so exactly one week ago, i was in los angeles. and now i'm back sitting in my cubicle as i type. *sigh*

last thursday, my day started at 3:30am EST. yes, you read that correctly. i had to get up ass early to shower and have one last check of everything i needed for my trip. toothbrush, check. socks & underwear & clean clothes, check. bikini, check. condoms, er, just kidding. not that i'm having sex irresponsibly. that would imply i'm having sex.

anyway, i make my way to penn station and arrive there around 5:15-ish and catch the airtrain to newark airport. it was probably the dumbest thing on earth for me to book a flight from newark when i live in queens, but oh well. it was cheap and it was direct. i make it to newark and board the plane. i was planning on a nice 6 hour nap, cause i can pretty much sleep in a cubby hole. but even though i had the window seat, i had a rather large man sitting next to me in the middle seat, which made my chances of sleeping less than zero. so i slept for about 2 hours while the chronicles of narnia was on (i saw it in theaters) and ended up watching the two other movies they showed (the family stone and after the sunset).

fast forward and i arrive at LAX. not as sunny as i'd hoped, but i knew the weather wasn't going to be as nice my first few days in LA. my friend K picks me up. finally, i feel like i'm on vacation. she takes me to her house in manhattan beach to drop off my stuff. then our friend K (who is also visiting from nyc and whom i work with) calls and says he's near by. we all take a tour of manhattan/hermosa/redondo beach. we see where "the oc" is taped. we even saw the bait shop. here's a picture of K + K in front of the "bait shop":

after that we had a yummy lunch and met up with yet another person named K. after that K (boy) and spent the remainder of the day touring la/hollywood. K (boy) had never been to LA before, so i was happy to give him the touristy tour. we drove through beverly hills onto sunset blvd and hollywood blvd. we saw grauman's chinese theater, the kodak theater, the capitol records building, etc. then after that we decided to take an "us weekly" tour of la and had drinks ath the famed chateau marmont hotel.

we were escorted to the patio area and had glasses of wine. and low and behold, of the dozen people that were there including us, geoffrey rush was sitting to our left, and hayden christensen (!) to our right. it was amazing.

after that we went to robertson blvd and walked around before heading into the ivy. we didn't eat dinner there, but we did buy a small chocolate cake from their bakery which was AMAZING. after we concluded our escapades, we went to santa monica and ate our yummy cake then went to the promenade for sushi.

after dinner we went to a bar on wilshire in santa monica and met up with people who work in our LA office, including the wonderful comedians frangela. here's me and K (boy):

the evening concluded around 2:30am, which for me was 5:30am considering i was still running on eastern time. so i did pretty well. but i passed out as soon as we got to K (girl 1)'s house in manhattan beach.

day 2 summary to come...