i keep a diary

December 13, 2003

Trip to Cali Part Two: LA to San Francisco

Saturday, December 13th

Saturday morning we woke up late and had to rush to get Charlene to LAX so she could catch her flight back to London. (She'd been up at the ranch visiting Grant for ten days prior to coming down to LA with him to meet me).
driving
LA's all palm trees...and four lane highways.
driving ˆ los angeles ˆ palm tree
charlene, grant
We got her there just in time for her to catch her flight. Here's Charlene saying goodbye with her patented "I'm not going to cry" goodbye.
charlene ˆ grant
grant
I was trying to take a photo of Grant biting the giant "Randy's Donuts" sign but right at the last minute, this big truck came into the pic almost blocking at I had to yell "Go high! Go high!" to even get the Donut in the pic. Mmmmm. Donuts.
best ˆ donut ˆ los angeles ˆ grant
dashiell, grant
After dropping off Charlene, we met up with Jordana and Dash to get some brunch. Here's Grant and I kidsitting while Jord's out looking for parking. (And yet again, check out Dash with his amazingly cute "Whatchoo talking 'bout, Willis" look.
dashiell ˆ grant
dashiell, grant
Peekaboo.
piggyback ˆ dashiell ˆ grant
dashiell, grant
I've got your eye! I've got your eye!
piggyback ˆ dashiell ˆ grant
Why is it that every dude in LA walks around in little matching denim outfits (complete with mesh caps)? He looks like he bought all his fucking clothes at Baby Gap.
los angeles ˆ trucker hat
grant, me, ross m
After brunch, Grant and I met up with Pappa Ross and took Dash for a stroll down the the boardwalk at Santa Monica (I think).
grant ˆ me ˆ ross m
Standing in the shadow of a palm. So beachy. So artsy.
beach ˆ palm tree
dashiell
Dashiell Martin: Political Toddler.
best ˆ sign ˆ dashiell
dashiell, jordana
Jord and Dash maxin' and relaxin'.
dashiell ˆ jordana
dashiell, grant
Later that evening, Jord and Ross went to a friend's birthday party and we stuck around to babyshit Dash. Dash, who'd been feeling a bit under the weather for the past few days, figured (after eating a fist fulla Cheetos, no less) that this would be the perfect time to get...
trucker hat ˆ dashiell ˆ grant
me
...crazy-ass baby diarrhea. Grant and I were sitting on the couch and all of a sudden we smelled something that reminded us of a really sharp block of cheddar that had gone bad.
gross ˆ me
grant
I waited with my camera poised as Grant took off Dash's diaper to investigate and managed to catch this primo shot of him dry-heaving.
barf ˆ gross ˆ grant
grant
Sweet Maria, look at that payload! Grant masks up to protect himself from Dash: Poo Terrorist. Grant ended up having to use the better part of a box of baby wipes, while I played the part of the bad friend who took pics from a safe sideline distance.
gross ˆ grant
grant
Boy, I'll tell you; nothing works up an appetite like shitty diapers! After Jord and Ross and home, Grant and I rushed off to get our In N Out Burger on. (If you remember correctly, I was introduced to the delicious In N Out phenomenon by LA transplant Kate Hill (but, you know, that was back before she went crazy and stopped talking to me).
food ˆ in-n-out-burger ˆ grant
me
Oh my god, how in the world could I have forgotten to mention this in my last post? So remember how I went to the LA Weekly party with Laura right when I'd gotten into town? Well right when I got there, Laura introduced me to one of her friends, and he was like "I know this guy, I read his website!" Tavis, Laura's boyfriend was in disbelief. He was like "People you don't know read your website?" As soon as he said it, almost on cue, a girl walking by sees me, stops, grabs my arm and screams "OH MY GOD, YOU KEEP A DIARY!" and then laughs and walks away.

Later that night when I got home, she had emailed me. She introduced herself as Ellen Griley (Hi Ellen!) and was at the party because she works for the OC Weekly paper (also owned by Village Voice Media). She invited us to come down and check out the LBC "so we could flash all of our favorite gang signs and really mean it" and attend her friend's annual THONGSGIVING party. Thongsgiving? Clearly this was a group that Grant and I could roll wit. Here's Grant and I with Ellen. Woooo!
strangers ˆ me
grant
Here's Grant enrapturing the crowd with the tale of how he stole his trucker hat from an irate cowboy.
strangers ˆ trucker hat ˆ grant
me
Here's Ellen's friend Ryan, the host of the Thongsgiving bash.
strangers ˆ me
Party foul! Party Foul!
mess
Ryan's party was decorated with hand-painted panties that people had, um, decorated. Here was our personal fave. Let's hope this isn't too much of an "inside" joke. Grant and I had gotten really lost on our drive to the party so after hanging out for an hour or so, we decided to hop back into the car so we could go back to LA to see Laura and Tavis and their friends' Christmas party. Thanks to Ellen and Ryan for having us!
undies
grant, laura, tavis
Grant and I got to the party around 1am and found most of the party in, as they say, "full-effect." Here's Grant looking slightly scared of Laura and Tavis (who after years in Los Angeles were both moving back to their native Toronto in two days!).
grant ˆ laura ˆ tavis
tavis
Tavis getting into the Xmas spirit with festive lil' hat.
santa ˆ tavis
tavis
Hahahaha. Full effect, indeed.
santa ˆ xmas ˆ tavis
laura
Check this out: Tavis is a totally rad illustrator and snuckity snuck Laura onto the December cover of god-damned Boston Magazine. How amazing is that?
best ˆ magazine ˆ people we know in magazines ˆ laura
laura
Shhhhhhh! Don't tell!
best ˆ magazine ˆ people we know in magazines ˆ laura
me
So I was talking to this girl (whose name I've since forgotten - DOH!) and we found out that she was to Harvard (ooooh! faaaaaancy!) with my good buddy Seth Familian (who y'all may remember as the evil culprit in June 23rd's notorius "Story That Can't Be Told" incident). Hehehe.
sorry i forgot your name ˆ me
laura
Special Sos as Mrs. Claus.
santa ˆ laura

Sunday, December 14th

jordana
On Sunday Jord, Grant and I headed over to the nearby farmers market. Here's Jord in "The Hat."
trucker hat ˆ jordana
me
Me in "The Hat." Yoooooooo.

MISSING PHOHTOS (oh no!)
After the Farmer's Market, Grant and I bid the Martin's farewell and embarked on a two-stop, six day trip. First up to San Fran to rendez vous with the Fatty (who had flown into SF earlier last night) and then the three of us were going to head to North Fork, California (just outside of Yosemite) and spend five days at Jordana and Ross' house located on a 4,000 acre ranch! Normally I'd have a ton of pics of the drive up, but in a far too common display of total incompetence, I somehow managed to reformat one of my camera's memory cards and about 50 pictures that I had taken with my second (and thankfully, less-used) camera.
hang ten ˆ trucker hat ˆ me
uncle ira
Fast forward about eight hours later and we're at Uncle Ira's awesome house in Pacific Heights section of San Fran. Uncle Ira is...
uncle ira
fatty
...this guy's dad's brother (Yay! It's the Fatty!) and was kind enough to put us up for the night!
fatty
grant, me
Here's Grant and I in Ira's kitchen. We were all crabby from our drive and if I remember correctly were pretty much ready to fight each other (I'd SOOOO win) when this mutual "get a load of this fuggin' guy" photo was taken.
get a load of this guy ˆ trucker hat ˆ grant ˆ me
alysha, fatty, grant, jamye waxman, me, uncle ira
After getting settled in at Uncle Ira's, we all headed to downtown SF to meet up with some friends (my friend Alysha, Jamie Waxman, who we know from NYC, and one of Jordana's good friends from school) and have some Thai food.
san francisco ˆ alysha ˆ fatty ˆ grant ˆ jamye waxman ˆ me ˆ uncle ira
fatty, uncle ira
Uncle Ira and Dave (check out the Fateman family resemblance. Awesome).
fatty ˆ uncle ira
alysha, me
Alysha and me.
alysha ˆ me
grant
After dinner Grant modeled his new "if the Bee Gees were mountain-men" beard...
beard ˆ grant
fatty
...and Fatty showed off his incredibly sculptible hair.
fatty
fatty
First we got a taste of the JFK, Jr.
jfk jr face ˆ fatty
fatty
Then he gave us the "Jacob Dylan"
hair ˆ fatty
alysha, grant, jamye waxman, me, uncle ira
Hahaha. So funny. Clockwise from the Grizza: Fatty, Jamye, Al, me and Uncle Ira.
thumbs up ˆ alysha ˆ grant ˆ jamye waxman ˆ me ˆ uncle ira