10 Random things about Julianna and a weekend trip

This will be a mixed blog. It'll have 10 random facts about Julianna, and pictures and stories from Julianna's trip to L.A. to see "Wicked".

10 Random Things... this is hard, I don't know where to start...

1. I love animals, but I'm allergic to them. It's very sad, I know. I grew up with cats and a dog, then I get married and away from the animals and now they make me sick :( Jer tried to get me a dog from the humane society when I graduated college, but that was a bad idea and he ended up taking it back. It was a sweet doggy though.

2. I hate onions.... and I'm allergic to them too. When I ask people if there are onions in the food I'm going to eat, they ask me why, I answer that I'm allergic, they reply that that's too bad, onions are great-I quietly think to myself NOT REALLY.

3. I am afraid of pain. If I know pain is coming, I'll cry before it even sets in, it stresses me out.

4. I'm a slight germaphobe. I used to get sick all the time when I was younger, so now I'm super cautious about things I touch. I carry hand sanitizer in my purse everywhere I go.

5. This is no surprise to many, but I'm a chocoholic. I try to limit my intake, but it's too hard to resist sometimes. Good quality dark chocolate is heaven to me, give me some and I'm basically putty in your hands.

6. I got homesick on my trip to L.A. We were only gone overnight, but it was really hard when I went to bed to be sleeping in the same bed as my mother-in-law instead of my husband. I missed him a lot and I wasn't expecting that. It made me feel like a little kid again.

7. My dream since I was little was to be a mother, an actress/singer, and/or a model. So far, none of those are working out, but if this next surgery works out, I'll have the first and most important one going for me.

8. I hate having messes, but I can't ever seem to get the drive to clean them up when we have them. If it's a kitchen or bathroom mess, I'll take care of it, but when it's paper clutter I leave it- most of it's not mine anyway and I don't want to accidentally lose some important document of Jer's.

9. I worry about money all the time, even though it stresses me more than it should, and I probably shouldn't really worry. I'm getting better though.

10. I don't have a favorite movie. I like a lot of different ones, but none that are my absolute favorite.

On to "Wicked"

Friday, Feb. 8, 2008 I left the SLC airport with all but one of the girls on my husband's side to go to L.A.

A couple of shots from the plane. Above is over Utah Lake, below is somewhere in Cali

When we got there, we got our luggage and rental cars and headed to the Holiday Inn. When we got there, they didn't have our confirmation number on file and couldn't find us in their system. I was getting a little nervous, but no one else seemed too worried (are you seeing a trend here? I'm a worrier, it's not easy being me sometimes). The place finally found our reservation and we went in and had some nap/rest time before we got ready to go to dinner and the show.

This is the view from our hotel room

For dinner, we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen (my first time eating there). Then we drove down to the Pantages Theatre and went in to enjoy the show.

Driving by the Pantages

I took some pictures of the foyer and the actual theater. There weren't signs saying I couldn't, and I had my flash off. Plus, I wasn't planning on taking pictures of the actual performance, I have more respect than that. Anyway, the theatre was so fancy and stuff that I HAD to get some shots on the inside, I only took 4 pictures (with the flash off, mind you) and I was putting my camera away and an usher came over and started hassling me. I know this is his job, but I had my camera put away by then, and I told him I was done taking pictures, that I was sorry if I'd done something wrong and that I had put it away. He just kept saying pictures are prohibited, pictures are prohibited, so I had to slowly and precisely tell him that I had put my camera away. He finally left me alone, but I didn't know what the big deal was, there were people all over the theatre taking pictures WITH their flashes on.

The foyer is so ornate

Map of Oz on the stageThe ceiling in the theatre

The show was amazing. There was a twist at the end that I wasn't expecting, but I loved. It was a fun night.Mimicking the sign above us. I'm on the far left, 2 of my nieces are in the middle, and one of my sisters-in-law is on the right end.

Above are the prints of John Travolta, Meryl Streep and John Wayne. Notice that John Wayne has a fist print instead of hand prints.

The next day we went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre for a few minutes, then got on our tour bus and checked out some of the star's homes. That was fun.Bob Barker's HomeThe house Harrison Ford built with his friends before he became famousBella Lugosi's old house, recently purchased by Johnny DeppMost of our group at a stop by the Hollywood sign
Justin Timberlake's houseChristina Aguilera's houseDavid and Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham's house

After that we went to go for lunch at Pink's-it's a famous hot dog place, but the line wrapped around the building so we headed to Beverly Hills and ate at the Panini Cafe. It was really really good, and now I can feel fancy and say I've eaten and walked around in Beverly Hills. After our paninis we went to Sprinkles-a famous cupcake bakery. I gave in and bought 3, one chocolate marshmallow (chocolate cake with marshmallow center and chocolate ganache frosting) peanut butter chocolate (peanut butter cake with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting) and dark chocolate (belgium dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting). After we all got our cupcakes, we walked to a Catholic church lawn and ate our cupcakes picnic style. I ate one, and saved the others for home(the peanut butter one's for Jer, and the dark chocolate one's for my Sunday morning breakfast). I should have taken pictures of the cupcakes, but this is the website so you can check it out if you want: http://sprinklescupcakes.com/index.html
I did take a picture of the scenery above while we ate though, the sun was setting and made the palm trees glow, it was beautiful:

Once we ate that, we headed to the airport.

When we got to SLC, we grabbed our bags and got on the shuttle to get the car we'd all carpooled in. The shuttle driver was a jerk. First he was really patronizing and lectured one man over the intercom for something that wasn't even a problem. At each stop the driver would stop completely, announce which stop it was, and then go from there. When he got to our stop, he didn't stop or say anything at all, he barely even slowed down. We didn't even know where we were till he passed by it and we all started asking him to stop or go back. He said he couldn't go back, and he'd stop at the next stop. He kept making it seem like it was our fault that we missed our stop....grrr, jerky people really bug me.

All in all, the trip was awesome, and I love listening to my soundtrack of "Wicked" to reminisce about the show. I want to see it again SO BAD!