December and January's life news

Hello there everyone! Sorry it's been awhile since I've written what's up with me. I've had QUITE a busy last couple months...here's some things that have been going on with me:

• I have found a few places here in LA that I LOVE to go to journal and chill by myself...like the Venice Beach Canals, The Huntington Library, my local starbucks (lol), the pool!!! and my favorite place being the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, lol...but it's actually like a cemetery and a park and it's absolutely gorgeous and they have beautiful scenery, a pond with swans, ducks, birds, and some geese, a really nice like roman-style long pool with pillars and stairs at either end (does that make sense?) and yeah...I don't go there for the dead people, lol...I go there for the scenery and the peace and quiet...plus there are security guards at the front gate who make sure there aren't any homeless crazies wandering around the place so I'm safe there, haha
• I still absolutely LOVE my job and the people I work with...it's such an awesome blessing! Although some servers who were supposed to be quitting, which would mean I would be taking their place and get to train to be a server, haven't quit yet and I'm getting less and less hours right now cuz it's winter, which is the slow season. But I'm still not doing too bad financially, so it's all good...and I might be able to pick up some "expo" shifts (expo is the person who puts the finishing touches on our food and makes sure it gets out to the tables ASAP) soon, which would be awesome cuz then I would at least be making tips doing that. I was hanging out with my co-workers outside of work a lot when i started but not so much now...they don't hang out at their houses, they go out a lot, which makes it too expensive to spend lots of time with them...but it's all good cuz Joseph, my sister Mari's boyfriend, just moved here a month ago and we're pretty good friends so I spend more time now with my roommates and him all together...
• Nikki and Mike, two of my closest friends from MN, came and visited a week and a half ago and we had SOOOOOOOOO much fun!!! I showed them Hollywood, my "spot" (the cemetery, lol), the Venice Beach canals (and sunset two days in a row at Venice Beach...GORGEOUS), Karl Strauss (the restaurant I work at), and my apartment and Joseph's place. Mike and Joseph are practically best friends now, they hit it off SO well, and they are HILARIOUS!!!!!! together, and we also went a comedy club called "Groundlings" which is where Will Ferrell got his start and laughed our heads off. It was GRAND...and I desperately miss them already :(
• I've been getting to know a bunch of the Mexican people I work with a TON better this last month or so and it's so fun to get better at spanish and just get closer to people with a different culture than mine! I might even get to start playing soccer with them on the weekends when i don't work...we'll see if I just look like a fool or if I can be in any way competitive, haha.
• Mari and I have officially decided that we are NOT the kind of best-friend sisters who should be living together...we should be neighbors, haha...because we have COMPLETELY different day-to-day living habits...basically I like things clean and always in their place and she doesn't mind them everywhere...so it's not unbareable living with each other cuz we compromise but if I do stay in LA, I don't know that we'll continue living together past May...we'll see I guess, haha
• Lastly, when it comes to my whole reason for coming out here, to figure out what I want to do next in my life and to get a better handle on my faith and relationship with God, I am making massive leaps and bounds :) There's so much to say about this, so if ur interested in specifics, just email me...I figure that's the better than writing a whole novel here :)

Well, that's all for now...I miss everyone and as always, wish I could be in two (or more) places at once!

CHOW!

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 :)