"Parents Week"

So, it's been awhile since I last updated, and I tried getting this in last night like I said I would, but I ran out of time. So here you go:

My parents flew in here on Saturday morning so I took a FlyAway Bus from Van Nuys to LAX to meet them there. They had a great flight, especially from Indiana to Phoenix. I gave them both great big hugs and we headed to pick up their luggage and take the shuttle to Hertz. After trying to understand the Hertz lady for the Rent-a-Car, we got switched from a Hyundai Accent, to a Pontiac Vibe, to a Mazda 6. My dad wanted GPS, and so when we told the lady that, they upgraded us. My parents were staying in the Sheraton Hotel at Universal City. Excellent hotel! The bonus for me, was that I'd get to stay with them all week if I wanted to. They had a two-bed room.

We walked around the Universal City Walk. They have shops, restaurants, and right next to it all is Universal Studios itself, the theme park. Unfortunately this week we did not get to go to the theme park, but hopefully I will someday soon.

On Sunday, mom, dad, Kelly, and I all got up early to go to a restaurant in Burbank called The Castaway. It was located WAAAY up on the hill and it's a very ritzy place. Ranked in the top 5 of restaurants in either California or the country, I'm not sure. It was our breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner food place. They had all kinds of food. Food for every meal of the day. It was all set up buffet-style, but not like a Golden Corral buffet, more like a 5-star buffet. The view was amaza-zing! We could see all of Burbank, all of the Valley, and even the buildings in downtown LA. On top of all the food you could eat, they had as much champagne as you wanted. And the dessert table, WOW...that's all I can say.

Sunday night I took my parents to Ireland's for karaoke night. They got to meet all the people I hang out with at Ireland's all the time and outside of Ireland's too. We had a great time, and I ended up singing "Pinch Me" by Barenaked Ladies and I sang a duet with James, and we sang "Africa" by Toto, and pretty much rocked it as usual. The highlight of the night was when James and Eric got up to sing Afroman's "Because I Got High", and they didn't want to sing it in front of my parents, thinking they'd get offended or the wrong impression, and what they failed to initially realize, was my parents singing along......so proud......

On Monday I had to be in Long Beach at 7am for the shooting of Alvin and the Chipmunks 2. That turned into a 14 hour day. My parents drove me there and planned to head to Newport Beach by 11 to see my cousin Shannon, her husband Scott, and their son Kayden. (I'll be seeing them Sunday) My role in A&C2 was just like the other 379 people cast as a student. We were in a gymnasium and we were going to be dancing and cheering on the Chipmunks, a couple bands, and even a dance group. Zachary Levi, who plays on the show Chuck, was there, along with a few other familiar faces, like Wendie Malick, who played Nina Van Horn on the show Just Shoot Me, and Anjelah N. Johnson. The day was full of cheering and dancing and screaming and singing, and it was a blast. Tiring, but it was a blast. I was in the front row or second row most of the time, and I hopefully will even be seen. There was a scene or two when the camera was really close to me if not looking right at me briefly. So when that movie's released, please go see it! This was also the night my mom and dad had In-N-Out Burger for the first time!

Tuesday, I got up about 5:50am to take James to the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. He was flying to go to Louisiana for 6 weeks to work on a movie that was shooting there. He was kind enough to loan me his car for those 6 weeks. That's very helpful, so I don't have to share my cousin's car in that timeframe to go places or to jobs or whatever the case may be. After I got home from taking him, I showered and cleaned up and my parents came by and picked me up and we headed to Hollywood to the hotel my grandparents were staying at. It was nice seeing them! We all headed to the Universal City Walk and went to breakfast at a place called Saddle Ranch. Very fun, country western looking restaurant. Indoor and outdoor seating available. They looked as though they only had one server on. But it was early, so no problem right? That early in the day they seat everyone outside, but luckily we had awesomely nice sunny weather. So me, my mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa sat there...and sat there.....looked over the menu...and sat there some more... Still no visit of the waitress to our table. We had all already picked out what we wanted to drink/eat. People started getting sat after us and they were having the same problem. Not to mention, one table was sat after us and ordered before us. WTF, mate? Finally, the host who sat us came over to take our drink orders. He brought them out and finally the waitress came to the table and apologized up and down because they were short-staffed/staved/plural anyone? She took our orders and told us we'd be getting some complimentary pancakes coming out to us. ROCK ON! So we did. We got like 4 pancakes and only me, dad, and grandma had some. Then out came the food. The plates and portions were HUGE! My dad and I each had the 'Chicken and Biscuits'. But no sign of my dad's. So that host guy came back to the table, asked if we got everything, and my dad told him he didn't his food. The host then apologized and informed us he was the manager and he'd go check on that immediately. When they brought out the food, they informed us dad's meal would be "on the house". Free food left and right! All the problems aside, we had a great breakfast, great service, and a great time. We walked around the Universal City Walk a bit longer with the grandparents and we then took them back to their hotel, and they were on their way back to Arizona.

Wednesday, we had plans to go to The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, which, not to burst anyone's bubble, but was NOT taped 'Late Late' at night. As a matter of fact, it started taping around 3pm. But we were told it would air that night. We had time to kill before the show, so we walked around the Farmer's Market there at 3rd and Fairfax. We ate some lunch and checked out all the little shops and such. At one point, my mom and I walked right by Scott Caan. You might recognize Scott from the Ocean's Trilogy, or Varsity Blues, or simply being the son of James Caan. He's been in many many movies. But we both looked at eachother and immediately knew who he was. That was pretty cool. I know I saw another celebrity, but cannot put my finger on who he was. So we dressed in our "upscale" attire and headed to the CBS Studios where it was being taped. It's also the place they tape the Price Is Right. We lucked out and got put in the front of four rows outside in the waiting area and listened to a guy named Brian, who was hilarious, that prepped us for the show and what they're all about there and told us of a guy named "Chunky B" who we'd be meeting that would be our audience guy for the day. He was again, a crazy funny guy who took us inside the studio and made us laugh and would tell us what to do when and tested us for preparedness for Craig Ferguson. We got sat in the stage area for Craig Ferguson (CF), and we were 3 rows up on the right side. Awesome seats for the 113-person seating area. The whole taping we laughed our butts off...I had mine reattached later...and got to see a couple celebs. Not only CF, but Jerry O'Connell, and for a thing they were taping for this upcoming Tuesday, they had Isabella Rossellini there, which made my mom's day! If any of you saw the show or taped it, at the break right before Jerry O'Connell came on the show, you can see the back of my dad's head and half of my head and my hands clapping. Same thing could be seen after the commercial break was over. After the show for dinner, we headed to Maggiano's. Upon leaving Maggiano's, we were walking towards the exit while this somewhat older guy, who was nicely dressed and just had that look of a celebrity walked right by us. I looked at him and kept walking because I had no idea who it was. My mom was behind me and was lagging behind a little bit. When she caught up, she had one of those looks on her face. A very giddy look about her. I asked her, "Okay, who was he?" She told me it was Tony Geary, best known for his role on General Hospital. She then, all excitedly, told me she leaned in and said "I love your work Mr. Geary." He replied, "Well thank you very much." So my mom was needless to say VERY excited she actually talked to a celebrity. Dad's was gone getting our parking validated and missed him. So that even more so made my mom's night!

I can't remember which dad we did, but one of the days we went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame to see the Grauman's Chinese Theater and all the other awesome sites of Hollywood. I think my dad's was especially happy to see all of that because he had NEVER been to LA before now.

Thursday, we had breakfast at the North Hollywood Diner. I think it became my mom's favorite place to eat out here. We headed to Culver City where they tape the Bonnie Hunt Show. We got there later than we wanted to, so we were numbers 97, 98, and 99. When we got inside, the set was AWESOME and they immediately handed out Root Beer and Hot Dogs to anyone who wanted them. I took a hot dog, but no root beer. When we told them we had 3 people, they sat us in the front row off to the right. How lucky are we?! The guy who pumps up the crowd and is a big part of the show was named Bill. He ended up talking to us quite a bit and giving me tips and he told me to add him on Facebook, so I did. His biggest things of advice were 1) take any job I can, 2) Be nice to everyone, because you never know! and C) Watch your spending. And yes, I did say 1, 2, C on purpose. So the show started and Bonnie Hunt came out and everyone went nuts! It was really cool to see her in person, and so close up too! The guests on the show ended up being Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael, aka "The Bacon Brothers". They performed on the show, which was exciting. In between the Bacon Brothers interview and the next guest, during a somewhat long break, Bonnie came up to the crowd to say hello to her brother and his wife and kid who was in the row right across the aisle from us and so Bonnie was THAT close to us. She kind of said hi to everyone around that area and turned and kinda touched my mom's leg and said "Thank you for being here"...my mom replied with "thank you for touching my leg." Haha, what a dork. Love you mom. After the break was over, we were surprised with a guest by the name of Phil Keoghan, aka the host of The Amazing Race. He literally rode in on his bicycle. My parents, being such big fans of that show, were very surprised and excited to see him. After him, actress Ashley Scott was on. She's been in that show Jericho and the new movie starting this weekend called "12 Rounds". She's VERY attractive in person. Even more so than on TV. Unfortunately she's a bit older than me...surprisingly 31, so I probably don't have a chance. Not to mention, she's a celebrity...I'm not. haha Oh well. After Ashley, the Bacon Brothers performed and the show was wrapped. Bonnie Hunt herself made her rounds in the crowd to say hello and shake hands and she actually did come to the front row where we were, again, and shook all three of our hands. That was wonderful. Quite a successful and surprising happening trip so far.

Friday, we again ate at the North Hollywood Diner for late breakfast/early lunch, and had the same server as Thursday. She remembered us and what we drank from the previous day. She is a very kind person and a great waitress. We spent the day going to Venice Beach, walking the beach, standing in the water, enjoying the sunshine (no I didn't get much of a tan), and checking out the array of shops lined up. Selling everything from jewelry, to tshirts, to paintings, and more. Quite a bunch of crazies there though. One guy even had a sign saying "SMILE IF YOU TOUCH YOURSELF". Yeah...those kinds of people. Not to forget the sign reading "WILL WORK FOR MARIJUANA". Wow people...wow. So we left the beach and my parents dropped me at the apartment to get cleaned up and changed and they headed to the hotel to do the same. We headed to this timeshare Kelly's friend Mark has so Kelly could feed us. She wanted to make us dinner. We had Margaritas to start and Lasagna for dinner, and an Armenian chocolate cake for dessert! Quite a wonderful night. But we were way tired and headed home after all the festivities.

Today, Saturday, was my parents' last day in California. :(
We, for a third day, ate at the North Hollywood Diner, and got all the suitcases packed up for their trip home. We walked around one more time, briefly, at the Universal City Walk to buy a few souvenirs. After the NoHo Diner, we stopped by Ralph's for a few items, and they brought me back to my apartment. We hugged and said our byes. Kinda sucks they have to leave. I know they didn't wanna leave either. Again we got a little teary saying bye, but I'll hopefully get to come home sometime in the next couple months.


So I hope that completes my week with my parents. It's now back to regularly trying to get acting gigs, and paying for my own food. haha
If I forgot anything, I'm sorry, but feel free to ask my parents when/if you see them. They'll tell you everything about the trip you want to know. We're only a few days away from the month of April, which is insane, but that means it's closer to the time my cousin Adam gets to come visit!! And if any of you people want to come visit me in the next month or so, please let me know. I would love to have company, you just gotta let me know!


Until next time...