2 more days....St. Louee, Louee

i still want that red dress...

Benson Backpacks

When you hear about something good, you should pass it on.

I give you...Benson Backpacks.

With your every purchase of a Benson backpack it will help supports a child's education in Tanzania, Africa.

-School tuition assistance
-School lunches
-School supplies

Benson Backpacks is a new company (only found on facebook for now) that was founded by a former TOMS intern, Matt C. A simple idea. You buy a back pack and you help someone. The idea of buying to give continues to catch on!

Benson was a porter who helped Matt and a group climb Mount Kilimanjaro. He was the first to congratulate Matt after he reached the summit. As they hiked down together, Matt learned Benson only earned between 1 and 2 dollars a day – not enough to put a child through school.

Matt has now taken this meeting of Benson and created a company to help.

Check out Benson Backpacks on Facebook, the website is soon to follow.

This is a picture representing one way i see LA...
meter parking
street art
and prius's
If only there was a group of hipsters walking down the side walk it would be perfect

The Glue

My old old old friend Dave F. came out to LA this past weekend for a visit. He was in town to play in a soccer tournament with his MBA team from Michigan. As always, its great to have "Home" come to you. Dave and I have known each other since we were 7?? = we go way back.

BUT the really fun thing about having Dave in town, was that he has been "the glue" to two good friends here in LA.

His friend Eric and I had met in years past when visiting Dave in Chicago. They were roommates and club volleyball teammates during undergrad at Michigan. Eric is now in LA going to school for his MBA at USC.

Talia and I met a year ago when she also moved out to LA to go to school for her MBA at UCLA. Talia and Dave worked together when Dave moved to Chicago after college. Talia and her husband have been good friends to go for sushi dinners, watching sports at bars and now Talia has plugged me into a great organization Common Threads. We volunteered this past week at this AMAZING event for the organization here in LA.

Give A Damn

You have to love it when paths cross

I have been LIVING at a local bar in Santa Monica for the past few weeks watching every Cardinal playoff game. The bar has attracted basically every Cardinal fan and in LA. Many of them went to Mizzou and we have all made connections on who we know from college or STL.

Asking "what high school did you go to??", never gets old.

My favorite connection was made on Friday night (aka the night the Cardinals won their 11th World Championship)

Almost exactly three years ago this month I met a guy at church. The only reason I randomly talked to him was because he was wearing a pair of TOMS Shoes. At this time it was rare to see a pair of TOMS and I was about to move to LA to work for the company.

He started to tell me about how he was also leaving STL soon with friends to film a documentary. I found this very interesting and to this day still had always wondered what happened to that movie.

Fast forward three years later and who do I meet?? One of the guys who was apart of that filming. Not only had we met in college, but he is only in the LA area for the next 10 days to promote their completed documentary.

Do check out the following link; http://www.giveadamndoc.com/
I think this is a great idea and I hope to be at the screening on Friday.

isn't baseball romantic?!

i love being from st louis
i love being a cardinals fan

how can you not love a wild card team winning the national league championship?
OR not love a city that is now crazy about squirrels and treats baseball playoffs like its a month long holiday??

they don't call it Red October for nothing!

i'm superstitious
for the last two weeks i have only been drinking STL beer (= bud heavy when i can find it)
and i have been to the same bar 4/7 nights this week, since the Cardinals win EVERY night i am there

i will continue to drink my STL beer and go to South every game night, since my STL Cardinals are going to the WORLD SERIES!!!!

you BET i'm wearing a cardinals shirt to work tomorrow

cheers to STL and to the cardinals

Palm Springs

Last weekend I took a mini road trip to Palm Springs for the first time. I went for a girls weekend with three friends from my internship days. We spent the weekend at the Ace Hotel.
You go to Palm Springs for the heat and a weekend by the pool.
We would wake up, have brunch at the hotel and spend the rest of the day drinking by the pool. We then would go out for dinner and repeat the next day.
We did try to make a morning trip to Joshua Tree, but due to recent flooding, we only made it as far as the entrance. Good Enough for us.
Thanks for the summer sun in October Palm Springs!

Boy & Bear

Our office celebrated World Sight Day on Thursday. We hosted a happy hour out in our alley; drinks, food and a really good live show.

I always appreciate my friends passing on new music to me, so here is a new music gift to you all. I give you, Boy & Bear.

To sum them up, think Mumford and Sons. BUT a little more folk and these boys are from Australia! I downloaded their album right after the show and it was my Friday soundtrack at work yesterday all day long. I always appreciate when you can enjoy the ENTIRE album, not just a few tracks. I give a thumbs up to all of their songs.

Find them on itunes and ENJOY!

#18!

Forbes just released Americas Most Inspiring Companies...

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jacquelynsmith/files/2011/09/0bw226z77W0Es_1981.jpg

Congrats HQ!

9.28

A person's Golden or Grand Birthday, also referred to as their "Lucky Birthday", "Champagne Birthday" or "Star Birthday", occurs when they turn the age of their birth day

Today I turned 28
= My golden birthday
Lets hope this year lives up to the golden bday hype

So far its off to a great start...

a pie delivery from my parents to the office (thanks mom)

Mani/Pedis with some of my favorite girls here in LA...

and the CARDINALS are playing October baseball!
(The bud heavy is flowing in St Louis Tonight!!!)

Yep, loving 28 so far.
Thanks for all the birthday love!

Bucket List?

Let me start off by saying, I hate guns.
I really don't understand why anyone needs to own a gun unless they are needed for your job.
BUT the idea of going to a gun range always seemed interesting.
The invitation to go to a shooting range was presented a few months ago by a friend, who does own guns because of his job. I figure if I was ever going to go and do this, I may as well go with someone who is trained and could teach me how to fire a gun correctly.
First off, gun ranges are bizarre. You walk into a room with 20 booths of people firing LOADED guns. The room is loud and there are gun shells all over the floor.
I was given a quick lesson on holding a gun and then was given the chance to fire at the target. I can't think of the last time I was this shaken up. I would literally have to try to take a breath between each shot.
Holding a loaded gun was a terrible feeling. Even after a couple of rounds I could not get comfortable with the gun in my hands and decided my day at the gun range was done.
I'm glad to say this will not be a new hobby, but at least I gave it a shot...eh??

Story Pirates

I'm not sure how I discovered last nights activity out in Westwood. I talked my friend Claire into joining me for Story Pirates. I was under the impression that it was a group of actors who put on skits to stories that kids have written, adding some adult humor.

I kind of had the right idea, but not exactly.

Story Pirates is an arts education organization that bring together teachers, actors and writers to work with kids. Story Pirates will travel to schools all across the country to host workshops that encourage kids to write and draw their own creative stories.

The writers and actors then take the kids stories and create full skits (often with song) inspired by what the child has created on paper. Story Pirates will then return to the schools to perform the skits for school assemblies.

The mission of the Story Pirates is “to celebrate the words and ideas of young people and to create confident, literate students equipped with a variety of tools for written, verbal, and artistic self-expression.”

Once a month Story Pirates host an adult night in LA (why i thought there were going to be some dirty jokes). Claire and I showed up to small room of about 50 people for the performance. The show began with a puppet show and was followed by 6 short skits all written by kids. The stories were about alien bats, a group of ninja sisters, a girl that loved bread (acted and told in spanish, since that was how it was written), to a boy named charlie that wanted to be a singer. Each skit was 5-10 minutes long.

The talent of each actor was impressive and often the simple skits were very humorous and creative. BUT I was surprised that not one skit had any adult humor and they did not mix it up/change any skit for the adult only night. Story Pirates uses this one night a month to promote the organization to the adult crowd exactly how they would present the show to a school of kids.

Check out more here on the website; Story Pirates

Charity Water

true...i have a crush on the founder of this company. a great story and a great cause.

Sunday, August 7, 2011
Santa Monica Farmers Market
breakfast burritos, groundworks coffee and bell pepper shopping with Eric
why do i not do this every sunday morning?!?

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Chicago Weekend

I just returned from 4days in Chicago. As always, a great time and one of the best cities to be in during the summer.
This was my first summer trip I have not been in town for a Cards/Cubs game, but for my friend Carey's Bachelorette Party.

I spent Thursday with my friend Justin who came to town to visit and was nice enough to pick me up at 6am from the airport! We went on a river architecture tour (first time doing this) and spent time in millennium park.

Friday I met up with my friend Chris and Peter . We spent another full day downtown eating deep dish pizza, going to the top of the Willis/Sears tower and hanging out at a bar along the Chicago river.

The rest of the weekend was spent with some of my favorite girlfriends from high school. We all met up Friday night for a cook out dinner at Carey's apartment in Wrigleyville . On Saturday we spent the day at the lake before going out for the night to celebrate the bride to be.

I was lucky to see so many good friends in one visit and looking forward to Carey's Wedding in St Louis Labor Day weekend!

the bean

justin

when in chicago, drink their local beer

110 stories high

peter and chris

meeting baby luke for the first time

chicago eye candy

crashed a trolley party...thanks random wisconsin guys

the morning after breakfast

July 20, 2011
LA Galaxy Game
1st professional soccer game in person
last LA sporting event on my LA bucket list
David Beckham in person
I think I'm now a soccer fan

My favorite perk of being in LA...there are SO many free screeners to go to! You really have no reason to pay to see anything I have figured out over the years.

I had no plan to really see either of these movies, but of course I'll go when its free.

One movie got a big thumbs down, the other got a big thumbs up!

July 16th, 20011
Marina Del Rey
Tikki Too Boat
Happy Birthday Kim Day/Booze Cruise
Who needs Carmegeddon, when you can be on a boat?!

Happy Carmageddon Eve!

We are hours away from LA shutting down the busiest highway in America!

11 miles of Interstate 405 — the north-south spine of the West Side of Los Angeles, which carries 500,000 cars every weekend over the Sepulveda Pass into the San Fernando Valley — is going to shut down for 53 hours, from late Friday night to early Monday morning.

All week I have been passing sign after sign warning drivers that the highway will be closing and to expect BIG delays. Basically, they are urging an entire city that lives in their cars to not drive anywhere for the entire weekend...yeah right.

I'm interested to see if Google Maps will invent a new color for how bad the traffic will be, maybe the streets will just be black???

I also find it Ironic that I'll pass billboards like this...


And then pass these billboards...
Its as if Harry Potter is warning all of LA that Carmageddon will be the end of LA...at least for the weekend.

I'm preparing for Carmageddon and packing up a suitcase to stay with friends west of the 405 for the weekend. I figure if the 405 turns into the Berlin Wall of stand still traffic, I may as well be on the side with the beach for the next few days.

Carmageddon is coming...3 days till we see what happens

Ashley has left the building (aka LA)

A part of my LA family moved officially from LA yesterday.

As I type this, Ashley is driving cross country in her car to Boston.

Ashley and I moved to LA on the very same day to be interns at TOMS in January 09. We lived together for 6 months and worked in the creative department.

We both never left LA after our internship ended and became close friends over many movies, meals, nights out and other LA activities.

There is for sure going to be a gap in my social life without her. I'm not really sure when it will sink in that she does not live here anymore, since I always thought she would be CA resident for life.

Her last two nights in LA were celebrated well.

Wednesday a group of us went to A Frame. I'm not sure if it was the company i was with, the food or Charlize Theron sitting a table away that made the night so great. But it was one of my favorite meals ever in LA.

All visitors will now be taken to A Frame when you come to see me. It was that good. (can you tell how the place gets its name???)



Thursday night we decided to get drinks in Venice where we spent a lot of time during our first few months in LA. One last drink and one last LA sunset for Ash at High. The bar is on top of a hotel over looking the Venice boardwalk and ocean. $7 for a beer, but you get a great view. Good Luck to Ash! I'm sure I'll be planning a trip to Boston not too far from now, thanks to my kayak.com addiction.

Portland, OR

My Summer US tour continued up to Portland this weekend.
To sum it up, I was spoiled.
The weather could not have been better. For months all my friend Shamus has talked about is how much it rains.
Not one drop the whole time I was there. It was sunny and in the high 70's everyday.

Portland was the perfect long weekend get away. I think it could be one of the prettiest cities I have ever been to. There was never a bad view and I loved the architecture of the homes and buildings. Whatever I thought the city was going to be like, I was wrong and so pleasantly surprised.

A few pics from the many I took...

I spent a good 3hrs at Powells books. Time flies when you have rows of books to look at and a good section of greeting cards to read.

Shamus and I had lunch at Portland City Grill. The restaurant is located on the 30th floor of a downtown building and has great views of the city and mountain range every direction you look.

Visited Pittock Mansion

Went to Multnomah Falls

Hiked (almost) to the top of the falls = another great view

Went to visit Nikes World Headquarters where Shamus works

Lived out my 80s's child dream and went to Cannon Beach/the rock from the Goonies

Did not meet one Oregon Brewery Beer I did not like...

Made two trips to Washington Park Rose Gardens

Portland Blues Fest down at the Harbor

Last beer and last pic before the end of the trip

I'll post the rest of the pics to facebook when I get a chance. Hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend and have a good week!