People in LA are so NICE!
That's what I thought today as our waitress at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles called me sweetheart for the 15th time. Actually, everyone here has been really nice, not that my friend and I have spent too much time outside of his car or around non-touristy people. But, either way, I'm surprised by the fact that I kinda like LA.
Today we ran some errands, including a trip to the DMV because my friend has been driving with expired tags for over 6 months (in his defense he's been our of town on business for pretty much most of the year, working in reality TV) and we got pulled over on the way to dinner last night. The cop was nice (Surprise. But also, it was funny to hear him say LAPD without screaming is LAPD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OPEN UP!!!!!!!!!! like on COPS or whatever) but he told my friend that he was going to impound the car because the tags were so expired. We freaked out for 30 seconds until he said he wouldn't do it if my friend promised to go straight home and get it fixed in the morning. Of course we didn't go straight home, but it was and interesting start to the evening, which ended with the biggest bro down I've ever been part of in my life. My friend lives with two guys and there were another four or five of their friends over and it was testosterone everywhere, not in a good way. My friend has a TV 3/4 of the size of my first car, and a kegerator, complete with tap. You can have a draught beer any given moment in their apartment. I can't decide if this is a good thing. I was thinking that their (relatively clean-ish, expect the bathrooms) apartment just needed a woman's touch, that one of them would get a girlfriend eventually and the place would be 100% livable, as apposed to it's 85% current livability. But really, all they need is a Roomba. That'd do the trick.
As I was saying, after the errands we drove along the PCH up to Malibu and looked at pretty houses along the pretty coast. It was really, really pretty. Then we stopped at the Santa Monica Pier and walked the boardwalk. My friend Dru (yes, that's how his parents spelled it) is addicted to hats, so we bought some at a kiosk thingy, and then went to the arcade where we got awesome photobooth pictures (one of my favorite things of all time--and not the digital ones) and played skee ball and some boxing game and other ridiculous things. We spent $10 and earned 100 tickets (including 42 that some dude just gave us). Besides the $4 for the pictures, my $6 in skee ball tickets earned me....(drum roll) a pencil. That's what 100 arcade tickets earns you in Santa Monica. It's got rainbow dolphins on it, but it's a pencil. A $6 pencil. Regardless, we had a lazy, pointless day--which was the whole point of the vacation part of this trip. Mission Accomplished.
We then met up with one of my clients (thus making this vacation write-off-able) and had enormous amounts of chicken, waffles, greens and other artery clogging goodness. I have completely under estimated the genius of pairing chicken and waffles. Also? Cornbread pancakes. Which is what I had for breakfast. Seriously? How have I never had cornbread pancakes before? Deeee-licious.
Tomorrow is San Francisco with Sue Ellen. I'm going to Maker Faire to court more crafty clients and see the cool stuff they have going on there. We're definitely going to the Musee Mechanique, and Alcatraz, and In and Out Burger. Anything else I should see?
Also, does any one have A: The Monkee's Greatest Hits and B: Kelly Clarkson's album with "Since You've Been Gone"? I got a new cavernous ipod (yay birthday!) and need to fill it up with these fine examples of musical prowess, but, yanno, don't really want to pay for them.
Today we ran some errands, including a trip to the DMV because my friend has been driving with expired tags for over 6 months (in his defense he's been our of town on business for pretty much most of the year, working in reality TV) and we got pulled over on the way to dinner last night. The cop was nice (Surprise. But also, it was funny to hear him say LAPD without screaming is LAPD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OPEN UP!!!!!!!!!! like on COPS or whatever) but he told my friend that he was going to impound the car because the tags were so expired. We freaked out for 30 seconds until he said he wouldn't do it if my friend promised to go straight home and get it fixed in the morning. Of course we didn't go straight home, but it was and interesting start to the evening, which ended with the biggest bro down I've ever been part of in my life. My friend lives with two guys and there were another four or five of their friends over and it was testosterone everywhere, not in a good way. My friend has a TV 3/4 of the size of my first car, and a kegerator, complete with tap. You can have a draught beer any given moment in their apartment. I can't decide if this is a good thing. I was thinking that their (relatively clean-ish, expect the bathrooms) apartment just needed a woman's touch, that one of them would get a girlfriend eventually and the place would be 100% livable, as apposed to it's 85% current livability. But really, all they need is a Roomba. That'd do the trick.
As I was saying, after the errands we drove along the PCH up to Malibu and looked at pretty houses along the pretty coast. It was really, really pretty. Then we stopped at the Santa Monica Pier and walked the boardwalk. My friend Dru (yes, that's how his parents spelled it) is addicted to hats, so we bought some at a kiosk thingy, and then went to the arcade where we got awesome photobooth pictures (one of my favorite things of all time--and not the digital ones) and played skee ball and some boxing game and other ridiculous things. We spent $10 and earned 100 tickets (including 42 that some dude just gave us). Besides the $4 for the pictures, my $6 in skee ball tickets earned me....(drum roll) a pencil. That's what 100 arcade tickets earns you in Santa Monica. It's got rainbow dolphins on it, but it's a pencil. A $6 pencil. Regardless, we had a lazy, pointless day--which was the whole point of the vacation part of this trip. Mission Accomplished.
We then met up with one of my clients (thus making this vacation write-off-able) and had enormous amounts of chicken, waffles, greens and other artery clogging goodness. I have completely under estimated the genius of pairing chicken and waffles. Also? Cornbread pancakes. Which is what I had for breakfast. Seriously? How have I never had cornbread pancakes before? Deeee-licious.
Tomorrow is San Francisco with Sue Ellen. I'm going to Maker Faire to court more crafty clients and see the cool stuff they have going on there. We're definitely going to the Musee Mechanique, and Alcatraz, and In and Out Burger. Anything else I should see?
Also, does any one have A: The Monkee's Greatest Hits and B: Kelly Clarkson's album with "Since You've Been Gone"? I got a new cavernous ipod (yay birthday!) and need to fill it up with these fine examples of musical prowess, but, yanno, don't really want to pay for them.