los angeles

wandering alone around los angeles today has not been as boring as it sounds. well, i really shouldn't say i've been wandering around los angeles, because i've stayed within a 5-block range of my hotel. however, the alone part is entirely true.

i slept in. well deserved after my last few weeks of semi-slave labor at the parent-teacher store. don't get me wrong--the job was alright. but i was getting paid an amount that is below minimum wage in california. regardless, the extra sleep was nice.

my hotel is right across the street from CBS studios, so i wandered over to the ticket window to see if i could get tickets to a taping of a show. sadly, the price is right is not taping today (which i already knew), but i wanted to see if i could see something else. the only thing taping during my time available would be the tyra banks show. however, this ticket window didn't even have tickets for it. i would have to call another number to make a reservation. i wasn't particularly thrilled about seeing the tyra banks show, but i called anyway and left a message. nobody called me back. oh, well...there goes that.

so then i wandered over to the los angeles farmer's market, also right across the street from my hotel. i ate dinner there last night at a lovely falafel stand. this morning they had stands set up with all kind of fresh fruits and vegetables. i bought some fresh dates, fresh figs, sweet cactus pears, and a pomegranate. i noticed a food stand with a sign "breakfast all day." i got some fresh squeezed orange juice and homemade granola. i sat at a table, alone, eating my granola, drinking my orange juice, and munching away on my cactus pears and figs. when i finished that, i decided to make myself some pomegranate juice. i was squeezing away, kneading the pomegranate, listening to all the seeds inside pop, when suddenly i sqeezed a bit too hard and my pomegranate burst open! pomegranate juice and seeds were flying everywhere! and that's not all. when i looked inside, it was all brown and rotten. there goes my pomegranate juice....oh, bother.

i took the rotten pomegranate back to the stand where i bought and asked for another one. the ladies there were very sweet and even offered to slice it open for me. "no thanks," i said, "i like to squeeze it to get the juice." i went back to the table where i had been sitting and started to knead all over again. (side note: when i went back to the table, i noticed that i had left my purse there. thankfully, everything was still inside it. phew!) yum, yum. i was getting excited about this one. i had my dixie cup ready for juicing. squeeze, squeeze, knead, roll.......POPSPLAT! this one burst open, too! pomegranate juice and seeds all over the place, and even WORSE this time. i'm just sad nobody was there to laugh with me. at least this one wasn't brown on the inside. but it still wasn't any good. it was bitter.

"hm, what can i do next?" i thought to myself. i decided to go see a movie. i hadn't been to one since i went to see an inconvenient truth the night i met angeline...in june. i've really been wanting to see little miss sunshine, and there was a nice movie theater in the grove (a shopping center) right next to the farmer's market. i got a ticket for the 2:20 showing, and then i just killed time wandering and shopping for the next hour.

when i went back to the movie theater around 2 o'clock, i thought i saw a familiar face right before i entered the building. i stopped in my tracks, did a double take, and then thought really hard about where i knew this face. aha! it was paul rudd from the 40-year-0ld virgin. oh my gosh! he was on the phone, and i didn't want to interrupt him, but i really wanted a picture. so i waited outside the theater, a safe 10 yards away from him. you might call it stalking, but i call it waiting. finally after 15 minutes some girl comes by and they go inside. but he's STILL on the phone. damnit. i follow them inside. they're at the concession stand getting popcorn and drinks, and he's still on the phone. oh, well, whatever..maybe i just won't get a picture with him. it was time for my movie to start anyway. as i entered into my theater, i stopped and waited for a few seconds just to see if they were mayyyybe coming to the same movie. aaaand they were. they came inside and he was off the phone. yessss!

"excuse me, paul rudd?" i asked/stated an obvious fact.

"mmhm," he murmered.

"could i get a picture with you?" i asked.

"um, well, the movie's just starting."

"i know, but maybe we could just take it on the way. i'll just snap a quick one." and with that, i shot a quick picture of the two of us, probably ruined his day, and made my trip to LA entirely worth it.

"awesome. thanks." i said.

"sure." he was definitely not as thrilled to meet me as i was him.

so maybe i didn't get to meet bob parker or win the price is right, but i still had a pretty awesome day, and i'm about to have a fabulous night. i'm about to go check in at the Los Angeles Baha'i Young Adult Conference.

now if you're still thinking, "okay, she had a boooooring day. why is elizabeth even telling us this boring stuff?" just think, i didn't even tell you about the purses made of recycled paper or the oktoberfest display at the world market...














p.s. rox, that oktoberfest picture was taken just for you.