Adventures in LA

so I have never been west of New Orleans. I come from flat Illinois and flat Florida. The school district I teach for gave us the entire week off for Thanksgiving. Now that I have a job, I have some money to finally be able to travel places that I have never been able to see before, such as Los Angeles, California! I have a friend, Jon, that I met on JTV last year that lives out here. I decided that this week off would be perfect for traveling out to LA to see the city and visit Jon! My adventures in LA begin on Monday, November 24.

Monday, November 24
Arrive at LAX at 9:30AM. Jon picks me up. We eat breakfast at IHOP. Jon is in the process of moving out of an apt in Santa Monica and into a loft in Los Angeles. He takes me to his new loft so that I can sleep. I did not get much sleep the night before and I did not get much sleep while I was on the plane. I was exhausted! The loft is located in a neighborhood called The Brewery. The Brewery is collection of industrial warehouses that were turned into "starving artisit" lofts. It's definitely an interesting way to live in LA! And it's definitely interesting to travel and experience life this way, rather than going to a hotel and being a real tourist! So I slept on a big couch/chair thing for some hours. Then my other JTV friend from LA, Jake, came and picked me up. He was hoping to show me Hollywood and where he works and his apt in Burbank. But the LA traffic at 5pm was CRAZY! And for some reason he didn't get sleep the night before either, so he was kinda not feeling well. We ended up going to a mall on Hollywood and Highland. I saw some Walk of Fame stars and I saw the handprints and stuff outside the Chinese Theater. I also saw the stairs that lead to the Kodiac Theater. I was hoping to see the Hollywood sign on the hill all lit up, but it wasn't lit up. They have a cross lit up instead right next to it. Why the cross and not Hollywood is beyond me. We were hungry so we ate this awesome restaurant in the mall. It is called UWINK. Each table has a double sided computer touch screen to order your food and play games. Ordering your food is amazing because you can be as picky as you want! The food wasn't anymore expensive as say...Friday's. The games were fun. The whole experience was just cool! I love technology and I really think touch screens are the future! I almost felt like I was in back to the future, expcept for the fact that a server had to bring us our food, and we still had to wait for it to be cooked. I also picked up 2 souveniers while we were at the mall.

After eating, I thought Jake would feel better, but he didn't. So he drove all the way up to Santa Monica to bring me to Jon's school. Jon had class from 6pm-10pm that night. I go to Jon's school about 8 and sat in his music class for two hours. The whole class just learns about different time periods and genere's and artisits in music. Jon and I were exhausted but we some how made it back to his loft in LA and we passed out around 11.

Tuesday, November 25
Today we woke up kinda early because Jon had homework to do. I had homework to do as well, but I was not feeling motivated to do it. Once Jon finished his homework, we were planning on seeing some sights before he had to meet up with a friend to work on a business project that are starting up. We never got to see some sights because Jon let his new roommate borrow his car. The roomie said he was only getting breakfast. Well....the roomie didn't come for 5 hours! Leaving us stranded at the loft! We explored the Brewery neighborhood and found this bar in the middle of the Brewery where all the locals go, Barbaras.

Once we got back from Barbaras, the car had returned and we went back to Santa Monica to go to Jon's business parnter's house. We stopped at Starbucks and Rite Aid on the way. Jon works at a Starbucks and has worked at many locations. He cannot live without his coffee. I on the other hand do not like coffee. I ended up getting a Pumpkin Spice Blended Creme Frappachino. At Rite Aid, I picked up some producats to do my nails and toe nails. They were looking pretty gross. We made it to his friend's house just in time. While they talked business, I did my nails and messed around on the internet. Then it was time to go. Jon wanted to do something after we left his friend's house, but we couldn't think of anything that would be open. We had wanted to go ice skating, so we found the outdoor rink in Santa Monica. Before heading over though, we figured we would be cold (yes, cold in LA!) so we stopped at Ross to get some scarves, gloves, hats, and sweaters to keep us warm. We go to the rink and got our skates. We had to wait for the zamboni to clear off the ice. This was going to be Jon and I's second time skating in our whole lives. My first time was when I was 10 and Jon's first time was like a year or two ago. We were both pretty sure we were going to look like fools. While we waited for the zamboni, I used the port-a-potty. It was the most amazing port-a-potty ever! There was lights, a fan, a sink, soap, paper towels, a mirror, a trash can, carpted floor and wall, and most all...the toilet FLUSHED! It was like luxury port-a-potty! So I go back to Jon and the zamboni is still clearing the ice. I put on my skates. Just as we are about to walk out onto the ice, it starts raining! In LA! Appearently it hasn't rained in months! But here we are at an out door ice skating rink a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica and it starts raining! But we all skated anyways. It only lasted about 20 minutes. But it made for an interesting skating experience. I am proud to say that I didn't fall! I also didn't suck as bad as I thought I would. Remember, I had only skated once before this and that was 12 years ago!

After skating, Jon and I walked a block or two over to the Santa Monica promendae where there were stores and restauarants. Our skating wristbands got us a free coffee or hot chocolate from..here its goes...Starbucks. So we stopped at Starbucks to get two hot chocolates. I gave mine to Jon who ended up giving it to a funny/friendly homeless guy walking around the promenade. I was wearing flip flops and with the wet ground, my feet were wet and cold. We stopped into Sketchers so I could get some awesome gray boots (and some socks). I even got a discount for the holidays! Then we started looking for somewhere to eat. We ended up at some bar/restaurant with outdoor eatinig. Well as soon as we sat down, it started raining on us. Luckily there were umbrellas. I was not feeling good and I only got a soup. I was also getting really tired.

After eating we went back to the car, went back to the loft in LA. I went right to bed. Jon stayed up and did some homework.

Wednesday, November 26
Today started off quite early as well. We had to be out of the loft by 9am because Jon had a one hour class meeting to present a space layout by 11 in Santa Monica. Of course, we stopped at Starbucks. This time I got a vanilla bean frappachino and some pumpkin load. YUM! We also had to stop at Kinkos so Jon could print his space layouts. We go to his school early and we surfed the net in the library. Class was only an hour. It kept me interested because after the presentations, the teacher explained their next project: desiging a day care. I had to do that once. And children are my job and my education experience as well! After class, Jon and I decided we go get tattoos. We had been planning to do it Friday, but we spontaneously decided to do it Wednesday. We had to go back to Jon's school so that he could find the Chinese characters that he wanted and print them. We couldn't go straight to the tattoo shop because they didn't open until 2, and it was about 12ish. So we went on down to the Santa Monica Pier. Walked around, took some pics, and left. Then we stopped at Panda Express for some lunch. Then it was time to find Art and Soul Tattoo. We found them on google. They had lots of good reviews so we said why not. We both wanted simple small, not detailed tattoos, so we weren't worried about it. We foundt the place, walked in, signed the papers and found out they only take cash. So we had to walk down the street and get some cash from an ATM. Both our tats were $150. I went first.

Now I have two other tattoos. My first two, I don't remember crying, or being that nervous. For some reason, for this one, I got myself all worked up ahead of time, and then when the guy started, I started gritting my teeth, gripping the chair, and then the tears came. In reality I think my tat only took 10 minutes, but it felt like 20. Once it was over, it was Jon's turn. He was the exact opposite of me. He practically took a nap while getting his. Walking around after getting the tattoo was quite interesting. I got my tat on my left foot. I wore my new boots that day, unware that we were going to sponateously get our tats. Jon grabbed his flip flops out of his car for me to wear, but im tiny and his big. I looked like a freak wearing flip flops 5 sizes too big, and gimping around since my foot felt like it was on fire!

After the tattoos, we drove to Beverly Hills. Jon drove quickly through Rodeo Drive, just so I could see the rich life. We parked in a garage and waited outside in line for Sprinkles cupcakes for about 45 minutes. It was quite interesting waiting in line with my large flip flops and "flaming foot". It was also very chilly and I had left my jacket in the car. We got our cupcakes (which I still haven't eaten yet) and we left. Lucky us, the first hour of parking was free and we had JUST made it! All we did was wait in line for cupcakes. It took THAT long! They are gourment and they are pretty famous! I hear there is always a line out the door for them. It is usually longer.  We were lucky.

After Beverly Hills we drove to Santa Monica to go to Jon's apt the he is moving out of. He loaded up some stuff in his car, stopped at subway, and headed to the loft. I went right to sleep around 9:30ish. Jon stayed up.

Thursday, November 27
That's today. That takes me to right now. We have Thanksgiving plans. But I want to talk about anything until it happens. I still haven't eaten my cupcakes. I also still haven't taken the seran wrap off my tattoo on my foot. I need to do that so I can clean it and put some A & D ointment on it. I haven't really even gotten to see my tattoo. I kept my eyes closed the whole time and then I took a short glance just as he wrapped it.

Did I mention how freaking chilly this loft is? Because it's all industrial, it would be way to expensive to heat it. The place is made entirely out bricks, there is no insulation. So even though it's LA in the fall, its still freezing in here!

Well I'm done for now. Will update the rest of my trip later!