L to the izzAy

I got back yesterday evening from an exciting, yet restful, weekend visiting my cousin in LA. While the main purpose of my visit was Lebowski Fest LA, the highlight of my weekend was walking down Sunset Strip. I visited an awesome music store and ate at the California Vegan. The whole concept of a vegan restaurant is just plain cool, and I wish we had something like that here, but alas... We also went for a nice drive in the Hollywood Hills. I didn't realize that people live right there by the Hollywood sign (which was initially just a real estate "Hollywood Land" advertisement). The hills were beautiful. It's amazing how you can have a HUGE city like LA and something so scenic and beautiful just a stone's throw away.

As a whole, Lebowski Fest was a letdown. There were so many people there that there was nothing intimate about the gathering. The high point was the actual screening of the movie, which was cool to watch with hundreds of other die-hard fans. Imagine hundreds of people yelling, "Shut the fuck up, Donny!" at the top of their lungs. Basically, that's what happened.

The second night, we went out to Long Beach for the bowling part of the festival. By the time we got there, I was so drunk that I told them I'd stay in the car and join them a little later. They came back a few minutes later and said the place was so packed that they could not get a lane or shoes... so we left.

I flew out the next morning, and a good time was had by all. Where we are moving, I'll be less than 2 hours away from Atlanta and thus, will be able to take more mini-holidays like this. Next time I'm in LA, I want to catch a Dodgers game... I got to see them in Atlanta and Houston in high school, but I'd love to go to a home game and be able to pull for the home team. One has to get out once in awhile. I'm thankful that I'm able to do that. When you fly, you become painfully aware of the fact that the skies are largely an Anglo/Asian-American playground and that there are many people who don't have these opportunities to travel. However much I might bitch about stuff, by and large, I'm one of the luckiest people on earth.