Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 27

(July 3rd)

Today I am modeling with David again (Red Rocks David). As soon as I woke up I went to Sally's for hair extensions, Jessie has inspired me with hers. Unfortunately I was there an hour early to when it opened so I went to the super market to get my winning money from the scratch-offs I had bought the day before (I basically just won my money back). When I got to Sally's, after waiting a bit longer, they didn't end up having my color. The lady working was very helpful and told me to get the lighter one and die it dark. It ended up working very well, but didn't give me much time to get ready. I curled the edges with a thick curling iron and it looked pretty natural.

Driving there was a bit of a hassle. The tom tom wasn't working and the directions I wrote from map quest seemed off after the first 4 directions. I stopped 2 times to ask for directions. I finally got there and we did some warm up shoots before he was to paint me. He told me he had never done live modeling. He wanted to warm up his drawing skills by doing a quick drawing...

It wasn't very hard to stay still, but no matter how I positioned myself something always cramped up. We ate Fajitas and Asian salad that he made and went back to shooting. In his backyard he had tons of bunnies. He told me one time he noticed a bunny that looked like it had been died pink hopping around. After dinner we went to the mountains in Highland Ranch and waited for the sun to set. It was really beautiful and there were tons of people waiting for the sunset also. While we were waiting, I grabbed the camera from him and got some pictures of him. I think he appreciated it. The sun began to set and we shot like crazy. It was difficult because we didn't have much time and I was standing right at the end of a rock. Here are some of the shots:

Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 13-24:
(June 19th-30th)
Well I needed to catch up somehow...

The main theme of this week is our new job at....It is basically a restaurant in a movie theater. I had known Luke got the job, I later found out I got the job too. Didn't expect that considering I put fake numbers for where I have worked (didn't have my phone on me) and filled out the application while drinking a beer (We were locked out of the house and wanted to get a beer somewhere and ended up at Cinebarre).

First day: went in to fill out paper work and found out we were to be runners. Surprisingly, working with Luke is fun. Even when we are at each others throats before work, as soon as we get to work we are a team. Our main job tasks are as followed:

Clean theaters in between showings.

Bring drinks and food to people in theaters and bar.

AND WORST OF ALL: Pre-bussing.

The first time they told us to pre-bus, Luke and I both came out of separate theaters with plates and looked at each other in awe. I knew he was thinking the exact same thing I was. Nope, not because the leftover food and sauces were disgusting (that doesn't bother me). It's because they send you to pre-bus at the end of the movie! You know, when your intensely watching to see who Bella is going to choose, what's going to happen with Buzz and Woody, will Aaron Green make up with his girlfriend after wild parties with Aldous Snow, or is Will Smith's son really going to save the day? This is not the time for, "Excuse me, Mam, may I take your plate?" Yea, at times you may think it evident that you can take their plate, but you'd be surprised how many times people say, "Oh, I am still eating that!"

And your thinking.."THE KETCHUP???"

May sound like a grand idea, but there are a LOT of flaws with this place. For one thing eating while you are watching a movie sounds great, but if you are the type that needs concentration and get annoyed when you hear the sound of someones candy wrapper or someone chewing popcorn--This is Definitely NOT the place for you to watch your favorite (or possible favorite) movies.

June 19th
Danaya (Mike's Fiance, who we are staying with) asked me and Maria to go wedding dress shopping with her. I have always wanted to do this with someone! She had an appointment at a wedding boutique in Cherry Creeks (a very posh town South of downtown Denver.) It defiantly pumped me up for one of my girlfriends getting married and helping them with their planning. Here are some beautiful pictures from the shop.

June 22nd

Luke and I went to Colorado Rockies vs Boston Red Sox game at Coors Stadium. Aaron (the oil spill photographer from June 17th) got us a free ticket and Luke and I split the other one. We met Aaron and Meghann at a close-by bar and restaurant called Falling Rock. I told the waiter I wanted a "Flat tire" and got messed with because it is called a "Fat Tire." We then got worried because we saw on the menu "Stupid Questions" were eighty-seven cents. Oops.

The game was fun but the pitcher for the Rockies was just too good for the Red Sox. It was pretty dangerous being with the few Red Sox fans amongst all the local Rockies Fans. One of the guys that was sitting with us made a big mistake by spilling his beer on the girl in front of him. Her husband, obvious Rockies fan angered by crazy Sox fans behind him, got up and went to the crowed moderator to complain. Didn't know that an elderly man could be such a baby. Luke and I took the light rail back home after.

June 30th
I met the scriptwriter and director David (not the same one I worked with at Red Rocks) at Starbucks in Golden, a very quaint town sitting right next to the mountains. He wanted me to play the main character in his new pitch, "Joan of Arc." I auditioned and got the part! We plan on shooting Saturday July 10th at 1:00pm if the lighting is right. After the audition and hearing all about the other interesting scripts he has going on, we ate at local pizza restaurant next door. The pizza was so good and I wish we could of stayed longer, but Luke and I had work... boo.

June 29th
Luke and I get to work, and to our surprise the walkway is spruced up with red carpets, tables with a red table cloth, Vitamin Water tents, HOT 107.1, Hot Topic and Obsessive Twilight fans. Yep, Its The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Premier! We walked around with h'ourderves. I had a lot of fun and getting tips wasn't bad. I kept going up to the same people in order to get rid of food before it got cold. Some of the people that work there are a bit on the laid back side and don't get the job done quickly. Mainly because they don't think there are tasks after the task they have at hand. When you have a job there are usually always other things to do when you finish. I think I prefer working with more fast pace workers who take their job a bit more serious (not to serious).

Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 12:

The last day I updated was June 17th and today is actually July 8th. I have a lot of catching up to do. Forgive me if I start to explain things vaguely. Its the perfect day to do so considering I am couch bound with Luke due to his sprained ankle that I will get to later on. Lets see where to begin again.....

June 18th sounds like a wonderful day to expand upon.

Remember how I spoke about meeting the Oil Painter/Photographer David D at Starbucks? Well this is the day we shot the pictures. He wanted to meet us at Red Rocks at 7:30. Unfortunately Luke and I were late, but David was okay with it considering it was because we didn't know where we were going (mapquest AND our TomTom failed us). I jumped out the car to once again say sorry for being late. He was fine with it and told me what I was wearing was nice and would be great for the pictures. It was a white blouse and jeans. Gathering up all the other outfits we made it up a trail up to the high platformed amber rocks and went straight into shooting. Luke read his book on a even higher rock coming down sometimes to help with the light reflector.
We got a lot more but he is still going through them and other model's shoots. After the shooting, Marshal met up with us and we got breakfast at a place not far from the Red Rocks Amphitheater. I had a fruit cup and egg. It was SO fresh with fruits that you wouldn't expect to see at a restaurant way up high in the mountains; raspberries, blueberries, grapes, pineapple, watermelon, banana, kiwi and more! Marshal drove up and up through the mountains and Luke and I began to feel the altitude. It makes you feel sleepy with a heavy head. It was so beautiful up there with plenty of wild flowers to photograph. I also managed to get some Wildlife pictures. I had the most amazing shot of a fawn milking with its mother and later I looked at the picture and it was over exposed! I made marshal drive up to it and I jumped out the car and managed to follow it into some one's backyard. How wonderful would it be to have such amazing sites regularly in your yard!
We then went on up to the Amphitheater where we will eventually be seeing Sublime

perform on July 10th. I saw this car I thought some of you might enjoy

[@Sketchler].

UPDATE:

Just found out from Derek and Sketchler that it might be a

Dodge 1969 Super Bee.

Thanks, guys.

Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 11:

I am actually skipping day 9 and day 10

because I can't remember what I did.

I might remember later.

Today, Thursday June 17th. Luke and I drove into Boulder for the Oil Spill photo shoot I have with Aaron Dover. He was running a bit late so we ate at a healthy smoothie place next door to the studio called Rush. Aaron showed up with his friend Meghann, who was super sweet. They gave me a blond wig to work with. It had bangs that made it obvious that it was a wig so I twisted them back and Bobbie pinned them in place. After he got all his lighting in check I sat on a chair with a bathing suit top and shorts. He had me hold a deflated globe and Meghann began pouring watered down chocolate syrup all over me. It got in my eyes at times but that only added to the tears I needed for the shoot. I did sad, angry, pissed, merciless, depressed, crying, and some others. He ended up going with angry.

We all decided to go into Boulder together to watch the Celtics vs. Lakers FINAL game. We had a blast, until Celtics lost. They too were Celtic fans being that they were from New Hampshire. My friend Will Lamb who had been living in boulder for a while came to meet up with us. He told me he planned on heading back to New Orleans for good that Monday. We planned to meet up one more time later.

Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 8:

"Chat-Fu-lette"

It is Tuesday June 14th and I am super excited about the gig I have today. It is a Video Billboard in Time Square New York for a Website called Chat Roulette. Chat Roulette is a website were people can meet new and interesting people on video chat and as soon as your done with that person you can simply click next and it will randomly bring you to someone new. If you have heard of this site you probably already know there are a lot of naughty people on there who like to show their body parts to the world, mostly men. I found out from doing this commercial however that they came up with a way to tell when someone is doing this and immediately kick them off. So to all you people who wish they really could just meet people without seeing penis to penis...you soon can!

When I got to the site I met with Kelly who I have been talking with on email and she had me fill out a contract, W9, and other forms. There was a makeup/hair lady who I really got along with. Her name was Justina Brittani from LA. She seems to of been all around the world, her favorite place being Las Vegas. After getting all done up, they took some stills of me and then I met the other Actor, Richard Fleming. At the end he gave me his card that stated that he is an "Electronic Cinematographer, Final Cut Pro Editor, Adobe CS4 Expert, VFX & SFX Artist, Compressionist, and Consultant!" Shhhheeeeeshh, this guy is talented. Right off the bat you could tell he wasn't an actual Actor, but he wasn't bad. We had to pretend like we were talking into the camera as if it where a Macbook camera and we were on Chat Roulette. It was pretty easy stuff. I sent them in an audition video that they absolutely loved and were trying to reenact.

Picture

COMING SOON

After we left Luke ran my car through a traffic light and we saw two flashes and assumed the second one was for the guy behind us. The yellow lights in Colorado are quick! We then realized we were locked out of the we were staying. While waiting for Mike and Danaya to get off work, Luke thought it would be a good idea if we went to Cinebarre to check it out. We both ordered a beer. I am a new fan of Fat Tire beer which is brewed locally in Fort Collins, CO.

Luke and I applied for a job while waiting. I personally was okay with just trying to work off gigs, but filled one out anyway, guessing at the addresses and phone numbers of places I worked (obviously not taking it seriously because we were drinking beers). Everyone who worked there was pretty punkish. The manager even had tons of earrings and short asymmetrical hairstyle. While I was in the restroom she told Luke she usually doesn't hire couples. I'd be surprised if they did hire someone looking as Southern Bell as I was looking at the time. Luke on the other hand would defiantly get the job, he has been working in restaurants since he was 18 (4 years) and has that punk look sometimes.

Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 7:

"Breast Cancer Photo shoot"

This week is filled with lots of work! Today I am going to a photo shoot at the photographer Bray's house for a Breast Cancer book he is making. Of course I brought Luke with me....he is my bodyguard these days. When we got to the neighborhood we were surprised at how nice it was. After knocking on his door, a large man appeared. I sat down across the coffee table from him and he had me fill out paper work that basically stated he could do anything he wanted with the pictures. I was okay with it because he was paying me for them (a lot might I add). I then asked him when he was going to pay me and at that instance he took the money right out from his pocket and handed it on the coffee table. He laid down a picture from his IPhone that inspired him...It was a picture of a woman laying naked with flowers covering her. As soon as I saw it, I looked at him and said, "Sorry, but I am not going to get naked." He told me that he was okay with that, as he had other models that would. His plan was to make a Breast Cancer book with photographs of woman showing their personality while wearing something with the "Breast Cancer pink." He told me he had bought some ribbon he wanted me to wear. I was getting a bit worried, so I started taking hold of the situation by asking him to see the ribbons he wanted me to wear. Luke and I went into the bathroom and started tapping a dress together with ribbon. It ended up looking edgy, classy, and very Lady Gaga, might I say. It was asymmetrical and all the lines of the ribbon's edge went the same direction. I would show you a picture, but he hasn't sent me the pictures yet-kind of annoyed by that actually (Its been more that a week). We got a bunch of great photos...he showed them to me as we went. I was excited to leave though, it was a little weird. I was comfortable in front of the camera, but not so much around the guy when he wasn't taking pictures. I was hopping all my gigs weren't' going to be this uncomfortable.

Day 4 (cont.), 5 and 6

Day 4 (cont.)

(July 11)

That evening we got to Danaya and Mike's house. As soon as we entered a huge bulldog jumped on me and brought me to the ground. I found out his name was Sherman. Very intense pup. They also have a very calm Boston Terrior, like Toto. Their home is a very quaint little place with flower decorations and trendy furnishings. It even has a basement just for lounging with a huge flat screen TV. That night we ate pizza all together and got to acquaint with one another, well reacquaint with Luke. I was excited to notice Danaya's sewing machine in our room, considering I left mine at home. She said I was free to use it whenever I'd like.


Day 5

(July 12)

Today we watched USA and England World Cup soccer game. We didn't do much else, as we were tiers from our road trip. We did have a nice dinner that Danaya cooked for us. She cooked a chicken in a crock pot with potatoes and made an amazing broccoli and cheese pasta. Sherman also ate with us...Then we played In A Pickle, a game of organizing biggest to smallest. I kept getting abstract words that didn't make much sense.

Day 6

(July 13)

As soon as I woke up Danaya had made us Crepe. I had never had one before.

It is basically fruit, powdered sugar and yogurt on a soft thin tortilla. She made it so we could make our own. At first I just wanted the fruit on its own, but eventually I tried it to be polite and it was very delicious! We then threw on our rain jackets and went to the Renaissance Festival. I had heard of it before, but never thought it was in my near future to go to it especially on a day as rainy as that. We drove an hour out of town, Danaya and I drove separately. On the ride she spoke to me about how Mike (her fiance) had gotten into a horrible wreck as the passenger in his work truck. He broke two vertebrates in his neck and was in a horrible state. She stayed with him in the hospital holding his hand and that's when they both realized they were meant for each other. I also found out she is 25 and he is 22 (like Luke). We continued through the mountains till we were finally flagged to a muddy parking spot. Wondering if we could even imagine enjoying such a cold wet day at a festival. We handed our tickets to a woman dressed to the T in Pilgrim like drab. It wasn't long till we noticed everyone was dressed like this while trying to hold an obvious British impersonation. There was tons of things to do. Luke and Mike had gone on about the bird show. We went to a booth with a bald eagle, owl and some other wild bird. After being told all about the bald eagle, Luke asked the lady, "What tricks does it do?" She went on to say, "Stand here and look pretty." We found out this was as close to the bird show we were going to get. There was a guy and a girl who called themselves brother and sister (Below), but acted as though they were dating. It was quite strange. They did a great job of keeping the audience's attention however were very much in their own world together. This next man was GREAT, maybe the best entertainment at the whole festival....

He didn't say a word until the show had ended. He caught me taking a picture and grabbed it from me and went back stage with it. He then came out with a tapped up smashed camcorder. The crowd got a kick out of it. It was very believable. He managed to get a picture of each section of the crowd, this is the section of Luke (red), Me (green), Danaya (pink), and Mike (yellow) were in. After seeing this picture we realized that our rain jackets made us look like the powerful girl (Red being the crazy monkey, Mojo Jojo). The festival had lots of booths that probably made bank because you couldn't win them so you keep paying to try again. Luke decided to try Jacobs ladder, thinking he could do it because he had done it before in boy scouts. He tried five times and each time....
As we were leaving I noticed the loveliest hat booth. I thought my craft blog readers would enjoy it. If you are out there craft bloggers I apologize that this blog is now a blog about my Colorado trip. I'll get back to crafting soon. Anyway I took a picture of it and the lady told me to email her the pictures because they didn't have a lot of pictures on their website...

Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 3: "Arrival"
The sun rose in my back window and woke us up at 7:00am (6:00am Colorado time) with a surprising amount of energy and a lot of neck pains. We had to set off early because I had a job interview at 2 with a photographer/oil painter I met on craigslist. The scenery was very picturesque, mountains were beginning to show themselves to us. Around 10:00am we ran into a dead stop due to some road construction so we got out the car...

When we finally made it to Denver, CO we stopped at his aunts so I could freshen up a bit. I map quested Starbucks, where I was to meet David D (the photographer and painter), and realized we didn't have much time. Of course Luke was going to come with me, who knows what kinda crazy people are on craigslist. Luke was worried about whether he should sit with us or watch from a distance like a spy.

David arrived and came straight up to me extending his hand. He was a very nice fellow and started conversing with Luke and I about fun things to do around here. While he and Luke were talking I notice a punk looking guy outside do a flip...CRAZY. David began showing us some of the paintings of women he had already done. They were really good. He takes pictures of them with the landscape he wants and then paints them with different types of medial oil pastels, digitally on photoshop/painter, or he sketches with vinyl. He showed us some of the recent shots he took of models...they weren't so good, which gave me lots of confidence. I was still confused if he wanted to use me or not so I asked, "So am I the look you are looking for?" He responded, "Yes, of course! I would love to work with you. I am thinking we can take some pictures up at red rocks."

I asked him what he thought of the pictures I sent him to get an idea of what he is looking for. He liked them and to my surprise he had drawn me!

He had given me ideas of what he wanted me to wear and told me of a store called Savers (very similar to Goodwill). He asked me to take some pictures of outfit ideas...
These are just 3 of 8 outfit ideas. Obviously I would get all the wrinkles out before.

Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 2: "A Long Road to Nowhere"

We made it on the road by 10:00am and managed to get lost an hour into the drive. we stopped of at a gas station in an area that seemed to be quite an international area. The Indian guy at the gas station tried to put us back on our way but Luke didn't trust his advice so we stopped at Staples. I bought a planner because I have a lot of gigs going on this upcoming week in Denver. I have been applying for Acting, Modeling, Housekeeping and baby sitting jobs since early May.

We chose Lamar, CO because Luke wanted to stop somewhere to watch the "big basketball game" between the Lakers and Celtics and Lamar seemed like the biggest town to stop in. The weather was lovely and we saw lots of beautiful things on the drive up there. There were these beautiful horses just standing at their fence looking like they wanted to be pet. We pulled over to admire them.


A little later Luke spotted a beautiful landscape that we just had to stop for. He also found some flowers growing in the road that we wrapped around our heads. I am not sure what kind of crop this is, but if you know let me know.

Finally, we reached Lamar and pulled up to a gas station where we asked a local about the best place to eat and watch the game. She had a funny accent and was dressed like she owned a farm.

Luke: "Excuse me, do you know a place we could eat and watch the game?"
Lady: "Pizza Hut is the only place around here with a public TV."
Luke: "Really? No bars or anything?"
Lady: "This town don't got much, its the stick out here. Unless you want to eat at Burger King or McDonald's."

So we went and ate at Pizza Hut and felt very out of place. Next to where we were sitting was a stream of water running under a bridge. Luke asked the waitress if it was the river that ran through. She made him feel stupid when she responded, "No, that's the Irrigation Canal."
After eating and watching some of the game we walked up the Irrigation Canal. There wasn't much to see and I got a tack stuck in my foot. We then tried to watch the end of the game at Walmart but they wouldn't change the channel for us. It was getting late so we decided to park on the corner of the Walmart parking lot and watch Alice and Wonderland on Luke's laptop before we hit the hay. Luke passed out quickly, but I was kept up by the wind that was blowing so hard, enough to make the car move. We found out later that a tornado had gone through Lamar that night.

Whimsy goes to Denver, CO

Day 1: "100 mile kisses"

Luke, my boyfriend, and I hit the road around 2:00pm Wednesday, July 9th, 2010 after eating lunch with his parents-I ate at a very quaint place called Back in Time located in Opelousas, LA with his mother and Luke ate Chinese with his father at some Chinese buffet. The ride went very quickly. Luke had the idea to kiss each other every hundred miles. Our first stop was in Dallas, TX to stay at his friend Mario for the night. Splitting up the trip sounded like the best idea to us considering it was a 22 hour drive straight into Denver. Mario, Luke and I all ate on the patio of this trendy burger bar. I had a chicken ceasar salad, but Luke had a Jalapeno double cheese burger -- Pretty intense! Before we went to bed we drank wine and watched a really funny YouTube video called Boys will be Girls.

Beading

My mom is a jeweler so obviously she has an abundant supply of beads (some she has made with a glass torch.) Today I am stringing up some necklaces and bracelets to sell at her gallery and Etsy. I have lots of broken jewelry I found from high school that I want to renew and turn into new treasures.

Beading can sometimes take longer than you think. To get pattern ideas quicker:

-have a pandora box of random beautiful beads all together for that beginning umph.

-lay out your idea before you string it to make sure you have enough beads to go around.

-remember to save room on the ends for your fixture.

The green with connected gold beads and gold flat ones are from broken bracelets while the blue are made by my mother on a torch. Laying them out like these pictures helps give you ideas on how to get going.

Here I used stretchy sting and tied it in a knot 3 times. After beading it I glued the knot underneath the bead.

Above is my first finished product, but I still have more to come.