Society Girls

You know those fabulous writers and journalists who get to hit all the hottest clubs and parties and events around the city for a living, schmoozing with power players and socializing for the sake of their job?

Liz and I aren't quite like that but we'll get there.

We've already named ourselves, "Society Girls" and we're planning on hitting the next hip party near you! (BTW: if you think up an even cooler name, please share...)

Society Girls: Saga 1:
We hit up Wokcano in Santa Monica to listen to Kamala Harris speak to the mostly Asian American crowd on why she should become California's next Attorney General the other night.

Photos of the speech and accompanying article will be revealed once it's published (eeks!) but here are some snaps Liz took after work was over. (And sometimes during but what are you going to do. Sigh...life of a journalist.)
This here is Dawen. He just moved from Chicago. He sings pretty songs. Listen to him here.
This here is Kelly Hu. First Asian American Miss Teen USA. She's so gorgeous and it's great to see her supporting Kamala and the Asian American community.

At first, I have to admit, I didn't recognize her. When an organizer who knew we were reporting on the event gestured that she was someone we should talk to, I had whispered to Liz, "who's that?"

Liz was like, "ask her."

But what would I say? Who are you? Um...are you Kelly Hu?

Lucky for us, someone came by and introduced themselves to her and she replied, "I'm Kelly." Jackpot. Now I know what to do next time I don't know someone's name. Just introduce myself to them. Genius!
And this here is Lisa Ling! There are not too many role models out there for a young female Asian American reporter so what she's done with her career has been thoroughly admired on my behalf for many years now. I can't completely express how blessed I am to have such amazing opportunities like this. I am one lucky girl. I need to remember not to take my life for granted. Work hard!

Hollywood High School

This was awhile back but I just realized I had never posted about this. I post about almost every other single thing going on in my life including the state of cleanliness my bedroom is in so it would be a shame to not blog about this.

This being that my sister acted in a movie this past summer! She was part of the cast of Easy A, a teen dark comedy coming out in 2010. The movie is almost like Scarlet Letter but set in modern-day high school times and boasts an amazing ensemble cast. (and I'm not just saying that 'cause Jess is in it.) Lisa Kudrow, Stanley Tucci, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Hayden Church, Penn Badgley, Emma Stone, the list is impressive. Take a look-see for yourself at some of the pictures we took at the after-party.

Star Emma Stone - she was in Superbad, The House Bunny, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Former stars of "Aliens of America." I heard this was an awesome show but like all awesome shows, it ended up being...cancelled. *sigh

Aly and AJ! OMG I totally listen to their music! (They rock, ok?)

Me and my new best friend/lover, Tyler! He's a cutie!

So when people say that Hollywood is like high school, they aren't exaggerating. Some of my sister's behind-the-scenes stories are unbelievable. A star of the movie with a total nice girl/guy reputation acted like she/he came straight out of Mean Girls(slash Guys?).

It makes me mad because unfortunately, my sis was one of the poor lambs getting picked on but what can you do? Our ultimate payback will be for Jess to become a mega-star and watch that bully's face one day as Jess sashays past her on a red carpet as people are screaming for my sister's name and ignoring her/him. When that day comes, it will be sweet!

But until that day, we just gotta suck it up and do the best work we can.

Jess, keep it up. You're amazing and I have every confidence that you win over the world with your acting talents. Cheers to the future!

PS. You should check out my sis' IMDB page. I can only link you to that since someone still hasn't purchased their domain name from Mr. Creeper. Get on it, girl!

Could Be a Travels Post...

... considering how many tanks of gas I guzzled and California square footage I covered with my tracks over the past week. From Wednesday evening onwards, I was on a non-stop, fun-filled, work-ladened, strange but exciting and fulfilling journey. 

WEDNESDAY

9:00AM: Begin round of classes

4:00PM: Filmed video for internship application. Fingers crossed that I get the job!

7:00PM: Begin trip to Irvine to visit sister

8:00PM: Still on the road, almost falling asleep. The 5 freeway sure is boring.

8:30PM: Reunited with my lil sis!  Sis treats me to fancy Indian restaurant named Chakra and proceeds to tell the hostess, "We're not lesbians on a date. We're sisters." Oh, sister.

9:30PM: Meets sis' boy.  Such a (nervous, awkward mess of a) cutie! Thanks for the Chai tea!

10:30PM: Found out cousin Dring got into NYU! Debate: Spontaneous trip to SD to congratulate cousin in person or not?

11:00PM: Spontaneity lost. Knocked out in bed.

THURSDAY

8:00AM: Drudged out of sis' bed to move car and take sis to Zhong Wen class.

8:30AM: Hung out around Lee's Sandwiches (mmm Vietnamese coffee) and applied for internships/jobs. Go me!

11:00AM: Set out for Disneyland! (More details over at my travel blog.)

12:15PM: Spotted: Phil Wang of Wong Fu waving me over. Why would he do such a thing? Probably 'cause he's a Nice Guy or maybe 'cause I was going to hang out at Disneyland with him, fellow nice-guy Wes, Sharon, Carmen, Susan and Eric today.

3:00PM: Waved bye  bye to new friends and began hour-long trip back to LA for the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival a.k.a. the VC Film Festival.

5:15PM: Putting on make-up and squeezing into grey tights in my car in the parking garage of the Director's Guild office.  Such is the glamorous life of a reporter.

5:30PM: Ready to roll in ruby red baby doll cocktail dress, grey tights and black heeled bootsies. Ugh, couldn't fix yucky Disneyland hair.

5:45PM: Only press huddled at the red carpet.  Got mistaken as an actress. Asked to pose for pictures on the red carpet (have I ever refused?) Once one camera started clicking, all cameras started clicking. When asked basically, "Who are you?" It's legit to reply, "I'm Janice Jann, bitches!" Right? Right? Joking....

6:30PM: Already spotted: Leo Nam, Bai Ling, Kelly Hu, and...CHARLYNE YI!! Flirt, schmooze, question, gape, gawk. (If only Leo wasn't so short...)

With Paper Heart's Charlyne Yi who acts eerily like my roommate, Caroline.

6:45PM: Asked Charlyne Yi whether her real-life love, Juno cutie, Michael Cera has ever serenaded her before. Her answer was so LOL it made me almost choke on my own saliva.

6:57PM: Request interview with Charlyne for KoreAm Journal. Hope I get to write the story.

8:00PM: Headed home for LCC rehearsal

8:30PM: Oops. Forgot to eat dinner. Stuffed the rest of the bread bought from Lee's in the morning into mouth. Down with water.

9:00PM: Bawled my eyes out in preparation for my scene (hope I can do it come showtime)

11:00PM: Crawled into bed, exhausted. Good call on not going to the VC after party.

FRIDAY

9:00AM: Cycled over to UCLA bike shop where I met the man of my dreams. For all you ladies out there, apparently the bike shop is like, this secret coven where all the hot UCLA men with cute, cyclist butts have been hiding.  The first time I went, I stared into the puppy dog eyes of a drool-worthy mechanic. I went again this time hoping ol' bike boy would be there but he wasn't. Instead, an even hotter guy was working! Oh boy, biking is really doing wonders for my heart!

11:00AM: Crying in front of the computer because every imaginable computer problem is blocking me from completing my video edit for my internship interview.

12:00PM: Curling hair in bathroom of Broad Hall. This makeup-on-the-fly thing is getting to be a habit.

1:00PM: Vroom vroom over to Director's Guild again for press day with some of the filmmakers.

2:00PM: Spotted: ultra-cute (though tiny) man walking around in trendy skinny jeans and members only jacket

2:45PM: Apologized to cast and crew of "White on Rice" for totally coughing all over them the night before.

3:00PM: Laughed as clueless Ada, who had no idea what "White on Rice" is about, fake her way through the 15-minutes interview asking questions like, "and can you elaborate on that?" and, "and how do you feel?"

3:05PM: Hiroshi Watanabe learned English from Oprah and practices dinosaur method acting! <3

3:45PM: Ah, so the cutie with the fly style is actually the director of the opening night movie! Sweet; he's attractive and talented. But looks kind of taken. The best ones always are.

4:15PM: My turn to fake out an interviewee (btw: we're not always this under-prepared.)

4:45PM: Fake-out totally worked! "Wow, this was such a good interview. You really know your stuff." If by stuff, he means BS, then yes, yes I do.

5:15PM: Uh oh, maybe he's after some other stuff. Phone number, invite to after-party and "you should visit when you come to Shanghai"?! Did I just get hit on?

6:00PM: Slamming head against keyboard for not saving my captured video footage properly and leaving the raw footage with my friend back in West Hollywood. 

6:20PM: Drive back to West Hollywood while blasting "Almost Lover" by A Fine Frenzy on my car speakers and trying to think sad thoughts in prep for LCC scene. Cry, dammit, cry!

7:00PM: Pick up my guardian angel, Layla to finish editing video interview. Thanks for everything, LAY!! <3

8:00PM: Best Buy pit stop to purchase pack of DVDs when I only needed one. Sigh. 

9:00PM: Received angry call from Linda because she's driven 40 minutes to go clubbing with me and I'm not ready.

9:05PM: Received sad call from Jessica because she's leaving for New York in a month and wanted to go clubbing with me and I'm not ready.

9:15PM: Made best-friend-ever Layla take over my edit and print video to DVD.

9:20PM: Call Linda and make promise to drive home from campus, change and get ready in 30 minutes.

9:27PM: Passing by Ralph's.

9:30PM: Passing by a lot of people taking walks.  Block where apartment is situated looking mighty dark.

9:32PM: Realized entire block is OUT. OF. POWER.

9:45PM: Changing in the dark. Settling for the leopard printed dress because it's the only print I can make out in the glow of the moonlight.

9:50PM: Run out of apartment with a Trader Joe's bag containing: a bottle of wine, 3 bottles of beer, wallet, cell phone, make up bag, and a jar of JLo's mini-muffins for dinner.

10:00PM: Putting makeup on in dark, bumpy car. 

10:05PM: Making arrangements to make sure we get in the club for free this time.

10:20PM: Uh oh, there's huge line outside Opera. But wait! Just received text from sweetheart Robert asking me if I've arrived yet.

10:30PM: Robert gets me and 4 friends in for free. Thanks Robert!

11:50PM: Hit with realization that, "whoa. Opera has a lot of Asians on Friday nights."

12:00PM: Bump into Tony, Jess and Jenn. Aw, my ACA buddies (even though I was never in ACA)

12:15AM: Dancing sober is fun! You meet decent guys and have enough self-respect to reject all the non-decent (and smelly) ones

1:20AM: Overheard jerk saying, "Her, oh yea, I made out with her last week but I didn't realize she was so ugly."

1:21AM: Gives jerk disgusted and appalled face.

1:23AM: Smirking inside as I observe jerk gesture to his friends, "can you believe that girl? she totally dogged me!"

2:30AM: Party until both Linda and Jessica get kicked out for being too tipsy.  Linda, true story. Jessica, not so much.

2:45AM: Give Debs and Ben pitch-dark, whispering tour of apartment, hug old friends goodbye and hope they don't trip or run into anything as they make their way out of the building in the darkness.

3:00AM: ZzzZzzZzZzzzZZZzz

By Saturday, things returned more or less to normal (well, normal if you count practicing for my first-ever kissing scene and taking parents out to fancy dinner on a hill normal).  I cherish these action-packed days filled with accomplishments, productivity and fun.  Thank You God for giving me the stamina, health, brains and money to do it all! Can you teach me how to apply mascara while driving 30 mph next?