#28

Hopefully I do not get into trouble for this next post!  HAHA!  I am not a horrible person….I’d like to call it resourceful!

In 1998, one of my closest friends Scott Budnick moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles (I will write more about my Scotty B later.  He is an amazing guy and is one of my best friends)(little story my mama wrote about Scotty).  We decided we would get an apartment together and that he would be my first roommate.  We moved into the Oakwood Apartments on Barham Blvd. across the street from Universal Studios and it was an amazing few years of my life.

After blowing all my money on absurdly ridiculous furniture and decorations. I realized I barely had any money for food.  ***Great way to teach your kids about finances…don’t get involved and never help.  Honestly!  My parents gave me my savings and let me blow it…I learned quickly how important a dollar was when I had no help and was broke!!  “You’ll figure it out, I believe in you” teaches a whole lot more than writing your kid a check or worse giving them cash***

So here I was broke as a joke…But you know me by now!!  I always find a moronic way to solve problems and this time was no different!!  Living across from Universal and hungry…What did I do?  Almost every day I would drive onto the backlot!  The Universal security has 2 lanes at the entry.  One where you check in and one that you drive through if you work there.  I just drove through the employee lane and waved and they opened it!!  I would then find a set that was shooting late and go eat at their catering!  Funny thing is…Nobody asks questions on a set…because you could be somebody important’s kid.  In which case they would get into trouble for hassling you:)  I had an amazing hot meal almost every night….I know…SO BAD!!!   Haha I still can’t believe I actually pulled it off for all that time!!  I started conversations with so many people and made up extravagant stories about who I was and why I was there, it was so much fun!  Then I would go shopping at the craft service tables.  Literally take a bag and get milk, bread, peanut butter and jelly, crackers, cookies, gum and stock up my fridge!!!

I didn’t have a cell phone at the time, so anytime I needed to make calls I’d just find a closed office and set up shop.  If you pressed 9 from any phone you could call anyone in the world!!  They had unused furnished offices all over the lot!

So that’s my story about how I used Universal and why I feel the need to pay for two tickets when seeing a Universal film:)  Hopefully I’m protected by the statute of limitations!!!

Keep in mind…I was a teenager….it’s not like I’d do this now…..wait…..