the past week has been very busy here in la la land! holland's friend from home, stephy, was in town, so we got to do lots of fun things! we tried a really nice new restaurant in santa monica, went out dancing, and saw a movie, among other things. here are some pictures that holland shot down at the santa monica pier with her new camera. they were too pretty not to post. i'm consistently amazed at how time continues to pass and i still find myself saying "wow, i actually live here."





this was also an exciting weekend for the ole box office! some of you may have heard of the twilight book series. well, the first film came out this weekend, so a bunch of us (readers and non-readers) got all dressed up to go see it. i've read most of the books, and, i liked them, but i'm not obsessed. they're pretty entertaining...but the movie, well i don't want to ruin it for anyone, but i'll just say this: it was hilarious! (unfortunately, not intentionally...). no, but we had a fun time making an evening out of it.

holland, stephy, and me representing our respective twilight characters! (go jacob!)

rivals!

parks had never read the books, but willingly came along! what a sport!

all our twilight shirts. nate (what an amazing artist!) hand-drew his shirt! and there's me, the lone supporter of team jacob cowering away from edward's team.




after twilight on friday, i had a busy saturday, too! park and i went on a sailing lesson! isn't that the best birthday present!? we had fabulous fall weather in marina del rey, but not a ton of wind, so we didn't go out onto the open seas. we both had an amazing time and learned so much. it was the two of us and our instructor, craig, on a 22 foot sailboat. the lesson was so hands on; we both steered, worked the sails, perfected our new skill of knot-tying, and learned the proper vocabulary for the anatomy of the ship. it was really fun, and i can definitely see enjoying sailing as a hobby! the evening was capped off with a gorgeous sunset, that looks almost too beautiful to not be photoshopped--i know it looks like a green screen, but it's real, i promise!!



and, here's me steering the ship through the marina!



well, hope everyone has an excellent thanksgiving week!! eat lots, be grateful :) i'm heading with friends up to cambria, ca, monterey, and big sur for camping...i can guarantee there will be lots of pictures, and perhaps even some video from my new flip camera (courtesy of ellen!)!! check back soon, goodnight all!

well well well!! a lot to write about indeed!

i'm hoping that some of you might have seen the previous post, and tuned into today's episode of ellen. it's actually pretty funny and kind of exciting (wow, what will happen when i actually get a real role on tv!?!) to get calls and messages from people who saw me on the show! friends of friends who were watching at home or at the gym have called their friends that know me to see if lauren parrent was indeed to tv. what a globalized world--news travels so fast!

anyway...if you didn't get to watch ellen today, the video is actually already up online on her website! i thought i'd have to wait to watch it on a friend's dvr, since we don't have cable, but luckily i got to see it online! if you go to her site: ellen.warnerbros.com, and then click on gallery, then video gallery, right now it's the first video that comes up. although, i'm sure that will change very soon (i.e. tomorrow), so you may have to search for a video about musical chairs...that'd be my guess anyway.

the whole story

my friend, mj, was able to get tickets for my roomie and me to be in the audience of the ellen show last week. so, we went on thursday and while we were all just waiting with the other audience members to be let into the studio, a p.a. (production assistant) from the show came and asked me to come with them. after being reassured that i would still get to sit with my friends, i followed her, shortly joining a group of about 25 young women in another room. we were asked our names, and i guess they were checking our appearances and confidence, because somehow they dwindled the group to about ten. next, we each told them our occupations and where we lived. without going into too much detail (i'm probably releasing confidential information here, and the ellen poice will be showing up at my door any minute!)...we were asked if we'd all be willing to be potential audience participants, and we even got to practice our reactions for if we got called on. the just wanted to make sure we were up for anything, and were spunky and energetic!

when the show started, as many of you have or will see...ellen came out and announced that for starters, she was going to have a game of musical chairs, but not just normal musical chairs, a version with "hunks" sitting already in the chairs, to go along with her naughty november show theme. i'll let you all watch the video for yourselves and i won't spoil the ending!

i will however tell you i won a flip mino camcorder! and, we also got other gifts just for being in the audience: the ocean's dvd trilogy boxed set, and a gift card to a certain chain of malls. not bad!! the guests on the show were heidi klum, seann william scott, and susan lucci. holland even had a nice long conversation with seann william scott at a restaurant near the studio just before the show!

so, please go have a look at the video, i definitely ham it up, there's lot of dancing, laughing, and musical chair action, so i highly recommend it! AND, i think i'll use my new camera very soon to post a video blog :)

let me know what you think!!

~lp

i'll definitely write more later, but watch ELLEN tomorrow, monday, november 10th (i think it's on at 4ish).

I'M ON IT, making a complete fool out of myself, but yeah check it out!!!!!

more later...

this is my favorite time of the year! i love the fall already, and, i love getting to celebrate halloween and my birthday all within the course of a few days!! i had a couple of halloween parties this year, one where i actually committed to dressing up. my roomie, holland, was going as a fairy, so i decided to parade around as her dark counterpart. we went all out with glitter and makeup, haha. these are definitely not the best pictures, but i was just trying to at least capture the make up and wings.




we've been having some fallish days, in terms of weather--clouds, even some rain, which is great, on occasion. it really puts me in a wonderful mood! it's such a blessing to have some change in the weather as a little birthday gift! i get bored with routine.

my birthday weekend was so much fun. i celebrated with several friends on saturday, by going out to eat at this really casual seafood place in malibu. we had a really great time. here are some pictures from that:

talk about weather--it was a gorgeous night!! check out the drive up the coast.



and, here's the restaurant



here are a couple pictures from throughout dinner, and afterwards with our rainboots (because it sprinkled for 5 minutes that afternoon!)






and, to top off the already wonderful evening, i made a successful trip to pinkberry and then the beach (which, by the way, the beach at night is one of my favorite places to be) with holland, justin, mj, and our new buddy, dave (from my church, ecclesia, www.churchinhollywood.com). YUM!





then, my actual birthday started off with some wonderful happy birthday calls, including a very special one from parker, all the way from africa :) to all of you that wrote me notes of birthday wishes, or called and i didn't get to talk with you, thanks again so much, it meant a lot to me, and made my day even better! i can't believe i'm 24! mid-twenties--crazy! i feel old and young at the same time. but, all in all, my birthday was a day of reflection of how blessed i am with life, its experiences, and all the incredible people God has placed in my life. i'm really at a place of contentment and peace, and true gratefulness that i continue to have you all to share it with each passing day.