And the award goes to...

This was an amazing weekend. After a fun Saturday with Mike, Sunday was the AMA's. Unlike the VMA's, I was allowed to take my phone inside, sit down, and I didn't have to show up like 4 hours early. It was just a much more relaxed atmosphere. So after sitting in a lot of traffic and showing up just in time, Hal, Cindy, Aaron and I settled into our seats in the third row. They told us that if we were caught taking pictures that we would be immediately kicked out. But I still was able to sneak a few.

At the other shows I've been to, there has been a lot of seperation between the celebrities and the rest of the audience. But last night, we were right next to them all. And everyone that had to get up and go to the stage for any reason had to walk right behind my chair. So at some point in the night we were close enough to all of them that if we leaned back in our chairs we would've hit them as they walked by.

Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, and Justin Bieber

My sneaky picture of Jenny McCarthy sitting behind me.

Nicki Minaj

I wish I could've taken pics of them all as they walked by or of the performances. But it was hard to take any pictures with the staff everywhere. But by the time LMFAO came on (they closed the show) I figured I'd just start taking pictures like crazy.

Another VERY COOL thing to note. One Republic asked fans to send in pictures of themselves and their friends enjoying life and having fun. They'd then pick some to display on the big screens during their performance. I didn't have to look hard to see hers because it flashed up on the big screen during the song! And another one she sent appeared in a montage at the end. So cool!

At one point during the show I started getting a ton of messages from people that saw me. They zoomed right in on me clapping for Katy Perry at one point. So I can now say I had my fifteen minutes of fame.. Well, more like three seconds.

It was definitely a lot of fun, and I hope I can do it again. Thanks again to Angie for the tickets!

Outside after the show

The aftermath of a great night.

This morning Hal left to shoot a pilot for about two weeks. So it's just me and Biff for a while!

That's it for now. It's Monday and I'll be leaving work early to watch SIDNEY CROSBY play his first game in almost a year tonight!!! And then I only have two more days of work before my long weekend for Thanksgiving. I wish I could be back in PA for the week, but I'm still looking forward to a nice Thursday with the Searers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Keeping busy

It's been another good week in LA.

Saturday Mike and I went to see the Penguins play the Kings at Staples Center. We took the train over and grabbed some dinner at an italian place called Bottega Louie. It was hands down the best meal I've ever had. I wish I would've taken some pictures, but I was too busy stuffing my face with some of the most unique and delicious foods I've ever eaten. Portobello fries and Asparagus with Fried Eggs are definitely two of my new favorites.

After the meal we walked over to the game.

The Kings warming up

Faceoff!

Respecting The Great One

Our seats were right behind the goaltender on the side the Penguins shot at twice. It was perfect, and the Pens won in a shootout. I couldn't have asked for a better game and I'm glad I got to go with someone who is as big of a Pittsburgh sports nut as I am. Neither one of us had a voice by the end of the game.

Thanks so much to Mike and Angie for the ticket!! And for hosting and feeding us on yet another football Sunday.

Marinated steak burger with chopped parmesan and ceaser dressing. My food truck addiction continues. About ten down so far, 60 left until I've had them all.

This week Hal got some work as a Keygrip on a shoot in Texas. He'll be gone for a while starting November 21st, so I'll be going it alone for a few weeks!

This weekend our friend Angie got us tickets to the American Music Awards on November 20th. It's very similar to the VMA's, with about fifteen of the biggest names in music performing. It's going to be really fun, I can definitely get used to going to all these award shows!

And last but not least, I got some extra work for Dick Clark's New Years Eve taping in early December. I'll be working on crowd control in some way. Another chance to see some of the biggest musical acts take the stage!

So everything has been going great (with the exception of someone hitting my car this week). It's been a week in my love/hate relationship with this city.

That's it for now. I'm going to finish the week out at work, then look forward to a weekend of hockey, bufallo chicken dip, birthday parties, and relaxation.

Why aren't the leaves changing??

All is well here in California. I've had the opportunity to participate in more than a few Halloween activities in the last week. And each one was pretty awesome.

Those pictures are from the West Hollywood Halloween celebration. A yearly celebration that brings a HALF MILLION people into the streets of Santa Monica Blvd. to "celebrate" Halloween from 7PM-6AM. Everyone is decked out in costumes, so I got to see some very cool and creative stuff... And some stuff that was not so cool and I wish I wouldn't have seen.

Disgusting...

ANYWAYS, before that I went with a friend from work to another free concert at Jimmy Kimmel Live. This time my inner metalhead was reborn, as I got to see one of my all time favorite bands, Megadeth.

Pretty cool of them to play the entire show in full costume.

Over the weekend, Mike was kind enough to invite us over and treat us to some pretty amazing food.

We also went to a really cool Halloween party in a freshly remodeled huge warehouse loft. Got to see Brit and a few familiar faces that I haven't seen too much since the month I stayed on Brit's couch in BH.

All in all, things have been going great. This weekend I'll be going to the Penguins/Kings game with Mike on Saturday (Thanks for the ticket!), then heading over to his house Sunday night for some football.

Should be another fun weekend!

Looking forward

Not a lot to report this week. October has been a "Get Things Done" month, so almost all of my money has gone towards things that were long overdue. This weekend I had to take Biff to the vet and get my car fixed up to pass the California Smog Inspection. Not very exciting, and definitely not a fun way to spend money. But now that I have all that stuff out of the way, I can concentrate on the weeks to come.

I'll be going to a free Megadeth concert (I'm a huge 80's/90's metal fan) for Jimmy Kimmel Live on Halloween night.

I'm going to the Penguins/Kings game with some friends on November 5th.

I'll be enjoying Thanksgiving with The Searer's since Troy and Lisa were nice enough to invite me.

And I'll be saving all December so I can go out and have fun with all my friends and family when I'm home for Christmas.

So every few weeks, I have something to look forward to. And I'm sure it'll make the time fly by. And although I didn't do too much in the last week, here's a few pictures:

A foggy night at the pier. From the beach side.

From out over the water.

The coolest three-legged dog ever at the office.

Half way through October

I really love LA food.

Not much to report right now. Just working and trying to get my car all fixed up to meet the strict California emissions standards. Which is not a fun process!

But other than that, everything is pretty good. I bought some used skates and finally got to test them out over the weekend. They feel really great, and it felt awesome to get back out on the ice. And yes, I pretty much immediately fell flat on my face. Gotta get back into the swing of things!

This last weekend I also rented out a rehearsal space with some guys from work. They had amps and drums, so my friends supplied the guitars and off we went. It was really nice, especially considering the fact that I haven't really got to play electric guitar in a few months and I haven't played drums in over a year.

I wish I had more to post, but it's been a pretty tame (but busy) week. The next few should be pretty fun though. There's a lot of cool Halloween activities to get involved in, and of course a hockey game in a few weeks to go to.

And I can't believe we're already more than halfway through October. I'll be back in PA before I know it!

The date is set

To start things off, I have finally booked my flight home for Christmas. I'll be back in PA 12/24 - 1/1. Not as long as I had originally hoped, but still long enough to have a great time with great people. I want to make it my goal to see EVERYONE. Even people I didn't really see much when I lived in PA. So mark your calendars, and let's make some plans!

On another note, my first credited TV show will be on October 21st. You'll be able to see my name in the credits for "My Extreme Animal Phobia" for an entire season on Animal Planet.

Check it out!

I also checked out another free Jimmy Kimmel concert last week. This time I went with a coworker to see Blink 182. It was fun and I got to talk to Mark Hoppus briefly!

A few days after the concert I stopped by the monthly food truck night on Melrose, and I ran into Rusty from H2O. Anyone that knows me knows all about my obsession with this band. I've seen them over ten times and have their lyrics tattooed on my arm. I stopped and talked to him for a bit and he told me that he knows how hard it can be to move here from the east coast. He was so nice that he actually exchanged phone numbers with me, so he could let me know when things are going on around here and introduce me to some people. Needless to say, I will be contacting him!!! This city can be really cool sometimes.

Other than that, things haven't changed much since I started the new job. I've decided that I need to get back on the ice and play hockey. I'm buying some used skates this week to start getting back into shape, and hopefully within the next few months I can slowly start stockpiling gear so I can play on a regular basis again.

The used hockey gear shop close to my apartment will certainly help.

That's all for now!

Quick Update

Well I've been a working man for a week now, and what a busy week it has been! My job requires me to go all over LA, and also to do a lot of busy work at the office. The days are long and the work is hard, but it's a great company to start in and I'm very lucky to be here. With travel time included my days are usually 12-14 hours long, but the time flies by!

A shot of a late run I had to make to Warner Bros. Always cool to see the famous water tower!

I also took some work this weekend, I was mic running and helping out at a hotel seminar. The same group I worked for a few weeks ago. All in all, I worked about 75 hours last week. But it felt so good to work, and be busy again. The power actually went out at the hotel, which meant no more mic work for me, and I got paid to just sit around while they had the seminar in the dark. Easy money!

This is rather random, but food trucks are a huge deal around LA. And I keep hearing about and seeing this grilled cheese truck around. It's supposed to be amazing, but I'm always busy or in a hurry when I see it. I need to track this thing down.

That's it for now! Gotta get back to work, after work I'm walking over to Hollywood Blvd. for a free private Blink 182 concert I was able to get tickets to. It should be a lot fun, and it'll be televised on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight. So I'll take lots of pictures for next time!