Life in LA...

ugh, sitting around feeling super gross like i've been drinking everyday of the week or something...and then my roomie and i recounted where we went for drinks every single day this week. yikes.

well, guess we felt the need to live it up since class starts tomorrow. 9am sharp. at least i've been exploring the area. here are the results:

for your review:

Monday: "The Lab" a cool little themed restaurant right on campus. The stamp you with a little A+ when you come in, some drinks are served in beakers, and the bathroom sinks are lab sinks. It's a cool spot, drinks a bit on the expensive side, but i guess you are paying for a nice vibe and convenient location. On the other hand there do exist some pretty good student specials like $4 mandarin orange vodka mixes.

http://thelab.usc.edu/#/intro

Tuesday: El Torito: Taco Tuesday in Marina del Rey. I don't want to hear the term taco tuesday for a long time. Super packed and crowded house of mainly mid to older twenties peeps. It's cool to be in an area where there are a lot of black people, but right now id much rather be at young black professional type places, and this spot was a mad house. I don't want to be jostled, waiting an hour for a table and having to be aggressive about bar space if i'm not at a club. So yeh...not my kinda place i decided, and pitchers are way expensive, but it might be alright on other days?

http://www.eltorito.com/

Wednesday: Chaya Downtown. This place is awesome! Its a sushi restaurant with a great happy hour, nice big appetizers and its super nice! We had a nice little group of six, shared tapas, and got these super girly drinks called "seeing double".

http://www.thechaya.com/downtownLosAngeles/index.html

Then we headed to the Yard House its part of LA Live and its a pretty cool place. I'm not a big beer person but it's definitely good for beers and had some pretty nice cocktails as well. I was pleased :) http://www.yardhouse.com/default.aspx

Thursday: Venice Art Crawl. This was awesome! And I went to a sweet DubStep after party. I definitely suggest. http://www.veniceartcrawl.com/

Friday: hit up the lab early, then stopped by "Traditions" usc.ka "traddies" for beers/appetizers. Sweet nachos etc, will be revisiting this place once its grand opening is complete next week. Ended the night at a little bar downtown...dont remember the name, it isnt even worth it.

i picked up my new school ID. success!

the loft

thinking myself clever I decided that it would be best to do all furnishing through craigslist, the free and for sale sections. it began working like a charm! my girl and i searched yardsales, contacted some people and were off with a bang on saturday. i felt that i'd made out like a bandit after getting a free bookshelf, free desk, huge mirror for super cheap, and my prize, a loft bed for only $30!

I got home and my dearest friend Wiz helped me get all of these things inside, after picking me up from the bus station and just generally being an angel since I arrived. and then it happened. i decided to assemble the loft and realize something is missing. luckily i have the instructions with me and realize the "something" missing is the main part of the bed, the part which the mattress actually lays on, which links the two ends together!

well. we had to do some backtracking to the event. attempt one found no one at home. attempt two revealed that "the twins" were home alone. well-meaning, these identical twins holding the yard sale so the proceeds can go to a charity they began, twins4tanzania, looked around for the missing piece and pointed out anything metal or wood in the garage as the potential part...none of these items were the missing piece.

two days have passed. it has yet to be found. tomorrow is d-day. find bed, or get refund

(even if its for charity i'm just too broke!) i feel like i cant start classes without a bed!

welcome to el ay (LA)

getting "turned around" is not the same thing as being "lost." today, while exploring my new place of business (dka my new school) i got turned around. that's fine, i enjoy walking, being obviously a tourist, wringing my hands together in the deserted hallways of buildings equally deserted for summer, wondering if i belong as i wonder where the hell i am.

i wandered, and found a lovely track, a swimming pool, founder's park, the sca complex, and everything else i wasn't looking for but relished the discovery of nonetheless.

"parking structure x" the final destination where i intended to pick up my usc ID remained ever elusive.