I LUV L.A.

I DO.

I really do. It’s like any other place on the planet in the sense that it is what you make it. Some people say it is too fake, too Hollywood, too weird, too liberal, too whatever… I say it is too cool for school. Simple. Number one reason being my darling, most phenomenal peeps I know I can gel with at any time. Second reason being the insane amount of activity to do at any given time. I’m sorry to do this so list like, but it is the only way for me to focus in on what I did over the last few days and to share some links I think may be important for yourself – the vicarious soul reading.

Wednesday: I played it like I said I would. I successfully gained my Ethiopian visa in my passport for my trip! (Yeehaw!) The process took only a hour and a half which I spent chatting with one of my GV team members, Julian and my close friend Angel. After getting the goods placed in my passport I took off with Angel to run some errands in Santa Monica and eventually made it over to West Hollywood where I would be staying (and presently am staying) for a good duration of this adventure. Prentice was only around for a short moment before dipping out and so I made myself at home, took a nap and grabbed some food from Whole Foods. I finished off the night by watching the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance and used two phones to get my vote in for Joshua. (I found out the next day that he had won the competition!!!)

Thursday: Angel and I met up again to support her friend’s film titled Truth Hall which only had one showing with a Q&A at the Beverly Center during the American Black Film Festival. We arrived late which was not to big of a deal as Angel had seen the film and it wasn’t exactly the type of film I would rush to see anyway. None the less someone out there is doing there thing and in festivals so big up to Angel’s people for getting out their dreams. Afterwards we linked up with Ivory, another one of Angel’s friends and had a straight chill session. I don’t think I ever chilled so hard in my life. Many of you are probably going to think the following is not really a considered chilling, but for myself it was major R&R.

So first we ate at Norms (a chain diner with food that is not horrible and not gourmet). I dove in for the breakfast in the afternoon as did Angel and Ivory went for the daily special which had all you can eat ribs that I somehow managed to finagle onto my plate. (I’m such a piggy.) From Norms we headed over to The Grove. This turned out to be a really awesome move on our part. On Thursdays during the month of August at The Grove there is a Girl’s Night event where several of the stores offer discounts, wine samplings, mini facials and so on… We hung hard hitting most of the stores that were participating on this particular Thursday evening. Ivory immediately became my new best friend (MNBF) on this evening by tossing over the Anthropologie gift card he had been given, but had no use for and like a California wildfire it blazed in my palms until I had managed to kill the flames at the register. I walked away with a nice new perfume. Thanks Ivory!

T rolled in and picked me up and we grabbed Muna at the airport. The night basically wound down from there.

Friday: Muna and I grabbed our morning goods from Eat Well in West Hollywood where Prentice graced us with his presence. Then we headed down to Melrose for a little shopping. We were hoping to find some cheap sneaks for Muna to rock in Runyon, but we managed to get distracted by other stores. We both picked up cute little dresses. (P.S. I’m NOT supposed to be shopping – see Big Adventure planned.) I will be wearing my cute little teal dress this weekend to my cousin’s wedding reception. Do look for it in pictures. From Melrose we hit up jazz at LACMA where the Ernie Watts Quartet played. We hung around inside the museum as well for a bit while waiting for Quar and his friend to show and then outside again upon their arrival. After jazz, Teal came and swept Muna and myself away to the valley for a little karaoke among friends.

Let me make a short note about Teal Moss: He is awesome! Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking differently. I’m glad he extended the invitation to us although I think he did so in part to avoid singing like the rest of us. On the flip side Mr. Moss did snap some photos and made them into the coolest wallet-sized memorabilia. Check out Photo Hard Card if you ever have the chance. At karaoke I sang an assortment of tunes (probably way too many) which ranged from Tori Amos’ Sparks to Luther Ingram’s I Don’t Want To Be Right. I believe I may have sung myself to sleep that night to some old lullaby. Chances are I probably snored instead. Poor Muna… Oh, and she didn’t sing either. Growl!

Saturday: The Getty Center was a must-do on this day. Why? Because as sad as it sounds I had never been the entire time I lived in L.A. I know I am way lame and Muna, who is excused from the lame party, had never been in her previous trips to the city. Right now they are featuring an exhibit of Bernini’s work which was just stellar! Sculpting the way that man did is just something out of this world. The detail of catching people in the moment of sculpting movement. If you have the chance go see it for yourself. Muna agrees. I went to the gardens after Bernini and Muna kept to some of the other exhibits. I don’t see myself spending time planting in a garden, but I do appreciate a nicely placed together bed of roses and so forth.

Later we went dancing at Little Temple. If you take a peek at the pics in the presentation above you’ll see that I am a hot sweaty mess and that means I had a grand time dancing. Muna even delighted us with her rendition of Doo-Doo Brown. Ha! (Didn’t think I would tell it to the world, hmmm Muna?)

Sunday: Crazy as it may be Muna had also never been to Venice beach on her previous visits and that makes me wonder where on earth did I take her before? Anyways we went for a long way down Venice Beach soaking up all the good California sun two brown girls could ask for and soaking up all the good wildness that lives on that beach. Muna purchased a lovely sarong and I got sucker punched into buying two head wraps, but come on! Head wraps are always goodness. We also caught sight of the Arlington West Iraq War Memorial on Santa Monica Beach north of the pier. It was quite a surprise to run into the memorial in the same place where children are bouncing around on pier near the ferris wheel and where tourists are wandering about the sands trying to get the kind of vacation tan that makes all their co-workers envious. Sometimes the world needs a jolt back into reality even if it is right smack-dab in the middle of the beach and possibly the reality you were trying to escape. Remember folks – there is never any running away in life.

Once we got back into WeHo we rested for a short bit before heading out with Dawn and meeting Prentice and Angel for a evening film in the cemetery. The featured presentation was a movie called Phantasm and I must say it was pretty darn cheesy for a horror film. I still have questions about what I watched out there surrounded by the gigantic Hollywood tombstones. At least Muna got the experience and she can no longer look at me like I’m the crazy one. There were some 3,000 people out there with us.

Monday: Muna left L.A. to head back to FLA and I relaxed all day before partaking in a quaint dinner with Angel at Delancey’s in Hollywood. I had high hopes of checking out Melanie at the Monday Night Tease at 3 Clubs after dinner, but we were running behind and I was starting to feel queasy. After dinner Angel dropped me off at the house and I crashed.

Tuesday / Today: Another day of R&R for the most part. Did some work on my computer, dined at Urth Caffe on Melrose and popped into Coco de Mer where Angel and I purchased the same book to read for kicks. I won’t spoil the fun of telling you which book we picked, but it’s nothing too kinky. If you are of an adult age, this too is something I would suggest taking an itty-bitty peep at in L.A. There are only three locations in the world: two in the U.K. and one in L.A.

Aren’t we the lucky ones?
I do hope you enjoyed the slideshow above. It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of those. I debated on the sparkles for a while, but then I just decided to go with it…
Goodnight.