i love LA

As many of you already know, I spent some time in Santa Monica from the 17th - 23rd of sept. i had so much fun staying with the very awesome sarah lyman who was an excellent host. i flew in late thurs and sarah and i met up with coley for a dinner and drinks at la grande orange. it was such a yummy place. sangria was fantastic! on our walk there, we saw something rather unusual: a porsche suv had driven straight over some parking bumps and into the window. as in half the car was sticking inside the store! of course we went to take a closer look and laugh at what an idiot this guy must be! on our walk home, we saw this strange lawn art... so of course i had to climb in and see how big it was!





while sarah worked on fri, i explored main street shops and parked it at starbucks for awhile. i also sat at the beach and in the park by sarah's house for some good reading time. that evening, we went to dinner at the galley with her friend, tori. at dinner, we met a new friend and sarah was forced to dance with him. at the moment i'm not remembering his name, but he was there with his brother and they were SM locals and had even gone to high school with catherine.
and then it was time for ben and jerry's and a movie back at miss sarah's place. we were wild women that night!


on sat, i experienced my very first jewish holiday - yom kippur- at catherine's parents' house. it was a gorgeous day and it was so nice to meet her family and see her, matt, and lucy! after our visit, we left to go to glendale and meet up with sarah and dave. i must tell you all that their new kitchen and flooring choices are fantastic! i'm super impressed!! from there, we went to whole foods and picked up wine and food for our trip to the hollywood bowl. we took the shuttle bus over which didn't do so well for poor sarah's car sickness, but we did make it there it one piece and then we set up for a picnic. sandwiches, chips, and wine. lots of wine! then it was time to head inside and see pink martini! to be honest, i'd never heard of them before even tho sarah mac says the motley used to play them all the time. more wine was consumed and the music was great! i had such a fun evening! we then had to take the shuttle back to the car... poor sarah l again did not feel so well! we got back to the car and 3 of the 4 of us had perhaps consumed a little too much wine (nah!) and insisted that a trip to the jack in the box would be a great idea. pretty much if it was fried and on the menu, we ordered it. sarah s, dave, and i scarfed down mozzerella sticks, chicken tenders, fries, tacos... and then i felt sick from eating so much fried crap. but it sure did taste good going down!! after many laughs and a great night, sarah l and i headed back to SM.

on sunday, sarah and i went to yoga. it was so hard! and i left super sweaty. there was one chick in the class who said she was on class #2 already that day and that she did yoga like 5000x a week. you could tell - she was ridiculously good!! we then went for bagels and rested for a bit back at the apt. and then we made the trip down to visit higgins. he's moved back from park city and is now in hermosa. he and a couple partners have opened a yogurtland and plan to open 5 more in the so cal area. we drove all the way down there (i had no idea really how far it was, oops) but we got to hang out with higgins and that was fun. the store had just opened a few days before and he said it had been packed every day. there were tons of people there when we went too. we tasted all of the flavors and then made higgins buy us our yogurts. mine was yummy! vanilla with peanut butter cups, reeses pieces, and sprinkles. we weren't allowed to have the fruit b/c there wasn't much left and it was the most expensive. but all in all it was cheap - for both me and sarah i think we only spent about 3 bucks.

on monday, i spent time at starbucks (shocking, i know). and then i decided to head to the beach and read for a bit. so nice outside!! and then i decided i'd try to give sarah some space that night as i know how tiring work can be and sometimes i know i just need my own time so i thought i would try and give her alone time. i walked down to 3rd street promenade and i have no idea the last time i was down there, but it'd been years. i wandered in and out of the stores, but didn't buy anything. i really didn't want anything either. so then i found a borders and wandered around in there for awhile looking for business school books and another book to read since i was going to finish my book shortly. i spent quite a while in there, but again found nothing to buy. how disappointing! i couldn't even find a single book to get! and then sarah called me around 615ish, i think and asked what i wanted for dinner and that she would be coming home soon. well, boo... last week she'd gotten home about 530 so i was thinking she'd get some alone time. but alas that would not be the case as she still wasn't even home. so we ordered thai and i headed back to her house. she so graciously offered to pick me up and i said i'd start walking towards home and when she got close to call me. so she picked me up at the gas station which is right off of the 10 on 4th st and we drove back to her place which is only a few blocks away.

on tues, i spent too much time at starbucks (i'm such a regular now) and then catherine and lucy came and met me! yay! after some snacks and hanging out there, we went over to catherine's new house and met with the landscapers. i got the grand tour of the new place and it is SO super cute!! it's going to be a wonderful place for them! i can't wait to see it once it is all finished and they've moved in. so while catherine was with the landscapers i got to play with lucy who is beyond adorable. i had so much fun! catherine then dropped me off back at sarah's and i then decided to head down to the park to get some more reading in. i love that park! so do the homeless, but whatever. i laid down on the bench and read and hoped that people wouldn't think i was homeless too for lying on the bench seems to be what the homeless were doing!


boo, not sure why i can't enlarge this picture and have it not be so fuzzy... but this'll have to do... for now


and on wednesday, sarah and i packed up the car and headed up to SF for a couple of days! road trip!! since this has gotten super long, i will do another post about our drive and SF!!