Last Wednesday/Come On Down/Scream 'Till You Pass Out

Day One started early with a 6am flight to Ontario, CA (right outside of LA). It went by quickly, though. It was such a weird (good weird) feeling to step off the plane in California and see Caroline! It's like being reunited with your favorite pair of socks that you thought you had lost: they feel really good, but you keep looking down at your feet in disbelief and wiggling your toes around to make sure it's real! :)

We quickly picked up where we had left off and headed to the LA Farmer's Market for a bite to eat before heading for fame on The Price Is Right (it's right across the street). My first taste of LA driving wasn't so bad. It didn't leave a lasting impression on me until later in the week. (Maybe my driver was on better behavior earlier in the week...hee hee) The Farmer's Market consisted mostly of food stands. There were a few produce and meat places, but it wasn't the majority. We ate paninis at a sandwich place, and they satisfied our hunger until we could have a better meal.

Across the street was CBS Studios, so we moseyed over to get in line for the new Price Is Right with Drew Carey. I had made shirts for me and Caroline, hoping that they would get us on the air. It was cold in California...it was not sunny and 70. We stood in line, outside for about 3 hours with close to 300 people who were also vying to "come on down"! It was pretty fun, though, b/c everyone was really nice and excited and talkative. They "interview" everyone to decide who they want to be a contestant. The guy asked me what I did, and I started calling the hogs (I thought that would get me on for sure, even if my shirt failed me)! He laughed, but there were no other signs that things went well. To make a long story shorter, Caroline and I did not get chosen to be contestants, Drew Carey is not that funny, and we screamed for an hour and a half straight. It was fun, but not the same without Bob Barker. Still, it's iconic and a good way to be initiated into what LA is: frivolous.

Driving around LA was a strange mix of trashy and ritzy. A really cool coffee shop would be next to this run down Mexican store next to a comedy club, etc. etc. etc. It seems like being spread out lends itself more to a variety of genres and classes being mixed together. I'm not sure that makes total sense to me, but that's what it looked like. I wouldn't consider it a cool looking city. Most of the buildings are short (one story) and stucco (a lot of them), so there wasn't any eye candy in the way of big skyscrapers juxtaposed with small mom-and-pop stores. In spite of the fact that I don't like spread out cities, I really started to like LA for the simple fact that there's so much going on all the time. Some cities have the big buildings, but they don't have the "big" atmosphere. LA (maybe California, in general) is the place to go for activities.

The scenery was weird, too, in the beginning. There are mountains all around (and in) LA, but they're not like the mountains in this part of the country. It has to do with the kinds of trees and shrubs that are common in that part of the country. There are patches of trees and small shrubs in between large patches of grass or dirt. I think it makes the mountains look like adolescent boys who're trying to grow a beard but don't quite have all of what it takes yet. Still, they stand side by side with houses (stucco ones) popping up like pimples on their mostly barren facades and proudly surround this city by the sea.

Caroline and I went back to downtown Pasadena. The downtown is really cute and quaint. It reminds me of most smaller, older, downtowns except that this one was alive! Since it's consider part of LA, it has quite a lot of vivacity. It's a smalltown on steroids. Caroline had been wanting to try an Italian restaurant called Mi Piace ("me pee-ah-chay" (my pleasure)), so we took advantage of the valet parking (I'll have to talk about parking later) and went in. Even on a Wednesday night, this place was packed! It was a nice restaurant with white, cloth tablecloths, good lighting, waiters and waitresses who looked like models (I here they all are), and a 45 minute wait! Did I mention that it was 8:30 or so? We opted to eat in the lounge after the groping couple left their table. Man, was it nice! :) The atmosphere was great in this place. People were happy and relaxed and enjoying their time with friends.

I would compare the place to Bordinos on a Friday night (of course, Bordinos has live music). The atmosphere was classy but laid back (the waiters/tresses wore black tee-shirts with "Mi Piace" written in white on the front (it was very tastefully done)), and the food was wonderful. (I didn't take any pictures, b/c I didn't know if that would be acceptable.) I ordered salmon rigatoni and Caroline ordered cioppino, and both had fresh seafood....oh man...you can't beat fresh seafood! So, it beat Bordinos based on that alone (although, all midwest restaurants have the cards stacked against them when it comes to fresh seafood). Happily munching and sipping a pomegranate martini, we caught up on life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. It was like a scene from a movie of which you want to be a part.

It had started raining softly, so we waited under an awning while the valet went to retrieve the car. Everything became blanketed in a soft, playful beauty. The downtown lights twinkled happily; whites were whiter, reds redder, greens greener; laughter floated from couples, arm-in-arm, as they ducked from one awning to another. It was like the joy of the holiday season without the stress. Is LA always like this magical, I wondered. I don't know. Probably not...but it was for me last week.

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