So, I ended with Monday. Monday evening I hung with KK and J-bar a bit more (KK made tasty food for dinner) then headed back to Nick's. I believe that was the night we hung out with his friend Erin and watched the 40-year-old Virgin...which is hilarious! Tuesday I was awoken early by a call from my dad cancelling a couple of calls we had for work later in the day. I was pretty much up after that -- but Nick is accustomed to sleeping veeeeeeeery late. So when he finally got up I believe we grabbed some lunch and headed out to the beach. Manhattan Beach was beautiful. I took some pictures of the water, the houses (holy crap expensive and huge, but no yard...I don't know that I could live year-round without a yard...even with the beach that close!), and the sunset.
Nick and I laid on the beach and chatted for awhile, then he went to teach. While he was gone I headed out to the pier where there was a little aquariam. Then I went and talked to Matt and my sister on the phone...which is when I ended up gettign trapped on the pier for fear of being on a stupid tv show. See, when I walked away from the end of the pier, where the aquarium was, Christopher Knight (AKA Peter Brady, AKA gross) passed by me chatting with two women (one about his age, one older), and a sound person, a video camera man, and a still camera man following behind. There may have been a few other people with him as well but, frankly, I was more focused on not being anywhere near the cameras than anything else....Anyway, so they passed me as I was walking over to a bench to sit. I sat for perhaps 10 minutes talking to people, taking pictures (see below for some pics taken that day), and just enjoying the view and the ocean air. Then the entourage passed by me heading back to shore....and they stopped to sit as well. Just as I was getting up to head back to shore. Yeah. I didn't want to pass them while they were filming, so I just sat there. Annoyed. And thinking how gross Christopher Knight is....
Nick came back and we wandered around Manhattan Beach a bit -- we went in some VERY expensive stores and then headed back to his place. I think? Honestly, I can't remember what we did that evening. Probably just chatted and drank as we were apt to do that week.
Wednesday was VERY fun. We (or at least Nick) woke up late again, got some food, and then Nick dropped me off in Burbank to wait in line for the Tonight Show. That was sort of an adventure. I of course made friends with the guy in front of me. We were the first two people there.
The tickets said to be there by 3:30. Which is when I had told Nick and KK they needed to meet me there. Well, at like quarter to 3 the assistants (who are all in uniform, it's really bizarre) came out and started asking us to tell how many were in our group. They counted off several lines of us and lined us up to go in...at this point I'm frantically calling Nick and KK and trying to figure out if they're in the area, if I should go in, etc. KK showed up with my lunch and everyone applauded. That was pretty funny. But Nick was in rehearsal and not picking up his phone! So, Courtney K, the redheaded assistant allowed me to put Nick's name on his ticket and leave it with her. Of course JUST as we're actually goign into the studio (after a 30 minute stop over in the lobby..) Nick called. He was the last person into the studio for filming!
Watching the filming was pretty amusing. Jay Leno is hysterical when he's off the cuff, like warming the audience up for the show and stuff. And Jerome Bettis's mom danced for us. So did some other audience members, but she was awesome!
So then Jay came out and did his shitty monologue, which was disappointing since he was so funny beforehand. The guests were Felicity Huffman and Jerome Bettis, with music from The Fray (who were just ok). The singer from The Fray groped Felicity Huffman at the end. I'm not kidding...there was hand to boob action!
Oh! And KK caught a water bottle before the show!! She gave it to me, so I now have a snazzy water bottle for the gym :-)
Let's see....what else. That's pretty much it for the Tonight Show. Though Jerome Bettis was absolutely adorable.
After that we headed over to eat at an Indian restaurant called Bollywood. It was tasty. And after that, I went to KK and J-bars for the night. Thursday was the day that KK and I went to the gym, then went shopping! Our first stop was in Studio City where she works. We had some lunch, visited her boutique (awesome), and then went to a snobby bridal salon. While there I stood naked while the woman helping me took dresses off the hanger, helped me put them on and take them off, put them back on the hanger, and got the next dress. I got a kick out of it, I have to say. I'd never been in a place like that before.
Let's see, so then KK and I went over to Beverly Hills. While driving through the canyon (which one I don't know) we played a fun game. Every time a car passed we would say "help," "lives here," "works here," or "famous." It was pretty fun, since cars were passing pretty much constantly.
I had my first shopping experience at Anthropologie, KK's favorite store. I like some of their stuff, but I'm so not good at coordinating interesting prints and shapes that I was generally overwhelmed by the selection.
That night (Thursday) I went out to dinner with Jabbar, KK, and their friend Lindsey. It was a good time. Then we all went to where Nick was playing with a couple singer/songwriter friends of his (though we had missed most of his playing...oops). Finally, we all (including Nick now) headed off to West Hollywood to a club called The Abbey. At some point between dinner and getting to this club I decided I wanted to drink seriously that night (such a rare occurence for me these days!). So, I drank a bit at the Abbey, and Nick called his friend Christopher (an adorable gay black tuba player). After Christopher got there we said goodbye to KK, Jabbar, and Lindsey and went to...ummm...Fiesta something? Something Fiesta? *shrug* All I know is that that is where I am pretty sure I exceeded my limit on alcohol. They had two-for-one happy hour going on so, armed with my two Long Island Ice Teas, I began to..ummm...have fun? I should back up for a moment and say that when we arrived the Fiesta Something Nick and Christopher knew the bouncer. So, said bouncer grabbed me and said "No one gets in tonight without a hug!" And gave me a hug, followed by a nice smack on my rear. I thought it was sort of funny (he didn't cop a feel, just literally smacked and left me alone), so I said sarcastically "oh. And I have to just take the ass slap too, do I?" He laughed and said I could get him back, then he grabbed my hand and smacked his own ass! It was pretty funny.
As we were leaving and I was paying my tab, I remember that I flirted with the (I'm pretty sure gay) bartender, and that the last thing he said to me was something about a package....eh. Must not have been important.
So Christopher, Nick, and I headed over to another club...called Rave, I believe? Rage? *shrug* again...
Christopher bought me a drink and then the three of us quickly realized that I did not need anymore alcohol! We danced for awhile and had a great time. All I'm saying about the end of the evening is that Nick was very good to me and took care of me when I came down with *some sort* of stomach bug! :-/
Yeah, I just don't know my limits anymore, I guess. The good news is that I wasn't hung over in the morning -- just tired.
So, Friday. My last day in L.A.! Nick and I again got up super late and headed out to the Getty Center. The Getty? It's AWESOME! I was a little bummed to discover that the one piece of theirs I am really familiar with is housed elsewhere, but I still really enjoyed their collection, as well as the gardens, architecture, and views! Nick and I hung around at the Getty until his salsa band played a gig there that evening. It was a bummer that KK ended up feeling crappy, so I was sans dance partner and...well...sans comapny while Nick played, but it was fun to see all these AMAZING dancers out on the floor, and I enjoyed the music, etc. Apparently Nick glanced over at me a couple times and I looked really unhappy, but I'm pretty sure I was just staring at these dancers and trying to remember how to do those steps. I never did successfully learn to do more than the most basic of steps. Maybe someday. I do really love to dance.
So, that night Nick dropped me off at the Raisani's and took off to go study for a test early the next morning. KK wasn't feeling well, but before she and Jabbar headed to bed we watched the Tonight Show we'd been at (they had it Tivoed). If you pause and go frame by frame you can see a blurry Kiirstin and a blurry Brea. Well, at least the backs of our heads. And I flip my hair. So exciting. I was famous (or at least on national TV) for a blurry nanosecond!
That's my LALA Land story. I saw pretty much everything there is to see and didn't even spend too much money in the process. I had great tour guides and company and really had a great time.
Alrighty, I've been back a week now. Pep had training this morning, we went grocery shopping. You know, I continued the glamourous and exciting life I lead in Smalltown, USA :-D
Tomorrow we're leaving the house at 8AM with our wedding planner (8AM!!!!!) to go look at venues. If all goes well, we'll be announcing our wedding date early next week!!
