did you know that you can go camping without the hassle of bugs!? it's called southern california, my friends. i know, revolutionary, and i sound like i'm doing a commercial for the state of california department of tourism, but seriously, this is the way to camp!

although acting continues to be on the slow side, fun random opportunities continue to make themselves available to me. last night i went beach camping with a few friends north of malibu at a place called point mugu. it was just off the pch (pacific coast highway that runs all the way up california's coast), right between gorgeous canyons/mountains and a rocky beach. we had perfect weather both yesterday and today, which made for a really pleasant trip! here are some pictures from the campout, if i get more exciting ones from friends, i'll definitely post them. but these are the beautiful views of and from the campsite as well as the campers (justin, holland, scotty, parker, and me):







and, for a little backtrack...i went to a memorial day party at my boss' ("the voice") house...here are a couple pictures from that fun event! me with rebel, kris manning the grill, and me lovin on his ferrari!





i have another fun outing tomorrow, that i'll post about later. and, hopefully more career news in coming posts...

so, i've been back in california for just a couple of days since my week-long trip to missouri. and, may i say, the trip was just wonderful! it was bittersweet having to say goodbye to my best friends from home, but it was worth the trip, and i'm excited to hit the ground running back on the west coast.

my week was spent in kansas city, columbia, and cape girardeau missouri. i did lots of traveling, saw several friends, and made sure to eat at a bunch of my favorite restaurants, of course!! i was also blessed to attend two graduations--one for one of my best friends, andrew guthrie, who graduated from mizzou. the other was my best friend's little sister, lindsey, who graduated from central high school. congrats to both of you, i'm very proud of your accomplishments, and was so happy to share in your big days! :)

as luck would have it, murphy's law hit me on my first full day in missouri. and, i just knew it was going to happen that way! i was sitting with guthrie at shakespeare's pizza, when i got a phone call from ruth, a casting director i met in my acting workshop about 7 months ago. turns out, she had kept me in mind, and thought a commercial role was perfect for me. my agent had submitted me for it, but ruth said she had also just remembered me from months ago. i would have read for the part of a young mom in a dollhouse commercial, haha! hey, i'll take it!! however, the kicker was , the audition was the next day, and clearly, i wasn't in town. so, i had to pass up the offer, but, it made my day because it showed me that my name is out there, and the connections i've made in the industry are starting to come back around! so hopefully, things will continue in this direction!!

ok, it's picture time!!!!!

here's guthrie and me at his graduation



the five of us bf's at sophias (the restaurant where i worked after college for a semester) after graduation in columbia. YUM, it was so delish. aw the five of us together like old times-so much fun!



haha, we happened to be in town on the night of a mizzou baseball game. as we were riding the golf cart up to the stadium, whit, guthrie, and i decided to take a picture. the cart jolted, and here's what we got. totally unposed! it makes me laugh.



the weather at the game was glorious! and mu won 8-1!



whit, jaclyn, and me. i can't believe we're real adults. whit's all grown and married and refinishing a basement, and jac has a real job and apartment and everything!



guth and me. seriously we could be siblings!



here's meredith, kelly, whitney, and me--some of the ole high school bf's on the pingel trampoline at lindsey's graduation party!



the four of us: chris, me, whit, and ryan, with linz the chs grad!!



a final thing i'll share with you all is this...i was so pleasantly surprised to talk with a few of you all and realize that there are actually several blog readers! i guess it just really means a lot to me that, even though i don't get the chance to talk with you all regularly, that you are keeping up with my life. i appreciate your support more than you know :)

for all you avid laurenparrent blog-devotees out there (thanks to all 6 of you! ;) haha) a throwback to a couple posts ago. if you remember dean, my fellow burn victim, from the filming of the austin golden hour pilot...dean is a part of a production company (www.rushforthproductions.com), and they had a short film festival last night, that i attended.

it was a great cultural experience, and something spontaneous, which i always love. the event was held at artshare, a renovated warehouse in downtown la. very cute. the films were all really artsy and beautiful, even though not all of them were super entertaining or even understandable! such is art, though. i think my favorite was a film by an improv group, the 313, called "film noir." it's a spoof of old film noir movies, and i just thought it was so clever...


it's funny, living here, because i often see people that look really familiar to me, but it's hard to distinguish how i know them. are we friends, have we met somewhere prior to la, are they an actor that just looks familiar? this happened last night, twice, at the festival. sarah utterback, a member of the company, played the redhead nurse olivia on grey's anatomy. and (huge nerd alert) billy aaron brown was there; he played this surfer guy in the masterpiece mary-kate & ashley movie, "holiday in the sun" lol. (don't worry, i'm not THAT big of a nerd that i knew their names offhand, i had to imdb them)




just another night in the city of angels.