Abbi's L.A. Times

1.  The highways and streets are HUGE. It is typical for the highways to have like 5 lanes on both sides.
2. The cars seem to not have to be required to have plates on the back and on the front because a lot don't.
3. This is something my friend, Kelsy, noticed, but there are a lot of cars with plates that start with 6. I've also noticed a lot of 5. I don't know how license plates are assigned normally, but I think this is weird.
4. They sell alcohol at CVS here, and a rather large selection too.
5. There are hummingbirds here. I've never seen one at home, but I've seen a couple since I've been here. It's pretty cool.

Danielle and I have been planning to do a hike in Runyon Canyon for a while now, and we finally did it today! Of course we went right in the middle of the day, so it was blazing hot out. Also, it's totally not like hiking in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. There was barely any cover from the sun, so it's beating on you nonstop. Any shade we found, we stopped for a breather (we saw some of the dogs people were walking trying to do the same thing lol). Danielle had looked at a website that said it would take about 45 minutes round trip to hike it, but I have no idea where that person was going because it took us close to 2 hours. We hiked most of the canyon, skipping one smaller loop on the other side. It had some really beautiful views over LA, and you could see Griffith Park Observatory and the Hollywood Sign. It was more difficult than I expected it to be, but I'm proud of myself for doing it! We had a really good time getting a bit of fresh air.

This week was incredible. Kelsey came to visit me for my 21st birthday! We had a great time and got to do so many things I've been meaning to do. She arrived on Friday night, the day before my birthday. The next morning we went to Rodeo Drive with Danielle, looking at all the shops and taking pictures. We didn't really go in anywhere, but it was really fun to window shop. I saw a website that said the store Boulmiche near Rodeo Drive is supposed to have been the one that Julia Roberts got kicked out of in Pretty Woman, so we stopped to see that. We took pictures by the Beverly Hills sign. Right by it were some "Free Christian Books." Kelsey made herself embarrassed because she made a joke about it and it turns out the man who was taking our pictures was the man who wrote the free books! She had to take one then to make up for it! We ate a diner close by, which was pretty good, and as we left we drove past Gene Kelly's old house (I read about it on a website)! I love Gene Kelly. When we got back, we made a run to the store, where I bought some sangria. When the man at the store noticed the birth date on my ID, he gave me a high five and told me to have fun and be safe. He was really nice. It was just a funny thing for a grocery store man to say. Afterwards, we got ready to go out to Saddle Ranch. Nine of my friends were joining us there for dinner and drinks: Danielle, Shelly, Kelsey, Christine, Melissa, Amy, Kelsy, Sarah, and Maddie. Saddle Ranch is at Universal City Walk. It's a bar with a dance floor and mechanical bull. At first I just went and put my name in, but after I saw another birthday party group get escorted somewhere right away, I told them it was my birthday too. The manager came over and told the bar tender that my entire group gets a free round. A somewhat drunk woman with her husband who has kids a bit younger than me, suggested I get a mojito. It was good, but not something I would have ordered for myself. Still, it was a good first legal drink! After that, the bartender gave everyone at the bar a shot of something that was pretty good. It's funny because we looked at the menu before we went, and Kelsey really wanted to get the 3 foot high cotton candy. We didn't even have to order it because they gave it to us for free for my birthday! It was awesome!!! I bought a shirt while we waited to get seated, felt like I should have something to commemorate my birthday. When we finally got to sit down, Kelsey and I shared quesadillas and Danielle and I shared a giant mah tai. It was really good, but the only problem was that I got SOOOOOOO full! I could barely drink anything else. The waitress gave me a huge shot for free for my birthday. I got tons of free drinks that night, and it was really nice of them to do. I also road the bull twice for free! My arm hurt for the whole week afterwards, but it was so worth it. It was really fun, but they definitely didn't go easy on it. I had a great 21st birthday! Better than I ever expected! We went home kind of early just because Kelsey and I had to get up pretty early for Disneyland the next morning.

Disneyland was AMAZING! It is smaller than Disneyworld and a lot of the rides are the same, but it was still really fun to go. There are two parks: California Adventures and Disneyland Park. We arrived right as California Adventures opened and went there first because it wasn't open as long as Disneyland was. Being that Kelsey and I love The Little Mermaid so much, we had to go on Ariel's Undersea Adventure ride. It basically just took you through some of the scenes from the movie, and we may have been a little old to be on it, but Disney is about reliving childhood, so it was a necessary. We got a nice picture with Mickey for my scrapbook. We also went on a really good roller coaster, probably the most intense I've been on at either of the Disney theme parks, and we went on Goofey's Test Track, which made you feel like you were going to fall off the side of the roller coaster. California Adventure had the Tower of Terror, which was fun but doesn't drop you as much as the one at Disneyworld. Disneyworld does not have a live stage show for Aladdin though, so we were really excited to get to see that. It was a pretty good show because the Genie was hysterical! He was making things up the whole time and basically stole the show. After we had seen everything we wanted to at California Adventures, it took us from 10am to about 4pm, we went over to Disneyland. It was all decked out for Halloween, so we got a picture in front of the giant Mickey pumpkin right on main street. As we waited in line for Space Mountain, there was some confusion with the ride situation and basically everyone was leaving. It was only about 7pm, and Kelsey and I still had a lot left to see. It was really important to both of us to get to see it all, so after a pretty nerve wracking experience trying to figure out how we could possibly get back to Burbank, we booked a ride back for $75 with Super Shuttle. Thank God we found a way to get back at all! After that we just decided to relax and have fun. We got to go to Toy Story Midway Mania (me and Dad's favorite ride from Disneyworld) and on the revamped Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion. They have this Finding Nemo ride where you go on a sub, which actually goes under water, and see some scenes from the movie and stuff. It was kind of cool. Dad and I had seen Fantasmic at Disneyworld, and it was incredible, so Kelsey and I went to see it here too. It was a bit smaller scaled than at Disneyworld, but it was still really cool. A few of the parts were different, but this one did have a whole pirate ship with Peter Pan and some of the pirates swinging around on it. As our last ride, I was excited to go to the Tiki Room. I had not been there since I was a little kid when I went with my parents to Disneyworld because it was under construction when I tried to go with my Dad this past summer. Before we left, we did a little shopping and got ourselves matching bracelets brown leather with our names on them and mickey ear rivets with 2011 written on them. Although it is a little corny, I loved getting to see it again. Kelsey and I had a great time and just barely got to see everything we wanted to before we had to meet our shuttle. We got home at around 1am! It was a long but really awesome day. I'm glad my plan of going to Disneyland with Kelsey worked out because it was one of the things she most wanted to do while she was here, and we had a great time.

As an extension to my birthday weekend, Kelsey, Shelly, and I went to see Chelsea Lately with Chelsea Handler on Monday. We got in line about an hour and a half before the show was supposed to start, and we were really close to the front of the line. Kelsey had given me Chelsea's newest book for my birthday, so we both brought our copies to get signed. They collect the books before the show and give it back to you autographed after. It's really nice that she's willing to do that for her fans. Shelly didn't have a copy of the book, but we luckily were able to get her a copy by talking to security, so she got an autograph too. The show tapes really quickly, but it was still really fun. Kelsey got to see the panelist she most wanted to see, Ross Matthews, and Mike "The Situation" from Jersey Shore was the guest. We sat in the last row of stage seats before the bleacher seats, so we had a really good view of most of it. I'm just excited that I now have both autographs I wanted while I was out here: Chelsea Handler and Craig Ferguson (Kelsy works at The Late Late Show and was able to get my book signed for me a few weeks ago. So nice of her because that's the one thing I wanted most. Now I've been on the show, and I got my autograph!)

Tuesday was rather uneventful for me. I had to go to work. This week was harder than usual though because I had to take the bus in to and back from work everyday. Kelsy usually drives me in, but she wasn't working this week because The Late Late Show is not taping. It made it a little harder on me and I'm glad that's over, but it wasn't too bad. Kelsey, on the other hand, braved her fears of going places she doesn't know by herself and used my instructions to take the bus to Hollywood. She spent a few hours looking around at the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I've been down there too many times, so when people come to visit I just tell them where to go. Hollywood isn't all that exciting, and it doesn't take much time to see it. She enjoyed herself with the exception of the few run-ins with the crazy Hollywood people. One man asked her if she wanted to buy weed and another told her she had a nice vagina! What an eventful day! There's definitely a reason they call this place "Hollyweird." I had class that night, which only took an hour instead of three because we basically just asked questions about the upcoming midterm and left.

On Wednesday, Kelsey came in to my work (again taking the buses all by herself!). I was supposed to show her the set that afternoon, but literally 10 minutes before I took my lunch break, my computer just flipped out. The screen went all green/pink and pixelated. I shut it off and turned it back on and the screen was still a mess. The apple icon showed up but it couldn't get to the start up menu or anything. I was freaking out because my pictures aren't backed up yet! Luckily, my work is right next to the Apple Store, so I took it in during lunch, a bit of a change of plans from what we thought we'd be doing for lunch. The guy at the Genius Bar looked at it and figured out that my logic board had failed. I have no idea why, but I was sooo happy I didn't have to pay for the repair! It would have been over $500 to fix, so thank you Apple Store! It's all better now. It only took a day or so to fix, which is good because I really need to start writing my Government and Media paper soon. We ate lunch at the Farmer's Market together, and she looked around the Grove for a couple hours until I was done with work. Before we took the bus back, she came on set of Bold and the Beautiful with me for a quick look, and I think she thought it was cool to see. I think the set is pretty impressive myself. I went to Music Industry to present my project about how I would popularize an unknown artist in the US. The artist I chose is Vanessa Amorosi. She's really big in Australia, and Joanna and I just did a powerpoint of our marketing plan for her. I've never learned about the music industry or marketing, so this was kind of a stretch for me, but it was fun to learn something new. It was a good mini course and only a pass/fail class so not something I was too worried about.

The one thing left to see on Thursday was the Hollywood Sign. Kelsey had seen it, but we needed to get her a good picture of it, so Shelly, Melisa, Kelsey, and I drove up to where you would hike around to the back of it. I've done the whole hike twice now, once with the whole class and once with Kate. This time, we just walked up the first steep hill, a challenge for Shelly but she made it! From there, you can get some really nice pictures with the sign. After our little adventure, we got some Yogurtland in Burbank because it's something all my visitors have to experience. That night, I had to go to a quick training session with the people at the American Film Institute because I am volunteering at the Film Festival next weekend. It should be a really good time, and I'm excited to hopefully see some really good movies. It was over at about 9, and Kelsey and I just stayed up watching TV for a bit and talking.

Friday I was working the late shift. Good thing too because it meant I got to sleep for a few hours after I got back from dropping Kelsey off at the airport at 6am for her 7am flight! The airport is right down the road, so I borrowed Shelly's car and got there in no time. Kelsey made it home safe and sound with no problems. At work, I got to observe in the Director's booth for an hour. It was nice to be able to hear what the director and producer and everyone else say and do during tapings. I had a really good time. I got out of work early today and hitched a ride with Sarah back home. I've just been relaxing tonight, but I really need to get going on some homework soon and get my papers done.

As an added note, I found out a few weeks ago that I'll be graduating early in December. My course requirements were changed around so that the one class I had to take going back to IC is no longer required. I'm going to have to try to find a job really soon, and hopefully I'll find something in the Boston area. I'm excited about it, but at the same time I see real life approaching, and it's nerve-wracking.

Gianni visited me this week as our Christmas presents to one another. I really wanted him to see LA, and it was awesome to get to see him. He took two days off from school, extending his fall break a bit, to come, but we had a great time and it was worth it. He arrived at 9PM last Friday at Bob Hope Airport. The security guards there are so annoying about how long you can wait for someone in the pick up/drop off area, so Shelly and I had to drive around a few times before we actually picked him up. Since we were in the area, we decided to make a quick stop at Yogurtland with Danielle. Gianni got to experience one of my favorite things about LA right when he arrived! I think he enjoyed it as much as I do.

Sunday, we walked around in the Toluca Lake area, taking pictures of the Big Boy fast food restaurant and getting a few extras at Trader Joe's. I love that place. Some of the stuff is so much cheaper and better quality than the regular grocery store. That night was the Open Mic Night fundraiser for our AIDS walk. Gianni and I went with the other RAs and Jon to help set up early. It was at Jon's church, and many alums and his church members performed. There was singing, comedy, and even one story teller (she recited Where the Wild Things Are from memory!). Gianni and I were in charge of asking for donations at the food table. There were yummy cookies and hot cider! I helped raise money and contributed to the ICLA Team so that I could eat cookies and have cider. tehehe. It was a pretty fun night all in all, but I wish more current ICLA people could have come or performed.


Monday was Columbus Day, so Danielle took part in Gianni and my plans to go to City Walk at Universal Studios. We spent a few hours looking around at the shops there. It's basically a big shopping area with restaurants and a movie theater, but some of the signs to the stores are pretty cool: Yogurtland had a big yogurt dispenser, dispensing yogurt into a giant cup, and Jamba Juice had a big cup with all the giant smoothie ingredients around it. We stopped at Yogurtland again while we were there. We also went into a candy store with HUGE, oversized candies. It was really cool. After spending a few hours there, we went home, and Gianni and I spent a few hours cooking. He made his mom's fish recipe, which is amazing, while I cooked us tabbouleh for the week for lunches. It took such a long time to chop everything up.

I had work on Tuesday, and Gianni had tickets to go see The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Unfortunately, the taping didn't start until 3:30PM, and I had to work at 10AM. I walked with Gianni around the Grove and the Farmer's Market before I started work. Both are just nice little shopping areas. He spent a few hours in the Barnes and Noble reading Tina Fey's book while I was working, and then we met up again for lunch. I love having someone to eat lunch with. It's always really boring eating alone. I made the tabbouleh that Kate taught me how to make, so hopefully I impressed someone him with my new cooking skills. After lunch, I showed Gianni where to line up for Craig. I went back to work, and he finished Tina Fey's book. It was perfect timing that as soon as I got off of work, the show was done taping. Gianni said he had a great time seeing Craig behind-the-scenes. I showed him a little bit of the B&B set while we waited for Kelsy to be done and to drive home. It literally took an hour and a half to get home because of the traffic! It was nuts.

Although Gianni was going to come in with me to work again, he decided he would rather sleep in and not use the Price is Right tickets he had for that morning. Instead, he spent the day hanging out with Sowande while I was at work. I took the bus back to meet him. We ate before going to the Pendleton center for the first meeting of the three-week long mini course I was starting. Gianni decided to play on the computers at Pendleton instead of coming to class this time. It is called Music Industry, and it's basically about how to market musicians and bands, etc. Because it's only one credit, it's a pass/fail class. The only thing I need to do to pass is show up for class (the three times it meets) and do a final project. We paired up and each got to pick one CD he had. The project is to come up with a plan of how to market the artist on the CD successfully in the US. All of the artists were successful in other countries but had done nothing in the US so far. I'm working with Joanna, one of the other RAs, and I think we'll do a good job. We picked Vanessa Amorosi. She sings dance songs, and she's popular in Australia. It's an interesting class because I haven't learned much about the music industry or about PR, so at least I get to learn something new. The teacher is really nice but just a little bit socially awkward. I'm glad I decided to take the mini course though. I want to make dean's list, and I needed two more credits in order to do that for the semester, so that's what the minicourses will make up for.

On Thursday, Gianni came with me to Senior Seminar. The class was talking about violence in video games that day, so it was a perfect topic for him. We watched Pen and Teller's: Bullshit talking about how video games do not make a person violent in reality. It was a really interesting class, and I think Gianni really enjoyed it. We watched Big Bang Theory on TV after class, and then Gianni came with me to do my RA rounds. He got to meet a bunch of my residents. After that, Shelly wanted to go to Yogurtland, so, of course, we went again.

Friday, I had to work again, so I sent Gianni down to Hollywood in the afternoon to check out some of the sights. He looked at the Hollywood Sign and Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. Honestly, there isn't much to see in Hollywood, so it only takes a few hours to go through. Like me, he didn't really like it very much and got bored after a while. There's no book store or anything like at the Grove, so he was waiting for me to get off work for a while. We had a little miscommunication trying to get back to Oakwoods. I was on my first bus trying to get to Hollywood/Highland to meet him, but just before I got there he got on the 222 bus back to the apartments, thinking I was on that bus. Confusing situation for both of us. I had to wait another 40 minutes for the next bus up. I hate the 222 bus. It's never there when I want it. I've actually had to wait an hour and a half for it. It's terrible. We decided not to go laser tagging that night because I got back right as it was time to go to laser tag and neither of us had had a chance to eat. Instead, we watched a movie and hung out together.


Saturday, Danielle was nice enough to again bring Gianni and I, with Shelly this time, to the beach. We spent a few hours walking along the Venice Boardwalk. I rollerbladed along the boardwalk, and we all checked out some of the shops. I even got a shot at muscle beach! There are quite a few characters on the boardwalk, so it was interesting to people watch. I might have to go back there to get some souvenirs. It's a really cool place. As a side note, there are also a crap ton of medical marijuana places on the boardwalk. LA is nuts. I had an awesome time rollerblading, and we both thought Venice was a pretty cool place. Danielle had to get back in time to go to a concert with her roommates, so we drove back after a few hours of hanging out there. As a treat before Gianni went back home, I wanted to take him to the Thai food place down the street that I've been meaning to try, Gindi Thai. It's also a sushi restaurant. It was really good! They give you crayons when you sit down so that you can color of the paper over the tables. It was a pretty modern looking place. I got pad thai and thai iced tea, as usual. We ordered tempura fried green tea ice cream for dessert. All of the food was excellent, and I would definitely go back there again. It was just nice to spend a night alone, out of the house because I don't typically get to do that when I'm by myself here. After our fabulous dinner together, we went to the Pendleton center so Gianni could check in for his flight. We watched a movie and relaxed at home together for the rest of the night. We stayed up way too late for our 5AM wake up the next morning, but whatever.

We got up at 5AM this morning to make sure we could get Gianni to the airport by 6AM. Shelly let me borrow her car, which was really nice. It was really sad to see him go, as usual. I waited for him to get through security before leaving the airport. As of this post, he's landed at Newark and on his way back to school. I couldn't be sad about him leaving for long though because I was a part of the ICLA team for the LA AIDS Walk today! It's a 10K walk to raise money for AIDS research. It's a really huge event, and they've been holding it for 27 years now. We got there really early in order to get parking, so there was a lot of waiting. There were about 10 current ICLA people who were there, Jon, Sona, and probably 4 ICLA Alums. Before the walk started, the opening ceremonies included talks from Coach Beast from Glee, Carson Kressley, Abby from NCIS, and Drew Carey! Star studded. As the walk started, it was really crowded, but it thinned out eventually. Danielle and I walked most of the course together. It got soooo hot in the middle of it. 6.2 miles is definitely a long way to walk, but at least I got a workout in. We walked pretty fast too; I think we finished it in about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Despite the heat, it was a really fun time. They had good snacks and drinks for us along the way, which was nice of the event coordinators. I had some yogurt, cereal, strawberry lemonade, cheetos, and lara bars. It was a really great event for a good cause, and I had a great time.

Tonight, Shelly and I are going to see Footloose at Paramount. She gets free tickets there because she works for CBS on the Paramount lot with The Doctors. It should be pretty fun. Danielle's roommate, Sarah, has her boyfriend visiting, so Danielle is staying at my apartment for the next few days now that Gianni is gone. It's going to be a busy week trying to get some of my Government and Media paper done before Kelsey arrives on Friday for my 21st Birthday, which is next weekend!!!

In an effort to be wonderfully professional, and at the advice of my friend from the bus, Brenda, I ordered business cards from Vista Print. If you pick one of their premade designs, you just have to pay for shipping. I paid like $10 for 500 cards. They look awesome! It's a lime green background with white and brown flowery/ivy accents. They are really cute. I tried to keep it really general so companies know I'd be willing to do any position. Just another thing that might help me get a job! I'm really happy with them though.

On Sunday night, there was a group event to the Griffith Park Observatory. The park itself looked really nice. It had a lot of picnic benches and walking trails. I'd love to go back for the day to relax and walk around. On the way up the windy road to the observatory itself, Shelly and I saw a coyote! It stood so still like a statue, and then we saw it move it's head. It was incredible. It was right up close to the cars, and there were people who had stopped just on the other side of the road, not what I'd call a smart decision. The observatory was really cool. It had awesome views of the Hollywood sign and LA. We got there right as the sun was going down, and it was a really beautiful orange/pink sunset. The observatory is free, so we got to walk around and see some really cool space exhibits. I wanted to go to the planetarium, but that's the part that cost money, and I didn't have a whole lot of time. We went up to the roof to check out the huge Zeiss telescope they have. It was aimed at the moon, and I could see all the craters really close up. It was incredible. The observatory actually isn't that far away, so I'm going to have to go check it out again later. It was a great night.