Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Now that classes have begun...

I've been in Los Angeles for about three weeks now, and have finally settled in, somewhat, to my class and internship schedule.

First and foremost, the trip over here from Houston was quite a doozy. My friend Allison and I broke it up into three days - stopping in Fort Stockton, TX (gross) and Tucson, AZ (boring). Allison served as videographer, and by golly, I think she has a future in home movies. I'm hoping to post a video of the trip this weekend, so stay tuned. As the television season hasn't picked up yet, I know you have nothing better to do.

Upon arriving at the Oakwood, the jail where I will be living until December, I was unpleasantly surprised by two giant stains on our carpet, a disintegrating blanket, and a number of probably poisonous insects. Since then, however, they sent someone to clean the carpet, and I have Raid-ed every nook of the apartment. What's bad for bugs is great for hallucinations and headaches.

Although I only have classes on Mondays, they are the worst part of my week. Each class is three hours long, two of my teachers humblebrag about every 5 seconds, and one class I love, but it's not the most stimulating.

But all of that is okay because I love my internship, as in, a lot. I ended up as an intern in the writer's office for Private Practice. I have only been twice, but I know that I want to work as a television writer or around television writers for the rest of my career. That is, at the very least, a load off my chest because it would suck if I had to change my whole life and go back for med school or law school or something easy like that. But yesterday, at a table read (coughhumblebragcough) I was sitting there, and said to myself, "Hell yea, Shonda Rhimes, I totally want to be in your shoes one day." Not literally, though, because 1. those are her shoes, and 2. I could never pull off gold flats.

All and all, things are grand with me, and I will leave you with some life lessons I have learned in Los Angeles thus far -
1. The yellow light really is just a suggestion. As long as you're out of the intersection before someone hits you, it's all good.
2. Apparently every hamburger in Los Angeles is the best hamburger in the world because they all cost around $15.00. Which leads me to believe that you have to spend a lot of money out here to make little to no money out here.
3. Everyone always talks about people being real jerks in Hollywood, which sent me out here with the mentality that, as an intern or PA, you never speak unless spoken at because no one cares about anything you have to say. Everyone I've met is super nice, and it's probably a good idea that I don't stand their looking like the most socially awkward person in the world. I mean, I am that person, but for other reasons.
4. Texas is the best place in the whole universe, but the weather out here cannot be beat.

- Barbara