Welcome!: LA: Hollywood, Rodeo Drive

Thursday 22 January 2009

LA: Hollywood, Rodeo Drive

Pictures from LA are up! Well, partly!

http://www.xteena21.multiply.com/

I just uploaded the pictures in Hollywood! We got to LA a little after noon, and between going to the hotel, settling in, unpacking and doing all other girly stuffs you can think of, (yes, three of us are sharing a room, dammit! You can only imagine the amount of cosmetics and facial products scattered around in the sink! It's a miracle we still had a sink at all beyond that point) it was already evening when we finally went out to explore the city!

One thing about LA is that the city itself is so big that the definition of 'nearby' is 15-45 minutes-drive by car. So when you, say, are injured, and informed that the nearest hospital is near, my advise is not to translate that so literally, probably best to just call 911 rather than drive there yourself, because chances are you might pass out in the middle of traffic of 'losing too much blood'. (Okay, I'm a big dork, but you get the drift.) In Singapore, you can pretty much go from one end to the other in 45 minutes! The contrast! So yeah, that's definitely one thing we should think of while travelling in the city! The distance, plus the traffic.

Fortunately, we have Farah's super-nice cousin and his wife to show us around. Imagine going around by public bus! Well, we've experienced some of that, but that's for later story. Oh! The expectation! (the only person expecting is myself.)

Anyway, we proceeded straight to Hollywood. First off, we had fun just walking and trying to notice familiar names in the walk of fame!

“So, who are you looking for?” Farah's cousin asked at one point, probably curious after seeing me looking around like an idiot at no apparent object.

“Um, John Cusack?” I said, expectantly.

“Eh? Who? Never heard of it...” he replied, innocently, then proceeded walking, unaware that my heart broke with his each passing words.

Okay, fine! So maybe not many are aware of the brilliance of Mr. Cusack, but that's their loss!

The best I could find around is Tom Cruise, and I didn't even like him that much! Oh well, I better took picture with Mickey Mouse's sign then!

After which, we went inside the Chinese Threatre and took a few snaps but honestly there wasn't anything too memorable. I was too excited seeing the Kodak Threatre at the street across! And there's this big impressive Virgin records store right by the Chinese Threatre. You can just feel the energy! The bright colourful lights, it all looked so new and lively.

We got into the Kodak Threatre and walked through the shopping malls behind it, where there were this fountain and big christmas tree right in the middle. Afterall, we got there on the 24th December, so everything was decorated in festive.

We then drove up to Rodeo Drive, the high-end shops! All branded items, you name it, they have it. Because we couldn't afford it anyway, we got there when the shops were already closed; we only wanted some pictures! After some time ogling over Chanel, it became obvious that money wouldn't magically appear in our pockets, so we left, wounded.

The most memorable dinner so far had to be that Thai food dinner we indulged in that very night! We have been deprived of chinese food for almost three weeks in Oklahoma so we were beyond estatic to eat horfun and fried rice like normal chinese people.

I remember falling asleep in the back of the car after dinner, and so was Bonnie. (can you say pigs?) Farah's cousin saw this and decided to take us back to the hotel for our beauty sleep!

The next day, we would be going to Disneyland, so we needed that rest! But the glimpse of LA was awesome! We were delighted to finally get out of Oklahoma and to start on our real American adventure!

(Why do I use so many exclamation marks as if I'm yelling all the time?)

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Quotes

There's a hundred million different ways of writing, and it takes you a long time to sort through that stuff. And I think it takes anyone a long time to find a voice.

You must learn to take the good with the bad, the happy with the sad, love what you’ve got and remember what you had. Learn to forgive, but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret. People change and things go wrong, but you just have to remember that life goes on.

The day before I’m supposed to be meeting Caroline for a drink, I develop all the textbook symptoms of a crush: nervous stomach, long periods spent daydreaming, an inability to remember what she looks like. I can bring back the dress and the boots, and I can see her bangs, but her face is a blank.

I don't know, I think that if I could just accept the fact that my life is supposed to be difficult. You know, that's what to be expected, then I might not get so pissed-off about it and I'll just be glad when something nice happens.

I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments.

There's a big fucking world out there. It's messy, and it's chaotic, and it's never, never ever the thing you'd expect. It is ok to be scared, but you cannot allow your fears to turn you into an asshole, not when it comes to the people that love you, the people that need you.

Maybe what I'm saying is, is the world might be evolving the way a person evolves. Right? Like, I mean, me for example. Am I getting worse? Am I improving? I don't know. When I was younger, I was healthier, but I was, uh, whacked with insecurity, you know? Now I'm older and my problems are deeper, but I'm more equipped to handle them.

I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.

Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.

A woman needs to be held, even, and science has shown this, if its with someone she doesn't care about. Protective hormones are released, and the amount of hormones released depends on the degree to which she is held. The first and best is the complete surround. He wraps you in both arms, whispers how beautiful you are. Second best is the 'arm around.' He is next to you but with one arm around you. Third is he's just next to you on his elbow, but he rests his hand on your stomach and looks at you. Fourth is you snuggling up to him with your head on his chest, while he looks away into space. But when the first best happens, you feel completely, wonderfully like a woman.

So, so what, so fuck off, go home, leave you alone? I'll tell you something Paul, there isn't anything that I've wanted for eighteen years, cause I was a kid eighteen years ago. And if I did still want the same things I'd think I'd gone wrong somewhere, because actually I don't want to marry David Cassidy, I don't want bigger tits, I don't want to do better on my marks. I've stopped worrying about that kind of thing and maybe you should try.

Well maybe there's a big bit of you that's gone missing somewhere, maybe everyone should want something they've always wanted.

Why is it that adults aren't supposed to go mad about anything? You gotta keep a lid on it. And if you don't then people are apparently entitled to say what they like. "You haven't grown up. You're a moron. Your conversation is trivial and boorish. You can't express your emotional needs. You can't relate to your children." And you die, lonely and miserable. But you know, what the hell, every cloud has a silver lining.

I just woke up one morning and didn't feel the same way. Where did it go? It was like there had been a lot of food on a plate in front of us, and we ate it all really quickly, and then there was nothing left. Maybe that's how couples stay together: they're not greedy. They know that what they have in front of them has to last a long time, so they kind of pick at it. I hope it's not like that, though. I hope that when people are happy together, it feels as though someone keeps piling seconds and thirds on their plates.

That is what I have learned: Sex is destructive. Love is nothing to be fooled with. I learned that I was dangerous, not to be trusted. I wondered if my parents were right, with all of their stiff lovelessness. Maybe they knew better. My parents don't dole out love for the deserving or the undeserving. I was learning that love could cost me.

You could say all you liked about reason and logic and common sense and imagination, but when the chips were down, the one skill you needed was the ability to think about absolutely nothing whatsoever.

There is a comfort in never making an effort, but it's a lonely comfort. What keeps you going is the knowledge that you're only playing with only four cards showing. But when you see other people succeeding with their mediocre hands, you have to make a decision. If you turn over that final card you're certain of victory, but it also means you have nothing in reserve.

I’d gone through life believing in the strength and competence of others; never in my own. Now, dazzled, I discovered that my capacities were real. It was like finding a fortune in the lining of an old coat.

Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as mere consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship.