I left my heart in Saugus, MA...

I write to you from Warner Bros studios where I am currently serving in a long term temp assignment as assistant to a new VP in the television group. I enjoy working here and right now I am actually trying to find a time that is good to jump in and tell my boss that I want to be hired full time. Because it would be nice to be able to finally say, yes, I know where my income comes from and now I can get cracking on the rest of the things I need to be worried about:

Writing spec scripts.
Writing stand-up comedy.
Finding the right person to read or watch one of these things, and say, she needs to EP/showrun her own show. Kabloom, I have an Emmy. Do you all see how much easier things would be if I had a full time job? Also I could pay my bills and avoid prison.

But I miss Boston dearly, more each day. Especially now that things are getting colder and the holidays are approaching and my home is there and my family and the friends I've grown up with and known for years and years and it's so comfortable and safe.

Right now in LA I am feeling a bit out of sorts. Yes, I know, my nickname should be, "Old News", but I don't know. I feel like I left my heart somewhere else because sometimes I feel so mechanical, like I am just trying to get by, trying to do the things that are expected of me, and to stay within a certain expectation so that I don't rock the boat or shake anything up.

I could continue but I'm going to stop. Miss you Boston. A place that is decidedly real.

Episodes of Shows that I Wish I Had Written

Hey y'all. I just wanted to be openly admiring of a random smattering of episodes of TV shows I have found fascinating, many from Childhood..

To kick off,

Even Stevens, "Influenza" - Ok, who has seen this and doesn't see the beauty? Perfectionist Ren suffering from the flu and dreaming that her life is a musical and that she doesn't have her science project completed. The whole thing culminates to one of the best songs, "We Went to the Moon", which is the science project in question. Any time I turned on Disney, this was on, and it was clever and fun and awesome. And who can forget little Shia?

Doug, Any Episode - I used to, and still, love Doug. My mom even said that one day I'd marry someone who had the characteristics of Doug, shy, introspective (I guess) Or maybe a guy with real skinny legs. I don't know. But either way I just really found Doug to be a likeable show, and he was definitely a relatable character. He had a crush, he had a big imagination, he wrote a journal. He loved The Beets. He had a band! Do I need to say more?

The Simpsons, "The Springfield Connection" - One of my all time favorite Simpson episodes, this is the one where Homer thinks he is seeing an extra terrestrial but it's Mr. Burns (Kill it!) As the Simpsons went from good to great to sucky to ok to good, this episode remains one of the best. Pimple faced teenager concluding the episode with "I'm Leonard Nimoy", Marge wearing a "Homer is a Dope" shirt, and of course the "Good Morning Starshine" singalong make this episode hilarious. Remember when there were no "misses", only "hits" when it came to the Simpsons?

The Wonder Years, "She, My Friend, and I" - This is my favorite episode of one of my favorite shows of all time. Paul dates Winnie, and finds out she likes Kevin. Kevin finds out he still likes Winnie when she starts dating Paul. He goes to her door, she answers ALL SMILES, and he blows it, and gets the door slammed in his face. Kevin and I are siblings from another mother.


I'm sure I have more, but I've been writing this for like, a day now, going back and adding more once in a while, so I'm just going to publish it.

The Ugly...

Heyo,

I just want to elaborate on "the bad" a bit more, since the fallout of the bad made it hard to sleep the night before I wrote the post, and therefore, made it hard to read the post. But ya, I can't keep an air bed for the life of me. A friend of mine is insisting that I must claw my bed in my sleep, or that perhaps I go to bed in a suit of armor. But last night I had a restful sleep. It was awesome.

Now, onto the ugly - and this is not about the pimples which sprout on my face on occasion. This is about my venture into the field of stand up comedy. Yes, I am writing stand up which I also have to perform, and I need to do this by Halloween, because that's the deadline I've given myself.

I love to make people laugh, I love to say things that people think are funny, but I realize how hard it is to write a real true joke. It's really hard. I can put lines into the mouth of Dwight Schrute like it's nobodies business, but when it comes to me myself getting on a stage and dazzling all with my wit, I barely know how to begin. So I am writing and I'll do it, and hopefully after I do it, I keep doing it, and hopefully the practice will make me good at it. But for me, this is a pretty ugly thing I'm getting into.

There will be a post entitled "The Rest" soon...but I hope you are enjoying my blogness.

The Bad...

I can tell you exactly what the "bad" is at the moment.

My beloved aerobed, whom I've shared some restful times with, is the victim of two holes. Count them, you can. Well, the first one was tiny and I patched that, and then a dime sized hole sprouted. And right now I am dead tired and achey after having slept..or "slept" on it last night. I woke up on the ground. Now I don't know if you've ever tried to balance on a ball of air and get sleep..but it does not work. Not effective in the least.

Anyway - so tired, so very tired. And I am going to a friend's birthday tonight so I need to be awake enough to be enjoyable for all.

I need a bed.

What could be ugly if that's just bad? Well, wait and see...

The good. The bad. The ugly. And the rest.

The good -

Right this second I am sitting at a reception desk at the Warner Bros Studio's Motion Picture Imaging Building, where I am working this week. It was pretty cool to get that call yesterday and it shows that things can change in an instant, where I thought I was returning to a vast wasteland of joblessness, I can save the drama. ;-) Everyone here has been really nice, and even though I do things tentatively the first time I do them, I pick up on details pretty quickly. I wanted to roam around Stars Hollow for a bit before I went back to work but there was a crew setting something up for something - pretty interesting.

Also, reception means I can jot down notes for my new writing project - see "The ugly" below. I bet you're already dying to know what it is.

Also, I decided to adopt a "life is good" policy. Or for some of you, I've decided to become another person altogether. I'm in a position where I can really love my life, and I'm going to do it. Ha!

The movie "Paper Heart" looks really good, I really want to see it. I love Michael Cera, and quirky comedies, and mockumentaries. Plus I'm totally one of those posers that wants to be like, "I saw Paper Heart, it was in Sundance. The film festival. It's so deep!" I eat peanut butter and fluff sandwiches. But I do eat them on whole wheat, so what's in a name, ya know?

I just returned from a trip to Boston, which was really good. Good to see family, and good to see friends. It's nice to be home when I can, and I do miss everyone. I saw my friend Andrea get married to Mark, the man we nicknamed "Husband" since day 1. It was a beautiful wedding and a great reception. They named each table after a place significant in their relationship, my friends and I sat at "Hugh O'Neils", which was the location of part of their first date, and also where we all nicknamed him Husband, later. EXCITED FOR THEM BOTH!!!

I'm tired of blogging. I'll continue with the bad and the ugly tomorrow...

Some True Facts About Jen's First Year in LA...

1. In my first year, I resided in three places. These places spanned about 3 square miles of each other. During this time, I had 5 roommates and 4 catroommates. I slept on one twin bed, and went through 2 Aerobeds and one foam pad before finally finding an Aerobed that wasn't funky.

2. In my first year, I have acquired the following free things from friends and such: Three baskets for stuff, two plastic tubs for storing things, a plastic shelf thingie, a bunch of hangers, a desk, a futon frame and a microwave. Coming up: Jen gets an entertainment center/bookshelf.

3. I was a page with Audiences Unlimited, I had an internship at a media company called Salient Media, I was a temp receptionist at Johnson Fain and Warner Home Video, and worked for two weeks at ABC as an admin assistant, as well as working one weekend as a script supervisor for Monica's film, being an actor for the script John wrote and being paid to revise Gen's webisodes. And I almost forgot, I volunteered at the Independent TV festival on Sunset, and got to see some cool panels about TV comedy and pitching.

4. Usher grabbed my shoulders as I blocked him from the kids who tried to get his autograph at the Kid's Choice Awards. Hugh Laurie looked me in the eye when I asked him a question at People's Choice Awards (and his eyes are so blue). I saw Windsor Harmon (One of the Thornes from Bold and the Beautiful) shopping at my Trader Joes. Felicia Day and Matthew Glave walked past me on occasion at CBS Radford. Jane Lynch I saw at Starbucks. Eric McCormick was outside in his yard when John and I walked by...
I saw Neil Flynn drive away, I missed seeing Christina Applegate walk by me. The cast of Gary Unmarried is very nice. Last but not least, I go to church with Tony Hale, Buster from Arrested Development and one of my favorite TV actors.

5. I went to the Gary Unmarried Christmas party after a taping of their show that I paged at. It was awesome.

6. Office Cast Members seen: None. But I'm working on it.

7. Writings: One full spec, random revisions or reworkings of things here and there, 40 pages of a feature romantic comedy.

8. Sometime in February or March, I walked down Hollywood Blvd, and someone was trying to get people to do something touristy and I was asked if I was visiting or lived here and I said, "I lived here." and it was the first time I realized that I did live here.

9. I have not been inside Amoeba Records my whole year. Nor have I eaten at Jack in the Box, Carl's Jr or Del Taco.

10. I have made some friends but I think a great accomplishment of the year has been strengthening the friendships I had with people who lived out here before I got out here.

11. I saw the CW pilots premiere at the Paley Center, saw the Samantha Who Q & A at the Academy for TV, saw a screening of Dance Flick in Hollywood, and have seen the very talented Dan Roberts, Kahle McCann and Daphne Lamb perform live.

12. I have been here for 3-4 earthquake tremors. One in July, and I was driving so I didn't feel it. One in January, and I felt like it was a truck driving by so that didn't count, one paging for 2 and 1/2 Men and I thought it was someone walking on the bleachers so that didn't count, even though Charlie Sheen felt it. In May I believe was when I was in my apartment, felt the earth move and knew that I was feeling an earthquake.

13. I had breakfast with Michael Warren the day after my birthday, September 2nd. If you don't know, he produced some of the great sitcoms of my generation, one being one of my still favorite sitcoms, Perfect Strangers. It was so great to have gotten a chance to have him as my Act One mentor, and even better to hear about his journey through the industry.

14. God is good.

And I might be spent but if you can think of any funny anecdotes of me in Hollywood, I'd love to hear them. hehe.

But yes, it's been a year.

Oprah's a friend I haven't met yet...

Hey y'all. Who's reading? Show of hands? Well I put in a new template, it's called scribe, and I am a scribe kinda so it works.

So Monday of this week, yesterday, I paged the Oprah after Oscars special, which sounds a lot cooler than it actually was. I was envisioning Oprah greeting us pages, inviting us into her lives, telling us what to read and wear and think. Maybe giving us each a car. LOL, but then again I was half crazed with sleep since the call time was 5am. Basically, half of us processed at least a thousand people's tickets for the event and the other half counted and got them all onto busses to bring them to the Kodak theater.

Once the audience was safely inside, we got to wander Hollywood for an hour and a half, to come back and load them back to their cars later. So a bunch of us went to Mickey D's so I had some delectable breakfast. I love McDonalds breakfast, and i think it's only because it's a special occasion junkfood.

The day lasted 7 hours or so than I got to go home and rest. So it wasn't the glamorous day I expected but I still got paid and got to go into work somewhere.

When I got home I let my temp agencies know that I am available for the week.

Today I was a bit more proactive about the job search, as I got a tip to places who actually call people who submit online applications, so I did that. I also submitted a production resume. I am just praying about the next step because I know I am meant to be in LA for now, I just need to figure out how I am to earn the money.

Right now I am in the middle of editing my Office spec script to submit for consideration for a fellowship. Basically, if they like me and I get the fellowship, I am conditioned by the company to write for one of their shows. I don't know how good my chances are but there are a few more fellowships coming up in the summer, so my next spec will be submitted to both of them.

I have a new love, it's the show Lost. Thanks to my sister I finally got into it, I hadn't seen one episode ever before Christmas break, and then when I started to see the real structure of the show I moved pretty fast into the series. I'm only in Season 2 so don't tell me anything. Especially not where Walt and Michael are right now. I want to give Charlie a big hug.

I ordered a book two weeks ago and it should be in for me any day now. I ordered it from booknation or something, and it's called "The Sacred Romance", written by John Eldredge of Wild at Heart, etc. I am so excited to start it, but booknation sent it to me a week after I ordered it.

I want to read Twilight soon, but also I am looking for other novels to check out. I am thinking the new novel by Alice Sebold, who wrote "The Lovely Bones", a book I found absolutely captivating. Another novel I've loved has been "The Kite Runner". Of course both of the books I mentioned are extremely heartbreaking but if a book can make me care that much than I feel it says something about it.

Well that's about all for me. I hope you're reading, I hadn't been good at keeping up with this thing but I want to. It is a bit theraputic. And who can afford therapy these days? ;-)

Search for Pistachio Ice Cream in this Crazy Crazy World

In this Los Angeles land, there's no love for a lot of foods that I love on the east coast. Many things I can't find, such as the aforementioned ice cream, even though I really can't say I haven't found it because I only went to one place once.

The only other thing I really want to say about food is that it only occurred to me that a "fluffernutter", or a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich, is an exclusively Massachusetts food. I was looked at like I had two heads when I talked of the delights of eating them in my youth. You are missing out, people. They aren't healthy but really, what's healthy these days?

So I just recently passed the 7 month mark of my LA adventure, and I finally have an apartment that is mine to really make my own, and it's pretty exciting. It has a front and back door so it's very home-like, and not impersonal. I can't wait to get some shelves and drawers in my room to really get things nice and clean. It's definitely a work in progress but this time I know I'm not necessarily going anywhere soon. Also I want some art for the walls. The place definitely needs some sprucing but there's time for that.

I'm still not really sure what the job front is bringing me. There's a huge recession right now so I decided to stick to the temp agencies, and I think things will be coming through soon, at least I hope so. One agency likes me, so I think I could be placed with them again any day now. Take it little by little.

I'm getting tired but maybe next time my update will be a little more interesting.