Sometimes All You Need

So as Rachel Zoe wrapped up and Big Brother loomed ahead of me I was feeling the pressure to make as much time with people as possible. Pretty, my college friend from the Middle East, was in town for a few weeks and Kelly's birthday was rolling up the pike. She had decided to have the girls (Ali, Valeska, Edie and myself) join her for a night downtown for dinner and then we would spend the night at the Standard before her pub crawl the next day.

Pretty was added to the guest list and I was excited. i had been feeling a bit out of the social loop between long work hours, the boyfriend moving in and various odds and ends going on pre BB. So the idea of some dinner and cocktails pre slumber party seemed like agreat idea. Even though it weirded me out to spend my first night away from the boyfriend since the move in.

I managed to make my way downtown post work alone and met up with the girls at a new spot that both Kelly and Edie had found on-line. First and Hope is a new resteraunt around the way from the Disney Concert Hall-smack in the middle of a strip mall but well beyond the scope of it's home. The food was very Southern themed with collar greens and fried chicken but I managed to find a pork salad i could eat and between the extreme decor--all teals and crystal--and the amazing service--everything brough at once by six waiters in unison--we had a great time.

Of course then Edie discovered that there was a backroom where they had live jazz so we settled in with some new cocktails and great conversation. The best part was how much in synch we all were even though it had been ages since we had all been together--this is not even including the bonus of having Pretty in town. And even though we had a bit of a time getting back to the hotel-LA cabs suck--we managed to make it back in one piece

We then spent the rest of the evening lounging on the various beds with mixed drinks and trashy magazines as we all took turns catching up on our lives. We stayed up later than we meant to but with good talk and many laughs we finally crashed out in the late morning the next day.

After a morning cocktail for some of us--we took to the streets for coffee and gameplanning. We decided that we would all try to end up at the rooftop pool for their Saturday party action--then Kelly Pretty and I would head out to do some light shopping while the othrs tanned or napped. The pool was hot and heavy with sun and scay chairs but between dips in the pool and martini glasses we all managed to relax and keep up the flow of gossip and laughter well past noon.

Then Kelly Pretty and I headed out to go to the mall--Kelly wanted to look at new sheos for her birthday (of course) while Pretty just wanted to poked around the city and I figured I could always look at new clothes. A couple of shoe purchases later and some great sweater debate for Pretty we parted ways--Kelly to head back to the room to meet up with the husband while Pretty and I decided to head to Little Tokyo to see what we could find.

Now LA's Little Tokyo is nothing like Chinatown in San Fran or even the North End in Boston--it was very spare but every so often you could a neat store with various statues, t-shirts, swords or Buddhas but it was mostly sushi resteraunts and Christian Churchs in Japanese. However I had stolen a map from the hotel earlier so Pretty and I managed to search through out the 5 block radius for the various temples listed-we're both into Buddhism and catch up on what we have been living through as of late.

Somehow I ended up with a super cool Japanese t-shirt featuring Paris and geisha but it also ended up being a women's verison and not the mens so I felt kind of weird but Pretty swore I could pull it off so that became the top for the store part of the trip. Unfortunately both shires were closed but it was about tim,e for us to head back to the hotel to regroup.

As we made it back to the hotel i was glad that everything had played out so well. I felt like I had really reconnected with all of the girls between the sun and the shopping and the sipping and was eager to get the party portion of the night rolling. And even though I had no idea how it would play out I did know it would be amazing--hanging out and rememebering who your friends are can totally change your view of the world.