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Jan. 26, 2002 

Got up and left @ 7:00am sharp from H-town.Made it to El Paso in 9 in a half hours, it was amazing b/c we stopped 27 times seemingly for Kelly to use the restroom. But made it there safely.We stayed at the house of a young Hispanic couple who was affiliated with Kelly's church,they were awesome.Young couple who were christians and really treated us like family,God bless them. Most gracious hosts and took us out to dinner to the " Steakhouse " where we enjoyed filet minot and pineapple colesalw,don't ask.

Jan. 27, 2002

The Never-Ending Day

Left El-paso and flew through New Mexico and through Phoniex...he weather was perfect thus far..nothing but sun..we arrivied in California and and had to stop at the Joshua Tree Sate park we had heard so much about. Reminded me of Garner State Park but with actual Mountains and actual coyotes that are bigger then your typical domestic housecat. Very serene and pretty, defintily will be going back there when we have more time to camp and be with one's self, uh I guess. It was funny because every truck stop we stopped at was like a Truck Stop/ Flea Market / Venders Delight Corner. Picture yout typical Cheveron with a Subway,Pizza Hit,watch repair and shoe hospital and In and Out Burger all in under the same roof; then across the street you have every type of craft the you cannot get at the malls but available only at these desserted places, lined up on tables and booths and RV'S. Not my type of shopping but maybe for other travlers, not us though. Frankly it scared us, too many people concentrated in a small area completely out in the middle of nowhere.Like a little cult of vendors/shoppers, Twilight zone man-so we got the hell out of there as fast as my Camry could book-em. The weather was perfect until... alas..Orange county where we were welcomed with showers, all the way into Los Angeles. Stop and go,Stop and go all the way in. But we arrived in La La land around 8:00PM PAC TIME...WITH IT POURING DOWN RAIN...it really sucked. I assure you I have never been more mentally and physically tired in my life than I was @ 8:30 that night...it was awful.. but we got through it . Praise God man, it was brutal, but we got here. Kelly was really great the whole trip, other than her imposing her religion and political views on me..but we did not kill each other...

Jan. 28, 2002

Part 1 " A great start "

We got up and had breakfast in Burbank on this little boardwalk type place across the street from NBC studios. It was cool we just had a good meal and stapled our headshots and worked on that a little. Afterwards I called a friend who I met through Serina's husband Cameron,Mitchell. Mitchell owns his own film company...Red-Navel FLMWORKX...rednavel.com I think(or use a seach engine)...they do all Post Produciton Work on Film. THIS WAS SO COOL ! They do everything from editing to dubbing to sound synchrination..We saw how film was spliced and glued back togehter, how an actual film reel was made and went to the top of his roof where he has the best view of the HOLLYWOOD SIGN. He was most gracious and cool to us and I am so glad I contacted him. His Film studio is so cool and high tech. Well,we are currently @ Kinkos in Hollywood using the media center and Kelly is bugging me to go already...How do you know when you are in Hollywood ? When Kinkos has Valet parking,this town is unreal, but I love it. More later and audition news. Thank everybody for your prayers and support(and emails ).

God bless

Jan. 30, 2002

We got moved into our apartment and boy does it feel good, the complex is so pretty and heppens to be right next door to Warner Brother Studios www.oakwood.com Tolucha Hills......This past week I have already taken a tour of Staples Center (compliments of my cousin who is the box office manager) and the Kodak Theatre where the Acadamy Awards will be held from here on out. My cousin Larry's good friend is the box office manager there, Bruce. I hope to have pictures developed this week.. I think that I have finally gotten the used to the freeways here. Feeder streets do not exsist here, once you exit the freeway you end up in a neighborhood or right @ the next cross street. So you have to know what streets enter and exit the freeway. So if you were to accidentally exit in East LA or Compton, you had better be packing-if you know what I mean. Well come this weekend I will have a ton of good stuff to share I am sure. For Friday we registar with all the casting agencies and such, should be fun.

C-ya -- Chase

February 20, 2002

Tonight we went to our agents office to do submissions. Every night around 8 the " breakdowns" come in over the wire...everything from Television,Commercials,Theatre,Film,Indies,Grad films ect to are agents office... A typical one would read:

Film: Catch me if you can

Stephen Spielberg

Starring Leanardo DeCaprio and Tom Cruise

Seeking : Male African American Taxi driver-U5( Under five lines)

Late 20 early 30's with visible tatoos.

Male Caucasion, police cadet, mid twenties-U5, must be in great physical shape...short hair and clean cut.... {This was an actual one I got submitted for tonight} But there would be a long list and our Agent(Diane)would say. " OK I want Terrnece Smith for the Taxi driver and Chase Whittaker for the Police cadet " SHe then take are headshots, puts them in a envelope,and they are rush delivered to what ever production office it is the next morning....Casting director opens them up, if they like the look and the actor has the experience they are looking for- they call the agent for an bring that extremley lucky individual in for an audition. Let me tell you about the audition process if you know nothing about it. You find the office, make your way up there and sign in , usually in a very tiny holding area, where you see 20 other Joe-Smoes who have a look that resembles you. So I usually go off and start talking to someone who looks friendly and watch the other people who really get nervous, for some reason I have been blessed to where I have not really gotten very nervous waiting to audition...like other guys my age who will not even look at another actor, and are in total focus...different strokes for different folks...I guess.

February 24, 2002

FIRST CELEBRITY ENCOUNTER

Sunday 24th,afternoon. This was pretty cool. Me and Natalie had just dropped off Meredith to her audition off of Sunset blvd...so me and Nat had some time to kill so we parked and walked into Tower records on Sunset (so I could pick up the new Chris Isaak) walked around, this place is huge first of all and next to Virgin Records in New York, one of the most famous...I got my cd's and Natalie was talking on the phone as she usually does.Well I got in line and the 2 ladies in front of me literally must of had 25 cd's a piece.. I was freaking. SO for some reason I got out of line, looked for Natalie and got back in to line. Well the little gal in front of me had a basket with,50 CD'S at least..People buy them in bulk out here or something, its the most bizzare thing. Anyway she turned to me and saw that I only had 2 cd's and said" Oh my gosh you only have those 2, you can go in front of me " ... She had the SOFTEST voice and she was very pretty but in grunge type of way. I said thank you and got in front of her. At first it really did not dawn on me, who the hek she was, and I was not really sure. But after I found Natalie and she was freaking out, it was confirmed. So like an idiot, we get behind a record rack and are just like staring while she is getting checked out trying not to look like to fans. Well like I said she had about 50 cd's so that took forever. After we got over the initial excitement that kinda wore off after she walked by...Well I was right by the exit and there was NO WAY she was getting out of there with out having to see me again. So I am waiting by the door(pretending like I am waiting on Natalie),Nat got back in line and here she comes towards the door. About half way there she looks up and sees me, SHE STARTS SMILING AT ME AS SHE IS GETTING CLOSER. For the very first time in my freaking life, I was SCARED STIFF AND SPEECHLESS. I know , hard to believe. Thats a bad combo in LA. As she walks out the door, and the Tower Records Security guy holds open the door for her she turns and says " Bye" .

You dont have to tell me twice brother ! I give her about a 5 second head start, and that go out in the parking lot after her like a dog in heat. I kinda of calmly say her name just as she got to her Black Benz,and it happened just like this. I walked up and said I was a big fan of hers and just wanted to give her a hug (I know cheesy yes but she smiled at me first man) and I told her I just moved here from Texas. She was like" That is so sweet " WE HUGGED.. a good hug too not some I barely want to touch you hug or something like that. Then she told me " Welcome" blah blah, and versus pressing any issues, and in hindsight I am kicking my self...I said see ya later and she said Thank you again and I was on cloud 9 and I walked away. Natalie came out and was freaking and I was doing everything I could to not like go chase her car down and jump on her hood or anything, I really want to believe that she was digging my chilli.

Natalie made a pretty funny joke afterwards though, she said as the gal exited Tower Records, Natalie thought she heard the little store security thing go off. I thought that was kinda funny. The star you ask ? Winnona Ryder