My Karl Strauss job and Christmas :(

Well, first off, everyone should know that I found out last week I can't get off work to come home for Christmas/New Year's so I'm coming home to celebrate Christmas and see everyone in good ol' Minnesota from December 3rd-10th...it took me 6 weeks to find the job I have and I can't afford to look for one that will give me time off for Christmas so there ya go! I'm fine with it and I'm excited still to see everyone in Minnesota when I come back. I'm very fortunate to get to go back to Minnesota at all so yeah...it's all good!

And now, after working at Karl Strauss for an entire weekend I am happy to report that I do in fact like my job so far. Greeting at the bottom of the stairs gets very boring very quickly but I get paid 11.50 to do it so who's complaining, haha. Plus my co-workers are fun and when I do get a chance to have a real conversation with the people I'm greeting that's VERY fun...although the other day it got interesting when I got asked for my phone number twice in ten minutes! Needless to say, I was not quick to hand out my personal information, but I was also a good business woman and said that maybe if they came around more and I got to know them it would be a different story, haha. I'm COMPLETELY not used to getting that kind of attention though so it's kind of been throwing me off.

I've also done a little training at the host stand as well and I LOVE it up there! It's fast paced and high-stress and totally my "cup of tea"...so that's fun and I also get free meals while I'm training and our food is FABULOUS so that's been great too.

Anyways, that's all for now...goodbye from sunny sunny Hollywood...

Cassie :0)

I Got a JOB!!!!

So I got a call last week from a restaurant that I applied at and they offered me a part-time job as host/greeter!!!

The restaurant is a lot like Granite City Food & Brewery in Minnesota...it's called Karl Strauss Brewery Restaurant and they have REALLY good food (or at least I like their Spinach Artichoke dip, Nachos, and Fuego Cheeseburger!!! That's all I've tried so far) and they brew and serve their own beer right at the restaurant.

This is my first week there and I'll be "greeting" everyday from Thursday to Sunday...the restaurant is on the second level of the Universal Studios CityWalk (a larger-than-life outdoor shopping/restaurant mall that's right outside of the actual Universal Studios theme park) and so I stand at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the restaurant and try to get people to want to go up the stairs and try out Karl Strauss. My co-workers are AWESOME so far and I think I'm gonna really like working here!

I'm also going to start doing some extra work in films and audience work for live tv shows in about a week or so to make enough to pay the bills. It's good money and they take anyone, so it's better than trying to find another part-time job...plus I'm in charge of my work schedule with that kind of stuff so I can just work around my job at Karl Strauss.

Email me if you wanna hear more about my job :)

I'm Here!

Blog entry number 1...which is not short, only because it's the first one! If you'd like me to email you everytime I write a new post, please comment on this post with your email address and I will make sure you get a little email from me...happy reading!

Well, in the 4 weeks now that I have lived in LA, tons of things have happened to me that have never happened before...for example, before moving to LA I had never:

• Had a stranger come up to me and tell me I'm beautiful :)
• Had one homeless person tell another homeless person that I'm a rockstar on my way to London...oh yes!
• Had millions of job interviews and NO calls for a second interview or a job offer (It's always been a piece of cake for me to get a job...until I moved to LA).
• Been to a church service where I wasn't sure if the worship band was singing to God or just on some sort of hallucinogenic drug, like LSD :/
• Hit my head on the ceiling more than twice in a day (my bed is a loft bed that has literally 2 feet between the mattress and the ceiling and my torso+head is just about 2.5 feet so naturally, there have been, oh a LOT of collisions between my head and the ceiling...but hey...my dad made the bed frame for free and I haven't gotten any bruises yet so who's complaining...but it is still a first for me!)
• Fought with my sister about where a pack of matches should be kept...on the counter top or in a drawer (needless to say I was the one who wanted them PUT AWAY in a drawer and Mari was the fool who wanted them sitting out like they were a decoration...what a ridiculous fight, I know! A lot of things have changed for her since I moved in and she HATES change so I think the matches were like the last straw, haha)
• Had to spend enormous amounts of time getting ready every morning so that I look like a prom queen exiting my apartment complex (LA is a VERY superficial city and some people, including one of my roommates, have gotten job offers just by walking into a restaurant and looking like a super model, regardless of their experience...so I've been spending, for me, painful amounts of time getting ready everyday in order to get a job...UGH!)
• Gone to a place called a "park" that's actually just a bunch of dirt with a few dying brown trees spread around (yeah, so I've explored a lot of LA since getting here...gone to Chinatown, the Getty Museum, Venice Beach, Westwood (like the UCLA version of the UofM's Dinkytown), La Floridita (salsa dancing restaurant), Beverly Hills (Mari and I were literally the ONLY people walking on the sidewalk...EVERYONE in Beverly Hills drives from one place to the other and uses valet parking...so you really only see signs of human life when you're inside a building or at a valet parking stand), Downtown LA, and then the supposed "Central Park" of Los Angeles which is called Griffith Park...it says "park" in the name but really it's just a dessert on a hill with a few trees and dirt/sand paths through the sand piles...Mari and I hiked up to this Observatory that they have at the "park" and it was a 6.2 mile hike for us round trip!)
• Walked down the sidewalk and smelled urine everywhere I go :P

So...those are just a few of the crazy "first time ever" things that have been filling my time since moving here. I figure that's pretty short for a month's worth of new experiences, right?!

If you'd like to know more about my church, job hunting, exploring, apartment, or what God's been teaching me, I'll be posting that kind of news soon and you'll be able to read about those things (and see pictures/videos) by looking for one of those 5 different things in the "labels" box on the right side of the page...

Chow for now,

Cassie :0)

P.S. How do you like my playlist???