preparing for take off...

So week by week... day by day... I have been reminding myself of how thrilling this trip is going to be. Even though I cannot WAIT to see my family for a few days.. I'm excited to leave the country for the first time! Here are only a FEW of the places we're going on our first cruise to South America :)

love you all :) happy christmas!

E

long walks. beach. and 2 shows left!

This week has been a GREAT week... besides having almost NOTHING in my bank account and having the head choreographer of Stiletto observe one of our first runs of a show... great.

- luckily last weekend I had the chance to meet up with my good friend Lindsey from tuacahn. We ended up going to a yummy pizza place in west hollywood, then unfortunately our phones navigation systems failed us as we tried to go see the new Black Swan. A ballet/drama/thriller featuring Natalie Portman, we've been wanting to see it ever since it finally came out in the very beginning of december! sooo frustrating.... another night we hung out to see the exact same movie, and yet again it was SOLD OUT! oh well. hopefully it will be in the ship's library of movies or even redbox by the time I get back!

- Venice beach california. Spent this friday roaming the streets of venice. Such a beautiful city! full of vintage shops, italian restaurants, and of course.... marijuana doctors. haha. Fortunately i brought my camera with me to record some of the beautiful sites of the city. here are a couple from the adventure :)

awesome christmas lights through the canal!

the building on the right is where we had dinner at the best thai place ever!

Jessica met up with me for the 2nd half of my day!

this iswhat the beach looked like until about 2 pm!

I better get used to these beautiful sunsets!

- 2 more shows to learn! Avalon and Dancin' fool! As we're getting closer and closer to our departure date, i keep learning more and more about the ships!

1. we have a BUNCH of over night ports! which means... fancy hotels and great shopping!!! for example... Mumbai, Dubai, Turkey, Naples, and panama canal!

2. I'm almost positive i'm going to fly straight from seattle to New York at the end of my contract to go visit one of my best friends, Alexis. Also hopefully make a few auditions and possibly find a place to live for a few months?????

3. We have 2 weeks on the ship until we perform our first show! yaaay! hopefully i'll be used to it by then!

4. free. amazing. food.

things are looking up :)

until next time.

Happy holidays!

E

finally...

its been a BUSY BUSY BUSY week... luckily we have a 3 day weekend coming up! disneyland??? san diego??? we'll see!

but for now.... i'm super excited about the music video i was included in last august, it finally came out! here's the video :) look for the random face that pops up during the important screen shots hahha, thats mee.

The Ultimate week of Broadway.

so.

Thanksgiving was alrightttt... didn't really have SET plans until the night before thanksgiving day, but i ended up spending it with Matt and a couple of his friends down in Aneheim. Matt actually had to work at disneyland thanksgiving day, but luckily he lended me his car while he had to be at work :) thankfully I brought my D40 and drove about 20 miles west to Hunington beach for a few hours and spent some time walking the boardwalk/beach and getting some great deals on some christmas presents for the fam :) here's an idea of what the day was like. BEAUTIFUL

After we met up for his lunch break back at disneyland, i decided to take a stroll around downtown disney to see what they had to offer for the anual holiday black friday deals.... ended up finding more than what i had intended... like... getting my first pair of ray bans :)

which are going to be VERY useful on the cruise!!

Don't worry mom... i got some awesome/cheap christmas presents for you too!!!

BACK TO WORK>>>

Rehearsals are KILLER right now... 8 hours a day. Since we had 2 days off in the middle of the week for thanksgiving, we are now paying for it by having 7 full days in a row without a break until this Saturday and Sunday. Good thing we get paid on Friday! you know what that means.... EDGE all Saturday afternoon!

hope everyone had a GREAT thanksgiving. Being away for my first major holiday was quite a smack it the face.. made me realize how thankful i have for my wonderful family and friends who i can always count on to be there for me... and vice versa :)

gotta run... the clubhouse is closing here in my apt complex, which is the only place i can get free wifi around here :( i guess its a good thing... i have GOT to start getting used to not having access to a computer OR a telephone. OHHH the sacrifices of traveling the world....

love you all.

E

Vegas can wait...

LAST MINUTE CHANGE OF PLANSSS.....

no more vegas. I would have been stuck in the hotel room anyway :/

and here is my reasoning...

- I met this girl at a class i took at the edge performing arts center in hollywood, which was AWESOME. She friended me on facebook and then sooner or later i got her number :) sooo we agreed to keep in contact and tell each other when there were good classes in the area... she JUST texted me an hour ago and told me tokyo was teaching a class on wednesday in north hollywood!

- I'm not usually the one who is known for going back and forth between decisions... and i apologize to the people i said i was going to vegas with :/ but.... dancing comes before vegas!

so here i am... staying in old inglewood california for thanksgiving.. waiting to hear back from a friend (matt thatcher) to see if there's room for me to have thanksgiving dinner with him and his brother :)

hope things work out! can't wait to take class... and of course to just relax and let all my stiletto worries be hidden away for a short 3 days off!!!

here's a clip of some old tokyo choreography if you're curious... :)

love you all

E

hahahaaa

here's the awesome video i promised you :)

country girl! david, jessica and I

Survival of Stiletto rehearsals 101

soooo.... here's what's been going on. Rehearsals are going well for our first show 'Vegas nights' and we will officially be done learning the show TOMORROW (Sunday) and will move onto 'Ultimate Broadway' on Tuesday after we preview the show in front of producers onMonday... eeeek!

I'm really NOT in the mood to blog right now... but i feel bad that i haven't been as committed as I said I would be. oh well... this whole rehearsal process hit me in the face PRETTY hard this week, gimme a break :)

THIS IS HOW I SURVIVE MY DAYS

SUDOKU!!!!! I go through at least 3 HARD puzzles a day :) makes me feel smart again.

pretty sure I've had at least 4 turkey burgers this week.. I CRAVE THEM after 8 hours of rehearsal everyday of the week! mmmmm.....

Grey's anatomy keeps me sane.. bailey is my favorite :)

listening to classic pop tunes such as Elvis and Frank Sinatra gives me a HEADACHE... some of my own playlist's that will NEVER be found on a cruise ship entertainment show, keeps my ears fresh and my brain relaxed!!

did you know rice cakes and peanut butter together tastes almost as good as your fatty snickers bar?? I have at least 2 everyday throughout rehearsal! fast... 10 times less calories and a GREAT source of energy!

now that you know how i survive... i tried to upload a quick clip from rehearsal but it failed :( maybe next time!

P.S. maybe this is where I'm spending my thanksgiving this year...

some good ole people watching... expensive shopping (maybe).... and great buffets are soon to come :)

but... of course I would rather be spending it with my loving family in Vancouver :/

I am thankful for all of you who are reading this and even the ones who aren't :)

love you and miss you all.

e.

SORE = 1. Tender to the touch; susceptible of pain from pressure; inflamed; painful; -- said of the body or its parts; as, a sore foot. [1913 Webster]

Today we learned our first show/bumper called 'Let us Entertain you', also known as LUEY. Even though its not considered a full show, I've come to learn that no matter what kind of show it is... the choreographer does NOT miss a beat! (and boy does it stress my brain out like no other!) Whether its doing an interactive game with the passengers on stage, or simply backing up the singers... there is either a head roll or some kind of step that goes with it!

For those of you who really know me, I am NOT the one known for getting caught dancing to the famous, "you ain't nothin' but a hound dog" by Elvis, in my bedroom late at night... I'm most likely listening to the unique sound of Florence and the machine, or Bjork. So... I'm definitely NOT used to the step touch's, shimmy shimmy's :) but... slowly but surely I'm starting to getting used to this kind of movement!

After the 8 hour day we all got ready for a night of bonding at a local Mexican restaurant called 'Paco's Taco's' which was FANTASTIC food by the way! and of course I was the only one drinking my non-alcoholic sherlie temple at the table ;) and yess.. I thoroughly enjoyed it as much as everyone else enjoyed their alcoholic drink.

I am starting to get used to this town full of homeless people, Art, and ethnic restaurants. But like I said earlier... I have GOT to get myself to west Hollywood sometime soon!

Our cast has quite the variety of personalities! and I love them and respect them all the same! can't wait to make MANY new and exciting memories with them. They are truly my new family and I am happy to be sharing these new experiences with them :)

Amsterdam 2011 Cast

top - Jessica, Brad, Me

bottom - Heather, Suzy, Joey, Alexa, David

Love.

E.

I made it! i think...

Finally flew into LA yesterday!

- Got straight to the lovely Madrid apartments... (8655 Belford Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90045-4567) not quite what i intended... great pool... and that's about it :) The whole cast is living together, YES 3 girls and 4 boys. 3 rooms.. all with two bunk beds. 2 boys in 2 rooms and all 3 girls in 1. spacious living room... tight bedrooms. shower head was broken, and no wifi. Therefore i have been spending my whole day today (Friday) at starbucks or Panera which is only half a mile walk away from the apartments.

- The reason why i have friday off is because we were supposed to do an orientation today, but we got together around 6 last night while everyone was still at the studio and finished the orientation in an hour.

- luckily there's a strip of shops nearby including starbucks, yummy pizza and taco restaurants, and a trader Joe's where i will probably be spending most of my time considering i don't have a car and I'm not willing to pay 60 bucks to take a taxi to downtown LA :)

- I've been so DESPERATE lately about getting myself into a dance class around here... its quite depressing. I only work from 10-6 almost everyday, but most worthwhile dance classes are held between 1-4 :( so as soon as we get a day off because i'm JUST a dancer.. i might just have to take a taxi to Hollywood in order to fulfill me needs!!

- Rehearsals start tomorrow.. learning our first show VEGAS NIGHTS which includes Elvis, dolly Parton, that's Amore... and MANY more. again, each are at least 50 minutes and the costumes are far from ordinary.. can't WAIT to get some sexy profile pictures!!!

Here's a lovely sneak peak! haha

**** i know i said i was going to start a video blog and i PROMISE it will be up soon! I'll probably have A LOT to say after rehearsal tomorrow :) so check in again sometime on Sunday!****

i miss you all soooo much. it hurts.

E

Here we go :)

So for those of you who don't know, I was recently hired by Stiletto Entertainment to perform on a cruise ship for Holland America! For the next 9 months I thought it would be cool to document my experiences since i will be traveling the world for so long! Here are my important dates/places to remember for the next few months!

1. Fly to LA (AKA inglewood) to start rehearsing for the 5 different numbers i will be learning, each an hour in length :)

2. find plans for thanksgiving since i will NOT be flying home :( Holland America gives me 3 days off for thanksgiving and 4 for christmas, and they do NOT pay for a flight home during vacation... therefore since flying gets so expensive during the holidays, i will be staying in the LA area during thanksgiving so i can save my money for xmas presents :)

3. rehearse rehearse rehearse! (and take as many dance classes as i can on the side!) Then we fly to florida to board my first ship, the Prinsendam....

4. I will be on ^this^ ship until march/april.. not really sure yet :)

5. After the Prinsendam, i will fly from San Diego straight to Singapore to catch the

Amsterdam for the remainder of my contract!

:)

*** and this is as far as i know for now! i'll update this thing weekly with a video :) ****