BYE LA!
I'm in a coffee shop in Santa Monica, trying to get work done but really just surfing the internet. I thought I'd post a quick update before I leave this afternoon. And to procrastinate from working.

My sojourn to LA is coming to an end and I've had a fun relaxing time. Perfect for the end of summer before year 2 of 3 starts.

On Thursday, I landed and lost my free will and freedom when I got on this airport shuttle. I told the dispatcher I was going to Little Tokyo, and he said, oh that's near Koreatown, so I got on this shuttle with people going to Huntington Park and stuff. Turns out, it was totally the wrong shuttle and I spent the next two hours riding around in this van during rush hour. The driver and I yelled at each other but then made peace when we realized that it was the dispatcher's fault.

On Friday, I met up with other friends and we hung out. We had coffee and read the paper at Buzz Coffee, had a two-martini lunch, did some other stuff then we went to the King Tut exhibit at LACMA. It would have been much better if we didn't pay $30 and weren't herded into the exhibit like cattle. Mummies are creepy. And mummy paraphenalia is shiny. Then we went to a fancy dinner with an administrator from our alma mater. Rule: no treating him like a rock star. But it was kinda weird socializing with someone who played such a big role in my attending my alma mater...

On Saturday, we read the paper. There was an article about a police raid on a shop in Santee Alley, where there are a lot of vendors of imitation luxury goods (e.g. "swap meet Louis" handbags). The article included a handy map, so we cut it out and headed downtown to do some of our own shopping. (Stay tuned: this will not be the last time the LA Times comes in handy...) I needed a new suitcase b/c the one I used to come out here was in all sorts of bad shape. I budgeted myself $20. The first store I went in, I found a lime green suitcase for $15. With the leftover money, I bought myself a pair of giant, obnoxious sunglasses. I liked to pretend for the rest of the weekend that when people stared at me in my sunglasses, it was because they thought maybe I was a movie star and not b/c the glasses looked absolutely ridiculous on me. I'm not sure what we did the rest of the day, but we ended up at a Korean BBQ restaurant for dinner. Yumm.

On Sunday, we drove all over the city and went to open houses. I cannot believe my friends are looking to buy. I cannot believe the real estate prices here. Then we watched Super Size Me. It was good, and I appreciate what Morgen Spurlock did to his body in the interest of an entertaining film, but some of his insinuations (e.g. healthy lunches will cure what ails troubled teens) were somewhat farfetched. Oh, we also went for a hike in the hills when we got up in the morning. I got a funny sunburn.

On Monday, my friend and I went to our alma mater, had lunch at the coop, gawked at the infantile-looking incoming first years, gawked at the new buildings that have all been erected or renovated since we attended. It was hot. Much hotter than on the Westside. Then we went to dinner at Farmer's Market at the Grove and met up with other friends and happened upon trivia at this bar in Santa Monica. We were totally getting our asses kicked because apparently Steven Hawking was playing too. We were bringing up the rear, in 8th out of 12th place, when we came upon the last question. It was one of those where you bet from 2-20 points, and if you're wrong, half the amount you bet is deducted from your score. The question: In which S. American country is the highest peak in the western hemisphere located? Argentina, baby. I knew the answer because it was in the LA Times that morning, in an article about a climber who died on Yosemite, whose father convinced the Argentine army to spread his ashes on the Andaluccas... The newspaper does make you smarter. So we were the ONLY team to get that answer right, and we swooped up from 8th to 3rd place, and got a $10 gift certificate to the bar, which we promptly used to pay our tab. Or not so promptly because our waitress was having a seriously hard time.

Tuesday is today. I'm going back to beantown. Not before a trip to In-n-Out, though. Yumm.

Oh, and somewhere along the way, I went to a gay porn shop. Shudder. (Hey, I'm not homophobic. All things sexual kinda make me shudder. But seeing a ginormous butt plug in person...) I was kinda drunk and made my friends leave before the buzz wore completely off.

I guess this isn't really a short post. I am looking forward to going home and watering my plants -- I'm sure they're all shriveled up by now; I should really make friends with my neighbors -- but I'm not looking forward to what going home will mean. This whole summer, I was looking forward to this trip to LA, in more ways than one. It was something that was planned for the end of the summer, as the closing bracket to my 1L summer. Now it's over, and I have to go buy a copy of the new Blue Book, get my suit altered, all this stuff that needs to be done before my 2L year, which promises to be busy and hectic and crazy and probably a little exciting (oh, gym boy...). But ... there's still something ominous and impending about the whole thing. Ahh well, here we go ...