Golden Globes

This year, I had volunteered to work the Golden Globes. Can you believe NBC needed volunteers for that? I was assigned to red carpet. Talk about luck, out of 40 positions, I landed a red carpet gig. My responsibility was to deliver the memory cards from the Entertainment Tonight booth to the digital press room. I reported to red carpet duty at 2 and was given a brief tour of who I was working with and the path I would take. The ET booth just happened to be the first booth on the carpet, meaning I had to go clear from the other side of the carpet to the entrance of the hotel to drop off the memory cards. The process started out pretty slow because none of the big names had arrived. But, as soon as the show was within 30 minutes of starting, the madness began. I was going back and forth with used up memory cards featuring photos of such stars as Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Jennifer Lopez. Even though it was breaking the rules a bit, I even snuck my own pictures on the red carpet. It was such a once in a lifetime opportunity. From helping Leo's mom at the ET booth, where she thanked me with a hug, to spotting Brad and Angelina on the red carpet and snapping two very quick photos for my possible once in a lifetime moment.
I even made the background of some of the photos the photographers were snapping on the red carpet. It was quite a trip!
After the red carpet, I headed to the winner's room, where the presenters and Golden Globe winners go to take pictures with their awards. Back there, I was hanging with the likes of Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and the cast of 30 Rock. After the show, I headed to the NBC after-party, but before I could get my groove on, I had to bandage up my poor and blistered feet. I snuck off to the halls of the Hilton and as I was putting the bandages on, a woman tapped me from behind to ask how my blisters were because they looked painful. I look up and it was the one and only Sigourney Weaver. I love Sigourney and always will because she played one of my all-time favorite movie characters, Katharine Parker from "Working Girl". If I wasn't so starstruck, I might have even told her that.
Despite the blisters, the very tired Monday morning, and very long day of working, I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. Now all I can do is hope I actually make the red carpet as an invited guest someday!

Happy New Year's!

My first post of 2009... it feels so weird writing that number. I always looked at 2009 as so far into the future and now here it is upon us.
I had a pretty fun New Year's night, which isn't always the case in the past. I always think that night is most fun when celebrated with friends, which was how it went when I was living in Oregon. The more invites I was receiving for this year, the more I realized that each party consisted of couples only, or very intimate gatherings of people I didn't know. Parties were costing 100 dollars a head and I could already tell wouldn't be worth it. So, I checked on airline tickets and decided to head to Portland and spend New Years with good friends there. I arrived hours before midnight. We headed to the Kennedy School, where each room had been set up as a different themed bar along with live bands. New Years with rang in with champagne and a kiss from a cute boy. The next day, was recovery mode. I stayed at my friend Sam's house and we just chilled out most of the day.
I had made plans to travel throughout Portland to visit other friends, but the great blizzard of Portland came. Roads were closed and there was no way of getting around them. Super bummer! But, the snow had melted, I was able to shop around 23rd Street for shopping and later that night we headed to one of my favorite bars, The Doug Fir, with Shannon, John, Sam, Kelly, and Kami. There were three fun bands playing and fun was enjoyed by all!
The next day, we spent the day chilling out, before heading to drinks at The Nines then to Kell's. We enjoyed live music and good company. The entire weekend was a wonderful way to ring by 2009. I can only hope that it will continue be this fun.
Next stop... Golden Globes! I'll blog about that this week.

Holidays!

I must say, it feels weird to say Christmas has passed. There is always such hustle right before the big day, to get cards out, packages sent, phone calls made, that by the time the day has passed me by, it feels like it never happened. That everything was just a big blur. I might feel that way, because I had such a busy weekend. It feels weird to have it wind down.
I spent my Christmas Eve night with my brother, his wife, and their son, Owen. We had a lovely dinner. The next morning, I headed back down to Venice to their house to watch Owen celebrate his first Christmas. Needless to say, an eight month old baby gets more excitement out of the wrapping paper, than the actual presents. It was still great joy to watch him partake in the holiday fun.
After spending the day with them, I headed down to Huntington Beach, where my Portland friends, Shannon and John Anthony were visiting her sister, Dawn, and Dawn's boyfriend, Mark at their house. Christmas night was filled with yummy pasta, bottles of wine, movies, and games. I had so much fun. I stayed the night and the next morning, we all headed to the Santa Anita Race Track for Mark's birthday. WIth bloody marys in hand by noon, we were able to place our bets. I pretty much broke even, which is a good thing. I spent what money I had left at the local H & M, because I felt it was my duty to give back to the economy. :) The rest of the weekend was topped off with cat-sitting for a friend and relaxing with bad Lifetime movies. Nothing beats that. At least I can say I survived another Christmas and only have a couple of more presents that need to be sent out fashionably late.

Back to Work

So, as you know, I just got back from a wonderful vacation (see below post) but now it's time to enter the real world. And in real world, I mean work. It took awhile to get back in the swing of things. I wanted to shut my office door and avoid contact with people all together, but for some reason couldn't get away with it. I did, however, decide to come back to work on a Friday, which was nice, my boss was out of the office and a lot of people were either already gone for the holidays are too busy in their own work to take notice of my return. Which gave me time to go through my 355 emails I had waiting for me. The good news is this week proved to add a little more fun into my day to day schedule. I got to cover The Biggest Loser Finale, which is always entertaining. The actual waiting process isn't. We sit in a freezing press trailer watching the East coast feed of the show and listen to other reporters comment back and forth. Then, 15 minutes before they reveal the winner, the press has to gather next to the stage and wait. As soon as the credits roll, we have to charge the stage with microphones in hand. It's a little maddening. Especially, since the winner had only 30 minutes to do press before hopping on a plane to do the Today show in the morning. Good news, I got the interview. It was quick, but that's just what I needed. In fact, I was able to grab all the interviews I wanted. It's almost a bit of a rush up on that stage. It's always flattering when Bob and Jillian remember me by name and Alison Sweeney makes her way across the stage to say hello. I must say. Not to mention, that damn show gets my tears flowing every time. So happy that Michelle won. The real tear jerker is next season's premiere, which airs January 6th, 8/7c. Ugh, I just plugged my own show on this blog.
Anyway, here's just a sample of what I did at the finale. There are a lot more on NBC.com. Ugh, there I plugged myself, again

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

I Am Baaaaack!

Don't you hate the feeling of coming back from a vacation. Why is that that the time it takes to actually get to your destination seems so long, but the vacation, itself, seems so short? I hate that. Well, this year, I made the pilgrimage to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The trip had been on my radar for awhile and initially being planned with a friend. The more and more research I did about the "Paris of the South", the more and more I was anticipating the trip. About a month before leaving, my friend had to back out due to financial reasons and was too proud to accept a loan, so I did the trek by myself and am so happy that I did. Not only was my experience amazing, but I was able to do all the things I had wanted to do, without the worry of a second person not having a good time. Of course, there were instances, I wished I had a companion to laugh with or to do a last-minute pub crawl with, but I survived. I had no big worries. In fact, the last two days of my trip, I had met an Aussie on my boat tour who was in the same situation, alone in Argentina. So, he and I teamed up, did our own pub crawls and went to a very nice dinner and had nice dinner conversation. Something you can't do by yourself, without looking like a crazy person. I visited museums, the Recoleta Cemetery, every district of the city, took a boat tour outside the city, took in a tango show, took private tango lessons, visited trendy hotels and restaurants for cocktails, drank delicious Argentine wine and did some wonderful shopping. I was impressed with myself for finding my way around, learning the culture, speaking the language and accomplishing a goal of always wanting to see this amazing city. Anybody considering a trip to South America should definitely look at the very cosmopolitan Buenos Aires. For those wanting to see my collection of photos, let me know, and I will be more than happy to send my album you way.

Long Weekend

I am writing my blog entry this week from the comfort of my living room, trying to block out the fact that in less than 12 hours, I'll be waking up to get ready for work. We had four days off for Thanksgiving and I was determined to make every minute count. But, in the end, I just did a lot of relaxing. I guess I needed it.
My actual Thanksgiving was nice. I spent it with my brother, his wife and baby son and all of her in-laws. They all flew in from the East coast were super-friendly made me feel very welcomed. After that, I headed to my friend, Morgan's relatives house, where I was included in a party of 60. I arrived just in time for delicious desserts and coffee. After that, I headed home and passed out. Falling asleep by 10 and even then, I felt I was forcing my body to stay up way too late.
The next day, I didn't do much shopping, but I had every reason to be super excited. I had acquired fourth row seats to the Los Angeles Laker game. My second-cousin's husband got them for me through work and I was able to to bring three friends. It was a blast. I have now made it a rule to not sit anywhere further than fourth row. I think that's pretty reasonable.
My weekend rounded off with a friend's birthday party on Saturday night and seeing "Four Christmases" with another friend on Sunday. Of course, I didn't really accomplish much cleaning from my to-do list or even start packing for my big trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, which takes place on Wednesday. But, that's why I have Monday and Tuesday night for, right?

NBC.com's Latest Star

I had a pretty cool thing happen to me at work today. I was featured in THREE different web exclusives for NBC.com. I know, this is a total shameless plug. But, it's not everyday, I can look on our site and see my face on the homepage. Then, go to the Days of our Lives homepage and I am featured as the front promote, then go to the Days Insider text blog, and it's my entry and photos and then go to the NBC Green is Universal website and it's my blog! Too much self-promo for one person to handle? Probably. But, what can I say, I am shameless.
Click here for the Green Blog.
Click here for the Days Insider Text Blog
and...
Click here for all of my interviews on the website. Remember, every Tuesday and Thursday, new ones go live.

Enjoy!