LA Adventures

Ahhh...the "city of angels", so ironically named. I now believe I have experienced "the" LA scene. My first night, I went to an art show called "Sweat Baby Sweat". Walking into it reminded me of going into my first college party, except for instead of everyone trying to fit in with the frat guys/sorority girls,  everyone was trying to fit in by being as quirky and weird as possible. (What happened to just being yourself?) Instead of everyone wearing polo shirts and sundresses, like they would be on my home planet, these strange new people were wearing leather jackets, combat boots, half shaved heads, Fresh Prince style patterned shirts, cool vintage dresses, etc. I was highly intrigued! But, I think I stood out like a sore thumb. First of all, I looove to eat. (No vegan/vegetarianism going on with this gal!) Second of all, I enjoy washing and styling my hair. Third, I love wearing fun, extremely girly dresses. I think my only saving grace was my awkward demeanor and "hipster" glasses. I'm too quirky for SC, not nearly quirky enough for these people.
Almost immediately, I was faced with a dilemma: are all these artsy LA guys just extremely fashionably dressed/metro sexual or are they gay? (Typically, in SC, if they're male and super fashionable, they're likely gay.)  I found the best way to break these stereotypes is to just bite the bullet and flirt with the guy. My night ended in a quite LA fashion...the extremely sexy, well-dressed guy turned out to just be a really fashionable budding artist, who got my number and took me to a studio to check out some of his art/sculptures. Meow! Except he never called me...typical. It's the experience that's cool, right?
Anyhow, the rest of my trip to LA included cruising in Beverly Hills, shopping at the Grove, going with my model friend to one of her auditions (don't try this if you want to feel good about yourself), eating extremely expensive "organic" meals (shoot me. I also actually purchased an all organic, fresh pressed smoothie as well. Shoot me again. When in Rome?), walking around Echo Park, and visiting Fox studios. My all time favorite thing that I did, however, was completely free. Hiking up to the Griffith Observatory in Los Feliz was by far the most awesome thing EVER. If you ever go to LA, don't bother hiking up to the Hollywood sign. You can see it perfectly from the Observatory, and the Observatory is cooler--in my humble opinion. (I have included pictures to prove my point.) Until next time!

View from my friend's house in West Hollywood

On set at UFC tonight

The Griffith Observatory-too big to fit in the picture

Griffith observatory from the hike

The iconic Hollywood sign

Echo Park

OMG Or-gah-nic

Another thing I have noticed since being in Southern California is the obsession with being "green" and eating "organic".  It seems like many here are what we in the South refer to as "foodies".  Since it is "cool" to consume food that my dear Ron Swanson would refer to as "rabbit food", you do it. It doesn't matter that wheatgrass or quinoa or kale (which I have lovingly dubbed "Broccoli's hipster cousin") have been eaten by people for literally hundreds of years, we MUST consume them now that they are trendy!

This started because I was in Beverly Hills with my family and asked my friend (who is a model in LA) where to go eat. She suggested some place called "Urth" that was all organic with "fresh pressed juices", etc. etc.  I laughed and said that I doubted that my father, a normal, red-blooded South Carolinian male, would want to go eat a salad and some fresh-pressed juice. She responded by jumping down my throat and lecturing ME about GMOs (an acronym I do not understand nor care to look up) and other things I don't really remember. Rather than eating a fully non-organic bacon cheeseburger in protest, I decided to make an informed decision by trying something from the "fresh pressed juicery" near the non-organic restaurant my dad chose to eat at. Well, I should say I ALMOST bought something, until I saw that a soda-can-sized bottle of juice was a whopping $7.58! It would be more cost-efficient for me to go plant my own trees, wait on the fruit to grow, and press it myself!  I ended up going next door and buying 2 cupcakes from Sprinkles for less than that amount--and they were DELICIOUS!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for eating healthy and avoiding preservatives, etc. etc. I am not, however, for casting judgments on people who don't OR for paying three times as much for something that tastes the exact same simply because the label says "organic".  Perhaps if I were an actress or a desperate housewife living in Cali, I would have the extra cash to pay for only organic products. (If organic really is the healthiest way to go, they shouldn't make it so dang expensive!) As it is, I am a lowly teacher who may occasionally splurge on a $2.99 Naked Juice from the Fresh Market--and I HATE quinoa.

Sooooo Cal.

Hello there...it's been a while...(cue awkward pause)...

For those of you who don't know, I decided to step way (as in 3,000 miles away from my home) out of my comfort zone and spend the rest of my summer in Southern California staying at my Dad's house. This is not something I would typically do--randomly deciding to go out of the state for a month and a half without a single friend to keep me company--but I figured I am only young once, I have no kids/husband/real obligations for the next month, and I may not have another opportunity to go exploring and adventuring by myself again. (Thank goodness I am a lone wolf/independent sort anyway, otherwise I would feel extremely lonely and friendless.)  So, I may as well take a chance and DO something spontaneous!

I have only been here 6 days so far...but there are some very vital things I have noticed about the Southern California lifestyle:

1.) They call Hardees "Carl's Jr.". It seems to be much more popular here than in SC. Probably because we also have Bojangles and Krispy Kreme.
2.) I have yet to meet anyone who actually talks like The Californians on SNL. (Dammit!)
3.) The fashion sense in men here is very confusing. My sees and I have nicknamed it "Skugsterfarian".
Skugsterfarian= a combination of the skater, thug, hipster, and Rastafarian fashion styles. Highly popular in SoCal. You can also be a combo of any of the aforementioned styles simultaneously: skug, thugster, skipster, etc. (I will try to provide photo documentation of this phenomenon at some point.)
4.) It's REALLY FREAKING COLD on the beach until about 3 in the afternoon. I am not accustomed to this because at the beach in South Carolina it is disgustingly hot and humid all day long. You can probably gather that I prefer the weather of Southern California.

I will continue to chronicle my adventures in lovely So Cal...next time with pictures as well! :)