what have i done lately?

A few weekends ago, I was forced to go to the LA County Fair. I went without a fight, because i wanted to hang out with friends I hadn't seen in ages...but the fair was exactly what i expected. Expensive, hot and dirty. I did however, go to the Insect Zoo, where a giant millipede was allowed to crawl on my hand. It was weird, but I handled it pretty well. After it was on me, the bug wrangler told me it's basically just a giant rollypolly, which made letting it crawl down my arm much easier

The week before the fair, I went to Vegas. It was kind of a last minute decision. I'd been thinking about going anyway, but driving by myself just didn't seem that appealing. I asked my friend Sylvia if she wanted to go, not really thinking she's say yes, and lucky for me, she thought it sounded like a good idea. The reason I wanted to go was because Interbike(a bicycle tradeshow) was happening. There would be parties, and I knew lots of people that were going to be there.
It ended up being a lot of fun. We hung out at The Hard Rock pool, and played lots of slots, although neither of us won. We also managed to get passes into the tradeshow, which was huge....anything bike-related you can think of, and probably some stuff you can't. The NORA Cup Awards happened the 2nd night we were there. It was a big party, lots of free alcohol, Mini Kiss played....a KISS cover band made up of midgets, and of course, there were lots of BMX boys.
The only bad part was there were too many people that I knew, most of whom I don't get to see very often, and I really only got to say "hello," "how are you," and "goodbye." Thinking back on it, there are definitely a few people that I would have liked to have seen more of...but I guess they were there to work, not socialize with me!

I also went to London to visit Maggie. I think that anyone who reads this blog knows that already. She has all the good pictures though, so maybe she'll post a blog soon. We had a good time, other than me getting sick for the last couple of days. We went to Barcelona, which wasn't quite as impressive as I'd hoped, but still pretty cool. We also managed to find some new things to do in London. It was a a fun trip and definitely too short....and if I'd known I still wouldn't be working 3 weeks later, I would have stayed longer.

At the moment, my life is fairly boring, minus the 3 days Kristen Reed came to visit. It's hard trying to think of things to do with visitors in LA, but we had a good time. We went to Venice Beach, walked around Hollywood Blvd, ate out a lot and met up with some Normanites. The coolest thing we did was go to El Matador Beach. I'd been told it was awesome, but it's north of Malibu and just hadn't made it there yet. Now that I know how cool it is, I'm taking all my visitors there. Of course the day we decided to go, it was really windy and cold, so we didn't get in the water, but it was still really beautiful. On our way home, we stopped at the beach in Santa Monica and watched the sunset. I'm always amazed at how fast the sun sets once it hits the horizon.


Anyway, I'm just hanging out, waiting for my new job to start on Oct. 22, and trying not to spend to much money before then. I've watched the entire first season of Weeds, and My Name is Earl....but I'm forcing myself to leave the house tomorrow. Wish me luck!