So I Realized I Should Continue...

Hello all,

    So once I had made it here to LA I debated with myself for awhile on whether or not I would continue with the blog. I'm not particularly a wonderful writer and truthfully I had a lot of what I felt were set backs since I get here to LA and wasn't sure if everyone would want to read about my "hardships" because let's face it, I understand and know I have NOTHING to complain about, I have been so blessed to be able to follow my dreams and have a father and friends who are supportive in me picking up my life and moving for a one in a million shot.

    But it is difficult to do what I did, I picked up and moved across the country to a city I had only visited once and had no one with me. I first got here and had this amazing idea in my head of what LA would be like and how it would go, I never thought it would be an easy thing to do but I really never expected what I got here.

   I knew it would be difficult, starting a life in an unknown city but what I wasn't prepared for was the loneliness, the loneliness comes from being in a big city with people everywhere but you seem to not know anyone. I got to experience a lot of firsts I never thought I would;
       I experienced my first meetup, which is a social site that lets you set up meeting groups of people for things you like, I went to my first meetup at a comedy club hoping to meet people my 3rd day here in LA, I never met any of the people who were supposed to also be coming to the meetup and so I went through a full comedy show by myself, and let me tell you the two alcoholic drinks really helped me get through the night without running out of there because I was the only person by myself. My second meetup experience was also not that great, I wore a wonderful fancy dress and spent hours getting ready to go to a lounge after the SAG awards for a networking event, I got there and after more than an hour of waiting outside in line, I left. And then I experienced another first, I went to the movies alone.
      I never realized how many things I always felt like I needed friends or family to do, but I do challenge anyone out there to do just one thing alone they haven't before, it is a very different experience that I felt like helped me understand more of who I am at a deeper level, cause how many times in your life do you get to be just by yourself.
    Now I'm not going to pretend like I have all this knowledge and am super strong because I've done some things by myself, not even close! I have called my dad crying many, many times. I have thought about coming home more then once and I have thought about loading the car back up and driving right back to Pittsburgh. But that would be giving up on why I came out here, to follow my dreams.

    This past week I started at AMAW, Anthony Meindl's Actors Workshop, one of the best if not the best acting studio in LA (not just my opinion!). I was accepted into their intro class and had my first class this past Tuesday. In all the time I have been out here that was by far the best day ever, I felt so alone and like I was behind the ball starting and getting accepted into this major amazing studio and in the first class I realized how not alone I am, every person in my class was so supportive and everyone was just some of the best people I've ever met. I will be at the studio as much as I possibly can, I love the people and the energy in the studio, it really is indescribable!

    I am looking for a new apartment for April, this time I think I will be moving to West Hollywood area, to be closer to the studio and also the area has a lot younger age range then Brentwood, which seems to be mostly families and older people.So I really think it will help me in making friends, because I haven't been having much luck so far in meeting people.

    Overall, it has been a harder few months here in LA then I expected and I have had days where I just cried and wasn't sure I made the right decision by moving here but I still do believe in myself deep down and I still believe this is the start of a new life with a new dream here, and I still believe I can make a life as an actress and in the entertainment industry. It is gonna be harder then I thought but if this is the hardest part of my journey I know I will persevere and more then survive, I will thrive.

Found a place!

So I haven't written much since we got to LA. Mainly because we haven't had much news to share. We have been looking at many, many apartments and still hadn't found one we were really excited about. 

But on Saturday we looked at an apartment that we both felt was a great first fit for me. It is in Brentwood and is a wonderful and safe apartment. We made the final arrangements for the apartment yesterday afternoon and I moved my stuff in :) 

I have a very nice girl, close to my age, as a roommate. I think we will be a great fit for roommates and it is nice to have someone so nice and friendly as a first roommate here in a brand new city across the country. 

I don't have any pictures now to share but when I get settled and unpacked I will for sure post some pictures late in the week. 

2 Days In Vegas

So first, I apologize for not posting the last few days but we have been having a nice relaxing and fun eventful time in Vegas and I just didn't find the time. 

The first day in Vegas we had a very laid back morning and then headed to the strip and got our tickets to Show Stoppers! We then went and got a nice dinner and walk around the Wynn and Encore before the show started that evening. 

Show Stoppers is a brand new show here in Las Vegas and it was amazing!! If you like show tunes at all you will LOVE this show. 

After the show we walked around a little but we are both still on east coast time so it seemed very late so we headed back to the hotel kinda early. 

On New Year's Eve, we had another relaxing morning but went down to the strip and walked around treasure island and the venetian, the Venetian has some amazing views and shopping. We then went back to the hotel for a while before our show that night, Le Rêve- The Dream!

We had a very very interesting trip back to the Wynn, where the show is held. With New Year's Eve Vegas shuts down all the roads and let's the tourists take over the streets to walk about. We did not know this and ended up parking probably a mile or more away with only 20 min to get to our seats. We ran from our car and somehow made it with about 3 minutes to spare. The show Le Rêve is one everyone should see. It is just completely amazing and leaves everyone in awe who sees it. We got to see it when we came this summer and it seemed like a brand new show this time. 

After the show we walked down the streets to the Linq and had dinner at the yard house which was very nice. We tried to make it till midnight but with the cold and the time change we just didn't make it. Back at our hotel I fell asleep but dad said at midnight here they set off fireworks from many different places on the strip and made a big production of it. 

We are now packing up our stuff and about to check out of our hotel and head toward Los Angeles!! We will be there hopefully before dark and get to see the sun set on the pacific on our journey across the country finally over!!

Viva Las Vegas

We are finally in Las Vegas!! We drove 8 hours yesterday and made it from Albuquerque to Las Vegas by 5pm their time. So we drove completely across Arizona which is some crazy beautiful landscape. 

We hit our first traffic in our entire trip right as we got into Nevada. 

Once we got checked into our hotel we decided to go to Fremont street and see what it was all about. 

We walked up and down the street and it's just a crazy place. There were probably 4 stages of people putting on different kinds of shows. And the coolest thing was the people zip lining over the street. It was very fun but it was also very cold, it was actually almost 15 degrees colder in Las Vegas then it was in Pittsburgh, how strange is that!!

We finally realized we were still on east coast time and made it back to the hotel pretty early. We slept in today, "slept in on east coast time" it's still 8am here, and are now about to figure out what we are going to do today. 

Long Day On The Road

We started driving at 9am central time and it's now 8pm mountian time so we have been driving for 12 hours today. 

 

Driving during the day through Arkansas and Oklahoma was really breath taking. I've never been anywhere where I could see for what seemed like forever in every direction. 

Oklahoma was nice but very very long. There wasn't much to see but farms. Although I did get to see my first wind turbine in person, those things are big and were EVERYWHERE!!

We also drove all the way threw the panhandle of Texas. 

And I expected nothing less then everything being bigger in Texas and I was surly not disappointed

The next most amazing thing was for me, I can only remember one other time that dad and I were driving west into the sunset together, the night we flew to Maryland to get my car and were driving it back to Pittsburgh. Dad has told that story to a lot of people about how it was such a great night for him and how much he loved that sight of us driving together into the sunset. Well tonight that was the feeling I got driving with him to make my dreams come true and getting to watch the sunset and driving toward it together. It was one of the most beautiful sights and sunsets I have ever watched. 

We made it to New Mexico...

And we are gonna try and make it to Albuquerque tonight to sleep and hopefully will make it to Las Vegas by a earlyish time tomorrow!

Ar-Kansas

So we finally stopped somewhere and got a hotel. We made it about 24 hours and all the way to Little Rock Arkansas. It was very nice to get a shower and a nights sleep in a bed. 

But now we are on the road again and headed toward Las Vegas. Now the gps says we will get there in about 21 hours so we might have another nights sleep somewhere before we will make it but that's the fun of this trip because we are just winging it. 

🎼 On the road again, I just can't wait to get on the road again 🎶🎶

🎼 On the road again, I just can't wait to get on the road again 🎶🎶

Ok the Country Music Hall of Fame might have been one of the best ideas we had for this trip. We had visited it when I was little, probably like 8-10 but I didn't remember much of it. And it was amazing, highly highly recommend it to anyone who likes country music and is passing through Nashville. 

We started by going to watch a song writer session that the museum does on Saturdays. We got to see Marc Beeson! He was amazing, a great singer and an absolutely amazing songwriter, who had a wonderful sense of humor. He was probably both dad and I's favorite part of the day so far!!!! 

But it didn't take us as long as we thought to go through the Hall of Fame and museum so we walked outside and decided since it was only about 2pm that the best thing we could do was get in the car and keep trucking down the road. So that's exactly what we are doing! 

(I know I said I would try to stop with the horizontal pictures but this was part of an exhibit at the Hall of Fame and I just couldnt resist!)

Our gps has us headed toward Memphis, which for any WVU fans out there should know there's a big bowl game Monday night, so we might get to have a surprise meet up with some WVU fans for our next mini stop!?! I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens!?!