July 7-12: LA. "SO-Cal!"

As you may have heard, there are many expressways in Southern California. You take the 5 to the X to the Y, to the 293813, to the Z, etc to get from one area to the next. KG does not like this. I'm not so fond myself, but his antipathy far exceeds mine. From San Diego to LA KG drove, and was not enjoying himself. Perhaps a pre disposed thought of distaste grew before we arrived.

I, on the other hand, was having one of my famous "I can hold it until we get there.... or can I??" episodes with my bladder. We have a very intense relationship, but I have yet to piss my pants as a fully grown adult, thank goodness.

We get off at an exit in Hollywood and head to a book-recommended-restaurant (we are also starving, as per usual for arrival. We always seem in dire need of toilets and food immediately upon reaching each destination. Ahhh, the science of the body. The magic of living.)

I RUN towards the restaurant, but they are closing. No. Bueno. We were going to an asian restaurant, and we are in an exclusively Thai/Vietnamese area. I RUN to the bubble tea joint next door. One bathroom out of order, the other (men's) being used. I. Can't. Wait. So I RUN to the somewhat shady looking bar next door. Immediately upon arrival they follow after me asking "how many", nervous by my pace that I'll urinate and leave. Which would have been great. But I run to the bathroom and Kevin gets us a table. It's a Thai Karaoke Bar. It's terrible. The food, the karaoke, everything. Just terrible. But certainly an "experience". And it can't be labeled a waste of money, since that bladder was going to empty on the premises one way or another.

From there we thought about getting more food, actually edible Thai perhaps this time, but soon gave up and headed to my ol' chum TI's apartment. It was lovely to see an old friend, one of the most beautiful aspects of this journey we took. Seeing friends old and making new ones, when our last big adventure (see: Scatterbrained in Southeast Asia blog... to be finished after this one.........) was quite an unsocial one. Our social life on this trip was the most surprisingly active and successful in our lives. We were very impressed.
Anyhoo, we met her overly enthusiastic, talkative, LA bred roommate... he was very nice and hospitable and it was constantly a struggle to not be bothered by everything he said while grateful for things he did. He wanted to make plans with us for every second he wasn't at work.... and we wiggled our way out of very little.

Our first full day, however, he did work. So we decided to get the hand prints and "walk of fame"/Hollywood off the check list right away. I'd been before, and the hand/foot prints themselves have a bit of novelty to them, but most of the rest of the area holds not much of interest. Luckily for cynical Kevin, we got to the only interesting part of the walk of fame, those prints in the cement, and the entire thing was CLOSED. So he decided he would show his aversion to SoCal colture by taking pictures at all the sights with his shirt unbottoned... and his demeanor as SoCal as he was capable of pulling off:

no foot/hand prints for us.

We spent the night in, with my old/Kevin's new friend. Plus big glasses.

The next day, our friend's roommate had found out we had an interest in hiking and insisted on taking us to climb a mountain... apparently one of the one's you see Clooney's house from. Alright.
We had coffee, he gave us some 5 hour energy, and somehow we set off without having eaten yet. I think he said we'd earn breakfast a delicious breakfast out by conquering the mountain. Although he had the best of intentions, he was like a drill sergeant up that mountain. And the mountain wasn't our favorite of mountains. Straight up with tall weeds on either side and no views until you reach the top... where you then get views of rich people's houses. Apparently Clooney's being one. Alright.
We were much slower than this speed-walking maniac, and kept hearing "Come on, slow pokes! You can do it! Faster! One Two! One Two! Go! Go! We GOT this!" from half a mile ahead. Every now and then he would stop, turn around, wait a few seconds, sigh, and continue on. We. Were So. Hungry. We're "hikers", but we don't run uphill. We walk. Slowly.

Come ON guys!

 

From there, we earned that breakfast. Thank goodness. And the place we ate was so delicious, we went back later in our LA stay. LA had some delicious food, this is true.

I ate all my food all gone (they even had turkey bacon!) and our host was a bit horrified by how much I could put away. I, on the other hand, felt great about it.
That night we went out for a drink at a bar from a movie:

 

 

  

 The next day we went to one of the hottest spots on our list... Atomic Records, where the musicians buy music. It was adequately hip, and I bought unnecessary things for more money than I meant to spend.

From there we went 'round town, eventually continuing our "KG as SoCal Model" photo shoot. Which he would end up insisting on daily during our time there. So I and my "hot bod" style friend went from Rodeo Dr to Santa Monica.

During our driving that day, we got caught in the famous traffic.... it was pretty horrible. We did notice a movie theater playing a documentary on one of our favorite bands, and we knew it was supposed to be a limited release so decided to see it the next day. Only later did we realize it seemed to be following us in all the cities around the country... and now it's on Netflix. But even though its "limited-ness" has since been revealed as a lie, we still enjoyed the experience. The next day we hung around the apartment with our new "roommate pal" for a bit and did our laundry, then head out to see the flick:

 

As we head to The Van after the film, I noticed a back door facing the parking lot... a back door one must assume leads to a seafood restaurant kitchen: (pretty interesting looking, no?)

 

We got some Mediterranean wraps and I decided to show KG Venice Beach at sunset. We meant to go from Santa Monica the day before but had run out of time. I was disappointed it was so late in the day already as I knew it would be his favorite spot, but we'd made plans for the evening. Strange, random plans that only happen when you're on a journey such as this. Remember that older gentleman we met at a park in Santa Fe? Who made videos and websites for artists in Southern California? Who's wife knew PT Anderson's dad from his Voice Over career she encountered at her job? I forget how she was involved in that world, but she was. We couldn't stop running into them in Santa Fe and exchanged information -- he said he'd try to set us up with an LA friend who could have some connections for our band. So we had dinner plans in a bit with a fellow, let's call him E. We knew not at all what to expect.

dog. in. sunglasses.

As we drove back to meet E, spending far less time at Venice Beach than would have been adequate for a lazy lounging experience, we hit that traffic again. I texted our unknown dinner companion we'd be late. He was kind about it, his office being nearby he stayed at work longer. When we finally hit Hollywood, there was no parking. Eventually KG dropped me off to meet the fellow and went scouting. The fellow seemed confused and surprised there was only one of me when he arrived, and he seemed confused as to whether we should wait. I knew it could be a bit, so we started walking towards a restaurant. E was very friendly, but the whole thing had a very uncertain vibe, from both ends. Talking to a stranger about I-didn't-know-what sort of feeling, you know the one.

We waited outside the restaurant on the sidewalk for an uncomfortable amount of time, and he suggested I call KG. The conversation was full of stress and confusion -- he had parked far away and was trying to get his human birdie instictive GPS going to find us in a place he'd never been. Eventually we were all together (after making this fellow wait far too long) and the stress eased a bit. We went to a fancy Mexican joint and shared stories. We got to know each other better and shared our aimless confusion as far as not feeling capable to play the Music Game well enough to get it capable of reaping financial benefits. He had no answers or assistance, but it was nice to meet someone nice. After the meal he even took us to the roof of his office building... I sure do love a good roof. And a good roof it was.

We parted ways, first gifting him our album. We did later receive a text he greatly enjoyed it, which is far more than you get from the vast majority of folks. We appreciated it.

The next morning was the end of our El Ay story. We hoped to visit TI at work, but it wasn't in the cards. We instead asked her lovely meow-meow to relay our regards, adoration and appreciation to her Mama after our departure and continued on towards our next story.