Story #74: Recap

re·cap/rēˈkap/

Verb:	State again as a summary; recapitulate.
Noun:	A summary of what has been said; a recapitulation.
Synonyms:	verb.  summarize noun.  resume

~ Thanks to google.com

So to recap my past couple weeks:
To start, I know I'm a little late in the game, but how was everyone's halloween?? I was planning to celebrate it on the 29th at the Maxim masquerade costume party, but the snow was a definite fun-stopper. And it didn't help that I was sick. I had the BEST costume every, with the help of a beautiful, talented girl...a professional salsa performer! It was sexy with a purpose...makes me feel a little less...provocative (??).

So this past Monday was my birthday!! Thanks for all the thoughtful birthday wishes!! :)
I know you guys are all wondering. How did I spend this monumental day that would not be possible without my parents? Skyline of New york, elegant dinner, crazy party scene dancing the night away...what an amazing night. Although that does sound amazing, I spent my day a little bit differently. I started my day with a doctors appointment, then I went shopping with my umma. Bought lots of clothes and a really cute purse! For dinner, it was just me and my parents. We ate sam gyup sal, miyuk gook (birthday soup) and to top it all off, mint chocolate ice cream cake. It might not have been a night out in the city but, it sure was a good birthday celebration. :D

For upcoming news...tomorrow I'll be working on Blue Bloods as a restaurant patron. It'll be nice to be back on set and getting into the groove again. Maybe I'll see that director again! The downside to all of this? I called in about an hour ago and I cringed when I heard my call time. I forgot how early they could get. I have a 6am call time with two train options, it takes about 20 minutes to get there from the Penn station plus an hour and 25 minutes to get there from Princeton Junction, so I will be taking the 3:59am train!! This means I have to leave my house at 3:35am. Seriously, I'm going to call into the office, get on top of my game, start working a lot more and find a way to live in NY.

And, next Tuesday I'll be leaving for Maryland!! I'll be visiting my really good friend for a week. CanNOT wait! (personal message: lovelovelove youzzzz) :) :)

More updates to come!
Mucho <3

Story #73: Secrecy

se·cre·cy /ˈsikrəsi/ Show Spelled[see-kruh-see] - noun

1. the state or condition of being secret, hidden, or concealed: a meeting held in secrecy.

2. privacy; retirement; seclusion.

3. ability to keep a secret.
~ Thanks to Dictionary.com

By contract I can't actually share any details from the Nike shoot yesterday. But I will tell you that it was a lot of fun and they were great to work with. If I ever see it up, you guys will be the first one's to know about it! :) A few perks, I got to keep the shoes I used throughout the day and a really nice guy lent me his Nike jacket to keep me warm and ended up letting me keep it. 

This weekend is going to be crazy fun. Tomorrow I will be attending the Philadelphia Salsa Fest where Hot Salsa Hot will be performing (woot woot!!), Saturday is a Maxim Masquerade Costume party and Sunday I have golf with the family and a friend. And, if I'm up for it, I might go back to the Salsa Fest.


I hope all of your weekends will be just as fun as mine! Let me know what you guys are up to!


More updates to come.
Mucho <3

Story #72: Endless opportunities

So there are two things that are going on right now. When life meets reality, it hits it hard and it moves fast.

First I'll get to the news that many of you have been asking about and waiting for. Tomorrow I have been booked for an interview to potentially work with Nike. It will probably be a smaller end part, but regardless, it will be a fantastic experience. I have to be there at 10am with my changes of clothes. I will be posting what happens in tomorrows blog entry! :)

Now the second topic to address. After talking with the Blue Bloods director, I have actually been thinking about how I could do two things at once with my life. How I could possibly explore other possibilities of career choices while doing acting and modeling. I've always said that if I were to go in a different direction, I would want to do something in the education field, or the medical field, such as doctor, PA, or something in psychology. And after a really good talk with my dad, I have decided to shadow a few PA's and doctors, and look into taking classes at a nearby college. I heard about a class that is offered at a nearby community college where I will have a two week in-class experience in an elementary, middle school and high school classroom. I guess we'll just have to see how things turn out!

More updates to come!
Mucho <3

Story #71: Blessing in Disguise

Have you ever felt so lethargic that it goes beyond just how you physically feel and begins to affect how you think and perceive things? I was so tired today that it felt as if I was walking on a tight rope. You know, that feeling where everything is tense and with a little push you could tip over towards irritability or towards sadness and loneliness. When this happens I just want to sleep or do something to prevent me from over thinking things too much. In this sensitive state, the best things is to find comfort in something...right? What do you do, any tips?

So my busy weekend technically started on Wednesday with the shopping and prepping of my dry ingredients, but the actual baking didn't start until Thursday. So I went to bed at the usual time, 3:30am, got up at 9:30am and started baking at 10am. I started on my Chocolate Chip Cookie dough, tested one out and...um...not pretty. Add more of this, a little bit of that and still no good. So, even more of this and that, soon 10 am became 1pm with no progress in sight. In the end, 5 quarts of cookie dough went down the drain. So much sadness. But the frustration temporarily ended there. I moved on to Sugar cookies and Oatmeal. Success!! Next were the Pumpkin Bars and Chocolate Fudge cake. Unfortunately, more problems came up...the middle would never bake! I have never had so much pent up frustration in the kitchen while baking. So, long story short, from 10am on Thursday until 2:30am on Saturday with a 1 hour nap and some tweaks to my baking techniques, I made Chocolate Chip cookies, Sugar cookies, Oatmeal Raisin cookies, Pumpkin Bars, Chocolate Fudge cake, Carrot cake and homemade icing for an estimate of 350 people. I definitely came away from this experience much more knowledgeable...never bake cookies for that many people when you only have one oven. Being limited to baking 20-28 cookies at a time when you need to bake over 750 of them takes an incredible amount of time.

On Thursday, I got a call around 2pm to do background work on the 2-2 and to stand-in for someone. I was a little upset and frustrated seeing how this was a great opportunity, baking wasn't going well at the time and I haven't been working as much as I would like; but, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? So, why would it have been a great opportunity? Pay would have been relatively good since I was going to stand-in for one of the principal actors and for the obvious reason, it would be nice to get back on set.

Saturday, I was planning to nap from 2:30am to 5am to drive to Boston but that was a fail. I didn't end leaving until 11:45am. Upside to things, I made it there in less than 4 hours! The Silk Road Gala 2011 was beautiful. For more information on the gala, the prestigious Chefs that were there and the cause it promoted, you can click here. With some centerpieces in my trunk, I left Boston at 11:30pm for a pitch black drive home. Serene, scary, tense and tired all wrapped into one.

After getting home at 8am (don't ask), I finished baking the last two servings of Chocolate Chip cookies, cleaned up, napped for an hour, got changed and headed to Grace Community Church's 5th or 6th year anniversary service. At the end of the day, the night was a hit, the set up, food and my baked goods were amazing.

Life is full of endless opportunities, the important thing is to grab a hold of one of them or there won't be any progression in life. And at the end of the day, if you work hard, put all my effort into everything you did, even the small things, you'll end up on top. The stress and aggravations definitely turned into a blessing. I learned how so much from this past weekend.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to NY for an audition (no idea what about, so it'll be a surprise for you and me!).

To end on a final note: Listening to music you find a few that you will surprisingly like, considering the mood that you're in, you'll find ones that you love and ones that you can't stand, one's that will soothe you and bring comfort, and then, you'll find one that just makes you smile and even laugh. This is mine: Fuck You by Lily Allen. Enjoy!

As always, more updates to come! --> I'm late already, so pictures will be up in the next couple of days! :)

Mucho <3

Story #70: Pre-post

My original plan was to take you guys through my day by day hectic schedule with pictures, stories and life lessons. Unfortunately, like today, my busy schedule preoccupied all my time leaving me sleepy and without a blog entry to post.

An overview of my upcoming post: day-to-day happenings such as what I did, work I missed out on (*sadness*), and all the good and bad nitty gritties; pictures from my baking marathon, and the itinerary I followed since Thursday. Short blog, but lots to look forward to! :)

Updates tomorrow!
Mucho <3