Bonfire of the Vanities

I went to my first beach bonfire last weekend. I guess it was my first bonfire in general though. It's activities like these that I imagined doing when thinking about California over on the East coast. Very Gidget and Beach Boys-ish. And not only was it a beach bonfire but it was a Halloween beach bonfire too, so mostly everyone in our group was in costume. Raphael and I went as Spartan Cheerleaders from the SNL sketch, which works Perfect since I happen to be Cheri Oteri height. 

 You don't have to build a pit or use a metal trash bin for the fire, since the beach has several stone pits already placed in the sand for loading of wood and paper into the hallows for burning. We had arrived when it was light out and played some beach volleyball (I'm getting better) and ended with grilling meat and roasting marshmallows by the fire. Add in some contraband jello shots, punch, candy and beer and it was a festive night. If it wasn't for the warmth from the bonfire I would have been freezing, but my bare feet were still numb from the cold sand. The Pacific water felt warm in comparison.

I went home smelling of firewood and smoke as if I spent an evening at a cabin and not a night on the beach in Los Angeles, my sandy feet though proved otherwise.

Oh and my blog headline reflects the Tom Wolfe novel and was not used to infer that any of us at the bonfire are vain :p

Interview: I just did a Q&A over at Associated Content, check it out in their Blog Spotlight

The rooftop bar

Two Friday's ago my friend Caroline, who I've known since the 8th grade, was in town over the weekend for business. She does video production for the WWE and they were having a Pay Per View wrestling event at the Staples Center in downtown LA. We wanted to meet up at a shi shi bar after work over there, so we went to the Standard Downtown Hotel rooftop bar with a bunch of other friends. It reminded me of the Ganesvort Hotel and 230 5th in New York minus the views of New Jersey and the Empire State though.

The buildings were lower but so were the prices of the cocktails (barely) but this lounge also has a little pool, dance floor, more seating areas and pods. What are pods? They are three partially enclosed spade looking huts with a water bed inside. 

 

At 9:00 I had climbed down the ladder of the heated pool and entered to my knees. I was wearing a skirt and was the only one going near the pool. The editors at CitySearch.com named Standard Downtown the best outdoor bar for 2006. In their review they also write: "A small pool lined with chaise

 

lounges offers stacks of towels for anyone brave (or drunk) enough to take a dip." Oops wish I knew there were towels, I had to settle for drying myself off with cocktail napkins.

By 10:00, we were bouncing around in one of the pods.

From 11 to 12:30 we moved over to the crowded little dance floor. Oh and I also got a free cocktail for finding a guy's Georgio Armani sun glasses.   

The first dent is the deepest

I dented and scratched my new car that I just blogged about getting. It doesn't even have permanent plates yet and here I went and scraped it against the wall of my narrow garage entrance way. I was afraid that it would happen since the parking garage is so tight and crowded. I guess I got cocky since so far so good and then wham, literally.

It felt like I got hit, since the blood rushed from my face to my feet when I heard the terrible scraping sound. It's one of those bang your hand against your forehead moments, or in this case my steering wheel. I just leased the car and now I have to pay to get it fixed. At first white paint from the wall was streaked across the black paint, but I paid a car wash shop to buff out the paint and scratches. It helped remove the white paint and dim the scratches, but it wasn't a miracle worker. Here's my rear tire area with it's new dent and scratches :( It's kind of hard to see in this photo though since the black color reflects.

So that was my sucky day, but yes I know it could of been worse. I could have been in a real accident or not even have a car to hit. Plus my boyfriend cheered me up with pity flowers and a mini cake that had a sad face painted on it for my sad day.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

Check out this new online service powered by Cognitec. It does face recognition by looking at an online photo of yourself. It uses algorithms that compare the features in your face, with all faces previously known to the MyHeritage Face Recognition, through contributed photos and meta-data. Here are the matches from one of the photos that I submitted.

I'm not sure if I really look like any of those actresses, but funny enough I've been compared to Sarah Jessica Parker before. I think it's because I lived in NYC and wrote this blog though. In other phtos that I uploaded I was linked to Alicia Silverstone, Princess Di and Jennifer Aniston too. All pretty flattering at least.   It's interesting to see who the site comes up with and it's cool to see it scan your image as well.

News: Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, other than water. Over 6.6 billion pounds of tea are produced each year. A new study finds that drinking tea may reduce the risk of deadly diseases—and that's just one of many health benefits associated with the popular beverage. Read more at Newsweek.

Blowin in the wind

After my softball game on Tuesday night in Encino (we lost but it was a good game) my teamates spotted what has to be the largest tumbleweed ever just chilling in the big dirt parking lot near the sports fields. It's also the first tubleweed I've seen outside of films and Bonanza. Who knew that they are simply a dead bush up rooted and rolling around? Not this Manhattanite.

We had to take photos in front of it for height comparisons, as you can see it's almost bigger than me (on the left). It looks like a bail of hay almost and even though the rolling weed was prickly and heavy, two of the girls picked the massive thing up.