Gianni's Visit

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!!!