crowd scene which involved several takes of jumping up and down waving our arms as though being at a Taylor Swift concert was the highlight of our lives. After take four, I was pretty ready to bounce out of there. Not so fortunate though, the scene required seven takes. I'm pretty sure Agustine and I broke some union rules by working for free and not signing a waver to have our images used. But. . .oh well. There were excellent craft services of which I partook freely. So, I decided not to search out the union rep and drop hints.
Overall it was a pretty fun evening. We hung out on set for about an hour or so. I met Bret Ratner, who gave me a flirty eyebrow wiggle and said I was "so mature." I'm taking it as a compliment. . .

Running-The Beginning. . .Again

I've started running again. It's hard, very very hard. And as I'm huffing and puffing along at, what seems to be, a snail's pace, I can't help but think back to days when I could pound out 7 miles with ease and speed. I remember how great it was to run then, how much I loved it, looked forward to it. How powerful I felt knowing my legs and lungs were capable of great distances. I spent a lot of time thinking and day dreaming on those runs.
Now my brain is full of:
. . .okay, just to that corner then i'll stop, okay got to the corner, i can probably make it to the next corner, oh, i hate this song, why is it even on my ipod? does not make me want to keep running--gotta remember to take it off, oh this song sucks too, i need new music! i'm so tired, why is this so freaking hard????

I want to be back to the old days of running. I want to be fast again and be able to call myself a runner. I want it to be fun again.

I got there once, so I can do it again. But why does it have to be so hard???

The Music Video

So, last Saturday Alex and Diego shot a music video for one of their songs, Docle de Leche. I was there all day doing whatever needed to be done. A lot of favors were called in to get everyone together and make this happen and it went really well. So many great people donated their time and many other things.
I met some interesting people that day and although it was fun, I'm sure glad that is not my reality on a regular basis.
Here are just a couple of things that happened:
I've never heard so much talk of dieting in my life! And now I know about every kind of diet out there, so if you ever want to know just ask me. I can tell you about the lemon juice fast, if you want to look just right before a photo shoot ( I have so many of those in my life) don't drink much water the day before or eat a lot of salt. You'll be fabulous and ready for the shoot with all your muscles defined. I know about Atkins and Low Calorie (like 200-500 per day, I think it's known as starvation in other countries), Low Carb, I could go on and on. I was sitting in the kitchen helping prep some things and munching on a bag of sliced zucchini. The girl I was with looked over and saw my zucchini, she asked, "Are you doing raw foods?" (That's another diet, btw, raw foods diet), I was like, "ah, no, these were just about to go bad so I decided to slice them up and eat them. I like vegetables raw, so . . ." She looked at me skeptically, like a person doesn't just eat vegetables raw, crazy. I kept the apple and orange I had in my bag hidden from her and ate them on the sly, lest she think I was lying and trying to keep my diet a secret. I never want to talk about diets again. I ate a bazillion little finger sandwiches and tons of chips and salsa that day, all the talk of starving oneself made me ravenous!
I got to be in the video, my hand at least. And, ya know, that was good enough for me. I just don't have desires to be in front of the camera. Not at all.
Alex was a riot, hamming it up for the camera, I can't wait to watch the footage. There is one shot where Alex and Diego have a girl on each side dancing next to them, singing the chorus of the song, kinda like "in your face" to the guys. The girl dancing with Alex was really sweet and made sure that I was okay with her dancing with my husband. I like that girl. I'm totally not the jealous type and had a great time watching them do the scene, but appreciate her for being sensitive.
There was a belly dancer, she was awesome. Loved watching her dance. And Sergio, that guy should be a dancer in a gay club for sure. Some of his moves amaze me.
All in all, it was a really fun day. Hopefully Alex can convince Diego to go easy on the boobage, they differ in their feelings about flashing girls in skimpy outfits on the screen. So, hopefully it will be edited together tastefully and will be something that Alex and I are comfortable with. Otherwise, Alex might just asked to be edited out.
It was really fun to see my husband as a rock star. Loved it, I could get used to that.

I'm a Wiz with the Scissors

So, a couple of weeks ago I decided I was really tired of my hair and gave myself a haircut. Okay, so it wasn't a full blown haircut, but I did cut myself bangs (lots of them), then I layered the front to blend in with the new bangs, and lastly I cut some more layers on the sides and back. There was A LOT of hair in my garbage can at the end and I have to admit, I was nervous. I thought, oh crap, what have I done. So I wet my newly cut hair and blow dried it into the style I was going for. And. . .it looks great!!! I'm soooo impressed with my haircutting skills :). Here is a picture of what it looks like. It's very rocker, which I love.

Murmuring

Today I am tired--no EXHAUSTED. It's been three weeks since we returned from Chile, three weeks of teaching Seminary and I feel like I'm too tired to get up one more morning! I can't imagine how I will make it through the next FIVE weeks with NO holidays or breaks of ANY kind. I'm dyin' here people. And to top it all off I've turned into Lamen. Yep, that's right I'm a murmerer and I hate that about myself. I want to be Nephi. But this year of seminary has kicked my *@%!! and I'm having a really hard time keeping my murmering in check. It really just makes everything worse, every time the complaints come out of my mouth I feel like I'm negating all the effort of teaching seminary. Like all my good works come to nothing because I can't seem to do them willingly. The frustration runs deep and I feel like a failure. I know several seminary teachers who are teaching for their third, fourth, even fourteenth year and I'm barely making it through my second. Lame, really lame, and I thought I was a better person than I am. It's a sad day folks. A sad sad day. I have a lot of work to do on myself, probably the biggest things I've learned from teaching seminary are my areas of weakness. It's not that fun to learn those things, as we all know. But I find it especially brutal when they're directly related to my willingness to serve the Lord. Then I realize I am very ungrateful, not really fulfilling my temple covenants, and have lots and lots of improving to do.
Yep, today I am EXHAUSTED--by lack of sleep and frustration with myself.

Baptism

Yesterday the daughter of one of Alex's childhood friends/cousins (Diego's mom married this friend's uncle, so they're kinda part of the family) was baptized and Alex confirmed her. Her name is Alyssa. Obviously since Alex did the confirming you know that her parents are not active. Her mother is not a member and her father was baptized but hasn't been active since he was 18 or 19, so she goes to church with her grandmother. She was so excited to get baptized! And as I was sitting there next to her parents and other family members I felt really thankful that they are supportive of her deciding and wanting to be baptized. So many people here in LA are anit organized religion and want their children to have no part of it.
For part of the baptismal program a group of primary aged children sang a few songs, Alyssa was among them. And as I watched her up there signing about Jesus and following his commandments it struck me how innocent she is and in that moment I hoped so strongly that she WILL choose to keep the commandments through her life.
As I listened to Alex confirm Alyssa I also felt really blessed to have a husband who is a faithful priesthood holder. Alex is the only male (besides his 95 year old uncle) of all his family living here in the US that is worthy to use his Melchizedek priesthood. There are moments when I am amazed at the person he is and all that he's overcome. This was one of those moments.

CHILE

I went to Chile with Alex in January. We just got back and here is the travelog.

SANTIAGO:
We had a wonderful trip!! We stayed in an area of Santiago called Las Condes. It's a pretty nice area, close to the metro, close to Alex's grandma and an aunt, close to the grocery store and some pastery/bakery shops. Yep it was great! Oh, you know who we stayed with--Mauro. He's the one who sang at our wedding LOL. Yep that guy. He pretty much gave up his apartment to us, which was so nice of him! His parents live close by so he stayed with them about half the time we were there. We spent the first six days in Santiago seeing the sites of the city and the outskirts of the city. Visiting Alex's family and EATING!! I had empanadas de pino, thousand leaf cake, delicious shell fish, sea bass, some yummy plums, cherries, strawberries and a Chilean friut called chirimoya, lots and lots of chilean bread with cheese and pate, and various kinds of meat. Oh and ice cream, lots of ice cream. It's so good and creamy! And the milk tastes like the stuff in Belgium and Germany. Packaged the same way too. Their pasteries are so good, there is German influence, so the pasteries are to die for!! Santiago is a really nice city. It's relatively clean, great public transportation available. Bus system that goes everywhere, a really nice metro system (with very clean metro's and stations), cabs everywhere that are very reasonably priced and collectivos too which are even cheaper than cabs--perfect for going longer distances. After living in LA for so long, I'd forgotten how WONDERFUL it is to have such a wide range of public transportation so readily available and cheap!! The metro is like $1.50 a ride during rush hour and cheaper during other times of the day. I loved being able to get around so easily. We walked a lot too of course. I'll post my pictures somehow so you can see all the things we saw in Santiago. Like the Moneda, building that was bombed during the coup by Pinochet in 1973, the National court house, Allende's house, Pinochet's house, the Cathedral of San Francisco, Cerro de Santa Lucia, Cerro San Cristobal etc. I met Nino's mom and sister (Nino is Alex's dad whom I never met.) That was really nice. We spent quite a bit of time visiting with them in those 6 days because they were leaving on vacation after that. I have also now met every single one of Pati's (Alex's mom) siblings! That's saying something because she has 9 siblings. :).
PUCON:
After Santiago, we headed down to Pucon. It's about 7-8 hours south of Santiago in the northern part of what's called the Lake District. This part of Chile is full of lakes, volcanos, waterfalls, rivers and hot springs. It's really really beautiful and so much of it is untouched! I wish we'd been able to really explore the lake district, but it's a huge area. Pucon is a big vacation spot for Chileans. You'll find other tourists there, but mostly it's full of Chileans from Santiago and other cities/towns north of it. It's right on Lake Villarica and you can see Volcan Villarica in the distance. Volcan Villarica is one of Chile's active volcanos!! You can see the smoke billowing from the top of it, very very cool. We were going to hike up to the top of the volcano with a guided tour, but it rained the day we scheduled it and the tour was canceled. Sadly we were leaving early the next day--so we did not get to look down into a boiling active volcano :(. That's something I really wanted to do, and will happen for sure the next time we go to Chile. We did take a horseback ride all through the country side, and went very close to Argentina. Pucon is on the eastern side of Chile, very close to the Agentine border. It's beautiful there, and we got some great photos. We also swam in the hot springs, or terms as they call them. There are also Volcano evacuation signs all over the town of Pucon. It was pretty funny to see them. There is one right outside of the B&B we stayed in, got a picture of that too :). We spent some time sunning by the lake as well. The lake's beach is black! Made up of lava rock, kinda cool to see a black beach. In Pucon I ate the best steak of my life! It was juicy and delicious. No marinade, no seasonings save salt. Just meat and I was in heaven. And it was huge!!! Oh also, the Lake District has a really heavy German influence since this is where most of them settled when they immigrated in the late 1800's with promise of land from the government. So the pasteries here are especially delicious. I felt like I was back in Kirrberg, Germany where I lived when I was six. We took a bus down to Pucon, but this was no ordinary bus. It travels overnight and the seats fold out to a bed. SO we slept the whole way there. Talk about traveling in style. And it was way less expensive than a plane ticket. The ride back to Santiago we did during the day so we could see the country side and small towns we passed through. Really get a feel for what it's like outside of Santiago. Needless to say that took the entire day. But it was worth it! We also rode back into Santiago through the rough part of the city, so I got to see the not so pretty side of it. Which gives me a more complete picture of the city. I was glad about that. And Mauro, who was our Santiago tour guide, also took us to an area of Santiago that has many abandoned buildings with squatters living in them. He has a friend living in one, so we visited that friend. It was an interesting experience.
BACK TO SANTIAGO:
Once back in teh city we did more sight seeing, and eating. A girl I know from Santa Monica was also in Chile so we met up with her and her friend. Spent the day with them which was fun. Mauro's parents took us out to dinner one of the nights after Pucon. I ate more steak and this very typical Chilean dessert, I can't remember the name of it. But basically it's two halves of a peeled peach in a large and deep dessert glass, in peach syrup with cooked wheat at the bottom. Yeah, sounds interesting doesn't it. But. . .it's delicious! We also ate at Dona Tina's for lunch one day as well. It's a great retaurant, very typical to Chile. I had delicious flan, oh so good! As good as the flan I've had in Spain. But they call it something else, and the name has escaped me as well.
VALPARAISO, VINA DEL MAR, RINACA:
We finished out our trip by going up to Valparaiso. It's an hour north west of Santiago on the beach. Valpariaso is like the Venice beach of Los Angeles. There are two other ajoining towns, Vina del Mar and Rinaca. Vina is like Santa Monica and Rinana is like Malibu. Valparaiso is one of the oldest cities in Chile. Parts of the city date back to the 1500's. It has tall hills that come almost of the beach and they are full, I mean full of houses and buildings. It used to be a beautiful main port city, but fell into poverty when the Panama canal was finished. So, it's pretty run down now, but you can see how beautiful it once was. It was recenlty declared a National Historic site by UNESCO, so they're starting to clean it up a little bit. I have lots of photos from Valpo (as the locals say) and it's an amazing city to see. So colorful! There are acensors (funiculars) that take you up the steep hills to the tops of some of the major cerros (hills). Or you can hike up the stairs, which we did quite a bit :). We had lunch at a restaurant on top of one of the hills, overlooking the beach. I ate a very delicious sword fish steak with shell fish sauce to go over it. MMMMMMM. There are lots of street vendors selling artisan crafts, sweaters and scarves, leather bags and wallets, lapis lazuli jewlery and statues (a deep blue stone unique to Chile and Afganistan). We also went to Vina del Mar. This city was built in the 1800's as a beach resort fo the rich. It's a popular spot for Santiagoans to vacation in the summer. And we also went to Rinaca, which is the newest and cleanest of the three, but also has the least amount of character. I loved Valparaiso. It was really fun to tramp up and down the steep hills. We had to be careful how far up we walked, the higher up you go the poorer the areas and more dangerous. There are many theives in those areas. And we had to avoid one cerro completely, Cerro Santo Domingo. It's apparently very dangerous, lots of muggings and some stabbings have occurred there. So, we held our things close to us and I stuck close by Alex everywhere we went. I stick out like a sore thumb in Chile. There is no way to blend in, it's just not possible. For one I'm taller than almost every woman there and many of the men, and I have very natural blond hair which you only see on non Chileans. So I was prime robbing material in Valpo as a TOURIST :). Alex was a tiny bit worried he was going to have to fight off some nasty theives. I did get many honks and whistles whereever we went :), he he. Alex said he got tired of everyone looking at me everywhere we went by the end of our trip. Ha!! We left Valpo on the last day of our vacation and headed back to Santiago. There we packed up, relaxed, chowed down on more Chilean bread and pasteries and got ready to leave for the airport.
It was a really great experience!! I could totally live there.