Matt in La La Land

Today you're going to get the pleasure of hearing from Matt, who has been a great friend of mine since high school -- he is also enjoying life in La La Land! I hope you enjoy his sense of humor as much as I do!

I have been an avid fan of Ali’s blog since the beginning, and I feel honored to be a guest writer for the day. She recently told me she was hitting some writer’s blocks, so I’m going to take advantage of this and let everyone know a few things that have been on my mind lately.

I hate Susan Boyle.

I started hearing about her in the news about a month ago, and how amazing of a singer she was. With her grandmotherly appearance, she became an internet phenomenon with her underdog story of success, singing in her local church choir. Eventually, I grew curious enough to find her on youtube. All of her videos had millions of views, five stars across the board. I knew this was going to be spectacular…

And then it wasn’t. I’ve never felt so short changed in my entire life. She was so-so at best, missing notes throughout her whole song. As days passed, her popularity only grew, and everyone kept talking about how amazing she was. Well, I wasn’t buying into the hype, and I’ve grown to despise her. Every time I see that stupid smile and frizzy gray hair, I hope and pray it’s my last


Subway sandwiches go bad after 20 minutes.

The announcement of $5 footlongs has been one of the most exciting things that have happened to me within the last year (besides getting married and moving across the country, of course). I love Subway and could eat it a few times a week without getting sick of it. Just yesterday, I had my favorite sandwich: turkey with “the works” and a strip of honey mustard.

My word of warning: Eat quickly, and don’t save your leftovers. Subway sandwiches are really gross after 20 minutes. We’ve all put our other 6 inches in the fridge for a later meal, and the soggy mess always grosses us out. Yet, we keep doing it. I’ve even toasted my sandwich to dry out the wet bread, which actually helps a little, but it still doesn’t solve this gross problem.


Finally, wobbly chairs and tables are the worst.

You sit down for lunch at your favorite local café to realize in horror that not only is your chair wobbly, but so is the ENTIRE TABLE. Every elbow rests spills water, and nobody can agree on which way it should sit. If you’ve ever run into this problem with me, I don’t hesitate to take a wad of napkins and stuff it under the short leg. I highly recommend this successful technique.


I guess the point I’m trying to make is that if you ever find yourself eating a soggy Subway sandwich on a wobbly table, and you happen to notice Susan Boyle sitting right next to you, just run as far and fast as you can. Life is too short to deal with those types of difficult situations.

Lauren in LaLa Land

My first guest blogger is my wonderful friend & blogger Lauren, thanks for sharing Lo!

holla from la-la-land! this is lauren, one of ali's buddies out here on the west coast, and let me just say i'm thrilled for my debut as a guest blogger! what an honor :) since ali's delightful blog is about all the excitement of living in this great entertainment city, i figured i'd follow suit and write about a fun, uniquely LA experience. so here goes...

as i'm sure most of you have read on here before, our lovely church (see ecclesia @ www.churchinhollywood.com) is in the heart of hollywood, right on hollywood boulevard, which was definitely weird at first. now it's equally weird how accustomed to it we've become. passing people dressed as spiderman, tinkerbell, and darth maul every sunday morning is no longer unusual...weird. aaanyway! it's not even unusual to see celebrities (as i know you're also used to here on al's blog!) around town and at church. this past sunday, i handed out church bulletins to both tony hale (an ecclesia regular) and to kristen bell (heroes, forgetting sarah marshall, veronica mars). where else can you do that!?

here's kristen in all her cuteness. she was just as adorable person--no makeup, bundled in funky layered clothes, and all of about 5'1"!! she was teeny tiny, of course!!



and, here's tony (aka buster bluth):




and, i just had to include this additional pic of tony hale, a) because i think it's hilarious and b) i just watched this episode of arrested development last night, and it was legit (**i highly recommend this show**).



i knooow they're just normal people, and i'm even out here pursuing acting, so i promise i never act weird around celebs, but it's still exciting and fun to see them!! i especially like knowing that they are at church. tony always seems to be the nicest guy, and he's one of our elders. it makes me happy that actors can stay grounded in this crazy industry. hooray, there's hope for the world!! you should come out for a visit and do some celeb-spotting of your own!

anyway, it's been fun writing--hope this was a fun quick read while ali is away, and maybe we'll meet again soon!