Calmness in LA

So I took a spontaneous Road Trip with Kevin to Los Angeles to surprise my mom for Mothers Day. It worked! Ty also went home to surprise his mom, too. It's one big ball of surprisingness in LA.

I always get mixed feelings about coming home. Who do you tell you're in town? It gets really hard cause you don't want to offend anyone but at the same time you don't want to feel overwhelmed. Well, I didn't really tell anyone I was coming down. I think that was the right strategy.

I haven't been back to LA since Christmas. Quite possibly my longest time away from home. I started to miss my family and a couple of places here and there. I often forget all that is LA. The traffic, the smog, the heat, the rice rockets, the pretty people, the hydraulics, the police chases, the plastic surgery, etc. I miss aspects of LA and I still get a sense of 'home,' at least when I come to the Valley. I love driving down Ventura Boulevard. It's like the Valley's only sense of Urban-ness. I don't think I'd move back anytime soon. But I do miss the feeling of a sense of calm when I'm at home. I'm not sure if it's worth it considering all the stress that would come along with traffic and the rest of LA bullsh*t.

I don't really have a point to this entry more than saying, I'm home... and I'm glad I came spontaneously. :)

So Cal Post 3: Rage, Cindy & Santa Monica Google (Sun & Mon - June 3rd & 4th, 2007)

I drove back to LA from San Diego on Sunday Night. I arrived around 11pm. I met up with Cindy at her Redondo Beach pad for a few minutes. Her place is totally swanky. Nice find, girl!

After visiting Cindy, I went Rage in West Hollywood to meet up with Simeon. It was probably a bad idea because I had to wake up early to drive to work in Santa Monica from the Valley.

On Monday, I made the commute on the 405 to the Santa Monica Google office. I decided to work from this office so I didn't have to waste a vacation day. This office is mainly engineers, so It was a bit weird being surrounded by guys who talk about javascript and ajax all day. Nonetheless, I still had my fab snacks and ocean views. I even figured out how to VC into a meeting in Mountain View. Yay!

I met up for lunch with Cindy at California Chicken Cafe in Venice. I love this place, but this was the first time I've been to this location. I usually go to one of the valley locations. We talked about boys and work. It was a nice mid-day convo. We parted ways and I went back to work...

So Cal Post 1: The Abbey & Buddah Lounge (Sat. June 2, 2007)

As many of you know, I made a kinda last minute trip to So Cal last weekend (June 2 to 5). I made it home around 6pm after leaving the Silicon Valley via car around 1pm.

I convinced Kenny to go out to West Hollywood on Saturday night (after about 30 minutes of begging... lol). I haven't seen him in forever. We've never actually hung out on a weekend night before because he's never in Nor Cal on a weekend. But we've hung out plenty of times in Nor Cal on weeknights. We met at the Abbey and grabbed some coffee. Neither of us drank, but we caught up with some convo.

Later in the evening, Simeon and Paul came and met us. I've met Simeon a few times before but this was the first time I've met Paul. So far I haven't met a friend of a friend I haven't liked. After chilling at the Abbey, we made our way to the revitalized Buddah Lounge LA at Ultra Suede. Apparently it was the poppin' gaysian club back in the 90's and early 2000's. After 5 or so years of being away, it's back. It's basically a 21+ version of GAMeBoi on a Saturday night. I had a great time there.

Kenny bounced a bit early. Simeon left around 2am. I stayed and talked with Paul for a bit. Then he was kind enough to drop me off to my car which was parked way down Santa Monica Blvd. I liked the white Apple logo on his Honda Accord. I knew we would get along. Haha. Paul was kinda excited to see Madonna's choreographer at Buddah Lounge. He was a bit star struck. Lol.

Buddah Lounge LA - June 2, 2007

Fun Week Ahead

So the next week or so will be great. I'm looking forward to a few things in particular:

• Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards stops by the headquarters of Google in Mountain View, CA today.
• The grand opening of Hunters Nightclub in San Jose on Friday.
• Driving to Los Angeles on Saturday morning. Just a random weekend visit. You can probably catch me roaming WeHo at night.
  
• Possibly meeting up with my old US Chamber of Commerce boss, Brent, in San Diego this weekend. I haven't seen him in about a year.
• Working from the Santa Monica Google Office on Monday 6/4/07 so I don't have to use a vacation day. I love this office!
• Going to the Spanish Art Gallery at the Mission Inn in Riverside, CA for the annual UCR Highland Banquet on Monday 6/4/07.
• The John Mayer Concert at the HP Pavilion in San Jose on Tuesday 6/5/07. Ben Folds 5 is the opener. Yay!

Where's Will?

Sadly, I stand out because I'm so sweaty in this random picture found on GameBoi's Website. Can you find me?

Los Angeles: The April Trip Recap

As most of you know, I ended up going to LA last week (April 26th - 30th) for a little R&R. I visited a wide variety of friends and spent some time with family too. Here's the re-cap:

Thursday:

• San Jose to Burbank flight. Picked up by the parentals.
  
• Called Kenny. He let me know that he's got another project in San Jose.
• I went to the Abbey and met Sherif, Kristisha, Nima and Said.

Friday:

• Lunch with Jonathan at Westfield Topanga. Ate at Boloco and got fro yo at Barenaked Yogurt.
• Ran on the treadmill.
• Visited my Dad at Century City Doctor's Hospital.
• Dinner at Koo Koo Roo in West Hollywood. This location felt much different than the others i've been too. It felt like a Whole Foods, which is nice for a fast casual place.
• Dancing at Gameboi at Rage in West Hollywood. I ran into Ritchie on the street, so we ended up hanging out for a bit. I ended up meeting his buddy Travis. I also met some of my friends, but most of them were plastered. We ran into Ted Allen from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Who knew he liked young Asian guys?

• Briefly made an appearance at The Abbey. Saw former MTV VJ Ananda Lewis with her gay black posse. Interesting.

Saturday:

• Shopping at H&M at the Westfield in Santa Anita.
• Hot Pot / Shabu Shabu Dinner with Seymour, Ritchie & Travis in Alhambra.

• Peter's Birthday Party in San Gabriel. We played Hold 'em and watched Jackass 2. Nothing like a night out with straight boys. :)
• Went to the Abbey again. Can't go enough, really. Love the music and vibe.

Sunday:

• Shopping at the Northridge Fashion Center for clothes for Becky & Jose's Wedding.
• Met up with Dan, Peter & Cindy at 3rd Street in Santa Monica. We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express.
• Showed Dan, Peter and Cindy around the Santa Monica Google office. I'm kinda jealous of their new Video Game station. It's slick. Peter wanted to cry from joy afterwards. Props to Dan for helping tie my tie!
  

• Made my way to Newport Beach to Becky & Jose's Wedding. It was on a cruise boat. I cried. I took lots of pictures too!

• Made my way back to Los Angeles to meet Sherif at Privilege in Hollywood. It's their gay night apparently. Quite possible the most pretentious club I've been to. It's very LA. They have a velvet rope and everything. It's like a cross between a tent and a portable building. Not quite sure how that's glam. I had a good time nonetheless. I just hated $10 cover and $10 parking on a SUNDAY. That blew. It must be a bitch to clean up because everything is White.

Monday:

• Ran on the treadmill.
• Watched trashy daytime television. Wow... it's been a long time.
• Didn't really do much. Had a turkey burger at Fatburger. Yum.
• Got my mom's car washed.
• Ended my time in LA by driving around the Valley. Topped it off with Fro Yo from Pinkberry from the Studio City Location. Strawberry, Mango & Pineapple, oh my! Delicious!

My Dad's Surgery

Last Friday my Dad went in to Century City Doctor's Hospital to have Hip Replacement Surgery. He's had a bad hip for a while. He's not one to complain. He will sometimes let pain last a long time for fear of being a burden.

The surgery lasted only an hour and a half and everything went well. I visited him on Friday Night to make sure he was feeling okay. At one point My Mom, My Sister and I were in the room with him at the same time. We talked, watched Everyone Loves Raymond on KTLA, and just hung out. All 4 of us rarely see each other at the same time anymore. I suppose It's because I'm in Nor Cal while everyone else is still in LA.

On a side note, the rooms in the hospital were pretty. I like how each bed had a Flat Screen TV & Computer so you can check your email and such. At one point, a male nurse came in to test some vital signs for my Dad. He looked Filipino (and was presumably gay). I always find it fascinating how gays typically pick careers that have a focus on helping other people.

My Dad came back home on Monday and I got to give him a hug before I flew back to San Jose. Sometimes the small things are priceless.

He will be taking 3 weeks off work and can't drive for 10 days. Apparently there is a huge risk of dislocation during the first 10 days after surgery.

A Nice Thursday: From LA to the Bay

IN THE BAY

I had lunch with the President of GLAAD, Neil Giuliano, along with some of the other Gayglers. We talked about what is on their agenda for 2007/2008. It was nice. I guess they're focusing on Gays in Sports and Progressive Thinkers in Religion (rather than those representing the far right).

Nai drove me to SJC Airport. We were really pushing it. I figured since my flight was at 7:40, I could grab some dinner at Google. We grabbed some food and jetted around 6:40. We arrived just shy of 7pm. I had to check in a bag, so i was praying that the lines would be short. They were and I flew by... so that made me happy :)

IN LA

I arrived in Los Angeles... err Burbank... yesterday night. Somehow my flight arrived 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. So it was a super quick flight from San Jose. About 50 minutes.

My parents picked me up. It's good too see them. I came home to a new bed and a kitchen with new appliances. Little changes here and there.

I went out to West Hollywood and met some friends at the Abbey. We ended up staying in the parking lot for like ever waiting for random people to show up. I didn't drink but I still had a good time. I tried to meet up with Kenny while he's in LA, but it didn't work out. He surprised me in a good way, letting me know that he's coming back to San Jose for a project. After he left so abrubtly last week, my heart sank.

This one white guy from Seattle with his friend that was a girl (from SF) came and chatted with me for a second. The girl was from LA and now lives in SF. So we're in the same boat. The dude was like, "I wanna move to SF. I'm in the job process for this really cool job. It's at Google." I'm like... "I Work there. I just flew down like an hour a ago." How random?

There was a bit of Drama with a bartender who was treating my friends like shit, but all is resolved. We then go to a different part of the bar to get away from the Drama. They ended up getting a bunch of free shots.

While there, I noticed I was surrounded on all sides by several people from the cast of Work Out (as seen on Bravo). First off, I love that show. I was sad to see Jackie hanging out with her ex Mimi that she broke up with like a billion times. They were all very glamourous... so LA. I smiled at Jackie. She smiled back. Yay! I think she was pretty buzzed, but who cares. :P