The new year is often rung in with deep sighs of nostalgia and lamentation. C’mon folks, let’s face it. Time is a moving target. You can never catch it, wrangle it, or slow it down. Take your best shot while you can.

For me, 2010 was a bulls-eye. Before New Years Eve ’09 had even begun, I had already toasted 2010 to being a year of Awesomeness. Even with such high expectations (Awesomeness, really?), 2010 did a bang-up job.

In January, Kirk and I moved out of the Chicago condo, threw everything in storage (our parents’ basements), and struck out for Australia. Before setting off in a 747 over the Pacific, we rented a car for a two-week jaunt up and down the coast of California, with my sister in tow.

We started off in Huntington Beach,

and crashed on the couch at Brandon (Kirk’s friend from high school) and Brenden’s “hostel”.

After a rainy, yet beautiful drive up highway 1,

we made it to San Francisco. Kelly strong-armed me into walking the length of the Golden Gate Bridge (this is the middle of January, mind you) despite a chilly drizzle that turned into a full-blown gale. Oops. No photos of this escapade, the camera would’ve ended up a goner.

After all the rain, San Diego’s weather was heaven-sent. And just perfect temperature for this hike up Cowles Mountain.

The Point Loma tide pools were my favorite attraction in SD.

And then in February, our adventure in Australia began.

Oh, Australia.

For the first half of our five-month trip, we lived in Manly, a beach town and suburb of Sydney. Every morning we saw this view from our 13th floor apartment:

We did lots of hiking,

Kirk did lots of surfing,

and I got a job waiting tables.

We visited Sydney as much as we could

and chatted with our families from 10,000 miles away.

In April we moved out of our place in Manly and spent a week in Melbourne.

Kirk fell in love with the trams.

I fell in love with the coffee.

We both fell in love with the architecture.

Then, we packed all our crap in a van. From Melbourne we drove the Pacific Highway 2000km north to Brisbane.

Byron Bay became our new home for the end of April and the better part of May. Here we spent most of our days at the ocean.

We went paddleboarding

and beach exploring.

Kirk bought a new surfboard

and caught lots of good waves at “The Pass”.

One of the best parts of living in Byron Bay was our great group of housemates. We had many engrossing cultural and political conversations.

We capped off our Australia trip with a fantastic bareboat charter in the Whitsunday Islands. My mom and my friends Christina and Natalie joined us on the charter.

“Fishy, fishy!”

Picking up Mom from one of her many solo snorkel sessions.

Feeding the batfish.

Mid-June, we said bittersweet goodbyes to beautiful Australia, and headed home to the Midwest. I spent a few weeks in Wisconsin with my family.

We held a rummage sale,

and celebrated my sister’s 22nd birthday and simultaneous send-off to NYC.

Back in Michigan, Kirk and I moved in with TC & Michelle, two of Kirk’s high school friends, now hitched.

In August, we got movie gigs. Both of us worked on LOL, a film with Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore.

And we both learned how exhausting the ‘biz’ was. One day after work we found a grassy hill near the film set and collapsed into a nap. When we woke up, the sun was casting a warm glow on downtown Detroit.

In September our movie gigs ended. There were no more plans. What would we do with our lives next? We spent many afternoons at Borders, contemplating.

In the mean time, we sailed a pirate ship on Lake Erie.

And a normal sailboat too.

Kirk spent a lot of the summer and fall researching residential real estate. In October, he almost bought this house, a real fixer-upper:

We drove to Atlanta for a weekend of wakeboarding.

For Halloween, I was a greek goddess. We still have no idea what Kirk was. He was creepy, that’s for sure.

TC & Michelle’s dog Hank got dressed up as a devil submarine.

In November, Kirk’s mom Val and sister Maureen took me to the town of Frankenmuth, Michigan’s “little Bavaria.”

In December, we went to the Big Chill. Michigan State played U of M on outdoor ice at the Big House.

About the same time we worked as production assistants, we both signed up to work as extras. I worked on a movie called Smooch, as well as the ABC crime-drama Detroit 1-8-7. I even made it on screen! (This aired January 4, 2011.)

Cheers, 2010. ☼

A few nights ago, Kirk and I were rolling the cart up and down the grocery store aisles. Sighing, mid-reach for a jar of Classico alfredo sauce, he said what was on both of our minds: “We need to learn how to cook new food.” That jar of alfredo sauce would be used to make our umpteenth dish of chicken alfredo pasta, no doubt. Our staples, including said pasta with pre-made sauce, ground turkey tacos and chicken sandwiches really need a break from our culinary repertoire. I resolved to buy a new cookbook.

At home, I made a mental list of what I’d like in a cookbook. Because I really like being able to see a photo of the finished recipes, the more photos, the better. Books with an emphasis on ‘quick and easy’ received extra brownie points. With these prerequisites in mind, I began scouring Amazon for the highest-rated books geared toward the cooking novice.

The following three books are top on my list of consideration:

[AMAZONPRODUCT=1401323596]

While traveling abroad – where you expect no luxury whatsoever – I was oddly spoiled rotten with an unbelievably souped-up cable television package at my flat in Sydney. With more American shows that I had even seen in America, I was able to watch Jamie Oliver on the Food Network. Immediately I was attracted to his unpretentious manner and straightforward style. I also liked how he took us along on his journey to gather ingredients from local shops. The book has the same “from the ground up” approach.

[AMAZONPRODUCT=0881507237]

This book attracted me for a handful of reasons:

• it has a stellar average 5 star rating on amazon.com
• it boasts quick “in a hurry” recipes
• it “serves two” (Lauren + Kirk = 2)

[AMAZONPRODUCT=0446572098]

I am intrigued by the 5 ingredient simplicity. Such a small amount of required ingredients should make for an equally small amount of required cooking skills, no? Probably terrible logic, but I’m sticking with it until I try the book.

These three books seem like they could do the job. But, I’d also like to hear about some tried and true favorites. Who has a cookbook they love? Please do share! ☼

We’ve all heard that about eight million times. Yeah, well, my résumé is pretty great, I smugly thought when I was in college. So little did I know. During senior year our professors would invite recent graduates and industry professionals to talk to us about getting jobs in the real world. They would preach the necessities of networking and the value of who you know. But surely, we thought, there must be at least some merit placed on our résumés, our experiences, our skills?

NOT A CHANCE. Fuggedaboutit. Shred your résumé. Screw your experiences. And your skills? Your skills will not be used. No one gives a rat’s ass about what you’ve done.

IT’S ALL ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW.

This is not a joke. This is not just 50% of the time. Or 90%. It is all the time. It is industry fact.

This August I worked as a production assistant on LOL: Laughing Out Loud, a drama-comedy about a high school girl’s experiences involving sex and drugs and her evolving relationships with her friends, boyfriend(s), and her just-divorced mother. Small by industry standards, the film’s budget – somewhere under $20 million – was comparable with that of a substantial indie production. The top billed cast, however, including Miley Cyrus, Demi Moore, and Ashley Greene (Twilight), affirms that LOL is a legit Hollywood flick complete with overpaid actors and nauseating marketing campaign.

How did I get on this movie? We know it wasn’t my stellar résumé or interviewing prowess. It was who I knew. When I was at MSU, I belonged to the student television group Telecasters. Specifically, I devoted myself to the magazine-style show called MSU & U. My VIP ticket to moviedom worked on the sketch comedy Sideshow. Her name was Ideene Dedashti, and still is. We made acquaintance with each other through monthly Telecaster meetings. That mild acquaintance alone wouldn’t have been enough for her to start handing me favors. About 100 students are involved in Telecasters. You can’t just work hard, make it on a movie, and then give every person who shared your affinity for production in college their big break. No, there has to be a bit more to it. Ideene and I ended up becoming good friends through a few fortunate events. One night she had a party at her house. I happened to attend. She danced on a few coffee tables, I cheered her on, and we might have imbibed a little. Now, this anecdote seems to propose that drinking can be your ticket to the silver screen. Not exactly, the real technique is bonding. If that means bonding through drinking, well, so be it.

Since that college party, Ideene and I took different paths. Following graduation I moved to Chicago, she, New York. Giving that a year or so, we each then took off traveling. Ideene went on a round the world blitz, I spent 5 weeks in Costa Rica and 5 months in Australia. Then, our courses converged and we both found ourselves back in Michigan.

This whole who you know business is about time and place too. You need to be both dear and near to the person who’s gonna get you in. So, it might be a bit of luck too that gives you the break. Don’t get me wrong though, this ‘break’ is hardly a break.  It’s not like you are officially stamped on the “IN” list or something. It takes lots of follow-up, tons of effort and persistence.

Who am I to be bible-thumping this stuff? I worked on a movie for two weeks. I probably know just enough to be dangerously ignorant.

It’s been a rather unorthodox year so far. Not in comparison to the previous years of my own life, but instead in contrast to the other 24 year-olds in our society. Most don’t quit their jobs (especially in the depressed economy of today) and fly off to Australia for five months. Then, once back here in Michigan, work on a movie featuring Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore. Since it’s summer, there must be waterskiing (check) and sailing (on beautiful Torch Lake and Lake Erie, check). Oh, and let’s grow tomatoes.

A big thank you and cross state hugs to Aunt Gwen. She gave us a bunch of tomato plants which we stuck in the backyard of TC & Michelle’s house (our current abode.) Despite their initial lack of watering, our sad excuse for tomato cages (kabob skewers tied together with shoestrings), and repeated forced droughts they had to endure when we left town for, well, weeks on end, these little guys still managed to produce some tomatoes for us. And, if you can believe this: they’re edible!

By the way… yes, I met Miley. And no, not like this: “Hi Miley! I’m Lauren!” No, definitely not. More like this: me, “Excuse me, can I get through?” (I have, Ahem, important PA duties to perform.) Miley, “Oh ya, sorry!”

Unforgettable right? More on all that film business stuff later…

Now what’s on the table for the rest of the year? One or more of the following, in no particular order:

• Learning Spanish
• Starting a media production company
• Flying to New York to visit the Grad Student (of similar genetic material)
• Moving to Colorado for ski season
• Buying a rental property in Michigan (not with any of my piles of money, let’s be clear)
• Flying to San Jose, CR to see two special people, a new baby and a dog called Rasta
• …other suggestions?

There wasn’t a complete lack of hygiene. I did once wash my hair in a bucket of saltwater. Other than that, we just had to keep layering on the deodorant. We included Kirk, my mom Heidi, Christina and Nathalie (my friends from Sydney) and myself. A bunch of scruffy sea dogs we were. Though, ask any of us, and each would tell you the same: it was utterly worth it.

Here’s a photomovie of the trip:

Do you know that bittersweetness you feel at the end of a vacation? The idea that memory will remain, but the experience is over. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the case for me on this trip. This particular sailing charter was not just a vacation. (Or, ‘holiday’ as the Aussies say). This week was a big stepping stone. A ‘we could do this for real’ preview of the future. After this trip, I am absolutely delighted for the future. I really feel cruising could be a big part of my life.

Back on solid ground, I turn on the faucets in the shower. Before I step in, I run my fingers through my hair. It’s stiff and caked with time spent on the ocean. Under the shower head the sterile water douses away the last of the salt, sweat and sun. It’s odd to feel squeaky clean. I wonder how long it will be until I’m back on the ocean, on a sailboat once more.