...when you are passed out from drinking half of a key lime martini. hehe I'm sorry K, but I had to. The establishment which served the lethal-to-some drink was the Liquid Kitty on Pico.
I leave tonight at 11:55 p.m. for the British Virgin Islands on my mom’s dream vacation. A friend of my mom and stepdad’s has so kindly lent us their sailboat for the week, which is docked in St. Thomas. My stepfather is an expert sailor and has done a transatlantic going from Bermuda to Spain in a 30 ft sailboat. He completed the journey in a month, after encountering days with no visible land, 30ft waves and whales playfully nudging his boat. So this sail on a 47 ft sailboat around the islands will truly be a luxury vacation.
My mom so kindly cashed in her miles so that Raphael and I could come along on their cruise. I know, I know, you hate me. I’m not sure which islands we’ll be visiting as of yet, but you know I’ll be reporting back. But don’t worry; I won’t really be MIA for a week, because I’ve already scheduled a couple of posts to go up while I am away. So, it will be like I never left, I’ll just come back tanner and with fun necklaces and photos. Keep a look out on my pre-written posts. See you soon.
All of our friends like hearing this story, or is it that I like telling it? Tomatoe Tomato, but a year ago today I met my boyfriend on the New York City subway platform, the E train to be precise.
I had just gotten off of a bad date with a guy who had me go all the way up to the upper east side for our first date because it was where he lived but was far for me. The food at dinner was good but it was hard finding conversation to go with it. I'm not the best with silences so I was a bit more giggly than I'd have liked especially when he would do this weird intense stare into my eyes without saying anything. He also didn't really have a plan for that night and he kept asking me what I wanted to do, even which restaurant, etc., which I hate. Guys, see my post about planning a date. Anyway, after dinner he says he'll walk me to the subway, when 10 dollars would have gotten me home in a nice warm cab, but he didn't offer and I didn't have cash on me. It was also freezing in New York and since I was on a date I was dressed nice, which means in flimsy attire. To boot it was a weeknight and I now had to take two subways to get back to the West Village and then walk to my apartment. I remember him leaning in for a kiss and me wanting to flee in a cab.
So there I was transferring to the second train, annoyed that I wouldn't be getting home till midnight and knowing I'd be tired tomorrow at work. Five minutes goes by, and then 10 and still no train. I saw someone out of the corner of my eye, on my right hand side, dressed in a black coat. I turned and rolled my eyes and gave a look of exasperation because of the delayed train, the man then nodded his head in agreement and mimicked my disgruntled look.
At that moment the train came and I see this stranger walking in through the door closet to me and not the one closest to him. I could feel that he was going to start talking to me and he did. I don't remember what we chatted about but it came easily, I remember stating that he must not be from around here and him smiling and saying he's lived here for two years but was originally from Texas and I commented that I could tell by his southern smile.
His stop came first and he asked for my number, I hesitated and almost gave him a fake number but I couldn't think of a reason not to at least give him my real one, so I did. And he called, twice. The second time we chatted for an hour and considering I'm not much of a phone person it says a lot. Our first date was the day before Valentine's Day and he picked out a restaurant by me and had everything planned even a bar with a foosball table to go to afterward. Now, we're living in L.A. together.
My friend likes to point out that if the first guy actually had manners I never would have met my boyfriend. Funny.
Over the weekend my friend and I also went to Disney Land and Disney's California Adventure for the first time. I had been to Disney World probably four times now, but this was my first time visiting the original on the West Coast. Maybe it was because the weather was a bit chilly and it started to drizzle as we left, but I was generally disappointed. I mean I had fun, but not like I used to. I guess I'm older and used to some more impressive rides.
The main castle was much smaller as was the park itself in comparison to the Magic Kingdom in Florida. The smallness factor made the park cute though, but not as grand or magical. Part of the castle was also under reconstruction so that took away from the 
overall appearance as well. Plus there weren't many characters walking around, which disappointed me. I wanted my photo with Chip and Dale or Donald Duck, instead we only spotted Woody from Toy Story and Goofy but that was it. I think for me the magic has gone from Disney, because I couldn't help but think it was like Great Adventure, Universal or any theme park in some respects. Since we couldn't pose with characters we tried on hats and turned into our own.
I did enjoy Soarin' Over California, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (I made it to Level 3) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which were all new rides for me plus the usuals like Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. Oh and Space Mountain until April will be Rockin' Space Mountain and blasting Red Hot Chili Peppers music and light show during the ride, which was a new riding experience than the original space theme.
Oh and this just seemed inappropriate in the land where dreams come true, lol.
The next morning we traveled out to Monterey Park area for some Dim Sum on Sunday at NBC Seafood. I hadn't had Dim Sum since September when I was in New York at Jing Fong and my friend had never been at all. I had written a blog post before about what the authentic experience is like here. If you haven't been, you have to go, it's a lot of fun.
On Friday evening, my friend Becca--visiting from NH and I went to a taping of The King of Queens over at Sony Studios in Culver City. I had requested the free tickets via Audiences Unlimited several weeks ago and was lucky to receive two tickets. I've been a fan of the show for sometime, although I don't watch it habitually I like catching the reruns. It's also the only live taping I'd really want to see, now that most of the great sitcoms are history. (How I wish I could have seen a taping of Friends, I would have flown out here for that).
Lucky for us the taping we went to ended up being extra special since it was the show's 200th episode, it's also the show's 9th and possibly last season.
The taping lasted a little under the expected four hours and we were given cookies, candy and a copy of that evening's script. The episode is called "Home Cheapo," and will probably air in 4-6 weeks from now. The best part of the taping was seeing Kevin James and Leah Remini tease one another when they messed up their lines and seeing them interact like they were a married couple almost off camera. He even yelled at her for not crossing to her mark at one point and for running over on his lines, it was funny and she couldn't stop laughing as he pulled her over to where she was supposed to be. Leah Remini (who besides being in Saved by the Bell and Who's the Boss was also in the short lived NBC show Fired Up, which I liked with Sharon Lawrence who I also met out here a few months ago--read here.)
It was also great seeing Jerry Stiller perform as well. He was a pro with his loud comic delievry and didn't flub any of his lines. Pretty impressive. And although I had fun, I didn't enjoy it as much as the two Hope and Faith tapings that I went to in New York. They gave out pizza to the audience members and the warm-up guy was much funnier. I also got a Hope and Faith t-shirt that I wear to bed still sometimes. Other tapings that I've gone to in the past include the failed Shelly Long show Kelly Kelly, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tony Danza Show, Caroline Rhea's talk show and Christine Baranski's Welcome to New York, which faired only slightly better than Long's.
