Robot Journal : Hola Los Angeles!

9/2/2004

Santa Monica
We arrived in LA, went downtown to our pal Jayne's office (probably the only tourists in the actual 'downtown') to get a copy of her apartment keys and directions to her pad.

Jayne told us that the drive to Santa Monica might suck, but that we'd fall in love with the area once we got off the highway and into her neighborhood.

Damnit. She was right.
Her little neighborhood (two blocks from the ocean) was just precious (as Kristen would say). Sure, it's very white and not very punk rock - but it's very pretty, quiet, lots of trees, and there is a constant cool breeze.

And raccoons!

The Sultan of Brunei
Our pal from London ('Eng-gel-land') Giles coincidentally was in LA and Jayne made him come stay at her house as well so it would be one big slumber party.
We spent a lot of the first days in LA cruising around in our white people convertible with Giles who would often provide tour guide commentary in his best Robin Leech voice: "This hotel was originally built in 1956 and is now currently owned by the Sultan of Brunei" with the word 'Brunei' stretched out.

What we did in LA with Giles in our convertible

1. Went to this big mansion in Beverly Hills
2. Was yelled at by a crazy man in a truck
3. Drove up to that observatory where we were warned to be careful of running into rattle snakes AND mountain lions
4. Went to Malibu and ate at 'FOOD'
5. Met up with our pal Kristy who gave us a whirlwind tour of all the sites
6. Saw Kristy's new house in Silver Lake with the painfully beautiful backyard

Impala
My good pal Kristy is engaged to this lovely fella named Matt, who, like Matt Johnson (in the past tense), owns a Chevy Impala. But not just any Impala, but one of those newish Impala SS things.
Matt gave Giles and I a ride home after dinner one night and that thing hauls ass.
Yow!

Dogs and Food
Kristy's dog Rose is doing well, too. She's getting old, but is still running around like a goofball.

Matt & Kristy had us all over for a little dinner party with fancy cheeses, wine, and an amazing pasta dish that Matt made (one of those 'all day' sauces). It was awesome, and it brought back memories of when Kristy and I were roommates in college and she'd invite everyone we knew over for dinner.
It was all around awesome.

Beds from Kristen

After a few days staying with Jayne (who had nice towels), we moved two blocks away to Mark and Kristen's swank, sunken living room, three-cat-having pad.
They seem well.
Kristen took us to In & Out burger, which we loved. When we were leaving the burger shoppe, we ran into Gary Coleman filming something outside.
First LA celeb sighting (and, honestly, pretty much the coolest in a po-mo ironic way).

Some (either) smart-ass or idiot drove by and said, "Hey Willis!".

We ran into John Ross Bowie, who was in the Naked Babies years ago. That was Saturday night when we were just eating dinner at 11pm.
Saturday was lazy, and by lazy I mean the 'girls' went to a physic and Mark and I had a fun morning of coffee, bagels, beer, and talking about gadgets and the world population. Then we all met for a huge Mexican lunch with margaritas that so filled me up that I was out of service until about 8pm. Serious Mexican.
(Saturday was the day that I meant to try and hook up with Sunshine Jen, but with my laying in bed in a food coma state, it didn't happen).

The Weather
When M&K were walking us to the car Sunday as we were leaving for the airport, Mark quipped, "it sucks that the weather just got nice on the day you were leaving".
Ha.

I didn't make it to the valley, which I hear is miserable and hot, but the rest of LA was just amazing weather wise. Take all the annoying shortcomings of that town and compare it to the weather and it's a tough call.

I really thought LA would annoy me, and granted seeing the city with good friends zooming us around and only taking us to places that they love is like viewing the whole place with rose colored glasses (or 'coloured' for Giles) - but... it kind of won me over.

I like LA.

update
Giles posted his photos!

comments[6] | 9/2/2004 | perma-link

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