Originally, RV and I were planning on leaving Los Angeles on Monday. But after walking around a bit on Friday and hearing about a particularly good deal at one of the restaurants nearby, we decided “What the hey, we’ll stay another day as long as it’s okay!” And of course, being as awesome as they are, Jen and Alex let us stay another night. We remained out of their hair most of the time, so that probably helped. Aside from the evening plans, we didn’t really have much of anything else on the agenda. Wandering around, looking for food and just taking it all in before finding ourselves back in SF? Found random spots to take pictures…
Somewhere along the way, we came across the Museum of Death [Watch out - it's a MySpace page!]. And to take words from my Yelp review: Wow. Just wow. We were wandering down Hollywood on our way to a Thai place down the street, and this unusual spot caught my eye. 
On the outside, it doesn’t look like much. There are several signs around the building that say “Museum of Death.” Entrance is $15, and it is NOT for the faint of heart. The aim of the museum’s founders, married couple J.D. Healy and Cathee Shultz, is that visitors to the museum leave grateful to be alive. And after a bit of time inside the museum, you really do feel good to be alive… and wonder what is WRONG with all the psycho-serial-killers!
It was rather gruesome, and I was feeling faint at some parts. Just had to remember to breathe. It was pretty amazing though, just how extensive the collections were. Definitely a very random place to wander into when you didn’t really have much planned for the day.
After the Museum of Death, we wandered around West Hollywood a bit before heading back to the apartment to join Jen and Alex for dinner at Citizen Smith. Half off all food on Mondays, and it’s totally worth the discounted price! Large platters of Mac ‘n Cheese for $5. The other entrees are normally priced high, but at half off and for the taste, there’s no reason not to swing by. We also ordered a burger and a meal-sized salad. They cover their sweet potato fries in sugar and cinnamon and call them “churro fries.” Tasty!
To end the evening, we hopped over to Space 1520 for the last in the series of Monday night outdoor movies for Bill Murray month – Groundhog Day! It got a little chilly, but it was definitely not as windy as SF.
Good times. Wondering when my next trip to LA will be. Perhaps August? Maybe sooner?
While Jen and Alex rested off their hangovers from the Alter Egos party, RV and I went up to the Valley to visit Jeshii, Yayoi, and Little Joe! The last time I had seen Jeshii was when he told me that Yayoi was pregnant. I’d seen photos of Joe over the last few months, but to see him in person at three months old, wow! It’s sunk in. One of my close friends has a baby! And Joe was so well-behaved while we enjoyed brunch at CiCi’s Cafe. Steve [Ace] was there also, and I hadn’t seen him for a few years, I think. Good to catch up. The food was pretty good too!
After brunch, we hung out for a bit at their house. Caught up a bit. I’m considering returning to LA in August for the annual Death March. Will see if I can fit that in!
Upon returning to LA, we made our way over for ice cream at Scoops! I think I make sure to visit every time I’m in LA. Unfortunately, we got there about half an hour before closing, so there weren’t a lot of flavors left. I ended up with the Brown Bread [with Grape Nuts] and a vegan Salty Chocolate combo. Still very good.
And then a few hours later, Taco Zone! I’d heard so much about this taco truck from Jen and other friends. It was much easier to track down because they park in the same spot every night – on the side of the road, right by the Vons parking lot. Very convenient location! The food was pretty tasty; we ordered the suadero burritos on Jen’s recommendation. We grabbed everything to-go and chowed down on the back of the car.
If I visited LA more frequently, I’d return to SF a very fat girl… I just keep on eating… Oh, wait. I do that in any city already!
The rest of the evening was relaxing. Watched Duplicity back at the apartment. It was a little confusing at first, but then it all came together. I actually really liked it because the portrayal of corporations competing for secrets cracked me up. A bit over-the-top.
On day number two, RV and I headed for the canals of Venice after a brief stop for lunch at a Burmese market/eatery for lunch. I’ve always loved the area because of the unique houses and gorgeous canals. It hasn’t changed very much since I was in the area last, except maybe a few extra “For Sale” signs.
After a scroll around the canals, we headed for Venice Beach. It was much too windy, and there were too many people trying to peddle their goods along the walkway, so we got out of there. It was quite the feat to find a bathroom that wasn’t one of the public ones at the beach. We found ourselves at Seed. No bathrooms for customer use there, but we did fill our bellies with a vegan cupcake and an iced coffee [Yeah, we ordered a beverage despite our original task at hand - to find a toilet!].
The joint birthday party for Jen, Neil, and James was in the evening. The theme was Alter Egos, and all guests picked name tags on the way in. All the names had been pre-determined, which was part of the fun. You didn’t know who you would become until the party. I ended up with “Dorah,” and RV was “Gabriel” for the evening.
Good times, but I think it got a little frustrating for some people who didn’t know very many people, and all they had was a fake name! There were some pretty awful names in the mix too, including “Edna,” “Grizelda,” “Eustace,” “Archibald,” etc. I guess it was better being referred to as “The Explorah” the entire time. There was someone named “Norah” there also.
By the end of the party, I had decided to sift through the name box for something a little more crazy and ended up with “Apollonia,” except I pronounced the “pollo” portion like chicken in Spanish!
So nice to catch up with everyone in LA, as well as meet the new faces. Kristen made the cakes – aren’t they AWESOME?
I’m in LA today. It’s good to be away from home. It keeps me from just wrapping myself up in a blanket and staying in all day long, casually browsing job listings on Craigslist or LinkedIn on the laptop.
RV and I arrived yesterday afternoon. Alex was kind enough to pick us up from the airport, and we started off our trip by trying out Kitchen 24 in Hollywood. Basically, a fancy version of a diner. The servers wore pink pants, and I had french toast for lunch.
Most places we check out SHOULD be new while we’re down here since I’ve not been lived here since 2004, and my last trip was several months ago. After walking around in the neighborhood, I can say there’s a lot to see just within a few blocks, so we’ll be entertained for the few days we’re here. We spent a few hours hanging out at the apartment, playing Little Big Planet. YES, they have that game here! I’ve been obsessing over the Sackboys for some time now, so that was pretty exciting. While time-consuming, it’s fun to see what the characters can do.
When Jen got home from work, I told her about Kogi BBQ being on Vine, possibly nearby, and we looked it up right away. Turns out it was just a block up! We immediately headed outside to get in line for it, totally expecting a reaaally long line. It was actually not too bad of a line, and we had our food in hand in 20 minutes. It’s basically a taco truck with Korean-style meats that announces its location using Twitter [@kogibbq]. My review: here.
Since I’ve been following all these food trucks and carts lately, I’ve decided to start a new Twitter account for that purpose. Follow @hungrysuki for my foodie adventures, my first one being Kogi BBQ!
After the delicious KBBQ tacos, burritos, sliders, and dessert [Yeah, we ordered a shit-ton!], we hung out [aka painted their new apartment bathrooms] until finally deciding to go out. Ended up downtown at Bar 107 where we caught up with a few others to finish off the night.
Wondering what today will bring… aside from the guaranteed boozing madness that will ensue tonight at the joint birthday party that was the real reason we flew down for the weekend! Can’t wait!
Not long after RV dropped the L-word on me, I was throwing it back at him. Sometimes it felt like the right moment to say it. I was probably using it more than he was. Things are going well. At the same time, I’m beginning to sense some hesitation within myself. I’m not quite sure how this is all turning out. I see him so often that I’m beginning to feel a little antsy. I think he sees it too. As much as we love spending time together, it just becomes that – coexisting, rather than experiencing something fresh and new. On the one hand, being able to be that comfortable with each other is very nice. But still, I like to keep things exciting. I know that things will be different when I’m working my butt off again and will have less time to spend with him, so for now, I’m enjoying all the time we can spend together.
We are spending this evening apart. We’ll see each other later tomorrow when we head to the De Young Museum.
Photos are from the day after Christmas. We watched the sunset over Los Angeles from Griffith Park.
Heading to LA!
RV and I are heading down to LA tomorrow morning. We’ll be taking his friend Josh with us and dropping him off down there. The original plan was to stop at Hearst Castle on the way down, but we may do that on the way back. For now, we’ll just hightail it down there and hope that there are no freeway closures because of inclement weather. The forecast says that we should expect a day or two of rain and basically temperatures that resemble normal San Francisco temperatures. Right now, San Francisco is experiencing some below average temperatures, so I guess relatively speaking, it will be warmer down there. Still, for me, 50 degree weather is not warm.
We’ll be heading down there with a sense of ease because 1) RV finally got his paycheck from the last few months of working, and 2) I’ll have caught up on some of my work by the time we leave. There’ll be a few things that we’ll have to do because we’re spending time with his family, and then there’s everyone else we may or may not meet up with while down there.
Can’t wait!
It’s my last night in Los Angeles. The last few days have been a much needed vacation from everything back home. I basically didn’t do much more than study during the day and then catch up with friends at night. It was awesome. Finally partook in one of Brian’s beer pong tournaments. He has them every year, and every year, I’ve missed them. It was a good time, just hanging out.
During study breaks, I have been playing with the Wii Fit and Professor Layton and the Curious Village on the DS Lite. Those are absolutely addicting, and I am very glad I do not have the games at home. And thankfully they are not big enough of a distraction to keep me from studying.
Tomorrow, I hop on the plane back. I’m going to miss this. This being the friends, the neat apartment [it's pretty freakin' awesome], and the video game study breaks. I also managed to finally take pictures. Hooray!
Twitter for 2008-05-25 [slightly behind]
Wow. Just wow. In one day, I find out that two people [+ their spouses] from school [one high school, one college] are becoming parents! It’s pretty crazy, and at times, I feel left behind in the dust. At the same time, I know that I’m where I need to be. There isn’t room in my life for anything like that, at least not for the time being. I’m happy for them, but wow.
Spent the morning and afternoon studying. Alex and Jen were out with Alex’s parents again. For dinner, I drove up to the Valley to catch up with Jeshii. We wanted to try this vegan Vietnamese place, but it was closed by the time I got there. Oops. Instead, we ended up getting Mexican food. I, of course, am totally messing up my “no dairy” diet. Frustrating, but I am definitely more conscious of it now. I DO eat a lot of cheese when I eat out because it makes everything taste better. Now I realize that. After catching up over dinner, we headed over to a friend’s “girlfriend’s” graduation party. Nothing too eventful, and so I headed back to Hollywood after a couple hours.
The funny part was that when I learned of the high school friend’s pregnancy, I totally thought in the back of my mind about the college friend. He’s the only one of my immediate circle back in college that got married, so when he asked me if I wanted to hear the news, I was not surprised one bit. It’s weird how that works out.
Yes, that’s a photo of meat on clothes pins.
As planned, I have been studying for the exam while staying with Jen and Alex in Los Angeles. Their apartment is actually VERY suitable for studying – quiet [when the people upstairs aren't jumping up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs], well-lit, spacious [I can spread my books all over]. There’s no need to fight for a table at the Borders downstairs or endure the loud music at the cafe downstairs. Meanwhile, I am also catching up with people on the side.
Aein picked me up from the airport on Thursday and basically drove me all over the place. We had breakfast along the way, and we hung out/studied at the apartment for a few hours. A few hours after she left, Jen came back to the apartment, and since she was lending me her car during my stay [she takes the Metro to work], I dropped her off at dinner with Alex’s parents. They’re in town while I’m here, so Jen and Alex are hanging out with them. It’s actually perfect because then I can just study, study, study! PLUS, they won’t get sick as quickly over seeing me for six days straight. Hah! Had dinner with L after dropping Jen off and returned to the apartment around the same time that Jen and Alex did. We played with the Wii Fit for the rest of the night. That Wii Fit is quite the workout.
Ann just left her job at the House of Blues. Yesterday [Friday] was her last day, so I attended her going away party. Met her crazy former co-workers, and wished that I was actually close to any of mine. I mean, seriously. I spend so many hours at work… After her little happy hour, I met her boyfriend, Nader, and we all had dinner at Dar Maghreb [Moroccan food]. It was definitely more of a place that you pay for the ambiance and experience rather than the food.
When Jen and Alex came back to the apartment, we watched WristCutters: A Love Story. I loved it. I suppose I have that odd sort of humor.
Even though I brought my camera down here, I haven’t taken any photos yet. Sad. Plus, the weather’s been all sorts of crappy.
They Said