Do I look a little excited?This is me with Brett Dennen in the background, from his performance last night at the Roxy in West Hollywood. Brett was one of four performers last night at a benefit for Brandon Schantz; Lisa Donnelly, Graham Colton and Rooney were the others.
I went with two of my roommates, Abbi and Carly and another intern Mary - It was a really great night for many reasons. First of all - We didn't know who Brandon was, but his family and friends seem to be amazing and it was definitely a great celebration for them. Brandon died of a very rare cancer sometime last year - It was awesome to see how many lives he touched and to see the love in his family's hearts by just listening to them talk about Brandon for a couple minutes.
Second - Brett was wearing the TOMS that Mike and I had given him almost a month ago! At first I didn't notice, because most of the time Brett plays on stage without shoes. I randomly said to Abbi - "Wouldn't it be cool if he would have worn his TOMS?" And so we decided to get a little bit closer and we saw that in fact he WAS wearing his TOMS. I was so excited! Of course I took a bunch of photos and videos of his performance. He played with just his guitar and of course he was amazing as usual.
Third - I actually really enjoyed Rooney! Rooney is a band that one of our friends Blake, manages. When you first see them, you think they are trying to be like the Beatles - which I guess in a way they are - But, their music is very upbeat and entertaining even if you have never heard it before. And, the lead singer was in the movie The Princess Diaries from back when I was in high school!
Fourth - We saw Mischa Barton after the concert. (She used to be on a popular TV show called 'The OC' from a couple years go - for my parents who won't know who that is.) I guess she is dating one of the guitar players from Rooney and she was hanging around after the concert.------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, I couldn't finish my post last night - I took some Nyquil and got really tired. I think that my cold is pretty much gone - Yay!This past week at work, I got to join in on a retail marketing retreat in Pasadena. We spent the first half of the morning in Pasadena looking at window displays in old town Pasadena and then at one of the malls. The second half of the day we spent at Garett's house brainstorming - I was really excited that I got to be apart of the meeting, I definitely learned a lot. And retail marketing and event planning are two completely different areas, that I have interest in.
We had a beautiful day in Pasadena - It was sunny and probably 70 degrees. Garett's backyard is absolutely gorgeous - Of course I took a lot of pictures. I actually haven't been that good about taking pictures recently, but I will be getting back to it.
Yesterday, we got a half day at work because the TOMS full-timers got their holiday vacation trip to go skiing at Mammoth. It's crazy to me that you can drive a couple hours and find snow! And that even being in LA, you can see the mountains that have snow - I hate to admit it, but California really does have the best of both worlds!
I spent my half day off at one of the pools in our condo/complex. It was about 75 degrees and sunny - but it was a little chilly with the wind, so I hung out around the hot tub and got some really good sun. I did a lot of reading and wrote in my journal. It couldn't have been any more perfect.
Currently I'm reading Blue Like Jazz - which was Abbi's suggestion. So far I have really liked it - I have learned that for me, to learn about how I feel about God and my spirituality, is to hear other people talk about their relationship with God. Many of the stories that Donald Miller writes about have been VERY relevant to my life and where I find myself today. A lot of the time I will agree or disagree which I think is very important in figuring out what you believe (Does that make sense?) I know that I need to start reading the Bible daily as well. I will continue along this journey..,
Bye for now!
-KJ
