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 baiii.

It's been a while...

Yes, I've gotten caught up with real-life-things. So I haven't been able to update as much as I'd like to. I pretty much forgot I had a blog! Well, I've just gotten back from my 10 week journey throughout Europe. As soon as I develop the 15 rolls of film I took, I'll update more then. For now, it's back to life- hopefully I have luck with the job hunt! Until then!

Mapplications n' Mazes

So after work today I had plans to meet up with a few new friends I met at the Couchsurfing get together last weekend. They were actually members from Americorps that are in the area for the next two months. I told one of the members to give me a call if they ever wanted someone (me) to show them around and take them places while they were here.

The plan today was to check out the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. I actually haven't been there to visit the galleries in over 4 years so I was pretty excited myself. I knew I had to go at least once while I'm here since I never really go. Anyway, when I finally got to the church they were staying at, Alex, one of the members I met told me the entire gang already headed there. Luckily I wasn't stranded and he waited there for me to pick them(him) up. Haha. So we were on our way.

...Or so I thought.

The very first turn I took off of the neighborhood... was a wrong turn. Which ended up being a total mess. The distance from location of their house to the Getty was probably less than 20 miles away, which meant we would have gotten there in about 15 minutes. But no. I decided to "know" where I was going and completely got lost even with my mapplication on my phone. Yes, I just said "mapplication" because I just created it in my mind. So after driving and driving and ending up circling LAX twice and driving and driving and getting even more lost, we somehow (I have NO idea how) ended up in Marina Del Rey...????? I had no idea until I asked. At this point an hour already passed, and since I'd been up since 6am and it was now 4pm, I was starving. So I just stopped trying and ate at a local sandwich shop/ smoothie place in the plaza we ended up in. It was a great choice because the burger was delicious.

I was reenergized and determined to find the stupid freeway that kept hiding from us. So. After figuring out which direction to take, I ended up missing the free ENTRANCE just a few lanes to the right of me... fail. So we ended up lost a 4th time... I made a lot of illegal turns/ U-Turns/lane changes... and so on. I was a maniac. And I knew what I was doing; it was all wrong. I don't know what happened but I finally found the right entrance and since that took up another hour, we ended up arriving to the Getty at 5 (which ended up being PERFECT because parking is free after 5pm) that was pretty awesome. We saved $15 bucks.

We walked. talked. and enjoyed the beautiful landscaping and art around us. The weather even cleared up as we were riding up the tram to the museum. Seems like things just fell into place. It's nice having a general idea of what the day was going to look like, but it was also more of an adventure getting lost and finding our way back. Having no agenda is really the best way to go I realized.

After the Museum, the evening was not over. I had mentioned earlier today (well, twice actually but two different times) that I wanted to go to Amoeba Records. I felt a little splurge in me since I haven't really gotten anything I liked in a long time. I could spend all day in there if I wanted to, but by the time we got on the freeway to head to Hollywood, it was 8pm and by the time I missed ANOTHER exit that wasn't very hard to miss, we ended up getting to Amoeba around 9PM. Which strung along our hunger so much more at this point. I was cussing a lot. I was in rage. I was HUNGRY. Pinkerton helped for sure. Anyway we finally got to eat and sit down and just relax for a bit. Then the energy came back and we were lookin' through the aisles as quickly as we could since we only had an hour at this point.

Long story short: I found 2 Velvet Underground vinyls that I've been meaning to get my hands on... all the other ones I had in mind were gone, or I couldn't find them. And I realized the amount of time I spend in my car and that the only option I have is my Cassette player. The ol' reliable and sometimes (most of the time) shitty cassette player I have in my car. So I decided to give it a little love. I found some great soundtracks, and a few other 70s groups that I could see myself enjoying while driving. So. I bought them all... THEY WERE LESS THAN $1 EACH!

By this time I was exhausted. Dropped Alex off, and headed home. I feel like a grandma. I'm getting ready for the good old days I suppose...

Either way, today was definitely a journey... I kind of felt like I was in a maze all day and trying to figure out a way to make it to each safe zone/destination with a LOT of detours and such. It was definitely fun, and I was in great company.

L'Illusionniste

So my co-workers decided that Sunday would be the day that we would drive out to see the French animated film The Illusionist. I've been excited about this movie, and was excited to see it with everyone! Naturally, plans don't always work out as planned. Pretty much everyone wasn't able to go for some reason or other which was understandable... but I was still up for it, and so was Jasper. So we went anyway. Drove all the way to Pasadena to find out that the theater we watched it at was actually a "cheap seats" theater so it was only $3 for a ticket! It made the drive up there a whole lot better. Now we know it's the Cheap Seat theater! I plan to go back up there again soon and just spend the day to hang out. I really enjoyed it every time I've visited, but I'd like to just wander around and see what I find the next time I'm there with a group of friends.

Oh, by the way, the movie was great. I really enjoyed it- the animation, the sweet melody throughout the film, the characters, the landscapes, the fact that Jasper fell asleep about 3 times because of sheer tiredness and not because of boredom, the magicians posture/mannerisms, the ventriloquist, the story line, pretty much everything... it was definitely a great film. I want to watch it again because I feel like I'd be able to catch a lot of things I didn't catch the first time around. I'll wait for the DVD though. Tonight was definitely a good time.