the new place

i have a new apartment!

rebecca and dinah (my new roommates) and i all moved in early last week. after unpacking, decorating, and shopping at target, it's ready to make its debut. it's beautiful, and i'm very happy to call it home for now. my room:

and grandma's blue chair in the living room:

the other side of the living room:

we're about two miles from the theatre, in a beautiful area called old louisville. all of the houses are old and have been maintained very well. this city is full our surprises; there are lots of blocks of great restaurants and shops and farmers markets.

we start working tomorrow, and i can't wait!

xoxo, ellen

packing up and moving out

hello everyone!

after a year long hiatus, i've decided to start updating on holiday again. on monday, i leave for kentucky to spend a year working at actors theatre of louisville. i'm going a little crazy, doing last minute packing (let's be honest, just plain packing), trying to learn one more monologue before i leave, dog sitting, and thinking of all sorts of other last minute things i need to do.

it's going to be a busy nine months--acting, crewing, working in the office, all day, every day. one moment i'm so thrilled to go and totally ready, and the next i'm panicking and wondering why i ever left los angeles.

i can't wait for this next adventure. over and out!

week three: parade!

so dad might have told you by now, but i have become a new lakers fan.  this is because i live in los angeles, have never paid attention to professional basketball before, and i hear the lakers are awfully good.  also, they had a parade that went right by my house.  

yes, the lakers are the 2009 nba champs, so yes, they decided to have a victory parade (whats a $52 million deficit for the city of LA to stop that for?).  and because i live one block away from figureoa avenue, where the parade was, i decided to go.  kimmy, my roommate, is a big lakers fan, as are her boyfriend ryan and sister angie, and so they came to the parade with us.  the following pictures are courtesy of angie.

ryan, me, and kimmy, waiting for the parade to start!

this is my new favorite lakers player, pau, the center.  he is my favorite becuase he is 7 feet tall and from spain.  

i think i need to learn a little bit more about basketball.  but i like liking this team!  as long as they keep having parades.

week two

well, it's week two of my summer holiday.  one update: i have a new internship, with an acting manager.  a manager is someone who represents actors, gets them out on auditions, and supports them if they get jobs.  so now, every wednesday, i'll be helping this manager submit her actors for auditions, making calls to coordinate between the actors, etc.  i'm very excited; this is a part of the acting business that i know nothing about!

the exciting thing that i did this week was go to see the play "our town" at the actors gang.  my friends and i are trying to see a lot of LA theatre this summer, since it's what we all want to do, and because it's important to know the theatre scene.  our town is one of my all-time favorite plays, and many of you probably remember sitting through a version i did at good ol' shawnee mission east.  with no disrespect to the lancers, this version was probably much better.  it was a very simple, moving version of the play and i loved it.  i laughed and cried (if you don't cry at the end of this play, there is something wrong with you).  Here is a production still from the actors gang blog:

that's ma and doc gibbs, father of george gibbs, the male lead.   it was so good!

ta ta for now!

ellen

week one

week one of my summer holiday.

kimmy, ellen, and me at the end of hike in griffith park.

the highlight of this week was on saturday, when me, my roommate kimmy, and my friends ellen and kami went for a hike in griffith park.  griffith park is a city park at the top of the hollywood hills just north of los angeles.  you can hike all the way up to the top of the hill and get a great view of the entire city of LA.  you don't realize just how huge the city is until you see all of it.  cases in point (s):

this is the west part of the city.  the horizon is actually the beach.  

this is the east part of the city.  the tall group of buildings is downtown, and usc is just past that.  you can't see the school; the buildings are too small.  

i'll update next week!

ellen

it's the summer holidays

well friends,

after a long and tiring semester in which on holiday was sadly updated only sparsely, i am back!  it's the summer holiday, and i will be spending it in los angeles, because it is sunny here.  

these are the things i will be doing:

1. working in the usc grand street library:  this is the library where usc books go when they are unloved.  i shelve them and update the records.  but the best part is when i steal away, snatch a book from the shelves, and read in the book stacks.  books perused so far include: what to do with your money, best business schools in america, manifest destiny and the period before the civil war, and a 1928 copy of "vanity fair."  

2. interning at pacific stages.  they're an up-and-coming theatre company, and i will be helping to produce the summer season of staged readings.

3. planning lots of events and things for the girls that will join adpi in the fall.  this includes planning bid night, buying lots of thing with "alpha delta pi!!!!" written on them, and checking another email account.  

i promise to update weekly, with details of these happenings and also of the shenanigans that take place during the weekends.  i'm planning to "tour" LA and do things i've never done before, like to to griffith park and the la brea tarpits.  

xoxo

ellen

drinking legally

it is 21st birthday season. both my roommate kimmy and i became legal this month, which conseqeuntly opens lots of fun things that we can do in LA! these pictures are from kimmy's birthday party, where we went to LA Live, a new devleopment kind of like the Power and Light District. we celebrated at lucky strike, a swankified bowling alley, and yardhouse, a cool restaurant that has a late night happy hour from 10-12 with lots of flavored martinis. yum!

bowling shoes!
all the girls: kimmy, anna, ellen, amy, and me (all adpi's)

kimmy gets a strike!