Staycation

When I first started at my current job, there was one thing that I was particularly excited about: VACATION DAYS. The idea that once I worked long enough the company would PAY me to take a day off and travel to exotic locations was the cherry on top.

Of course, I didn't consider the fact that being paid for vacation days didn't necessarily mean I could afford to travel to these exotic locales. So instead my vacation days have sat unused - or even worse, used for doctors appointments.

This past weekend I finally took the plunge and took an elaborate, exciting and thrilling 4-day vacation - to Los Angeles. That's right - I took a vacation at home. Before you roll your eyes at the term "staycation" however, let me explain. I turned my vacation response on. My cell phone off. My computer stayed at my desk. Heck - I didn't even get on Facebook!

The Best flew down from Nor Cal, The Fashionista drove up from Orange County and we had a full fledged girls weekend. This WAS the kind of weekend we had dreamed about in college. We drank Bitch Wine and ate Tarts until 2 am, laid out on the beach all day, and ate at this hole-in-the-wall Hollywood spot called Miceli's where our waiter was an actor who sang "Falling in Love with You" to us gals.

On Saturday we spent bucket loads of money as we shopped literally until we dropped, and then attempted to make fruity girly drinks from sorbet and rum picked up spontaneously from Trader Joes. Sunday was a hike through Griffith Park’s “Old Zoo” and a fireworks show in the park, before we all crashed on Monday morning.

It was the perfect weekend, something that I badly needed to rejuvenate my soul and brighten my outlook on life. I think my roommate, The Actress, said it best when she mentioned that she'd never heard me laugh like that in the year we've been living together!

There is nothing that can replace good, quality time with girlfriends who intimately love and know you. There's no embarrassment, no explaining needed - just girls who know you and accept you for all your quirky qualities.

It’s been a year since I’ve moved to LA, and slowly I’ve found my way around this city and made quite a few friends in the process. But no matter how exciting the city, after a while the hum drum of life gets you down and you need something special to pick you up.

That’s where I learned the benefit of having your best friends live miles apart. There is no room to take friendships for granted, there’s no assuming that they’ll always be around for drinks or a movie. They don’t become a part of the hum drum of life.

Instead, they’re the special, amazing, miraculous thing that picks you up and brightens your outlook on life again. That turns your old hum drum of a city into an exciting staycation worth more than any Caribbean cruise. Suddenly, the distance doesn’t seem half that bad.

The Epitome of My Nerdiness: Vidcon 2010

Oh. *shuffles awkwardly* It's, uh, been a while. No, things have been fine. Been busy. *looks down* You? Oh that's nice.

So as per usual, I haven't been here in a while. Over a month in fact. Whoops. But here I am now and I have some fun happening this week and I'd like to blog about it.

First, on July 11 is my 1 year anniversary. How crazy is that? It feels like just yesterday I was writing things like this. It's been such a strange journey. I realized just yesterday that I've been in Las Vegas for 7 months. I honestly thought it had only been less than 6. I thought that film school was still not that long ago. It really was that long ago. Time is moving by so fast and I don't know what to do about it.

But for our Anniversary, Husband and I are going down to Southern California to go to Disneyland!!! I haven't been in a very long time and I can't wait to go watch World of Color and visit all my favorite rides. Bonus is we also get in free since we know someone who works there still and will sign us in. Thus making it even more awesome.

But here's the craziest news. There is the conference in Los Angeles called Vidcon. And I'm going. Now many of you are asking, "Well, Twixter Two, what is Vidcon?" I'm so glad you asked.

I'll let the Vidcon2010.com site tell you in its own words: Vid-Con is a three-day conference bringing together the brightest lights in the billion-views-a-day community known as the online video industry. Join us at the first ever gathering of the most influential and popular independent video makers online and the communities that have made them a force in the world.

So pretty much one of the nerdiest things I've ever done. But here's the crazy story of how I ended up with probably 2 of the last 25 tickets available.

Husband and I were going to the midnight premiere of Eclipse (which was awesome by the way. Other update to come for that) where we realized it would be a great place to promote BITE. So we printed out little papers and walked the line selling BITE to random people waiting. I cannot begin to describe how difficult it is to explain to people that YouTube is used for more that just the dramatic chipmunk and Charlie Bit Me videos. There are people making careers out of it and I want to be one of those people.

After walking the line and the getting into the theater, we had about an hour to just wait. So Husband brought up Vidcon. He had randomly researched it while he was at work and wanted to talk about maybe going to promote BITE. Now here's the weird part: That day, I had received a random commission check from the job I hated for the EXACT amount of 2 tickets to Vidcon. The same day Husband randomly looked at Vidcon was the day I got my check. So we decided to just go. We were already going to be in California, we'd just have to extend the trip 2 days. Seemed worth it to us. So we got home from Eclipse around 3:30 AM, bought tickets, and the next morning it was sold out. Crazy, right? I know!

So we're now headed to Vidcon to attempt to promote and network and have an awesome time. I can't describe how excited I am to be there. I've been wanting to attend Vidcon since its inception and now I really get to be there.

So more update posts to come this weekend! Vidcon is Friday and Saturday. Disneyland is Sunday. Fun with Friends and figuring out how I'm finishing school Monday and Tuesday. I'm going to be so tired when we get back.

Miss you all (Especially you, Twixter One.)

--Twixter Two