The Party and "The Club"

Rules to throwing a good party:
1. Clear out your fridge. People need room to put their cases of beer. Do it ahead of time to prevent people going through your stuff and squishing your eggs/produce.
2. Invite more girls then boys. Seriously. When a boy says he is coming...he is coming. If he isn't sure if he will come he will straight up tell you. Women will say they are coming and then won't. Half the women you invite that say they are coming won't show up. 99.9% of the men who say they are coming will show up. Fact.
3. Pre-plan out party music. Pull some tracks onto your iPod and have it going in the background.
4. DO NOT put the TV on. Watching TV/movies is not a social activity. It's just not.
5. Do not use real glasses. Invest in disposable cups it makes clean up easier and nothing gets broken.
6. Put away towels you actually use. Having your clean bath towel in the bathroom means it will not be clean anymore.
7. At the party, relax. Don't run around cleaning up or being controlling. Make your rounds. Introduce yourself to everyone and thank them for coming.
8. When you are ready for it to be over, tell everyone to get out. It is not rude to say that you want to go to bed. Everyone understands. If you don't tell them, drunk people will stay as long as they can because they are DRUNK and don't deal well with time.
9. Clean up in the morning. You just threw a party, you deserve to go to bed. The mess will not get worse over night. Yes it's gross. Yes there are random bottles in the oddest places, but it will all be okay in the morning.
10. Actually clean up in the morning. Sticky beer residue on the coffee table is not cool a week later.

So how did my party go? It was pretty amazing. I have a serious love for hosting parties and I had forgotten as I have not thrown a party since July when I moved out of my place on Halsted. When I lived with Jesse and Axel we through huge parties all the time as well. I miss it. Most people don't like hosting but I do. We probably had about 40 people here at the height of the event. It was one of my favorite nights in LA so far. I had way too much to drink, but what else is new. I will not post photos as it is likely that there will be too many bad ones up on Facebook.

My phone decided to act up. Everytime I looked down at the phone it said I had a voicemail even though my phone didn't ring or some message had just been sent. Appartenly if you send a text message with nothing in it, it is called a page and my phone kept sending them out. It was weird. I'm taking it to get fixed.

Leah and I have have this joke because whenever people have asked us if we are single we both go "uhhhh...well....ummmmm" Then last night as we were talking with some people that came over from our SLA program, we realized that a lot of people are like that. People that moved here and left someone they still really care about all the way back in Chicago. We called it "The Club" and it became the joke of the night. Funny thing is that for the first time since I have been out here I was sure my answer to that question was a solid yes. I guess I'm really not a member of that club anymore. There were like 6 of us that were sitting around telling stories about people we left back in Chicago and how we said goodbye. Then we all mutually decided that the best way to solve our "problem" was to go out and meet someone else. Stupid huh? I think this decision was partly because we were sitting at this fun party thinking about people who weren't here and partly because we were drunk.

There has been this kid in my SLA program who has been sitting next to me for a week. I was kind of thinking he was gay but was not 100% sure. Turns out he is!!! I am very excited to have a gay man in my LA life. It's like I'm finally starting to really settle in now. I know it's a stupid thing to feel like you need but I need to be around people like me. I just do. I have a part time thing at Borders, I am working on film stuff, I am writing, I am being creative, I am getting comfortable driving, I have an LA husband, I am making friends, I am learning the city, and I am being social. This is becoming my home and it feels right.

I feel a lot like I did back in June when I was coming out of my shell again and transitioning into this new confident person that I was probably all the way up until January. Then I had a recession. This week was kind of like a reset button for me. It's like I am getting yet another chance to start over. Which is refreshing but weird at the same time, mainly because if I have to do it over then that means I had to have done something majorly wrong. Makes me think a lot about which mistake was the big one and which things I think were mistakes but really weren't.

"It's weird. As soon as I saw you, I needed to talk."

Always Playing Catch Up

I have been crazy busy the last few days. Tuesday at the studio was super fun. We are meeting lots of producers who have worked on movies such as Spider-man, Tomb Raider, The Island, White Chicks and one who was working on the remake of Logan's Run. It has been cool to talk and learn from these people. That night Dee, Leah and I went shopping. And the most important thing that happened to me this week happened...I bought a white belt.

haha. Okay, so it was not the most important part of my week but I have wanted a white belt for a while now and I must say it looks killer on me. Which I proved later when I got drunk and decided I missed my old self. AKA Hilary is an idiotic asshole.

When we were walking back the door on this Gentleman's club was pretty cool.


Wednesday was much of the same. Went to the studio during the day and then I went to work at the grand ole' Borders SBC. Got yelled at by some rich stupid girl who I wanted to hit in the face. I was like seriously....you aren't very smart, not even close to cute and I do not care who you are. Back away from my cafe before you get hit in the face.

Thursday was...meh. I went to school and it was very inciteful. After Leah and I went for a walk up the canyon. It was nice because I do not know a whole lot about her and it gave me a better chance to learn where she comes from and who she is. She is very cool lady.

Apparently Columbia has been trying to get name actors to come work on their practicum films, a program for which my script was chosen. I guess the producers of my script got it to Natalie Portman. She must have decline which makes since, especially since I know what damage they have done to it in rewrites. Columbia Pracitcum Producers are known for screwing up good scripts and then when the final film sucks they can't figure out why. I knew it would happen when I signed the script over to them. Both Chris (my writer) and I knew it would happen, but at that point we really didn't care. It is cool to know that she read it though.

You know you are in the modern age when you can completly have a fight over text message. No joke. I did figure out that I'm not ready to be the person I thought I was going to be yet. One step forward, five back. I'm the biggest idiot ever...but I don't know what more I can do?

I'm Back.

Okay so as I said earlier I took a few days off to celebrate my birthday, move my roommates in, start Borders and start school. Let me break down what you missed:

Thursday was awesome. I had a great birthday (thanks everyone for all your warm wishes) and I spent it at Disneyland! Dee and I went there and basically went on every ride possible. I got to hang out with my new favorite red head Arial.


And Dee made out with a frog.

I had to enter all the rides first. :(


After Disneyland I want home and found cupcakes at my door...


They were from my old favorite red head.

But they were super tastey and I have been eating them for every meal. I only have like two left.


This one had filling.

Then Dee and I went out to a pub called the Red Lion where we met up with some old friends from Chicago. It was great to see familiar faces and meet some new ones. I met this guy named Shadie from England who was producing the new Kanye West video. Apparently Kanye's entourage cost so much they had to cut back on the size of the film crew.

On Friday Quintin and Leah came into LA. I no longer have a room to myself :(. I haven't introduced you to Quintin yet so here he is:


He didn't really want me to take his picture but I always get my way.
That night we had a large group of people over. My dear friends Jake and Chris were two of the people that came over and I forgot how much I love them. They just make me laugh nonstop and flatter me constantly which I love.

Saturday we did all kinds of rearranging the apartment and running errands. We bought 99 cent wine from the 99 cent store.

It was not very good and Nora would be ashamed of me.

Oh and here is this Burberry watch...

...I didn't get you. To go with my Prada sweater that isn't really mine.
But I wore my new favorite shoes so it was a good day.


Sunday I worked at Borders from 12-8 making coffee for the fine people of Los Angeles. It was lame but I need some kind of income. When I got home all my roomies were there. We had Champaign to celebrate our semester starting. Best part is that we drank it from very fancy glasses:

No joke. They came with the apartment.

Today aka Monday, we had our first day at Raleigh's. It seems like it will be a lot of work but totally worth it. I am very excited. Big things to come!

Oh. I was on the set of The Closer today. It was pretty cool.

Taking a Break...

Tomorrow is my Birthday and then I start my class next week. I am taking a week off from Blogging/Facebook starting tomorrow in order to deal with some things, finish up my script and prepare for class.
Talk to you all next week!
-HH

Free Pancakes and being Productive!

It's official....I am being productive again! Sunday I wrote up an outline for my new feature and Monday I started writing it! I am so excited! It feels good to be writing again and getting things done that I actually care about. Hopefully I can finish a first draft up by the end of the week, then I will have four features under my belt.

So recap of the last few days:

Sunday night I watched the Oscars from HOLLYWOOD. I had my Dark Knight PA shirt on and felt cool walking around in it.


This is Hollywood BLVD closed :(. Too many Limos (see below)

Does this belong to Kate? I don't know...the windows were tinted.

So what is this handsome fellow doing on my blog you might ask? Well I decided that the only thing that could make my Academy Awards night better would be if I could have a veggie burger from BK. So Emily and I walked over to BK and according to my receipt, this lovely man's name is Hilda. Think I'm joking?....check out the receipt.

I didn't stop laughing for an unnatural period of time.

On Monday I wrote for almost the entire day. Stopping for a lunch break and to watch Little Women. I can't help it ....I love that movie. "I fear we are all hopelessly flawed." It get's me every time. Then around five I went for my walk around the canyon. The sun was setting and it was beautiful. I brought my phone with me this time.




Tuesday was an amazing day. I woke up and went and got FREE PANCAKES from IHop with Dee.

Then we unpacked and cleaned up the apartment from our wild party weekend. I finally unpacked most of my room (pics to follow next entry). Then around five I invited Dee to take my walk with me. I did not bring my phone unfortunately but I had my first up close celebrity run in....two actually:
Chris Noth
Paul Johnsson

Then when I arrived back at my apartment I had a nice little package from this awesome little red head. Ironically Dee was just telling me that I had way to many shoes and Ashley sent me another pair. haha. Dee just rolled her eyes.

Then I wrote some more....then who knows what....

It's Oscar Night!

So it is Sunday February 22nd which is a big night here in Los Angeles. The whole area around me is a buzz as the Academy Awards are taking place less then half a mile from me. For some reason though, I am less then excited. I know I should be, but I'm really not.

On more exciting news...we found this awesome thing in the apartment:

This is just hours of joy waiting to happen....

We also found the 99Cent Only Store, which is 1 cent better then the dollar store. However what makes it even better is that it has groceries and stuff. Oh yes. I have found the joy that is saving money.



And finally...before I wrap up this short post... Pizza Hut is trying to be cool and hip and now goes by "The Hut" This is not a joke....
"Hey baby, where did you go last night?"
"My boys and I were chillin' at The Hut!"

From Prada back to the real world...

Today was my most emotionally significant day that I've had since I've been on my own here in LA.

I woke up this morning still a little drunk and feeling like a total ass. Took a shower and as I was walking back to my room, I noticed the box of stuff my landlord left in his (now my) closet. In it was an off white Prada sweater. I decided that I was going to put it on. Then I ended up wearing it all morning because....why not? I did the dishes in it, caught up on my emails in it, did a little unpacking in it, filed my taxes in it, and then even signed for my Fedex packages in it. Oh yes, I looked good in my elmo boxers and my men's off white Prada sweater. How good did I look? Takes a look for yourself (minus the elmo boxers, those are for privileged eyes only)



Once I was done playing rich white gay man, I decided to take the sweater off and put it back. It was actually getting late by then because I know I made it sound like I only had it on for a few moments but it was really like 6 hours. It was around 5 and I decided I wanted to go back to my little mountain behind my house and watch the sunset because hey....I'm a visual romantic and I love beautiful things.

So I throw on a pair of shorts (70!!!!), a tank top and my black hoodie and head out my door. I decide to take the tough route up the canyon that I didn't take last time. It was invigorating to climb up it. My heart was racing and I was full of all this energy. I loved it. Then I get to the top and the view was even more breath taking then I remembered from two days before (I would have taken a picture but I purposely left my phone at home). I stood there for a long time looking out over my new city. To my left was the famous Hollywood sign and to my right was the ocean. Below me, the entire city was lighting up and the sun was setting in front of me. And all I could think was...this is my home. A lot of things became clear to me while I was up there. I've put myself in a crappy situation. I let myself get there and I'm letting me beat myself up over it. I have been doing it this entire day, but it ended up there. For better or worse, I'm done with that. I have to let go of things and be here for me. I can't be caught up in things behind me or wishing that I have something I don't. This move was about my future and I need to start living in it.

As I was turning to walk down the other side, there was this dog that came running up to me with a big stick in it's mouth. It stopped right in front of me and sat down and continued to just stare. The dog and I got into a quick staring match until it was broken by the dog dropping the stick. "I guess I won" I told the dog with a little bit of cockiness. That's right....I beat the dog in a starring contest. The dog looked down at the stick for a moment and then back up at me. "I'm not picking that up for you. You can do it by yourself." The dog looked down a the stick again. "Seriously?" The dog didn't move. I started to bend down to pick it up when I heard someone say
"Are you making friends again?" I look up to see two blond girls walking toward the dog and I.
"Not on purpose" I replied. I couldn't help but smile, I thought I was being cute.
One of the girls smiled back. "I meant James here," she said.
"James, huh?" The girl nodded. "Interesting name."
"I guess."
"So he does this stick thing a lot then?"
"He is kind of known for it around here."
"Well I hadn't heard about it, but this is only my second time here so I've got a lot to learn still."
I squat down, pick up the stick and give it to James. "New to the neighborhood?" The other blond spoke for the first time.
"New to the whole west coast as it were," I told them as I stood back up.

We chatted for a couple more minutes. They invited me out later. We exchanged info. And then I headed back on my way. There it was. I had made my first new friends. I have been so scared about not being able to meet people, but out of no where it was all right there. When I came to Chicago I had no confidence and was not outgoing. However when I left Chicago, I had this amazing confidence. I am finally very proud of who I am and what I have to offer, which makes meeting people that much easier.

The long hike down the back side of the canyon was rough, not physically but emotionally. I had some very powerful conversations with myself (in my head, not out loud). I'm here to do this. I've given up everything to be here. I don't need to keep making back up plans in my head. There is NO back up plan. I'm going to do this. This is about me. It has to be about me. I can't let myself get caught up with other things. I can't let myself stop writing or stop focusing. I have to make my dream into a reality. I want to. I need to. I have to.

It was getting very dark, so I picked up my pace and made it home. I had three texts from three different people waiting for me. I wanted to turn off my phone and not reply to any of them. But Dee is coming in tonight and I needed to leave my phone on in case she called. I replied, but I wasn't happy about it.