This weekend!

Between feverish moving prep, and actual moving, and a possible sojourn to Palm Springs in U-Haul as part of M's fiendish plot I plan to attend;

It's only all day....

Vacation

We went to Palm Springs for a vacation this weekend.  We decided to skip our 30s and 40s and head right into vacations appropriate for the 50+ set.
It was a nerdcation on top of that.  Our main goals were to see the Mapplethope exhibit at the museum, see the library in Rancho Mirage, and stare at the wind farms.  This is what happens when I am left in charge of planning.  Which is also the reason why we got to stay at a Best Value Inn ($50/night!), which I did not realize was the only smoking room in the whole building.  It smelled like an old man's apartment, stuffy, cheap cleaners, and 20 years of cigaret smoke.  Now all the clothes we packed, even the ones we didn't wear, smell like smoke.
BTW to make our room extra cozy, and make at least appear to be clean, despite being a standard looking hotel room, we brought our own blankets and sheets.  And candles, which did nothing to help the smell or the ambience, but oh well.  The only thing that really made it look homey was all the beauty products scattered throughout.
The highlight of the trip was the last day, after we had checked out.  Instead of heading back to LA we went further east, to Joshua Tree where M lived for a little while.  It was surprisingly easy to find, despite that fact that it had been torn down.  That's right, torn down, after M's family moved a way (about a decade ago) no one brought/rented the property so the owner had it torn down.  Only the foundation was left.

Climbin' that pole to success

As expected this story begins in a bar. A bar with a pole. Lousy music + can't drink more than one martini = let's pole dance! Actually we thought we try to climb up the pole, think the reverse of firemen sliding down the pole. It's harder than it looks. I do not have the upper body strength to hoist myself up a pole, and despite having long, finger-like toes, I was unable to utilize them due the huge heels I had decided to wear that night.
Hmm, what else is new... we were in the unnamed club for X's birthday. In San Diego. M and I have finally forced our friends to live through the horror that lesbian night life in San Diego. We got these really cute shoe's for X, see image below,





















Oh, and instead of getting hung over this weekend I got a cold.

What I did this weekend...

I stared at M's brand new Betsy Johnson ankle boots with gold buttons.  So shinny!  I think I'm okay with not buying clothes and shoes (at least until my current flats dissolve like their predecessors) so as long as M is still getting new clothes.  She very quickly becoming living doll.  Cute hair, cute clothes, cute accessories, cute graduate program.  She's like the best ethnic Barbie ever!

What else, what else...
We went a'brunching on Saturday with X and M.V.  My new favorite food is now the breakfast quesadilla.   X and I took further notes on how not to run a boutique.  Do not buy crap from the the Santee Alleys and sell for three times the price, mix high and low prices, only the most unique items can go for top dollar, and display is so important, and good lighting is everybody's friend.  And I think books and magazine (that are for sell) scattered throughout help create ambiance and remind the customers that they want to be as cool as the mags and books.  And but cool "ethnic" for heaven's sake, Japanese magazines, communist stuff from China town, anything from a botanica.  One day, we will have our dream store.  And then we will promptly go out of business.  I can't wait...

We also, accidentally, went to see the new Art Car exhibit at LACMA.  We were going for our usual evening stroll around the tar pits, and saw them as we cut through the park to get by to our non-art car.

But the highlight of our weekend was winning tickets from KCRW to go see The Bird and the Bee at Bordello, which we've been wanting to go to forever, but now we finally have a really good reason, i.e. we'll get in for free.  Yay!

Party for a cause

This was concept I was unfamiliar with until college.  Various people, sometimes for community event, sometimes for more personal reasons, would throw fund raiser parties.  Not in the house party sense, because everyone feels that their doing something to better humanity, but the set up is similar, either a fee at the door or cash bar, or sometimes both.  Anyway, my friends and I have come with various reasons to throw a fund raising party, like for Botox.  I even designed a flyer, but nothing ever came from that because we couldn't agree on a location.
I want to have iPhone party for M, I just need like 25 people who can pay $10 each ( I make very good drinks, so this is really bargain)  et voila!  We just need a space for this.
I think a party for a frivolous cause set the right kind of ambience, the feeling of excess and decadence that exudes(or should I use "oozes") from the very idea...

New Year's resolutions during a recession

Obviously my main resolution is to save money.  Which means I'll be brown bagging it for the rest of the year, which means no more fried cheese for lunch, which means I'll be eating health food because vegetables and fruit are cheap.  So its kinda of like I'd be taking care of two resolutions at once; save and eat better.  I also want to cut back on my drinking, I know that must come as a shock to you my dear readers, but I know the combo of drinks and pills are not good for my body.  This will also allow me to save a lot by not spending so much at clubs.  I would say this will save money at Trader Joe's, by not getting two buck Chuck every time I go there, but I like the fizzy drinks from there (and the Izzies from Target) which cost as much as wine.  If not more.
Taking a moment to talk about my compulsive drinking, I was home alone during the day on the 31st and I drank half a carton of orange juice and a bottle of wine, because that was all we had.  Then I had like 5 beers at a NYE party.  And a rum and coke. And half a martini.  And diet coke.  And a milk shake.   We started our evening at In n' Out, then a house party, then a club, then conked out at X's.  Other than having to use the really nasty bathroom at the goth club (I had no idea that it took so much strength to ... um... hover over a toilet, but when there are no seat covers, what's a girl to do?) there were no ill side effects.  Not even a trace of a hangover.  It appears that I drink and it affects M, because she did wake up with a headache.
Back to the topic of resolutions; everything will be fine if we can just keep our jobs for the rest of the year. So far it seems that we're in no danger, but if we hit that 10% unemployment rate, or an economic depression as it is called, it will be time for all our friends to move in to our studio (we've got rent control!)

Work Christmas Party

It was actually fun-ish.  We were both very shocked by this.  

Celebration at the Indian place!

So last night M and I went out to our favortive Indian place, Gill's, to celebrate some positive feed back on my jewelry. Their website is currently down, but if you should ever get the chance, go there. But call ahead they have odd hours, their number is (213) 623-1050. I've also included their location at the bottom, bottom, bottom of this post.
Anyway the food was great, the ambience was just the way we like it, but the interesting part occurred after dinner. The manager, or owner, maybe, came to out table and started chatting with us, telling us how we "such beautiful ladies." He went on and on( and no, we didn't get a free meal, or a beautiful lady discount, although I should have asked about the latter). The interesting/odd thing is that we have been there many, many time before and this has never happened. We theorize this occurred because we had both just come from work, and the combination of our work personas and work clothes, that sent off the "Yes, we are employed and not just college students" signal. I think, to a practical sort of person, that's the most attractive quality in the world.

X-mas party #1

Okay, this was the first Christmas party/dinners of the season, I only have 5 left;

1. My work X-mas party
2. The fun X-mas party
3. Our X-mas party/ gift exchange 
4. M's parents' X-mas eve party
5. Dinner with my parents 

I doubt any of these other parties are going to include full sized bottles of vodka and brandy.  Per table.  With about 7 people per table.  At about 20+ tables.  That's a lotta booze, even for me.  I've never seen anything like, it was like an open bar for lazy, hardcore alcoholics.   The party started at 6PM, no one really got there until, about 7 , by 8 everyone had that boozy walk, and by 9:30, the time we left, supervisors were giving slurred speeches to their underlings.  

After witnessing all this I had two revelations, 1) I don't ever want to work for the county(though I'm sure I will at some point, *sigh*), 2) I want to drink less.  I didn't get drunk, or suffer a hangover, or embarrass my self, but suddenly, somehow, drinking finally lost its glamour.  Kind of like finding out Santa's not real.  My ability to drink has become a party trick, I drink a lot to shock my friends by still being semi-coherent.  Well, I'm tried of being a one trick pony.  I need a new useless skill.  But one that makes me feel like a tough guy.  

And I hope this what my new found semi-sobriety looks like;

How to be a Wallflower at Any Club

that's what's so nice about blogging, learning something new every week. This portion is supposed to be part of a series, "How to be a Wallflower at Any Club". Anyway, we went to Das Bunker on Friday. They have lots of places to sit and make very strong drinks.

Anyway we knew it was a goth-industrial club, so we all wore black, which also allowed us to blend into the seating. I wouldn't call that music industrial, more electro, drakwave, techno rave-y, but what do I know? I know how to be an annoying pain in the ass, that's what I know.



People watching was great. Everyone wore those platform buckle boots (think JTHM), which made us all feel very short, despite my wearing 4 inch heels. We used to go to La Plaza Salon (also to people watch), where there were mainly very recent immigrants from Central America, so I'm used to being the tallest at 5'6.

Yet another weekend trip to the ER

*sigh* yet another night spent in an emergency room/urgent care. My dear friend X, while attempting to open a window, managed to smash her hand through it. My friend E and I were sitting in the living room ( X is one of the few people I know who actually has a living room), we heard the glass shatter and a scream, but we thought she knocked over a glass or something. When we heard her say, "Fuck, my hand's been cut open and there's blood every where!", we knew intuitively, that something was wrong.
After carefully bandaging her hand in a dirty kitchen towel, we hopped in to my car and were off to spend a few hours in a dirty ER waiting room. Our only comfort was telling X that she would feel better when they cut her hand off and that she'd be a stump trend setter. Her pinky was cut the worst, but to make her feel better, I told her that if they had to amputate it we could replace it with a baby carrot.

She got seven stitches. To make up for it ( we felt it was our fault because we decided to drop by and surprise her, thus necessitating the need for an open window)we took her to In N' Out. But she had to pay for herself.

Christmas Parties

I have two X-mass parties to attend. And to force upon M. But at least I can look forward to getting smashed on wine at one and witty conversation at the other. I would appreciate a Christmas bonus a lot more than hors 'd oeuvres and moderately priced wine, but oh well. I would just waste that money on two-buck-Chuck anyway, so I guess I'm actually getting more bang (better wine) for the buck this way.

I've lost my ability to stay awake for days on end

I automatically shut off at midnight and wake up at 7AM, and there's nothing I can do about it. It's not that I'm getting old, I hope, but steady work has forced my body to conform to this bizarre new schedule. When I was a student I could stay up for 48hrs straight, sleep 5 hours, and feel fine. Maybe if I go back to school while working full time, I'll regain my ability to stay up for days on end. Or, maybe it'll have the opposite effect. At least I'll learn how to sleep standing up.

Lesbians at a Fish taco bar!

While it's actually a straight bar, we think, but the place is called Senor Fish, so how can we not go? Last time we commandeered a table and quickly proceeded to bash everyone around us. No one was safe. Strangers were given back stories, new personalities, interesting quirks. We nursed our meager drinks all night, not one of us willing to move from that table. We didn't dance, we didn't get a 3rd round, we just sat and stared at people. It must be unnerving, to be one of those poor sheep, ready for the slaughter. I know they feel our collective gaze, hear an excited murmur followed by our crackling, which I'm sure must chill their blood and shake them to their very core(s). Or at least I'd like to think of it that way. The only other way to see it is that there were a bunch a lady nerds(we all had glasses on), refusing to make eye contact with the other patrons, acting like wallflowers, whispering to each other, followed by our goofy laughter. Yeah, I like my first vision much better.