Fangirl

This weekend yielded many tales. We had our first 80's movie night on Friday, and then Saturday we took part in the Nevada Caucus. That's a long story I'm saving for later. Right after the caucus, we hopped in the car and drove to L.A. to see Brian's sister Erin at the premiere of her new play Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. The show was great. Hear the musical numbers here.

At the show, I just about died when I saw John Krasinski from The Office. Here's me and my pal John:

He was a super-nice guy. I pretty much went up to him all fangirl-like and told him how awesome he was and asked for a picture. It was just before the show was about to start and we were both grabbing last-minute drinks at the bar. He was really nice and said thank you and no problem. Then I was all, "Wow, you're pretty tall, that's cool." And he was all, "Thanks, so are you." And that was about it. I said thanks and went into the show all jazzed.

Inside, I noticed he was sitting with Rashida Jones from The Office. After the show, we went to the premiere party in the lobby, and they were there. When she had a moment to herself, I went all fangirl on her too. I was shocked at how pretty she was. Her eyes are absolutely stunning. I was kinda taken aback. Unfortunately, I made a fool out of myself. I knew she was on The Office, but I remembered her from another show back in the day. I thought I was cool for remembering, so I asked if she used to be on the Drew Carey Show. She said no. OH CRAP. I then asked what show she did before The Office, and she said, "Boston Public?" I was like, YES!" How embarrassing... Anyway, she was super incredibly nice. I can't even stress how nice she was. She asked me my name and who I knew in the show. We actually talked for like a good five minutes about the show and who we knew in the cast and what she's going to be working on next. Here's me and my pal Rashida:

Notice how we're so close we're touching faces? That's cuz we're BFF's.

Anyway, I also ran into the guy who plays Sylar on Heroes at the show, Zachary Quinto. He's also going to be Spock on the new Star Trek show. He was also really super-nice. He introduced himself as "Zach" and asked what my name was and who I knew in the show. To be honest, I don't remember much about what we talked about because I was kinda scared he was going to kill me, like he does to most people on Heroes. Anyway, here's me and my boy Zach. See if you can spot his freaky Spock eyebrows:


So that was my weekend. I can't wait for Erin's next big premiere. Hopefully I'm allowed back for another one. :-)

That was Wicked

Only three days in, and I've already broken my vow to blog every day in November. Oh well, you'll just get two instead of one today. So anyway...
Saturday we went to L.A. to see the musical Wicked. It was my birthday present from Brian. The show was amazing. It was pure visual and auditory candy. I think it's my favorite musical now. Definitely see it if you get the chance.

Being the fangirl that I am, I stayed after with all the other little kids to catch the cast on their way out. I ended up meeting Eden Espinoza, who played Elphiba, and Megan Hilty, who played Glinda. Here's Eden Espinoza as Elphiba:
And here's Eden Espinoza without her green make-up, with me, the fan girl:And here's Megan Hilty as Glinda:

And here's Megan Hilty out of costume with me, the fan girl:
As you can see, I really enjoyed myself.

The rest of the trip was really fun too. We stayed at a really nice hotel downtown with a view of the Hollywood sign. And we had dinner at this trendy sushi place on Wilshire Blvd. (It actually wasn't as good as the sushi places we go to at home, which kinda impressed us about Vegas, but it was nice nonetheless.) And we met up with my old friend Negar from law school at this fun little breakfast place in Sherman Oaks (where we had a brush with Britney - see bonus blogpost above). And we went shopping on Melrose. All in all, a very nice birthday/two-year-anniversary weekend.

Wow. That's not how we did shows at my high school.

Last night we went to see Miss Saigon at the local performing arts high school. It was fuc*ing amazing.

Highlights included a full-pit orchestra, a sixteen-foot Ho Chi Minh statue, a pink '56 Cadillac driven onstage for a musical number and actors hanging out of a life-size military helicopter. There were over 60 cast members and even more crew, and tons of costume and scene changes. Yeah, it was crazy-amazing. I can't believe it was a high school production.

Check out a video of the helicopter scene by clicking on the video link embedded in this story.

Apparently, the producer of the original broadway show helped the students out, as this was the national premiere of the student edition. And rumor is that local techs helped the kids out with a lot of the special effects. Some guy who starred in the Broadway version of Rent was even there in the audience last night.

Anyway, it was amazing. Too bad the last shows are TODAY at 2pm and 7pm. Last night was sold out, so if you read this in time and are interested, I would suggest immediately reserving tickets. I think we're going to get season passes for the school's shows next year.

V for Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day! It's a day late, but the sentiment is still there, right?

I had a great Valentine's Day. I spent the morning handing out valentines and candy to all the people at work. Then in the afternoon, I had a Domestic Violence trial that I won, so that was cool.

Then after work, Brian took me out for a surprise date. We went to Fusia at the Luxor, which was really good. Then we went over and saw Mamma Mia at the Mandalay Bay. It was super-awesome. I've been wanting to see that show for a long time, so I was really happy when I found out that was the surprise. You should all go see it. It's super-cute. After the show, we ajourned to our spa suite at the Luxor. Brian had decorated the room with heart-shaped balloons and tissue paper rose-petals. Awwwe... He also got me a cute mechanical giraffe that grows taller and taller as it sings "Your love is lifting me higher." Awwwe.... And the Post Secret book I've been wanting. Awwwee...

Unfortunately, he had to go to work this morning. He had told me before that we'd be out late, so I planned ahead and took today off. So now I get a full day to recover. Yay! But I have to spend it alone. Boo!

For my part, I got him this super awesome 30" Apple HD monitor for his computer. He really liked it, so I think I did good. Girls have it so easy.

Not blogging is actually a good sign.

It means I'm having too much fun doing other stuff. The last two weeks have been crazy. The week between Christmas & New Year's, we went out every night. In that time, we saw Cirque Du Soleil Love at the Mirage and the Phantom of the Opera Spectacular at the Venetian.

Love was amazing. It was less acrobatic than some of the other Cirque shows though, focusing instead on dancing, costumes, and really cool art direction. It's now my second favorite Cirque show (after Ka). I gotta say, the Cirque shows have never let me down.

Phantom, on the other hand, was dumb. It was so cheesy, I laughed out loud in some parts that I don't think were meant to be funny. Apparently, the Vegas version cuts out a lot of the character development for the Phantom and his relationship with Christine. So I had no love for the Phantom. I thought he was a loser, and being deformed didn't justify his being a stalker. I didn't really care too much about Christine either, actually. The singing in the show was good and all, I just thought the story and the art direction on the show were lame. Oh well.

I gotta get back to work now. I'll try to be better about the blogging, I swear. In the meantime, did you hear that the OC just got cancelled???? Feel free to discuss.