It's true - you never forget...

...how to ride a bicycle.

Sadly, but dead seriously, it had been at least 15 years since I had ridden a non-stationary bike until today. How ridiculous is that?

How does that happen? Where I grew up there weren't a lot of places that I could ride to, I went to a small college where it was just as easy to walk across campus as to ride, and now I live in LA where riding a bike is pretty terrifying. (Kudos to my friend Helen in LA who rides to work almost every day - so impressive)

Anyway, my boyfriend lives in Venice and pretty much every weekend we talk about going for a ride on the bike path. I've always found excuses - I don't have a bike, his roommates' bikes are too big, wouldn't you rather play paddle tennis/bocce ball/Wii, etc - but I secretly wanted to, because I dream about owning a badass beach cruiser one day. I was just worried about wiping out and humiliating myself in front of the hoards of people in Venice.

I'm happy to report that aside from getting completely verbally abused by the above-mentioned boyfriend, I came away from a lovely ride on the boardwalk unscathed. If you're just getting back into riding a bike or are looking for a way to pass an hour on a sunny day without getting a sandy bottom, I highly recommend the bike path by the beach. A lot of it (especially the Venice part) was just repaved. And aside from a few morons, pedestrians pretty much stay off of it. And you're literally along the beach the whole ride from Venice to Santa Monica, passing volleyball games, the awesomely insane boardwalk, jungle gyms....there's lots to see.

There are places to rent bikes right by the path (if you take Venice Blvd til it ends, it hits a parking lot with a rental shop), you can also rollerblade, rollerskate, skateboards, pretty much do anything with wheels and without a motor on the path. Exception: the only thing ok with a motor is a Segway. So go crazy all you Segway owners.

Unfortunately I didn't go anyplace else super exciting this weekend, but if one of you did, please post!

Little Summer Camp

I love the concept of Little Radio's Drunken Summer Camp Sunday - and it's definitely a great value for the money. Basically starting at noon every Sunday this summer, you can pay $10 at the door and get unlimited food, drinks, ping pong, badminton, waterslide action, and 3 bands playing live music.
Sounds pretty awesome right? And it was but...but...but, I came home last night and decided that it's basically for lazy Eastsiders who want a beach-like experience without driving all they way out to the sand. Well, with the extra bonus of live music.

But it's definitely an easy way to pass a few hours on a Sunday. And a really fun idea.

I think a lot of it is my own insecurities - it's a super duper hipster silverlake scene. Lots of American Apparel swimsuits, Urban Outfitters everything, and vintage everything else. Also tattoos are essential. Which is all fine, but in my plain old tank top and corduroy beach skirt I felt like a sore thumb. (Although you could argue that since I didn't fit the hipster mold, I was actually the biggest non-conformist there) Also, while playing badminton, our chairs were stolen. Which is pretty shitty considering we had our bags right in front of them. So that was a little unnecessary. But obviously has nothing to do with the even itself - it just speaks to what kind of crowd was there. It wasn't the friendliest group - everyone seemed to come in big posses and I almost felt like I was crashing someone else's birthday party.

But, this was our first pass, and next time we'll know a little better what to expect. Which probably means I'll have more fun and feel more comfortable. Plus, it's something totally different than I've ever done on a Sunday before and kudos to Little Radio for putting this on every single week. It's a great effort!

Now, who wants to go to the Salvation Army store with me?

On the road to Shambala

I have an addition to the list of places that truly make living in LA special... Shambala.

That's right people, Tippi Hedren's very own cat preserve, and I don't mean the little cats that chase birds. She has lions and tigers and ligers, oh my!!! There are also some strange looking ducks, leopards... and Tippi Hedren's own house right on the premises.

Check it out and sign up for tours at - http://www.shambala.org/

Tippi is not some flighty old-bird (getting all these "Birds" references!) flirting with a cause celebre. She spends her life working to stop private citizens from owning/procuring/raising exotic animals and has rescued as many big cats as she could afford to from pretty horrible situations.

Patrick, the liger, was rescued from a down and out zoo that kept him in a small box which caused his leg muscles to atrophy. Out at Shambala he has lots of room to bound around and has regained his strength.

This is a picture of Patrick the liger eating his lunch.



They even adopted two tigers that were left behind when Michael Jackson fled the country and abandoned his Neverland Ranch!

If you have the moola, you can rent a $3000 per night tent and stay over night. Tippi will come out and dine with you and take you on a midnight tour of the cats.

The drive out to Shambala is not too bad, towards the end it does get pretty circuitous and the "entrance" comes up at the last second on your left so don't miss it.




Isn't he kingly and beautiful?

It's an interesting tour, you might want to avoid doing it when it's too hot as it is all outside and dusty etc. But if you get a chance you might just find an animal that you want to "adopt" and help care for on an ongoing basis!

Milk it

I actually shopped at Milk a month ago, but I just wore the dress I bought there to a wedding last week. I'm still in love with the dress, so I'm blogging now.
3rd St. has become a haven/traffic hellhole of boutiques and chic restaurants. I can't handle it on the weekends because parking is unbelieveably difficult. However one weekday I happened to have off of work, so I indulged, and did a shopping tour in search of a wedding-friendly dress. I had read about Milk in Daily Candy - another reason why I hesitated to blog about it. But I think the experience is worth noting.
First of all, I was pretty shocked how big it was inside - compared to other shops on 3rd street, Milk is enormous. And it has a huge selection to go with the space. Normally, I'm really against shops that only put one size out on display and make you ask for normal human sizes. But at Milk they actually HAD the other sizes in stock, which was extremely refreshing. (Especially compared to the store next door - which I thought I would like more but they didn't have a single item in a size larger than small. boo.) When I first walked into Milk, I wasn't sure I could handle it - it seemed way trendier and hipper than I could ever be. But when I started looking through the racks, I made the most amazing discovery. In between the uber-trendy pieces that should have a 110 pound weight limit, they had the most amazing modern classics - a terrible phrase, but absolutely appropriate in this case.
I have a terrible time finding dresses that fit me - my top is much bigger than my bottom - but I had an armful of fun frocks to try. And one of them - an awesome Diane von Furstenburg navy crochet dress - was abolutely perfect: lovely and comfortable and completely appropriate for all 5 weddings I'm invited to this year.
Honestly, it's not a cheap store. But finding one awesome dress that I can wear over and over again this year, is totally worth it.
So when you have an afternoon free, pop into Milk and just give the clothes there a shot. Even if it's all out of your price range, it's an amazing place to sample a ton of different styles.

A picture of the dress has been requested. I had to photoshop the color because it was only in gold on the web, but it's pretty close. It's totally crocheted with a navy lining underneath and a cute scalloped edge at the bottom.

Grub a dub dub

Yesterday I had a lovely lunch date at the adorable Grub in Hollywood.

Now, as you're driving to the restaurant, you will undoubtedly think, there is no way a cute little breakfast/lunch-y place could be on this street. This section of Seward (b/w Santa Monica & Melrose) is lined with post facilities and studio parking lots. But then suddenly, the oasis is there in front of you!
The patio seating has a relaxing garden atmosphere and inside you feel like you're eating in someone's adorable bungalow. The menu is fantastic and everything we had tasted really fresh and wonderful. I had the Gruyere, mushroom and spinach scramble and my friend had the delicious looking berry pancakes. I've heard it can get really busy there during the weekday lunch hours because it's so close to all of those businesses, but we went at noon on a Saturday and got a table right away.
If I had to find one complaint, I guess I would say it was a little distracting that our waiter's brow was so sweaty. But he provided great service and was very friendly and if I were running back and forth to a hot kitchen, I'm sure I wouldn't have a very dry hairline either.
I can't wait to go back. Yum yum Grub!

Some bars are better early. Especially on May 5th.

I'm pretty sure all the It people of LA will disagree with this post but I'm also guessing they're not my target audience.
So, I'm willing to confess this: I like going to bars early. The earlier the better.
I've always abhorred velvet ropes and guest lists. But for many years after college I was willing to deal with cover charges, getting drinks spilled on me, toes stepped on, waiting 20 minutes for a bartender's attention and other ridiculous unpleasantries. Because it's just what you do. But as my 3rd decade comes to a close (that's right, right? because 30 technically marks the start of your 4th decade?) - anyway, I'm happy to admit that I will not deal with all that on a regular basis any more. But I still want to go out. My solution? Be the dork that gets to the bar early. Two cases in point:

This past weekend, I got to a bar way early - noon, to be exact. See, people don't mess around in LA on Cinco de Mayo. It's hard core. More than St. Pat's Day is here. So my bf, his roommate and I headed over to Baja Cantina in the Marina on foot around noon. We got a table outside in the glorious sun, we were served like normal people, and ate, drank, and people watched our little hearts out all afternoon. Now, granted, the problem with this is that I took a four hour nap at 4pm when we got home. But it still made for the easiest, most enjoyable Cinco de Mayo on record.

Two - tonight, since I was temporarily unemployed, I was able to meet a friend for dinner/drinks at 6pm. So we walked over to Red Rock on Sunset - which I haven't been to in over a year. I used to love Red Rock but it was the ultimate in crowded on the weekends, and the layout means a lot of spilling and tripping and sometimes falling down the stairs on the way back from the bathroom. So yeah, I stopped going regularly when I hit 25. But tonight, we got there at 6, had plenty of tables to choose from, had a super friendly waitress, got half price drinks (happy hour 5-7 there!) and were able to talk like normal people. And, if we had wanted, I'm sure we could have made "bar friends" with most of the other people there. People at bars are friendlier and more normal when you go early, at least based on my current un-scientific research.
So if you don't mind sacrificing some cool points and missing the 1-2am starlet arrivals, go early. And have more fun.

Evening at the Improv (Olympic, that is)

Monday night one of my favorite people from my favorite TV show was hosting the Armando Show at Improv Olympic. I hadn't been to see improv in a while - since my last friend stopped doing classes, which was probably at least 5 years ago.

Since we finished dinner early (more on that delicious-ness later) we made it to the early show (8pm). For $10, (12 if you buy tix ahead of time) you're paid up for every show that night. Our target was the one at 9, but since we were there early, we thought why not do it all?

The 8pm show was made up of student groups. The first group was huge and a little rough, then the second group was 3 people and they were a step better. But even though that first hour wasn't non-stop hilarity, it was still fun to watch! And seeing as we were the only people there that didn't know someone in the first show personally, we felt good about supporting the improv newbies. One note to the audience though: just because your friend is done, don't leave IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SHOW. It's only an hour long. So maybe you could just wait another half hour and then leave? Especially if your group is making up HALF the audience? Just a thought. Boo, bad audience members.


Anyway, when we got to the 9pm show, we were psyched! The Armando show was clearly made up of all advanced members/alumni and it was so freakin' funny! Plus, in addition to the lovely Angela Kinsey hosting, the guy who plays Kenneth the NBC page on "30 Rock" was in the show. The 9 o'clock hour flew by and was so much fun! It's great to see smart, quick, funny people playing off of each other non-stop.

So if you ever have a chance, check out the Armando Show (and lots of others) at Improv Olympic. It's a fun, cheap night of laughs. And try to make it to the early show to support those comedians-in-training. It was so great, I was almost inspired to take a class - almost. Plus, you never know where you might see them next!