Day 1 -
Anyhow, I picked up my rental car, which turned out to be a Dodge Caliper.
So, I'd recently seen this car, and thought it seemed like it might be fun. WRONG! What a heap... no joke I'd literally driven out of the rental car place and was 1/2 tempted to turn around and exchange it. Oi. Perhaps I should have, but cest la vie! First of all, it has no gusto. You push on the gas and it takes a good 3 seconds to respond (not good at all for trying to navigate in LA traffic), it has the worst design ever (you can't reach the A/C panel while the car is in park b/c the gear shifter is in the way; the A/C vent on the driver's side is literally at the same level as your stomach, etc.)!
Anyhow, I make it down to the swanky hotel I had booked in downtown LB, with relatively little traffic - but by this point it's about 7 pm and I'm starving for dinner.
Despite the fact that I'm staying within a very short walking distance of hundreds of nice restaurants, I decide to eat at the one in my hotel restaurant b/c it was recommended by the front desk and I wanted to eat fairly quickly so I could make it up to my room by 8 to watch SYTYCD. At first they aren't sure they can seat me b/c it's a "soft opening" AKA friends and family only. But after a short discussion I'm allowed to eat there as long as I sit at the bar. I look at the menu and wonder why nothing has prices listed, but don't really think too much of it and order some food. While I'm waiting for my food, the bartender starts talking to me, and asks how I know the chef. I mention that I don't and he proceeds to tell me about how she's this big celebrity chef and blah blah blah. The panic starts to set in about the price of the meal I've just ordered. Mind you, we are allowed to eat really well on business trips, but still within reason. Well all I can say is the food was spectacular, but I think I might be in trouble at work for the bill. Oops.
Day 2 -
Get up and go to this big meeting I was down there for. Meet a lot of new contacts including this guy who I will probably be interacting with a lot. He seriously looks like he stepped off the pages of an Abercrombie catalog- it was taking major willpower not to completely drool.
Not to mention he's incredibly smart, and genuinely sweet - no surprise, he's married -- oh well.
So after work I head back to my hotel to clean up for dinner with my cousin, Dana. I walk in the hotel and the lobby is packed with the most bizarre bunch of people I have ever seen. Turns out, there is an Anime convention going on..
Anyhow, afraid and confused, I head up to my room. I'm pretty irritated b/d I'd left the room at 7 am, and here it is about 6 pm and it's still dirty, Not 2 minutes after I'd gotten back the maid knocks on the door and when I try to complain realize she speaks maybe 5 words of English. I explain to her in Spanish why I'm upset, she makes some lame excuse, and I tell her to come back in an hour b/c I'll be gone for dinner then. Dana and I head off to an entertaining dinner and end up chatting for several hours.
I finally realize it is somehow 10pm already, and that I'd promised to go to Brent's (my twin Heather's bf) birthday bash up in Hermosa Beach. I call Heather to find out where they are (they were planning to hit a bar for drinks after dinner), and of course, my cell phone dies and I have no charger. I decide to try my luck and head up there anyhow. A small miracle happens and I actually find them (another entertaining story but this blog is already long), and we end up hang out until about 2:30 am (pics to come). Exhausted and a bit tipsy I drive back to LB, for 3 hours of much needed sleep.
Day 3 -
Thankfully I only had to work a half day as my brain is incredibly groggy. I got to meet more people, and get a tour of all their labs (I'm so jealous, they have all the nice new stuff that we can't even get!). Then I head out to lunch @ CPK. Should I mention I hate eating alone? It is really the only drawback of work trips. While waiting for my check, I get up to go to the bathroom. When I come back, my table had been cleared and there were already new people sitting there. Way to feel like a loser, yeah... Anyhow, I leave and head out for IKEA (a family friend had asked a huge favor of me to stop and pick something up for him) - I hadn't been there in ages, and had forgotten it's like a mini Disneyland - so fun. Amazingly I leave without spending much, though I did have to pay 5 cents for each plastic baggie - talk about cheap, eh? Then I proceded to sit in traffic for several hours on my way home.
I get home, return my rental car, and take Mooshu out for a well deserved walk, then crash for a nap. When I get up my roommates tell me a friend of theirs (ours, I guess) just got his pool installed so they are having a BBQ/ pool party / game night over there. We eat incredible steaks, get a little drunk and play a couple rounds of UNO. Hilarity for sure... end up crashing back in bed about 4 am this morning. Ah, such fun, and the weekend is just beginning...
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