The McGee's Stay Classy in San Diego

Celebrating Christmas in San Diego! We hit the Wildlife Park (and saw two new baby elephants!), the Midway (see Ryan and me in the brig and mom and dad on the flightdeck), the view by the Coronado Hotel and the Padre's new stadium. Mom, Jess and I challenged Dad and Ry to a mean game of Catch-phrase. Fun was had by all...

Christmas 2007 in San Diego

Sundance Staff Photo

An exciting preview of the awesome Sundance Staff Photo that will be in the 2008 Film Guide. This is the roof of our building...

Sunday with Sherisse!

Yay! Finally got to see Sherisse. After some technical difficulties (me getting seriously lost) met Sherisse and Paul at the Murakami exhibit downtown at Moca. Very cool and weird (check out the Kanye West video that he art directed). Then had Korean BBQ which was fantastic (see pic). Then watched Sherisse and Paul drive off in their rental PT Cruiser. :(

Merry Barcycle

Pics from the Barcycle in Manhattan Beach. Jen and Matt let me crash Jen's annual USC pub crawl on bikes. Loved Manhattan Beach, loved riding bikes from Manhattan to Hermosa and Redondo and to the bars. Seriously, though, seven bars on bikes in one afternoon is quite the accomplishment. And then a great (but somewhat aggressive) game of flip cup. And then joke dancing at a cheesey bar near the pier. All in all another successful Saturday!

Laura at Pinkberry and Upright Citizens Brigade!

Saturday we went down to Venice and had brunch at the Omelette Parlor, which incidentally is located two doors down from Finn McCools. I have now succesfully shown Laura two blocks in all of Los Angeles. We decided to scoot farther down Venice to Pinkberry. Finally. My fave! Then saw Juno (excellent!) and met Angi and Matt at La Poubelle in Hollywood. Then we saw Match Game at UCB which is always fun. The most famous person on the panel that night was...Samm Levine from Freaks and Geeks. Oh, well. A wonderful weekend, none-the-less! Sunday we hit the Grove for the final part of the tour. Lovely, weekend!

Laura's Visit Part 1

My friend Laura came to visit me all the way from Chicago last weekend. Weekend started out strong. I accidentally took Laura to eat at a "C" restaurant. For my non-LA friends, all restaurants in LA have an A, B or C rating in the windows. Even the nice restaurants (I know, I know, but LA does have some nice restaurants, Michellin be damned!). I'm pretty sure I started out Laura's visit at a restaurant that serves horse meat, or at least hooves. Oops. But things started looking up on Friday. We met Dave at Father's Office (best burgers in LA) and then met Halle and girls at Finn McCools in Santa Monica.

Fa La La La La, La La La La

Pics from our tree-trimming....!

Just like Michelle Kwan

My roommate, Halle, had the great idea to go ice skating in Santa Monica tonight. After working all weekend, it was a great way to finally have some fun. Who knew the first time I would try ice skating would be in Santa Monica? Love it...

Nice way to end Thanksgiving...

With a hike! (Also with frozen pizza and the Mandy Moore movie "License to Wed")

Thanksgiving 2008: Heat and Serve

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving 2008. This is what a traditional Thanksgiving dinner looks like if straight from the can/box/store. It was pretty darn tasty if you ask me!

1. Turkey breast
2. Can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce

3. Box of Stovetop stuffing

4. Bag of Salad

5. Can of corn

6. Mashed potatoes - sort of from scratch!

7. Can of Campbell's gravy

8. Can of sweet potatoes

9. Pumpkin pie from Whole Foods

Wild Turkey Wednesday

A very "Wild" Turkey Wednesday. Ryan, Jess and I played a mean game of Trivial Pursuit fueled by Ry's Wild Turkey tradition. Unfortunately for him, possibly his tamest WTW, yet!

Angi Saw Nicole Richie on Melrose!

Another fun weekend. Went out in Santa Monica on Friday night (the Viceroy hotel bar is great. I love hotel bars in California that are covered in twinkly white Christmas lights and centered around a pool). Saturday I went to Urth Cafe in Santa Monica for lunch for Nate's birthday (friend from work). Then I met Iris, her husband, her sister and her sister's boyfriend for dinner at Pace in Laurel Canyon. Very cool place. Food was great - and the company was wonderful. Sunday went hiking in Malibu, hit the Farmer's Market in Santa Monica and then went to the Dali exhibit at LACMA and another fun restaurant Lucques in Beverly Hills (Cote du Rhone + more white Christmas lights = another good night:)

The highlight of the weekend wasn't even my highlight - Angi saw Nicole Richie and Joel Madden shopping on Melrose! Exclusive picture attached. So lucky...

In second place is my roommate Halle who saw Jay Mohr and Nikki "all lips" Cox in Santa Monica. I haven't seen anyone since I saw Josh Lucas on Montana St. (in Santa Monica) almost two weeks ago...:(

Abu Dhabi

Here are a bunch of pictures from Abu Dhabi (for the Middle East Film Festival). Ted was speaking on a panel so I got to go as his guest for free and stay at the Emirates Palace.

Highlights:

- Camels on the beach. The men that owned the camels played guitar and served us hot tea under a tent on the beach of the Persian Gulf

- Day trip to Dubai - insane. So much building going on - and it all looks like fake US buildings.

- Meeting a lot of really interesting/funny/smart Muslims

- Buckets of free champagne at all the events

- Meeting Harvey Weinstein (and his four assistants)

- Our hotel had a water slide and lazy river

- The breakfast buffet was insane - I ate mountains of hummus and nutella and rasberries with yogurt

- The Iranian Souk

- The ski slope inside the Emirates Mall in Dubai

We also went to the Woodstock Film Festival before the flight to Abu Dhabi, which was lots of fun. It was Ichibod Crane country - nice and crisp Fall weather and foliage, lots of pumpkins, although too much vegan food. Blech. Althoough, I accidentally erased my pictures from that part of the trip.

Cinespia - Movies in the Cemetery

Last really old posting - I promise. Here's a favorite LA pic from Cinespia. Every Saturday night in the Summer they show outdoor movies at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It's one of my favorite things to do in LA. You bring a picnic, blankets, lots of wine and watch the movie projected onto the mausoleum. Sounds creepy, but it's a fantastic time. It is a Hollywood Cemetery and LAist likes to point out that "you're often watching stars on screen who are also buried only a few hundred feet away." I saw HIS GIRL FRIDAY, NOTORIOUS and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS. And, no, you don't sit on the tombstones...

DOH!

Another retroactive post - here I am at a screening of THE SIMPSONS Movie with Dave, his friend JD and his roommate, Mathew. This day was fun - we went to the movie, ate giant burritos for JD's birthday and then went to this crazy dive bar where an 80-year-old women was wearing a red bikini.

Meeting Al Gore

I got to meet Al Gore at the Oceana Fundraiser that Ted took me to last month. It was at a house in the Pacific Palisades (which means the mountains behind/next to Malibu). Beautiful house, lots of champagne (my favorite!) and Al Gore's presentation and the Oceana presentation was actually reallly interesting. We were outside in this beautiful garden with lots of white chinese lanterns and white twinkly Christmas lights hanging in the trees (did I mention the free-flowing champagne), so I'm sure that was part of it.

Highlights were 1) meeting Al Gore (he told me Sundance was a "great organization" - I told him"nice to meet you" and "thanks") and 2) waiting in line for the bathroom behind Brook Shields (who is a giant).

Another good night.

People in LA Go to Movie Premieres for Fun!

I know this blog is hopelessly out of order since I decided to blog this morning and retroactively account for my first four months in LA. So, one exciting thing about living in LA is going to movie premiers for fun.

So far I've seen two - both at the invitation of Ted who has many more invites to these events that I could ever hope for:

2 DAYS IN PARIS- funy, smart, wonderful, wonderful film. I highly suggest it - Adam Goldberg and Julie Delphy are great in it. Her (real) parents play a supporting role and are hilarious. I've attached a pic of the premiere, which was at this great old theater in Hollywood.

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL - the best movie that I've seen all year. I loved this movie. I always love Ryan Gosling, but he really knocked it out of the park here. To quote the Wall Street Journal ," An almost perfect movie with flawless perfomances." I've attached a pic of the after-party, held in the lobby after the film. Lots of hummus and deserts, although I hate when the only white wine available is chardonney. Look how Hollywood I've gotten - finding something to complain about at a movie premiere - I love it here:)

Sundance Celebration

Just got back from NYC for the Sundance Institute Celebration - our annual fundraiser in New York.

It was fantastic - the event sold out, raised some money for the Institute and my responsibility at the gala (managing the press and celebs on the red carpet) went v. well. Here are some highlights:

- Press line arrivals - Stanely Tucci, Glenn Close, Parker Posey, Patricia Clarkson, Aidan Quinn, Oliver Platt and John Leguizamo were all game to arrive early and change into t-shirts and serve lemonade to guests.

- Decor by David Starck - beautiful, witty, smart and Starck took the job really seriously. I saw him running around in his suit and converse with a headset glued to his ear all night. It paid off - the design was flawless.

- Dinner played on the family celebration theme with pot pies and apple pies (or so I heard from my staff dinner in the basement:)

- Sally Field was the perfect emcee for the evening and Robert Redford's remarks were smart and inspiring, as always. Every time I hear him speak, I'm always really happy that I work for Sundance.

- The cast from Spring Awakening sang one of the hit songs from Duncan Sheik's score "Totally Fucked". I had just seen the show on Sunday night, so it was really fun to see the cast perform again. If you go to NYC, try to get the "stage tickets" - you have to sit on the stage but tix are only $30! The show was workshopped at the Sundance Theatre Lab in Utah a few years ago...

After the gala, I had a couple of days of meetings in NYC. Had almost a perfect Tuesday - ate breakfast at Dean and Deluca off Times Square near our hotel, went to rehearsals for a workshop the Sundance Theatre Department is doing at the Public Theater, then walked from East Village to West Village and to Magnolia Bakery (and found a Marc Jacobs sample sale on Mercer!), found a used bookstore (which I STILL haven't found in LA), then met the girls from work for dinner and a few glasses of wine at Joe Allen's off Broadway. A nice, crisp, Fall day in NYC. Sigh.

Back in LA - guess I should really complain about 70 degree weather in November - it's kind of lovely...

XO

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