LA Bucketlist

Week 3 had a marvellous start as I didn't know the back door could shut to a lock and I locked myself out for four hours. I did find some paper and a marker so I managed to get some work done in the back yard.

The week passed with work and sunsets - and a WIA mixer!

And swing dancing.

 Friday was Paddy's day and since there are a lot of Irish people/descendants in the US the holiday is pretty big. Cami had invited me to hang out with her and some friends, so we just talked for some hours at hers before heading down to Sunset. When the pretty cool bar we found closed, ubers were too expensive so we went to get food at a completely packed 24-hour diner.

 Saturday morning I skyped with Emi (and her cat) and then got ready for Zhenzhen from UCEAP in Copenhagen to join me after her drive from San Diego.

 We drove up to Pasadena and spent some hours walking around. We got food from a farmer's market too.

We then went by CalTech to see her boyfriend's old campus and their fancy buildings.

The day was really hot so seeing that frozen nitrogen was pretty cool. Zhenzhen has been studying city planning so she would tell me how Pasadena is doing different things in terms of that and we went by this train station that was built into a mall and residential apartments - some things that are positively textbook for her class.

It was great to see her again and super surreal since we'd been trying so hard last year with no luck - and this time planning was really easy.

Sunday I showed some family around LA on their first day of their California tour. I took them to the Bronson Caves because Asha really wanted to get close to the Hollywood sign. Because of the recent rainfall, the cave actually looked different from when I was there last. The flowers were in full bloom and there were puddles scattered about. And some big spender had bought their 7-year old a birthday greeting in the skies - which was pretty cool to see haha.

From there we went by the Hollywood Walk of Fame and I got a Ghiradelli shake because I hadn't had one since San Diego. It was the beginning of the schools' Spring Break too and the street was super crowded and there were way more Hollywood performers than usual. And since I know no good food in Hollywood and I wanted to show them downtown we went there to eat.

They told me that they felt like I showed them everything in a very short amount of time, so I think I did all right as a guide haha.

The dogs are very clingy, but they know not to disturb me mostly. And I've gotten into a good rhythm of a weekly hot tub relax session.

Valentine has now gone beyond tolerating me to co-existing haha. She hangs out in my bedroom a lot.

Wednesday the 22nd I had persuaded Sam to come with me to The Rockwell to see jazz with Jeff Goldblum very last minute. We bought the tickets on Monday. I dressed up for the occasion of course.

We got there quite early and ordered some food and had some nice talks. Jeff himself was already there and was circling around the tables, sitting down to talk to everyone. He was trying to make everyone have a good time which was neat. He told me I was a flower with a long neck like a Brachiosaurus....

 

The music started and the band was really cool. I really loved when they were joined by Leah Zeger - her voice was very old-timey and she played jazz.. on a violin. Wow.

Thursday I went downtown to sketch forest girls.

And Friday we went to one of my favourite food spots - Alcove in Los Feliz. We got mac and cheese balls, a cheese tower and enough massive pieces of cake to satisfy everyone. Daniela and I played some Uno and then went dancing at a disco party that benefited Planned Parenthood!

Saturday was an early morning. Max and I drove to Newport Landing to get on the noon cruise of whale watching, knowing that we might not get to see whales. I was (too) hopeful though and we ended up seeing about 6 up close! They were teasing us for a while, only coming up for air without showing their tails. But after they grew accustomed to the sound of the engine they started playing more.

We then headed closer to shore to scope out some dolphins. We had about 10 of them playing at the front, following along the boat. That was really cool!

The cruise was 2 hours, a little shorter than anticipated. But it was actually pretty perfect, because it got chilly out on the waters.