The Beginning

I had gotten to the end of my rope....I was laid off from my advertising job in June and still haven't gotten unemployment. I was working as a temp, doing jobs that had no potential at all for a real position. My parents told me that I was wasting money on rent and had decided I was going to move home. I had been told that I wasn't qualified enough to be an adminstrative assistant or work for in advertising at all. I was about as low as someone could get. I hadn't been paid a real check in 3 months and was on the brink of just stopping and getting a job at Target.  

Late one night, I was at rehearsal for Karin's show "Missed Connections" in Laurel. The rehearsal was going badly...I hadn't memorized my lines enough and everyone was stressed out. Karin suggested we take 5 and my co-star Kenny went next door to the convienience store to get us drinks. I decided to take a second and check my email on my phone. There was a message from a woman named Edar asking if I was still in the market for an advertising job because her agency, Universal McCann was looking for an assistant media planner. I quickly responded that yes, I was still in the market for a job and would love to talk to her. She sent me a form to fill out, sort of an aplication that night, and I sent it back as soon as I could. Then I did a little research on the company. UM is a branch of McCann Erickson. From Wikipedia:

McCann Erickson is a global advertising agency network, with offices in over 130 countries and almost eight decades of multinational experience. McCann is a subsidiary of the Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the four holding corporations that make up the advertising industry.


McCann Erickson was named "Global Agency of the Year" by Adweek in 1998, 1999, and 2000. McCann Erickson is part of McCann Worldgroup, which also includes planning and buying agency Universal McCann...


McCann Erickson was directly responsible for the success of The Hillside Singers' "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" in 1972. McCann Erickson was also the company that developed the "Army Strong" campaign for the United States Army. The company also developed the Mastercard commercial saying "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard."

A week or so later, I got a call from a hotel that I applied to asking for an interview. I took the time to set one up and then called UM to follow up with them. The asked me to do a phone interview. I scheduled the 2 interviews for the same week, the hotel on Monday and UM on Wednesday. I immediately called the temp agency to tell them and they were mad because it was a Friday and the interview was on a Monday so I didn't give them enough time. I told them too bad, that I was going to the interview. They told me not to worry about working the next week. I went to the interview Monday and was asked back for Friday to meet with the upper management. Wednesday night, I had 2 interviews with UM for two teams. The first was for Sony Entertainment Home Pictures and the second was for Sony Electronics. The second team loved me and not an hour after the interview, Edar, the HR rep asked me if I could fly out to meet with them. My parents, being the life savers that they are immediately booked a ticket for me.

I left Baltimore early Sunday morning. Got into LAX around 1 in the afternoon and decided I wanted to do a little sightseeing. Went to grab the rental car and had an issue because I'm not 25 and there was a mix up with the reservations. After figuring out the complicated process of getting a shuttle out to my hotel, I decided to explore a bit. I walked around Koreatown and was back in the hotel by dark to watch the Emmys. The following morning, I was up at 4am (it was 7 on the east coast, and that's the time I usually get up). Around 6, I decided to finally get up, got dressed, grabbed some breakfast and made the last minute decision to go to Hollywood. I called a cab and headed out. Twenty five dollars later at 8 am, I was in front of the Kodak Theatre. I walked around, looked at the Walk of Fame, took pictures at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and hit up a gift shop for new batteries.

My Favorite Inscription

Again, very last minute, I decided to get one of those stupid kitchy tours. The tourguide was kind of a tool. He was a red carpet photographer and had been at the Emmys the night before so "living on 6 hours of sleep and just dead to the world" because he had been out the night before partying with the celebrities. Supposedly, he's tight with NPH and Jennifer Aniston loves to flirt with him on the red carpet. Most of the tour was seeing celebrities houses, which I honesly don't care about, but we saw The Viper Room (the club where River Phoenix died) and Rodeo Drive. We also saw the Hollywood sign which was cool.

The Viper Room

The Hollywood Sign

Got back into Hollywood around noon and had to be at my interview at 2:30....and I still had to shower, do my hair, do my makeup...Grabbed another cab and he took me to the I-405 which looked awful. DC people: you have NOT seen traffic until you've seen LA traffic. There are several major highways running through the city and they are constantly backed up. I thought, "DC has the second worst traffic in the country, can't be that different." It is. As one of my favorite bands says "The traffic's always creeping even when the population's sleeping." It is said that at the rate of population growth and the number of cars that are in the city, there will be a permanent gridlock by the year 2025. Anyway, I pleaded to the cab driver that I had to be back quickly so he took the back roads and had me back in 45 minutes, enough time to grab a quick bite, down it while getting ready, but still being perfect and waiting for the cab 5 minutes early. My cab came and took me to the interview.

I had to take a math test as soon as I got to UM but then Edar met me and led me to a room where I would meet with my future bosses. They were great, I got along with them well. Found out that UM has a company policy to train their employees for the next job up the ladder above all else. Although Joy and Rebecca, my bosses at MPG did that, it was not a company policy. Was in the interview for over an hour and a half. When I left, I went back to my hotel to change and decided to treat myself to some Thai food. While I was at dinner, Edar called me and told me that she needed to check my references, but as long as they checked out, I should get a formal offer the following day. I knew that they would check out because my references loved me. The following day, while on my layover in New Mexico, I got the formal offer, for less than I was making at MPG. It was a 4 hour flight from NM to BWI and by the time I got back, I had decided I was taking the job. The next day, I signed the offer letter and two days later, dad and I were on a plane going back to LA to find an apartment.

We found a great apartment, right on Wilshire. Supposedly, the neighborhood isn't great, but I can live with that. The building is a former hotel, a luxury hotel built in the 1920's. The lobby is marble and chandeliers, there's a fitness room, pool, valet parking, carpeting, air conditioning, a huge kitchen (I finally have a full size fridge!!), crown molding, I'll have a view of the Hollywood Hills and the sign and the rent is less than my apartment now. I love it so far. I think it's a great place for me to start a new chapter.

The Outside

Little, but perfect for me!

For those of you that keep track of this kind of stuff, my new address is:
Diana Lang
2619 Wilshire Blvd, Apt 904
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Since Dad and I got everything done in the first day that we had expected to take us 4 days to do, we decided to have a little fun time too. In the first trip, I had really wanted to go to Santa Monica but it was too expensive to do by cab, so I skipped it. Dad and I went that night (pictures to come) and ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (best food EVER!!!). The next day, we drove about 3 hours up California to see Reagan and Kerry. Kerry and I went to Target while Reagan slept and tried on costumes.

First I was a banana...

Then I was a hot dog...

Then we were Bert and Ernie.

We just got home from the CA and I'm exhausted. Kerry and Reagan flew in on a different flight but got into Baltimore at the same time, so we met them at the airport. Kerry's luggage was lost so she's mad, but she'll get it. We had to get some new clothes for Reagan because they were all packed. My plan is to leave DC on October 9th and get to LA on or around the 14th. I have furniture coming on the 15th. I'm nervous because there is so much to do and so little time to do it....but I'm sure I'll get everything done and leave my life in DC for a new chapter on the west coast!!!

PS.  I know I'm terrible at updating blogs, but my mother made me promise that I would update this one every week, so I guess I have to.  For all of the family and friends back on the east coast to follow me...I do promise to be better about this one. 

:o)