'Merica

It's really been over a year!! The 4th of July in 2013 marked our official moved-out-of-home status and here we are a year later, in rather unexpected but absolutely wonderful circumstances! On the 4th we had such a lovely day! We hung out by the pool with Brian, Brittany, Schwartz, and some other friends all morning, absolutely gorging ourselves on delicious food (including our patriotic masterpiece of a cake!) and enjoying the sunshine.

Around 5:00 it was decision time: party the night away in Beverly Hills or drive out to Newport Beach to meet up with family for some decidedly PG-13 festivities..... We chose option two! We met up with our cousins Sara and Darren and their kids Joya, Rumi, and Liam who were visiting from Chicago, along with their good friends and Mum and Q! It was a lovely evening making s'mores and hanging out with the kiddies! 

Better yet, Han's filming for the webseries got postponed a week so we could go out to Mum and Q's that night for a relaxing weekend away. Mum and Luce headed straight there while Q and Han went back to the apartment to pick up laundry and any other necessary stuff and we all had the most spectacular drive watching fireworks go off all across the city! Amazing!

Saturday and Sunday were the most gloriously lazy and relaxing days. We swam in the pool, lay out in the sun, watched House of Cards (Mum and Q are just as hooked as we were!), did laundry, watched the Tour de France and Wimbledon finale, and had an amazing all-you-can-eat sushi meal at their regular spot! We also had a roast dinner on Sunday with the neighbors and Han got to meet them which was lovely too. Just the weekend we needed after a hectic few weeks!

The fun just continued on Monday though! We met Sara, Darren and the kids in Disney for a HUGE day of magic and happiness - SO much fun going to Disney with little ones, we truly had a wonderful time!

We finished the night with the best seats in the house for Fantasmic and watched the fireworks over the castle as we left the park, just perfect! Then we said our goodbyes and headed home to LA for a short (but hopefully productive) week!

Tuesday was a chill, catch-up day at home, which was nice but we're getting a little restless with background work being so unreliable! Yesterday, though,  we hit the ground running with us both booked for background! Han was on The Thundermans again and Luce was on a show called Richie Rich.

-- Han -- 

It was my last day doing background on the Thundermans (because I'm a "must join" status with the union I'm not allowed to work SAG/AFTRA contracts for background anymore. So sad!) but it was maybe the best day yet! 

They were doing an episode with the cast of The Haunted Hathaways and JT was on set!! Woo! And two of my girl friends from background, Cierra and Savannah, were there too, so fun! It was also for a Halloween episode so we all got to play dress-up too! 

I fake chatted to some people, tried not to fall over while I walked in my veeery-limiting-but-really-fun mermaid costume, danced to music that wasn't playing, and had some real laughs on set - it was time for lunch before I knew it! I hung out in the lounge with JT and the other cast members which was pretty cool and they were all super nice!

Another hour and a half on set and we were wrapped! Woo!! It was only 4:45 so I went over to try on my cheerleading costume that was back from the tailors aaaaand..... It fit PERFECTLY!! YAAYY! I'm so, so happy about that! I'm filming tomorrow and Saturday and I can't wait! 

I came home for about 45 minutes then went back out to go to a bible study/church thing with JT and his friends. It's been such a while since we went to church that it took me a little while to get into it, but the pastor guy was a great speaker and really funny. I'll definitely go back! It also didn't hurt that I've literally never seen so many gorgeous guys in their early 20s under one roof, like wow..! When I got home we watched some GG and hit the sack, it was SUCH a huge day!

-- Luce --

On Wednesday I worked background for a new kids show, Richie Rich, which is a remake of the old movie and cartoon! It was pretty adorable - I played a milkshake bar patron, so cute! It was a relatively uneventful day on set though, a lot of sitting around and waiting..! When we did finally get on set the little kids in the show were so funny and talented that I found myself just watching them instead of pantomiming in the background! Hilarious. I was wrapped around 8 so I raced home to make a tasty dinner and veg out :)

-- Han & Luce --

Today we'd hoped to be working but, unfortunately, no go. We've had a great morning filling out job applications and submitting for auditions, so it's still been a work day, just one with delayed profits! We're planning on having a yummy dinner with Brittany a little later and hopefully we'll both get booked for tomorrow, fingers crossed!

Independence Day.

Our first day of independence serendipitously lined up with the original day of independence for the USA! Our 4th of July festivities began in the morning when Oliver, one of our best buds from high school, and his friend Wyatt picked us up to go explore Venice Beach! The boardwalk was INSANE! With a lingering smell of pot in the air, we saw a troupe of hippies playing the drums, muscle beach (where bodybuilders show off and work out in a terrifying cage), and this two-headed turtle:

As we were walking along, this young guy came right up to us and asked if we wanted some weed. When we said "no thanks" he asked Ollie and Wyatt if we were single and they said yes - thanks a lot guys - so this wannabe drug lord and his buddies all crowded around us, asking for our numbers and telling us their story. Apparently, he was from San Francisco, hoping to take over the drug scene at Venice beach! Haha we wished him luck with his business - our phone numbers still our own - and continued on our way...
There were so many cool stores! We were with boys, so the clothing shops remained unexplored, BUT we did go into this awesome place selling all these metal figurines - including a larger than life Bumblebee and Optimus Prime.

The time came, all too quickly, to find a bathroom. It was one of the most disgusting experiences of our lives, and we'll leave it at that..
We snapped a pic on the beach to prove we were there the headed back to the USC dorms where the guys were staying.

We had a false alarm invite to a party in Malibu - cause the guys' friend left just as we were about to head over - so we ended up hanging out on the roof with an awesome view of LA and the fireworks!

The next day we hung out at the apartment again and went shopping with Emily at The Grove. It was pretty much the Disneyland of shopping centres - just gorgeous. On our college budgets we didn't actually buy anything, but we visited MeMe working at Starbucks! We stopped by Ralph's (the grocery store) for components of our spaghetti feast we had planned for dinner, then went home.
Emily single-handedly prepared a delicious dinner - our first one all together as roomies!

After dinner, we went to the movies to see The Bling Ring. It was such a fun movie, and dangerously too real! Instead of disgusted with societal deification of celebrities, we came out of it totally inspired to steal their stuff! Not actually, but it glorified the whole saga and made it look so easy! We downloaded the movie soundtrack when we got home and let out our rule-breaking urges into a dance party of five. When, at 9:57, the neighbours below complained about the noise, MeMe sassily insisted that we had 3 more minutes. One song and a big synchronized jump later, it was 10:00 and time for bed...

We went to bed early, not because we're lame, but because we had to get up early this morning to go to the beach!! We decided on Long Beach and, with Hannah behind the wheel, made it there no worries! It was really overcast and chilly when we got there, but within the hour, the sun came out and the day was perfect! Emily, Chanelle, and Han braved the cold water while Lucy and MeMe psyched themselves up. Running in Bay Watch style was the only thing that got them in the water, but once we were all in we had a great time! The life guards were SO cute, so we all tried to think of casual ways to start drowning so they'd save us - then MeMe, who's vertically challenged, actually got dunked all the way under, so we decide that was enough of the water for the day.
We had another uncomfortable toilet experience today! It was as if (we imagine) we were in jail! The "stalls" we're just two walls about armpit height without doors! We took it in shifts to keep guard outside for each other, and got outta there asap.
We had In-and-Out Burgers for a late lunch and headed home, and that's where we're at now!
We have a super exciting day planned for tomorrow, so stay tuned!!!