Adventure
 
Picture

RSS Feed


So if there is one thing I have to realize about myself in the last year, it is I get restless if I have been in one place too long.  And too long is starting to seem shorter and shorter! 

This summer when I was thinking about my long term plans, I decided that officially finishing my master's degree was important and thus a plan to return to Colorado to complete my master's thesis was set into motion.  It just felt silly to have done all of this work on my degree and then not finish the last step and so here I am!  A few months have passed and I have successfully completed my paper, submitted it for review, given my presentation frightenighly called a "defense", and submitted bound copies to the department for posterity's sake.  Hooray I can officially list an MA behind my name though I doubt I will ; )

What I find funny is that though I have only been in Colorado for two months, I have somehow managed to take two trips to California since I have been back.  This means that I have had four separate trips to California this year!  Weird.  Particularly since 8 months of this year I have not even been in the USA.  Apparently I am inexplicably drawn there.  Who knew?
Picture
The next trip was a spontaneous affair.  A friend and I had taken a workshop in which we made vision boards and I tell you these vision boards are powerful things!  On mine I listed Hollywood and my friend listed vacation.  After discussing our boards, my friend Jan asked me if I really wanted to go to there and I said of course!  Turns out she had a family connection there so we booked flights and three weeks later we were there. Vision boards are powerful things people!

We were stayed in a swanky hotel in West Hollywood and were within walking distance of great bars and restaurants, galleries, and Sunset Boulevard.  It was fantastic! Our first afternoon there, we checked into our beautiful hotel room (we even had a fire place which for any Coloradan is quite funny since low temperatures there are in the 50s), checked out the rooftop pool, changed our clothes and were off to explore. 

On my vision board I had also put some Christian Louboutin pumps.  I do love them!  So it was perfect when we wandered past the store.  I wanted to go in, even though I was not prepared to pay $600 or more for footwear (someday and hopefully soon I will have a pair).  The store itself is beautiful and whimsical and reminded me of Paris which is fitting since it is a Parisian brand.  It is a store where you have to ring the doorbell to enter, presumably so that they can tell if you are a thief that will take off with thousands of dollars of footwear.  Still it was funny to ring the doorbell and stand there waiting to be let in!


A slightly snobby gay boy greeted as the door and his whole demeaner changed once he saw the leftovers we had from The Abbey, a bar and restaurant next door which is obviously gay friendly.  He then was very friendly and we looked around at the beautiful shoes; admiring their adornments and quality.  Here is a pic of me standing in front of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is housed in the same building as the Louboutin store.  While I didn't buy a pair of Louboutins, I have to laugh because I did see a lot of Louboutin shoes pretty shortly after making my vision board.
Picture
The trip itself was a whirlwind in two days and included a trip to see the Chinese theatre and all of the foot and hand prints memorializing various famous people.  The opening to the movie Burlesque had happened a day before we got into town and Cher had just made her very own hand and footprints there.  I have always liked Cher for her daring, her timelessness, and that she does what she wants regardless of what people think (plus she and I have the same birthday which seems important somehow).

Amazingly, we went to two museums and the observatory while we were there and yet it didn't seem crammed.  The Getty museum which overlooks Hollywood and LA from the hills was amazing!  I will never forget it and would love to go back as it is enormous and though there for several hours, we only saw the gardens and one of the temporary exhibits.  The LA Country Museum of Art (LACMA) was also wonderful and there was a show on fashion in the last few hundred years which was great and reminded me of my costuming days with all the corsets, hoop skirts, and hip buckets on display.  The Griffith obvervatory was wonderful and I didn't realize until we got there that they shot parts of Rebel Without a Cause there. Among other things, I learned that everything in our solar system is literally made from the same elements as stars in the solar system.  We are literally made of the same stuff as stars.  An appropriate thing to learn in Hollywood no?

Also managed to go to a few bars and nightclubs and danced the night away two nights in a row.  Met some fun people and ate scrumptious food everywhere we went.  Also went to the La Brea tar pits which was hilarious because they are so close to downtown LA.  I hope to go back before too long as I had a great time and now that I have done the touristy stuff, I could go back and enjoy without feeling like I have to see the sights.

The return trip brought one final surprise as we found out after arriving that our flight had been cancelled because the plane had been struck by lightning.  Twice.  You don't get much closer to an act of God than an act of lightning so I tried to feel relaxed about it as we waited for the redirected flight through San Francisco. I ended up being seated next to a Chinese woman on the leg of the flight from San Fran to Denver which gave me a chance to practice my Mandarin.  It made me realize I need to practice so I don't forget it!!

So I am back in Colorado for my Master's graduation and Christmas but soon enough, I will be in the words of Willie Nelson, "on the road again."


1/25/2012 04:28:56 am

THX for info

Reply
1/27/2012 04:11:43 pm

THX for info

Reply
3/13/2012 05:02:41 am

Nice post bro

Reply
3/21/2012 07:23:47 pm

nice post

Reply
3/26/2012 06:37:31 am

THX for info

Reply
3/30/2012 10:10:40 pm

Great info, thanks

Reply
11/1/2012 06:40:04 am

nice post

Reply



Leave a Reply.