// los angeles *part 1*
so... i woke up and had steak over at mimbo's place. delicious. now that i'm feeling much more awake and full, i shall proceed to spin my tale of family, friends, bridesmaids, candy stripers [sic], weddings, flasks, and all night plane rides. enjoy.

i arrive in la around dinner time and head straight up to santa monica beach w/ dan after seeing hanna, min and dc at the airport. i love the beach, and it really hasn't changed in the four years since the roadtrip out west w/ my brother. grand rapids is a place that really does change a lot since it's a fledgling city, but la, to me, is stagnant in its growth, much like ann arbor. grand rapids becomes more sophisticated and learned whenever i part for a great deal of time. there was absolutely no night life back in 1997, but now, i could definately spend a couple hunny at the various clubs and scenes that pock the (what should be) tranquil midwestern nights in downtown gr. i see baby boomer-blue collar families trying out sushi for the first time in endearing scenes of cultural juxtapositions. you just don't see this type of thing as regularly in los angeles or ann arbor. they're lands of qualified and proven preconceptions. everyone has tried their sushi. you may say that in both aa and la, you have a steady stream of nascent city dwellers, but alas, they fall into whatever role or image that they have in their minds of what an ann arborite or los angelian is... eventually. and usually, that role has been done by some precursor before them. la has found its niche as the land of hollywood, bikini wax tans, surfers and the "west side". but it is a very large and very fun niche.

// family and friends
after spending a couple hours killing time at santa monica talking about our older brothers, dan and i head back to lax to pick up john who arrives at around 9:30pm. while driving from the airport to our hotel, i get a call from an old friend, debbie, who used to live in gr back in high school. looking forward to the reunion w/ everyone from gr, she and i set things up so that she'll hang w/ us at our hotel, and later grab some denny's type food at a place called norm's. it was really like denny's with its all-nite, post-party hangout spot vibe, but maybe the cheap steak tasted a bit better. i guess it's the shorter name since the apostrophe s's and everything else are in common.

the meeting w/ debbie and her cousin was pretty much the typical fare of "how you been"s and "remember when"s and the standard topics most people our age tend to talk about: schools, mutual friends, relationships and the <add your adjective here> future.

the next few days were pretty much the same things. we simply added old friends to our list of people hanging out in la as they came in one by one from lax or other parts of la. same conversations as we visited different locations eating different food at different all you can eat themed restaurants. we're from the midwest. we were hungry. what would you expect?

// bridesmaids
one meeting does stand out, tho.

gina (the bride), picked five bridesmaids to complement paul's (the groom) selection of five groomsmen, of which, i was one. i had already known/met four of the five bridesmaids previously in grand rapids, but i met amy, gina's friend from maryland, for the first time. also, on the groomsmen side, travis was the new mutual friend between paul and me. so for each side, there were four people i knew, and one that i didn't. not to take away anything from travis who himself is quite entertaining and by the looks of things a great guy to know, i found amy a little more interesting.

while gina lived in grand rapids, i came across a picture of gina's friend amy while looking over some pix that gina had taken on a trip to maryland. i mentioned that amy was attractive in more or less words, and gina dutifully noted this at the time. however, i eventually forgot the face in the picture because i've learned to forget faces that i will probably never meet. it took a reminder from gina and paul and a few seconds of thought for me to remember this all when i first met amy at paul and gina's new apartment in west covina.

the thing is, my brother sung and a few friends asked me of what i thought about amy. previously, i hadn't given that much thought about her and just said that she's interesting (what do you think?)... under the circumstances, i didn't have time to meet her enough to know any better (oh come on, man)... we were paired up by height (you guys look good together [chuckle]). but you know... if people keep mentioning a person, you think about that person.

so as it stands, i find amy attractive and interesting. but, i've also learned to forget a face when i know that i'll probably never meet that person again. c'est la vie.

// candy stripers [sic]
so back to the la story. nothing really interesting except for more beach time at huntington and newport... until friday night. after gorging ourselves on raw fish and wasabi at todai, we proceeded to give paul his treatment for his last night of being a bachelor. being right christians (i.e. contrite hypocrites) and under the directions of sang's accountability, the bachelor party was less debauchery, drinking and sex, but still fun and entertaining. sadly, more entertaining for everyone else but paul. a public profession was made by paul in the middle of "the block". this happened multiple times in front of many people with many cheers. paul is a very shy guy. sorry man. hehe.

well... we didn't elminate the debauchery and sex altogether. we did wrap things up that evening w/ a visit from one, "Ms. Candy", who was very maximal and not minimal ;) . after some jolly rancher incidents, some of us played poker until 5am.

many facts and events are left unstated because, hell... this was a bachelor party.

// continued above
i ran outta time to finish this in one sitting. since blogger does things reverse chronologically, you probably read the rest of this before this. oh well. i'll try to mention reading this first instead of what appears on top.