The Real Meaning of Pink Ribbons

My aunt and my mom

As September fades into October, pink ribbons are popping up everywhere from the grocery store to the gas station. This simple pink ribbon symbolizes Breast Cancer Awareness, and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In the past few years, I have become involved with Lee National Denim Day and also Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Reading the stories of survivors and their struggles made this cause especially dear because these are someone’s mother, daughter, sister, grandmother or aunt. Until recently though, no one in my family had been diagnosed with breast cancer. This all changed about a year ago, when my only aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. Even though I know all the statistics and the prevalence of breast cancer, I somehow thought my family was safe; however, breast cancer does not discriminate against race, age, or family lineage. It can happen to anyone, even men, which can be very scary.

Instead of focusing on the scary, I choose to believe there is a cure. I have to believe because I have a grandmother, a mother, an aunt, a female cousin, two sisters and four nieces. My aunt underwent a lumpectomy and received partial breast radiation. This is a new technology, which would most likely not be possible without the funding from breast cancer research. I am thankful for every dollar raised and every person who participates in the cause. A year later, I am so happy and thankful to report my aunt is cancer free. I know you’ve heard it a thousand times to always have a yearly checkup, but it truly is important. It’s not about living in fear, but rather taking preventative steps. My aunt’s cancer was caught early on, and I could not be more thankful!

Next Friday, October 7 is Lee National Denim Day. I would love if you would donate to my aunt’s team or simply wear jean or pink in support of the cause. In the span of a lifetime, it is almost impossible not to know someone affected by this disease. A small $5 donation can truly help bring a cure! You can follow this link Team Knutzen or go directly to denimday.com and search Knutzen.

24

There is no way I am 24. Wasn’t I just turning 21 yesterday? 24! Where did 23 go? I guess this past year really has flown by as I pass yet another birthday. Now don’t think I am freaking out because I am turning 24, it’s more that 23 went by in a blur. I am entering a new stage in my life, my mid-20s. So long early-20s, you are now a thing of the past, but a not so distant past. After a year of people telling me I was too young, I am fully ready to embrace my mid-20s. I feel like 24 is when people actually have to start taking you seriously. You’ve been out of college for more than a year and are now in the “real world.” 

 

Twenty-three marked a number of significant changes in my life. I turned 23 less than a month after moving to Los Angeles. During the past year, I found my true passion, developmental production. The year brought a wide range of bad and good. Twenty-three brought more rejection that I faced in my first 22 years of life. I pained through two part-time, mind-numbing jobs to pay the bills, so I could continue to pursue my dreams. I walked a dog three days a week for extra cash. I saw my family the least of any year since I was born. I was in my first serious car wreck. Actually I was in two wrecks, back to back. Thankfully, 23 brought ten times more good than bad. I finally put fingers to keys and started this blog, which I still love writing on. I received my first real paycheck that I seriously considered framing rather than cashing. With my new cash flow, I was able to buy a beautiful Kate Spade purse that is more a piece of art than a purse. I lived minutes from the beach rather than a plane ride away. I sunned in Laguna Beach, and I didn’t see a day of snow. I met two fabulous groups of KU alums in LA and Orange County. I put my cooking skills to the test and made a complete Thanksgiving dinner. I bobbed my head to the side at the Roxbury and chatted with a TMZ camera guy. I gazed out on the sparkling lights of LA at night from Griffen Observatory. I constantly have to stop and take in the moment, simply because I can’t believe how much I love my life. Twenty-three has brought me so much to be thankful for.

Twenty-three was great, but I think 24 is going to be even better. I am now employed and ready to take on a whole new set of adventures. I can’t wait to travel the coast of California, visit my best friend in NYC, and hopefully take my first trip to Vegas. I love traveling and definitely didn’t do enough during 23. I might not get to every place I want to go since the list is endless, but I plan to make a dent. While 23 was completely devoted to finding a job, I am dedicating 24 to excelling at my job. Twenty-four is still about having fun. Come on, I live in Los Angeles! I might be a year older, but I don’t plan on slowing down. I already know 24 is going to be a great year because I woke up this morning to a call from my littlest niece singing me Happy Birthday. Right there was enough to make the day great, but it just got better and better. My amazing family sent my Sprinkles cupcakes at work, which was an amazing surprise for not only me but also my office! My office was a little shocked because I had kind of forgot to mention that it was my birthday. Haha. They all agreed 24 is a great a great age. If the last few days were any inclination on the future of this year, I can’t wait for it to get started!

The Process of Hiring Interns

While the boys of my office are at the Toronto Film Festival, it means only the VP and I are at the office. I think it is the first time ever that only females have been in the office! We are normally outnumbered two to one. To make things even weirder since she doesn’t work Fridays, I am all alone at the office for two Fridays. I have been alone at the office before but not for an entire day. Let me say after my first alone Friday, it was very strange. I thought it might be nice to have the office all to myself, but I was wrong. The day started productively, but by noon I had finished literally all of my work. Amazing how productive I can be when the phone isn’t ringing off the hook. I’ll let you know next week, if my second “alone” Friday is just as uneventful. Also while the office was quiet, I was put in charge of hiring new interns.  

Well this is definitely a new experience for me! Since I have always been the interviewee, it was interesting to be on the other side of things. First off, I received some BAD resumes. Maybe I am just picky because I was a journalism student. Writing standout resumes was pretty much hardwired into us. It’s hard for me to overlook glaring mistakes that some industries see as fine. First off, please refrain from “fun” fonts. There is a time and a place for these fonts, and your resume is not it. Second, you graduated last year. Why is your resume two-pages long? I understand how important being a cashier at your college concession stand was to you, but it means nothing to the entertainment industry or me. Third, use some variation in your bullet points! If more than three start with the same word, you need to spice it up a little bit and pull out a thesaurus. Fourth, please use a professional email. Brainwasher@hotmail.com is never acceptable. If Brainwasher wasn’t bad enough, a hotmail account shows you are out of date. Fifth, I absolutely don’t care about your middle school GPA. If you are in college, don’t even put your high school GPA unless you were valedictorian, and you are a freshman. The one that pained me the most was from a graduate with an English degree who contributed to their campus newspaper! How were you not familiar with AP style?! Sorry for the rant, but I cringe that the important skill of resume writing is obviously not being taught at other universities.

After I have sifted the okay resumes from the terrible, it was time for the interview process. Normally our other assistant handles this, but it fell on me since he is in Toronto. The night before the interviews, I tossed and turned thinking about what I could possibly ask these potential interns. They were going to realize I have never done this, or the fact I am younger than many of them. I did my best to calm my nerves, but when the first potential intern arrived I was shaking slightly. Thankfully I pulled it together and did my best, “Hi. Nice to meet you. You can follow me to the conference room.” Some interviews were short. I am talking less then 10 minutes. They had nothing to say, and I was all out of questions. I could tell one guy was really nervous. I mean the works: swaying the chair back and forth, sweating and continually rubbing his hands on his legs. I feel bad because I have been in the hot seat so many times before, but there was nothing I could do to calm his nerves. After eight grueling interviews, I narrowed 25 submissions into four new interns! All together I think I had a successful few days alone in the office but will be glad when everyone is back in the office!!

Remembering 9/11

This weekend I booked tickets to visit my best friend Juliana in NYC. As I booked my tickets on the eve of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I thought of the impending day. Was it really ten years ago that our great nation felt a blow beyond anyone’s worst nightmares? I remember the exact person who told me the news and exactly where I was standing. I was in eighth grade and my science enrichment class had just ended. Entering the hall of my middle school, the atmosphere in the hall seemed normal. Suddenly a wave of chaos engulfed the hall as whispers turned into yells of panic. See I went to middle school in Oklahoma City, a city that had their own tragedy only six years pervious. I was standing in front of the school office when Anna told me that planes had flew into the Twin towers. At first, I thought she meant the “twin towers” China was building. I couldn’t fathom that planes had crashed into the NYC Twin Towers. Teachers quickly rushed into the hall and ushered students back into the classrooms. My teacher plugged in the ancient TV set as the class sat in perfect silence. Some students cried, while most sat with the mouths agape. While I didn’t live in OKC when the bombing occurred, I still felt the city’s pain through my friends’ memories. At only 14, most had now lived through the two largest terrorist attacks on American soil.

A lot has changed in ten years. Our relatively peaceful nation has gone to war on two fronts, our economy has bottomed out and America’s future as a world power is uncertain. The effects of 9/11 are still felt today in both negative and positive ways. A new sense of American pride has been planted, and I hope we never forget why. Oklahoma City hasn’t forgotten the bombing in 15 years, and I doubt America or the free world will ever forget 9/11. I’ll leave you with a quote from good old, former president George W. Bush. “One of the lessons of 9/11 is that evil is real. And so is courage.”

A Slew of New Experiences

As I sit in my office alone since the boys are all at the Toronto Film Festival, I think back to last weekend, and those three glorious days. Nothing really beats a three-day weekend in Los Angeles. There is always a ton of stuff going on. First on the agenda was First Fridays in Venice. Many other towns have similar festivities, but Venice centers on trendy Abbott Kinney road. I am not always the biggest fan of Venice, but it has its shinning moments like the pier, Washington Boulevard, the cannels and now First Fridays. All the boutiques were open late and offered a variety of sweet and salty appetizers. The street was packed with people, but you were still able to walk. Well that was until we got to the food truck lot. I found out beforehand the Grilled Cheese truck was making an appearance in Venice. A variety of other food trucks lined the main street, but I was on a mission to find the Grilled Cheese truck. After walking basically the entire length of the street, my friend and I stumbled upon where it had been hiding. The food truck lot. The street had been crowded, but this lot was mass chaos. The first thing I noticed was the line down the street for the Grilled Cheese truck! No!! I knew it drew long lines, but I never imagined a line this long. As my excitement began to deflate, my friend and I weaved our way around the other food trucks. This just wasn’t going to happen. There were way too many people in a tiny area for my preference. Maybe I am a little claustrophobic or maybe it’s my fear someone will yell “fire,” and I will be trampled. Needless to say, I don’t like being crammed between two strangers as if I was in a cattle corral. We decided to just go check out some of the shops and see if the line would fizzle down in an hour. I am now officially obsessed with Abbott Kinney boutiques. All had super cute merchandise, and most wasn’t too expensive. I can’t wait to come back once I have a little more cash flow! Making our way back to the lot, we quickly realized the line had grown instead of shrunk. Boo. We admitted defeat and got a table at a sushi joint next door. The food ended up being amazing so I couldn’t be too upset about not getting my greasy, macaroni and cheese filled grilled cheese sandwich.

After a long work week, I literally had to peel myself off of my bed around 10 a.m. Saturday. If you know me well, you know this is not like me. Weekday, weekend. It is all the same to me. I like to be up by 8 a.m. After a week of moving and a hectic week of work, I wanted nothing more than my bed. I knew I needed to get up though and start unpacking the mess of my apartment. My stuff is literally everywhere, which makes me feel terrible for my roommate! Unfortunately my body wouldn’t cooperate and after two hours of unpacking, I gave up. I still wanted to be productive, so I finished reading a script for work. New moto- always working. I had to see The Help for work and planned on meeting up with my friend in Century City. While I got to the theater early for a little pre-movie shopping at the mall, I didn’t think to get my movie tickets. Twenty minutes before show time, I sauntered over to the pay kiosis to purchase the tickets only to find out this theater has assigned seating. Assigned seating?! Are we back in college? Ugh. The only tickets were on the very front row. No thanks. If I am paying almost $14 to see a movie, I don’t want to be craning my neck for two and a half hours! My friend and I decided to catch up instead over beer, appetizers and college football. When I got back to my apartment, my roommate was getting ready to go out. She invited me, and I was happy to come along with her and her friend. We ended up going to three bars along the Sunset Strip that I had never been to before, Bar Marmont, The Standard and Saddle Ranch. Each bar was basically complete opposites of each other. I love being so close to true LA nightlife. It is definitely what I was missing in Brentwood. I ended my long weekend with finally seeing The Help. I can be overly critical of movies adapted from books I have read, but I have to say The Help won me over. The casting was perfection! It absolutely made the movie. I recommend everyone seeing this movie.

I hope this week’s adventures made up for some of my lame previous “new experiences.”

My Moving Saga

I guess my move wasn't as bad as this guys!

Moving. Ugh. I am NEVER moving again. Okay that is probably a lie, but I am glad I won’t be moving in the near future. Also if I ever move again, I am hiring movers. Why do I always think I can do things by myself? Well Saturday started my five day moving adventure/fiasco. Looking around my apartment, I realized I had a lot of stuff so I decided to rent a U-haul van. Of course the weekend I moved was the hottest one yet in August, and there was a cop crack down. After I picked up the van, I drove the five miles back to my apartment and saw literally 10 cops in that small span. Fabulous. This should have been an indicator of how this move was going to go. I have only moved out of one apartment before this, and my mom and sort of movers helped me. Somehow I forgot about this and enlisted the help of only one guy friend. At least I was smart enough to realize I needed someone stronger than me to lift my poorly, packed boxes. My friend took one look around my apartment and simply said, “I am going to kill you.” I tried to flash my biggest smile, but he wasn’t having any of it. I knew I hadn’t done the best job packing, but this became even more evident as we loaded the van. I packed things in tons of small bags and boxes. This was the ultimate downfall of my move. Small bags and boxes equates to TONS of trips to the van. After about two hours of loading, I resorted to throwing things off my balcony and having my friend catch them. After a mini crisis of broken decorative plates and my third favorite coffee mug, we were finally on our way. I took my normal route to West Hollywood, which turned out to be another bad move on my part. To get to West Hollywood, you have to go through Beverly Hills. Here I am driving the biggest vehicle I have ever drove with limited visibility attempting to not sideswipe a Bentley or Mercedes. Making matters worse, we hit terrible Saturday traffic. Unloading was less eventful, but probably just as stressful. After five hours, I was over moving. Too bad I still had a bunch of stuff at my old apartment including my bed, couch and loveseat. A friend of the family offered to help me move the big stuff on Tuesday night, which I was super thankful!

Tuesday night rolls around, and it ended up being just him and me. I might occasionally lift weights, but my loveseat weighs probably 200 lbs because it is a twin sofa sleeper. With the help of a carpet dolly aka my new best friend, we were able to move all my furniture out of my apartment! I helped carry my other couch, my queen mattress and my box springs. I am not really sure where this strength came from, but I guess it’s good I was really into lifting weights a month ago! Thankfully another amazing guy friend came to help unload my stuff into my new place because I don’t think there was any I could have. After another five hour moving adventure, I was finally all moved into my apartment! So word to the wise. When moving, invest in those big moving boxes and spend the $10 to rent a dolly!! A little shout out to the three guys who helped me move. Thanks Cory, Bob and Zach.

I know I keep saying this but I promise my new experiences will get more interesting. Tonight I am checking out first Fridays in Venice, which should be an experience. Plus it’s Labor Day weekend, which means it’s time to have fun!