#TrueStory: I rescued my dog from a Doobie Brother

Rocky Balboa is for reals, the love of my life. I love this dog. He's special ... and I know that EVERY dog owner says that about their dog, but trust, I've had PLENTY of dogs over the years ... and this one is different.

It was a Saturday night in 2006, and I had gone to a club dancing with my best friend at the time Sam - and she was totally crushing on this dude ... so we decided to call it an early night and head over to his place to kick it. I walked in, and was greeted with an amazing loft style pad decorated with awards. I had never met this dude, only knew he lived with his parents ... clearly they were a big deal I thought. When you're in situations like that however, you just keep your mouth shut. I'm not impressed easily, and I certainly never get star struck. People are people, some just have cooler jobs. Work your ass off, and you too can have a cool job. Period. End of sentence.

I walked over to this chair, sat down, and we all started watching The Chronicles of Narnia. Clearly this is something that kids do after a night of dancing. A wild one I am ...

Not 5 minutes into the film, this little dog jumps up on my lap and just starts cuddling with me. I say to the dude, "if you ever think about getting rid of this dog, will you let me know!" Swear to god. I haven't known this guy for a half hour, I'm in his house ... this could be HIS dog for all I knew ... and I go asking if I can have him.

I don't remember his response, or anything ... I just had fallen so incredibly in love with this little thing - that I had to figure out a way to make him a part of my life.

A couple days went by, and on Tuesday, my phone rang - it was the kid's mom, Heidi asking if I was still interested in the dog. My mouth was moving, but words could not escape. Uh. Uh. Uh. Finally, I just said YES! I got her address again, and got in my car to see the dog. She informed me that she rescues animals for a living, and this one had just come from a crack house, and needed a lot of TLC as he had been terribly abused. (She also told me that her husband was in the band the Doobie Brothers ... so rad!) I was interviewed for a half an hour, discussing my lifestyle, place of employment ... I told her we could have dogs at my office, and I would bring him in as often as I could ... DONE! She said. And in came this little goober in my life.

He didn't even have a name, they just called him "dog" so, that was my first challenge. I had been editing the trailer scripts for the new Rocky Balboa movie at the time ... so I just kept looking at him thinking, you TOTALLY look like a Rocky! And dude, he literally had the BIGGEST balls ever. For reals, this dog is only 6 lbs on his heaviest day - and 4 of them were in his testicles. It was obscene, and hypnotic all at the same time.

So, Rocky Balboa it was!! I took him to work with me the next morning, and everrryyyoonnneee fell in love with him. He's just got the sweetest personality, and he's so damn smart! He's an italian greyhound, mini dachshund mix. Perfection!

Another funny tidbit, Rocky's first best friend was Phil Jackson's dog Princess Cujo. My supervisor at work was best friends with Jeanie Buss who is the executive vice president of business operations for the Lakers - and is dating Phil (the Laker's coach). Well, my supervisor would bring Princess Cujo into the office when she had her - and her and Rocky hit it off better than peas and carrots. It was so adorable.

Rocky is now currently a happy little camper staying with my parents who spoil him rotten as I continue my adventures in traveling. So no worries there. He gets to run around the house all day with their dog Noelle, who is seriously too precious for words. They're having a grand ol' time! My parents even got them matching Santa hoodies for the holidays. Yep ... they're milking this for all they can since Rocky is the closest thing they're going to get to a grandchild for a while. HA!

Rockys best attempt at a smile is something straight from an elvis impersonator.

Another LA experience ... have I mentioned how much I love this town?? BAHHH!!!

#nerdsunite

#Randombling: That Nerdy Chick

Randombling: A 5 minute long unedited random stream of consciousness produced by a nerd for nerds.

#nowplaying: ‪Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch - Good Vibrations

OOOHHHH my goodness gracious, way to be an awesome awesome awesome christmas! dude, finally saw the fighter, and if you haven't seen it yet ... I suggest going now. Like right right now. Like go ... it was amazing. Christian Bale's performance was one for the books - for sure. What a character!!!

Having a blast with the fam. It's hard at times for them to not understand how I get SO FRIGGEN EXCITED about social media, just like its hard for me to discuss politics. I literally sit there, and smile and nod - similar to how I think they can be with me at times ... its just different levels, different lives. I think politics is just the most boring boring boringest thing on the planet, but my brother works at the Pentagon ... and I love my brother, so I gotta deal.

Dude, YAY LIFE & YAY SOCIAL MEDIA (since I know you all will get this ...) today, my parents told me that they've been trying to figure out the CD player in their new Ford Escape, and asked me if I knew how to operate the SYNC as I was a Ford Fiesta Agent. I said I'd try, and dude, I literally tried everything ... sat with it for about 15 mins before I decided to call in for backup; I sent out a tweet ...

And BLESS your guy's hearts!!! Thank you for all the replies, but yes - it looks like they do in fact have a single CD changer. I explained to them that the number 1-6 at the top were for the radio stations, and they weren't disc holders. Dude, my parents went through the manual, AND google - and couldn't find it.

Social media got an answer FROM A REPRESENTATIVE FROM FORD IN LESS THAN AN HOUR ... ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!!

When I say this is the GREATEST time to be alive I mean it from the DEPTHS OF MY SOUL to the TIP OF MY TOES!!! If you people don't see the INCREDIBLE opportunity before us all RIGHT NOW, IN THIS SPACE, then you never will. I sat there and cheered up and down left and right to my family, and they were all "that's great, Jen ... yayyyyyy." Again, awesome, if it was politics, I would have had the same reaction ... but you people get it. BAHHHHHHHHH!!! Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. I totes mcgotes lost my mind that even on CHRISTMAS DAY, I got an answer.

I'm just so so so grateful for you all, you just have no idea. Way to take an idea from ONE person and turn it into a platform that has a very very very powerful voice. I will go to my grave knowing that this was the year that changed my life. Thank you all so much for being a part of it.

Merry Christmas

xoxo #nerdsunite

PS. Thank you @scottmonty. You hold down the fort with the most incredible online reputation management that I have ever seen. Friggen love you guys!!! whoop whoop!!!

P.P.S. Moving back to Hollywood on the 3rd!! Santa brought me my gift of a new home!! Fuck yes!! The story continues ... thank you Santa! =) =) =)

P.P.P.S. I totally asked a boy out today. Let's seeeeee what he says!!! =) =) =)

#SheerAwesomeness: SNL Audition Tape

OOOHHH MY Willy Nilly born and raised in Philly ... this just popped up in my newsfeed, and its kinda making my life ... WATCH!

Um yeah. Amazeballs. Dude, the Mary Kate impression was wayyyy too spot on!! HAHA!! This chick is AWESOME! The only thing I was kinda meh on was the Miley Cyrus impression. OMG! The new chick they have on SNL doing it, is for REALS the greatest thing ever. ever. ever. ever. She's the reason why I watch SNL. Dude, did you guys see the clip from Saturday??? GENIUS!!

HAHAHA YEAH! AHHHH-MAZINNGG!!!! Oh and check out this other SNL audition tape. I didn't like it as much, but the Melanie Griffith impression is creepily good!!!

Oh yeah and dude, when I lived in NYC back in 2002, I totally crashed an SNL afterparty. For reals. A guy that went to my high school used to be one of the head writers (Michael Schur), and I wanted a chance to connect with him; he had spoken at my high school a few years prior, and I figured a contact like that being so new to the city couldn't hurt. This was of course, pre social media, where if you wanted to get something done ... you had to just show up. So, one Saturday night I went up to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and sweet talked a couple of the limo drivers out front to give up the location and approximate start time. Dude, it was so easy - its not even funny. Incredible what you can accomplish with a smile. I then showed up, struck up a conversation with this woman who was walking in commenting on how much I loved her Pashmina. She was immediately shooed right in as apparently she was someone important - and I went right along with her. I wound up finding Michael and he and I were buddy buddy for a while. Our moms actually worked together at CIGNA in Hartford, and now he's married to Regis Philbin's daughter Jennifer. Such a randomly weird little world we live in.

Either way, super super super cool night. Remember nerds, where there's a will, there is always. always. ALWAYYSSS a way!

#RockOn

thx for posting the SNL vid on Facebook Danielle!!!

#Randombling: That Nerdy Chick

Randombling: A 5 minute long unedited random stream of consciousness produced by a nerd for nerds.

#nowplaying: ‪Bruce Springsteen - Secret Garden

When I look back at this time next year, I know it will all be worth it ... but in the here and the now, its not easy. Googling "homeless shelters hollywood" is not an easy thing to do. I know its worth it, I feel it. Something like what I did with this website is totally a once in a lifetime type gig. I feel that. I just ... never felt so alive in all my life. Consistently doing JUST the things you want to do, is an INNNCCREEDDIIBBLLLEEE feeling. I won't sacrifice anything for what I believe in, and the true strength and power that I find in social media. All that being said however, this has also been the scariest year of my life. I've slept in my car, slept on couches, slept on air mattresses, bartered to stay in peoples houses; I never know where I am going to end up living, how I am going to eat ... the most basic of basic life essentials, I put in the hands of people just believing in this cause. It's insane. It's such absolute insanity, again - I am SHOCKED that I survived even this long.

*sigh* Waiting to hear from the Ford peeps, the peeps at Playboy ... and other nerdy ventures we've got going on. I am patient, I am so so so so soo patient its not even funny ... but right now I also have to acknowledge that I am scared. I am scared shitless. Stuff with the pilot will be picking up in January, which is amazeballs - but what next? Do I sleep on the Hollywood god's couch? I just don't know. I really really really don't know ... all I can hold on to is the belief in doing something greater than I could possibly imagine. This site has become bigger than me. This movement, this celebration of unapologetic awesomeness has just gotten so big, I can barely even keep up. We're too big to be this small, its exhausting. Yes, I get so excited everyday to be alive, that's no joke .. but I'm also human. I get into fights with my parents about my lifestyle choice, I crave love and question my decision to live life so publicly ... I question a lot of things. Fortunately, things keep me so busy with this blessed little website that usually I don't have time to think. I just feel so overwhelmed right now with this odd mix of gratitude and fear. I don't feel fear very often. I am usually of a sane enough mind to be able to analyze any situation, process it, and come up with a strategy to execute. Dude, I fucking crashed the Grammy Awards. I am VERY good at figuring how to get things done ... but right now, I'm just drained.

This pilot cannot happen soon enough, and I am throwing myself again at the world saying I am ready for something new. I need stability in my life this year. Spending so much of my time on the tip of my toes has created a shift in consciousness, but I feel like I have learned a sufficient plenty and am ready for my own bed to sleep in, in my own apartment, or room - with a warm shower to wake in the morning and plenty of wifi to keep me posting.

There you go Santa. A home. For Christmas, I want a home.

#nerdsunite

That Nerdy Chick goes wrraasstttliinnnnnn ...

A few weeks back, I got a tweet from @ASWFLTweetTeam regarding Wrestlemania. I was all dude! Don't even go there ... I grew up watching wrestling with my brother and his friends, and even met most of those guys in 93 or 94 when they came to Bristol Central High School, in Connecticut.

THEN! Come to find out they are based in Florida, so I tweeted them saying that I was going to be there for 2 weeks and we should totally hang out. They graciously accepted, and after some passing of time ... this happened, cue 4sq checkin:

ASW stands for All Star Wrestling, and is an amateur league of wrestlers based in Tampa, FL. See, these are the peeps that are working the hustle pre WWE and TNA. They put on a show once a week at Strokers Billiards ... and I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed myself. It started off a bit shaky as the culture shock was a bit jarring ...

All that aside, these guys put on a pretty gnarly show. It lasted about 2 hours, and consisted of about 5 matches - with the final match being a 5 team tag team event.

Wrestling is an interesting sport; it's a hybrid of athleticism displayed in a dramatic way. It's acting, meets dance, meets boxing, meets who knows. There were obvious times when my brain wanted to say, that makes no sense! If he was hit in that direction his body wouldn't respond by falling in that manner. But the show was overall so good, that I just stopped caring.

Major Kudos to the guys that run the event, and special thanks to Michael for the invite. I had a blast, and hope to make it back again soon.

The fro meets the spirithood!!

PS. Apparently the event costs $5 to get in? I had no idea ... I very literally just walked in through the door, and no one stopped me. Confidence, nerds ... gotta have the confidence ... =)

Click here to check out ASW wrestling for yourself.

#nerdsunite