los angeles... kind of

damn, my memory is REALLY bad. i'm going to try to recount SS's and my trip to LA, more as a mind stimulating exercise for myself than as a catch up entry for my loyal readers (all 3 of you).

thursday: grace picked us up from LAX around 7:30pm. we headed over to gyu-kaku (sp), a japanese barbecue restaurant where we grilled our own meat. except stephanie and i made grace grill most of the meat, cuz we're lazy ppl. $40 later, we had our fill of delicious japanese bibimbap, meat, edamame, salad, and sake, which apparently tastes better when mixed with the toxins in the wooden box encompassing the shot glass (later on, when tye picks us up from the austin airport, he tells us that this is in fact FALSE - that the sake overflowing from the shot glass into the wooden box symbolizes overflowing generosity... or something like that). for dessert, we got to grill SMORES! that was awesome. note to self: need to go camping more often. after dinner, grace took us to the grove to check out the beautiful LA/hollywood skyline from atop the parking garage.

friday: we got dropped off at the promenade in santa monica during grace's lunch hour (she had to work). stephanie and i ate at jack and jill, a cute little restaurant with delicious looking pastries. i had the chinese ponzo wrap, which was absolutely huge! afterwards, we walked around the promenade, visiting all the stores along the strip. then we headed over to the pier, where we walked in the sand and took pictures. it would have all been very romantic, except i was with stephanie, hahaha. anyway, grace picked us up around 5pm, and we went to eat at the grove. the grove had sort of a night market feel, with little restaurants operating around a bustling milieu of people. grace treated us to south american food. i got these brazilian french fry thingies, chicken stroganoff, corn, a cheese nugget looking thing, and chicken w/ bacon. it was so good that i've been craving south american food all week :) after dinner, we met up tracy, ann, daisy and her sister, pansy, kelli, and one of their friends. except that we didn't really get to see them.... all but daisy and her sister had gotten into the club before we arrived, and with the bouncer having to follow a race quota or something, we didn't make it into the club :( that's how i know i could never live in LA - ppl are so superficial that they will only allow a certain number of asians into a club?! ridiculous. that's nearly racist. it's ok though, because the music emanating from the club sucked. apparently britney spears and jesse mccartney were there that night tho, so we missed out on a couple of celebrity sightings. anyway, grace, stephanie, daisy, pansy, and i went to a couple of other clubs before FINALLY finding one that wasn't closed for a private party - mood. it was a pretty nice club. i had about 3 shots and the neck of a corona and threw up EVERYTHING over grace's 3rd floor railing later that night. poor plant... i think i killed it.

saturday: apparently i slept REALLY well friday night and missed all the drama that ensued early saturday morning. anyway, we woke up and went to eat at the ivy, a favorite hotspot of the stars. we didn't see any celebrities. afterwards, we went to sparkles, a cupcake shop. who knew a shop selling ONLY cupcakes would be viable?! anyway, we had to stand in line for them because they're so popular, but it was worth it :) yum. we went to venice beach afterwards, which is famous for its street performers and beachside storefronts. we walked around for awhile, were invited to buy some "medical" marijuana, and then went back to grace's to change. that night, we fine dined with everyone at a classy restaurant called social hollywood (mini ASR reunion, seriously). the food was excellent! then we went clubbing at this REALLY nice venue next door. holy cow, it was the nicest club i've ever been to - fake falling snow, a live "ice" skating performance, little edible party favors, and an outside area with many private covered pavilions. i couldn't fathom drinking anything after my pukefest the night before, so i was sober the entire night. in contrast, my grand lil drank a little too much and was nearly kicked out, so we took her home :) we stopped by mcdonald's, where my happy meal came with some craptastic club soda (not the sprite i had ordered). the line was long, so... i walked through the drive through, hahaha. oh well, it was good times.

sunday: we woke up late and grace took us to eat tofu. that sounds really weird, but everyone was raving about it, so yeah... we went and ate bulgogi and tofu at this korean restaurant. it was pretty good, but now i know that "no spicy" does not equal "mild." it means no flavor! haha, good thing i'm not picky. afterwards, we headed to the beverly center, where after finally finding parking, i literally had JUST enough time to step into H&M before we had to leave. grace took us back to LAX, tye picked us up in austin... and our LA trip came to an end :(

all in all, it was a lot of fun. i know i'm lacking in a lot of the details, but i think i hit most of the main points. i loved all the great restaurants (though most our meals were upwards of $35) and fooood! and i am now looking forward to my next vacation! many thanks go out to grace.... the whole LA experience was definitely enhanced by her awesome hosting abilities :)