Rewinding and Unwinding in Sunny LA

I've developed this strange habit of prefacing "LA" with "sunny" every time I talk about it (hence the title), but from what I hear, LA is all but sunny of late.

Fortunately two weeks ago when I visited Mikala, there was nothing but sun.  The day after my parents left DC, I was more than happy to relinquish my role as tour guide and take on the role of tourist.  Well, kind of.  After living there for a good year and a half, I guess I wasn't so much interested in sightseeing as I was in some good ol' relaxation.  Which probably worked out for the best considering that Patrick and I both ended up feeling under the weather while we were there (I'm convinced Patrick brought back some foreign bug from the frigid depths of Russia, although all that sightseeing I did in our own local frigid depths the week before probably did not help either).

Speaking of Russia, I have you to thank for giving me the idea to take a trip to LA in the first place.  Originally Patrick was supposed to be there from November 30 until December 19th.  With me being unemployed still, that is a whole lot of time to fill by myself!  So rather than subject myself to two inevitable weeks of Korean dramas and ramen noodles (wow, that sounded so uncharacteristically Asian of me), I decided if I was going to do nothing, I might as well do nothing in LA.

Of course once my ticket was bought for December 6th, we learned that Patrick's trip was cut short and he would be returning December 4th.  Whoops.  But it worked out because In-N-Out was tempting him, and we had $800 in free travel vouchers from United from a bump we took over Thanksgiving.

Sidenote:  I recommend taking the free travel vouchers when they are offered.  It's worth an extra 2+ hours of your time.  Patrick and I together have received over $2000 in free flights this year alone, not including the trip we took to China/Korea for free using frequent flyer miles!

Anyway, to interrupt my rambling, here are my favorite highlights from the trip... (unfortunately all the pictures are on Mikala's camera and her electricity is out, probably a result of all the storms they've been having, so I will try to post them later):

• COOKING!:  It was nice to have a cooking partner again.  We made chicken milanese with a tomato and fennel sauce found from a Giada recipe (here) and a shaved brussels sprout salad found from a food blog I've been following (here).  We also made and decorated gingerbread cookies because 'tis the season for that.  
• MOVIES:  What better place to watch movies than in the movie-capital of the world?  We saw Tangled 3D in the theaters -- such a cute movie!  It was a classic Disney story with a modern twist.  Then I ended up watching Love and Other Drugs by myself (literally... there was no one else in the theater) while Mikala was at work and Patrick had gone back to DC.  Even though this story had some problems (like trying to be about too many things at once), I thought it was a good movie and worth seeing.   On Netflix Instant Watch, we also saw The Bounty Hunter (meh), and I re-watched two of my favorites, Julie and Julia and The Proposal.  
• 70 and 80 degree weather:  Enough said :)
• In-N-Out Burger (the real reason for Patrick's visit):  I seriously love this place and wish they would expand to the East Coast.  It's all about the special sauce...  
• Conan O'Brien:  Definitely the highlight of the highlights.  Patrick and I went to see a live taping of Conan's new show at the Warner Brothers Studios, consolation for not getting to see The Big Bang Theory for which I had tried but failed at getting tickets... We actually didn't get tickets in advance for this show either.  We stood in line at 10AM for standby tickets and got lucky.  Sarah Silverman was the guest along with musical guests She and Him which I guess is Zooey Deschanel's band as she was the one singing.  We ended up with corner seats which weren't too bad considering our tickets were standby.  You can just barely make out our figures amongst the shadow-draped audience in one of the shots.  I believe they posted the show online here but good luck spotting us :)  Conan of course was hilarious and it was a fun experience overall.  Also, seeing the crew walk around and communicate via walkie-talkie brought me back to my production assistant days in LA... 

Now I just have a few more days in DC, then it's off to Nebraska for my last trip of 2010!  Since I love giving highlights so much (apparently), stay tuned for my top 10 highlights of 2010.  Until then, enjoy the rest of the year :)

oo,