Superhero Dreams... Do not MAKE you a SUPERHERO.

My apologies on the time between posts.  Nothing beats getting called out for your lack of blogging than skyping with your family, your grandparents, and your uncle and having them tell you "you don't have to ONLY blog every time something bad happens."  They make a valid point. I have also heard this from my parents this past week and half "Chelsea blogs WAYYY more than you do."  Welp Chelsea L'Ecuyer... obviously you are still winning over my parents... I guess some things will never change.

I have been in Los Angeles for a little over a month and it's safe to say I still have no clue what I am doing.... or for part of the time, where I am going.  I have found that making friends in a big city like LA is harder than I originally thought.  Once you're out in the real world it's harder to find things that you have in common with someone when you don't have school or a team to share experiences with.  Don't get me wrong, I love the people I work with but I am coming to find that I am in fact that baby of Lamb & Flag, as well as the baby of Kellwood's Beverly Hills office.  I find myself surrounded by people who have experience in the work force and in the industry with several other companies and several brands.  I am in fact one of the only rookies on the team... where my experience doesn't go much farther than making a great margarita at Kites Bar & Grille and being able to properly check someone out while using a register while working at Hollister.  So far, I haven't been asked to make a margarita and I haven't had to use a cash register or remove ink tags.  Everything that I learn at Lamb & Flag is all new to me.  I had no idea so much thought went into fabric choice and how it is washed.  I had no idea a garment required so many fittings in order for it to not look absolutely ridiculous.  And I also had no idea how much starring at a computer all day could cause such terrible head aches and at times.. make me and my coworker Dre, act a little crazy.  I love my job and am so excited for Lamb & Flag to open on 11/1/11.  I expect all my friends and family to start shopping there, whether it be here at the LA store or online.  YOU WILL ALL LOVE LAMB & FLAG... whether you like it or not.

I have learned many more valuable lessons while living in Los Angeles.  One being... DO NOT TRUST ANY ONE.  One day when going to take my trash out... I noticed that my welcome mat, that my little brother helped me pick out... was missing. At first I thought I had lost my mind. I looked up and down the hall and noticed everyone else still had their welcome mats.  I text my dad... who automatically assumes its the punks that take over the pool every weekend.  A week later... my ipod got stolen while I was laying out by the pool.  I was sitting right there and turned my head the other direction and someone must have swooped it up.  This time I was determined it was one of the little punks who takes over the pool.  I actually see the kid who I am 80% positive stole my ipod, every couple days in the hall.  I give him a death glare until he obviously starts to look uncomfortable.  You better watch your back klepto kid.

One of my friends from K-state moved out to LA a few weeks ago. She lives out in Marina Del Rey (you know, like the George Strait song) so she is very close to the beach.  2 weeks ago we met up for dinner, drinks, and went out to a bar in Santa Monica.  We had a lot of fun but spent quite a bit of money and decided next time we would have to make our food and drinks before we go out.  The next weekend we went to Venice Beach.  It was kind of windy and the sand was pretty much blowing up my nose and in my ears.   We even had to have a conversation with this creepy dude who later went on to feed seagulls tons of bread that he threw... towards where we were laying out.  Let just say I felt like was in Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds" and I was NOT pleased.  We decided to grab lunch at a cool bar on the board walk and then relocated to the marina's beach where there was no wind... and a lot of families.  We found this one girl quite entertaining... as she failed... over and over again... at flying a kite. Just for the record... one of my friends... James Dawson to be exact... told me that black people don't like to hang out in the sun or spend much time on the beach.  This must be a false statement... because in Marina... there were many black families that were totally content being out in the sun... even though of some of the kids were wearing sock in the sand... which I didn't really get.  My friend and I then headed out for a movie where I was lucky enough to meet my first RUDE person in Los Angeles.  For one thing, this older couple did not follow the "seat buffer rule."  You know the rule that says you leave a seat in between you and complete strangers to keep all parties involved from being uncomfortable.  This was a red flag from the get go.  The next sign, was the fact that the older woman was touching her husband in inappropriate places that made me want to throw up on my popcorn.  After that, it all went down hill.  The next thing that happened made me want to smack the guy in the face... which could be due to the fact that I have been watching way too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer which at time makes me BELIEVE that I have super hero strength and can do awesome karate moves too... The guy reached across me toward my friend who glanced at her phone to see who her missed call was from (Her phone was on silent).  He pushed her phone down and said "Can you NOT do that... It's really distracting" in the most snide tone.  After fighting my urges to go all "Buffy" on him... I then wanted to tell him "Umm excuse me sir, but congrats on being the first rude person I've met in LA.  And also... can you tell your wife to NOT be filling you up during the movie.  It's distracting. Thanks."  Of course.... I didn't actually do either one of these things... but I WANTED TO.  Too bad the only superhero powers I have... are in my dreams where I sometimes find myself in episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.... helping her save the world.  You know, the usual dreams people have.

Venice Beach

The creepy guy who was throwing food for the the birds toward  us... causing us to be nearly attacked

The girl who must have never watched "Mary Poppins" when growing up. She can't fly  a kite.

Proof the James lied to me... black people spending the day at the beach

Mike, my mom's cousin, who is the CEO of Kellwood... was in town last week.  I got to see him for the first time since I was 5 apparently. Mike said that last time he saw me I was in a cheerleading outfit yelling "GO BLUE!" over and over again.  Obviously... things change.  Mike invited me to dinner with two other people who work at the Kellwood office in Beverly Hills, Matt and Erin.  The food was great, the restaurant was awesome, and listening to Mike and Matt debate was very entertaining.  Getting to hear Mike talk about his family and hearing old stories about our Uncle Harold letting him barrow his car to take his dates out in... was so cool and I am so glad he asked me to come along.  I did get a little nervous when he asked me if anything exciting was going on with me and started creepishly talking about my cousin Arika's wedding which she will be having this fall.  I did at some points... make it sound like it was kind of my wedding.  I am not too sure how excited Matt and Erin were to hear about a wedding between two people they never met... but they played it off well.   When leaving I got to see my very first group of paparazzi.  Though I didn't realize there was a celebrity in the same restaurant... I feel like I will have my first celeb sighting... ANY moment now.  I always offer to take packages across the street to the FedEx drop box in hopes of maybe seeing Orlando Bloom, Ryan Renolds, or Brad Pitt in my office's elevator... no such luck yet. Trust me, I will let you know when I do.

I got to visit one of our factories here in LA for the first time this week.  I also had to drive on the freeway during prime traffic hours, so I was a little nervous.  I found my way to Parmount, California, where one of our vendors is located, without any problems. I sat in on our meeting where we handed off some styles for our spring season.  I am starting to get more and more responsibilities at work... which makes me excited but a little nervous.  I am still in charge of what mostly goes on with our "3rd Party Brand" even though our new buyer started last week.  I am currently responsible for getting all the purchase orders made so that we have our items by the time we launch in November.  Apparently Kellwood has some very strict rules and regulations that causes a lot of hang ups in the process... which leads to a lot of problem solving in order to keep us moving forward. It's become quite the challenge.  The software we use is also some what frustrating...  Dre, my coworker and I, often have venting sessions about it... and have even made jokes about "Running reports" and getting styles to upload into the system.  Dre actually started making up a song yesterday about our software EBA... she's absolutely hilarious... and I don't know what I would do with out her there to make me laugh and keep me in such a good mood!

Friday I FINALLY got reunited with my car, Dwight.  He looks great... even better than before he got hit by one of "God's Chosen People" aka: the jewish man in the Lexus.  It took a very long time... but I happy to have my car back.  I do however now realize the lack of turning radius Dwight has after driving the Jetta rental car for over a month.  No offense Dwight... but you carry quite the wide load in the rear....

This week I talked with a breeder from Irvine, CA which is an hour outside of LA about coming to look at some puppies this weekend.  Saturday I drove with my friend Audrey from work (Benji's owner)  to Irvine to take a look.  Though the lady seems slightly... crazy,  I found a very cute pup  that I immediately wanted to take home. I now have an 8 week baby morkie named "Mowgli"  and he is the coolest puppy.  I've only had him for a few hours, but I can tell he will make a very good wingman and partner in crime.  Mowgli did very good in the car and was very curious with what we going on.  Once Audrey pulled up to her house and I had to drive the rest of the way home, I sat Mowgli on the floor with a towel in front of the passanger's seat.   Once we were at a red light for long period of time, Mowgli got his blance and tried to climb up on to the seat, though it took him about 2 minutes to finally climb all the way up, he did it.  He looked so proud of himself as he crawled across the car and into my lap.  Once we got home, Mowgli checked out the crib and took his first poop before I even had a chance to put a "we-we pad" down.  He WAS however, polite enough to poop on my laminated floor, which I found pretty thoughtful.  Mowgli is struggling with the fact that he sees his own reflection in the mirror... he thinks its another puppy and he has been trying to get it to play.  He loves the chew toy I bought him that is for teething puppies... but he also loves to chew on my fingers, toes, and his carrier's gate.  He has found entertainment from hopping in and out of his bed that I got him.  He's even gotten in a fight with it... from the looks of it, the bed won, because he is now currently napping in it.  He loves to eat, but I have to monitor that closely in order to control is growth and make sure I don't have a fattie on my hands.  I plan to hang out with him the rest of this weekend and he has his first vet appointment Monday morning and will venture with me to the office.

Mowgli loves his chew toy

I caught Mowgli's first accident

Isn't Mowgli adorable?

Mowgli thinks his reflection is another puppy

Mowgli LOVES his bed

I have still stuck to not drinking pop... not even Mountain Dew.  I have had a Sprite... once.... but that was at the movie theaters and I feel like it doesn't really count because it doesn't have caffeine.  I am still running during the week though I got off my routine for awhile after my iPod got stolen.  There is a 10k in Santa Monica that is coming up in October that I am hoping to participate in!  I have gotten quite the tan from my many weekends spent laying out in the Cali sun!  I sometimes think I may not be allowed to fill in the bubble Caucasian on a question that asks what your race is. I miss my family and my friends who are back in Kansas but I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity to grow up and find out who I am on my own.  I have surprised myself on many occasions.  I have come across many challenges and have some how made it through them... sometimes with a little help and advice from back home.  I will never forget where I came from and all the great experiences I have had in Kansas.  I have many times found myself saying "yeah... we don't have that in Kansas" or "yeah... no one is like that in Kansas."  Kansas will obviously be a part of my life no matter where I go or where I live.  But MOST IMPORTANTLY.... I will always be a K-State fan... I have already explained to Mowgli... that there will be no USC fans in this family.  No worries.  GO CATS!

Sending you my love from Cali!

Katie

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