LA, i love you

It's me, Astrid. Have y'all missed me or no? Here is my very best weekend recap and i will begin by saying that I have never felt so sad about leaving a city. The weekend was memorable to say the least. Filled with vodka pounding, hysterical laughing, 5am singing, inebriated dancing-- we barely survived LA. I collided with a wonderful array of souls who I hope to create life-long friendships with and rekindled rships with people I haven't seen in ages! And for the first time in a really long time, I feel inspired and re-energized again. *stretch* *cracks knuckles* And hereeee weeee gooo!!!

Thursday night we got scooped up from LAX at 10pm and the world never stopped spinning until we got back to Hartsfield-Jackson. And you know how we do... my sister and i guerilla makeup'd ourselves and changed in the lavatories on the plane so we could hop off the jet and dive straight into the nightlife. First, our friend Daniel took us exploring to the undergroundish scene in Chinatown... beautifully grungy. At Grand Star, we met up with CS Lee (you know him from Showtime's Dexter.. he is also Daniel's bro-in-law) and also said hello to Sung Kang. He is a looker! After some boozing and schmoozing, we saw Bobby Choy perform and we stood up front and cheered loudly while fisting doubleshots like we were in a saloon.
Fittingly, i was decked out in a cowgirl outfit. (I had decided to be a cowgirl that night.)




Our dear ATL girlfriend Annie had been awaiting our landing from VR with her Taiwanese actor friend (who is also in a Korean drama, but i forgot his name... i will ask Annie) so after Bobby's gig, we found ourselves smack in the middle of K-town. We created aliases and got booked here and there and everywhere. Funtimes! My sister was 21-year-old Lila, who could not speak Korean. She got thrown into the back room filled with aspiring musicians. i think she secretly loved it...slut!



AnDEN, something hilarious happened. I suddenly hear my name being called whilst fluttering around with Annie. It was my dear friend Mike from Chitown, and he and a bunch of his manfriends were there for Jim's Bachelor party. Familiar faces galore! We happily made plans to rendezvous again!



Afterwards, we sang the night away... as does all of Ktown after clubbing since everything closes at the most inconvenient time of two. ungodly! We crash landed back at the Future Rockstars of America loft (which we call the Factory, because it's like Warhol's factory, with entertainers and artists coming 'n going and just hanging out a lot there)... and people were still up and working! how do they do it? my sister and i looked at our watches... 630 am. zonked. did these ppl work til late or wake up early? confuzement!
Friday at around noon, we woke up drunk, poured coffee, and went to the roof of the Factory to get some air.

There's NO Business like SHOWbusiness. Afterwards, we hop-skipped over to the Sunset-Gower studios (they film Heroes there) to explore the set of Dexter. It was ohmenamazing fun and Charlie (dressed in character) was more than gracious and the perfect host! He showed us Dexter's lab, LaGuerta's office, Rita's house, etc. and it's amazing how some wood and strategically placed props can translate so realistically onto television. My sister and i had to seriously stifle our giggles because we knew exactly what scenes were filmed where and in what episode (because we are Dexter fanatics) and we were instantly familiar with everything, gushing about specific scenes and such, perhaps to Charlie's bewilderment. anDEN my sister pulled a weeeee~irdoooo and asked Charlie if Vince has anymore awesome scenes like when he cried and said "you guys really hurt my feelings." She ain't my sister! *runs away* Charlie says that John Lithgow is ohmenamazing in Season 4 so tune in Sept 27th! Yay! i know, i know, get off C.S. Lee's nuts. but we lover him!

the majority of the onset pix are in our album...i'm too lazy to post those, but they're really cool! WHEW! Im all out of breath.

After we left the studios, we said ciao to Daniel, and Annie and her highlarious cousin Mike picked us up and we went shopping for flats and for something to wear for the nightventures to come. While stuck in the most ridonkulous LA traffic, my sis snapped this shot of the smoke clouds from the fires that hang in the Cali skies like A-bomb mushroom clouds. Hours and outfits later, we went back to Mike's and polished ourselves til we were shiny&new again and the girls got dropped off at Magnolia's to rejoin Daniel and Co. for dindin. I'm a REALLY picky eater so i get all bubbly and overjoyed when i see food i love and i just wanted to HUG this quaint lil brasserie. Oh, and my sister said The Hills was being filmed...dindin scenes. How does she notice weird things? i was WAY too into my veggies and ambience.







After dindin, off to Hollywood. We started off at Opera. The best part is that there's a smoking section. so you can drink and drink... and smoke... and dance and dance... and smoke. BAD ASTRID! We said hello to the lovely AngelaQ and Annie's sister Jenny came too! (with her bigass rock). Notice how i identify them as two separate entities that came to Opera, Jenny and her Rock. I think i yelped in her face. Adrian and his beautiful fiance Angela came to Opera as well and it was so warm to see him again--felt like downhome cookin! Of course we said hello&xoxo to the Bachelor party group again downing bottles like they wanted to drown their faces in it. anDEN the wonderful Roberto swooped into Opera and rescued me and my sis! *wink wink* we really do lover him.







We decided to leave Opera and go to Kress which is right next door. In all honesty, i don't remember much from Kress. (oh, my sister says she almost tumbled down the stairs when we were leaving and that it's a safetly hazard to have stairs like that at a club of all places. she also says that Annie and i were actin a foo. and something about Annie eating a hotdog.) Anyhoos, like any solid Ktowner, we did NRB afterwards. not one, not two, but FOUR. *alien fingers* It's all a haze from there. *groan* I dont know how we made it back to the Factory. All i know is that when we got back in, people were there playing video games, on the computer, socializing and laughing and having a grand old time. My sister and i looked at each other in ohmazement because it was about 7:30am when we got in this time. Needless to say, we slurred hellos to everyone and crashed in a pile of hair, slinky dresses, and fairydust on the floor cursing ourselves.

Saturday, we obviously woke up drunk. We said goodbye and left the Factory at around 1, ate sober food @ Hodori and Pinkberry with Adrian and Angela and crawled to the Grove where we bumped into Kyungsup who says we didn't let him know we were gonna be in LA when WE ACTUALLY DID! hmph! AnDEN my dumbbutt sister was still so wasted that she left her phone in a department store and...get this...LEFT HER SHORTS IN THE DRESSING ROOM! Unnie, when you try on clothing, you usually put your own clothes back on after! She was just walking around the Grove in a white see-through mini dress with neon blue penties. No wonder people we staring. We didnt realize she left her shorts until waaaay later, at the market. Adrian was the one who actually noticed, but he tried to make her feel better by telling her it's California beach culture to wear a bathing suit. So she pretended it was a bikini bottom. But they were panties. Neon blue.

The sun went down and we gypsied over (walked) to Maitreya, where Adrian's cousin manages (and makes a mean Rhee-Lax alcoholic concoction-lychee martini type deal, delish!) and pounded shots of patron (theparksisters poison), and i called Angela out again and our friend Donald (fresh out of a friend's wedding) who brought his friend Simon. We went to Le Cercle, where we AGAIN saw the bachelor party getting tore up again (since it was not only a bachelor party continuation but also MikeB's bday party) and where i got booked and told the room that i was from Wisconsin. Alluvasudden i see my old friend Brian! We had crazytimes up in NYC like 6 yrs ago. He is a sexy hunk, that one.





Next up of course NRB where i ran into Helen unnie and everything was a blur because i was like wow, she's so pretty! and wow, act sober, Peas! then ZIP! it was back to Hollywood. the rest is history. Where patron goes, chaos usually ensues. Who knows what time it was when we all came to. All we knew was that it was time to get dropped at LAX. we were still in our clubbing clothes with makeup smeared all over our faces. it was so bright and sunny outside and we didn't have sunglasses so we were basically dying a little bit every mile back to LAX. My sister puked in the lavatories and told the attendant she had motion sickness.

All in all, vacations are meant to be done big, no? Parading as a vampire during the night and shrieking as the sun comes out...that's how it was for us...and we LOVERED every minute of it. I've always thought that moving to LA out of the question. My heart belonged to New York. But over the past weekend, i discovered and uncovered the REAL LA, and i fell head over heels in love...

We will be back REALLY REALLY SOON!!! *waving to imaginary LA ppls reading this!* THANKS FOR AN ELECTRIC TIME!!!

For all the pix from our Adventures in La La Land

CLICK HERE