Day 36: Monterey to LA to San Diego

Day 36 involved a lot of driving. I woke up early and left Monterey at about 8:30 AM because I needed to arrive at the Culver City Studios by 4:00 PM for The Bonnie Hunt Show. My drive was relatively uneventful, but at 3:00 PM I was sitting in LA traffic and not moving. It was pretty clear at that point that I wouldn't be able to arrive by the 4:00 deadline. I hadn't eaten since 7:00 AM, so needless to say, I was getting a bit hangry. Traffic and hangriness are not a good combination.

I called Amanda, the director of audience whatever at The Bonnie Hunt Show, and much to my surprise, she answered the phone! I didn't even have to talk to a computer. I explained the situation and she was really nice. She said that she would hold two tickets for me and to just get to the studio as soon as I can.

I went to Venice to pick up my friend Katie, whom I know from high school. She and Lauren, another friend of mine from high school, live a stone's throw from the beach. It's not bad.

We got to the studios at 5:30. Oops! It turned out to be fine. The guy who greeted us at the entrance said, "Danielle?" It was kinda weird that he knew my name. Then another girl came to take us to the girl who had our passes. Here's a photo of us wearing our passes.

Then they took our iPhones. It was a little traumatic. It felt like we were being punished. I mean, it's true that the information packet said that we weren't allowed to bring cell phones or cameras, but we needed our phones to find the studios, so we had to bring them! We thought if we just silenced them, they might let us bring them in. We were wrong. They promised to give them back at the end of the taping, but we were still tentative. Fortunately they handed out hot dogs and root beer to everyone and we were sufficiently distracted from the phone situation.

The show was awesome! I didn't really care about the first guest, Jenna Elfman, but the other two guests were fabulous. Chris Kattan, from Saturday Night Live, came on next. I love him. Estelle Harris, the woman who played George Costanza's mom on Seinfeld, was the third guest. She is hilarious! The show airs on Monday on NBC.

After the show, Katie and I went to Pinkberry. OMG - it was even better than I expected. And like the former TFA Corps Member that I am, I had high expectations! It's better than Tangysweet. I never thought I'd utter those words, but it's true. And according to their website, there's gonna be one in DC! I can't wait. Here's some photos I took at Pinkberry:

The sign

My new BFF

Katie and me

Me and Katie

Original/Pomegranate twist with mangoes, blueberries, and banana. Mmmmm...

After Pinkberry we went back to Katie and Lauren's place and Lauren was home from work. It was so good to see her, even though I barely recognized her. In high school she was a total hippie - dreadlocks, patchwork pants, went on Phish tour, etc. She even sewed a little pocket into her homemade patchwork purse to keep her cigarette butts in because she didn't want to leave them on the ground. Even though I've seen her probably more than dozen times since high school, it never ceases to amaze me that she's now the anti-hippie. She wears dresses and make up and jewelry that's not made of hemp, her hair is long and brushable, she wears heels!!, and she doesn't carry her stinky cigarette butts with her anymore. Here's a photo of the two of us. I don't know if I mentioned this, but she's also miniature - probably about 4'11" and 80 lbs. soaking wet. That's how I can be sure it's really her.

LA was the one city I didn't plan for at all, other than getting tickets to Bonnie Hunt. I have several friends who live there, but I didn't contact any of them until the day before I arrived. Aubrey, my friend from St. Mary's, was super busy so I didn't get to see her. My friends Peter and Michael live there too, and I waited until I was already in LA to contact them. They're actually the little brothers of two of my friends from high school, Courteney and Corinne respectively, but now that we're out of high school and a two year age difference isn't a big deal, I guess I can call them my friends. Peter was out of town and Michael was in class until 11:00, so I didn't see them either. Next time I think I'll call my friends ahead of time. I decided to just go to San Diego.

When I was stuck in LA traffic, I set my GPS to "avoid highways" (yes, I have started using it again). When I left for San Diego, I forgot that it was set to "avoid highways", so I spent the first hour and a half of my drive on local roads in LA. I thought it was really strange that I hadn't gotten to a highway yet, and then I remembered. Oops.

While on my extensive and unintended driving tour of LA, I discovered there were many similarities between LA and Houston. I wanted to make a venn diagram (you know, it's used to compare things - it has two circles that overlap in the middle and you put the similarities in the middle part and the differences in the non-overlapping parts), but I don't know how to do it on my computer and there's never enough space for the similarities anyway, unless you draw it on a dry-erase board or chalkboard and write really small, so I'm going to try a different format - a list and a t-chart (minus the "T" because I don't know how to do that either).

Similarities between Houston and LA

• sprawl
• lots of driving
• crazy drivers
• streets are impossible to navigate
• lots of highways
• hot weather
• rampant consumerism
• lots of good Mexican food
• lots of Mexican people
• they love their sports teams
• some people are very rich, while others are very poor
• TFA site
• lots of advertisements for plastic surgery
• lots of evidence of plastic surgery
• strip malls
• bad public transportation
• great restaurants
• drive-thru coffee
• never snows
• palm trees

Differences between Houston and LA:

Houston: LA:

Texas California

fat fit

smog fog

oil tycoons celebrities

the rodeo Rodeo Drive

humid not very humid

industrial wasteland beach

trucks & SUVs smartcars & convertibles

I'll add more to both lists as I think of it.