While I was in NYC last month Carly and Liz showed me a trailer for a weird movie called “Human Centipede” that is about a whacko doctor who takes 3 people and sews them together. The first person’s butt is attached to the second person’s mouth and then the second person’s butt is sewn to the third person’s mouth. It’s so ridiculous. I only watched the trailer and I can’t decide if it’s going to be scary or so bad that it’s funny. (At least it was shot in HD and it’s well lit! lol) Anyways, during his stand up show the other night Daniel Tosh was talking about the movie and asked the audience if anyone had seen it. Only about a dozen people cheered and raised their hands… He said that he and some other guys walk around the office/studio trying to pick who their “B” would be. (If Daniel and the other guy were the “A” and the “C”, ya know?)

During the East Coast airing of Tosh.O Daniel live tweets to his fans. His 500,000+ followers say ridiculous things to him about the show and he responds with equally ridiculous remarks to some of them. I doubt he sees half of them to be honest with you. Anyways, this past Wednesday he said that he would start following the person with the best tweet of the night! AND he opened it up to the West Coast fans…and he would take the night to go over them all.

I haven’t been feeling well and I had taken some Nyquil and completely forgot that the show was on so when I saw his offer at 9pm I was well on my way to sleepytime. I literally set my alarm for 10:30 pm, got up and sent him a tweet in hopes that he would see it and choose me and thus we would start our life together. I wanted to make sure I did it sometime during his show between 10:30 and 11:00 PST so he would see that I was watching his show (which I was not, of course, because I went straight back to bed in my Nyquil coma). Am I insane? Totally. Did he pick me? No.

Without further ado…here is the trailer for “Human Centipede” and the tweet that I sent.

“Hey @danieltosh I am volunteering to be the “B” in our version of human centipede… what do you say? ”

On July 25, 2008 while I was out of town on business in Los Angeles, my 13 year old black lab/dalmatian mix had to be put to sleep. She had been sick with tumors and cancer and during the few days that I went to LA she had started having seizures. My niece Nikki and my friend Noel were at the house on that Friday evening and had to carry her in a blanket into the car and to the emergency vet clinic. Nikki and Noel left her there so that I could make the decision after seeing her when I returned to San Diego in the morning. When I called the clinic the technician informed me Sierra kept having seizures and she was getting worse. It wasn’t fair to make her suffer overnight just so I could get one last look at her or one last hug so I had to make the decision to put my dog to sleep over the phone. I never had a chance to say goodbye to her or give her one last hug.

I hadn’t been to Dog Beach in Ocean Beach or to the dog park in Balboa Park since the summer of ‘08 so I took some time yesterday and went. I walked along the beach and went to the end at low tide where Sierra and I used to play fetch with the tennis ball while she was still in good shape. When the tide rolls out the edge of the beach turns into a lake…perfect for labradors who love to swim and chase the ball in the water.

Dog park was always a different story for us…without the distraction of the water and the ball Sierra would just growl and be mean to every dog that came near her…all the while wagging her tail.

I miss Sierra and miss having a dog so much. I got her when she was just 6 weeks old, the runt of the litter.

I was nuts then, too, and sent out birth announcements for my new addition. (yes, I realize that I spelled dalmatian wrong) This was my sister’s dog Scooby…who I had to bring to the vet to have put down because my sister couldn’t deal with it.

I got her right before the holidays so my nieces were ectastic when I showed up with her on Christmas morning.

I started prepping her at an early age for the torture devices and props that would end up on her. Too bad they didn’t have the site Stuff on My Mutt back then! I get this from my brother Pete whose favorite game is to hook one paw into the collar and watch them hobble around on 3 legs.

Who doesn’t look amazing with a Slinky boa!?

Sierra was always in a good mood…

…when she had beer around. (She takes after her mother and is named after Sierra Nevada Pale Ale after all…)

She loved to teach young dogs how to live life.

I started with the fish eye pics way back in the late 90s!

This was her very first playmate, Vanity. We shared a yard with another house and when we moved in Sierra and Vanity became best buds…they ruled the place.  

She, like her mother, did not take to SCUBA very well.

But she was a good sport when I dressed her up for her annual holiday photo every year.

Over the years we had many roommates: human, canine and feline. This was her first kitten friend, Fletcher.

Summer was the friend she had the longest…we lived with Summer and another English Mastiff named Titus for many years.

We also used to dogsit for a Jack Russell named Jax on ocassion. One time I had to shove my whole hand down Jax’s throat because she got a condom out of the trash and was choking on it. It was not a condom that I had used, so you can imagine the sounds coming out of my mouth as I ripped my roommate’s boyfriend’s condom out of her mouth. Good times. No, Jax, you are not dying on my watch thank you very much.

Petey lived with us for a little while too. Sierra had many boyfriends…Titus, Coby, Dexter, the list goes on.

She had a huge lump on her ass that had to be removed…

When she started to get real sick towards the end of 2007 I moved my niece Nikki to San Diego to be my dog nanny. Yes, I paid someone to be the dog nanny. I was traveling a lot for work and it was too difficult to move her to another person’s house for a week at a time.

Generally she was a good dog…

…except towards the end when she would just blatantly knock the trash over and eat whatever she wanted out of it.

And then she would just shit right next to the mess… like “Haha fuck you Mom, now look at the mess you gotta clean up!”  That little bitch.

I took pictures of the mess every single time. Often I would blame the other dog in the house, but in the end I realized Sierra was the ring leader. Always.

I know for a fact that she is running around in dog heaven growling at everyone who crosses her path, eating tons of trash and running along the beach chasing the birds and fetching that tennis ball over and over and over until she can barely walk.

RIP Sierra  11/7/94 – 7/25/08

(Monday July 26, 2010 Continued)

Christian used to have 2 hedgehogs: Ron and Linda. Named appropriately after our favorite porn hedgehog Ron Jeremy…and why not call the female Linda Lovelace? Last year he had to have Ron put down because he got Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome but Linda is still kicking around, looking happy and healthy. I was shocked at how much bigger she was.

omg I never knew that such a strange looking animal could be so damn cute.

When they get nervous they like to curl up in a ball.

Christian also has 2 sugar gliders. (also read here)

Their names are Chip and Dale, but he doesn’t know which one is which. The fur is very soft like a chinchilla.

And they don’t mind fish eye lenses, but they are cautious for sure.

He lets them run around his bedroom at night and they hide under the covers or behind the bed immediately but if you just chill out they eventually come out and crawl up the lamp or to the top of the TV stand.

One of them was a little shy tonight and he couldn’t get him to come out from under the bed.

This guy was definitely curious of my camera. I am still pretty bad at this manual focus thing when I am distracted by the small animal in front of me… lol

Running loose!

The awful sound they make when they are unhappy…like when they are being picked up and put in their carrying case.

Monday July 26, 2010

I spent the better part of the day at Starbucks across the street from Christian’s apartment borrowing their free wi-fi because the Verizon signal sucked in his place. He ran errands, I edited pictures, updated the blog and made some more travel plans and set up some meetings for August. I went and took a quick nap (still feel like shit) and got ready for our 8:15 dinner reservation at a place I have been trying to get to called Animal. It’s one of the hot spots in LA right now that all of the LA chefs eat at. It’s a minimalist place owned by two guys named Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, Food and Wine magazine’s Best New Chef 2009. It’s situated in the old Jewish district of LA and supposedly they cannot advertise that their food is kosher for competitive reasons, but I can assure you since half of the things on the menu are made of that magical creature called pig, this will not be an issue. The place has very little decor, simple tables and chairs, nothing fancy on the tables and only seats 45 people. Getting a reservation isn’t that difficult with some planning during weeknights, but don’t be late (your table is given away within 15 minutes) and whatever you do, don’t ask to modify a dish…they put right on the menu that “changes and modifications politely declined.” The bar has 7 first come/ first serve seats so if you are in the area without a reservation, look for a small black front (nothing says “Animal”) and stop in and see if you can indulge in some amazingly delicious meaty creations…

We started with the crispy pig ears, covered in chili lime sauce and topped with a fried egg. (Oh, PS I got all of my cholesterol, thyroid and kidney tests back! I am all clear to eat like I want again! yay!) The pig ears were sliced thinly and yummy but the chili lime was overpowering to me…but that’s because I am a huge wimp when it comes to spicy foods. Christian loved it and devoured the whole thing.

Melted petit basque  baked with sliced chorizo and served with bread. The crispy edges of the cheese were simply to die for. (I literally woke up this morning thinking about it.)

Pig tails, “buffalo style” with celery and ranch dressing. I am not a huge fan of buffalo anything (again the spice factor) but I wanted to see how they did pig tails. They use every inch of the animal and I am always curious to try new things. I enjoyed them, but they don’t hold a candle to Hooters. HA. I KEED I KEED.

Barbecued pork belly sandwiches with cole slaw. I was starting to get really full so I just tasted a bite of it. It was an interesting  presentation of pork belly (like “comfort food”) smothered in bbq sauce on a buttery toasted bun. I didn’t even really taste the coleslaw which I normally hate. I would go back on an empty stomach and order these again first.

Rabbit loin, country ham, olive and upland cress. It was a bit salty for me but still really well done. Christian wasn’t going to try it but I talked him into a bite…it was a lot like pork. People, do not be afraid of rabbit. It’s yummy.

Flat iron steak, asparagus hash, and (drum roll please) truffle parmesan fondue. I also managed to talk him into ordering it medium rare instead of medium…changing one steak eater at a time! The truffle parmesan fondue sauce was enough to make me lick the plate, unfortunately it was his dish and I can barely get him to share one bite with me, let alone move the plate to my side of the table at any time during the meal.

Nectarine & mulberry pie with whipped cream… again, his dish so I barely got one sample of it …but it was amazing!

Bacon chocolate crunch bar with salt and pepper English cream glaze. I loved it, of course, but it was so rich I could barely eat half of it. I actually put some of the whipped cream from the pie on it to cut the richness of it. I know the chef would be pissed but it was good. Bacon and chocolate is definitely an acquired taste, so if you haven’t tried it yet, give it a shot. You might hate it, but then again you might love the burst of salt in the mouthful of sweet. So good.

We shared a bottle of Prosecco and Christian was literally buzzed off his ass. The restaurant manager at one point had to come over to tell us that they had run out of one of our dishes (poutine with oxtail gravy…so bummed I missed that) and he began harassing her about the poutine while flirting. It was funny for the first 5 minutes but then I had to tell him that she was busy and he needed to leave her alone and not bug her every time she walked by. I also had to tell her that we were not a couple and that she should not worry that we were trying to get her to come home with us, and that she should feel free to actually go out with him should he end up asking her out. Poor Ashley. I switched to wine and Drunky McDrunkerson had another glass of Prosecco before we finished our meals. At 6′5″/ 240+ pounds it’s always amazing to see him get loaded after a small amount of liquor.

He wouldn’t let me pay (although I didn’t try very hard) and we had a great night of Tweeting during dinner and ignoring each other because we were both tired, focused on the food and approaching getting sick of each other. We went back home to play with the strange and unusual animals he has. That is another entry altogether!

Sunday July 25, 2010

We slept in a little after our hectic ending to a otherwise awesome day. Grabbed a bite to eat and then to the pool to catch some last minute sun before going our seperate ways. Nikki and Rob had a late flight back to Boston, but I was heading to LA at 2:15pm. I realized that you can check into your flight at the bell desk at MGM! For a mere $10 they will check you in, give you a boarding pass and take your luggage to the airport for you! It was totally worth it because it gave me an extra 45 minutes to hang out with the kids. I also walked outside at the exact minute the airport shuttle was getting ready to leave, so I avoided the long cab line and made it to the airport in perfect time for just $7. Bonus!

I flew to Burbank to visit Christian for a couple of days. I was supposed to be with Lisa Ann this week in Greensboro, NC but something got screwed up with the club and the plane tickets and they purchased a non refundable/non transferable ticket for her regular roadie, Gina. I was a little relieved to be honest, because I am ready to just chill out in San Diego for a few days. Since I had already made plans to see Christian and meet his parents who are in town for the week, (it’s been since January because of our little spat) I decided to re-route and come here and take the train back to SD on Tuesday. I was supposed to meet his parents last year when they were in town and were coming to San Diego for the day but I think they got caught up in traffic or something and changed their minds. Anyways, I was looking forward to spending some time with him and was looking forward to meeting the ‘rents. We went to Ruth’s Chris in Anaheim and I remembered to order my steak on a cold plate instead of the 500 degree sizzling plate. Unfortunately the butter doesn’t melt when you do that and it wasn’t quite the Ruth’s Chris experience. I only bothered with the photo of the beef carpaccio because it looked like a pineapple.

I was a little anxious about meeting them: I mean I am the one who has been exploiting their son on camera for 6+ years as a performer and was the one responsible for his career as a producer, a smut peddler, if you will. If it weren’t for me, he might just have run off into the sunset with a lovely “civilian” (the word we use for non-industry people) who works in a library. HAHAHA! Yeah right! Being at a dinner for 3 hours could have gone either way. They are conservative Republicans but then when I really thought about it… Christian is about as deviant as they come, so what the hell was I afraid of? If they still love him, they can’t hate me too bad.

Dad has 5 college degrees: 2 bachelors, 2 masters and a PhD. Mom is very religious and gave me a hug in the first 5 minutes of meeting her because I had told her I left my job in the porn business. His Dad is from Boston and his Mom is from New Jersey but moved to Texas many years ago and raised their 3 boys there. His Dad was very inquisitive about the business and the whole time he was asking questions about the industry he would apologize to his wife and say that that was the last question he would ask. Then he would ask another question. She would listen quietly, intently. They want their son to be out of the industry but how can you argue with the money to be made and the success he enjoys? We talked about the possibility of Christian and I traveling to Texas to visit San Antonio and Austin and we talked about visiting Japan to visit his other brother who lives there. We talked about growing up on the east coast, “all set”, their 2 grandchildren that they adore, the death of my parents and the relationship I have with my siblings, the traveling that we have all done, the pink monkey and to be honest…there wasn’t an awkward moment at all. Well, only when his Mom tried to get me to tell her the name of this blog. I don’t think so lady. I managed to make his Dad belly laugh several times so I think I got some extra bonus points for being funny. His Dad suggested that Christian and I go into business together and I reminded him that might end in the gruesome murder of his son.

I felt like dog shit, I have a head cold and a nasty cough developing…so we went back to his place and I passed out on Nyquil. I was going to try to get him to go to Bikram in the morning with me, but it’s not looking like it the way I was feeling.

(Saturday July 24, 2010 continued)

We had a 9:30pm reservation at Sea Blue, a Michael Mina restaurant inside the MGM. Stephen Hopcraft from the current season of Top Chef is the Executive Chef here. For starters the flatbread was simply amazing. It’s fresh baked to order so even though we were starving and had to wait for it, it was well worth it. They served it slightly salty, a little bit of buttery greasy goodness and served with three sauces: feta, a spicy something or other that I couldn’t handle and hummus.

The lobster bisque was delicious, with big chunks of lobster in it. Just the right amount of cinnamon…you know how sometimes lobster bisque can be too sweet?

Danny and I shared some oysters. I don’t remember which ones we ordered. Sorry it’s been a long weekend.

I actually didn’t order an entree, I just picked off everyone else’s plates. Danny had the bacon wrapped Chilean seabass and I know this is shocking, it was too smokey and bacon-y for me. He ordered the ratatouille and I never thought I would get excited about stewed vegetables, but they were outstanding. A definite must if you go there.

After dinner we jumped in a town car to bring us to Bellagio to check out the water display outside and to see the quarterly floral exhibit in the Conservatory/Atrium. The town car is the way to go if you are making a few quick stops. Instead of waiting in the long cab line you pay a driver somewhere between $45-55 for an hour’s worth of service. If you run over, you have to pay that second hour, so you had best time it right and not dilly dally. We were heading into Old Vegas/Downtown after Bellagio, so it was perfect timing and made sense since the ride to downtown is about $25 anyways.

Every time I come to Vegas I try to head over here to check out this exhibit. During the first part of the year they usually have it themed to Chinese New Year, during the summer months it’s usually bugs and butterflies like this one. I have seen a 4th of July one, too. I should dig up a bunch of these images and post them. It’s quite elaborate and always fun to see how creative they can be.

On the way to Old Vegas we had a bit of misfortune in our town car. I was in the front seat with my seatbelt on. Danny was behind the driver, Nikki was in the middle and Rob was behind me. The driver slowed down and put on his brakes due to some traffic ahead of him. Danny looked back and saw a big grey truck coming up really fast on us. We were hit very hard by the truck which then swerved to the left around our car, and then we were hit 2 more times after that. I am unclear of exactly who hit what and where… I thought there were 2 other cars in the accident after the truck, but then there were only 2 after all was said and done. I remember looking back and asking them if they were all OK and when I didn’t hear Danny speaking I panicked. I was grabbing his knee which was smashed into the back of the driver’s seat and saying his name over and over and shaking his leg. I think he was unconscious for at least 30 seconds or a minute. They are all a little sore, Danny especially. I don’t feel anything. We spent the next 2 hours on the side of the freeway which was totally backed up with traffic. We had to deal with paperwork and accident reports and the insurance guy and we had to wait for another town car to come pick us up. At around 2 am we finally got outof there and went back to MGM. We got really lucky on Saturday as none us were badly injured. It could have been much worse. The scary part is not knowing if that car that just hit you is the last of it or if there are more coming. I have never been in a car wreck like that…I was scared.

Even in the middle of a 3 car pile up on the side of the freeway I am looking for the shot of my reflection in a mirror.

I want to remind everyone that LIFE IS SHORT. Accidents are just that…accidents. You can never tell if today is the last day for you, your brother, your sister, your niece, your nephew, your aunt, your boyfriend or your girlfriend.

Remember the eulogy that my friend wrote for her Dad’s funeral:

“Be good. Be kind. Give help when you are able. Ask for help when you are in need. Hug tightly. Forgive quickly. Say I’m sorry. Say thank you. Say I love you. Say I don’t ever want to live without you. Make plans. Set  goals. Work towards them. But every now and then. Look around. Drink it in. Because this. Is it. It might all be gone tomorrow. And in the end, what matters. ALL that matters, is that the people you love know that you love them.”

Saturday July 24, 2010

Today was our 4th Annual Celebrate Danny’s Birthday in a Las Vegas pool. Year #1 was at Luxor, year#2 was at Mandalay Bay and the last 2 years we chose MGM because of the lazy river. Nothing beats floating around a murky warm river with a cold beer in your hand people watching.

Hello random guy, thank you for letting me use your shades for my self portrait.

Jello shots with strangers! yay!

We met a nice group of guys from Chicago and this was Tom, their bodyguard. What am I doing in the background?

Many of you know that I take a lot of upskirts of girls in public. (I am saving those for a rainy day, by the way.) I never do it without the girl knowing! I only shoot it if she says yes…I promise you… I do not want to get my ass kicked in a bar or on the street for something that stupid. Anyways, today was a little different. I DID NOT have anyone’s permission for what I like to call “Underwater Upskirts”!

No he wasn’t drowining. We were just getting fairly intoxicated and the water was pretty disgusting.

Enjoy these videos of the day! lol Watch that last one at your own risk!

We went to the rooms to take naps before dinner and our wild night out on the town.

Friday July 23, 2010

First of all, who in the hell goes to Las Vegas, Nevada in the middle of July for fun? Christ it’s so hot! I got up to do Bikram but I should have just saved the 20 bucks and done it outside. I went to the Green Valley Ranch location and there was something wrong with their heater so they cranked up the humidifier to compensate for it. It was cooler than it was supposed to be and the humidity was out of control. It was like a fucking rainforest…so awful. I made it through the class but I was miserable. The instructor was a real stickler for everyone doing things in unison also…which is different from the San Diego studio. In the Old Town SD class I get really annoyed because there is this one woman who just does whatever the hell she wants. She comes into class late and gets into each position about 15 seconds late almost every time. It is so distracting and annoying. I mean, she’s only cheating herself, right? There is also another guy in SD who fidgets almost the whole class. During every single savasna he’s wiggling his legs, moving his arms, breathing heavy like he is going to have a heart attack and generally disrupting everyone around him. I try to avoid sitting near either of them. Anwyays, the Vegas studio was nice because she forced everyone to stay together and stay calm between postures, which is half the point of the class: bringing yourself to a calm state instantly.

This is Danny’s one year old German Shepherd, Zeba. Apparently that’s the Hebrew word for “splendid” although I just tried looking that up and found nothing. lol Good one Dan. Ironic that he chose a Hewbrew word for a German dog also. She’s a little retarded to be honest, sweet dog, but mildly dumb.

This is Sophie (I think that’s her name)…this is not the one that Zeba was harrassing all night. That cat was hiding upstairs under the bed. Go figure.
 

We checked into our rooms at the MGM Grand. The underside of a very fuzzy and sleepy lion in their walk-through lion jail.

Rob had never been to Las Vegas so Nikki was bound and determined to walk into every casino over the course of the weekend. First stop New York, New York…. This statue was made out of jellybeans. Pretty cool! But man what a tedious job.

We went over to Aria and City Center to see the hotel and also to Crystals…the shopping mall that I told you about when Lisa Ann and I went to eat at Mastro’s. The mall is so futuristic and weird looking. I can’t decide if I am creeped out by it or like it.

The other side of Mastro’s.

I like the use of white with the dark linear wood.

We went north to Stratosphere so we could get a view of the whole city.

I considered doing the Sky Jump thingy but we saw a guy do it and to be honest, it was slow. I mean you free fall like 800 – 900 feet but he was moving pretty slow. It didn’t seem worth $99.

The big blue building on the left is The Fountainebleau like the one in Miami… unfortunately this one has gone bankrupt and stopped building.

Oh wow, Justin Beiber is working the elevators at Stratosphere on Fridays now.

Nikki insisted that we go into Circus Circus despite my pleas. I warned her that it was full of kids, a waste of time and the clowns would most certainly creep her out. We lasted 5 minutes. Long enough to grab a beer and take a photo of these awesome bar stools.

That is by far the ugliest quinceanera dress I have ever seen.

The Venentian really is the best hotel in Vegas in my opinion. The basic rooms all have a sunken living room, the restaurants are great (esp now that Palazzo is connected to it) and the mall with the gondolas and the replica of St Mark’s Square are just too cool. Being that I spent a week there every January for our annual industry tradeshow, I have a sense of comfort walking in the building. Even the smell of the place immediately brings back many memories for me. Some good, some bad, mostly fuzzy.

I liked the way the water is relfecting on the side of the tower.

I’ve never actually taken one of these gondola rides…one of these days. Or I could save the hundred bucks and save my money and actually go to Italy. lol

We wandered over to Treasure Island for one last pit stop before heading back to MGM to take naps and eat dinner.

Danny and I went to see Daniel Tosh performing stand up at Mirage and I have to tell you. It’s official. I am in love.

I could only snap a pic at the very last second and I wasn’t prepared with the setting so the pix suck, but you get the idea. The show was awesome. So inappropriate and off color on so many levels. He really pushes the envelope and makes people just laugh so hard at some ridiculous things. Thanks again Pat and Ed for introducing me to him just a few months ago. Rich claims that he and Kim tried to tell me about him a while back, but I don’t always listen to people. Sometimes you have to learn things for yourself. Tonight I learned that Daniel Tosh will be my husband one day.

After the show Danny and I met with Rob and Nikki at O’Sheas and I gotta tell you… this is not my favorite spot on the strip anymore. It was like a high school kegger with scattered old folks. It used to be a cool spot to duck into it away from the crowds on the strip, but is now very crowded and kind of icky. I saw my bartender Santos again (who bitched at me again for not bringing him porn) but still hooked me up with a free drink. Rob and Nikki went home. Danny played poker and I made my way back to MGM laughing my ass off at all the wasted drunk girls wearing dresses that look like they should be shirts…carrying their high heels, stumbling barefoot around the streets. I love being sober at this hour in Las Vegas! It was highly entertaining.

Wednesday and Thursday July 21 and 22, 2010

Yoga. Blog. Yoga. Blog.

But really…on Wednesday I finally had a chance to meet up with Sigrid, my bff who I have not seen in well over 6 weeks but felt like 3 months. I went over to her house and hung out with her and the bebe and got caught up on all kinds of stuff. She had me watch Big Brother for the first time and explained it all to me and we discussed the possibility of me on that show. It is a lot of money for a 3 month committment but then I found out they have no internet for 3  months. ACK.

Alice like to position herself right in front of the baby while she is eating. Smart dog.

On Thursday I had lunch with an old colleague that built our tradeshow booth for NA. He was in town for Comic-Con and wanted to meet up! I hadn’t seen him in 2 years so he was a little surprised to see the changes in me. Long blonde hair, thinner, tanner, and no thick black glasses. We went to Cafe Chloe for lunch and had a glass of wine and shot the shit about business, the changes in both our industries, his family, etc… He is going to hopefully hook me up with exciting some work in the very near future. I don’t want to jinx it so I will wait til that meeting happens

I had the mussels and truffle pomme frites which were really fantastic. He had the smoked trout salad with green apples…not so much. I am not a huge fan of smoked fish, and especially not trout. (Sorry Pete)

I took off around 8 pm on Thursday night for Vegas and met up with Nikki and Rob for Danny’s 4th annual birthday bash! We landed, went straight to In-n-Out so Rob could get one of their awesome burgers and called it an early night at Danny’s house. I slept on the sofa and was awakened to his one year old German Shepherd fighting with the cats about every 2 hours throughout the night. Good times.

Tuesday July 20, 2010

Holy shit I almost didn’t make it through the class this morning. I sat out almost the entire first half because I literally couldn’t even balance on one leg. I left the room and came back for the second half because I knew I would be on the ground the whole time. I will never attempt Bikram Yoga after 4 days of drinking, minimal water and very little food. I regret all of my decisions involving booze this weekend. UGH.

Jessica, her sister Sara (”Jedda” and “Tay”) and I drove up to Orange County to visit Kristen and her hot shot lawyer girlfriend Meghan. It was a swell day with some nice cloud cover and a lovely marine layer drizzle. WHAT THE FUCK SOCAL? We were all in our bathing suits praying to the sun gods but nothing came of it. (PS why do they call it “THE OC”? We don’t say “Come to THE SD”)

I realized on my vacation back east that I need to let go of the big fancy camera sometimes. It was interfering with my relaxtion time on several ocassions but I simply couldn’t control myself. When I was on the beach in Portland with Laura and her kid and Duke I should have just sat there and enjoyed the moment taking in the sights and sounds without the camera but I was struggling very hard with it. I need to work on that for sure.

Jedda, Kristen and “D” taken with the Blackberry

But then I fall apart and use the Nikon to capture a very solemn Tay… a Tay who is on a 5 day cleanse and can eat nothing and only drinks that weird lemony-cayenne-water shit. She was not a happy camper, but did the best she could watching us pig out and drink wine all day. Sorry Sara. She is starting a wine blog so stay tuned for more fun stuff about Sara and her vast knowledge of food and wine

 Kristen and Meghan who was in town for a trial. We had an awesome time at the St Regis in Dana Point… the food was great and it was a perfectly relaxing day.

I didn’t even take any pics of the food! And I only tweeted 2 times the whole time we were together! I drove home and started working on editing the massive amount of photos from the weekend. Jessica said Chris sent the blog to one of his friends to show him the remote controlled airplane videos and the guy said “Does that girl Laura do anything but blog? Jesus.”

Um yeah. It’s becoming an ordeal when you have 300 photos a day to sift through. And how, you ask, do I benefit from this? Ahh yes, that’s right…I am learning how to live and expressing my creative side.