well friends, it is FINALLY summer! as i said in the last post, there's some crazy magical LA force that changes overnight when june turns into july. and it did not waver this year. it's now sunny as can be, as i'm typing here in beautiful venice, california. i'm spending the day doing some housekeeping things and recuperating from an amazing, albeit busy weekend. i'm sure you all are in similar boats, as most of you probably had fun plans celebrating independence day!

let's have a weekend recap!

fourth of july

i love being in a place that is amply large enough to host a big party. we had about 50 of our collective friends over on the fourth, and grilled out, played games, ate waaay too much food, and then walked to venice beach to watch fireworks. it turned out to be a huge success! here are pics of my gorgeous roomies, and of parker and me:





sunday night
we had almost forgotten about our plans for sunday night, but luckily not totally! a group of friends and i went to the hollywood bowl (an incredible outdoor amphitheater venue in the heart of hollywood) to see a death cab for cutie concert. it was spectacular!! the opening bands were entertaining, and then death cab performed alone and then with the la philharmonic, which was so awesome! the best song in my opinion, was tranatlanticism (one of my favorites of theirs anyway...), but with 19,000 people outside among the hills and trees in complete silence, mesmerized by the light displays, rocking music, and even surprise fireworks--oh man, it was awesome! here are some pictures:







as always, even though things in the career realm are driving on at a regular SLOW pace...i continue to feel blessed by so many things in life. my wonderful ladies that i work/write with are still doing well, and provide enough money to pay the bills (i seriously always scrape by, by the grace of God!) and free time to enjoy the rest of this season of my life. my new home and roomies are also still such a blessing. and of course, my other friends and family are increasingly wonderful, and i still love living in la and enjoying what it has to offer--from free concerts on the santa monica pier in the summer, to the neighborhood organic coffee place, to my sunny, flower-filled back porch--i wouldn't change a thing. as for career, though, i do have an audition for an improv troupe this week, which should be fun, so we'll see! consider my fingers forever crossed...

CELEB sighting: on our way back from fireworks on the 4th. just standing on a corner in venice, we passed none other than hilarious comedian norm macdonald (my favorite role of his is as turd ferguson on snl's jeopardy!! "it's funny. it's a big hat. it's bigger than normal.") he was just chillin out, celebrating america's freedom, even though he's canadian i believe...not gonna lie, though, norm was lookin old! and scruffy! i think he was in town for his recent appearance on the tonight show with conan.



and for a final random fun couple of pics...these were just from a game night with our friends matt and alana, but if you ever want to take funny pictures just shake your head back and forth and you'll get some of these little gems! doesn't it look like we're really taking a hard punch?!? (p.s. i promise matt and alana are actually both beautiful!)





what a lovely end to a post...

hello all!

not too much to report, actually, but i just felt like it'd been far too long since i'd last posted. la has been a bit overcast in the past month, a season known to angelinos as "june gloom."

i wish i had pictures of this to show you, but i haven't gotten them yet. we had a sunny saturday this past weekend, and luckily got to go for a nice long hike up in malibu and then a picnic trip to el matador beach with friends. i've actually been on a couple hikes lately, another one that was a three hour hike at temescal canyon with my friend alana. i've always heard that many celebrities hike in the canyons for exercise, and we actually ran past sal masakela, the host of E!'s daily ten. funny enough, he was one of the first celebs i saw when i came out to la. so this was my second encounter with him.



other than that, i've been working, going to acting class, and just overall enjoying life. i've been settling into my new house, which i'm loving! having my own room is such a blessing. and my roommates are becoming quick friends. here's a picture of the beginnings of my new room (with decor help from my missouri friends when they were here for a visit):



i've had a few auditions lately, hand modeling and acting, and a couple opportunities with some agents that my acting coach recommended. i feel very grateful, as always, to be doing what i'm doing where i'm doing it. below are a couple pictures i took one day walking back from an audition. not a bad commute, right?

i was supposed to be on set all this weekend shooting "love naturally," the student film in which i have the lead. however, today the crew ran into some speed bumps with our location, so we rescheduled. we shot yesterday and it went really well, so i can't wait to give you a complete blog update after we wrap next weekend!

so, as unfortunate as this was, it allows me some blogging time this morning to write about my fun easter weekend last weekend!

last saturday, we took a group up to santa barbara and its surrounding wine country--a trip long overdo for me, since i'd missed the last couple tasting trips that my friends took. the weather was perfect and the countryside was so beautiful. yet again, california's natural beauty astonishes me! we started the trip off with a stop at stearns wharf in santa barbara, where we had a picnic of bay cities italian deli (a famous deli in santa monica scoped out by planner justin!) which was YUM!

roomies

justin and seth

chowing down on some "godmother" sandwiches


after lunch we made our way farther north to our first stop, sunstone winery, a quaint gardenesque vineyard overlooking lush green hills. we tasted a few wines and soaked in the scenery.


justin stealing me from parker



then we went to gainey vineyard, where we enjoyed the scenery and exploring the winery. here's a pic of the whole group of us!



we had another big day, because sunday was obviously easter, and we had decided to encore last year's successful day at manhattan beach. we had a wonderful easter church service at ecclesia and then went to the beach! here are some pics of our bEaster-day antics! the second annual bEaster was just as lovely as the first!

parker riding the cooler down to the beach


a greek god, i tell you!

matty

zak and his polaroids

cute ali

josh

jon

pete and puffer giving a glimpse of the gun show


fun group. fun day. here's to next easter!

i just experienced the most beautiful thanksgiving of my life. i have about 500 photos i would love to post here, but i know that's much, so i'll refrain, and just post a few of my favorites. and, i'm going to try to post a couple videos later (courtesy of my flip camera from ellen!) this post may be extensive, so be forewarned! ok, here are the highlights of the trip:

cambria, ca
on thanksgiving day, parker, holland and i drove up the coast to cambria, california. we met up with about 30 people from our church at a hostel, where we had an amazing potluck meal (complete with post-meal food comas), met great new people, walked around the quaint town, and played some rousing rounds of taboo and phase 10.







monterey, ca

after staying the night in cambria, we split from the rest of the group, and the three of us headed farther up the coast on our way to monterey. my cousin, brad, is in air force intelligence training there, so we made it a stopping point on our journey. it was great to see family for the holidays!

the weather couldn't have been more ideal the entire trip. it was sunny and fairly warm each day, and brisk at night. as you'll see, the scenery in northern california is breathtaking. we were so blessed by God's gift of nature. on our way to monterey, we stopped to take pictures at some vista points, and to see the famous elephant seals, which were both incredible and disgusting!! as you'll see below...





we met up with brad for lunch, and then headed to big sur to set up our camp.





big sur

we camped friday night at fernwood in big sur. this region is filled with redwoods, creeks, the beach--it's just gorgeous. we enjoyed our camping, cooking dinner and breakfast on the fire, playing cards, and hiking to a waterfall. holland really got to put her new camera to good use on this trip-all the photos are from her and park's cameras--they're both talented photographers!







south on highway one

we stopped to see the elephant seals, yet again, as we headed back south on saturday. and, we took a tour of the hearst castle, which, again, was stunning! it was william randolph hearst's estate, and it was massive!! kind of like the west coast biltmore estate, if you've ever been there. then, we made the 5-ish hour trip back to la, home sweet home. it was certainly a very full three days. we experienced so much, i feel like. i ended the weekend grateful, tired, and enriched.





i hope you all had equally enjoyable thanksgiving holidays, and i hope you like all the pictures! take care ~lp

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.