A New Playlist (Lots of Bops) + A Photo Diary of Life Lately

How we all doin’ tonight? Reporting to you live this Saturday night from my LA apartment, drinking some cava ($5 at Trader Joe’s fyi!!), catching up on my Spotify Discover Playlist, you know, just girlie things. Everything has been pretty busy with me lately, so it’s been nice to just have a couple days to sleep in and lounge around! Aka the weekend. I just got back to LA from my winter break spent in Chicago (and South Africa!!), and started my second semester of grad school at USC a couple weeks ago. It feels so amazing to be back; I truly was starting to miss my place, my neighborhood, going to class, and of course, meandering around Los Angeles. And, I was really looking forward to my first LA winter… And yeah, can report that it is in fact fabulous. It gets chilly at night, and by “chilly” I mean 50s, and in the day it’s been anywhere from 60s to 80s. I took outfit pics for Instagram three days ago wearing a beanie and puffer coat, and was taking beach pics in Venice in a bikini the very next day. What a life. Sorry Chicago friends 🙁

Zara Beige Puffer Jacket (size S) / Neon Pink Beanie / Levi’s 501 Crop (similar, wearing 26) / Tony Bianco Boots via Revolve, go down 1/2 size)

Like I mentioned, things have been way crazier than my first semester of school ever was, in the best way! My class schedule is a little different, and now I have one night time class and one 9 am. I also just started an internship in Venice!! Literally just started at the beginning of this week. The timeline of applying and starting was incredibly quick. Having some sort of internship this semester was very important to me. I didn’t work my first semester, and I left my full time job at Accenture in May right before I had a summer of traveling before moving and starting school, and I was really starting to itch for more in my day to day. I want to really take advantage of living in LA and all of the opportunities here; I’m getting my masters in Digital Social Media (part of Annenberg School of Communications) and am hoping to go into PR/ branding strategy / perhaps even the digital publication space. I’m not totally sure yet! But something creative and that utilizes my natural skills. That’s all I’ve been saying since I left my job in tech consulting, which ultimately I loved so many parts of and taught me so much; but, I’m at a point in my life and career where doing something I’m passionate about is a priority.

Which brings me to my internship! I had had a hard time in the past finding exactly what I was looking for; a lot of places don’t pay and were more geared towards people in their undergrad. Honestly, being a grad student and having three years of work experience and four years of having my blog, I was only looking for something that was paid, and that would also really give me an opportunity to learn and give (#knowyourworth). The company that hired me is a California based lifestyle loungewear brand and I am working directly for/with the entire marketing team, which consists of two of like, the coolest girls ever. It’s a small and fast growing company, so there’s a lot of room to get involved and see this side of how a brand strategizes and executes; I’ve always just been on the blogger side of brand work. By the way, I will definitely eventually refer to it by name at some point, I just feel weird about doing so since it is so so fresh, but if you watch my Instagram stories you may be able to figure it out lol. I’m going to be handling a lot of the social media work, helping with content creation, working with influencers, assisting with shoots, and really everything else that could come up; it’s a very “all hands on deck” type of place because they are such a small company. I’ll be able to go to some cool places for shoots, and get to travel to work at some music festivals! Overall very, very excited. The work is also on Abbot Kinney in Venice, which is SO fun. The drive to the West Side (I live in the West Hollywood/Beverly Hills area) has only been taking my around 40-45 min, which is around my commute for school, so I’m totally used to it. No complaints whatsoever!!

Right by the cutie street I work on (Abbot Kinney, as seen below)

Sweetfin Poké on Abbot Kinney, a great spot for lunch

I can’t comment a ton about school at this point just because I’ve only had a total of three classes, but so far so good! One class is mandatory for my major, and it is about managing technologies for digital and social media; it’s supposed to be both foundational and practical! Our professor is also tailoring it based off of our potential career interests which is cool. My other class is a features writing class in the journalism program, specifically for the web and magazine; I took a couple journalism electives at Boston College and absolutely loved them. I was an English major simply because I loved to write, so I’m very excited to be back working on my skills. The other students are all in the journalism grad program trying to go into the field post graduation, so I definitely am coming from a different perspective; however, I feel like a lot of what I learn can be applied to my blog! Last class we talked about finding story ideas, and I took a ton of notes that will apply to coming up with new blog post ideas.

Funny enough, (it’s not actually funny though), as I was writing said notes, I spilled an ENTIRE bottle of water across my laptop, and lap, and shoes. There are only like 5 people in my class, it totally disrupted the discussion, and it was just super spastic and embarrassing. I immediately turned off my laptop and flipped it over, fully prepared to let it sit for a few days and see if it would turn back on and be okay… I ended up finding a Macbook repair shop and am SO happy I ended up taking it in. They replaced the logic board and had it ready to go in 2 days for $200, which I was thrilled about. I linked the place in case any of you live in LA and ever need a guy!! Crisis adverted.

That about covers it, I think!! I’m hoping to do more of these little life update/photo diary posts; I intended for it to be quick and easy to put together, but clearly I can’t get myself to shut up once I start writing. So frequency to be determined. Anyway, as the title of this post suggests, I have promised a playlist of bops, and a playlist of bops I shall deliver. It’s called “Scandinavian Beverly Bungalow,” because that is the “House Hunters” nickname my sister Kate and I came up with when we found our now house. And because we like to give our shared playlists fun, sassy names that reflect whatever is going on in life. Let me know if you end up listening! I’m also sharing more photos of life lately, (including recent outfit details featured on Insta!) 🙂