July 24, 2003

Bidness in Los Angeles

Yet another fabulous business trip for work! (Previously: Bidness in Madison, Bidness in Cali, and Bidness in Vegas). Usually, my business trips are during the week - but because I was only out in LA for a meeting that was on a Friday afternoon, I decided to stay through the weekend and hang out with Kate and Laura.

Thursday, July 24th

kate h, me — True to form, Louis and I hopped on our plane to LA with no hotel booked. The lovely Kate Hill was kind enought to suggest that we stay at the Downtown Standard. Shortly after checking in, she took a cab to the hotel and we hit the town.

kate h — Before heading out, we went by Kate's new apartment (but we had to be very careful not to wake her neighbors.)

Friday, July 25th

When I woke up on Friday, I make a bunch of calls. Yay, business!

louis kanganis — The obligatory shot of Papa Lou, my boss, unknowingly posing with the goofy guy on the Downtown Standard's menu during lunch.

After getting my calls out of the way, I decided to head up to the Standard's rooftop pool which I'd heard so much about. The place didn't disappiont. Not only was it amazing, it was practically deserted.

Check out the shaded, water-beds! Insanity.

After a quick dip in the edgeless pool...

...I laid poolside and called a few of my friends in New York (to tease them. "How's work...SUCKA?")

After my swim, I met up with Louis and we headed over to one of the big entertainment's movie lots (where our meeting was taking place). We had some time to kill before the meeting started so we walked around their "New York City" lot and I snapped this pic of "Mulberry & Grand St." (which in real life is three blocks from my apartment).

kate h — Friday night I headed out with Kate - but after only one drink, jetlag caught up with me and I had to head home early. *sniffle*

Saturday, July 26th

laura, tavis — Saturday morning, I met up with Laura (aka - Special Sos) and her new man Tavis (who is a rad graphic designer) for breakfast. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, met up with Kate and hung out at the pool for most of the day.

laura — Yay, drinks!

kate h, laura, me, tavis — Sha-sha-shitfaced in the afternoon!

kate h, laura, me, tavis — After showers and naps for everyone, we met up again later that night for...

...a fancy sushi dinner at this great, little sushi place right down the street from Tavis and Laura's place.

laura, tavis — Laura and Tavis.

kate h, me — Me and the Smidge.

laura — Funny stories were told.

After dinner, we went back to Tavis and Laura's ridiculously huge loft in downtown LA (which is like the Williamsburg of LA, except, um, not).

kate h, laura, me — After a few rounds of drinks, Stephanie and Gabe (Tavis and Laura's nextdoor neighbors) came over to join the festivities.

And they brough their son, Ben. (aka - the cutest lil' munchkin in the world).

kate h, laura — Kate and Laura quickly became friends and made a mockery of the boys at the pool table.

Me and Darren (aka D-run), Tavis' best friend.

kate h, laura — Our plan was to hang out at Laura and Tavis' and then head out on the town. But before we knew it, it was well past 1am (last call in LA is at 1:30am)...

...not to mention, um, pretty drunk. So instead of hitting the town, we decided to head back to my hotel for a late night noody swim on the roof.

laura, tavis — Tavis holds back an increasingly beligerent Special Sos in the elevator on the way up to the pool. Hahaha.

laura, tavis — The roof pool was closed, and not even the smoothest of negotiations from the ladies ("What if we swim naked...and we let you watch?") could convince the staff up there otherwise. So we headed back down to my room, for more drinking...

kate h, laura — ...and an acrobatics show.

Sunday, July 27th

kate h — Sunday morning we felt like, well, like we should've felt considering the amount of drinking we'd done the night before. A bewildered Kate holds up a pair of panties she found on the floor that don't belong to her. Huh?

emma, lorelei — After a few aspirin and several liters of water *whew*, we hopped in the car and drove out to Ross & Jordana's house in the valley where we also met up with Emma Taylor and Lorelei Sharkey who were in LA for two days as part of their book tour.

dashiell, jordana, ross m — Here's Jord & Ross with their rad son Dashiell (who you may remember from way back when when he was real little!).

joey, kate h, ross m — After a tour of their killer house...

emma, joey, jordana — ...we all went out for brunch. Emma, Joey (Lo's boyfriend who lives in LA now) and Jordana.

kate h, me, ross m — Ross, me and Kate.

emma, kate h — After breakfast, we went back to Ross & Jord's and did a little swimming. Emma and Kate soaked up rays...

...while I played with the retriever that Ross & Jord were dogsitting. SuperDog action shot!

Shortly thereafter, I headed back to the hotel, packed up, checked out and caught a cab out to Long Beach to make my red eye flight *blech* back home to NYC.