My First Ultrasound!

So, I never thought I would be getting an ultrasound at the age of 23, but today I did! And no.. it wasn't a baby ultrasound, but one of my heart!

I've been having weird irregular heartbeats lately, and even though it's nothing too serious, it's definitely unusual and my doctor told me to get my little heart checked out! So I went to see a cardiologist this morning and got some tests done. They tested for the most serious conditions, all of which I passed with no signs of anything abnormal. First, I got the ultrasound done, and got to lay on the bed and see my heart beating as I felt it beating! It was really, really cool. The technician said that I had a "beautiful heart" :)

After my ultrasound I sat down and talked with the doctor for a bit, then he decided he wanted to see what my heart looked like when the beat is elevated (since the problems I've been having have been mostly dealing with random increases in my heart rate, like it will start beating like I just ran a marathon for no reason!). So, I got hooked up to a dozen electrodes, (which, mind you... they stick directly to your skin AFTER they rub your skin with sandpaper and let me tell you, it stings like a bitch!!!!) and was then told to run on a treadmill. To just add to the ridiculousness, I had to take my shirt off, so I'm running in my bra and a little paper vest thing, with wires all over my chest and stomach and a monitor around my waist, a blood pressure thingy around my arm, and in my dress pants and work shoes! I had to run for 8 min, which was about a mile. The whole time I'm running the doctor is asking me questions and I'm huffing and puffing and beeping and then every minute it took my blood pressure, making my right arm useless, as I'm running... in my bra with wires everywhere... let me tell you, it was pretty funny! Especially since the cardiologist is an older brother of one of my really good friends from high school! I definitely felt like that Russian boxer (Ivan Drago!!) from Rocky IV. I wonder if anyone who reads this will get that reference. Anyway, so it was pretty funny, but after I was done running/ panting/ sweating and put my clothes back on, I talked to the doc some more and he said for now, he doesn't see anything wrong.

The next step is to get hooked up to a heart monitor and wear it for 24 hours so they can hopefully capture one of these episodes when my heart kicks itself into high gear. I asked to not do it today but this weekend instead, since a sure way to trigger these episodes is for me to have a few drinks, and I try not to make it a habit to booze on weeknights! So I will have more answers next week!

I really wanted to ask for a print out of my heart ultrasound, but didn't know if that would be tooooo awkward and weird. I also asked the tech what the sex was, but she said she couldn't tell at this time (haha). I think I may ask for a print out later, and put it on my fridge... because isn't that what everyone does after an ultrasound? I will even make a little frame that says something like "Mommy Loves Me" or "I Am Beautiful." :)

Resurfacing

I think it's appropriate that my last post was about my car accident.  That was 2 months ago, and was just the beginning of a string of unfortunate events that have happened to me.  I don't really want to focus on those negative things, because I am doing really well and having a good time.  I guess I should mention that Bret and I broke up, further confirming my 3-out-of-3 theory, but then I realized... if I really HAD IT ALL at the ripe age of 23... what's the point of growing old?  Aren't we supposed to grow and make mistakes and get hurt and roll around in the dirt a little?  I have a little dirt under my nails right now, but I like what it's doing for my character.

It was bound to happen eventually...

Yesterday, I got into a car accident. Yes, it was super scary and I cried like a baby for 2 hours, but I am ok. My car, is not. I will find out probably either today or tomorrow if my car is fixable or completely totaled. Every time I think about it I want to start crying. Basically I was trying to turn left from one busy street to another. The light was green so I went into the middle of the intersection, waiting for traffic to clear so I could turn. The light turned yellow, then the light turned red. I saw that there were still cars coming in opposing traffic, but they werent going fast and I figured that SINCE THE LIGHT WAS RED they would stop at the crosswalk. But, as soon as I started to turn I see one of the cars NOT stopping, and of course this all happened in a second, but I slammed on the gas to get out of the way, but she hit me anyway. She hit my back passenger door with her front left bumper. Neither of us were hurt, but her lip was cut from her airbag so the paramedics came, spoke with us, and then a policeman came and took our info for us. I am SO grateful to the policeman because the woman that hit me barely spoke english, and I was in no state to deal with that. So then they determined my car wasn't driveable (since the back right rear wheel looked crooked) so they got it towed. The tow guy was the BIGGEST douche in the world and kept telling me that I should just scrap my car now because there is no way it's salvagable. He said "this car, a 2002? MAYBE it's worth $2000." So of course I looked him right in the face and said "That sure is a nice thing to tell me right now. Please be quiet. I don't appreciate your comments and truly, I don't think you are qualified to make such judgements." The policeman smiled at that. (really, you would have been shocked at how level headed I was during the whole ordeal. I called 911, took pictures of my car, introduced myself to the other driver, moved my car out of the intersection, all before the paramedics came). Anyway so they towed my car to some random shop in Hollywood, and I had to call Bret's mom to call me to pick me up. Of course coming east at 6pm from the beach to hollywood... well... let's just say there is NO WORSE traffic probably in all of LA. It took her 2 hours to get me, and in those 2 hours I sat outside a Vons and cried like a baby. I talked to my dad and my brother, who both gave me tons of tips on how to deal with this, and my mom kept texting me "honey, it's just a car. It's just a car". When I got home I called my insurance company, and now I just play the waiting game until I find out if my car will get fixed, or if I will have to start looking for a new one. Oh, and I looked up the value of my car. It's actually $6000, thanks a lot tow-guy-a-hole. (My dad told me "don't ever listen to those guys, they are all high school drop outs... classic Dad). Anyway, so Bret's mom (bless her heart) is letting me use Bret's car for the rest of the week, and this weekend my parents are going to bring me my mom's old car. It's a temporary fix, since her old Honda has like 250,000 miles and is going to die soon. But it gets me in the clear for the short term.

All in all, I'm obviously super upset that this happened but at least I'm ok. I'm not hurt AT ALL. Not even a buise. I am a little teeny bit sore, but I think it's from the fact that I was shaking for 2 hours straight after this all happened.

In other news, Transformers 2 made over $60 million yesterday, so everyone at work is rejoicing.

All I've been doing lately is watching movies

So since I am now a bona-fide member of the "entertainment industry" (hahaha) I have found myself seeing lots of movie.  And as your only resident movie expert (since I'm in the biz and all) I feel it is my duty to bestow my opinions on to you, my faithful readers.

State of Play 

Starring Ben Affleck, Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams, the movie definitely had potential from the beginning, because even though Affleck hasn't put out a good movie in years, Crowe and crowd favorite Rachel McAdams definitely got me interested.  (Side note, yes Rachel McAdams is a great actress, but the reason I like her is because when I was a freshman in college, after an unfortunate hair-dying experience that left me red-headed, I was told I looked like her character in The Notebook.  I know I look NOTHING like her, but she is super gorge so I like to tell everyone that I was once compared to her. )  ANYWAY, on to the movie.  The plot starts off with a very public death of a young woman, and it is soon uncovered that she is the mistress of a prominent congressman (Affleck).  As some of the details of her death are unearthed, two journalists (Crowe and McAdams) discover that there is a whole government conspiracy behind the woman's death and work around the clock to break the story.  Sounds cliche, but overall it was really well done.  The acting was good, it wasn't TOO violent (I hate violence) and the plot was easy enough to follow.  There was a new twist every 5 minutes, and I usually find myself having a hard time following movies like that, but this one did a great job of logically leading the viewer to the next twist.  I would (and have already) recommended it. Favorite part:  Russell Crowe being a super slobby and chubby journalist that drives a really ghetto car and eats tons of cheetoes. 

Terminator Salvation

Yes, I am sure you are wondering WHY on earth I saw this movie.  Well, the short story is that it was the only way I would convince Bret to go see The Proposal with me next week (yeaaahh Sandra Bullock RomComs!!).  Anyway, this movie basically sucked for numerous reasons.  1) I haven't seen any of the other Terminator movies, and this one didn't even try to explain WHY John Connor is searching for his father, who is a teenaged boy.  Wtf?  2), The movie was just CONSTANTLY throwing freaking robot machines at you, and they are PISSED OFF!  You get about 3 minutes of dialogue, then BOOM BOOM BOOM here come the machines!  Followed by a 20 minute fight scene with about 200 rounds of bullets going off between the men and the machines.  I dont even GET why the machines hate humans so much.  Like seriously??  And where the hell do the humans get all those bullets??  Let's get real here.  Long story short, I was LITERALLY biting my nails during the whole movie, because it stressed me out so much.  So if you recognize that you have empathy issues (like myself) and will feel the emotions of the characters in movies you see, DON'T see this movie.

Favorite part:  Whoever the actor was that played Marcus (the "Salvation") was freakin hot. 

Angels and Demons

To all the haters:  I don't want to hear it, because I LOVED this movie!! It was SO GOOD!  I LOVE Tom Hanks, even though he always does this weird thing with his neck when he is playing Robert Langdon that totally distracts me (he tucks his chin into his neck, effectively giving himself a double chin, yeah it's weird).  Anyway, I read the book years ago, and though I really enjoyed the story, I thought the ending was really hokey.  The movie changed the ending, taking out all the hokey BS but still came to the same conclusion.  I love all the lore/myth of the history of the Catholic church, and was fascinated even by just the outfits.  I mean, let's be real, the Cardinals look pretty ridiculous in their red dresses with the little white lace overlay.  I loved the action, and the frantic feeling of the clock (and bomb) ticking!  I would def recommend this movie!  Especially if you are interested in religious history, even though the majority of the facts are actually NOT true, it's still soooo interesting.  (Sidenote, I watched this thing on the discovery channel that analyzed Angels and Demons, and every scientist said that that quantity of anti-matter is totally impossible... so we're safe for now!)

Favorite part: Ewan McGregor, wearing a full length dress/cloak/ whatever thingy throughout the whole movie, yet still looking super sexy.  And let's just say his exit was pretty epic.  

*****UPDATE****

I just got back from the movies (that makes three movies in three days!) 

Star Trek

I don't have much time (I have a major headache because I got hit in the face with a baseball this evening, but that's a story for another day) so I will make this short.

1. Believe the hype.  This movie is GREAT

2. Go Paramount!!!

3. Chris Pine... yes please.

4. Easy to follow and intelligent plot

5. NOT geeky at all

6. Even though it is set in the future, you don't question it.  It all is very believable.

7. I am regretting sending my sweet Star Trek shirt that I got from work to my brother.  I would rock that with pride!

8. Good action... they did a really cool thing where they balanced really intense action scenes with moments of complete silence.  It gave a great effect, seeing as this is all happening in the middle of space

9. Did I mention Chris Pine?  Too bad the guy grows up to look like William Shatner.

10. Those Romulans seriously need to take a chill pill

11. Loved all the integration, taglines, and jokes of characters from the old show

12. I haven't heard of a single person that hasn't liked this movie.  And the theater was literally full... two weeks after its release on a Sunday night.  That speaks for itself.

A Haiku about week 1

Job is going well

Tons of swag and free movies

And making coffee

(I'm not complaining!!)

Approaching 3 out of 3??? Let's hope I didn't just jinx myself!!!!

So I've had a hard time writing in this thing lately because the irony has just been killing me.  Brittanie was sweet when she named my blog "just an ordinary desk job" because she knew how much I hated my job, but my recent lack of a job (ordinary or desk) was just too depressing for me to handle.  Anyway, I guess i can OFFICIALLY announce now that I have a new job! I started yesterday working for Paramount Pictures! I am an executive assistant to the Senior VP of Strategy and Operations in Theatrical distribution.  So, I am doing lots of assistant stuff (making tea, ordering supplies, etc) but I am also going to be responsible for generating several reports.  They are kinda boring and detailed, and since I don't even know much about them, I will save you the details.  But yeah, I get to work on a movie lot, in the center of Hollywood, and it really is cool.  I am making pretty good money and I have these really weird things called "benefits" that I've never experienced before.

And now a List of all the stuff I did during my recent 6-week vacation (otherwise known as "unemployment"):

Went to Venice Beach every Monday for lunch with Bret

Went to Disneyland TWICE

Took a Girlfriend's Getaway trip to Utah for 4 days

Saw one of my favorite bands, Keane, in concert (amazing)

Went to the beach numerous times

Shopped a LOT

Finished my scrapbook thus far

Walked to the grocery store 3 times a week 

Watched more Bravo than I would like to admit

Slept till 10:00 most days

Made my sweet calendar

Read 2 books (would have been more without all the tv)

Moved into my studio

Went to San Diego for a weekend

Celebrated Hillary's birthday

Got a few pedicures

Went to two Dodger games

Played tennis

Tried fondue for the first time

Saw a friend's band play at a Hookah Bar in North Hollywood

Saw Hillary, Brittanie, Brittany, Nicole B, Nicole V, Barbara and Lana

And how can we forget the tranny bar in Koreatown??

Looking at it this way, I was pretty prolific!  At the time it really felt like I was in bed all day, but I guess I sell myself short.

Surprisingly, today actually IS Saturday

One of the worst things about unemployment (besides the whole "no income" thing) is that I am completely losing track of the days.  You see, my life consists only of Saturdays, since I never have to worry about waking up at a specific time the next morning.    But nonetheless, I have been realizing lately that I need a calendar.  I didn't need one when I was working because I was always ACUTELY aware of what day of the week it was (more specifically, how close I was to Friday).  Well, it's like the end of April and I still don't have a calendar, because I had my eye on one online months ago that I LOVED, but I was like,  "No way am I spending $35 on that, I could totally make it."  So, I finally made it!  

This is the original (duh)

This is my version (totally copied, or as the lady at my favorite scrapbook store would say, it's "scraplifted."  Anyway, I made mine on 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 white cardstock, and all of the designs are cut out of colored and patterned paper and glued with spray-mount.

Not bad, eh? 

In other news, my good friend Russell, who works for Disneyland but has been gone the last 8 months at Army training camp, is now back at the park and can get me and up to 2 friends into the park for free on weekdays.  Any takers???