Seeing LA was always a huge dream of mine. If you had told me a year ago I would be traveling to Los Angeles twice within a six month span… I wouldn’t have believed you! If you had told me I’d have a new best friend that would come to know me better than almost anyone else in my life, I probably wouldn’t have believed that either. Yet my friendship with Emily was instantaneous. I remember the first time she picked me up at the airport and we were already laughing before seeing each other because I was shamelessly admitting that I was waltzing around the airport with my sunglasses on waiting for the paparazzi to descend because maybe they’d mistake me for Drew Barrymore, since, you know, I’ve been told I look like her my entire life. You gotta play along sometimes, right? What would life be without a few shenanigans every now and then?!
I think that’s why my close friends really love me, because once they come to understand how dry and sarcastic my sense of humor is, they can laugh at me through my straight face :) If you’ve never met anyone with a dry sense of humor, just think of Sherlock Holmes, or really any British person for that matter. Haha. According to Ancestry DNA, I am 12% British after all, so, that would make sense. Anyway, back to California and pretending to be Drew Barrymore…
If Emily lived in Iowa our adventures might not be as full of sunshine and salty air but she does not in fact live in Iowa, so that’s a plus. I’d still visit her if she did though… maybe ;) We’d have photoshoots in potato fields instead of downtown LA and we’d still have JUST as much fun and just as many laughs and just as many tears. Except maybe we’d have more fun and fewer tears in the potato field because there probably aren’t people smashing car windows there when you go to take a picture of a bench from 500 Days of Summer for literally 2 seconds. That’s a sad story for a different day. Right now I just want to relive these memories of driving up and down the Pacific Coast Highway, venturing through Ventura (hehe), wearing all of Emily’s clothes and making her teach me how to do my hair in a top knot like she does. When in LA, right?
My favorite day with Emily this past trip was the day she took me to Ventura Beach to see the waves, eat tacos on the pier, walk on the beach, browse the shops, and see the overlook where she shoots from time to time. We finished our day with devotionals at sunset overlooking the ocean in Malibu and it’s now obviously in the top five moments of my lifetime. It was incredible, so peaceful, and so pretty… and we took way too many pictures and probably didn’t do our devotions for as long as we should have. Haha!
When I was in California I had just started studying the beatitudes and the verse that was on my heart while I was there was “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” How comforting to know that the more powerless we feel, all the more of this divine promise we have to cling to. Watching the sunset as we read the Bible… I don’t have the words! If I lived in Southern California, I would be here every day doing this. Until then I’ll just keep reliving those moments through these pictures!!
One of the last days I was with Emily, she had a shoot in downtown LA so her sister Megan (yep, clearly meant to be a part of this family) and I tagged along and talked about life as we strolled Rodeo Drive. So that was casual. We saw a two million dollar super car, which was also very casual. In all honesty every time I’m in California I’m constantly telling myself in my head, “Just play it cool, Megan. Play it cool.” Because everyone there is somehow so nonchalant about how cool this city they live in really is. At least to an outsider! But there has to be something that is genuinely magical about Los Angeles… otherwise they wouldn’t have so many movies about it, would they? :)
I’m eagerly awaiting the next time I get to spend time with Emily when she comes to visit Justin and me and when I get to go back to spend time with her and her family in Santa Clarita. Every time I leave it feels like we’ve made years worth of memories in just a few days… and our friendship feels so deep even though we’ve really only known each other for just about a year (how is that possible?!). Justin and I have fallen in love with the incredible, talented, hilarious, and genuine person she is. Counting down the seconds until we’re together again!!
