Sprinkles.* :)

First things first- I am no longer homeless, and finally have a place. I'm writing from the couch as I watch RENT for the very first time. Talk about buzz kill. But today was still a good day. :)

I went to Sprinkles today. It's a famous cupcake shop in Beverly Hills. I got one for the girl I am staying with now, and one for the girl I stayed with last week. (and of course one for myself, and coffee, always coffee. :) ) If you don't know this about me, you're about to hear one of my lifelong dreams. I've always wanted to open a bakery. It would be super cute, and white, and clean, and everything would be classy and petite and organized, and the cupcakes would be so cute that you almost wouldn't want to eat them. :) I wouldn't have just cupcakes though of course. I'm an almost-pro/wants-to-be-pro cookie maker :) And there would be cakes, and maybe salads. And Coffee. Always coffee. Now, all of this is really only possible if I somehow inherit a ton of money or make a lot of money and see the bakery as a good investment. I'm not really planning on making as much money as this business would cost. Although it would be nice.

But its fun to dream.

Until now, I'll stick with occasional trips to cupcake places across Los Angeles. Any other suggestions other than Sprinkles?

loveyoubunches!

Anna

this post had a lot of smilies. maybe i should get cupcakes more often, i think it's good for my soul.

:)

Cartoons, Cereal, and Eating Out of a Mug.

Currently what I'm doing right now. I've probably said it before, but the only way to eat cereal is out of mugs. And my favorite way to start out my day, besides maybe a run, is to watch cartoons. I write this as I'm snuggled up in my new Transformers blanket. No shame. :) I'm also writing this from an apartment from a friend I met, only a week and a half ago. I'm moving from one place to the next, into homes of people I barely know, and mastering living out of a suitcase. I had a place secured to move in at the end of this week, but got an email from her yesterday saying that it wasn't going to work out.

And then I realized.

Besides the 3 or 4 weeks that I was home for Christmas break, I've had no home of my own since the beginning of November. After coming back to Boston from a weekend in State College, I was greeted with a letter from management saying that if my once upon a time roommate didn't pay rent, that I would be evicted. Well, it wasn't going to be paid, so I had to move all of my things down the street about 3 blocks to my friend Sarah's place, who I miss like crazy. I lived out of one really big suitcase then, and I'm using the same one right now. I have been basically, homeless. I mean, not actually homeless, because I have a couch to sleep on or a place to crash. But there is definitely something that God is trying to teach me.

We'll see where I am in a week. :)

loveyoubunches.

Anna

My Favorite Time of Year. (besides Christmas) :)

The Grammys, ladies and gents.

For as long as I can remember this has been my favorite thing to watch on tellevision. I feel like no matter what age I am or will be, I'll always watch the screen like a kid in a candy store, glossy eyed and dreamy. But this year was different, a little. :) I usually wait around for the good performances and the "big ones" like album of the year, but this year, all I wanted to do was find out who won what awards. Beyonce and Taylor Swift collected more awards in one night that I can imagine in a lifetime. Crazy, absolutely crazy. You know, I'm not sure what exactly the Grammys does to Los Angeles as a whole, but I can tell you that E!'s music department is rather sparce this morning-only one of 3 supervisors is in, and then every other cubicle that is normally full is empty. So it's me, Nick (my boss) and Sarah, the other intern. But I'm writing this aren't I? So it can't be too terrible ;)

So a while back I wrote about what God has put on my heart for Pop culture. Well, I must say, as passionate as I have become about seeing revival in a dark place, working for E! has hit me hard with the reality of the emptyness of it all. It's all about fashion, and lights, and glamour, and celebrities, and causing hype, and just....life that isn't real. So many people watch hours of tellevision and search the web about their favorite celebrities and what they were wearing last night, or who they were with, and it's just really discouraging. I don't think that being at E! is coincidence. This company is pretty much as worldly as it gets. It is nothing but the surface of things. Sometimes I feel like pop culture is so long gone that I'm not going to be able to do anything about it, but then, as we know, I may be small, but I certainly don't think that means I'm made for small things. I've been reading "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan. Honestly, it's a potentially life changing book. I think he totally has it right- We have forgotten the power of the Spirit. I mean, imagine what life would look like if we really lived knowing that the Spirit was in us every day. And then on top of that, what God has been encouraging me towards lately, is praying with expectations. Put believing in the Power of the Spirit and praying with expectations and I think you have an unstoppable force. This Sunday God showed me what praying with expectations looks like, even if it was a small request. He answered my prayers about connecting at church way beyond what I thought, and I am now super involved and invited to multiple events within the next couple of weeks. It may seem small, but its the result of really believing what I was praying for. In addition to all of this power of prayer business, I've been reminded multiple times over the past week that I'm not understanding certain things and directions because I'm not asking for them specifically. I'm praying really broadly, on a "possible" level, but God can make the impossible, possible. We don't recieve because we don't ask, right? To put icing on the cake, yesterday at church, the speaker mentioned how we need to ask God for the impossible, and believe that He can do it. I've been overwhelmed with the Spirit this week, in the most wonderful way possible.

So with that, I know that I'm supposed to be believing and asking boldly in prayer, but I'm still unsure of what it is exactly that I am supposed to be asking for. I guess I'll just have to start moving, becasue going in circles isn't nearly as fun.

loveyoubunches!
Anna

So, it's Saturday, and Sunny.

And I don't know what to do. I'm thinking about going down to the beach and going for a run. I'm not exactly sure where there is to run up here. I'm temporarily staying in the Topanga, basically the mountains above Malibu-ish. And it's crazy hilly (actually mountainish, like straight up and down). I'd be nuts to try and run down, and then probably more nuts to want to run back up, but then I have to use gas monies. No good. Speaking of gas monies, I used a ton on Tuesday. I literally had no where to go, so I just drove. It was exactly what I needed. Plenty of time to calm my heart and my mind. I'm ready to go.

In other news, I went to my first college party yesterday. Yup. Guess what, I'd rather be playing Banana-Grams. Much more fun. I had to drive someone home, so all I had was a Sprite, not that I'd want to be drinking anything anyways. It seems that hygiene goes out the window at those things- I couldn't really handle it. It's pretty nasty. But! I did have fun meeting people. My friend Brianna is an actress, and convinced the entire room that she was British, and her name was Elizabeth Bennet, named after the character of course. She even put her name in someone's phone that way. Good times. It was my entertainment for the evening.

So my internship, is pretty boring. So Far. I sit at a desk all day. For all of you that do that, props to you, really, because it was day two and I was counting the hours. There are a lot of fun things that I can benefit from, like tapings and gatherings and things like that. But all in all, I really can't complain, because my job is to listen to different kinds of music all day long. My boss gives me a job, like a scene or an opening song, and tells me what it's supposed to feel like, sound like, fit with, etc. Then I research and give him the best ones. Yesterday was a slight fail, I had a really hard time finding exactly what he needed, and the software on the computer is so outdated that it makes it even harder. Lame. Hopefully it'll be fixed sometime next week.

Thats sort of my week. On Wednesday I went to a college ministry called Quest, and met a lot of people. That's who I went out with last night. I'm still trying to go to Mosaic though, which I loved last week. Ima hit it up tomorrow.

loveyoubunches:)

Anna

With my soles to the ground, You open the sea.

It's time for me to be entirely transparent with you. I'm terrified. I'm terrified of not knowing where my feet are going to land step after step. This city is a big place for a little person. Boston was beautiful, clean, comforting, and homey. Los Angeles is not. However, it's not that I don't like it so far, because I do. It's the uncertainty that it holds that is terrifying.

Today, I got to go to Mosaic, which is a church that I've wanted to go to for months now. They were started by my favorite Christian author, Erwin McManus who travels and speaks and does all kinds of important things, so naturally, I knew he wasn't going to be at the service to speak this morning-But I was wrong. :)

After a sweet 25 or so minutes of worship, the speaker came up from the left side of the auditorium, and it was him. I was stoked. We talked to someone after the service, and apparently he's committed to be there for a lot of Sundays, but that's irrelevant. Mosaic is on a new series, called "Fresh Start". Today's passage was Joshua chapter 3. After reading the passage, we looked at the very beginning of the book, where God tells Joshua that Moses is dead, and it is now his job to lead the people. In verse 3 God tells Joshua that He will give him every place where he sets his foot. These two variables became Erwin's two points. Firstly, after the Lord tells Joshua Moses is dead, He asks him to lead. Ergo, a very terrified Joshua. Secondly, Joshua was to then live a life of faith and obedience to the Lord, and he would be given wherever he placed his foot. Another point of the message (verse 5). What would life be like if we lived life, knowing that in every step we took, tomorrow God would do amazing things among us...

So anyways, I say all of this because every word that was said this morning was something that I had already thought of and tried to deal with this week. I know that in this area of my life, God is going to show me a side of faith, and my relationship with Him, that I haven't seen or experienced yet. And yea, I'm scared-I'm in a new city with no friends, no family, no place to live (currently), and God is calling me to be a leader in a secular environment. I'm just a little overwhelmed, but the Lord has put all of this in my life for a reason, and the book of Joshua at a perfect time.

Joshua 1:9. Have I not commanded you? Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

LoveYouBunches.

Anna

Galations 5:13

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

It was my facebook verse of the day. I never look at that particular app anymore since fb revamped it's whole layout, but I liked this verse. It's just, good. Read it a few times, and meditate on it. You can't help but get pumped, possibly humbled at first, but trust me, it leads to pumped. :)

So I'm here in LA, with my Mom who so kindly decided to come help me out with the whole getting settled thing. Good thing too, cuz we're still apartmentless and staying in a hotel. I had a few places lined up, but they got the kabosh from the Mom, so we're still looking. God did provide a car for me however. :) I now rock a 98 honda accord. Woot. So I guess keep praying. I'm also sort of sick, a cold I guess. It's just sorta blah. Mom is leaving on Tuesday so time is running out. God will provide however, He keeps His promises. :)

loveyoubunches.

Anna

Welcome to Hollywood.

So over the summer I tried out for American Idol. It's something everyone should do by the way, regardless of if you can sing or not. It's so much fun. But I had a terrible audition, and didn't make it through, which I wasn't too upset about, cuz I had an awesome time with my friend Mariah. :)

But I'm sitting here, watching American Idol, on west coast time, sitting in bed in Los Angeles, and realizing that all these kids were screaming "I'm going to Hollywood!" And at one point last summer that was something I could have been saying, thinking about how I'd be in California sunshine in January instead of Boston's unruly wind.

I may not have made it through American Idol, but God still brought me here. His own way. I was going to be in LA no matter what.

I thought it was kinda awesome.