by | August 27, 2010 · 10:06 am

Merlot and Fire!

     Farmers’ market! There’s nothing so wonderful – except a farmers’ market that’s not 95 degrees! I had a nice cool breakfast to start my day with.

A Monsta. Duh. 5+1/3 cups of spinach. I have 5 servings of veggies in my before 8am. Boo to the Yah!
Enjoying my Monsta with a view.
Life is good. God is great 🙂
     I spent a lot of the day doing laundry, cleaning my room and the house, and doing all the things I’ve missed while I was gone for over nine days. Getting my room and house in order helps me feel like I have control over my life, and helps de-stress me. Cleaning is so therapeutic! And I’m weird. You all know that by now :).
     After breakfast, I did a little interning for the talent manager, visited the bank to deposit some checks, and headed out to the farmers’ market.
Need eggplant recipes! Anyone???
A jungle of kale and chard. I’ve tried the kale, what do I do with chard?
Normally I’d buy some flowers, but nothing grabbed me today.
Here’s the bounty I returned with. I LOVE VEGGIES!!!!
Lunch was a Kitchen Sink Salad with about 2 cups of mixed greens, a whole chopped red bell pepper, 3/4 of a cup of lentils and some homemade balsamic dressing.
     After sweating through the farmers’ market, I headed back to the wonderful comfort of air conditioning and finished my current book, “Sarah’s Key” by Tatiana de Rosnay. The book was breathtaking until the halfway point, but really petered out by the end. Actually, it was really disappointing. I feel like the author stopped caring and just decided to add some busywork to add some extra pages. Oh well.
     Next up was some chopping in preparation for dinner!
Slicing kernels off of corn, dicing cooked potatoes and sipping merlot. I had a rough night ;).
Dinner was delicious corn chowder, a glass of merlot and an amazing script. I have lots of memorizing to do! It’s so nice to get a script you really can connect to. The last one I felt so strongly about was Summer Campbell, which I just filmed. I have high hopes for this next one :).
     The night was spent sipping merlot, eating a freshly picked farmers’ market dinner and sipping on merlot. Oh yes, and roasting marshmallows.
Roasting marshmallows/setting skewers on fire. Same thing!
     Now it’s 11pm and I have to sign off and head to bed so I can wake up at 6am for a beautiful run on the beach up in Santa Barbara! I feel so blessed in life right now. Thank GOD for his peace and balance 🙂
What’s the most therapeutic activity for you?

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Filed under farmers' market, fire, green monster, kitchen sink salad, marshmallows, Sarah's Key

by | August 26, 2010 · 9:34 am

Back to Retail. Yay.

     Today I had to get back to the grind. It was extremely depressing to go back to retail after having nine days of pure bliss. I may have had a mini breakdown at lunch. Very mini…

     The day started off wonderfully! I had my first Monsta in DAYS and I needed it!

1/2 of a cup of soymilk, 5 cups of spinach, a handful of frozen strawberries and blueberries, 1/2 of a banana and 1/2 of a lemon and 1/2 of a lime. HELLO ENERGY!!!!
     My stomach has massively shrunk since beginning filming. I finished my Monsta, but it was a challenge. This baby kept me full until around 11:30am. I decided that I just hadn’t had enough veggies, so my roommate made us some Kitchen Sink Salads.
We were low on lettuce, so it was mostly warmed lentils, egg white salad and sauteed asparagus in Herbes de Provence. It was a perfect petite meal.
     And then came work. My friend Duck-Duck came to visit, which made it slightly more bearable. It was a pretty dead day, and I had to work in the women’s section. Utter hell. These women fight over sales and will bite you in order to get commission. I am most definitely NOT competitive when it comes to sales. If I ever feel the need to be competitive in my job, I will quit. This was meant to be temporary anyway, and this last week has put a hunger in me for the career I really want – acting.
     My mom came to visit me for lunch and helped calm me down after my mental breakdown. She helped me put together a plan for the next few weeks that involves lots of filmed auditions and focusing on the future instead of dreading my retail job. She helped so muchly. Thanks, mom!
Some Mini Spicy Tuna Roll with Brown Rice helped too. I asked for some avocado to up my healthy fat intake. I needed all the buffer I could get today.
     The day passed by very slowly. I met a new coworker and had some awesome conversations with her, and finally got to go home. I was greeted by this lovely sight:
A glowing glass of Merlot. I may actually be LIKING wine! Who woulda thunk?
     Tomorrow is a day off (already needed), so I’ll be filming some auditions, organizing my room and my life, and interning from home. OH! And I just remembered that it’s Thursday, so I’m going to try and hit up the farmers’ market too! It’s the little things in life :).
I survived my first day back at work. Barely. Time to join a gym and work off my anxiety!

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Filed under green monster, kitchen sink salad, Merlot, sushi, wine, work

by | August 25, 2010 · 7:25 pm

Santa Monica and Glazing!

     Yesterday was jam-packed! I got home from LA around 9:30am, had a huge cup of coffee and entertained my roommates with all my stories from being on set, then proceeded to walk out the door and pick up my friend from Colorado who’s visiting and go out for an extended lunch. I was planning on staying in town, but then heard that the high of the day was going to be 110 degrees. No thank you. We ended up in Santa Monica, on the beach.

Kim and I trying to narrow down our food options. TOO. MANY. CHOICES!
We ended up at Yangtze, a Thai/Japanese/Chinese fusion restaurant.
A very pale salad. Delicious sesame dressing, though!
I got a bowl of Tom Kha Gai, a coconut milk soup with lemongrass, galanga root and chicken. I’m still working on getting my appetite back after filming.
Kim got the Bangkok Inferno. Awesome name!
     We hung out at Yangtze for about an hour and a half catching up and going through some amazing memories from high school in Colorado, where I used to live. This girl can have me laughing like no other! Kim, when are you finally going to move out here??

     We walked around the 3rd Street Promenade, went into a few shops, bought some awesome, affordable clothes from H&M, and watched some street performers.
Buskers! We saw these tap dancers, an opera singer, some dude with an awesome beard playing guitar (the beard was more impressive than his guitar skills), and a bunch of palm readers and psychics.
Man with flower. I want to frame this picture, and then I want to go buy a big flower, wear a slick black suit and look awesome.
     Kim and I drove up the coast while listening to Gomez, Sky Sailing, Seabear, The x x and a whole bunch of other cool indie bands. Our lives do not suck.
     After I dropped Kim off, I headed over to mi madre’s. We stopped by Lotus for some frozen yogurt.
A small cup of original tart with chocolate chips and strawberries.
Then we went to pottery class. It was glazing night!
My two favorite colors: Cappuccino and Batik Blue.
The kiln was at 906 degrees. It was kind of hot.
The night sky outside of the studio. Bliss.
Me putting my enormous guns to use and whisking the glaze.
     Unfortunately, all my before pictures came out blurry, so you’ll just have to wait until next week for the finished products. Christmas presents, anyone? I am so ready with my bowls!
     As for today, back to reality. I have a full shift starting at noon, but I have a wonderful new outlook to keep me sane. Happy Wednesday!
What helps keep you sane during the work week?

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by | · 9:01 am

Summer Filming: Day 8

     Yesterday was my last day on set. So sad!!! We had a 9am call, had to wait while camera got set up and after shooting a few scenes in a musty basement, had lunch.

Spinach salad with strawberries, corn with zucchini, linguini mac and cheese and some kind of chicken.
     It’s been a long haul, but we wrapped around 7pm. Crew had to clean up and get everything packed away in the truck, then we all went out to Haven Gastropub in Orange.
Pulled pork sandwich with pommes frites and housemade ketchup!
Warm apple-cabbage slaw on top of the pulled pork. Happiness!
Chelsea and Coco.
Scott (with his awesome new haircut ala Jenny) and the Chelsmeister.
Boa, Jenny and Ryan.
Malachi, deep in thought after some deep, introspective film talk.
     The past nine days have been some of the most incredible of my life. I’ve made amazing friendships that WILL continue, and I have fallen in love with these people. 
     For now, I’m back to work and taping auditions, but I’ll be keeping these people and memories in my heart and mind to keep myself going through my retail days. Either way, I’m LOVING my life!
Best nine days. EVER!

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Filed under friends, happiness, Haven Gastropub, short film, Summer Campbell

by | August 23, 2010 · 11:53 am

Summer Filming: Day 7

     One more day left of this craziness! I will be incredibly sad to see it all go. These past 9 days have been the most fun I’ve ever had on set. Sniff.

     We filmed in Toluca Lake today, in the kitchen of one of the houses. There was nothing too crazy, except for all the stunts I had to do. My elbow and knee are a little banged up, and I am proud! Lunch was from one of my all-time favorite restaurants, Porto’s!

Ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce sandwich on their freshly made bread, a chicken empanada and some kind of pastry filled with ground beef. Guess whose appetite is back!
I asked for a quarter of a cupcake, but Jenny MADE me eat the entire half!
     We filmed a few slow motion bike sequences, which look AMAZING, then headed out for dinner before we had to meet up for some night pickups. I headed over to my costar’s house and we got all chef-y!
Ahhh, I’ve missed chopping things!
We made a stir-fry with onions, yellow squash, mushrooms, steak and white wine with LOTS of HdP 🙂
And since the wine was opened, we figured we shouldn’t let it go bad!
     After dinner, we headed back for our pickups and walked down dark streets in the middle of Burbank. Thankfully, we wrapped and I headed down to Orange, where we’ll be filming our final day tomorrey. 
Time to crash!

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Filed under chocolate cupcake, on set, Porto's, short film, stir-fry, Summer Campbell, white wine

by | August 22, 2010 · 7:06 pm

Summer Filming: Day 6

     Good morning! I woke up before my alarm today, checked out yesterday’s pictures and discover I only have three usable ones, so I’ll recap yesterday very quickly.

     I slept on the most amazing couch in the entire universe, and woke up slightly more refreshed, but still completely sleep deprived from the past week. I wound up being ridiculously early to set, so I swung by Starbucks to start my day.

A grande soy chai and oatmeal. This oatmeal has been my lifesaver! It kept me full for over five hours yesterday!
     We filmed about 16 shots over the course of the day. I met, worked with, and said goodbye to my on-screen mother, spent about an hour filming under covers in a bed (while it was about 90 degrees in the house we were using, thank you very much), and rode my bike off into the sunset. 
     Lunch was a crapload of Quiznos sandwiches. I regained my appetite, finally, and had…
A quarter of a tuna melt, which I did not used to like, but craved yesterday…
and a turkey sub on the most amazing herbed bread ever. I’m drooling remembering it.
     We wrapped early and all headed off to Robano’s in Toluca Lake for dinner. Sadly, I left my camera in a separate bag and was unable to document this amazing night. We had a group of about sixteen people, and spent a good two hours talking, making fun of the solo artist who was playing, and laughing our asses off. I sipped my glass of merlot (I’m sticking to this no beer thing! So weird!) and had one of the best nights of my life. I am completely in love with this crew. 
     I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I’ll be taking tons today to make up for it! As for now…
Off to set! I love saying that 🙂

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Filed under filming, Quiznos, Robano's, short film, Summer Cambell

by | · 10:55 am

Summer Filming: Day 5

     I’m terribly sorry about being so behind on this! I’m recapping yesterday tonight, then I’ll try to find tomorrey to do two blogs and catch you all up on filming.

     Yesterday started off in Orange. We were filming in the backyard of a local house.

Gorgeous yard! Perfect for a party 🙂
The lovely Jenny made peanut butter, nutella and banana sandwiches for crafty. We are all indebted to her awesome chef-ing.
     This was the day known around set as, “the makeout day”. It seriously consisted of me attacking my costar for about two hours and mauling his face off. I didn’t mind. Neither did he.
     Lunch was the most amazing that we’ve had on set to date (at least in my opinion). As you all should know by now, I enjoy having food in cups. It’s more compact, easier to balance, and contains just about the perfect size serving for me.
Chicken in a cup!
This had about 1/2 of a cup of kale (!!!) salad, 1/8 of a cup of wild rice, and a roasted chicken drumstick. After going through life without kale, it’s suddenly begun to rain upon my head! It really does taste like a very leafy broccoli. I dig it.
     After some more making out, we all wrapped for the day and headed up to Burbank where we began filming today. We made a stop at a thai restaurant for a ridiculously late dinner at 11:30pm. 
Arunee House in Burbank.
Jocelyn, our on-set photographer, and Chelsea, set decorator/designer.
Malachi, dolly grip extraordinaire, and Dan, who should be editing our film.
Coco, our key grip, Jenny, our producer/makeup artist/on set mother, and Boa, our DP.
Scott, the writer/director of our film. He doesn’t like any food except for cheese pizza, and was bitter that we’d taken him here.
I got the panang curry with chicken and brown rice. Their recipe was very heavy on the peanuts, and ridiculously creamy, which I LOVED. Plus, brown rice makes everything healthy in my mind.
I enjoy blackmailing Malachi. It makes my day.
We were the last people in the restaurant after they closed, and they were still kind enough to give us all free ice cream! LOVE this place!
At first we couldn’t understand why they gave us free dolls. These are the most random pens ever!
     That sums up yesterday! I got back to the apartment I’m staying at around 12:30am, and found out that my show, “Left at the Altar” had been airing all evening. Luckily I got my parents to DVR it since I don’t have access to a television now. Too bad production didn’t let my costar or me know it was going to be on! Rawr! If you want to see it, it should be doing a few reruns for awhile. My character is “Valerie”, and I believe we’re the last 15 minute segment of the hour on TLC.
     Today was an amazing day, but you’ll just have to wait until tomorrey for me to catch you up, because I’m exhausted and have another early call in the morning. Have I mentioned how much I love my life?
I LOVE MY CREW!

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Filed under filming, makeout, on set, short film, Summer Cambell, thai food

by | August 20, 2010 · 8:28 am

Summer Filming: Day 4.5

     I slept SO much last night. I crashed around 9pm and didn’t wake up once until 8:30am. My body is slowly forgiving me for the past few days. I woke up this morning and had an amazing, lovely, cleansing Monsta.

Don’t know exactly what’s in here, but there was TONS of spinach and lots of frozen cherries.
     For lunch I had a slice of pesto pizza from Trader Joe’s. 
It was difficult for me to finish this piece. My stomach has shrunk from being on set, and not in a good way. I’ve dropped five pounds since beginning filming. Five pounds in four days is very, very bad. I’m trying to even out my diet and eat regularly while on set.
     I headed out for some pickups around 1pm, and got to set around 3pm. I had some time to kill before the crew arrived, so I read my latest book, Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, next to the lake.
Cormorant? Duck? Mutated chicken?
     When the crew arrived (the crew consisted of 5 people, because we were shooting guerilla style in desperation to catch the light), we first sat down for a picnic, provided by the lovely producer, Jenny.
Spinach salad with avocado and cherry tomatoes, turkey, lettuce, light muenster cheese and cherry tomato sandwiches, and pomegranate juice mixed with sparkling water. She is the best on-set mother ever 🙂
     We reshot the last scene of the film from a few different angles, this time not fighting the sun, and it turned out really well. David and I happened upon some awesome bloopers.
     For all of you who asked, here’s what I can tell you about the movie and my role in it. “A teenage girl plots revenge on the guy she likes after he humiliates her.” The movie is called “Summer Campbell”. I play the teenage girl, June Campbell, whose two best friends (who are twins) help her wreak havoc and revenge on the popular guy who humiliates her. It’s a short film that is written and directed by the incredibly talented Scott Sullivan. I’m telling you all, this guy is going BIG! I’ve never read such a hilarious, insightful script. If you have more specific questions, please ask in comments! I’ll answer with more detail :).

     On the way to my car, I got attacked by a wild peacock.
Not really. It saw me whip out the camera and booked it. Peacocks do not appreciate paparazzi.

     We wrapped for the short day, then headed over to a liquor store to pick up some supplies for the night. I found and bought some Concannon Merlot, which I first tried at JJ Brewsky, and am now having a glass while hanging with the amazing crew.
Malachi likes to share with me. 
Now, we’re all hanging out, prepping callsheets for tomorrey and enjoying each others’ company. I love these people.

     Tomorrow will involve a lot of making out. That’s about it… My life is so, so difficult :-D. I’m off to eat a slice of pizza and hang out with these amazing people.

Ask me anything. I’ll answer, now that I know how much I can share :).

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Filed under filming, green monster, on set, pesto, picnic, pizza, sandwiches, short film, Summer Cambell

by | August 19, 2010 · 6:07 am

Summer Filming: Day 4

     I can’t believe filming is already halfway over! Sadness :(. These always seem to fly by too quickly. So to recap…

I got to go home on Monday night, and woke up Tuesday morning to this! My roommate is amazing.
     I was hoping to sleep in on Tuesday, but got a last minute audition for 10am, so I was up at 7:30am to prep. Yay. The audition went really well: I had to play a 15 year-old (!!!), and afterwards I met up with my friend, Tanya at Lemonade!
I haven’t seen this girl since March! Missed you!!!
I got 1 portion, split in half, with sweet potatoes and pistachio, and watermelon radish, ahi tuna, snap peas and sesame seeds, with a blueberry-mint lemonade. YUM!
     After a lovely, long lunch filled with delicious food and a LOT of catching up, we parted ways. I headed over to Barnes and Noble to kill some time before I met my carpool to head to set.
I bought a book of crossword puzzles from the bargain shelf.
Ahhh, the Grove. My old stomping grounds.
     I met up with my carpool buddy and we headed out to Dockweiler Beach for filming. 
It was crowded! Lots of bonfires.
Yaaaaaah macro! My camera is my hero!
David running lines. Or being obsessed with his iPhone. One of the two… 😛
Aw, I love us :).
We were right next to LAX. We had at least 100 flights going out and flying in throughout the night.
Artsy!
Sunset. Happiness.
One of my favorites of the night.
We started filming around 7:30pm, and spent the entire night/morning out there.
This is a shot the the on-set photographer Jocelyn took. Check out her amazing photography here!
     Everything was going amazingly well, and we were all hyped up and wired until about 3am. Then this happened:
Poor, sleepy Madi!
     So, we started when the sun set, and ended the day with the sunrise.
Double happiness.
     It was a really, really long day. I had been awake for 29 hours and desperately needed to crash. Over the entire course of today, I slept for 3 hours. Tonight, I shall sleep incredibly well :).
     I’m off to check out more of Jocelyn’s pictures from last night’s shoot, and to enjoy a glass of Syrah, sit on the couch and not move until I go to bed.
I have never been so exhausted, or so happy in my life. I love being on set, I love my costars, and I love my crew. 
HAPPINESS

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Filed under Dockweiler Beach, filming, green monster, LAX, on set, short film

by | August 17, 2010 · 9:52 am

Summer Filming: Day 3

     I have learned my lesson. No Monsta in the morning means suffering for me. No breakfast at all means evil, crabby, sick feeling. On the way to set this morning I stopped by Starbucks for a grande soy chai and a cup of their steel-cut oatmeal.

YUM! I used half of their brown sugar packet, half of the mixed nuts packet, and most of the mixed dried fruits. My tummy was happy.
     First things first: MAKEUP. The most important thing for me. You can’t help but feel pretty when you’ve been airbrushed to high heaven. Can I get my makeup airbrushed on in real life too, please?
Getting my makeup done makes me feel special.
     Unfortunately, we were so busy today that I didn’t get many pictures. We filmed 3+3/8 pages, which in film world means a LONG, BUSY day. There were slingshots, bikes, tiki torches, peacocks and wasps involved. Lunch came right on time.
Spicy fried chicken, salad, steamed veggies and a small bit of paella.
     After lunch we had some more slingshot work to do, and then changed locations and I had my sobbing scene. I love having some crazy emotional scenes. So much fun! In the end, we were fighting the light. Our last scene of the day was at sunset, and we jammed a lot of shots into a small amount of time. I was sprinting “back to one” to reset the scenes, but we got it all in!
     After we wrapped, I got to go home!!! I get to sleep in my own bed tonight, and I could not be more excited! When I got back, my roommate heated up a big bowl of corn chowder for me (yes, we’re slightly obsessed), and poured me a glass of red wine.
I win!
     I was hoping to sleep in tomorrey before I had to head off for the night shoot, but a last minute audition came in and I’ll be out the door by 9:30am. Sleeping shall be had on set tomorrow night, at the beach. Yeah, filming at the beach will be hard :).
     Okay, yet again I must leave you to pass out and sleep as much as possible before my alarm goes off tomorrow. 
Bon nuit!! 

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Filed under corn chowder, fried chicken, makeup, set, Starbucks