LA: Days 1 & 2

On Wednesday, I awoke at 4:30 in Lake Orion to begin my journey west. After an eventful ride to the airport with my dad and sister, I arrived at DTW 20 minutes before my flight took off. Thankfully, the kind woman working security could tell that I was at puke-level panic and she let me scramble through a separate metal detector.

I made my way to the terminal in my socks and stopped to breathe a sigh of relief because they'd just begun to board. 

An account of being poor, I'd been assigned a middle seat. Luckily for me, a couple was put in my row so they offered I take the window in order to sit together. The woman gave me a hang-loose sign and said "Right on" when I complied which I think is note-worthy.

Hey look, a picture from a plane.

After four hours of not speaking aloud, I landed in Vegas!

I won $1.25 on the slots then promptly lost $4.

Aaaand then I saw this.

 Fantastic.

After tweeting 6.2 million times and talking to the fam, I'd finally had enough social interaction to will myself back onto a plane.

An hour later, I arrived at LAX!

A mean woman gave me directions and then this.

(I should've asked her for 15 more 

because I loved every response to the comment contest) 

So, completely by coincidence, Katie, Liana and Brian happened to be flying through LAX the same day on their way to Australia. I decided to wait around for them to meet up before departing. It was this decision that ultimately led me to be at LAX for 9 hours. 

And that was my first day in LA.

 It actually worked out pretty cool because the LAX international departures terminal has a sweet set-up. I ended up chatting with an older businessman, Sammy, for 2 hours while charging our phones. I didn't take a picture of him because I'm learning what boundaries are. But this is the chair he sat in so do your best to imagine him.

Sammy is a really nice man and has done a lot in his life. He speaks 7 languages and tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me Chinese phrases.  We talked about his daughters, one of whom is a producer for ABC and he ended up giving me her number. So that was cool.

 About an hour and half into our conversation he told me about a time he was kidnapped in Mexico. I'm pretty positive my mouth hung open for the duration of his story. 

Apparently, a group of guys grabbed him off of the streets and held him hostage for four days in order to travel around and cash checks in his name. They beat him up and pulled out some of his teeth. He told me he was lucky to be alive and I realized I should probably stop asking questions because being kidnapped is a horrible thing to recount.

 Miraculously, he's a really positive guy and seems to be handling things well. I'm really glad to have met him. 

After Sammy left to go pick up his daughter I wandered around and became more and more delusional and exhausted. Thankfully, my friends arrived right when I was getting myself stuck in a convo with a man and his unkempt soul patch so I really dodged a bullet there.

Jazzed.

I stuck around to have dinner with them before saying goodbye as they headed off to Australia (read about their adventures here: Lianakatiebriandownunder). Afterwards, I went to wait in the underground land of LAX for my shuttle.

By the time I was in the shuttle I'd been awake for 21 hours and was really close to ceasing to function.

After a 45 minute trip I finally arrived at my friend's place in Panorama City (or Shitty as it's called) (we'll get to that). 

My safety wasn't much of a concern, however, because I a pit-bull literally slept on top of me. You can not get more safe than that. 

Her name is Milkshake and she is the best.

Day 2

I woke up and decided to sit in the dark living room and look at Panorama City crime statistics for 2 hours.

 Don't ever do that.

The only thing that prevents me from carrying Milkshake with me everywhere I go is a lesson I learned two summers ago when I went through a phase of Wikipediang serial killers.

We don't need to get too much into it, but for some reason I researched all of the gruesome details of American serial killers and didn't run alone for a month. 

Now, I'm infinitely wiser than that Allie I rationalized that just because I read the crime statistics it doesn't mean I will automatically get murdered. (BUT DON'T WORRY I'M STILL RUNNING WITH PEPPER SPRAY, MOM)

After becoming brave and taking a shower, I spent the day talking with the guys in the house, e-mailing people about jobs and googling more stuff about housing. Around 3:00 I remembered what eating was and walked a block to the nearest grocery store.

The place is called "Seafood Market Superstore" but I in actuality is just a hodgepodge of asian stuff.

So you get a sense, this is the noodle aisle NOT the oriental aisle:

 

 Oh look, eggs:

Just in case you ever happened to buy a seedless watermelon:

By some stroke of luck, I found a few grocery items I was famliar with and made my way back home.

 Unfortunately, a pipe burst in the house I'm staying at so their kitchen is inoperable. 

Lol.

So, for dinner I just threw together a PB, honey, and carrot sandwich.

E-mail me if ya want the recipe

In my defense, this was my only option at Little Asia for jelly:

I'm really tired and a little overwhelmed by the search but each day more and more things are coming together for me. So, I'll keep on it and keep you guys posted.

Sorry this one isn't very funny or enjoyable to read. 

Oh well.

"We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the porpoise of profiting by dearly bought experience. " -George Washington

Observation #1: Succesful people respond

In preparation for my trip to LA, I learned my first lesson about people in LA. It's this: Successful people respond to e-mails. Promptly.

During the past two weeks of frantic networking, I've contacted 16 people that live out in the area and are involved with the industry. They range from unemployed student and consistently employed grip to accomplished "deep voice guy", locations manager and director. Plus, there's a ton of in-between.

Here's what I've noticed: the most accomplished people respond first and most consistently.
The individuals that I'd put in the category of "Successful, real-life adults" each responded to my emails within five hours.

And these guys are busy! One has written a musical that was made into a movie. The movie came out on Friday. I e-mailed him on Sunday. He e-mailed me back 2 hours later.

Sidenote: Rock of Ages is hilarious.

Now, you know these people aren't responding because they can somehow benefit from connecting with me. If anything, I've done a great job making it clear to them that I am a disaster. But, they reply. And their replies are fantastic. They offer advice, one offered his couch, and all of them offer to meet up with me once I'm there. They are really trying to help.

I have a hard time diagnosing precisely why the individuals who are 8 million times busier than myself are better at responding to my e-mails than I am to theirs.

As a rule, I am terrible at responding. To e-mails, text messages, really any form of communication.  In thinking about it, I realized that I'm overwhelmed by communication. It's much easier to check something and decide that it can be handled later than it is to sit down and tackle it right-away. These guys, on the other hand, knock stuff out instantly. And it's no coincidence that they have this attitude and have accomplished some really great things.

If you've listened to me in my past posts you know that you should never listen to me. I've done a thorough job getting across the fact that my life is a scattered shitshow. So, I'm not writing this to give advice. I guess I'm just letting you all know, starting now, I've realized that it's important for me to be better at responding to e-mails (texts, phone calls). So, I'm going to be. And you guys can hold me to it.

The people I've contacted are helping me out so much and I'm infinitely grateful. I hope it's only a short matter of time before I can help out the future disasters.

"The porpoise of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others. " -Albert Schweitzer

Advice from smart people

In the past few weeks I discovered these and find myself coming back to them.

I think they are relevant and valuable to anyone who is starting something new.
Which is everyone.

Check them out, yo.

 "Make Good Art"

Neil Gaiman

This is just plain amazing and completely worth every second to watch.

----------

"You Are Not Special"

David Mccullough Jr.

 

I think this guy might really hate himself but he makes some good points. If you can stick with it until the 8 minute mark, it's worth it.

----------

"The Opposite of Loneliness"

Marina Keegan

She offers an outstanding perspective while addressing the sincerest fears a lot of us have about graduation.

Keegan: The Opposite of Loneliness

"Any idea, plan, or porpoise may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought." -Napolean Hill

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