THESE EVENTS TOOK PLACE: June 4 -5, 2009 (USPDT)
It had pretty much been a total whirlwind since arriving in LA, so I was somewhat grateful for the down time on Thursday and Friday.
Having replied to Jaime prior to the party time telling her I was already in the States and could be contacted at my hostel, I allowed myself an unalarmed sleep trusting that I would be awoken if an incoming call came my way. Getting to bed at 4am but not to sleep until a while after due to Liz and her vodka battling it out in the bathroom, I was completely dead to the world when the bash on the door came at 10am.
Worse For Wear Liz answered the door from her top bunk but I paid little attention to what was going on as nobody seemed to be asking after me. After the conversation, Liz paid another visit to her close Party Night Friend, the Toilet, and successfully aroused me completely from sleep by tripping over eight different objects in the room on her way back to her bunk.
Looking straight ahead at her I noticed a sheet of paper taped and hanging from the end of my bed. I asked Liz what it was and how it got there and was mortified to discover it was a message from Camp Fuller. Apparently Liz had informed the enquirer that I was asleep. How kind!
I bolted downstairs, yes, in my pajamas, with my "Free 5 Minutes" phone card to return Jaime's call and made the happy discovery that the phone number was incorrect. I rushed back upstairs, grabbed my laptop, sat outside the main office, emailed Jaime explaining and waited for another incoming call.
Five minutes later Jaime replied to my email telling me the office had told her incoming calls were not accepted at the hostel, only messages. Great. It says the contrary in their welcome information pack.
After a whole heap of bollocks, I eventually got on the phone to Jaime O'Connor, Operations Director of Camp Fuller in Rhode Island. Having checked out the website after Jaime's email the night before, I knew it was a YMCA camp located on the coast of Rhode Island, in the mouth of an inlet called "Point Judith Pond".
Despite being headhunted by two other camps previously, this was the first camp I felt truly excited and completely uninhibited about. I wanted this job.
To my utter surprise, it wasn't a standard Counselor job, it was a Director role for their Leadership Development (LD) program. Jaime explained that this program is made up of 15-16 year olds (10th and 11th graders) who are attending their final year of camp with a view to become Counselors one day themselves. Fuller have two LD Directors, one male and one female, who oversee two groups of approximately 30 LDs (half girls, half boys) over two 4 week sessions.
The phone interview conducted was somewhat of a gruelling one, it really made me sweat! Being that I'd never really expected anything more than a standard Camp Counselor role and that I'd been on Guaranteed Placement with Camp America for several months, I really hadn't prepared for the in-depth, probing questions that Jaime shot at me for 45 minutes.
I was satisfied with the result though, I felt it went well.
Jaime asked me to call her back in 20 minutes once she'd had a chance to discuss with her boss and a rather verbose and selifhs British girl using the phone really tested my patience by chatting to her boyfriend back home for 40 minutes, detailing everything from the type of gates at Tom Cruise's house to how they serve burgers at fast food joints.
Jaime offered me the position.... followed by a mountain of paperwork.
By the time I'd finished with the whole phoning debacle, walked down the Boulevard to get a late lunch, showered, caught up on some emails and taken a Disco Nap, it was dinner time. Tony had arrived back for the day from the E3 Expo, decided he wanted to eat and see "Up" and off we went.
We had missed "Up" at El Capitan so we transferred to Santa Monica Boulevard's "Cinerama", realised we couldn't see any of the ones we wanted to see, settled on "Angels & Demons", ate flippin' (no pun intended) awesome pizza at a groovy spot called "Boho", went back to the cinema, hated the movie, then headed back to the hostel.
After a monster sleep in the following morning, I corresponded with Jaime and Camp America about getting across to the East Coast, then set about conquering the Mountain Of YMCA Paperwork.
It took me ALL FREAKIN' DAY.
It was West Hollywood Banana Bungalow's turn to host party night so Liz, her Canada buddies and I hit the cheap yummo Thai restaurant next door then relocated to the sister hostel in the hopes that their party night would be as good as ours had been. I wouldn't say it was, but it was still great.
The DJ appeared to be super popular (complete with groupies), some kind of minor celeb in his field.
I got to know Crazy Pom Chris that I'd met at my hostel a little better, mainly discovering that he's even crazier than I'd thought. Chris stayed at Banana Bungalow as a traveler, helped out with some handy work one day and got offered a job. He now lives and works there full time while balancing his duties as a committed member of the Barmy Army.
I met yet another Melbourner, Kieran, who is my soulmate in everything geeky, even so far as commending Hanson as a true talent. A friend for life, I think. Kieran and I appear to be at similar "what the heck do I WANT?!" crossroads in our lives and bonded over our strong feelings about crap software, i.e. SAP (that was for you Emma!). Special note: Kieran met Billy Ray Cyrus the night before!
After establishing that we both had a geeky Hollywood itch that needed to be scratched, Kieran and I made some exciting plans for the next day....
... which will get a little entry all of it's own!
Read more...
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
These Events Took Place...
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You'll note that my tourist posts now open with this phrase. Now being so far behind, I figured if I myself was having trouble keeping up with dates, then you guys must be completely lost.
Obviously, also note the part in brackets at the end. i.e. June 3, 2009 (USPDT).
USPDT = USA Pacific Daylight Time
Meaning the events took place at that date in US time, in this particular example, West Coast time. It'll switch to "EDT" soon, when my activities on the East Coast are narrated. Read more...
Obviously, also note the part in brackets at the end. i.e. June 3, 2009 (USPDT).
USPDT = USA Pacific Daylight Time
Meaning the events took place at that date in US time, in this particular example, West Coast time. It'll switch to "EDT" soon, when my activities on the East Coast are narrated. Read more...
Day 4: Pedal To The Floor
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THESE EVENTS TOOK PLACE: June 3, 2009 (USPDT)
Pedal to the floor
Thinkin' of you more
Gotta get us to the show
California here we come
Right back where we started from
So as y'all know, on my LA City Tour I made an Aussie friend, [Perth] Michael. Being that Michael and I were similarly (and childishly) excited by a lot of the same things along the tour, we found ourselves on the same page a lot of the time. Mike mentioned he was heading to The OC the next day in his rental car and invited me along for the ride.
Y'damn right I accepted.
After a decent sleep in on this Wednesday morning, we met downstairs, made ourselves a very necessary cup of tea each, then set off to take in some cliche.
I was constantly surprised by the up-market cars parked at the hostel, here's a Chrysler, which just seemed plain next to the yellow Jeep Wranglers and other flashy rental cars always around!
Mike's an odd personality to explain. While being super cool and completely uninhibited, he's also ruthlessly dorky and randomly strange. One minute he's Mr Tough McMuscles, then he's asking if it's alright if we swing by the supermarket to buy fruit and healthy snacks for the day... which we did.
The supermarket was an experience in and of itself: I LOVE American supermarkets.
They have everything from a full-scale deli/lunch area to a cafe/coffeehouse outlet. You can get everything from groceries, to greens, to fruit, all the way through to a hot cup of coffe, mix-your-own from the salad bar, freshly diced fruit at the fruit bar... you name it, it's all there in quality and quantity. I was thrilled Mike changed his mind and exchanged his bunch of bananas for a bag of apples instead.
The one thing they don't have, at that supermarket and in California in general, is decent spray-on deoderant. It's ridiculous! After having my good Mens Nivea one confiscated at the airport, I've discovered that roll-on truly is completely and utterly crap. I have never had to reapply deoderant throughout the day before, now I live in a constant state of paranoia to the point of reapplying at regular intervals.
(Rhode Island later sheds more light on this subject)
Knowing I was enthusiastic to see some studios but on a tight schedule, Mike surprised me by swinging by Paramount Pictures for a few quick snaps and to grab some tour information because our hostel doesn't offer one. He pretended to play dumb and drove up to the boomgate asking loads of ambiguous questions of the guard then eventually requesting to be let through so we could chuck a u-turn back out. We used the u-turn to take some photos, berry berry sneaky sir.
Our discussion after this revealed that we were both saving a trip to Universal to a later date when we knew our budgets and hopefully had some company, both being solo travellers. So Mike then pulled the same stunt at Universal. LOL!
Mike was like a kid on Christmas wanting to visit Dodger Stadium. And that we did. It was a blast. A rather crappy rainy day, but we still got some great pics. There was a ticket sale that afternoon so there were stacks of fans lined up, despite there being no game on. Christmas Mike was hilarious to be with, he had me take photos of him with pretty much anything and everything.
The store was awesome. I don't doubt I'll get back there later in my travels to grab some sweet merchandise.
Downtown LA from Dodger Stadium
Christmas Mike
And then finally we were off to Orange County!
The drive was fairly long, relatively. I'd compare it almost to driving from the Sydney CBD to Penrith, really. LA traffic is as bad as it's notorious reputation and, let's face it, so is Sydney's. I learned all about Mike's career history, how he went from Army to Uni to Accountancy to Oil Rigs! Mike works in blocks of 3 weeks, earns wicked money, then funds his travels. Very cool. He's been everywhere and seen everything. I've been ordered to travel to more places than I can count on my two hands.
As we were being navigated by an electronic device, we had to input "Orange" as our destination being that "Orange County" is like inputting "North Sydney" into a GPS: not specific enough. The City Of Orange is a rather little and quaint town, pardon the repetitive cliche, but: like something out of a movie! Or a TV show... you might say (haha)... I felt almost like I was in Stars Hollow, it was so picturesque and perfect.
We parked behind their Civic Center in the hopes of getting our bearings on the sites to see and also finding a loo for Mike who had, by his own admission, begun to "walk a bit strange".
The place was dripping with money. Whether you were looking at the library, the council buldings or the streetsigns, everything screamed wealth in spite of the parvitude of the place. Just when you begin to feel like you're in this cute, sweet little town a Mustang drives by.
We had lunch at a Cuban cafe restaurant. Seriously great. It cost us $8 (plus tip!) each to have a dinner plate size worth of food, even Mike was so full he couldn't finish. I should mention though, he did "help" me put away some of mine. I can't really describe what I ate because I'm not even entirely sure what it was. I'd probably compare it to a beef casserole, stroganoff or goulash perhaps, with all kinds of beans and other random stuff too. The beef was so tasty and tender it literally melted and fell apart in my mouth.
Yum.
Funny story: We were sitting outside and during our meal a sales rep came up and started selling his random goods amongst the customers! While Mike turned him away from our table without pause, we did have to spend the rest of our lunch listening to this guy spruke his wares in both English and Spanish and demonstrating his tennis-racket-like fly swatter. Zap, zap, zap.
Which brings me to another point: Spanish! Spanish, Spanish everywhere! Both people but more pointedly the language. On most of the buses I was on, there were more Spanish advertisements than English! You go to the ATM and it asks you if you want Spanish or English.
Spinout.
It wasn't until Mike and I departed our lunch spot and headed for the centre of the Town Square that we realised the Starbucks next to our Cuban spot wasn't the only one, there was a second Starbucks across the Square! Now, this is worse than the craziness of having two Three Mobile shops at opposite ends of Penrith Plaza.... sure, Starbucks is a staple in The States, but this Town Square would be lucky to be the size of a basketball court!
Nutso.
Our waiter clearing our table at "Felix's" Cuban restaurant
The Town Square from "Felix's"
"Nicole Was Here 2009"
Icecream Truck! LOL.
Every street is just super pretty
I love that everywhere you go there are US flags galore
Photos really shed no light of justice on Orange, it was constant nose-sigh stunning.
We were hugely grateful to some kindly Orange locals who happily spent 20 minutes chatting to Mike and I about their home County and giving us explicit directions on what to see and exactly where. My reaction of delight when they mentioned Laguna was enough to convince Mike that was our next stop. So Laguna Beach it was!
This photo on the freeway through The OC definitely does no justice to beauty of The Valley:
The overcast and occasionally drizzly day did nothing to take away from our sightseeing. Even the car ride was stellar.
Laguna was no different to Orange, even the most basic of things was of the utmost quality and beauty. Laguna Beach too is quite a small and quaint place. You expect to see dozens of tarty clones of the bimbos on the reality show of the same name, but if anything it was one of the most family oriented towns I've ever seen. I couldn't help but take photos of the kids running and playing, they made my heart sing, just too cute.
Carpark: Fancy schmancy houses
Carpark: More fancy schmancy houses
Yet more fancy schmany houses
"Nicole Was Here 2009"
The icecreamery where Mike shouted me the Bubblegum Disaster Of 2009
Just your average fire station
Just your average city hall
Note: One sucky thing about America, they actually think putting tiny gumballs in their Bubblegum icecream is a good idea. Not at all. This used to be one of my favourite icecream flavours, now I think it was be permanently marred by the memory of the unenjoyable chewing and unncessary effort applied to attempting to eat around them eventuating in the cone breaking and the icecream soiling the spotless sidewalks of Laguna Beach.
Not happy, Jan.
Apologies if this tourist commentary hasn't been the most exciting and eventful yet. Unfortunately for you guys, most of the enjoyment of the day was in just walking and seeing and experiencing. We basically just meandered and took photos, chillaxed with drinks and sat in nice spots. It was totally lovely and peaceful for me.
Sorry folks.
I have to include this one lone pic I snapped of a Lakers supporter's car. It doesn't exactly reflect the enormity of the Lakers support in their home city, but man, it was great. Everywhere you went there was paraphernalia of some description. I've always heard people say that Australia is prevalent in passion for their sports, but frankly, I don't think we could hold a candle to the US.
For those that care: The Dream Center!
But no, I didn't visit yet. I wasn't really in full tourist mode during this time in LA as I was solo and new to the travel thang. By the time I get back there I'll be much more in swing with rental cars and getting about in general, etc.
The traffic on the way back into Hollywood was FUBAR. Mike had been trying to convince me to take a nana nap all day during the driving as I'd had a lack of sleep the night before with my [bloody rude selfish insensitive] Danish roomies coming in and out and making noise. I had resisted out of pride until the 5pm LA-inbound traffic. I nodded right off after that Dream Center pic!
One of the roomies I'd hardly seen was present when I got back to my room with Mike and gave him my laptop to borrow. Liz, 27 from Campbelltown, had a few of her fellow Canadian skifields workbuddies hanging with her and the ice was quickly broken when Liz overheard me watching the "New Moon" trailer.
Twi-Hards Unite!
After typical Team Edward bonding it didn't take her long to blurt out "So who's that guy you've been hanging out with?! He's hot!". Introductions were then necessary when Mike returned with my lappie and we officially had a little posse all set for Banana Bungalow's Karaoke Party Night. Shame I fartarsed around too long in the end and the girls went off to get the party started without me! LOL.
Free hamburgers and beer in the Tiki Garden when I eventually joined my crew in the [ridiculously long] queue. The burgers were so good I regretted not being piggy enough to get a second one the first time around. There was no getting any of us back in that line as the party is combined with residents of the other Banana Bungalow hostel in West Hollywood. We added a British couple to our posse during dinner time and we made for a pretty dynamic group by the time the party shifted to the lounge for music and karaoke.
Outside the party lounge during Karaoke Night
As most of you know, I'm no major party girl. I always have fun when I do drag my butt out, but half the time I opt for something a bit more lax and cozy. So I hadn't necessarily even planned to go to or stay at the party originally, probably thinking it would suck, but it really didn't. I had an absolute blast.
Now, at this point I will finally divulge the information you're all waiting for. The question you're all asking is "Umm, Michael?", right? OK, well, I'm not one to share personal details about my love life, let alone on the internet, but this can be explained:
Michael is just Michael. Nothing more, just a mate I made.
HOWEVER.
I can say that I was completely and utterly certain that our relationship was asexual. We had a really good time but I didn't really feel there was much interest in anything more on either end. Honestly, that's dead true. Sure, once a party gets going things can change and we were having a really great time with our posse as the night carried on...
... but he made no moves to change anything, at least not prior to my attention being "diverted elsewhere" *grin*
And that's probably as far as the details will go. Not only because I have no interest in commentating any information of this description online, ever, but also because I don't know who might be reading! *wink*
I'll say I met a few other guys and eventually spent the better part of the night talking to Melbourne video game designer extraordinaire Tony.
Tony and I: After several failed attempts (see Flickr for a few), a barely decent photo, with me looking awful at god knows what hour of the morning (I officially procalim my flash faulty!)
It was at this point that I began to majorly question my previously good judgment in that Mike started to behave like an alien. Other than giving me the stinkeye for a good long time, he eventually cozied up to at least three girls throughout the night and I'm fairly sure he left with one.
Shock and horror.
I can't explain my surprise in this medium, all I can say is that he had seemed like completely the opposite type of guy for the 48 hours I'd known him prior. The perfect gentleman must be bi-polar, I dunno.... and I don't really care either.
But hey, if you're interested then show it. Don't play it cool or play games and then turn into a wanker when things don't fly the way you want. So much for thinking you can have a simple and fun friendship with a member of the opposite sex.
Men!
LOL. Kidding. I'm not that stereotypical.
He had to leave bright and early the next morning, so after this cranky-wank behaviour I didn't get to speak to him again, say thanks or say goodbye. Weird. You spend 2 solid days with a person and have absolutely no way of ever contacting them again. Not my usual style, I feel like a bit of a bitch.
I hope that answers your (multitude!!!) of questions. If not, tough, I won't say anymore.
One of the reasons I fartarsed around too long before the Tiki Garden is because I had an email from Jaime O'Connor at Camp Fuller in Rhode Island expressing interest in offering me a position and requesting a phone interview the following day.
As a result of this and the fact that I didn't get to bed until 4am, I had no major plans the following day then loads to organise the day after that...
... so my next post will have an unusual quality: brevity!
Read more...
Pedal to the floor
Thinkin' of you more
Gotta get us to the show
California here we come
Right back where we started from
So as y'all know, on my LA City Tour I made an Aussie friend, [Perth] Michael. Being that Michael and I were similarly (and childishly) excited by a lot of the same things along the tour, we found ourselves on the same page a lot of the time. Mike mentioned he was heading to The OC the next day in his rental car and invited me along for the ride.
Y'damn right I accepted.
After a decent sleep in on this Wednesday morning, we met downstairs, made ourselves a very necessary cup of tea each, then set off to take in some cliche.
I was constantly surprised by the up-market cars parked at the hostel, here's a Chrysler, which just seemed plain next to the yellow Jeep Wranglers and other flashy rental cars always around!
Mike's an odd personality to explain. While being super cool and completely uninhibited, he's also ruthlessly dorky and randomly strange. One minute he's Mr Tough McMuscles, then he's asking if it's alright if we swing by the supermarket to buy fruit and healthy snacks for the day... which we did.
The supermarket was an experience in and of itself: I LOVE American supermarkets.
They have everything from a full-scale deli/lunch area to a cafe/coffeehouse outlet. You can get everything from groceries, to greens, to fruit, all the way through to a hot cup of coffe, mix-your-own from the salad bar, freshly diced fruit at the fruit bar... you name it, it's all there in quality and quantity. I was thrilled Mike changed his mind and exchanged his bunch of bananas for a bag of apples instead.
The one thing they don't have, at that supermarket and in California in general, is decent spray-on deoderant. It's ridiculous! After having my good Mens Nivea one confiscated at the airport, I've discovered that roll-on truly is completely and utterly crap. I have never had to reapply deoderant throughout the day before, now I live in a constant state of paranoia to the point of reapplying at regular intervals.
(Rhode Island later sheds more light on this subject)
Knowing I was enthusiastic to see some studios but on a tight schedule, Mike surprised me by swinging by Paramount Pictures for a few quick snaps and to grab some tour information because our hostel doesn't offer one. He pretended to play dumb and drove up to the boomgate asking loads of ambiguous questions of the guard then eventually requesting to be let through so we could chuck a u-turn back out. We used the u-turn to take some photos, berry berry sneaky sir.
Our discussion after this revealed that we were both saving a trip to Universal to a later date when we knew our budgets and hopefully had some company, both being solo travellers. So Mike then pulled the same stunt at Universal. LOL!
Mike was like a kid on Christmas wanting to visit Dodger Stadium. And that we did. It was a blast. A rather crappy rainy day, but we still got some great pics. There was a ticket sale that afternoon so there were stacks of fans lined up, despite there being no game on. Christmas Mike was hilarious to be with, he had me take photos of him with pretty much anything and everything.
The store was awesome. I don't doubt I'll get back there later in my travels to grab some sweet merchandise.
Downtown LA from Dodger Stadium
Christmas Mike
And then finally we were off to Orange County!
The drive was fairly long, relatively. I'd compare it almost to driving from the Sydney CBD to Penrith, really. LA traffic is as bad as it's notorious reputation and, let's face it, so is Sydney's. I learned all about Mike's career history, how he went from Army to Uni to Accountancy to Oil Rigs! Mike works in blocks of 3 weeks, earns wicked money, then funds his travels. Very cool. He's been everywhere and seen everything. I've been ordered to travel to more places than I can count on my two hands.
As we were being navigated by an electronic device, we had to input "Orange" as our destination being that "Orange County" is like inputting "North Sydney" into a GPS: not specific enough. The City Of Orange is a rather little and quaint town, pardon the repetitive cliche, but: like something out of a movie! Or a TV show... you might say (haha)... I felt almost like I was in Stars Hollow, it was so picturesque and perfect.
We parked behind their Civic Center in the hopes of getting our bearings on the sites to see and also finding a loo for Mike who had, by his own admission, begun to "walk a bit strange".
The place was dripping with money. Whether you were looking at the library, the council buldings or the streetsigns, everything screamed wealth in spite of the parvitude of the place. Just when you begin to feel like you're in this cute, sweet little town a Mustang drives by.
We had lunch at a Cuban cafe restaurant. Seriously great. It cost us $8 (plus tip!) each to have a dinner plate size worth of food, even Mike was so full he couldn't finish. I should mention though, he did "help" me put away some of mine. I can't really describe what I ate because I'm not even entirely sure what it was. I'd probably compare it to a beef casserole, stroganoff or goulash perhaps, with all kinds of beans and other random stuff too. The beef was so tasty and tender it literally melted and fell apart in my mouth.
Yum.
Funny story: We were sitting outside and during our meal a sales rep came up and started selling his random goods amongst the customers! While Mike turned him away from our table without pause, we did have to spend the rest of our lunch listening to this guy spruke his wares in both English and Spanish and demonstrating his tennis-racket-like fly swatter. Zap, zap, zap.
Which brings me to another point: Spanish! Spanish, Spanish everywhere! Both people but more pointedly the language. On most of the buses I was on, there were more Spanish advertisements than English! You go to the ATM and it asks you if you want Spanish or English.
Spinout.
It wasn't until Mike and I departed our lunch spot and headed for the centre of the Town Square that we realised the Starbucks next to our Cuban spot wasn't the only one, there was a second Starbucks across the Square! Now, this is worse than the craziness of having two Three Mobile shops at opposite ends of Penrith Plaza.... sure, Starbucks is a staple in The States, but this Town Square would be lucky to be the size of a basketball court!
Nutso.
Our waiter clearing our table at "Felix's" Cuban restaurant
The Town Square from "Felix's"
"Nicole Was Here 2009"
Icecream Truck! LOL.
Every street is just super pretty
I love that everywhere you go there are US flags galore
Photos really shed no light of justice on Orange, it was constant nose-sigh stunning.
We were hugely grateful to some kindly Orange locals who happily spent 20 minutes chatting to Mike and I about their home County and giving us explicit directions on what to see and exactly where. My reaction of delight when they mentioned Laguna was enough to convince Mike that was our next stop. So Laguna Beach it was!
This photo on the freeway through The OC definitely does no justice to beauty of The Valley:
The overcast and occasionally drizzly day did nothing to take away from our sightseeing. Even the car ride was stellar.
Laguna was no different to Orange, even the most basic of things was of the utmost quality and beauty. Laguna Beach too is quite a small and quaint place. You expect to see dozens of tarty clones of the bimbos on the reality show of the same name, but if anything it was one of the most family oriented towns I've ever seen. I couldn't help but take photos of the kids running and playing, they made my heart sing, just too cute.
Carpark: Fancy schmancy houses
Carpark: More fancy schmancy houses
Yet more fancy schmany houses
"Nicole Was Here 2009"
The icecreamery where Mike shouted me the Bubblegum Disaster Of 2009
Just your average fire station
Just your average city hall
Note: One sucky thing about America, they actually think putting tiny gumballs in their Bubblegum icecream is a good idea. Not at all. This used to be one of my favourite icecream flavours, now I think it was be permanently marred by the memory of the unenjoyable chewing and unncessary effort applied to attempting to eat around them eventuating in the cone breaking and the icecream soiling the spotless sidewalks of Laguna Beach.
Not happy, Jan.
Apologies if this tourist commentary hasn't been the most exciting and eventful yet. Unfortunately for you guys, most of the enjoyment of the day was in just walking and seeing and experiencing. We basically just meandered and took photos, chillaxed with drinks and sat in nice spots. It was totally lovely and peaceful for me.
Sorry folks.
I have to include this one lone pic I snapped of a Lakers supporter's car. It doesn't exactly reflect the enormity of the Lakers support in their home city, but man, it was great. Everywhere you went there was paraphernalia of some description. I've always heard people say that Australia is prevalent in passion for their sports, but frankly, I don't think we could hold a candle to the US.
For those that care: The Dream Center!
But no, I didn't visit yet. I wasn't really in full tourist mode during this time in LA as I was solo and new to the travel thang. By the time I get back there I'll be much more in swing with rental cars and getting about in general, etc.
The traffic on the way back into Hollywood was FUBAR. Mike had been trying to convince me to take a nana nap all day during the driving as I'd had a lack of sleep the night before with my [bloody rude selfish insensitive] Danish roomies coming in and out and making noise. I had resisted out of pride until the 5pm LA-inbound traffic. I nodded right off after that Dream Center pic!
One of the roomies I'd hardly seen was present when I got back to my room with Mike and gave him my laptop to borrow. Liz, 27 from Campbelltown, had a few of her fellow Canadian skifields workbuddies hanging with her and the ice was quickly broken when Liz overheard me watching the "New Moon" trailer.
Twi-Hards Unite!
After typical Team Edward bonding it didn't take her long to blurt out "So who's that guy you've been hanging out with?! He's hot!". Introductions were then necessary when Mike returned with my lappie and we officially had a little posse all set for Banana Bungalow's Karaoke Party Night. Shame I fartarsed around too long in the end and the girls went off to get the party started without me! LOL.
Free hamburgers and beer in the Tiki Garden when I eventually joined my crew in the [ridiculously long] queue. The burgers were so good I regretted not being piggy enough to get a second one the first time around. There was no getting any of us back in that line as the party is combined with residents of the other Banana Bungalow hostel in West Hollywood. We added a British couple to our posse during dinner time and we made for a pretty dynamic group by the time the party shifted to the lounge for music and karaoke.
Outside the party lounge during Karaoke Night
As most of you know, I'm no major party girl. I always have fun when I do drag my butt out, but half the time I opt for something a bit more lax and cozy. So I hadn't necessarily even planned to go to or stay at the party originally, probably thinking it would suck, but it really didn't. I had an absolute blast.
Now, at this point I will finally divulge the information you're all waiting for. The question you're all asking is "Umm, Michael?", right? OK, well, I'm not one to share personal details about my love life, let alone on the internet, but this can be explained:
Michael is just Michael. Nothing more, just a mate I made.
HOWEVER.
I can say that I was completely and utterly certain that our relationship was asexual. We had a really good time but I didn't really feel there was much interest in anything more on either end. Honestly, that's dead true. Sure, once a party gets going things can change and we were having a really great time with our posse as the night carried on...
... but he made no moves to change anything, at least not prior to my attention being "diverted elsewhere" *grin*
And that's probably as far as the details will go. Not only because I have no interest in commentating any information of this description online, ever, but also because I don't know who might be reading! *wink*
I'll say I met a few other guys and eventually spent the better part of the night talking to Melbourne video game designer extraordinaire Tony.
Tony and I: After several failed attempts (see Flickr for a few), a barely decent photo, with me looking awful at god knows what hour of the morning (I officially procalim my flash faulty!)
It was at this point that I began to majorly question my previously good judgment in that Mike started to behave like an alien. Other than giving me the stinkeye for a good long time, he eventually cozied up to at least three girls throughout the night and I'm fairly sure he left with one.
Shock and horror.
I can't explain my surprise in this medium, all I can say is that he had seemed like completely the opposite type of guy for the 48 hours I'd known him prior. The perfect gentleman must be bi-polar, I dunno.... and I don't really care either.
But hey, if you're interested then show it. Don't play it cool or play games and then turn into a wanker when things don't fly the way you want. So much for thinking you can have a simple and fun friendship with a member of the opposite sex.
Men!
LOL. Kidding. I'm not that stereotypical.
He had to leave bright and early the next morning, so after this cranky-wank behaviour I didn't get to speak to him again, say thanks or say goodbye. Weird. You spend 2 solid days with a person and have absolutely no way of ever contacting them again. Not my usual style, I feel like a bit of a bitch.
I hope that answers your (multitude!!!) of questions. If not, tough, I won't say anymore.
One of the reasons I fartarsed around too long before the Tiki Garden is because I had an email from Jaime O'Connor at Camp Fuller in Rhode Island expressing interest in offering me a position and requesting a phone interview the following day.
As a result of this and the fact that I didn't get to bed until 4am, I had no major plans the following day then loads to organise the day after that...
... so my next post will have an unusual quality: brevity!
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