Saturday March 20, 2010

I got up early and had breakfast with Yesenia, another producer/director who worked for me at Naughty America for years. She started as a makeup artist, moved to production manager of the entire LA operation and about a year and a half ago started producing/directing for the company as an independent contractor. She is a ball of energy and we have been good friends for years. Plus she is a die-hard U2 fanatic like I am! We went to Basix Cafe in West Hollywood after attempting to try The Griddle and seeing about 872 people in line at 9am! Aren’t you people supposed to be sleeping in? It’s Saturday! Everyone always rants and raves about The Griddle so I guess next time I better wake up at 7am or go on a weekday. Sheesh. It was good to catch up with her. As it turns out her parents are moving back to Guatemala in the fall and I do believe if I can get past this pesky little SCUBA problem I am having, I will be inviting myself to go with her. Belize is very close to Guatemala and is the second largest coral reef system behind the Great Barrier Reef. I have never been to Central America and I would love to be able to check that off my list. After this trip to Australia, continent #7, I need to make up a new to-do list and fill in the gaps. (as I type this I just tried to give you 3 or 4 of the places that are at the top of the list and I can’t even do it! I can’t even narrow it down to the top 4)

The train ride home is always so relaxing. I love taking the train to and from LA but then it sucks when you have no vehicle while you are there. (But then again driving in Los Angeles is probably my least favorite thing to do. I would rather do housework than drive in LA traffic.) The train back to San Diego allows you to stare out the window and gaze at this for about an hour. Put some headphones on and ignore that small annoying child you hear.

I had an extra ticket to Cirque du Soleil because Rich was being a jackoff and decided to hit the bars all day instead of going with Chris and I to the 4:00pm show in Del Mar. I told him if I didn’t find someone to go that he had to come with me or give me the money for the ticket anyways. He threatened that he would be a hot mess and be wearing board shorts. The last thing I want to do today is have that drunk ass in my car and sitting next to me during a quiet dark show. I called my friend Erin and she was happy to join us… so what if she only saw one inning of her kid’s baseball game before ditching him. lol

I have been to a lot of the Cirque du Soleil shows… In Las Vegas: Ka, O, Mystere, Zumanity, two traveling shows called Dralion and Varekai, and there was one focused on music called Alegria. I have yet to see the Criss Angel, Elvis or Beatles shows in Vegas.

Kooza is their latest traveling show. If you are in San Diego and have ANY free time this week you need to check it out! Well worth the $70. It ends on March 28th though so hurry!

Of course you are not allowed to take photos in there so I found some clips of my 3 favorite acts.
The contortionists girls were incredible! I think like 3 or 4 more Bikram yoga sessions and I should be good to go for a new career.

The tightrope guys were amazing…. It is unreal how these people make their bodies do things that look humanly impossible. Strength, balance, concentration and an incredible amount of trust in their partners. First of all, when is the last time you jumped rope?? Let alone on a tightrope 50 feet in the air with no net below you! What you don’t see in this clip is the bicycles they ride across the tightrope and then the chair that goes on top of that and the guy who stands on the chair. Crazy!

and my favorite act (probably of ALL of the shows I have ever seen) is this one… The Wheel of Death: (again with the jumping rope around 4:45 )

These videos don’t even do it justice… they are dark and being there is an entirely different experience. Other highlights of the show were watching the 6 year old boy in the front row freak out when the big giant dog pees on the audience.

An actual burst of liquid comes out and hits the front row. Then the dog turns around and pretends that he is kicking and covering the mess. This little kid wigged out and ran to the other side of the stage and then everytime one of the clowns would approach the stage he would bolt. It was hilarious. It looked like he was with his Grandmother and Erin and I were cracking up that this kid would be scarred for life and never want to go with his Nana ever again. Of course they call volunteers up to the stage at various parts of the show and I always wonder if they are planted in the audience or just chosen when they arrive. I am sure they have to sign some sort of release and the crew probably tells them what to do to make the show more interesting. They always seem to roll with the punches just right. It made me think of the time I was at Sea World and I literally fell for that trick with the “volunteer” girl falling into the pool during one of their dolphin or whale acts. My nieces were dying laughing at me because I legitimately panicked and thought the girl fell in. I would bet that Sea World has probably cut that act out of their shows recently.

After the show we went to dinner at Pamplemousse which is one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego. (along with Addison and Phil’s BBQ.) I started off with the Pamplemousse Martini (pamplemousse is the French word for grapefruit btw) Absolut Ruby Red (my flavored vodka of choice these days) Cointreau, fresh grapefruit juice and lemon juice, served with a sugared rim. Dee-lish!

Chris and I love to order a bunch of appetizers when we come here because they are all pretty awesome.

Abalone with lump king crab:

Clockwise from top left: shrimp with an amazing soy ginger sauce, fried oyster, lobster ravioli in a peppercorn sauce, crab served on a bed of greens with a carmelized red onion and in the middle was tuna tartare. The peppercorn and ginger sauces were definitely LTP worthy (for those of you just joining us, LTP is the “Lick The Plate” award) but for some reason have not had the courage to lick plates in public lately.  Maybe I was not drunk enough.

Truffled white asparagus soup which looks as bland as it tasted. I didn’t really taste any truffles.

This was a smoked fish platter which was so over powering I actually had to push it to the other side of the table. I am very weird about fish sometimes. I like cooked salmon. I like smoked raw salmon on a bagel. I do not like cooked smoked salmon and I don’t particularly like raw salmon unless it is smoked. It’s weird.

And the mother of all dishes at Pamplemousse THE WHITE TRUFFLE LOBSTER GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH. Ladies and gentlemen, this sandwich is fifty bucks. We actually told ourselves when we arrived that we weren’t going to get it because we have had it so many times before. And then we caved. Because of the smoked platter that I recoiled at I was able to barter and get 2 slices of this.

Dinner was amazing and I went home and crawled into bed at 10:30. I love sleep. But then at 2am I woke up puking and shitting. Not too fun. I am just happy that I was not able to identify what food it was that made me sick. I would hate to have to hate something from that restaurant. Everything is too yummy.

The benefit to vomiting is losing weight. I am down to 141 from 148 last week. I know, it’s disgusting.