Monday April 12, 2010 (yes, again. The longest day ever)

I landed at LAX around 7:00 am and was totally exhausted and was in desperate need of a nap. I had to drop 818 off at his place so we decided to lay down for a quick nap which ended up lasting almost 4 hours. I was freaked out when I woke up and it was approaching rush hour traffic so I hauled ass back to San Diego in the Prius and wouldn’t you know but I almost drove on the wrong side of the road when I hit downtown! I wasn’t even driving over there in AU and NZ! I guess being in the front seat anxiously watching 818 maneuvering around on the other side of the road/vehicle was enough to screw me up. Ugh.

I met  some of the girls at Lei Lounge in University Heights for some happy hour drinks and snacks (Jeanine, Lauren, Alicia, Amber, Tracy, Kerry and Becky.) I was too busy drinking martinis and gobbling their Philly cheesesteak rolls, lobster mac-n-cheese and the pineapple mango chicken to even take pics of  my food.

After a  bit the girls were on their way to The Purple Church (code word for Pure Platinum, the stripclub) so I had them drop me off at Bareback (ironic that I am at a New Zealand bar and grill already…oh wait I love this place)  to meet up with Dusty, Rich and Jeff. (Side note: Jeff is a master group vacation planner and is planning a trip this summer which is on my new bucket list… stay tuned for details!!) They had been at opening day of the Padres so they were pretty saucy. Even Kyle, the manager of Bareback was all sauced up. He didn’t recognize me at first because of my dark tan and blonde locks.

We mosied over to Tivoli and all of my favorite bartenders were working (wait… Christina wasn’t there!) Rozie, Andrea and Jenn.

Eli showed up. Funny story about Eli from probably 1993 or 1994. He was hired by the Romero brothers to be a spy at the Tiv. They wanted him to pretend he was a regular and make friends with the staff to see which of their bartenders were stealing money/giving away too many drinks. (I mean Christ, how do you get a job where you get paid to drink in a bar??) He did bust a few people but became such good friends with our group of friends that he resigned as the spotter and started hanging out with us. Anyways, he convinced me to do Jaeger Bombs with him.

I look pretty ridiculous here.

This is freaking priceless: what is he so excited about?  The fact that I am actually holding back vomit?

Thursday 2.11.10

I went to the Nickel Diner in downtown LA before catching my train back to SD. A few people had told me about this place after they heard about it on that show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Talk about sugar overload! This is a maple glazed bacon donut. I think it goes without saying that I had felt like I had died and gone to heaven. I would even consider living in Los Angeles for this.

Red velvet donut with cream cheese frosting inside. I was hoping for the donut to be red velvety but this was still pretty damn good.

And what sugary breakfast wouldn’t include a homemade pop tart?

I ordered eggs but didn’t bother with pictures. What is the point really?

Friday 2.12.10 was fairly uneventful …I went to happy hour at Bareback and I went home to spend some time with my DVR.

Saturday 2.13.10 was a gorgeous day in San Diego and I had big plans to go to this rare cheese/gourmet chocolate/fine wine event at the Hotel Del Coronado at their wine bar called Eno and after rounding up the troops (Rich and Chris and Chris’s sister) I thought it might be a good idea to call and see what the deal was with the event. Annnnnnd…….. that is when they told me it was sold out. Mind you Chris was outside my place waiting to pick me up when I had the bright idea to get organized. What a moron. Epic fail on my end. We ended up going to to the Fish Market on the harbor to have some wine and snacks and watch the sunset. It wasn’t a total waste of a day… but definitely not what I had planned and not the way to do things.

Smoked fish platter.

Ahi poke and spicy tuna roll.

Two of my favorite mo’s: Chrichard and Richtopher. They are very different but one in the same.

Week of 11.30.09 through 11.06.09

I went to a fashion show on Monday night with Lauren and James. It was put on by a group of students and it was not at all what I expected, but it was cute and fun to spend some QT with Lauren outside of work. Tuesday was the day my new assistant started (it’s funny how you get an assistant to help you because you need it and then you stress out more trying to train them and bring them up to speed, when sometimes it just feels easier to do the work yourself.) I like her though, she seems like she is going to work out. Plus she doesn’t mind us screaming all kinds of weird shit at each other in the office. Wednesday rolled into Thursday and I have nothing to report. I just worked long hours, didn’t eat anything particularly exciting but I did start back going to the gym again. It hurts a little, but it’s a good pain.

Friday morning was a champagne kind of day on “Live with Lauren” and if you don’t watch it, you are probably better off. lol We got a little nutty and of course managed to cry with laughter. We made fun of each other, made fun of some fans, shoved things in our mouths, did yoga poses and even got other employees to leave their posts and come down to the studio and join the debauchery. I had invited Joe from my high school into the chat room to check it out and it was mildly awkward for a minute but what the hell… Like I said, I am who I am.

I went to lunch at Cafe Chloe with Mike, one of the owners of Tivoli Bar and we got a little tipsy on some delicious Mt Edna chardonnay. I had the apple and fennel soup and the crab cake. What I didn’t realize is that the warm greens on the plate that I had been ignoring had chunks of thick bacon in it. Whoa, that was a close call of pig almost going to waste.

We ordered a caramel espresso bread pudding topped with vanilla ice cream that was to die for.

I floated back to work and was 10 minutes late to a meeting for which I had no choice to but to announce that I had wine at lunch and I was buzzed. It was so obvious! I went to happy hour at Bareback, flirted with the manager and made a little trip to the Hustler store

….to buy a red ball gag. I really don’t know what got into me, I just wanted to try it out. And guess what, it doesn’t fit and it hurts my jaw. $35 down the drain. Happy hour turned into midnight which made for a hell of a Saturday….