KZalan's Blog

It's always good to get away every once in awhile. It gives you a chance to get some clarity and the best situation of all, to appreciate the things that you have. The last leg of the birthweek ended back in O.C. San Clemente to be particular although if you want to get to the nearest major city, it would be Irvine and for a step beneath that, Laguna. Although we had to drive north just to find a decent place to eat and hang out, I started to realize to myself that the closest I would ever get to Laguna Beach again is on t.v. if that at all. It's funny that people seem to think L.A. is a snobby place and after being there, L.A. was looking more and more friendlier. It's not that everyone is rude or gives you the look down (twice, thrice) it's just that I couldn't help but feel like I was in high school. During lunch I got my first snicker after answering where I was from. His only comeback was, "I'm sorry (that you live in L.A.)" I replied, "I'm not." The small minded mentality was beginning to make me gag. "Are you a moviestar?" "Uh, no, there are people in L.A. who aren't 'moviestars'." And who the hell says moviestars anyway?? Girls competing with their clothes, their purses, their boyfriends and the size of their tits. I mean, I didn't have to worry about drowning when there was two flotation devices floating within arms reach. Going out was the worse (in the beginning of the night). As I observed, it could only be described as what appeared to be multiple "cliques". Again, high school. And the fact that everything closed at 9:30!?! We left her house to get something to eat at 10:30 and found out everything had shut down and the only things still opened were these little bar/clubs that I could no longer tolerate. Thank god we found a little spot that saved the night, a bar by the name of Hennessy's. The bartenders and the people there were pretty friendly granted we had headed back down south towards San Clemente and was now in Dana Point. Within a day, I found myself missing L.A. and the overall hopsitality and believe it or not politeness of the people here. I definitely drove back into town in my new car and a new attitude towards L.A. I never thought I would be so happy to see "You are now in Hollywood"...unfortunately my best friend has nestled herself into San Clemente so I'll have to endure the trips to see her but will most likely head further south next time, to San Diego or back to that nice bad in Dana Point. Sorry but no.c. for me.

So it's my birthweek. That's right I said week. My friends and I have since decided that instead of having birthdays, we will have birthweeks. If you are like me or any of my friends, we've all had those birthday we wished didn't happen. We find ourselves saying, "Why did this have to happen on my birthday??!!" "Why couldn't it have been tomorrow?! yesterday?!" So now, in order to ensure ONE and ideally more good days, we've invented the birthweek. This week is my birthweek, yes the actual day still matters but every day will be a celebration. We have it all mapped out. Tonight, me and another friend drive to OC to meet up with my best friend, then we're going to San Diego. After that, we drive back to L.A. fly to Vegas and finish off the week back in L.A. Oh and in between all this, there's definitely gonna be lots of booze and shopping...

So it was one of these "movie" weekends in Hollywood. Not that I went, but instead of the buzz being about some new place, everyone was talking about the long awaited Da Vinci Code even though the folks at Cannes made no hesitation to slam it hard with bad ratings right before it's big premiere. I still believe no one really cares about ratings except for people in the big cities. I never remember touching a newspaper or jumping online to find out if the movie was good or not. We just WENT. Anyway, my friends and I ended up having dinner at Katana's and checked out this new place Social which wasn't so Social but really nice inside. Maybe it was too early??

So I got stranded this weekend. My best friend was moving down to CA and I wanted to meet up with her so we arranged to meet halfway in Huntington Beach. I was pretty excited since it had been a while and figured I'd make a day long trip out of it and head back to L.A. for another friend's birthday party. Once we met up she informed me that her boyfriend would need to use the car later and not to worry, we would be fine...right. So we end up going to this bar in Santa Cruz and her bf meets us there to grab her car. So it's like good ol times in Florida when we're drinking, no worries, shot after shot and I'm feeling pretty good when this guy walks in. Apparently he runs his own shop close by and is like the local town "hunk". He was HOT. His name was James. We started talking and luckily he had a friend that ended up talking to my friend. So James was REALLY cool and before we knew it the bar was closing up. Luckily they knew the owners and we stuck around long enough trying to track down her bf. Now I'm thinking forget the bf, we need to call a hotel. Of course James is nice enough to invite us to stay at his place which seems like a psycho idea but he seems NICE.

So we go. Turns out there's like a huge party going on. Apparently this happens ALL the time and here I thought L.A. knew how to party. I thought I was walking into the ASP Surf Championships. I couldn't keep up with the number of pro surfers, skaters and random people I had seen in Hawaii and throughout my years of surf and skate expos. It was pretty cool and the house was AMAZING. I was starting to think I was falling in love with this guy. So James and I kept talking throughout the night and he ended up being one of the sweetest guys I've ever met. I ended up crashing in his bed alone (his idea) while he slept on the floor. We went to lunch the next day and still wondered where my friend's bf and at that point, we had forgotten about and had the best time. Sucks that James lives a distance from L.A. but I think I see myself making trips to the OC more often. It's the best feeling having a crush...

I had a pretty exhausting week, and weekend. Some friends were in town and of course wanted to do the whole "LA" thing. GREAAT. Turned out to not be so bad after all. We made reservations from the Koi Group's latest addition, Bridge. I immediately went to the website to check this place out and was amazed. You should see for yourself. Not only is it a huge restaurant (rare in LA), but the architecture is just by far, one of the more impressive dining digs in L.A. Of course, anything from the guys ar Koi in anything short of amazing. Anyway, it sort of reminded me of the restaurants in Chicago. It could almost pass as something in Vegas as well. Anyway, the best of all, they carried my absolute favorite vodka in the whole world, Van Gogh Pineapple Vodka. I was downing martinis before the appetizers came and I suddenly realized I drank my hunger away. The menu is moreso Italian but there's a splash of variety in there. I ended up ordering 2 appetizers as my main course. My gay friend became starstruck when he saw Maria Menuonos (spell check?) and Ryan Seacrest among others. Anyway, we finished off the night at OBAR on Santa Monica Blvd.
Funny thing happened the other day, I came across someone's blog who had mention Friendsation, then I saw that she had written something about me. I think it was in all good humor but apparently she had been suspicious of her husband emailing another chick or as I say "e-cheating". And she says she opened up his email account to see a message saying "You have received a kiss from Friendsation." To be honest, those things get annoying after a while and in the beginning I checked it often and did the "polite" thing as the message commands to send back the kiss and I guess she had thought I sent him the kiss out of pursuit. It was kinda funny, it's not like she went off but she was like, "I'd like you to know my husband is not even 6 feet tall." I tried emailing in efforts to explain the ways of our friendsation site and to assure her it was not in pursuit when he was in fact the one who sent it to me but her email wasn't working. Plus, it was dated last year probably soon after this site went up and well, I guess it's safe to say it's blown over. Just thought I'd mention it.

www.bridgela.com