Week in Pics (which week??)

I'm all sorts of lost on my week of pics, but let's just go cover last week and some of my CA trip. 

Last week started with a flight back to New York on Monday.  Usually, I'm totally ready to come back to the city.  But this time, I wanted to linger a bit longer in LA.  Ok, a lot longer.

It was just so nice to see close friends and enjoy the slower pace. You know what?  That's what it is.  It takes a little while to actually wind down, and having only four full days allowed us to start relaxing at day 3 and go right back home.  I love you, LA!

Flying into LAX around midnight, we huffed it over to the local luxurious La Quinta.  It actually wasn't bad at all. (Just avoid the La Quinta in the Portland Airport like the plague!)  Before heading out to Santa Barbara in the morning, I got a request to send off an audition tape within a couple of hours. I didn't have a suit so I wore my husband's suit jacket. I pretty much looked like this:

I didn't get the part.

Our car crew grabbed some eats before the road trip.

Blockheads is pretty awesome.  It's like eating air. But beautiful, creamy air with heavenly toppings.

Our lodging for the night: Las Brisas del Mar

So cute, right?

The back reminds me of old LA apt complexes

Let me tell you how we were welcomed by the staff at Las Brisas.  We walk in, and Will at the front desk smiles and checks me in.  He asks, "Do you smell that?" As we all take in the delicious aroma of baking cookies, he says, "We will have those ready for you at 6:30pm." We all clap and shout a round of "yays". Ok, maybe my husband didn't.  I take a peek out at 4 bikes outside the lobby.  I ask Will, "Are there bikes available for rent?" As he affirms this service is indeed available AND complimentary, 4 people hop on the bikes and ride off.  My head and shoulders drop. My mood deflates. Those bastards took the last bikes. Ugh.

 But little do I know that this is magic land. So Will happily tells us that they have TWENTY EIGHT bikes available, and that we have nothing to worry about.  Now, would we be joining the wine and cheese gathering at 4pm? And here are the towels for the pool and jacuzzi. Oh, and let us not forget to tell you that there is complimentary sparkling wine waiting for us in the room.

Now you may be used to fancy, schmancy service like this everywhere you go. And you may also be more level-headed and practical like my husband who mused aloud that they are smart to offer these little, inexpensive touches.  Yeah, I get it.  It's not like we were getting Cristal up in the room, but it was so much fun being told one good thing after another!!

Walking to the cliffs with our cousin Tyler who is attending his first year of grad school at UCSB!
We ate passionfruit hanging over a fence.  Is that stealing?

Back in LA, we got to see our friends' awesome work digs! And there also happened to be an event with a dunk tank in the lot.  I hit the target three times, and nothing happened.  I swear, the more gentle I am, the more accurate my throw.  Yet, with more force, my aim suffers.  The same thing happens when I bowl.

We attended a wedding in Hollywood.  I always like a good douchey pool party at the Roosevelt so we managed to squeeze in some cocktail time beforehand with my girlfriends.

Congratulations to Arika and Gabe! Beautiful wedding, beautiful space, FABULOUS couple.
Remember all that fun in the sun at Roosevelt Hotel?  I overdid it and felt a little ill. And fat.  My dress was cutting into me, and I had a wardrobe change.  A very unglamorous one.

The highlight of the next day was the $15/hour massage at Alibaba.  The reviews are all over the place, but I had a fantastic experience and can't wait to go back!  Afterward, our group of friends ANIHILATED the menu at Phoenix.  We had desserts here, but then we picked up more desserts at their bakery next door.

THEN a couple of my friends and I snuck off to eat dumplings and slurp up beef handmade noodles right after.  My first Taiwanese restaurant! That beef noodle soup at Mama's Kitchen was BANGIN'!

After flying home to NY, it took some time to adjust to the flow of things. One of the new things I tried was going to Philadelphia for an audition.  As I waited outside the bathroom door at the casting office, my friend popped out.  I love running into friends at auditions. And this was in a different city!  I dropped her off near her friend's place, which also happened to be near Betsy Ross' house.  I had to go back to NYC for another audition so this was a bit of unplanned sightseeing before leaving.

Downtime before the next audition

Our UCB improv 101 class had our graduating show on Sunday.  It was exciting and just a lot of "Here goes something!" thoughts.  We survived, and I hope I can move onto 201 soon!

And THIS has taken up a lot of my time lately.  

We moved!  The building next door kept causing us problems and refusing to do anything about it.  They created a mold situation in our apartment so we had to find a more suitable place to live.  Unfortunately, we have to continue making mortgage payments while also paying for the new apartment rent so it is going to be an interesting year ahead. I hope our future is not full of instant noodle meals. Andrew is already obsessed with Mr. Money Mustache blog. I guess we have to become penny-pinching masters!

 We hope that justice will prevail and the building next door decides to fix the source of the mold problem so that we can finally end all the drama.