Birthdays!!![Jason,
Megan, Nina,
Me, Zac, Melissa (Scher)]

Jason's birthday was the 17th. A bunch of us went to see Brian's sketch show that evening, then headed over to Chili's. It was a lot of fun and there were pictures taken, but none from my camera because I forgot it!

Tuesday, the girls call us to see if we're all available to have a big "family dinner" that night. It's not very often that all six of us are available at the same time. I mention that Zac's birthday is coming up Friday, so we decide to make it a birthday party. Scher and I head to the dollar store to shop for some supplies and little gifts to give him. There were mostly luau themed items so we decided to make it a luau theme for no reason other than that! Then we meet up with Jason and Megan and have lunch at La Salsa. Scher, Megan and I start getting their place ready for the party while Jason keeps Zac occupied watching Sopranos. Nina swings by and picks them up on her way back from an audition and we bombard Zac with streamers as they enter. We ordered a few pizzas and buffalo wings as that is Zac's most common meal. We eat and goof around and then play a rousing game of Pin the Nose Ring on the Tiki God! It was a really fun night of just hanging out and goofing around.
[Yeah, that's a Care Bear serving tray]
[The guys, posing with the Tiki God]
[The girls]

Tonight I went over to Lauren's and watched five episodes of Alias season 5. I've been watching a lot of TV on DVD, including Alias with Lauren, Arrested Development with Scher and The Sopranos with Jason and Zac. TV on DVD is pretty much the greatest thing ever, other than the movie The Departed, which I just watched again tonight. Lauren and Brian were both sent copies from the Screen Actors Guild. Sorry Ricky. But hey, it's coming back out to theaters tomorrow/today (Friday).

Other than just hanging out, I've been working here and there at Pepperdine. I've worked a couple of dance shows. I ran spotlight on Mel Torme's son Steve Torme for his show "Torme Sings Torme." I ran sound for George Winston's concert. That man is AMAZING! It's almost hard for me to listen to piano now when it's not him playing it. I also ran sound for a ballet company. And other random jobs. Tomorrow I work from 8am to 11pm, then I will probably meet up with some people at BJ's Pizza for Zac's birthday again. Then Saturday I work 8am to 9:30pm. After that I work about 18 of the next 21 days! That is a big answer to prayers. I'm still looking into steadier work elsewhere. I work in clumps and that's not good enough.
Love you all. Happy Birthday Nate! Sorry I couldn't celebrate it with you.

I'm going to warn you now: This may be very long...

Okay, keeping everyone's sanity in mind I'll try to date every paragraph or so for chronology sake. I'll try to let the pictures do most of the talking...

December 17th through the 21st I wait to hear about catering jobs. NOTHING! So...
December 22nd I take of for Fresno and arrive there in the evening in time to help Nate and Ricky take painting tape off of the trim around Grandma and Grandpa's place.
We eat some awesome chicken and rice then take off to Visalia to drop Nate off. Mom and Dad arrive just before we take off.
Christmas eve Raymond, Tammy, Stuart and Malory come over to open some gifts after church.

Christmas day we open gifts and hang out for a while. Then we headed over to Raymond and Tammy's for lunch. Stuart got a new Razor phone. Mallory showed me her mad trampoline skills.









It was a very relaxing break. I loved seeing everyone. I hadn't seen my family since I moved. We ate some great food, got some great gifts, got to relax and visit and see a couple of good movies. Ricky and I took off Wednesday the 27th for LA. I was bummed Nate and Robin couldn't come, but I of all people understand timing! After I show Ricky around my place, we tried going to a place I'd been talking up for a while, but it was too busy. So we found an Irish pub on Wilshire and had some awesome burgers. After that we took the long way home and we drove a long way down Mulholland Dr. It was crazy windy and trees had fallen in the road! It was an adventure.
The next day we had In N' Out for lunch, then walked to the theater right down the street from our apartment to see Casino Royal. It was actually the first time I'd been to that theater. Then we rent The Decent at Blockbuster, get some more In 'N Out and head back to the apartment. Ricky was not too excited about trying Guitar Hero 2, but you will see a picture of him smiling as he plays.
Well, prayers were answered on my last night in Fresno. I found out I was going to work New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. What I didn't know until the next day was that the Eve's party was at 3:30pm until who knows when, and the New Year's Day party was at 5:30 the next MORNING!! So here's how that played out... I head to the first party about 3pm on the 31st. That party goes till 2:30am. I head back to the shop and it should only take me about 5 minutes to do so. Both of the parties I'm working, and the shop for The Kitchen are in Pasadena. What happens in Pasadena on New Year's? Yup, Tournament of the Roses! Streets were closed everywhere! It took me an hour to get back to the shop, and the whole time I had my heat cranked for the reason I will next explain. Once I park at the shop, I hop in the back seat of my car and sleep for 45 very terrible minutes. I didn't think I fell asleep at all except for the fact I woke up when my alarm went off at 5:25. I walk up the hill to meet everyone else and we carpool to the next event. That went from 6am to 3pm. So, I worked 20 hours of double time! I got home and crashed. Monday and Tuesday were uneventful. Wednesday Ashley came over for a while. Then Brooks came over and he, Jason and I went over to the girls place to christen their new TV and DVD player. We arrived to personalized plates of cookies and beer. Gotta love the girls!
Heather and her mom were in town for the last couple of days so yesterday I went and picked Heather up from their hotel and we spent the day just hanging out. I showed her our place and she met Jason and Ashley. Then Heather and I went to a Thai restaurant down the street where Brian met up with us. The three of us then went over to Ashley's place to say hi. Brian and Ashley entertained us on guitar and some piano. We just hung out for a while in their entry room until her folks got home. Then her dad (Glen Campbell!) sat with us and sang a little and picked up one of the guitars!!! It was unreal how chill and normal it was! He didn't play guitar too much because he had just got his cast taken off his hand that day. Her mom heated up some sweet potato fries from Wolf Gang Pucks and we helped her pick tile for their kitchen! After that, Heather, Brian and I headed to Pepperdine because Heather had only been there once before when she was scoping it out a few years back. We took her on a brief tour and told some stories. Then we headed to Santa Monica and showed her the 3rd Street Promenade. We had some really good sushi right there on 3rd Street. Brian has a friend that lives really close to where we were so we met up with him (Dennis) and went to a hotel lounge not too far away. I had a pineapple mojito, Brian and Dennis both got "Sexy Beasts", and Heather got a Key Lime Martini which was seriously like drinking a key lime pie (it even had graham cracker around the rim!) It was a really nice place, and insanely expensive. But it was a really nice place to relax on couches and chat for a while, and a nice way to end a fun day. After that I drove Heather down Sunset Strip on the way back to her Hotel and pointed out House of Blues, The Comedy Store, Laugh Factory and other "hot spots". I ran inside and said hi to her mom real quick.
So all in all, on her trip Heather got to see Hollywood, hang out with Glen Campbell in Malibu, see Pepperdine, eat Sushi on 3rd street and have a drink at a hotel in Santa Monica. All in all a very fun day, and it was good to see her.
Tonight I just got back from my first Groundlings show. The Groundlings are one of the more famous improv comedy troupes and schools in the country. Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens, Will Ferrell, and several other people who are on or have been on SNL are Groundlings Alumni. Tonight I recognized many of the players from various TV shows where they've guested. The host (and director of the school) was Karen Maruyama whose been on "Whose Line is it Anyway" a few times and some other TV shows. It was quite fun. Right now it just turned 3am and I'm on my second run of Guns 'N Roses Greatest Hits. I think Live and Let Die is my cue to hit the sack.
So, that's my last couple of weeks. There was a lot to pack in this post, and I'm sorry that I ran out of pictures towards the end. Hope everyone had some happy Holidays. Love you all!