A Night in Hollywood
January 2018.
In my last post, where James came to visit us in America, I mentioned being nominated for an Eddie. To be completely honest I had some complications when submitting my entry that I'd given up all hope even for consideration. So when I saw the email, I didn't really understand what I was reading and had to bring it to my parents and ask them to read it too. A few phone calls and hastily bought plane tickets later, I found myself back in Los Angeles! (I spent one semester here for school the previous year).
Someone swapped their first class seat with mine on the way to LAX from Chicago to sit with their family in the back, so it really felt like a special trip!
We landed with enough time to drop our bags off in our room, explore the neighborhood for lunch, and then get ready for the Nominee Cocktail party.
Mom and I getting ready:
We caught an uber to the Walt Disney Studios lot where the reception was being held.
Where, after meeting some of the coolest people in my field, they gave me a fancy plaque! As well as a few codes and cards to unlock some editing programs- I may have geeked out a bit.
But that's hardly the most important part. It gets better. The next morning Mom and I found ourselves with a free day to spend, so we took ourselves to our favorite breakfast restaurant. We discovered Bea Bea's up in Burbank when she dropped me off for my LA semester.
They make ~the~ fluffiest waffles and there's almost always a line to get in.
With nothing better to do, we invited ourselves to Universal Studios for the day!
All things considered, it was pretty empty for a Friday in January. I think our favorite part was going on the Studio Tour that Universal offers down below the park at the base of the mountain. They show you a lot of behind the scenes!
We spent all day at Universal and left when it started to get dark. The band Streetlight Cadence was performing at the City Walk on our way out, so we stopped to listen for a bit. They're good!
Saturday we had a little bit of time left to spend exploring so we got HUGE stacks of pancakes at The Griddle Cafe nearby. It's a super popular place and we had to wait a few minutes for a seat outside.
Very full and happy, we went over to Santa Monica beach and rented a pair of bikes to ride along the coast for a little while in the sunshine. Eventually we stopped and simply sat on the beach, shoes in hand, just happy to feel sand between our toes in January, (California you will never cease to surprise me).
We made it back to the room in time to pack our bags and slip into our gowns. A friend of mine had offered to pick us up and drive us to the event at the Beverly Hilton, and I couldn't refuse.
I checked in.
Nerded out.
We were led outside to a cocktail party going on by the pool (I'm told there were several going on) where I made some friends and connections.
Inside the event everyone was assigned a place at a dinner table. In this photo, the stage is directly to our right and down a couple tiers.
My fancy dessert.
Our table was squashed up in the furthest left corner of the room under one of the big projectors that showed nominee photos, snippets of the shows, and the host when she was speaking.
I didn't end up winning the award, but it was pretty magical to be there nonetheless!
I wasn't able to attend the afterparty, which was a disappointment, but for good reason. I was catching the LAST flight out of LA to NYC at 1am to start my semester abroad in Paris! You win some, you lose some, and it was definitely worth the surrender.
On our way out we had the fancy backdrop all to ourselves, so we took advantage of it ;)
And then pulled a Cinderella in the bathroom and sped off into the night!