culinary school.

I met with the fine folks over at Le Cordon Bleu yesterday. Fast forward: I will be applying for school on Monday and starting my paper work in preparation of starting school in November. Yes, this November. I feel like it's happening really fast, but it's not. I was originally going to start culinary school else where in September, but that didn't happen.. SO here we are.

I've been MIA. Okay, not really. I just moved. I moved to Austin, Texas in June. I moved with my dear friend Cayla. It was a bit rough at first, but after our first official summer here I think we have it down. We both got new jobs at the Melting Pot.


I really feel like we're really Austinites now. It's weird. I've lived in Oklahoma my whole life and then uprooted my life and it's just been great in the oddest way. I may go back and talk about things that happened in the summer, but I'm going to move this blog forward, and in the now. I'll try to update at least weekly, but that'll depend really because we don't have the internet in our apartment and I'm not sure that we plan on getting it. 


Major changes that have happened since I left Oklahoma: Pastry school is put off for a year, Cayla is figuring out what she wants to do in her life, I got a new job for the first time in four years, I bought a new car, I'm living further away from my immediate family than ever before; but closer to my extended family.


Like I said, life was a bit rough and scary when we moved here initially, but it's definitely on the up and up now. 

Something to be said about me is that I'm impulsive. I got two tattoos (which I love) on impulse. I started taking ballet after reading about an adult ballet class offered here in the city, once. That being said, I found myself in New York City on Friday and Saturday based purely off impulse. 


You see, one of my favorite bands, Steel Train, announced last Monday afternoon that they had 30 or so spots for a music video for their song "Bullet" that they would be shooting the following Friday. The video was going to be taking place in Northern New Jersey. I immediately thought, "I must be there". But there were a few minor problems: 1) I was in Oklahoma 2) I had to work on Saturday 3) I might not have a way there. 4) I wasn't 100% if I'd have anyone to go with. I instantly got to working. I texted my good friend who lives in NYC (and 30 minutes outside New Jersey) and told her that I might be coming up and explained to her what was going on. I looked up tickets and found nothing cheaper than $735. I talked to my boss and got work off for that Saturday even though the shoot was Friday I wanted to give myself some time to get home. So after some serious consideration of emptying out my savings account to go I decided to talk to my dad, who happens to work for American Airlines and ask him if I could use his free flying benefits. He was like yeah! Of course!! Go! So I worked until 7 on Thursday night and drove myself up to Tulsa and stayed with my best friend so I could just leave from there instead of OKC. I booked my flight for 6AM Friday morning and I was supposed to arrive in NYC at 12:40 pm. I got on my flight out of Tulsa no problem and we landed in Dallas earlier so I was able to get myself on an earlier flight to NYC. I arrived in NYC hopped in a cab and headed towards Queens where my friend, Krista, lives. 


Krista met me outside her apartment and then we went inside to get ready/figure out the rest of the day. I took a shower and put on my flannel dress, black tights and combat boots. (we were to dress 90s for the video) [We got ready because we were going to be out and wouldn't have time to come back]. Once we were both ready we took the subway to Hearld Square so we could do some shopping before hand, we then ventured to the tree at Rockefeller Plaza. It was a lot more sparse than I thought it would be, but it was still really cool to see. We grabbed some New York style pizza then headed to Port Authority to buy our bus tickets to Teaneck, New Jersey. We then went and waited for the bus that ended up being 45 minutes late. But that was ok cause we weren't needed until 7l We arrived and met up with the other fellow music video extras, which included my friend, Lauren, from Lake Tahoe, California. (Yeah, she flew across the country to be in the video.) We hung out a bit and got to know some of the other people that were waiting and around 730 we were finally allowed in. 


We were quickly told the rules. The rules were 1) you had to move spots after a take. 2) don't do anything too inappropriate. 3) Have a lot of energy and go nuts. The feel of the video was just like a big house show. The band was set up on the ground and we were encouraged to sing in the mics with them and just have fun. So the band started off playing "Turnpike Ghost" and "Fun to Dance" to get us warmed up and then they started to play "Bullet" with the album version dubbed over it. The whole crowd went nuts. We were all singing and dancing so hard. During one of the the takes, Jack, the lead singer, stabbed me with his guitar and his mic stand twice. He grabbed my hands after and was like I'm sorry I keep beating you up! After we did about 2 or 3 takes we took a break and they asked us what songs we wanted to hear. They played "Touch me Bad" "Children of the 90s" and "Soldier in the Army" which was EPIC because they haven't played those since 2008 and probably won't play them on tour. We kept going through the song and being super crazy, getting pinned up against each other, and getting beat up. The boys were really great at making sure everyone was hydrated and not getting too hot, because it was like an oven in there. During one of the breaks I just laid on the cold tile floor because it was so hot. They ordered pizza for us, had free beer at the bar, and just kept playing songs OTHER than "Bullet" to keep us from going crazy. (They played about 10 songs in between takes) The director was trying to get some certain shots of characters that were in the video, but ended up hand picking people for the certain shots, and he picked Krista, Lauren and I. Krista was in the front and Lauren and I were in the back. The characters were trying to get through the crowd and the guy sort of like moved my shoulder to get around me. Then they were getting other characters from a different angle and Lauren and I were moved to the front and the shots were once again near us. We finally wrapped around 12. We had some pretty sweet good byes from some sweet boys then were on our way back to NYC. 


Krista and I got back to her place and slept so hard until the next day. We got up and ready and went to this precious holiday market, where we drank delicious apple cider for $1, and saw lots of really neat things. We grabbed some sandwiches to go from Whole Foods and then I headed to the airport to go back home. Luck was really on my side this weekend because I got on the flight no problem, and we arrived to Dallas early and I got on an earlier flight back to Tulsa. I got to Tulsa around 10 and I had to drive an hour back to OKC, but I was home by midnight. And my Sunday plans continued as if I didn't go to New York for 29 hours. That's all.


love, Lauren

I'm in a bit of a dilemma.

You see my favorite band Hanson is playing a show on Friday in OKC. I have had tickets for about a month now.

Today, another favorite band of mine, Steel Train, invited fans to be in their music video. It's also on Friday. In New Jersey.

So now I'm so unsure on what to do. I have the money to make an impulsive trip to New Jersey. you see, my dear friend, Krista, lives in NYC, my dad works for a major airline and I have Friday off.. And I can get Saturday off.

I wish I had a clone so I could do both.

October has been my favorite month for the past few years because they have been so fun and busy. My favorite band starting informing us that they were going to be doing a Fan Club only event sometime in October, and at first I just sort of brushed it off since my month was already full and I figured it would be somewhere I wouldn't be able to go or whatever, but they finally announced it and the day was October 31st in Tulsa. Uh?? Yes please!! Katie and I RSVPed as soon as possible. Kira told me that she would be flying in from California to come and Jenny (friend from Chicago) was thinking about coming too. I invited Jenny to come stay in OKC and ride with us to Tulsa to save her some money. She did end up coming down from Indiana. Since it was on Halloween the band let us know that there would be a costume contest. Being as crazy for Halloween as I am I jumped at that. A couple of days of brain storming, lots of rejected ideas and we all came to a unanimous decision: we were going to be treasure trolls. Do you remember treasure trolls?

Treasure Trolls! 

So the plan was to get nude colored body suits, somehow stick our hair up, wear the chosen color tutu and some how make a jeweled belly. We went to dance stores and got nude colored, unitards which are long sleeves and long tights. We made the tutus out of tulle and elastic waist band stuff and we bought colored hair dye. Since my hair is short I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to stick up, and really it wasn't. Kira got a wig and wore that, but Jenny and Katie both have long hair, so we were in a bit of a pickle. We googled how to stick the hair up and the solution was to put a cup in the middle of the head while upside and put a hair tye around to secure. It worked perfect. And it looked even better after the hair color was sprayed on. As for the jeweled belly I found these little rhinestones at hobby lobby in packs of like 12, so I got those and we hot glued them to our unitards. We wore tan shoes, bronzer, rosy blush and lots of eye shadow. Our costumes came out AWESOME. For real. Hands down the best costume I've ever worn. 

We went to see my nephew at their church trunk or treat so we all went. So many people stopped us to take pictures or to let us know that our costumes were awesome. Afterwards we went and ate then headed to the venue. We entered ourselves in the costume contest for group. Once inside and situated we were informed that we had been selected as group finalists!! Yeah! So we got up on stage with the other finalists and Zac. It was so nerve racking being up on stage in front of so many people. Oh did I mention they were live streaming it as well? Yeah. We stood up there and Zac went on and on about how brave we were and how we looked naked. The winner was going to be done via online so we went to work recruiting friends to vote for us and we would find out at the end of the show who won. We enjoyed the show like always and then the announcement for the winners came. We didn't end up winning. We lost to Old Women Hanson fans and a Madeline (the French girl) and Lucy (from Peanuts) group- relevant because Hanson has songs called Madeline and Lucy. We were bummed, but there wasn't anything we could do about it. So we headed out the door and went to the car. We had incidentally parked right in front of Hanson's office and as we were getting in the car, which was a task for Katie and Jenny since their hair was so tall and my car is so little, Taylor starts to go into the office. But before he went all the way inside he stopped us and said "I just wanted to let you guys know that your costume was awesome. Seriously. You should have won." Then Zac came out of nowhere and was like "Yeah, you guys were so brave and plus your costume is original." Jenny, the shiest, managed to get out "I have a cup in my hair"! We all laughed and we parted ways and couldn't believe that had actually happened. We went to Ihop then headed back to OKC, knowing that 2/3 of Hanson would have given us the group costume win. 

Love, Lauren

In October Katie and I ventured to Portland, Oregon. For a steel train, of course. We flew out Thursday morning from DFW Airport in Dallas and arrived in Portland around 1ish. We were staying with one of Katie's friends, Kaylin, so we met her at her work, which was a hotel downtown and she held onto our luggage until she left. We changed and went to explore. We found this precious little cafe right off the water. There was tons of vegetarian options and it was delicious. I had a locally brewed beer and Katie got pear champaign. After eating we took the train around and just explored. We went to Powell's Books . It was huge, and pretty cool. We went to a couple of stores and just hung around. We then went and met up with Kaylin and got our stuff. We went to her place and just sort of chilled out, until we went and ate at this cute Italian restaurant, but they didn't have ANY vegetarian options so we both had to custom order and our sever was not thrilled about that. Oh well. Afterward we headed to what is known as the douchiest club in Portland. We were there for maybe 1 & 1/2 hours, then Jersey Shore knock offs came in. We headed back, watched Jesus Camp, then went to bed.

 The next day Katie and I went to Music Millennium, where Steel Train was doing an in-store performance. We took the bus, which wasn't as difficult as we thought. We found a Whole Foods, (like normal) and then this hot dog stand in the parking lot. They had veggie dogs AND veggie chili so we ate there. Shortly after we walked the rest of the way to the record store. Our friend Lauren was there as well. After a lot of awkward moments of literally running into the guys in the store and awkward conversations, and hugs they did their short performance and then we went with Lauren and her parents back to the hotel they were staying at. We ate dinner at the Baghdad which was super close to the venue. Walking towards the venue we ran into literally every single person on the tour... that also includes a super awkward conversation with Jarrod Gorbel at dinner. Ha.

Once we were in Katie and I headed for the bar and drank a little bit, we then maneuvered our way up to 2 1/2 row. Sometime during Jarrod's set I ended up the tiniest bit tipsy. Steel train put on one hell of a show. Seriously, it was probably the best show I have ever seen them play. They did a cover of American Girl and their song that they wrote for Yo Gabba Gabba. At the end of the set everyone, except Jon, their drummer crowd surfed. Fun. went on after them and they were good, but really Steel Train is the band that sealed the deal for me. After the show we walked in the pouring rain to a bus stop and found our selves at a karaoke bar. Several drinks in and lots of dancing and it was last call and time to go, we went to VooDoo Donuts and then met up with a few of Kaylin's friends before calling it a night.

The next morning we got up and went to the airport. As we were about to pay for the cab I realized that I had lost my debit card. Wonderful. We get out and checked in and checked our bags and nded up waiting literally the whole day. There had been a tornado in Dallas and it effected all the flights including a cancelled flight the day before. The last flight of the day left and we were stuck another night in Portland. We booked a hotel nearby and went over to sleep and eat. We ended up falling asleep sometime around 7, and woke up around 4 to get to the airport in hopes that we would get on a flight out. We got on the 2nd flight out and arrived in Dallas, got our bags, stopped for something to eat and headed back to Oklahoma.

Even though we were both pissed we had to call into work that Monday since we were stuck it was one of the best shows I've EVER been to.

Love, Lauren

In late August Hanson made the final stop to the first leg of their tour in Tulsa. Miranda came up from Houston to see them too. We didn't really wait in line, we just sort of went in near doors. We had a spot near the back, which was ok because it gave us plenty of room to dance and we could go to the bar and bathroom as we wanted versus having to fight for our spot back. If you don't know the end of the tour for most bands means that there are going to pranks of some kind going on. Generally it's just during one song, but Hanson always takes it to the next level. At the end of the tour in 2009 they had a pinata on stage, silly stringed a band, taped a band member to his guitar and mic stand, put meat all over a vegan, and messed with the sound board. Most bands don't really retaliate because they generally get locked out of back stage during Hanson's set by their crew members (yet another prank). I was rather disappointed nothing super crazy happened to Rooney during their set, and not really much happened with Hanson either. The choreographer from the music video, came up on stage and danced and there was some picking up and spinning of people, and some swinging from the rafters, but really nothing too crazy happened.

The show was awesome though. I mean, it was in their hometown, and they always always do great there.