wandering around downtown l.a.

the hub sent me a link to an instagram story by travel + leisure last week that looked really interesting.  i'd heard of lucy sparrow before, having created pop-up shops in new york and london that were filled with her plush felt creations that were made to look like ordinary items you'd find in any grocery or convenience store (and i guess she did a sex shop too, which is extra intriguing, heh).  you know how the bean has been really into hand sewing her own felt creations, and so when i read that sparrow mart was going to be at the standard in downtown l.a. for the next month i knew we had to go.

it was scheduled to open on august 1st, and i'd considered taking her the next day but chickened out because i hate driving downtown on weekdays and the hub wasn't available to go with us.  we decided to venture out on saturday instead, and that way we'd be able to go together and maybe grab some fun lunch somewhere nearby too.  we'd invited the old lady to come along with us, but she wasn't really interested and said she'd be happy to look at our pictures another time.

we got to the standard around 1:30 and found a great parking spot as soon as we pulled in.  funny, i don't think i've been back here since we said goodbye to our friend trish as she headed off to harvard for law school...in 2009.  yikes.

i knew that there'd been a media blitz over the last couple of days about sparrow mart, so we figured that we'd have to wait in some sort of line.  it's a first-come, first-served sort of thing and when you arrive you check in at the desk in the lobby of the hotel.  it was a little like a fastpass at disneyland, where you're given a time to return so that you can enter the shop and wander around for half an hour before the next group comes in.  the line was fairly long when we got there, and the grapevine told us that the time being distributed was 4:00, with about 40 people allowed in at a time.

it was hot and the sun was blazing, so we were happy to grab one of their bright yellow umbrellas to use for shade as we waited.

the hub took pity on me as i stood there sweating my balls off and took the umbrella as he waved us inside to wait in the air conditioned lobby.  he's such a keeper.  as the bean and i sat on one of the comfy couches, i sent her over to check out the sparrow-to-go mart that offered snacks and drinks for those who chose to wait around for their turn in the shop.

 meanwhile, the hub waited in the line that seemed to move like molasses.

when we received our return time (4:00, just as we'd heard), we decided to head up to the rooftop bar to see if we could find some snacks and a nice spot to hang out in.  on our way up there, we managed to get a sneak peek of what we'd get to see in a few hours.

we were super bummed when we got upstairs and found that the entire area was shut down for a ticketed event.  we could've bought wristbands downstairs, but since we had no idea what the event was all about and the bean was with us, we opted out and went for plan B instead.  outside we found this super cute felt banner for sparrow mart.

the last bookstore is a spot i've been wanting to check out for a long time, and it was only a half mile away.  although it was in the 90s and i was pretty much dying by the time we got there.  and it wasn't air conditioned in there, boo.

the bean plopped down into an open chair and started thumbing through a cookbook while i stood next to her and tried to cool down a little.

i would have loved to spend more time in there, but it was really crowded and so we headed back outside and made our way down the street to the spring arcade building.  we knew we'd find the don francisco cuban cafe there, and it was definitely time for a cold drink and a snack.

after enjoying an iced cafe con leche and a delicious flan, and then grabbing some gelato for the bean, we headed back to the standard to wait for our turn to enter the sparrow mart at last.  it's always fun to wander around downtown l.a., and hopefully when the weather finally cools down a little we can go back to the bookstore and get lost in the aisles of books and novelties and art.

i took approximately 4783568347502 pictures at sparrow mart, so you're gonna have to wait till tomorrow for my full recap.  but i promise, it'll be worth the wait.  it was so cool!  you'll love it.

still pretending to be a runner

the day after the bean's nike athletic adventure, i got my shot at some swooshing fun.  they'd partnered with that weekend's cicLAvia event, which was scheduled to close off a 3.5-mile stretch of wilshire boulevard to cars and buses and allow bicycles, skateboards, roller skates, runners, walkers etc. to run free.  i thought it sounded fun, and decided that i'd make it extra easy on myself and take the metro to get there.  at 6:30am on a sunday morning, i pretty much had the train to myself.

as always, it was fantastic to just sit back and relax as we whizzed through the stops on our way to union station, where i transferred onto the next train and went a few stops further to the start line.  when i emerged from the station, i found myself right in front of the wiltern theater.

there were lots of people there already, checking in and stretching and warming up and whatnot.

it was a really warm day, and the sun was relentless already at 8am.  the temperature was already hovering around 80 by the time we finally started.

the route took us past the site of the brown derby, the iconic old hollywood restaurant that was shut down years and years ago.  it's where the cobb salad was invented and was a big hotspot for celebs back in the day.  now, the only place you can eat at a brown derby restaurant is at disney world.

i couldn't help but smirk a bit when i came upon a booth sponsored by the girl scouts of greater los angeles.  i haven't mentioned it here, but i've got quite a bit of lingering hostility and frustration with this organization that i'm still processing and will likely share here soon, but i'm not ready yet.  but not to worry - the bean is still a scout and hopefully will stick it out till she earns her gold award.

and then i found myself in front of a very familiar spot that i haven't seen or thought about in years and years.  back in the day, when i passed the proficiency exam that gave me my freedom from high school, i found myself in a little bit of a pickle.  i wasn't really feeling like going to traditional college, yet i didn't really know what i wanted to do.  i ended up getting suckered into a computer programming course at a trade school, finished the program and received a certificate of completion.  but because i was barely 18 with nothing on my resume but jobs at burger king and target, no one took me seriously and i never got hired to actually put my new skills to any use.  and then of course, the program i'd learned to write and debug became obsolete...rendering that certificate basically useless.  oh, the memories that came flooding back at the mere sight of this door:

and just past it was the old bullocks wilshire building.  this used to be a pretty upscale department store, and then like everything else it was bought out by some conglomerate, shut down, and the building was bought by southwestern law school.  it was weird to peer in from afar and see rows and rows of books instead of a retail store.

there were lots of tents and booths being set up by various vendors and organizations along the route.

macarthur park.

metro had a fun-looking booth set up too, but i was so hot and sweaty and icky that i just wanted to finish.  oh well, maybe next time.

as we neared some of the steeper downhills, the folks on bicycles were required to dismount and walk down.

it was nice to finally reap the downhill rewards of the steep hills we'd had to climb along the way.  except that we had to come to a rather abrupt stop to let traffic cut through.  boo.

and just across the street, we were done.  yay!

because i was in the last corral (since i'm a slowpoke), there were tons and tons of others who'd finished already.  i couldn't get close enough to any of the photo ops, so i settled for a selfie instead.

i did suck it up and ask some dude to take a picture for me, though.  i had to get at least one decent shot.

there were a ton of people on bikes.  i thought about checking out the booths, but after nearly getting run over more than once, i gave up and made my way towards the metro station.

hello, channel 7 news van!

i don't remember why i was making this face.  i guess it doesn't really matter.

the gold line train was pretty empty, which made for a nice ride home.

despite the heat and humidity, i'd had a really great time!  i got in a nice run, enjoyed my ride on the train, and got a free t-shirt.  not too bad for solo sunday funday.