LA Story

I didn't hate L.A. Solid endorsement, right? But seriously, the driving wasn't as scary as I imagined. We never went over 70, and we could always find parking. It also poured the last day so maybe our trip as a whole wasn't completely representational. But it was a good experience any way you roll it so I sing a resounding "yay."

Before we left, a friend told me to take lots of pictures. I totally planned to. However, um, I failed you b/c I think I took approximately 10. That's not counting the dozen Zach took trying to figure out the exposure problems of my camera. But we didn't really see a whole lot of *things*. Our destinations were people. So if someone asks, "So what did you see?" I'd reply, "Well, we saw a Peter and Danielle, a Yin, Chaz and their many cool friends, and a Josh and Melissa." We saw some beach. We saw a lot of vegetarian food. We saw little sleep.


So highlights. Totally the people. Our hosts were super generous and put up with us coming in at the middle of the night. It was so nice to be able to get to know them better. Zach has been down there a fair amount and has had the opportunity to spend time with them before. I have some catching up to do. They also loaned us their GPS, which was kind of a life safer when we went up to a reception in the Hollywood hills.

This leads to people #2. The whole original reason for this trip was that Zach's friend from high school had gotten married in Mexico and was throwing a reception at their new house. I was really nervous about this. I sort of assumed everyone would already know each other and we would be the odd ones out. Not so at all. We actually managed to strike up a conversation with the other 2 Oregonians there (also born and raised in Corvallis) and will hopefully see them again when they visit their families over Christmas break.

All of Yin and Chaz's friends were really nice. I think that says a lot about Yin and Chaz. They were all warm and completely welcoming of strangers. Really great. Also great? The decorations. I wish I had taken pictures at the beginning but I wasn't comfortable enough yet. The two of them did an incredible job. Also, their house causes envy. The kind where you have to fight it a little bit and once you do you're fine...but wow. WOW.

And finally out we went to Long Beach to spend time with one of Zach's best friends and his girlfriend. I've never really known Josh and it was nice to have some time with just the three of us before Melissa arrived. Melissa is shy but totally nice. It was one of those situations where you're lucky to meet in a small setting to actually be able to talk. Do the getting to know you basic stuff...but do it right.

So yeah. That's it in brief. I'm so exhausted. We got 4 hours of sleep the first night. Six the next two. I'm beat. And we're running up into opening night this week. Holy hell. Time for sleep.