Farewell, EL

 Oh, the home of the 2004-2005 Second Team Academic All State Girls Ski-Team. 

Living, biking, playing, stumbling, sleeping, pokey-stix eating, dancing, tandeming, blading and running on the streets of East Lansing, I experienced so much these past four years. 

I ran the streets wearing only buns; dressed as an avatar creature; in an eighties sweat suit; covered in poison ivy; with my friends; alone; carrying a turkey sandwich; after eating a donut; while eating a banana.

I ran in the woods; in the stadium; through skywalks; over tractor tires; under signs; through the children's garden; the hobo trail; the arbs; jenison track; the river trail; THE LAVA TRAIL; backyards; frontyards; backyard sidewalks.

 
Mid-run pit stops included buying sunscreen, Rockying up the capitol steps, drinking a slurpee, getting a free hug, depositing cash, peeing, doing more than just peeing then wiping with poision ivy, drinking water at TA's, petting her dogs, bonging a beer, jumping in a pool, laying on my back panting, tying my shoes.

All the while, laughing, parcouring, complaining, learning, and sweating. 

Blah, blah, blah verb vomit, sorry. Don't even get me started on my time spent not running.

The past four weeks that I spent here were probably way too much fun and made it even harder to leave. (hopefully I get my shit together enough to write about them and can put a convenient link here).

On Sunday, I finished the painfully slow process of moving out my life. The careful twitter/instagram follower/chosen text receiver knows by now that I'm not currently in Chicago.

That ticket wasn't exactly my best $20 investment.

This, on the other hand, was.

Now, I be moving to LA.

 Liana's reaction is pretty on-point.

He did. And, after talking with my parents, friends, dental hygentist, neighbor, and everybody else who is alive, I realized it's what I really need to do. Probably of equal importance, it's what I really want to do.

I am currently in Lake Orion memorizing my AAA map and desperately piecing together a plan. It looks like I'm going to follow the same couch-surfing/exploring plan as Chicago. It'll just be ten degrees warmer and a lot closer to the ocean. 

The ticket is a bit more expensive, though, so let's hope this one sticks.

It isn't even fun anymore to list how unprepared I am because it's too easy. But I'll tell you this: I haven't been on a plane since age 7 when we flew to DC for a mathletes' competition. I wasn't even a mathlete. I was a helper. 

Regardless, on Wednesday, June 20th I will hop off the plane at LAX with my dreams and no cardigan because it is summer and f'ing hot.

I'm going to take a shuttle up to Panorama City and stay with a friend from high school for a little while. I'm hoping I can piece together a place to stay for the two weeks after that (things will work out because they have to). 

I'm going to spend my time there looking for jobs, finding roommates, a place to live, scoping out the improv scene and experimenting with the hardest of drugs. 

After three weeks, I fly back for my brother's wedding. The day after he gets married, my dad and I will drive all of my belongings west 2,000 miles. At least the blog posts will be enjoyable.

This doesn't really fit, therefore it's perfect:  

"I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the porpoise. " -George Carlin

****COMMENT CONTEST OMG******

Nobody leaves comments, so I'm changing that. Whoever posts the best EL running memory that I've forgotten will get a postcard from me professing how much I love and appreciate you. You don't even have to write a full story. Just a sentence is all I ask.
Deadline is one week from today, people.

Living With A Porpoise

By the way, my friend Emily is an amazing artist.

This was a graduation present and it's perfect.

As soon as she starts selling work online, I will post a link and you will go there and buy everything.

Oh, and obvi: "The great and glorious masterpiece of man is knowing how to living with a porpoise" -Montaigne

I recommend my friends.

I HAVEN'T WRITTEN THIS YET BECAUSE I SUUUUUCK.

How The Scary Man changed my life in 8 minutes

Since I'm young and ignorant, I decided to e-mail the guy who wrote Wanted.

Michael Brandt is a really nice, down-to-earth guy who co-wrote and also directed The Double.  It was filmed in Detroit in 2010 and I worked as a PA in the production office. There's no way he remembers me. But I have the crew list and clearly no boundaries.

His show, Chicago Fire, was recently picked up by NBC. Perfect, right?!

He e-mailed me back the next day (nice, down-to-earth guy) and cc'd the e-mail address of the show's producer. I was beyond excited. I imdb'd the producer to check him out. I saw that he produced 190 episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I took a deep breath and decided I should probably update my resume.
While sitting on the futon with Klare,

Klare.

my phone rang.

 I jumped up and banged every part of my Allie in the process of getting over to it.

The scariest voice I've ever heard said, "Is this Allie?"
I said "uh-huh" because I was scared and am not articulate.
"This is the producer for Chicago Fire".

His IMDB didn't have a pic but this I think this is him.

(Intro shaky voice Allie)
We talked for about a minute about MSU's program and then he said:

"Why the fuck are you moving to Chicago?"(expletive included) (sorry Mom)

I  quickly responded by opening and closing my mouth six times while lightly breathing into the phone.
This man did not beat around the bush. He said that if I really want to "make it" I need to go to LA. I brought up the homeless point and he didn't buy it. After enduring 8 solid minutes of verbal abuse from this powerful stranger I hung up, a little confused, excited, scared, nervous, hopeful and probably hungry.

I'm not sure what I'll do yet. He made some really good points. I'm going home for a night tomorrow and we'll see what Lisa thinks. If anyone can outweigh Scary Man it's Scary Mom. We'll see.

But hey, look at this:"Efforts and courage are not enough without porpoise and direction."-John F. Kennedy

Two days at the pleasant mount

 First and foremost, this girl rocks:

Her performance was one of the many incredible things I had the pleasure of seeing during the 2012 Michigan Summer Olympic Games this past week. 

Okay, so back-tracking real quick: Thursday evening Kyle told me about an opportunity to work with an up-and-coming video company, The RUSH.  I jumped at the chance (IDK if you've heard, I'm looking for work).

The Rush (TheRUSH.com) is a Michigan-made start up that uses a really unique program. Basically, they film sporting events (often for High Schools) and invented this technology that records separate snippets (highlights) of the game. It then tags the players' names and the clips are uploaded to the web. Anyone can log into the site (free!), search an athlete's name and voila, see a list of their video highlights. I think it's going to totally revolutionize college athletic recruitment. Pretty exciting stuff happening here in MI.

You can also get the videos sent to your phone. Like instant replay. It's amazing.

While working there, I met Kyle's cousin, Adam. He's only 17 but seems to have about 25 years worth of maturity and perspective. Our first conversation consisted of dissecting the ways in which school systems perpetuate social injustice. I did a lot of listening.

Obviously, he's a pretty cool kid.

After a long day, we headed to a really cool coffee place. The ceiling was covered with coffee bean bags which I was really jazzed about. While there, I engaged in my newest favorite hobby: job searching.

Obviously, my newest favorite hobby is actually instagramming.

This trip could've been categorized as an internship or job shadow for my upcoming career in the field of homelessness. We didn't have a for-sure place to stay, so we wandered into the dorms and found some pretty comfortable couches. Adam and I quickly fell asleep.

I woke up a while later to find a very helpful note from Kyle. He explained that he'd left us to go to a pizza party in a nearby building and that he'd be back in 1 - 1.5 hours. No directions, no time of departure. We were left with two dead phones and nearly no pride.
Thankfully, he'd had the time and consideration to take pics.

Vulnerability at its finest

After somehow surviving our public slumber, we headed to a friend's apartment. There, the three of us shared a lot of laughs and a little bed. With barely any sleep, we got up the next day to do it all again.

Lake Orion Vid Kids reunited

It was fantastic to be around some of the most hardworking and positive athletes I've seen. I got more high-fives than I often do in a year. It was a great two days.

 I hate to do this again, but it fits pretty well. "Our prime porpoise in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." -Dalia Lama