I'll Have Another...: March Madness

My good friend Thuy is getting married next weekend in New Orleans! I've known that little spitfire ever since I worked FOR her at a production internship in LA way back when...nearly 10 years ago?

Her bachelorette was in March, and she had no idea what we were doing for it. When the bridesmaids pulled up to pick me up from LAX (with a bag of Del Taco-how great are they!), Thuy asked if she needed her passport! Poor thing thought we were getting on a flight to some exotic destination.

Then I opened the trunk. No wonder she thought that we were going away. This is a pic after the airport and a Costco run. But look at all that luggage!! We actually just rented a house locally for the weekend, but you wouldn't be able to tell from the way the girls packed. Every nook and cranny of that SUV was filled- I even had pickle jars and wine bottles at my feet.

We had debated between a house near Hollywood or Malibu. Although the Malibu options were a bit more classy, we didn't think the hike in price was worth the location since it was still cold. We wouldn't even be able to hang out at the beach! So we focused on a place that had enough space for all the girls. AND a heated pool on the property.

Ha! Well, the joke was on us. Because the pool didn't get warm enough by the time of our arrival (or throughout the weekend). We did use the jacuzzi. As for the space, it turned out that most of us Asians like sleeping huddled on the floor in one room even though there were five bedrooms. Go figure.

Here is the kooky house.

I thought this was very "Game of Thrones".

There was even a stripper pole. We probably shouldn't have been touching it.

And a putt putt area.

The putt-putt area was near a trampoline that "you would be stupid to get on. But if you're going to be stupid, take off your shoes, yada yada." Something to that effect. It was a guideline included in the list of rules left for us. My main concern was that the trampoline was on a cliff.

Me enjoying the outdoors.

See what I mean? I thought the view was beautiful.

I forgot to take pictures of the showers. I am like 100% sure they were made for orgies. Huge bath areas with no curtains, doors, glass...nothing. Just lots of shower heads and "sitting" areas. The bathrooms also had huge windows that encouraged peeping Toms/exhibitionism.

We went dancing the first night.

Before we went inside, our "hostesses", aka hot girl workers, made the bride-to-be hula hoop. I still don't understand the reason. I feel like bachelorettes tend to be all about dirty games and sexual innuendo...so to prove her hips don't lie? Thuy did very poorly, but it's ok. It's difficult to bring your hula hoop "A" game when there are people in a club line staring at you.

The next day, we had a picnic at Malibu Wines.

After the weekend, I got to relax a bit around town.

Morning walk in Redondo

Getting some awesome ramen noodles in Little Tokyo- the noodles blew me away!

I stayed in CA a bit longer to celebrate my friend Judy's birthday with a Big Sur trip.

I can't decide which I like better...Judy's invitation

or Taryn's birthday card to Judy. "Adios bitachachos!"

We finally got to our little cottage at Deetjens Inn.

Our balcony

Our backyard

We had a delicious dinner at the inn (steak, lambchops, Mmmm). Great food. I mean, check out their huevos rancheros that I had for breakfast.

Judy, Troy, and I made it up to Big Sur on Thursday.

But our friend Taryn was going to join us after her work on Thursday evening. However, we quickly realized how dangerous it would be for her to attempt the drive up at night. There were NO lights on the roads. There was NO GPS or phone signals. So we made the decision (via payphone in the inn's "library") for Taryn to leave at 2am and get to Big Sur in the morning.

This is the scary "library". See the payphone that was our only connection to Taryn. We had to schedule times for us to call each other. It was very retro. I look really cold here. Or perhaps too much wine? I'm just gonna go with what celebrities always say nowadays. It was due to "exhaustion".

This was the message left at our door in the morning. It turned out that our dear Taryn was running behind. Taryn and Judy give each other 2 hour windows for any plans.