M.I.A.

Okay. Sooooo, I know I've officially been M.I.A. for a little more than a few days but, the fact of the matter is, sometimes, Life Happens.

The last 10 days have been a whirlwind of travel, family, and friends… and food of course; fellowship and food just seem to always come hand in hand.

I am a Texas transplant currently living on PA soil.  I do love it here in beautiful Pennsylvania but, I can't deny that being in the Lone Star State where it was sunny and 80 degrees every day was pretty freakin' fantastic.  I saw beaucoups of family and enjoyed good meals and good conversation with my wonderful friends.  Then, I was off on the second leg of my multi-destination journey.  I was off to L.A.

My sister, Kara, recently finished up a project out there.  Click here to see my sister in a webisode of If I Can Dream hosted by hulu.com   


I had the privilege of spending a few days running around L.A. with my mom, sister, and brother trying to find my sister a car, get in an apartment, find a local doctor, grocery store, bank… you know, just life stuff.

We managed to see a few "sites" along the way.  We did make it to a tour of the Warner Bros. Studios which was a lot of fun.  We attempted to make it to the "star party" hosted by the Observatory in Griffith Park only to find ourselves engulfed in a dense fog, with veritably zero visibility once we got to the top of the hill where the event was to be held.

We did pass the 2010 Scream Awards on our way up to the Observatory.  Me, my mom, brother, and sister saw this huge, lit up structure at Griffith Park and just assumed it had something to do with the star party.  There were tons of limos and stretch hummer type, mega bus lookin' vehicles parked all around, which, we thought was odd but, we just thought, "Okay… maybe it's a play on words.  Maybe there are a lot of 'Stars' who come out to this Observatory 'star' party thing."

I paused by one of the many security looking personnel standing around and asked, "Is there somebody famous here?"  Without turning his head, he looked at me out of the corner of his eye and, in monotone, said, "Yeah.  Tons."

Hmmmm…

I just shrugged and continued on with my family toward what looked like the entrance.  Now, if you can imagine, three young people dressed very casually and one mom strolling up to an awards entrance… that was us.  As we approached the gate my mom said, "Is this the star party for the Observatory?"  As she utter the words, I saw this man with what looked like a bullet whole in his head and blood oozing from the wound, down over his clothes, all the way to his feet pass by on the other side of the gate.  Ahhhhhh… it's all starting to click for me…

While I was taking in the walking dead, the ticket taker explained that we had actually walked up on the 2010 Scream Awards where celebrities like Kristen Stewart, Halle Berry, and Meagan Fox were present.   These were awards for the best Sci-Fis, Fantasy, Comics, and Horror movies of the year; hence the eccentric, costumed crowd.

Pretty crazy.  But, I guess that can happen when you're in L.A.

As I mentioned, we did eventually make it the rest of the way up the hill to the Observatory which was quite a beautiful place.

All in all, it was an extremely productive but immensely exhausting adventure.  Days seemed to come and go in rapid succession with breakfasts at 6 and non stop action until dinners around the same time in the evening.

I had high hopes of being able to post things from time to time throughout my trip but, there really wasn't a moment to spare.

So, thanks for baring with me during my absence.

The pumpkin party is just days away and I excitedly anticipate a really fun time.  So, stay tuned for tips, tricks, and pics, of food and treats as we inch closer to the festivities.