LA LA LAND with a little bit of 90210

It's been awhile since my last blog so this might be a bit long so hopefully you can sit through all of it. The last thing I wrote about was Santa Monica and Venice beach.
Alright so a few days after that my girl Ella calls and says she had the day off and asked if I want to meet her down at Santa Monica on Tuesday. So I am up early, on the bus and at the beach by 10:30 am.  What a beautiful morning it was. It was so hot, one of the hottest days since I had arrived and there was a music video being shot on the Santa Monica Pier Bridge.  We found a vacant spot on the sand and sprawled out - for 4 hours - I wasn't ready to leave when Ella wanted to but by the time I got off the bus I was glad she did because I was a little red.  Well actually, I looked like a lobster, but now I am a nice brown :)
A few days later (Thursday) my flat mate Dallas and I decided to rent a car for two days so we could get some resumes out.  We hired a car from Rent a Reck, and what a Reck it was.  It was two shades of green,  the gas pedal was stiff, every time I hit the breaks the back end of the car clicked, there were only five radio stations 3 spanish stations, one new station that repeats its songs and one 80's station which is the one we stuck with (it totally suited the car), there wasn't even a spot for a tape or a cd to be played, all the mirrors had to be adjusted by hand, the key was bent and there was no power steering. LOL it was a wreck but it got us through LA, which by the way is a horrible place drive.  I love driving but all I wanted to do was take the car back to the hostel and leave it in the underground parking until we had to return it.  Everyone runs red lights, people pull out in front of you and cut you off left right and centre and everyone honks constantly and don't forget the no power steering.  The guy at the car rental place said "when turning left and the light turns red don't turn right away because people will run the reds and when it is green don't pull out right away make sure everyone is done running red lights. But DON'T BE AGRESSIVE. It's easy you shouldnt have a problem"  ....? after all that how can I not be aggressive.  LOL.
We drove down to Venice beach and got some lunch and then headed towards West Hollywood where we wanted to hand out resume's.  Well, having a car gave us some freedom and we got really side tracked.  We drove through Beverly Hills and Down Rodeo Drive.  It is a completely different world there.  Everything is so prestine looking.  It's so manicured with it's white buildings, spotless sidewalks and every designer store you can imagine.  Even the cars were high end, we were definately slumming it on Rodeo lol, it was worse slumming it through Laguna Beach in a Dodge Charger with Pauly.
Anyways we decided to drive through the hills. So we drove through windy hills and up streets that were so steep I thought the car was going to roll back so I leaned forward hoping it would help.  We got lost in Bel Air (I think it was Bel Air).  The streets were so narrow and so windy, we kept hitting dead ends and I could barley turn corners because without power steering ShitHeap (the name we gave the car) liked to make wide turns.  I had to come to a complete stop turn the steering wheel all the way and then proceed, it was awful, I almost hit someone because the car turned so wide.  Very cautiously and white knuckled we made our way to Mullholand Drive (we never got to handing out resume's that day) My Vertigo kicked in sometimes, it was like I could feel the hight all around me but it was well worth it.  We drove to a viewing point and looked out over The Valley,  the Freeway and the Hollywood Sign.  It was really beautiful.  Did you know that Hollywood was originally Hollywood Land?  A landslide came and took out the word Land so they just left it lol.  Now you know.
After a long day of driving I finally get to park ShitHeap and have a beer, or so I thought.  Justin my other flat mate asked if I could give him a lift so back in the car I get. Perfect. Rush hour.  Within five minutes I got pulled over by the cops, GREAT.  COP: Hi there my name is officer so and so may I please see your liscence and registration?  Do you know why I pulled you over? ME: Absolutely not (I hand him my liscence and rental papers)  this is my first time ever driving in LA and I just rented this car today.  COP: Where did you rent this car from?  ME: Rent a Reck COP: haha I can see that (he keeps laughing)  ME: Trust me I would love to rent something nicer  COP (hands me back my liscence and papers) you see that sign there you cant turn left here. you have really pretty eyes.  Be careful or someone will give you a ticket. Have yourself a nice day  ME: (looking at Justin)  It helps being a girl.  JUSTIN: Fuck Emmie they would've nailed me ME:  I know ahah.  So I turn around pull up to the light and make a right JUSTIN: Emmie you can't turn while pedestrians are crossing! . As he says this he looks out the window and the cop was standing there smiling shaking his head.  HAHA what a day.  The next day Dallas and I actually get out to job search but barley got out any resume's due to the fact nobody would take them because we were looking for cash work and nobody was interested.  Another day gone and no job so what do we do haha party.  There was a party at our hostel that night.  It was a blast.  We met these three really rad Aussie's, Amy, Kate and Garth, all siblings traveling together.  They will actually be back here in a few weeks and want to meet up, they texted me today so I am pretty stoked.  The party was great everyone had a blast. Though I was really confused the next morning when Justin was all dressed up from the night before, I thought he was going to work but that wasn't the case.  He ended up passing out in the party room and had just made it upstairs with swollen eyes.  And I mean swollen eyes. Have you ever seen anyone with swollen eyes before?  i thought I had until I saw Justin on Saturday morning.  His eyes were these round balls sticking so far out i thought they would pop out of the sockets; I'm surprised he could even blink lol it was so funny.  Then I hear a very confused half asleep voice from Dallas's bunk "why am I naked?"  and then me going "how did I get to bed?" it was so funny but so painful.
That night I went over to Ella's for a girls night and some drinks. A few drinks later her, Nathan (her new flat mate) and I head over to the Bungalow (hostel) for some drinks, Justin and then off to the Saddle Ranch for a crazy night of music and drinks.  SOOO MUCH FUN but so much pain the next day lol but well worth it.
Sunday was a chill day for all of us, Justin and I were hung over after two nights of drinking and Ryan had gone to a Rave on Saturday and drank with us on Friday so we were limited to a day on the couch with junk food and movies.
Then it's Monday. The begging of a new week and time to get myself a job.  As much as I wanted a job bartending I knew it would be next to impossible. No bar would hire me without a Visa which I dont have.  So what do I do Craigslist.  Man do I love Cragslist.  I looked up and out my picture to any promotion, or promo model add in the Los Angeles Area.  20 emails and 3 hours later I had 3 interviews.  Guess what.  I GOT A JOB!  Two of them to be exact.  One is for this promotion company promoting the high end clubs in Hollywood and promoting big parties. Dallas and I both got the job together, and the address of the head office is 90210 Beverly Hills!  No joke!  My first task is promoting this Sunday nights event at Ecco Nightclub. It's Usher's CD Listening party and the man himself is going to be there.  Fucking amazing.  My other job is working at private celebrity functions. They are B and C celebrities but it's still a pretty cool job.  The best about both of them is they are cash paying so it's golden. I am super stoked.  Plus the owner of the second one is friends with Mr. Hugh Heffner and I have been invited for Sunday Poker at the Mansion.  Yup thats right the Playboy Mansion.
Well I hope you have enjoyed yet another one of my entries.  I have to go get ready as Dallas and I are going to two night clubs tonight, no line no cover to check them out and start promoting.  LA LA LAND is right!!!

Santa Monica and Venice Beach

Yesterday our (Justin, Ryan and I ) plan was to go to the beach.  Ryan was planning on being up around 8 to hit the gym and then be back by 10 so we could head down to Santa Monica.  Well if you knew my roommates you would know that them getting up means "Emmie can you set the alarm because we have to be at the office for 10 so can you set the alarm for 7 and wake us up" "Oh and can you take my suit to the dry cleaners" lol. But the trick is actually waking them up.  You see they set there alarms as well but it just wakes me up on top of my own alarm and then i have to yell and shake them which doesn't work half the time; and Justin's alarm is a rooster,  KILL THE FUCKING ROOSTER!!! HAHAHA!!!  So after about 3 hours of trying to wake them up and a missed gym session by Ryan, and me spraying Justin with a spray on tan we finally leave around noon with an added person (Sakita) and headed to the bus stop with an hour bus ride out to Santa Monica.

Santa Monica is beautiful. You walk over a bridge which looks out on to the water and the mountains. On the other side of the bridge is a pier where a fair takes place with a huge roller coaster and a huge ferris wheel and the pier is just infested with people.  The beach itself is just beautiful, there are shops and condos all lined on the left side and the right side has a bath for walkers, runners, bikers, bladers, skateboards and to the right of the is the beach which is about a mile till you get to the water which is speckled with sailboats and lined with mountains. There are swings and palm trees and a gym for gymnasts which line the outer part of the beach its nuts. I have not seen anything like this on a beach before.  It was great just walking and looking around at this thing they call a beach which is beyond any beach I have ever been to.

Our whole goal was to go get to Venice beach so after we had our beach side burgers we kept walking toward Venice.  WOW! What an amazing difference between Santa Monica and Venice you don't need anyone to tell you where one ends and the other starts.  It's like Ghost Town (Frontier Town) on the beach.  It's incredible.  Big painted hippie vans are the first thing you see when you hit Venice with the faintest smell of Pechoullie.  Mom you would love Venice beach, you would be calling Aunt Pat to come out and move there with you haha.  It's got artists, and music, hippies, dancers, a side show - they had a two headed turtle- drum circles, food, henna tattoos, you can rent a bike to ride on the path, jewellery makers, tattoo and piercing shops, smoke shops, restaurants, music, clothing stores hat stores, almost everyone had a dog,  homeless people with signs saying stuff like "Why lie, need weed" and "Punch me in the face for $1". There are also these shops that you can go in and buy weed legally as long as you have a medical card for it.  I have never heard of that before, its fucking crazy.  I saw the biggest drum circle I had ever seen and it never stopped it just kept going, I also saw a loan drummer just sitting on the beach just playing his drums.  It was amazing. And this goes on everyday.  It was beyond anything I could think of  of what a beach is like.  It was amazing everywhere you looked it was something different, there was so much going on that if you looked one way you missed what was going on the other way.  There were always crowds of people looking at something.  We walked up to one crowd and asked what was going on and a lady said "that extremely built guy is going to jump over 11 people". Well that extremely built man started running and he jumped over 11 kids.  Crazy.  Have you ever heard of Muscle beach? You know in the movies you see the big muscle heads working out on the beach.  Well it exsists and it is actually called muscle beach. YUP who knew. I thought people called it that because of the muscle heads but its the actual name. Beside that is this stage thing with bleachers facing it and there were techtonik dancers showing there moves. Goodbye Wasaga Beach strip lol, you will never be the same.

By the time we decided to catch a bus back we had walked over three miles or more.  By the time we got home it was just after 7 and Justin's spray on tan looks like he has an obsession with Zebra's lol I did a really bad job but it looks really funny.

Well I am off as I have to pick up the dry cleaning and run to the store and then come back and do nothing.  I'm loving this life!

Relaxed

Well I have been at the hostel over a week now, and I’m still loving it, the and the guys are super tight and have been talking about getting a place together. I feel I am very lucky to have such a great first experience at a hostel because it could’ve gone either way. Anyways I had to say goodbye to another friend. Our crazy Spanish roomie Garcia. What a character, funny, down to earth, wild and crazy but a great roommate. So I have now said goodbye to about 5 people. I guess with travelling you get used to saying goodbye to people, though it’s kind of cool at the same time because you can meet up with them later on which is what I am doing with Pete who was our roomie for about 2 or 3 days.
To be honest I haven’t really done much the past week. I am taking it easy. With working so much back home it’s kind of nice to not have any responsibilities for once. I am actually relaxed and not stressed out for once lol it’s a nice feeling. I have just chilled out and read my book, did some research in my Lonely Planet book for Sand Diego, met some new people (most of them Aussies) – some so beautiful and a majority of them gay lol of course- strolled down Melrose which is one of my new favourite hobbies, gone out with the boys and Ellie to the Saddle Ranch. We were supposed to go to Guys and Dolls, we were all dressed up really hot (the guys in suits us girls in dresses and heels) but we got there to late so we end up at the Saddle Ranch (which is a pub –Rusty’s like) that has a mechanical bull and karaoke dressed up like we were going to a wedding, but we didn’t care it didn’t stop us from getting a “little” tipsy. I went to the Avalon with the shuffle crew – long story, went shopping at the Grove, taken Justin’s suit to the dry cleaners, and I bought a new phone, I officially have a real California phone with a real California number haha and I cannot get over how cheap the phone plans are here for $60 a month I have unlimited local and international calls, unlimited text messaging and the internet can you believe that, it’s so cheap. My phone cost me $20 and with my rebate it’s only costing me $9 haha.
Well I am off to buy myself some cheap running shoes and then a pack of smokes for Dallas and I. I know I know I was supposed to have quit which I did but I started again. Bad me!

Famous Sighting

Sunday afternoon Ryan, Dallas and I went to the Whole Foods down the street to grab some necessities before our Oscar celebration and I found myself standing beside Ali Larter at the meat counter. Then again at the check out. I snuck a picture with my iphone. I love it here!!!

I'm here!!!

Well I am here.  West Hollywood California!  And...I love it!!!  (know it’s been almost a week since my last blog but it took me this long to connect my laptop to the wifi here at the hostel.)

So I left Las Vegas Sunday Morning.  Of course I shed some tears when I said goodbye to Pauly.  I was terrified, it was the day that I officially was going to be on my own and I was feeling anxious.  Ben (who we met the first night) was driving me to the Greyhound station.  He picked me up I said my teary goodbye to Pauly and we were off.  It was still pretty early so we went to Denny’s for breakfast and then went to the station.  At this point I was really starting to get anxiety, I couldn’t believe the moment had come that I was going to board the bus and start this journey.  Ben stayed and chatted with me for an hour which was awesome because he himself has done an extensive amount of travelling and he told me about his experiences as a solo traveller so it was really nice, reassuring and calming so by the time he left I was feeling ok.

I met an interesting couple at the bus station; her, a sweet plump 22 year old in a wheelchair and her husband a tall lanky Napoleon Dynamite looking guy.  I saw a woman with jogging pants that were too big on her and when she pulled them up to try and hold them up by what looked like a cheap knock off of an Ed Hardy belt you could see she was wearing no underwear who was with her friend who I knew was a woman but didn’t quite look like one.  Then I met Ben ( yes another one) a 21 year old just travelling around and wanting to find a bartending  job.  We travelled all the way to Hollywood together.  The drive, just as before was beautiful.  The bus had huge panoramic windows and on either side were just mountains so high that the snow on the peaks blended in with the white clouds.  As I looked out the window I couldn’t help but smile with a tear in my eye because I knew this was it.  I had done it, on my own alone in this huge world and I realized how proud I am of myself for actually doing this.

With a transfer in LA I arrived in Hollywood at about 7pm.  With saying goodbye to Ben and being the only one in the bus station and waiting for a cab I felt alone for the first time.  I was relieved when the cab got there because I just wanted to check into the hostel and then go meet up with Ellie.

I was a little nervous when I first walked in the door as I had never been to a hostel before and didn’t know what to expect.  There was overbooking of travellers to beds so within a half hour my bed had switched three times.  Frustrated and relieved I finally head to Ellie’s.

It was sooo good to see her.  We drank some rum, caught up and went out to the Saddle Ranch it did it up pretty good finishing the night off with chilli cheese fries and I can’t remember what else we had but it definately greasy lol.

I get back to the hostel about 3 o’clock a little nervous  to sleep in a dorm room with 5 people I didn’t know.  As I am getting ready to crawl into bed I realize my bed is no longer my bed and someone is sleeping in it.  I lost my shit!  They wanted to transfer me to another hostel and everything.  Not happy, its 3am, I’m tired and frustrated I kind of wanted to just pick up and go home.  Just at that moment a guy walked through the door and stressfully I asked him if he had a cigarette ( I know I quit) and in a sexy Australian accent he said no and then asked me if I was ok and I said no and told him the situation.  He told the front desk to give me a blanket and that I was fine for the night and we would figure out everything in the morning.   Anyways we couldn’t sleep so we went down to the party/tv room and hung out for a bit.  He said this is what travelling is all about and not to worry.  The next day I went to the front desk and I was told my night was free and they found me a bed.  But Ryan (the Aussie) had a free bed in his room so we are now roommates.  The best thing, none of us snore and we all get along so well. With everything getting cleared up and me getting almost a three week stay here – I decided to suck it up and stay in a dorm room and not go to a private because I’m actually loving this dorm thing – I was ready to do some sightseeing.

So at 11am Dallas (another Aussie from my original room) we started walking to do a little site seeing.  We walked all the way to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and walked the entire thing.  Plus they are setting up for the Oscars so it was pretty awesome.  Six hours later we end up back at the hostel with blisters on our feet and a bottle of Jim Beam and Bacardi.  It was a great day and it was free which was even better.

As we walked and talked I had this crazy feeling of exhilaration.  Its an exhilaration that I cant explain or make you understand unless you have traveled.  The feeling of being out in the world, by yourself with no one to worry about or meet up with and go where you want to go and do what you want to do and meet people who are doing it to for their own reasons.  You have an instant family like connection with people, some more than others.  Justin, Ryan and Dallas are the ones that I am close with.  They are amazing and in the short 48 hours I have known them I can’t believe that this time last week they weren’t in my life.  Justin who is from Vegas is here to start something new; Ryan an investment banker from Melbourne who has the travel bug and Dallas an actor from Sydney who is taking acting classes here.  All so different and possibly people I wouldn’t be friends with under any other circumstances but here we are, here I am having an experience with complete strangers but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  As much as I miss you all at home I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world-if that makes sense.

Anyways last night we went to a party then a club and then I dragged the boys home by midnight as they were falling over drunk and of course I am the one that ends up with bruises, due to the fact that drunkenly one of them knocked my into a fire hydrant and my knees are now swollen and covered in bruises lol but it was all in good fun.

I think I am the only Canadian staying at this hostel which is kind of cool and I apparently have a nice accent – lol what accent. I met one Canadian last night who is from Hamilton and now lives here and he knew Colingwood so I was super stoked about that.  I am surrounded by English, German, French and a ton of Aussies it almost makes me forget where I actually am.  I am starting to pick up accents and new slangs.

We went to a viewing of the Oscar’s next store to our hostel at the Silent Movie theatre.  It was pretty awesome sitting in a theatre of 100 people watching the Oscar’s on a big screen, it almost felt like we were there.  But, with being able to bring in your own drinks we drank too much and left because we couldn’t sit anymore so we just went back to the hostel and partied with everyone else. 

The area we are living/staying in is awesome – Fairfax Village and it’s amazing here.  Everything is here. Melrose Avenue is the next street over, The Grove is about a 5 minute walk, Starbucks, Coffee Bean, the Hollywood Hills is my view as soon as I leave the hostel.  I could live here! It’s so beautiful. And the fashion, WOW! The high school kids have better fashion then me lol, it’s pretty cool.

So this week we are job hunting so we have some extra cash and next week so wish me luck!  Talk soon.