susan hustler lee

denise punkrock chu

reba swampass kim

friday.

i'm sitting in my car in the denny's parking lot on century blvd., touching up on my mascara.  finally.  my phone starts whistling, and i'm reversing, whizzing along the left lane toward arrivals, zipping around the bend to terminal 4. 

have yall met bunny?  she watches over my driving, everywhere i go lolzzzz.

in the distance, i spot a pink tshirt and white hoodie.  inner scream.  i pull up and before i know it, i'm being consumed by hugs.  the girls quickly load up the trunk, and susan climbs into the back, nisha in the front.  denise just got a new minichuper, so she checks out the dash, noting the old skool differences and toggling down the windows.  

there's some traffic, but we make it to our hotel in hollywood, drop off our luggage, and head to chosun galbee.  on our way, denise tries to explain yoshinoya to susan:  fast.  food.  beef.  rice.  bowl.  we also pass by waco, so we discuss donkatsu:  deep.  fried.  pork.  chop.  while we wait for a table, we look through korean magazines which are:  full of face.  whitening.  stuffs.  lolz we are so profound.  first meal in la - galbee and mandoo gook.  susan remarks that she wants to live at chosun galbee.  denise specifies, in the banchan room. 

the aftermath lmao

quick 10:51pm stop at galleria for snax & shampoo

it's already late, so we head back to the hotel to plan out the rest of the weekend.  we discover that we don't have wireless connection.  but we have denise's bf.  from sf, he looks up hours & reserves our tickets.  what a sweet dude.

saturday.

allegedly, none of the workers at paris baguette know the wep key for the wireless.  [actually...how do you say "wep key" in korean?]  nonetheless, we enjoy our breakfast - a provence for nisha, a fruit croissant for susan, and a walnut cheese bread for me.  with hazelnut iced coffees.  yum.

next, we're on rodeo doing the touristy gawky thang - peering into the interior of beautiful convertibles (susan's movin out of the banchan room and into a black lambourgini) and snapping pictures amongst prada mannekins. 

highlight: we spot an old grandma - i'm talking like over 70 years old - wearing oversized chanel sunglasses and cruising down the street in a benz.  SO OG.  denise in 50 years.  lol. 

we stop by my office to print out tix.  consumed in my lil mapquest world, i have no idea how much fun the girls are having.

the pch is gorgeous!  driving by the pacific ocean for miles and miles gets us good & ready to frolick at the getty villa, and nisha (our greece/rome buff) is practically hyperventilating by the time we reach the cobblestone road. 

reba: i’m sorry but aphrodite has thunder thighs.
nisha: and cankles.
susan:  she also has half her head missing. guess she’s not looking very hot these days.

susan: that funerary lion looks like jessica biel in my magazine (june 2007 elle) with her butt up in the air.

back on the pch, we spontaneously decide to pull over.  so we take off our shoes, roll up our jeans and dig our feet into the cold wet sand. 

the jumping pix begin!  unfortunately, denise is the only photographer capable of capturing midair shots.  everytime either susan or i try, we catch nisha pre or post jump.  this results in denise's jumping up and down all afternoon, straining muscles in her butt. 

LMFAO denise is demoralized.

true LA story: we're chillin on the rocks enjoying the sun, when an aspiring porn star (we can only surmise) comes along in a skimpy lil outfit with a photographer.  before long, the photographer is yelling, no arch your back a little more!  on your elbows, NO not hands, ELBOWS!!  put your butt into the groove right there and raise one leg up, no a little higher.  yeah that's great!  

... ='(

we drop by the 3rd street promenade, where we enter the parking garage at 5:58pm.  this is notable b.c at 6pm, you have to pay $3.  awesome.  lolz.  we skip along, noting the shops, street performers and artists.  denise scores THE DENISE DRESS at deisel.

we head over to beverly hills for dinner at blowfish.  it's funny, b.c there are a gajillion open tables, but we have to sit at the sushi bar cuz they have tons of reservations.  i don't mind, b.c apparently, you not only have to have sushi skillz but goodlooking skillz to make sushi at blowfish on saturday nights lolzzz.  avocado wasabi, dynamite caps, DOC, toshi koshi, red hokkaido, mango mojito, & anime playing on flatscreens.  shoutz to lisalee for the rec. :)

cheers!

nisha has never been to pinkberry, so we go there for dessert.  she's only mildly impressed.  i suspect it isn't CREAMY enough for her tastes. :P

then we head over to the arclight to watch fracture. 

at one point during the movie, denise and susan start cracking up and cannot stop laughing.  i keep asking, what's so funny?  and it's still the same thing.  for like 30 minutes.  and it is all because of this random scene:

ryan gosling: here, have a jellybean
delivery guy: [takes one]
ryan: what color did you get?
delivery guy: yellow.
ryan: eww!  yellow's popcorn.  gross!
poor delivery guy: [looks hurt and confused]

ridonculous.  keke.  we heart ryan gosling.  and we are slightly concerned about the fact that nisha's bf is an aeronautics engineer.

susan: does ray own any marbles?  i hope he doesn’t murder you.

sunday.

i drop the girls off at ktp so i can go get my church on.  after church, i find them sitting at the lil coffeeshop, 8 kpop cds richer.  lolzzz. 

then we go to young king to eat gganpoong shrimp, jjajangmyun & sizzling shrimp soup.  yumz msg & grease.  nothing beats that combo.

subdued.

we also have a deep conversation about guys in LA:
denise: you know what i've noticed?  every guy in LA is a metrosexual.
reba:  oh really?  thanks for giving me that fresh perspective.  i'm so used to metrosexual guys now; whenever i see a guy who's not metro, i'm like ew, what a scrub.
susan:  wow, LA snob.

did yall kno it's like $65 to get into universal studios?  what's in there that makes the $$ worth it???  well, we don't want to find out, so we go crazy picking out potential fake tattoos and oscars.  lol.  denise and susan think universal citywalk is the weirdest place they've ever been.  it's so true.  i remember it's one of the first places i went to in la too and i, too, was like wtf?  or maybe the wtf was because i was forced to watch the dukes of hazzard omg.

best woman

best person

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nisha is downright limping by this point in our adventures, so we decide to take it easy and chill at sweet lady jane's.  i have the berry cake (best ever!), susan the chocolate chocolate cake, and nisha the ham & cheese quiche.  if u haven't noticed already, nisha prefers savory over sweet.  susan and i also get the biggest french press pot of coffee ever.  we tell the lady coffee for two and end up with a pot that holds at least 15 cups of very strong coffee.  buzz buzz.

reba: omgosh how did you even see that quiche?
denise: i saw it out of the corner of my eye. i have mad radar.

we manage to sneak into marc jacobs and mulberry on melrose before they close.  at marc jacobs, we bump into a former exeter classmate of nisha's who always talked about how much money she had and got kicked out for excessive drugs or alcohol (exact reason unknown).  she has the tiniest dog i've ever seen, which she calls her daughter.

classmate talking to woman petting her dog outside marc jacobs: that’s my daughter. i’m sorry can i take her away from you? i just don’t want you to kidnap her.

around 5, we dash off to century city mall to catch the showing of hot fuzz, which we end up LOVING.  so many great crass lines.  IDEA.  only schoolchild at a time.  ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.

oh homer, susan & i love u...perhaps inappropriately.

susan:  denise, you’re like the adopted asian baby. you’re maddox.

we arrive at hurry curry at 9:59.  this is notable b.c hurry curry closes at 10pm.  we ask if they could still serve us.  the waitress looks mad annoyed, but the manager says yes.  we enjoy our tokyo curry, pork katsu curry and chicken katsu curry, then bounce home. 

delirious hilarity ensues at hotel.  susan goes crazy in her bed, ROLLING AROUND and kicking her covers, and we all repeat lines from hot fuzz while sniggering like adolescent boys. 

monday:

we wake up super late and head over to toast for brunch.  i point out quintessential la man.  tall.  white.  gorgeous.  probably an aspiring actor.  wearing shades indoors.  chucks.  eating alone at toast of all places, but constantly on his blackberry.  susan orders the open face, i the huevos rancheros, and nisha the denver scramblette.  yum.  the girls treat me for being their hostess!  :*)

we then head down the street to plastica, a store that sells everything plastic.  everything in the store is so cute.  and expensive.  but denise magically manages to score an inexpensive magnet strip and cuuuute mushroom magnets for her friend's birthday gift, and susan gets an awesome LA totebag. 

we go back up third street to the grove cuz that's where the korean tour buses stop.  nisha and susan marvel at the parking garage that tells you the number of spots left open, get splashed by the fountain while taking pix in front of it, and ride the trolley.

next we hit up westwood, where there is nothing to do.  we walk around aimlessly, stopping to get boba and eat bad sushi while reminiscing on all the drama rama at wellesley.

finally, we make a quick run to sprinkles, where i get a cupcake for each member of my family, including raspbeari (they sell doggie cupcakes!), and the girls get a bunch of cupcakes to go.

wah!  it's time to say goodbye!  nisha and susan disappear through the sliding doors into their terminal at lax.  sniiiiiiiiiiiiff.  till next time girls!

epic high cd: holla if you hear my sanity.
reba:  HOLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

great weekend:

was off to a bang friday night celebrating jeong's bday at the courtyard in weho, where i had a glorious view of the restaurant's drop dead gorgeous host all night. he had the most amazingly yet minimally styled blond hair, and looked so effortlessly cool in his peacoat. hot. how come men who look like him are never straight?

peach sangria.  beef empanadas. 21 people singing happy birthday. jeong making silly faces for the camera. delicious.

sbar was nonstop entertainment with the boys rocking out to nsync, tupac, disney, kballads, weezer, etc.  we also got the most disturbing looking chicken on a platter. who ordered that?

on the way home, marko ted & i stopped by innout in westwood and felt OLD. did we really look like that in college? it was barely 1am and we were falling asleep all over the place. we ate our double doubles with our eyes half-closed while the kids around us yelled across tables, flirted, picked fights, and strutted around in bright pink jackets.

saturday, i opened my eyes at 7:03am and didn't stop rushing till we arrived in front of our glasses of fruit salad at the annual mayor's prayer breakfast. might be a slightly self-centered way of viewing an event for the city of los angeles, but i felt like God fashioned it just for me. the new testament reading of john 15 was the most compelling scripture reading i've ever experienced. i closed my eyes and the word REMAIN washed over and over me in powerful conviction. patricia heaton (everybody loves raymond) continued the program with her testimony: the vivid moment she became aware of her sinfulness, the broken moment she surrendered her acting to God, and the ongoing moments that make her relationship with God a daily one. and again, the possibility of an unflappable, abiding relationship with God refreshed my heart to recognize that i really. long for intimacy with Christ.

i was impressed by mayor villaraigosa's vulnerability in speaking as openly as he did about his affair in a roomful of 600 quietly listening christians.  how many times can a sinner ask for forgiveness?

after breakfast, i crawled into bed with a horribly sore throat and chills and did not crawl back out till sunday morning.  best 20 hour nap ever.

sunday was keith phillips.  he was straightforward and personable in his laying out the needs of the city with specific anecdotes (violence, poverty, hunger) and pairing them with ways we can respond.  what struck me most, though, was that the great man standing before me, the founder of world impact, was once just a white kid from the midwest who felt convicted one day to leave ucla campus and go knock on a door in the projects.  the Holy Spirit is crazy. 

it startled me when i noticed that all the missionaries in the house weren't from la.  what is it about being so familiar with a place that makes us blind to its needs, deaf to its groans, and ignorant of our responsibilities?  we are way too comfortable here.  i pray and hope that love alexandria would open our eyes, clear our ears, and give us deep understanding.  i pray that it would make our church intensely uncomfortable in a way that makes us bring forth His kingdom.  unflagging hope!

then of course there was the superbowl.  nuff said. =)

i just read about an art exhibit in central america in which an artist named guillermo "habacuc" vargas tied up a starving, sick street dog in the gallery and wouldn't let anybody give it food or water until it died.

according to vargas: "i knew the dog died on the following day by lack of food. the dog was extremely ill and it did not want to eat anyway, so in natural surroundings it would've died anyway."

"the importance to me is the hypocrisy of the people where an animal is the focus of attention where people come to see art, but not when it’s in the street starving to death."

interesting.  unusual.  point taken, if the truth really is that the poor creature would have died anyway.  unfortunately, i think his point is lost on every person who is now up in arms signing petitions against the artist rather than helping starving street dogs in central america, much less rescuing a domesticated pet from their local animal shelters.  or for that matter, furiously digging an article about a single dog compared to other news like the thousands of women who are being sadistically raped and mutilated in the congo.