I am exhausted.  California wears me out.

Cool thing just happened though -- we are watching the SciFi channel here in the room and I saw a promo for a Eureka sweepstakes with Degree. Go here for more:

http://www.scifi.com/eureka/madeineureka/

I guess since I saw that commercial on I can say that Eureka has teamed up with Degree (for men I think) this season.  I won't say anything else because I don't want to cross any confidentiality lines here.  Anyway it's kind of cool because I get to witness how they deal with the "partnership" from a writer's standpoint and since that's my area of interest and the focus of my seminar paper, it's extra interesting to me.

As far as the fire aftermath goes, here are some more pics I stole from http://eurekaunscripted.tumblr.com I need to give credit where credit is due, but I'm not sure who exactly took these pictures -- Eric is the one who posted them though so that's who we'll credit here. 

If you want more info about the writers and the aftermath of the fire go to that site and read all about it!!! You can even see pictures of the temporary workspace we will be in until Tuesday probably.

On the internship front, things are still going really well.  I still love it, I love the writers and producers even more because they have taken the time to actually talk to me and show interest in my existence and my learning process so that's absolutely amazing.  I know they are busy (I see it on an almost daily basis) so it means a lot that they take the time out of their day to show interest in me, the lowly intern.  I hope I am making a good impression on them, I guess as long as I get out of the summer without them hating me or thinking I'm a moron, I'll call that a success.  

Yesterday was a particularly uneventful day, at least for me.  I spent most of the day reading a script for my rewrite class.  I think I need to learn to be more vocal, or at least more brave at my internship because I learned later in the day that it would have been totally cool for me to have been in the writer's room all day instead of in the lobby trying to entertain myself and still be productive.  But I'm still not totally sure of the lines and where I can cross.  I'm sure as I get more comfortable in my surroundings and get to know everyone a little more I'll figure out when and what lines I can cross.  I was particularly paranoid yesterday because there wasn't a lot to do and I didn't want to look like I was slacking off, but there's only so much I can do. 

Anyway, last night we went to the Sherman Oaks Galleria.  It's basically a mall.  I took some pictures, but I haven't uploaded them yet.  I'll post them some other time.  The only cool thing about the Galleria really is the fact that it's where the mall parts of 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' were shot, only back then the mall didn't look anything at all like it does now because apparently there was a fire and when they rebuilt, they made it into an open air mall.  That's your Wikipedia fact of the day.

Today, we went to the beach.

It was fantastic.

We went to El Matador.  It's beautiful there.  We drove through Malibu on the PCH to get there and it was really pretty.  Malibu wasn't as pretty as I had pictured it, but it was still pretty.  We drove right by Cher's beach house, but we were going to fast to take any pictures.

It's really high up and really scenic.  We had to walk down a HUGE hill and a bunch of stairs just to get to the beach itself.

But it was so worth it, the beach was beautiful.

There were lots of rocks at this beach.  It reminded me of the beach at the beginning of 'Grease.'

We were going to explore the caves and rocks but I fell off of one and hurt my leg.

That's the one we were going to go through and that BIG rock is the one I fell off of.

And that's what it did to my leg.  Plus it took off about half of my big toenail.  Yuk.  It hurts, but I'll live.  Anyway, we just went back and made a little camp at the other end of the beach and played.

That other guy that isn't Matt is Zack, he's Brianna's friend who lives out here and he's the one who drove us out to the beach.

Yep, see I really was there today!

And of course we wrote in the sand, because that's what you do...

We also saw lots of dolphins jumping in the water but we never could time it just right to get a picture.  They were really close to us though and we saw a lot of sea gulls dive into the water for food and come back up.  They also tried to attack our bag of chips.

All in all it was an awesome day.  We think we will go back to the beach tomorrow, but we'll probably go to a closer one.  There are apparently some decent ones just north of Santa Monica. The beach is my new favorite place right now.  But it sure wears me out. We really didn't do anything that physically hard but I am really really tired.  Oh well.  

TOTAL MILES TODAY: 0

TOTAL GAS: Still around $350/$400 for the whole trip

TODAY'S THEME SONG: 'Pork and Beans' by Weezer 

I'm sorry, I realize it's been two days since my last post.  I'm lazy.  I also haven't taken any pictures in the last two days.  I did however steal these pictures from eurekaunscripted.tumblr.com.  That's the Eureka writer's blog.

These are pictures of the aftermath of the fire taken from just outside the Eureka writer's trailer.  You can see the damage, but you can't smell it.  We've been smelling it all week.  Well, Tuesday anyway.  Yesterday we moved to temporary office space on the lot where we'll be until next week.  They are apparently cleaning our parking lot this evening so at least we won't be wading through ash and burnt video tape tomorrow morning.  I get to drive the golf cart shuttle which is fun.  I have to say, driving the golf cart around the lot is probably one of my most favorite things at the moment.  That's right, I'm so very easily amused.

Oh yeah, here are those pictures: 

Anyway, Tuesday was pretty miserable in the trailer.  When we came in that morning there was a thin layer of ash over almost everything.  The smell was horrendous and by the end of the day we were all suffering in some way.  Thania had a giant headache, Nick and Eric were dealing with runny noses and watery eyes, and I think John was suffering from it all, he looked like he had been crying all day, and his eyes were watering, I think he ended up leaving early.  I had a headache by the end of it and my throat was swollen and sore.  Thank goodness we moved yesterday.

The really cool thing about this week was that I got to spend quite a bit of time observing the writer's room.  It was a lot of fun and I wish I could just spend all of my time listening to them break stories and work through notes they get on stories from network and the studio.  It's very interesting and all of the writers and producers are really nice about letting us observe and they always take time to stop every now and then and address us interns, even if it is just to tease us about how "interesting" it is to be in a real writer's room.  I think they take for granted that it really is interesting, at least to someone like me who has never experienced anything like it before.

Anyway, the internship is going really well.  I think I'm making a decent impression, they don't seem to hate me so that's good.  We had our internship orientation Tuesday and Katie (the other intern) and I both left that feeling like we got the best deal of all the 230 interns at NBC this summer.  Most of the other interns showed up in ties, slacks, skirts, and very formal dress.  We were both wearing jeans.  There was a lot of talk about how some of the interns aren't really interacting with the people in the departments they are interning in and Katie and I both looked at each other and agreed that we are very lucky.  We get face time on a daily basis with the Exec. Producers and all of the writer's.  They know us by name and take time out each day to at least say hi to us even if it is a really busy day.

Yesterday there wasn't really a ton of stuff to do, the internet was down and we spent a good portion of the afternoon playing Hangman, Name that Tune, and I sat in the writer's room for about the last two hours of the day.  So all is well on the internship front.

As for L.A....

L.A. is apparently a vortex of time suckage.  I feel like out here there are really only about 20 hours in a day.  It's always 9 or 10 at night before I realize the entire day has gone. Days don't seem as long out here and that's really throwing me for a loop.  I keep going back and forth on how I feel about this town.  It's a strange place and so big.  Everything seems to be happening so fast and I always thought L.A. was way more laid back, but it doesn't feel like it.  I still have yet to meet anyone out here (with the exception of Katie) who is actually from here and yet I still get funny looks when people find out I'm from Missouri.  Yesterday I spent most of my lunchtime telling them what it's like to be in a tornado.  They couldn't believe the sky actually does turn green.  That was a weird experience.  They also were pretty surprised when I told them that humidity basically makes it feel like you're swimming outside and it's something we deal with on an everyday basis from about March to October.  

I think I'm kind of in culture shock.

I don't know if L.A. is a place I really want to be.  I'm torn though, because this internship really solidifies the fact that I DO want to work in TV/Film.  I want to produce and write.  I just don't want to live in L.A. and it worries me because I think I won't be able to do what I want to do if I don't live out here.  And I go back and forth everyday about whether I could live here or not.  Some days I think I could, others I think I couldn't.

Part of it is the fact that right now, L.A. doesn't actually feel like a place.  I don't see how people have normal lives here.  Where are the homes?  Where are the suburbs?  And I never thought I would say this, but I was really excited tonight to see a strip mall.  It made me feel like home.  This is insane.  I need to find some parts of L.A. that don't feel so impossible to navigate and live in.  I don't understand where all the places I've heard described to me are, where all the pretty areas and cute bungalows I've read about and seen on t.v. are. And there is the problem.  I've read and watched so many various depictions of this city that I had a completely different picture in my mind of what it would be like.

 I need to get over those depictions and start accepting reality a little more.  I don't know, I just hope by the end of the summer I have a better idea of how I feel and of how to go about doing what I want to do.  I had a long talk the other day at my internship about what my next career moves could be and I am not satisfied at all.  I don't know what to do next to achieve the things I want.  This internship is great and all, but I need a better idea of the right direction to go after this.  I don't want to be a page at NBC, and I don't know if I want to try the associate program.  I want to go to Vancouver and work on a set, or I want to be in a writer's room as an assistant or something.  I don't really want to do anything else.

Sigh.

I guess I still have about 8 weeks to figure some of this out.

One other thing I realized today is that I'm a little homesick and now it seems when I do get home I may not have any friends waiting as they are all moving away.

It dawned on me this morning that Dave is moving to Florida before I get back, Kelly and Lindsey will be in Milwaukee by then, Ashley and Andrew will be in Ohio, Annie is already in Arkansas, and Brittany could very well be in STL....

That's so depressing, what will I do? I won't have anyone to play with anymore. And what's even worse is that I've seen most of those people for the last time and I didn't even realize it...sad sad sad, I will miss them all so much....you guys better keep in touch!!!!!

TOTAL MILES TODAY: 0 (all I did today was eat and sleep)

TOTAL GAS MONEY SO FAR: Still around $350.00

TODAY'S THEME SONG: It's Not Going to Stop by Aimee Mann
 

The post-premiere Sunday evening activities were tame in comparison to the morning.  Ann came over and met up with us for dinner down at the pizza place. It's nice to have yet another friendly face from home around.  She's living about 2 miles from Beverly Hills in a really nice apartment complex with 4 random stranger roommates.  She seems to like it okay, but I don't think it's the kind of situation I would enjoy.  I think she's probably a little more independent about all this than I am though.

We spent the rest of the evening watching the MTV Movie Awards and playing Guitar Hero.  A game at which I totally suck.  I finally made it through 'Mother' and then got brave and tried 'Evenflow.'  Not. Even. Close.

Matt is really good at it and Luke is way better at it than I am.  Brianna spent the evening writing script coverage of what appears to be one of the worst scripts ever written.

At any rate, she finished the coverage and found out this morning that she got the internship for 2 days a week, which is FANTASTIC news.

Today we attempted to go to the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson at CBS, Ann came along for that adventure too:

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get in so no show for us.  But since CBS is right next the Farmer's Market we headed over there for a late lunch.  Farmer's Market is a neat place and it's nice to say we've been there, but it's not really a place I think I would want to spend a lot of time at.  I do want to check out The Grove at some point though, it's right behind the Farmer's Market.

We ate there and the food was okay, I got about as close to cashew chicken as I think I will get out here in California:

It was some kind of Orange Chicken and it wasn't that great, but I guess I can't complain.  I mean we did invent cashew chicken in SpringPatch so I can't expect anything to even come close to it.  And I couldn't for the life of me find crab rangoon. Grrrr...

It was a pretty good day, but I really just want to take a nap.  I had my first REAL encounter with L.A. traffic today, but I think most of it was just the fact that CBS is in a place that I thought was really hard to get to.  And when we left I got totally lost trying to find Vine St. again, I never did find it.  We ended up really far away from where we needed to be, way past Melrose and in a part of town that I don't think was very safe.  But we did manage to get back on the 101 just in time for Rush Hour.  My nerves were really shot by the time we got back.  I did not like driving in that part of town with a car full of people at. all.  It was way too much for me.

As you've probably guessed, no I did not work at my internship today.  Why?

Well, in case you had your head buried in the sand for the last 24 hours, you know that the Universal Studios backlot was on fire for a large portion of the day yesterday.  And yes, the fire was very close to where I work.  So, yesterday, Scott called and told me not to go in today as everyone would be working from home.  Bummer for me because, yes, I'm crazy, I like the work...but it's all good because I get to go in tomorrow morning.  We have temporary space to work, but I suspect most of my job tomorrow will include cleaning up the trailer and getting it back up and going so the writers and producers can be back working in it by the afternoon or Wednesday morning.  That's fine with me, I get to work and that's what I'm here for after all!!! I guess that probably sounds ridiculous but I am really having an awesome time  out here and it's mostly because of the internship.  I mean all of the other things are amazing too, but I have to admit that Los Angeles is not what I would consider my dream place of residence.  I don't think I want to live here for a long-term permanent basis (by this I mean no longer than 10 years, if even that long).  It's too...cluttered and difficult.  It's a high maintenance city and I know there are tons and tons of beautiful places out here, but I have yet to really see them. Now, if I could somehow figure out a way to snag a gig in Vancouver...well, I just might never return!

TOTAL MILES TODAY: 35

TOTAL GAS COST: $400 -that's total overall trip, today I paid $4.27/gallon

TODAY'S THEME SONG:  'I Am Mine' - Pearl Jam

Oh yah, go read Brianna's blog about her internship here:

http://coalserver.missouristate.edu/blogs/thunderroadpictures/default.aspx

And Luke's:

http://coalserver.missouristate.edu/blogs/workingonacontinent/default.aspx 

We'll get to Seth Rogen in a minute...

Yesterday we did Santa Monica.  I'd been there before, but it was a really fun day. We walked the pier and played skee-ball and we saw some interesting characters there:

This guy was particularly insane:

We were a little worried about our parking situation because we parked at a McDonald's for free and weren't sure if they would ticket or tow us if we stayed too long, so we basically made the round of the pier and headed back to the car.  We were going to ride the Ferris Wheel but ended up not, because it was $5 a person to ride, and we weren't into spending any money...

Then we headed down to the 3rd Street Promenade.  I love the 3rd Street Promenade, sight of the infamous Matt Damon non-sighting of '99. 

There's an Apple store....mmmmm.....

It's like an outdoor mall and there are CRAZY street performers.  We saw the king of the dance:

Then we ate some pasta, which made both Brianna and I sick.  And headed back to the hotel.

We finally did some grocery shopping, we found a Ralph's down the street and bought some groceries.  It was cool because they let us use our Dillon's Plus  Cards there and I saved $5. Hey, that's a gallon of gas...also, the grocery stores here are tiny.  Not so much tiny in the sense that they don't have much, but tiny in the sense that the aisles are basically only big enough for one person.  That's a problem on Saturday afternoon when apparently everyone in Sherman Oaks goes grocery shopping. But we survived.

We were planning on just staying in and watching movies last night, but Brianna's friend Zack called and wanted to hang out so we met him in Venice at a place called the Whaler Bar and Grill.  Venice was pretty interesting, it was a cute little trendy/hip spot full of nightlife.  We had no trouble finding the place, but we had an impossible time finding a place to park.  We ended up parking about a mile away.  We went down the pier and saw a bum catch a shark and gut it....that was pretty interesting...

Then we walked on the beach for awhile which was cool, but it was night so we couldn't really see anything and I was kind of freaking out because I couldn't find my phone.  Turns out, after we walked 2 blocks out of our way to get back to the car, my phone was in the seat the whole time.

Today we got up super early (7:45 AM) and drove down to Hollywood Blvd.  for the premiere of 'Kung Fu Panda.'  It was premiering at Grauman's Chinese Theater and the stars were set to begin arriving at 9:30 AM. We got there about 8:45 AM.  Having never been to a premiere before we weren't sure where the best place to stand would be.  But we ended up settling on a spot just ahead of the press pool.  We were right up against the barricade. So we waited.

And then....this is what we saw.... 

The panda showed:

The cast of Ace of Cakes (but I thought that bald guy was Dave Attel at first)

Wayne Brady and his daughter:

Maria Bello:

Lucy Liu:

Jeffrey Katzenberg:

Michael Clarke Duncan:

DUSTIN HOFFMAN!!!!!

JACK BLACK!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah, the premiere was a fun experience.  I can only imagine what it must be like when there is a HUGE movie premiering...maybe we'll find out later in the summer, I am determined to go to the X-Files premiere to see David Duchovny....

But I am bummed out that my boyfriend Seth Rogen was a no-show on this red carpet, aside from Jack Black, he's the one I really really wanted to see, though it was pretty awesome to see Dustin Hoffman...he's a tiny tiny man.

In other news...it appears that my internship is on fire....well, really Universal studios is on fire.  We saw the huge plume of smoke.  Apparently, the part of the backlot that is the downtown set from Back to the Future and that is currently used for the Ghost Whisperer is on fire.  That is about 8 feet from the trailer I work in.  I don't think this will have a negative impact on my internship, but it will be interesting to go in tomorrow in the aftermath of this.  I'll let you know how it goes.

TOTAL GAS COST: Still approx. $350, though I need to fill up today

 TOTAL MILES DRIVEN TODAY: About 20 give or take

TODAY'S THEME SONG: Kung Fu Fighting 

Internship Day 2:

Excuse me but I'm a little depressed right now...I just found out that the guy I'm basically working for is 3 YEARS YOUNGER than me...and so much farther in his career...

That kind of makes me sad...oh well, I guess that's how it goes...I just feel OLD...and I'm not...

Brianna and Matt got here....FINALLY....and amazingly we managed to cram all of our stuff in the room and still have room to live and breathe and sit and walk a little:

Yeah, so it's not so bad...we'll survive.

Today was the second day at my internship and while I still felt a little awkward because I don't really know everything yet, it was even better than the first day.  I do get a little frustrated and paranoid though because I'm not totally sure what I am supposed to be doing at all times and I want to do well.  I guess I just kind of wish I knew everything already, but I guess that comes in time.  In the meantime, here is the intern workspace:

That's our desk, and that's my computer, sandwiched between two printers.  It's small, but we don't really need much more, most of our time is not spent here.  Well, except when we're making copies.

And this is the "Intern Duty" list we posted above it to remind us what we are supposed to do.  It mostly says things like - Make Coffee, Keep Refrigerator stocked, Keep dishes cleaned up, Turn on Lights in the morning, Unlock Bathrooms, etc. etc.

And here is the door to the writer's room (I hope it's okay that I took pictures of it, I didn't ask, maybe I should have...oops...) I mostly get a kick out of the fact that they've labeled it "Situation Room."

Here's another one of the door, the copy machine where I spend a lot of time is to the right and to the left is 'The Room' and also Nick Wauters and Eric Wallace's office (they share one).

Anyway, those are just some pictures from inside.

Today I got to ride around in a golf cart again, this time Scott Sebert (my boss) took me through the backlot and we saw Wisteria Lane from 'Desperate Housewives' -- they were actually shooting there today, we didn't see any of it, but it's kind of cool knowing they were back there shooting.  

I also got to spend some time talking with both Scott and Ed Fowler, the Writer's Assistant about random industry things.  They kind of explained how writer's contracts work to me and told me about how the schedule works for writer's on tv shows, like they don't get hiatus like actors do.  And they told me different things they do when they aren't writing for the show, like if they get breaks and stuff and different ways they find to bring in money and pay their bills.  It was really interesting and they were so nice about answering my questions.  Everyone so far has just been really really nice especially when it comes to answering questions and just providing insight into the way things really work in the industry.

One really cool conversation I had today was with Thania St. John, one of the EP's on the show.  She asked me about my background and told me that she thought it was an "honor and a priviledge" that I came out here just for this internship.  I was like - Hellooooo, it's a freaking honor, priviledge, opportunity of a lifetime for me to be able to do this.  Then she asked me about my thesis/seminar paper that I'm working on for my master's and when I told her it was on product placement her eyes lit up! It was so cool, she was actually impressed that I was studying product placement and made sure to tell me about the big product placement deal on the show this season.  She told me to come to her office sometime and she would be happy to talk more about the deal and the way these kinds of deals work with me.  Awesome!

(Sorry, I would provide more details about the show etc. but I had to sign a confidentiality agreement so I can't, I don't want to get in trouble for telling things I'm not supposed to so if I'm overly general about some things, sorry)

I also got a chance to "proofread" an outline for an episode today.  John Herrerra the Script Coordinator, probably just out of pity or wanting to give me something to do so I felt useful, gave me an outline that had just been turned in and had me proof it typos and errors.  Um...there were TWO typos...ha! Oh well, it was fun and I DID feel useful when he asked me to do it, so everyone wins!

Wow, well, it just seems to keep getting better at least in terms of the internship.  Living situation is going fine, but poor Brianna, her internship seems to be falling through the cracks.  The guy at Warner Brothers basically told her he didn't have much for her to do, and that so SUCKS.  She is looking for more internships and I have faith she'll find something.  She's good, and she's a hard worker, that WB guy doesn't know what he's missing out on.

Well, it's been a long day (I went in at 9 and got off at 7 -- yessss!!) and I'm tired.  Tomorrow we may hit Santa Monica and Sunday, I think we may TRY to hit the premiere of 'Kung Fu Panda' SCADOOSH! 

Internship: Day 1

So far...so AWESOME.

Okay, so the verdict is still out on how I feel about living in L.A. (although, I do think living in a motel room with 3 other people may have some influence over that opinion).  I can definitely say, I absolutely love being on the lot at NBC/Universal.  It's like stepping into a completely different world.  The studio lot is actually it's own city, the size of which I am much more comfortable with than that of L.A.

That's my visitor pass. I actually get a REAL pass in a day or two when I turn in all of my paperwork.  It was pretty cool driving through the gate this morning.  It only took me about 35 minutes to get there, not a bad commute at all.  Although if you consider that it's only about 9 miles away, that may not actually be a great commute.  But I am definitely pretty confident with the freeways.  Or at least the 101, considering that in the 30 some odd hours and 6 or so trips I've made on the freeway since we got here, I don't think I've gone over 45 mph yet.  But the surface streets are a killer.  I hate them.  L.A. is not like other cities I've driven in.  The surface streets are insane, I really don't understand them.  And quite frankly, L.A., or rather Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, and Universal City (the places I've been so far) are just a giant jumbled mess to me.  I couldn't go anywhere if I wanted because I don't understand the way these businesses are or where they are, I see signs and buildings and doors, and yet....how do I get to them?

Okay, so driving through the gate was cool (yes, I am easily impressed), then I have to drive back to the Muddy Waters lot (I forgot to ask what Muddy Waters is) and to do this I have to drive past Amblin'.  Amblin' freaking Entertainment, except now, in addition to the Amblin' signs -- there's the GIANT gate sign for Dreamworks.  I'm sorry, but if I see Steven Spielberg someday out there I swear to God I will abandon my post and accost him....ha ha...okay that's not entirely sincere, although....

At any rate, back on the Muddy Waters lot this is where I go:

Yup, that's the trailer where the magic of Eureka happens.

And just behind it....

Okay, it's from my car so it's not a great pic, but that is part of the backlot which is where the Clocktower from Back to the Future is and a bunch of other stuff too. I'm sure I'll get to see more of it as the summer wears on.   Not only is that right behind the trailer, apparently they are shooting the '24' movie back there too.  Holy crap! Jack Bauer is mere feet away.

Okay, okay, I realize I sound like a total fangirl here, but come on, let's face it I'm just a kid from Missouri and all of this is new to me.  We all know I would never freak out and run up to famous people I saw on the lot, I am just not that brave or stupid.  I do want to do well at this internship.  But it was really cool to see them setting up for the MTV Movie Awards, walk through the post facility for both Eureka and Law and Order, see the Mystery Machine,  and see the trailers outside of where they are shooting Land of the Lost.  Apparently they are also shooting the TV show 'Life' around the lot too.  The Eureka trailer is right next to the accounting office for The Mummy 3 (or is it 4?).

So all in all, a pretty good day.  I may not end up loving L.A. itself, but I already love my internship and I already love just being there behind the scenes on the NBC/Universal lot.  It's amazing.

Total Drive Time Today: Approximately 1 and a half hours

Total Gas Cost so Far: Still around $350

Theme Song For the Day: Busting up a Starbucks by Mike Doughty
 

Well, it's official.  I want to go home.

We got here 5 hours ago and I'm ready to go back home now.

This will last awhile, a week or two probably.

I have mastered the 101 though, so that's something (or rather, I think I have, tomorrow will be a real test).  Oh, but let me recap the day...

We drove from Kingman to Needles where we found our first over $4 gas:

Then we drove through the desert:

Then my "low coolant" light came on in my car and so we had to pull over at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of the desert so I could add coolant:

A few hours later we hit the 210, which wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be, from there we hit the 101, again not as scary as I thought it would be. Finding the hotel really wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.  We are right on Ventura BLVD. in Sherman Oaks which really is not as glamorous as I'm sure we all thought it would be:

Okay, well let's just be honest, I don't think any of us had any false impressions about what we would get for $350.  But I thought the studios would be a little more...

I don't know.

Oh well, it only took me an hour to find the gate for my internship and I only got lost about 12 times.  I call that a success.

I am excited about starting tomorrow, but I'm nervous, very very nervous.  And nauseous.  I guess it will all pass.  The sooner the better.  I feel like I should feel more at home here, but I guess that's something that will come with time.

 Total Miles Today: 330 give or take 100

Total Gas Cost: Somewhere around $300

Current Theme Song: "Setting Forth" Eddie Vedder

Current Mood: HOMESICK!

I had planned a whole blog entry here, my first on this ole' MJF Internship blog, about being on the road to L.A., there were some Gilbert Grape references and comparisons planned, but then...

Well, then I suddenly found myself stranded on the side of I-40 at the Oklahoma/Texas state line.  Locked out of my car.  That's right, LOCKED OUT OF MY CAR.  How on Earth did you manage that Lindsey?

Oh my...

It's the kind of thing only I would do.  There I was, with my parents and my grandparents, and my friends voices all ringing in my head saying "Pull over and rest if you get tired!!" and well, yeah, I was tired.  My eyes were drooping and my legs were cramping.  There was nothing in sight, no exits coming up, no gas stations -- nothing.

ne

But at the state line between Texas and Oklahoma, the shoulder is very wide.  So I pulled over.  I got out of my car, leaving my keys in the ignition (the car was turned off thank God) I stretched and went around to the passenger side to gather up some trash and get it out of the front seat.   A couple of minutes stretching, waking myself up, and I'm ready to go -- I can make it the next 100 miles to Amarillo, no problem.

I shut the door and walk back around to the driver's side.  As soon as I put my hand on the driver's side handle I hear "CLICK" and all of the doors are locked.  My keys, my phone, everything locked safely inside.

PANIC!

I freaked a little, I had no idea what to do.  I'm standing there looking around trying to see if there is ANY thing nearby that I could walk to and ask for help -- NOTHING.  So I stand a little while longer thinking surely a sheriff or trooper will drive by.  Nothing.  No one stops, no police, nothing.  But I did have my bluetooth earpiece on.  My stupid, ridiculous earpiece that I HATE, actually saved me.

I started pressing buttons and finally it started ringing. I had no idea who I was calling until they picked up - it was Brianna.  A complicated series of phone calls gets me in touch with my parents who call the OK highway patrol and locate a locksmith 60 miles away.  Meanwhile, a nice couple from New Mexico have stopped to help me.  They head up the road a few miles to find a gas station and come back with the sheriff from Sayre, OK.  He's got a locksmith coming from 15 miles away, even better.

 I'm standing there with the sheriff, trucks and cars whizzing by mere feet away and this is what he says to me:

Sheriff: You're lucky none of these hillbillies came and messed with you.

Me: Um...yeah?

Sheriff: Have you seen 'The Hills Have Eyes?"

Me: No?

Sheriff: Well that's probably a good thing, that movie is here, this place, those hillbillies back over there (he points directly behind us).

Yeah, so at this point I'm thinking -- is this guy for real? Is he really the sheriff or is the sheriff's body stuffed in the trunk of his cruiser?  And I'm REALLY glad now that I didn't accept his offer to come sit in the cruiser with him.

Ultimately, I was in my car about 40 minutes later and back on the road. 

Road Lesson #1: NEVER leave your keys in the car for ANY reason.

Road Lesson #2: BEWARE of small town sheriffs...

In addition to being completely emotional about leaving home for the first time ever, and everything I've ever known, my nerves were completely shot by the end of the day yesterday from that fiasco.  Luckily, today went incredibly well, we made a quick stop early in the morning at Cadillac Ranch:

Then proceeded to drive 700 miles to Kingman, AZ where I am right now at a cheap hotel, that is surprisingly roomy and nice for the price:

Tomorrow, it's 348 miles to L.A. and then a practice drive to the studio before CRASHING for the night.  I am exhausted, who knew sitting in a car doing nothing really could be so tiring.  I am shaky, and swollen, and sore, and tired.  But it will all be worth it.

Total miles today: 700ish

Total Gas Cost: Somewhere around $250

Current Road Theme: 'Self Destructive Zone" by Drive By Truckers

Current Time: BED TIME!