l.a. - trip 2 of 2
marshall and i got back from l.a. yesterday. it was definitely a full weekend this weekend and i had a great time. it was a "dad" weekend and it was mainly for marshall's sister's high school graduation. we arrived friday evening and his dad picked us up from the airport. we picked up some dinner and headed back to his dad's house. we were just hanging out and chit-chatting, thinking that we'd catch kylie after she picked up her cousins from the airport. they ended up going out right afterwards, so we ended up just going back to marshall's mom's house. i think i've mentioned before that marshall and i aren't allowed to stay together in the same room at his dad's house (the whole trip to florida was fun - me and his sister shared a room and he and his brother shared a room the whole week). really, it's not SO bad, but we live together and obviously don't sleep in separate beds, but whatever. it's their rules. so, instead, we stay at his mom's, who doesn't seem to have any issues with us sharing a room/bed. unfortunately, we had to share a blow-up mattress this weekend, which was...interesting. i've slept in an air mattress before and i think it works better with just ONE person, rather than 2 ill-proportioned people sharing it. i seriously felt, after marshall got up one morning, that the mattress was starting to deflate. anyway, at least we slept (for the most part). we woke up super early on saturday to head out to brentwood for the graduation. marshall's brother picked us up and we got to the high school in plenty of time. it was nice to see another all-girls graduation. the campus is really nice, too. apparently, it's a converted retirement home for women and is actually really new. kylie's class was the 10th graduating class. they're also the largest graduating class their high school has had since it started. keep in mind, though, this class is only 85 students big. but for an all-girls private academy, it's pretty big. my graduating class in high school was the largest my high school had seen at 171 girls (however, since then, i believe they've had larger classes). it was a nice ceremony. all the girls had to wear white or cream-colored dresses, which at first seemed kinda eerie, but after a while they just all looked like flower-children from the 60s (they all wore little crowns of flowers on their heads, too). a few items of note: brooke shields was their commencement speaker. she's not so great with the public speaking. her speech could've been about 20 minutes shorter and she rambled a lot. marshall's step-mom noticed that she played with her hair a lot, but since we were sitting in the back, i didn't notice it. she should've gotten a speech-writer, though. i think the one thing in her speech that was the most poignant was a poem she heard based on a eulogy given for someone. it spoke of the 2 dates on the tombstone: the birth date - the death date. people see the dates, but the only way to know the person is the dash in between. the dash represents all that the person has done and what they will be remembered for. she urged the class to think about what they want their dash to represent. this was poetic and had lots of meaning and inspiration. unfortunately, she rambled on for another 20 minutes after this, which was completely unnecessary. the second point of interest: cary elwes's daughter was in kylie's graduating class. i wondered when i saw her name in the program, but didn't get confirmation until the day AFTER the graduation. marshall's step-mom couldn't remember if he was at the graduation or not, which bothered me. i'm from northern california, i don't see famous people all the time! apparently, he was holding a graduation party at his home the day we were LEAVING and to which kylie was invited! *sigh* another missed opportunity to see a famous person...
after the graduation a group of families (including marshall's) put a luncheon together for the girls. it was a buffet, but a wonderful one. there was some lovely seared salmon fillets (perfect size, too) and numerous salads and fruit (they had an orzo pasta salad, which was actually quite good and their chinese chicken salad was good, too). the highlight of the buffet were the cupcakes from sprinkles. these cupcakes have been made famous throughout l.a. and it's not hard to see why. they're fan-fucking-tastic. quite frankly, the best thing i have ever put in my mouth. i chose the red velvet with cream cheese frosting. first, let's start with the cake (the part most people ignore with a cupcake): super moist and also VERY light; it was almost sponge-like and very porous and very flavorful. now, onto the frosting. i've never had a cream cheese frosting that was a creamy and delicious as this. it was sweet, but not TOO sweet (a friend of marshall's step-mom thought differently), and was creamy without being too heavy and the cream cheese added a little sourness to the frosting that cut through the sweetness nicely. so yeah, it was definitely the highlight of that meal. there were plenty of leftovers, so marshall and i snagged another red velvet and a milk chocolate. unfortunately for us, we left them at his mom's sunday morning. oh well, at least they ship!! and a dozen for only $46? that's nearly sinful... oh yeah, did i mention they're huge?! i had to cut it with a knife and eat it like a giant piece of cake. i can see these totally worth the $3.50 price.
after all the events of the morning and all the food for lunch, everyone was ready for a nap in the afternoon. marshall and i grabbed a ride from his brother to his mom's house and fell asleep on her porch swing (that thing is fabulous, btw). i actually continued my nap upstairs, as the sun went down and got cold outside. we met up with marshall's dad, step-mom, kylie, and her two cousins for sushi down the street in the evening. it was pretty good, but nothing compared to the sushi we've got up here. i was happy, though, to see a salmon skin roll on their menu - that's something i haven't seen up here. dinner was fun, and as always with marshall's dad's family, full of interesting conversation. kylie's oldest cousin in going into her senior year in high school and she was telling us about her school in oregon. i felt sad for the kind of stuff she doesn't have access to. her class choices are severely limited and the classes that she's interested in and are in the class catalog, end up being canceled due to low-interest. i mean, stuff like british lit and shakespeare and contemporary literature are offered and she signs up for them and then no one else is interested so they get scratched. it made me feel lucky for the high school i went to. we stayed on the topic of shakespeare and it was interesting to see that all the plays i loved, kylie hated and visa versa. shakespeare led to the discussion of "was there a william shakespeare who wrote all these fantastic pieces of literature?" and that led to a discussion of art and why art pieces that were done by, say, jackson pollock are worth more, but a very good painting that LOOKS like a jackson pollock, but done by joe shmo, isn't worth crap. it was a good dinner conversation. we always have good dinner conversations. :) after dinner, marshall, his dad and step-mom and i went to the movies and saw pirates of the caribbean 3 (first time for them, second for us). i still think this movie is the best out of the 3 and watching it a second time allowed me to focus on dialogue without being distracted of the "new-ness" of the film as a whole. his dad and step-mom were not disappointed, to say the least.
sunday i got to sleep in, at least, which was nice. marshall's dad invited us to come along to another graduation open-house being held by another graduate's family. i was a bit rushed, as we didn't really know what time it started and when we had to be ready. this is what led to us forgetting our sprinkles cupcakes at marshall's mom's house (at least someone got to enjoy them, and they didn't go to waste). the party was nice, obviously full of people that i absolutely did NOT know, but what stood out, yet again, was the food. one of kylie's school's teacher's wife is a professional chef (marshall's step-mom proclaimed her as the "chef to the stars") and catered the party. holy crap - that food was fantastic. there was sweet and spicy bacon (bacon baked with brown sugar and red pepper flakes), fantastic broiled french toast (that tasted exactly like the bottom of a pineapple upside-down cake!) with whipped cream and fresh berries, 2 vegetarian fritatas (crustless quiche, basically, both of which were phenomenal), little egg salad and cucumber sandwiches (served like tea finger sandwiches), a smoked salmon quesadilla (with sliced red onion, tomatoes, and marscapone cheese), along with fresh lemon and currant scones with clotted cream and fresh fruit preserves. umm, they also had a cake, which i never got to having filled up on all the food mentioned above. there was just too much good stuff! seriously, this food was just fantastic. marshall's dad even said "i don't necessarily like french toast, but this is excellent!" i was completely stuffed until we got back to san jose later in the evening. the party provided lots of people-watching opportunities. i enjoyed watching 2 tables of high-school graduates and comparing them to how my friends and i interacted when we graduated. the majority of these girls come from multi-millionaire families, compared to the girls i was friends with, where we all came from similar socio-economic groups. i LIKE to think we were more down-to-earth than a lot of these girls, many of whom pranced around in designer clothing and clicked away speedily on their treos, blackberrys, and blackjacks. for the record, my cell phone was a hand-me-down from my mom and i didn't even have a cell phone my freshman year of college. anyway, it was just entertaining to see all these girls living in their own little worlds. it was a little awkward for marshall and i being at that party, as we were so far removed from anyone there. kylie didn't even show up until we were there for an hour and then left before we did (she was up late the night before). in the end, it was nice to relax at a party where we had no obligations and connections. we came and left without leaving much of a mark, which sometimes is nice.
marshall and i realized on our way home from l.a. that we would not be going along with chandani to her friend's 25th birthday camping trip this weekend. marshall originally wanted to go, since we haven't been camping in 2 years. however, closer and closer to the weekend, we all realized how uncoordinated and how totally unplanned this camping trip was. they wanted to go to big sur, a fantastic venue, but totally busy during the summer. there were 16 people that were set to go and no reservations (sites were given on a first-come-first-serve basis) and the sites only were big enough for 4 people per site. not good; not good at all. i mean, i was asking marshall "what about food?" "what about rides?" "what about gear?" none of these he nor chandani could actually answer. so, we were fretting breaking it to chandani that we couldn't go. aside from the chaos of the trip, marshall's project has a deadline of next friday, so he's almost certain he'll be coming in this weekend. chandani and nicole picked us up from the airport and we headed downtown to gordon biersch for dinner. we order and we're chatting and chandani said "i don't think i'm gonna make it camping this weekend." marshall and i exclaimed "neither are we!" we laughed and talked about the ill-planning and chaos that is this trip. chandani had family obligations and she wouldn't be able to come until saturday anyway. who knows if we'd have a site available to us when we got down there? so yeah, good news all around, i think. we agreed, though, that we should plan our own camping trip later in the summer. one where we delegate tasks (i.e. food, gear, supplies, making reservations, etc) and times are set and putting together carpools. we decided on big basin: it's close and beautiful with lots of hikes and things to do. i love planning. :) and now with this camping trip scrapped, i'm looking forward to a very relaxing weekend off. one where i can sleep till noon without a care and i can simply do my own thing. huzzah!
work has been quiet today, which is a nice change from last week. our summer hours start this week, so that means come friday at 1pm, i can kick-start my weekend early. not sure what i'll do, but i'm sure i'll find something.
p.s. i was just informed by my wonderful boyfriend that he now has in his possession two copies of mario kart for the DS. have i mentioned he's the greatest? :)
after the graduation a group of families (including marshall's) put a luncheon together for the girls. it was a buffet, but a wonderful one. there was some lovely seared salmon fillets (perfect size, too) and numerous salads and fruit (they had an orzo pasta salad, which was actually quite good and their chinese chicken salad was good, too). the highlight of the buffet were the cupcakes from sprinkles. these cupcakes have been made famous throughout l.a. and it's not hard to see why. they're fan-fucking-tastic. quite frankly, the best thing i have ever put in my mouth. i chose the red velvet with cream cheese frosting. first, let's start with the cake (the part most people ignore with a cupcake): super moist and also VERY light; it was almost sponge-like and very porous and very flavorful. now, onto the frosting. i've never had a cream cheese frosting that was a creamy and delicious as this. it was sweet, but not TOO sweet (a friend of marshall's step-mom thought differently), and was creamy without being too heavy and the cream cheese added a little sourness to the frosting that cut through the sweetness nicely. so yeah, it was definitely the highlight of that meal. there were plenty of leftovers, so marshall and i snagged another red velvet and a milk chocolate. unfortunately for us, we left them at his mom's sunday morning. oh well, at least they ship!! and a dozen for only $46? that's nearly sinful... oh yeah, did i mention they're huge?! i had to cut it with a knife and eat it like a giant piece of cake. i can see these totally worth the $3.50 price.
after all the events of the morning and all the food for lunch, everyone was ready for a nap in the afternoon. marshall and i grabbed a ride from his brother to his mom's house and fell asleep on her porch swing (that thing is fabulous, btw). i actually continued my nap upstairs, as the sun went down and got cold outside. we met up with marshall's dad, step-mom, kylie, and her two cousins for sushi down the street in the evening. it was pretty good, but nothing compared to the sushi we've got up here. i was happy, though, to see a salmon skin roll on their menu - that's something i haven't seen up here. dinner was fun, and as always with marshall's dad's family, full of interesting conversation. kylie's oldest cousin in going into her senior year in high school and she was telling us about her school in oregon. i felt sad for the kind of stuff she doesn't have access to. her class choices are severely limited and the classes that she's interested in and are in the class catalog, end up being canceled due to low-interest. i mean, stuff like british lit and shakespeare and contemporary literature are offered and she signs up for them and then no one else is interested so they get scratched. it made me feel lucky for the high school i went to. we stayed on the topic of shakespeare and it was interesting to see that all the plays i loved, kylie hated and visa versa. shakespeare led to the discussion of "was there a william shakespeare who wrote all these fantastic pieces of literature?" and that led to a discussion of art and why art pieces that were done by, say, jackson pollock are worth more, but a very good painting that LOOKS like a jackson pollock, but done by joe shmo, isn't worth crap. it was a good dinner conversation. we always have good dinner conversations. :) after dinner, marshall, his dad and step-mom and i went to the movies and saw pirates of the caribbean 3 (first time for them, second for us). i still think this movie is the best out of the 3 and watching it a second time allowed me to focus on dialogue without being distracted of the "new-ness" of the film as a whole. his dad and step-mom were not disappointed, to say the least.
sunday i got to sleep in, at least, which was nice. marshall's dad invited us to come along to another graduation open-house being held by another graduate's family. i was a bit rushed, as we didn't really know what time it started and when we had to be ready. this is what led to us forgetting our sprinkles cupcakes at marshall's mom's house (at least someone got to enjoy them, and they didn't go to waste). the party was nice, obviously full of people that i absolutely did NOT know, but what stood out, yet again, was the food. one of kylie's school's teacher's wife is a professional chef (marshall's step-mom proclaimed her as the "chef to the stars") and catered the party. holy crap - that food was fantastic. there was sweet and spicy bacon (bacon baked with brown sugar and red pepper flakes), fantastic broiled french toast (that tasted exactly like the bottom of a pineapple upside-down cake!) with whipped cream and fresh berries, 2 vegetarian fritatas (crustless quiche, basically, both of which were phenomenal), little egg salad and cucumber sandwiches (served like tea finger sandwiches), a smoked salmon quesadilla (with sliced red onion, tomatoes, and marscapone cheese), along with fresh lemon and currant scones with clotted cream and fresh fruit preserves. umm, they also had a cake, which i never got to having filled up on all the food mentioned above. there was just too much good stuff! seriously, this food was just fantastic. marshall's dad even said "i don't necessarily like french toast, but this is excellent!" i was completely stuffed until we got back to san jose later in the evening. the party provided lots of people-watching opportunities. i enjoyed watching 2 tables of high-school graduates and comparing them to how my friends and i interacted when we graduated. the majority of these girls come from multi-millionaire families, compared to the girls i was friends with, where we all came from similar socio-economic groups. i LIKE to think we were more down-to-earth than a lot of these girls, many of whom pranced around in designer clothing and clicked away speedily on their treos, blackberrys, and blackjacks. for the record, my cell phone was a hand-me-down from my mom and i didn't even have a cell phone my freshman year of college. anyway, it was just entertaining to see all these girls living in their own little worlds. it was a little awkward for marshall and i being at that party, as we were so far removed from anyone there. kylie didn't even show up until we were there for an hour and then left before we did (she was up late the night before). in the end, it was nice to relax at a party where we had no obligations and connections. we came and left without leaving much of a mark, which sometimes is nice.
marshall and i realized on our way home from l.a. that we would not be going along with chandani to her friend's 25th birthday camping trip this weekend. marshall originally wanted to go, since we haven't been camping in 2 years. however, closer and closer to the weekend, we all realized how uncoordinated and how totally unplanned this camping trip was. they wanted to go to big sur, a fantastic venue, but totally busy during the summer. there were 16 people that were set to go and no reservations (sites were given on a first-come-first-serve basis) and the sites only were big enough for 4 people per site. not good; not good at all. i mean, i was asking marshall "what about food?" "what about rides?" "what about gear?" none of these he nor chandani could actually answer. so, we were fretting breaking it to chandani that we couldn't go. aside from the chaos of the trip, marshall's project has a deadline of next friday, so he's almost certain he'll be coming in this weekend. chandani and nicole picked us up from the airport and we headed downtown to gordon biersch for dinner. we order and we're chatting and chandani said "i don't think i'm gonna make it camping this weekend." marshall and i exclaimed "neither are we!" we laughed and talked about the ill-planning and chaos that is this trip. chandani had family obligations and she wouldn't be able to come until saturday anyway. who knows if we'd have a site available to us when we got down there? so yeah, good news all around, i think. we agreed, though, that we should plan our own camping trip later in the summer. one where we delegate tasks (i.e. food, gear, supplies, making reservations, etc) and times are set and putting together carpools. we decided on big basin: it's close and beautiful with lots of hikes and things to do. i love planning. :) and now with this camping trip scrapped, i'm looking forward to a very relaxing weekend off. one where i can sleep till noon without a care and i can simply do my own thing. huzzah!
work has been quiet today, which is a nice change from last week. our summer hours start this week, so that means come friday at 1pm, i can kick-start my weekend early. not sure what i'll do, but i'm sure i'll find something.
p.s. i was just informed by my wonderful boyfriend that he now has in his possession two copies of mario kart for the DS. have i mentioned he's the greatest? :)