living it up in los angeles

while we were still pretending to be residents of the west side, the bean and i took full advantage of easy access to all kinds of fun stuff.  that, of course, included trying restaurants we saw on social media.  the bean asked to visit soma suisan, a 60+ year old vendor at tsukiji market in tokyo, which had just opened its first restaurant in the US.

it did not disappoint, and we left happy and full of delicious sushi.

on the way back to our hotel, we stopped at beverly hills cookies so that the bean could try their dubai chocolate flavor.

one morning after dropping the bean off at UCLA, i went back to the hotel to get a workout in.  to get to the gym, i walked through the pool area.  it was super cute, and i would imagine it gets pretty busy there when the weather is nicer.

for dinner, we headed back to sawtelle to grab some lechon and lumpia from big boi.

the bean had zero desire to see the live-action version of “lilo and stitch,” so i decided to hit the theater solo one afternoon.

and then we stopped at diddy riese in westwood village.  everyone who’s been a UCLA student knows this place.

we got to go home a day early since the 4th of july was on a friday this year.  i was pretty happy to be reunited with the rest of my family…and i’d missed seeing the little miss, who had her holiday onesie on for the occasion.

i think the bean was happy to be home for the weekend, too.

the hub and i snuck away for a little bonding time, heading out to santa monica for lunch at ivy at the shore.

for our second week of l.a. living, the hub upgraded us to the W.  we’d eyed the inn at ucla, which was conveniently located right across the street from the building that the bean reported to every day.  it would’ve been perfect, but it wasn’t available for the entire week.  bummer.  but i have zero complaints because the W was really lovely.

we had a lovely view right outside the window:

and there was a desk in one corner that was perfect for the bean to get some work done.

this was the scale model that the bean crafted for one of their assignments.  they’d been a little blindsided by all of the math required to create it, but was really proud of the finished product.

i visited the gym here too, and it was well-equipped and fairly quiet while i was there.

this stretch of santa monica boulevard along beverly gardens park was adorned with these elephant sculptures.  it was the last stop for a traveling art installation that had begun in rhode island, created to bring awareness to the need for wildlife conservation.  there were a hundred of them in total, and it was fun to see them as i drove along.

speaking of beverly gardens park, i also spotted the “peace and love” statue designed by ringo starr.  it’s made of polished stainless steel and weighs 800 pounds.  funny thing - when he first proposed this gift to the city, they politely declined.  it took two years for him to finally get permission to install it, and the bush behind it is there to make sure that people only take pictures of/with it from the front of the hand.  apparently the peace sign from the back of the hand has some sort of inappropriate meaning in the UK?  google tells me it’s basically the same thing as giving someone the middle finger. i never knew that.

without my trusty espresso machine to crank out my daily coffee fix, i found myself stopping at alfred coffee often.

then, one morning the bean and i decided to head out into the village early and stumbled upon a pretty sweet giveaway - every wednesday in july, cosrx was handing out full-sized products, and guess what day it just happened to be?

we were also super amused at all of these little robots that roamed the streets, delivering food and groceries and things.

my expensive coffee habit wasn’t limited to alfred, though.  i also discovered a love for la la land coffee, especially since i got to use my super adorable jellycat coffee bag to carry it around in.

the hub stopped to visit me on his way out to a camping trip with the guys, and we took a nice walk through westwood village and had lunch before he headed out.

the bean and i enjoyed a few fun dinners, like KBBQ at pigya:

finally got to try pasta sisters:

and fresh poke from the bean’s most favorite grocery store - bristol farms.

to keep myself busy while they were at school, i picked a few of the boutique fitness studios i’d always wanted to try.  bünda incorporates heavy lifting exercises with bursts of cardio on the stairmaster, which sounds terrible - but if i’m being honest, i actually really enjoyed this class.

pvolve has the advantage of having jennifer aniston as a business partner.  that woman only seems to get better with age, and i think she’s probably even hotter now than she was in her “friends” days.  anyway, this class involves some proprietary equipment that is available to buy for home use - and if you believe their ads, if you follow the program for just 30 minutes a day several times a week, you too can have jen’s amazing arms and abs.  if i’m being honest, i didn’t love this class - but it could have been because a couple of my pieces of equipment were faulty and had to be replaced halfway through.

the last place i tried was most definitely not a keeper.  i don’t know what i was thinking when i signed up for it because i hate working out in a deliberately heated environment.  anyway, burn (i know, i know, i should have figured it out just from the name) was basically like doing my sunday boot camp class in a freaking sauna.  honestly, i’m surprised i didn’t either pass out or throw up.  absolutely miserable.  never again.

i did drown my sorrows in an delicious sandwich from nate ‘n al’s, though.

in between workouts, i did a little crocheting.  i made this potato for my buddy dapotato’s upcoming birthday:

this mini croissant, for the bean (obvs):

and this scary lafufu, which actually looked pretty legit until i added the face.

i bought this at the ucla campus store for the little miss:

and then it was the end of the week and time to check out of the W.  one last look at our fun room (which they’d upgraded us to, btw) and the cool view from the window:

and then, like ross gellar, i refused to leave the room until i absolutely had to.

just a few days later, it was time to say goodbye to the bean for two whole weeks as they took off for their long-awaited trip to visit their boyfriend and his family in singapore.

oh man.  that was a rough day.  the bean had just done their first solo flight a few months prior, but this one was international.  like…across the ocean and shit.  oh! and WITH a long, 10-hour layover in japan, during which they left the airport and took the train out to harajuku to do a little shopping.

i didn’t relax until i knew they’d landed in singapore and were safely with their boyfriend and his family.  this parenting stuff…it ain’t for the weak, man.