'Chelsea Lately' & Book Club

I've been posting about keeping up with my 2013 Resolutions and this past Tuesday was no exception.  Emily and I started out the day heading up to Universal City to see a Live taping of 'Chelsea Lately' and then prepped our apartment, for our first ever Book Club night, complete with all sorts of yummy food and wine.

 

Emily got us tickets a couple weeks ago and we were both really excited to go to the taping, get there early, and hopefully get front seats, in addition to getting Emily's, Chelsea Handler, book signed.  We were making great time up the 405 and 101 and as soon as we got to Universal, we spent 45 minutes being told 3 different places to park, and all of them were wrong.  Needless to say, we ended up getting to the line less than 30 minutes early and there were at least 40 people in front of us, not to mention another line was started with priority seating.  *Suggested Note: always try to get priority seating when you're getting tickets for live tapings, and if you're going to a taping, showing up early isn't always the best idea, because if we hadn't been seated at this taping, we would have had VIP entry the next day.*  I'm not sure if all shows work like this, but I've been to 'Ellen' and now 'Chelsea Lately' and both of them are run the same way.

 

Around 3 pm (an hour after they said the line cut-off ended) people were finally getting seated.  In the meantime, Emily and I people-watched, which was one of the most interesting people-watching we've ever done.  They did tape a few outdoor segments, including some with Ross Matthew's since he's starting his new show.  When we finally got into the sound-stage, we waited to be sat, and were placed in the upper right seating area (BUMMER) but there were plenty of TV's and really no bad seats.  The only downfall was the group of drunk teenagers from out of town that were seated right around us and were so loud and distracting, we were surprised they weren't kicked out.

 

The whole taping took just under an hour, and while there were no big celebrities interviewed, they had 3 acts, with the comedians, and it went by quickly, and was really funny.  Chelsea looked absolutely fantastic!  We loved her outfit, she was hilarious, and she signed everyone's books, so that was awesome!  The episode we were at actually aired that night but we forgot to tape it so we have it set to DVR tomorrow night so we can catch the jokes we missed due to just being studio mic'd for taping purposes.  Going to this taping was definitely an LA thing to do, since there were so many tourists at the taping, but it was also something new and fun to do for FREE in LA :)  Thanks Em!

 

That night after the taping we had our first ever Book Club.  Seven of us ladies got together that evening, after we had a couple weeks to read 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' which started off slow but picked up speed, and in a matter of a day I read over 200 pages.  It was told through letters, e-mails, faxes, and notes, so that was really interesting, and although I wish the loose ends at the end of the book had been tied up, I surprised myself and really liked it.

 

After loading our plates with all sorts of goodies:  Roasted tomatoes, veggies and dip, crackers, prosciutto and cheese, a kale and quinoa salad, and some desserts including my Funfetti Cake Dip, and everyone's glass of Wine was full, we sat in our cozy Living Room and discussed the book.  I was glad that we spent over an hour talking about themes and motives, what we liked and didn't like, what we had in common with the characters, and then even went through the Reading Guide at the end of the book to bring up some more thought-provoking ideas.  It was actually a lot of fun and I think we got so much more out of the book by taking the time to talk about it and we all agreed that we would love this to be a monthly thing. 

'Life is too short to drink bad wine.'

No female get-together would be complete without catching up, and then discussing what our favorite thing about LA was, and when we felt like we had our 'a-ha' moment in living here.  That was a question we actually got from the Reading Guide so it was great to get to know everyone and connect since hopefully this is something we continue to do.  I'm also pretty proud that we polished off 5 bottles of wine, tons of food, had lots of laughs, and hung out and did something really intellectual.  Yet again, another new thing on my Resolutions Check List, and something that was really fun to do!

 

Tuesday was a fantastic day; thought-provoking, engaging, fun and outgoing, and brought lots of laughs, everywhere we went.  It was also really creative and these are certainly the days I love!