Paparazzi, Celebrities, and Hollywood...

I drove up to LA about 2 weeks ago I think it was, to do some exploring and I came across a funny situation. I just love the GPS because I can just put in it "Landmarks" or "museums" or "theatres" and it will give me a list of all these places in LA, it's great! So the first one I wanted to see was the Hollywood sign on the mountain. I'd seen it from the freeway but only for a second, I wanted to see how close I could get. So I'm driving up the street called "Beachwood" which is the street that has the best straight shot view of the sign and I start to see to my left a bunch of lights flashing and I mean, it's LA, I figured it was the police right? I slow down and as I get closer, I realize that the lights flashing aren't colored red and blue and that they're actually camera flashes. I see all these guys running around and people flocking to the side of the road and I realize that it's those paparazzi guys... I'm the only car driving on the road so I'm like sweet, front row view of whoever this is. I drive by very slowly and see the girl in the middle of it all. She's very very skinny and pale, her red hair is up on top of her head and she's got black sunglasses on and bodyguards shielding her way through the crowd. Lindsay Lohan... Poor girl... Anyway, it was kind of a cool moment to be like, yep, I'm really in LA...

I just love this view when you're driving into the city on the 101.

I took this picture just a couple seconds before I saw Miss Lohan... You can kind of see the sign on the mountain straight ahead. I can't figure out how to zoom on it... I'm so not a photographer.

Never thought I would say this...

Here goes....
I have to thank Miss Nikki Wardle... I know! Can you believe I'm saying it?? I can't. But I found myself being very grateful for the way she taught me how to execute a dance with a group of girls. Let me explain... I was asked a few weeks ago in church if I would be interested in helping the Spanish speaking ward in our stake with different stage productions and performances that they put on. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and said I would absolutely love that. So they called me up on Tuesday and asked if I could come in and help a group of girls with a dance that they are preparing. (I'm still not sure what exactly it's for) So I show up to the church and these poor girls are so confused and lost. They're all young women in the ward and they're trying to put a dance together and they just could not work it out without some kind of authoritative figure that knew anything about dancing. The young women leader didn't speak much english but she basically told me she was so glad that I was there to help and then introduced me to the girls and sat down to watch me. haha. So here I am, trying to communicate with these girls to even see what I was dealing with and it was clear that they didn't want to trust me. (I certainly didn't blame them) They tried to do the dance for me so I could see what I was working with and it was quite disastrous. I'm knocking my brain trying to think of how to approach this and I basically had to say, "Look, I'm fairly good at this, if you'll trust me enough to listen to me, I think I could really help you out, now show me the very beginning..."
After a minute of watching and really listening to the music, it started to make sense to me and I was able to map it out. I helped them clean every count of the music and I found myself literally thanking my lucky stars for the knowledge I had from cleaning so many dances with Nikki Wardle. I've never been put in that position of authority in front of a bunch of girls only a few years younger than me, and I actually succeeded! By the end of the night, I think they started to respect me and my methods because it was finally making sense to them and they were able to be confident about it. That's when dancing becomes fun. It's all a big frustration until you finally get it and then you're able to be creative and it becomes something much more than organized movement. I was very grateful for that opportunity...

Silly Girls in Hollywood

So, Last weekend, my roommates and I drove to LA to see Hollywood. The video doesn't really show any part of the city, I was kind of just testing it out. Its kinda funny I guess, so here ya go...

Richard G. Scott fireside

Last night, we had the amazing opportunity to hear from Elder Richard G. Scott at our Costa Mesa, California institute. He's an amazing man, let me tell you, and what a great sense of humor he has! The institute counsel president was standing to introduce Elder Scott and started to read off all of his accomplishments when Elder Scott stood up, walked to the pulpit and says, "Forget all of that boring stuff, just tell them I love the youth and get on with it." Haha... He also told a story of a little boy in a catholic, I belive it was, church class who was called in to speak with the priest. The priest asked the boy, "Where is god?" the boy just sits there with no response. The priest asks him again, "Where is God?" to which the boy replied by running right out of the room. A friend of the young boy's stopped him and asked what the matter was. The boy replies, "God is lost and I have to go find him!" Hahaha.... Basically one of the main impressions I got from Elder Scott was, what is all this to worry about? Someone asked him, "How do you stay calm under the stresses of daily life and the economic downfall?" To which he replies, "I believe in Christ, What is there to worry about?" I loved that.. I don't think those were his exact words so don't quote me on it but it was to that general idea. We had the opportunity of shaking his hand afterward and let me tell you, that was a truly amazing moment for me to look into the eyes of an apostle of God. Very great experience.
As always,
-Hailey :)

Tyler Hilton Concert

A couple weeks ago, my roommate Tanni and my friend Dave from BYU went to a Tyler Hilton concert in San Juan Capistrano which is about 20 minutes south of Newport. It was in a cool little venue where you just sit and eat with all your friends and listen to live music, it's really cool. It felt a little like Chris' up the canyon but not so rough. haha. We had so much fun. Tyler Hilton is great, he's kind of bluesy and really chill. He was releasing a new album that day so we all got free CDs, it was very fun. I took a small video with my phone until I got yelled at, maybe I'm breaking copyright rules by posting this, so nobody go taking it and trying to sell it! Haha.

Talk to you guys later, Enjoy :)

-Hailey

Hello Friends and Family!

Hi Everyone!
Thanks for coming to my fun blog! I'm having all these cool experiences out here and not enough time, or cell phone minutes, to tell everybody about them. So I'm going to be updating once a week on either Sunday or Monday night. So keep checking back to see what fun things I get to do out here. If anybody else has a blog other than facebook or dropshots, let me know! Love you guys!
-Hailey