Easter Sunset/John Nein's Birthday Picnic

Some shots of Easter Supper with friends and John Nein's Birthday Picnic - featuring 100 cupcakes by Bridgette! Easter in LA for me started with a hike in Malibu and ended with a palm-tree lined vista. Welcome Spring!

Largo

Friday night went to see Jon Brion at Largo with Matt, Angi and Angi's friend Brandi. I am so happy that Angi and Matt introduced me to these shows - it's one of my favorite things to do in LA. Largo is an old-fashioned supper club and Jon Brion is a musical genius/mad scientist that creates songs onstage playing about 12 different instruments at a time and looping them together into a song. He's also a film composer (I Heart Huckabees, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and music producer (Kanye West, Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann). His shows are like nothing I've ever seen and each one is different. Friday's highlight was a cover of a Cat Stevens song redone using 2 guitars, a piano and harmonica. Sounds weird, but was really cool.

No Green Beer for Me...

Don't be alarmed by the sign - they actually don't serve green beer in Los Angeles on St. Patrick's Day. Apparently, it's just an ad for Heineken , which comes in a green BOTTLE. We all made our own fun on a mini-pub crawl from Finn McCool's to O'Briens, but I've been told that in LA it's all about Cinco de Mayo!

At least it was a fun and packed week leading up to St. Patty's weekend:

- Happy birthday to Jenn Gaw (delicious green velvet cake on Monday)

- Happy birthday to Erin Frederick on Tuesday (fun little Cuban restaurant in Culver City)

- Trivia Night at King's Head on Wednesday- I think we came in 5th or so

- Jameson's How I Met Your Mother Party at Palihouse on Thursday - v. cool little hotel in W. Hollywood. Also known as the night that Britney Spears stole my fake celebrity boyfriend

- Soccer fundraiser at the CocknBull on Friday - little English dive bar in Santa Monica. I won tickets to the Groundlings comedy show in a raffle.

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I'm just going to go ahead and count the week as a "win" even though the rivers just run regular blue in California. I miss you green, Chicago River. Oh, wait, look! It's 70 and sunny again today...I guess things even out, after all:)

Another Hollywood Night Out aka I Am Too Old For This

So, Hollie and decided to "go Hollywood" two nights in a row. When we were at Les Deux on Tuesday we met a guy who promotes clubs, so he put us on the list for Area on Wednesday night. Actually, a very nice guy so we thought we would check it out.
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Let me simplify the night for you:

1. Pic of Hollie and I

2. & 3. - Pics of what everyone else looked like.

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First of all, someone asked us if we "worked in finance" or were "schoolteachers". I am guessing this is because we were not wearing bras and hotpants out as if they were actual clothing.

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Secondly, these were the pick-up lines we encountered:

- Which one of you is the cheapest date?

- I like your stripes

- I like your hair
- I like your hair, too
- Are you on Spring Break, too?

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All in all, it was fun to go out and try out a few new "LA experiences", and it's fun to go to places that you used to read about in People Magazine on the cold, windy bus ride down Michigan Aveneue in Chicago. Also, we got to meet the Wu Tang Clan and saw Mos Def at the bar. So it goes...:)

Happy Birthday, Angi a.k.a Hollywood Night Out

Happy Birthday, Ang! So we decided to have a Hollywood Night Out for Angi's birthday on Tuesday night. First, we had dinner and drinks at Chateau Marmont, which was glamorous and v. fun. The hotel lounge (where people hang out and have drinks) was very old Hollywood and pretty chill. We saw Chris Evans, one of the guys from Law and Order and stylist to the stars Rachel Zoe (by far my favorite sighting). She was wearing wide-legged jeans, an animal-print tunic and short white jacket. Then Angi managed to get us into Les Deaux using my college friend Jennifer Brown's no-fail line ("Um, excuse me. Do you have a separate girls line?") Lots of eyelash batting, a bit of (Angi's) cleavage and we were in! This club was actually lots of fun - the DJ played all 80s music, it was half outside with heaters and they were showing clips from Amelie and Pretty in Pink on a big screen in the middle of the dance floor - all things I liked.

I missed you girls...

http://movies.yahoo.com/premieres/6693015/standardformat/

How excited am I for the Sex and the City movie to come out? This trailer is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Tacos Por Favor

My favorite new taco place on the West side. The best aqua fresca I've ever had - it tastes like biting directly into a giant watermelon. Remind me to order a large next time...

Happy Birthday to Us

So Hally and I had a great birthday at Chez Jay in Santa Monica. Luke Wilson didn't show up, but my friend Chris Nashan flew in from St. Louis, Ry and Jess drove up from San Diego and Hally's dad came in. It was a wonderful champagne-soaked, friend-filled evening.

Pics of:

- me and Hally (love her new dress, perfectly accesorized by Hollie)

-Evil Jessica:)

- the most wonderful birthday present in the world. An autograhed photo from the actor that plays Ted on How I Met Your Mother.

-Matt, Silvana, Dave and Me

- With JD and his chesthair

- With Ry