Shiny New Toy...

I love the analogy of the "shiny new toy". This phrase has been rummaging in my head these past few weeks and today I've decided to get it out! According to the Urban Dictionary, I know such a reliable source, the "shiny new toy" is "the new kid at school who gets all the attention because the kids all want to know what they're like". Eventually this "effect" wears off... but for now, I am the shiny new toy, well sorta! Allow me to elaborate... (as if I wouldn't)

A few weeks ago I attended a backyard BBQ of one of my cousins. He is a few years younger than me, however his sister is just my age. Last year he married a wonderful gal, and from time to time all of the cousins get together, in fact I think I have shared a few photos of our gang. Anyways, I am at their house in the backyard sipping wine and chatting away. The majority of the guests are young professional couples with a few little tykes running around. For the most part there were three single gals, myself, my cousin (the sister of the bday boy), and an additional girlfriend of the bride, and one single guy. Keep in mind these two girls are a part of this group, and have been since high school. Here I come as the "shiny new toy" who has only recently been around since their wedding, and my new found free time of being a single gal! I of course mingled well and talked with whomever, held a few babies, played a few games... basically I was social and didn't hide in a corner. I had intended on staying the night as it was a bit of a drive back to my place and I had the liberty of enjoying myself. At one point I had a conversation with one of the husbands as we were standing next to the stereo, mind you his wife was there the entire time!!! We were going back and forth about music and he was scanning through my iPod as it happened to be the one we were listening to at the time. I was sharing some of my favorite bands and telling him about the Gomez show I just went to with my parents. Well turns out his wife cornered my cousin in the kitchen flaming mad, apparently I was throwing myself at her husband! Umm darling, you were sitting right there... and the conversation was all about music! I happen to NOT be on the prowl for married men. Luckily my cousins' laughed it off and we continued our evening just fine. PS... the other married men were WAY cuter!

Now for the more recent event...

Monday night I joined my friends' group, (the firefighter neighbor guy... from last year) on an outing to a concert. There were a total of 14 of us limo bound to see the Foo Fighters. Again there were couples and a few of us "single" folk. All of the males were either firemen or police officers... which I came to the realization earlier this year, are NOT my type. Again I was the shiny new toy to this group and it was oh so obvious. Luckily for me I randomly ran into a couple of girl friends while waiting in line and managed to escape the group for the majority of the concert. I had consumed a few drinks but stopped early in the evening and continued with water for the rest of the night. Obviously driving wasn't an issue as we had a limo, but I did have responsibilities at home with my critters and an early morning with work. The limo ride home got interesting to say the least... this group likes to have fun, and believe me I am all for it.. but I happened to be stone cold sober and they were "saucy" drunk! I had been receiving the majority of the attention from three single guys, I was polite but also cautious to not lead anyone on. My friend... the one person I knew of the entire 14 people managed to come over and chat for a bit. We caught up on some small talk, nothing serious and again in a frickin limo with 12 other people ... and what would you know.. his girlfriend ends up crying in the corner.

Note to self... dont be the "shiny new toy"... with a bunch of drinking females!

Ladies I am not on the prowl for your man. In fact I am currently not in the market for ANY man! Focusing on myself... and being selfish doing so!

Catch up...

I've got an incredible amount to catch you up on... and a scattered brain to go along with it! Unfortunately more recently life hasn't been that great... but just prior to my recent turmoil, things were chugging along.

Currently I am in the midst of getting my sweet Malcolm back to good health. He is my 11 1/2 year old black lab and admittedly my first baby. He is such a sweet love and I am doing all in my powers to keep him around a bit longer. I came to terms a few days ago that I would be putting him to sleep, and it broke me. I've been through so much these past few years, and he has been my one constant, always there for me. When tears were flowing he would do his best to cheer me up.

For now I leave you with this and hopefully my spirits will lift so I can get back to writing.

TGIF

Friday, thank goodness... wasn't sure I was going to make it through this week! I managed to survive my Canada trip and U.S. customs kindly welcomed me back to the States. I have not been my chipper self these last few weeks and it's catching up with me. The tell tale signs of Amber being unhappy have kicked in. The house is not nearly as spotless as it usually is... The manicures and pedicures have gone along the wayside... and my gym membership is getting a little dusty. I'm just not focusing on my upkeep! It's funny how something flagged me on Facebook today and reminded me what I was doing a year ago. Apparently I was at the shooting range falling in love with a gun!

Luckily in the midst of my pity party my sister came to stay a few days. We are throwing a dinner party tonight for my usual gang. This is generally my method of motivation! It forces me to do something I love, eat, drink, entertain and cook... while also making me clean the house! So I am headed to the market to gather some goods and get to work....

Read an article the other day by Bethaney Frankel... and strangely I got something out of it.. I've never been a fan of hers, actually knew nothing about her but this is something I will elaborate on later...

Bye for now.

Oh Canada...

I am sitting in my hotel room getting settled for bed. I am in London, Canada, just outside of Toronto on a business trip. I picked up this distributor in July and they have invited me to their internal trade show/expo to educate their sales force and meet some of their key dealers. I do this every year in Texas, but this is my first trip to Canada, as this is a new distributor. Nothing exciting there, other than the fact that this is a new group for me, and I'm the new girl in town! Of course I've only just arrived and haven't really set up... but not too shabby!

On a side note, I met a really cute guy on my flight out here. Go figure... apparently I tend to do better in confined spaces with captive audiences! This guy happened to be traveling to Toronto for a film festival... and I happen to NOW be a set designer! Crazy, I would have never had anything in common with this guy until now. While the conversation was casual, we did manage to trade magazines... he gave me his InTouch, and I gave him my Rolling Stones! (strange!) I now know all of his contact info including his address, and he knows mine! We all know what happened last time I contacted someone I met on a flight... let's see if I get the courage to do it again!

For now I am going to focus on my trade show... I mean c'mon... French Canadian... I'll have something in common with my sister!

How many hours in a day?

So yesterday was killer... For some reason I woke up at 3:30 am, obviously my nerves. Too much going on in this head of mine. We started the second location shoot, which originally I predicted to be easy... the only thing it was easy on was the budget. I got there at 10:30am to prep the set and get my work done... I did not leave until 2am. Basically I am beat today!

It took forever to get things rolling yesterday. The first scenes took nearly 5 hours. Then flip the cameras to get different angles... No wonder movie prices are so high! All in all it was a great day and night of filming. I happened to be sitting with the guy who archives all the film prior to sending it to editing so I caught glimpses of what is to come. I even managed to watch my scene from Friday... thinking I should fill out my SAG application!

All in all I am doing a fantastic job keeping busy and preoccupied...

OH and on a side note.... RANDOM text from Mr. P! Didn't see that one coming and threw me for a second. It was a quick chat, nothing crazy, just a friendly hello. Nice to know you cross peoples minds...

Asta la Vista....

It's the official end of summer. The beaches will be bare tomorrow, not as if they weren't today. I spent my final summer weekend at my friends beach house in San Clemente, unfortunately so did the clouds and rain drops. Did they not get the memo that we were entitled to one last weekend?

We had a mellow and relaxing weekend sans sun and sand. This morning I awoke early to watch the sunrise on the beach and feel the spray of the waves. I realized this was my 6th weekend in a row of being away from home. Apparently I have a problem with where I live... no surprise to me! After packing up from the beach house, I took my girl and we headed up PCH for a drive. We stopped for a quick bite to eat, and later on met some friends to chat. It was obvious I was delaying our drive to return home. I can't wait to get out of this town, luckily I am nearly a third of the way through my real estate school. Thanks to the help of my dear friend Jeff!

This week should be a short and quick one for me. Tomorrow we begin filming at our second location. This one happens to be an actual residence that only needs some de-cluttering and major space planning. Not too much of our budget will be going into this shoot. I plan to get up early, get my girl to school, head off to work for a brief bit and then head to the location and get to work. Luckily this is only a one day shoot as opposed to the last one that lasted 3 days.

Thursday I am headed to Toronto for a trade show for Blingstar. I am excited to visit Canada, even if it is only Toronto for a few days. It is always nice to get away and just sell. It happens to be something I am very good at.

Friday and Saturday I was busy with "art direction". Friday was our first day of filming and for the most part all went well. Saturday I had to redress the set and focus on the continuity of the props. I am beginning to recognize this stuff in the shows I watch now. After filming I headed to the race track with my dear friend. It has been years since I have been to the track. This is something I completely relate to my ex. His family has been into horse racing forever. In fact at one point, he and I owned our very own race horse. I managed to get into a few areas of the track as an "owner". I forgot how much I missed this sport, the atmosphere and the people.

I am beginning to notice how much I am longing for two particular individuals. I wonder how much time must pass before they aren't in my thoughts. Mr. P and Mr. D have set the bar high for the next guy. Mr. D actually took Mr. P out of the equation for awhile... but with Mr. D moving into the "friend" category and our infrequent chats... Mr. P is in my thoughts again. For now I will continue to focus on my work... luckily I have plenty to keep me preoccupied. And when the time is right... the next one will present himself to me.

Casting Call

Rise and shine.... Today is an early day for me. We have our first scenes being shoot today. Lucky for me this is the easiest set. It is an exterior warehouse scene which requires minimum dressing. This scene however, is where I make a cameo appearance as a caterer. So I am off early to set the props, next head over to hair and makeup, and then make my acting debut!

I am loving this new area of design. It is no comparison to anything I have done before. With regular design and event planning, generally I am working with new items. With this particular project I don't believe we have purchased anything new. We have shopped craigslist and every thrift store in our area. In fact, yesterday as we were heading home from delivering a load of furniture to one of the locations we grabbed a sofa off the side of the road! The sets being designed consist of a governors office, a warehouse reception office, the interior and exterior of a warehouse, and two "crash" pads. Also their is an actual residence being filmed one night and a press conference scene. All in all very random, messy and for the most part cluttered rooms that can't look new!

Hopefully I will have tons more to share tonight after filming. For now its off to the set.... and "ACTION"