Mango Martini : 05/29/2005

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Viper Room

Tonight I went to the Viper Room with Emily. We had never been there before, but my friend was playing an acoustic alternative rock set, so we went to go see her. When we got there, there was this partitioned off area around the door. There were four posts and three ropes sectioning off this little square right in front of the door. Inside the little square was a little man. He was talking to people and checking them for will call tickets, etc. I hadn't bought a ticket beforehand, because no one told me to, and I got a little worried. I didn't know how things are run there. So, the guy turned to me, and I said "Hi, I'm here to see my friend play, but I didn't buy tickets ahead of time. Was that something we were supposed to do?" The guy, literally, turned straight around and started talking to someone else. He proceeded to ignore me for like the next 5 minutes. At this point I was wondering what to do. I mean, what does turning away from someone mean? Was I supposed to buy tickets? Am I an idiot for asking? Was I not even worth speaking to? Was I supposed to leave? Was I supposed to stay?? It was all confusing and very irritating. I pretty much told Emily that maybe we'd have to go back, because we weren't getting anywhere.

I then decided to approach the guy from another side of his roped off "box." He was helping some guys to the left, so I stood in line (sorta) behind them. When they went in, he again looked at me like he had never seen me before. ??? What the hell!!! So, I said, "Hi, I'm here to see my friend. She's playing tonight, and we didn't buy tickets because no one told us to. Can we buy them inside?" And once again, the guy turned his back to me. He said nothing, had no expression, and there was no indication he even heard what I said. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

So I'm standing there trying to figure out the situation. I've now been ignored twice, and I still haven't gotten an answer. Can I buy tickets or not? Can I go in or not? If I can't, just say no you stupid prick. Argh! So I look at Emily, and she's like "I don't know" and I'm thinking we should leave, when the guy FINALLY turns back around and asks for our ID's. What an idiot! We show him the ID's, we go inside, and we buy tickets. How difficult would it have been for him to actually say something to us during the 10 minutes we were being ignored? Seriously! When we got inside, I found my friend and complained about the doorman. She went off as well, and said that he didn't even want to let HER in the place. Retard!!

So the performance was pretty good. My friend has only been playing for the past year or so, so overall it was a good performance. The guy that came on after her was a bit more catchy with his sounds and lyrics. He already had a CD out, and seemed like a better performer. Afterwards, we went upstairs to the bigger room, and we saw Alana Davis. I swear I heard one of her songs before. Regardless, she was fantastic. Her vocals were unbelievable. Well, I thought she rocked. She had great tone quality and her control was fabulous. I would buy one of her CD's.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

New Job

Diego has been wanting to do security for a night club for some time now. He went to two interview earlier on this year, but they were both for smaller venues and only offered $10 an hour. I've been poking around here and there, and I saw this posting for a club that was looking to offer $15-17/hr. This is much better. However, they wanted someone who was 6'4" minimum. Alas, Diego is only 6'1". The posting said NOT to apply if the height requirement could not be met. I looked at it for a couple of days and lamented a bit. Then, I decided to apply (for him) for it anyways. Hell, you never know, right? I said that I (he) was 6'2" (since that's his height with boots) and built like a wall. :) I went on about all my other attributes, etc. Surprisingly, he (I, since he has no computer, and I control his email) got a response the next day saying that he could be interviewed on Tuesday. I also got Diego an interview at an open call at White Lotus. I've always wanted to go there, btw, but I never wanted to spend the money.

Let's talk about the White Lotus interview first. I drove Diego to both interviews, since he had a final in his class that night, and I didn't want him to be stressed out because of traffic. I also made him a resume the night before. It took me over three hours!! The boy has never had a resume, and he didn't even know that they were printed on different paper....*sigh*

Needless to say, I created a damn fine resume for him. Hell, even I'd hire him off the resume itself. I had to wake up early in the morning to buy stupid resume paper as well, so I had a lot invested in these interviews.

When we got to White Lotus, there were maybe 25 people there. The place was interviewing wait-staff, as well as security, bartenders, barbacks, busboys, etc. After we got there, like 30 more people showed up.

Let me just say, I was the fattest person in there. Well, Diego's bigger than me, but we were the biggest people in there. I was the biggest girl, and he was the biggest guy. Everyone there was white (almost -- like 2 Asian people and 2 African American people mixed in) and wearing a sexy black shirt (guys and girls alike). I was this weird fat girl wearing a blue and white sweater. Diego was this big Mexican guy in a checkered maroon shirt. I swear, we were totally out of place. Moreover, we noticed that almost everyone had a headshot along with a resume. Dude, a headshot. To be a waitress!! I mean, yes, we were in Hollywood, but I guess I didn't realize how bad it was. Naive?

Diego got his 5 minutes interview and not even with the guy who was hiring. The guy who was hiring security didn't show up, so another guy talked to Diego and took his resume. They said they'd contact him in a week.

Slightly disheartening, but not entirely, because we went to the 6'4" interview first. It turns out that the club is Level 3 (or KISSclub) in the Hollywood-Highland complex. Diego went in for like 10 minutes, and the guy offered him the job. He starts tomorrow night and works through Saturday. The shift is from 8:30-2:30am. That kinda sucks. After tax, he makes about as much as he makes at his current weekend job, but it's more steady and it's a change of scenery and pace which he's been desiring. He has to wear a sports coat, so we went across the street to the suit outlet and he bought a black suit.

So, my baby's now a bouncer at Level 3. I've never been there, but I guess it's now some place that I'd check out. I feel conflicted about the whole thing. I want him to work and to do what he wants. But now he'll be working EVERY Friday and Saturday night. And the occasional Thursday or week day. I will now be alone on Friday and Saturday nights. Whether it be a movie, dinner, out with friends, a birthday party, a bbq, anything! I'll be going solo. :( He'll be more tired, and I'll see less of him. So I'm sad. We were also planning on going clubbing one of these days, and that looks like it's not going to happen, since he'll be working on club days. *sigh*

The Hammer Museum

Okay, so last Thursday, Diego and I went to the Hammer Museum. It's free on Thursdays, and parking was only $3, so it was cool. Before going in, I dragged him over to Diddy Reese to get an ice cream cookie. He never had one before and was very happy.

I wanted to go to the museum, because I wanted to see that stupid piece of toast with a cut out face that is posted on every light pole banner around Westwood and Santa Monica. I really like it. There was also a really interesting one with a floor mat that had a dog sleeping on top of it in the same material. It was one piece, but it looked like a real dog. The material looked like mat material, but then again, it looked like fur. That was pretty cool. There was also a kitchen, which we thought was totally dumb, until we realized it was made of picture canvasses. That made it much more interesting. Also, there was this picture with cake. I forgot what it was called, but it reminded me of Beth and Cyndi. I really liked it though. There were all these girls hiding behind trees and holding different kinds of cake. And I think they had been throwing them at this tree with an upsidedown house in it. because there were various cakes stuck to and heaped around the base of the tree. Interesting indeed.

Me and trees

Diego and trees

Emily's BBQ

Emily's mom had a BBQ, and we were all invited. I got there on time for once, and everyone else came late. I'm never coming on time again. All the times I've been on time (or even early) this week have reminded me WHY I never show up when I'm supposed to. Whenever I show up on time, everyone is late. And whenever I show up early, everyone is SUPER DUPER late!!! It's better just to be late myself, then life is not so agonizing.

Diego and I went to the Harley Davidson store before coming over. I tried on this leather jacket dress. It was a 5-in-1 outfit. I actually really liked it, and Diego said I looked really "hot" in it. It was a leather jacket with this skirt attached to it. You could zip it off to have a jacket only. Or, you could zip off the back and the arms and have a halter jacket, or a halter jacket dress. Or, you could just wear the arms and have this cute mini-jacket. It was $350 though, so it's not something I'm going to buy any time soon. No matter how cute it is. Besides, can anyone really see me wearing an all leather outfit??

After that, we went to Bristol Farms to buy some cherries for the BBQ. Well, I bought the cherries, but he came for moral support. The things were seriously $11 dollars a pound. I almost died, but I got a pound and a third all the same.

Glam Natsuka

Crazed Diego

"Don't call me, I'll call you..." -- Emily

Why is everyone on the phone??

He swears he's not making a face.

Close up and waaay unattractive.

Dixon came, along with Kelly. It was fun, but it was extremely hot. Not as hot as the day before, but fairly warm all the same. After eating, I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up just in time for more food however. The second I opened my eyes, they began cutting into an ice cream cake. I think my body was aware of the food and stirred my mind awake. Seriously, I'm like a food maniac. We were all watching this countdown thing on tv, but it took (literally) like 6 hours to finish. We stopped watching in the low 20's I think, after sitting in front of the tv for a million years. Stupid show. It was too hot to do anything anyways. Diego and I took pictures of ourselves, and I took pictures of the ladies on the phone. Both Susan and Jennifer called, so we passed the phones around and all caught up a bit. :)

A Day at the Long Beach Aquarium

My grandma was bored and wanted to go somewhere. I didn't know where to go and it was already a bit late, so I decided we should go to the Long Beach Aquarium. I've never been there before, which is sad. It's sort of like the fact that I've never been to Alcatraz, and I lived in the Bay Area for 3-4 years. *siiigh*

I actually really enjoyed the museum. We saw a lot of interesting jelly fish and aquatic life. The ten thousand pictures are as follows.

Jelly

Jellies

Jelly close-up

X-files jelly

Pancake jellies

Intestine jellies

Jellies chasing each other.

Pretty jelly

Stringy jellies

Boba jellies

Sea anenomes

More seas anenomes (how the hell do you spell this crap??)

Moving things

Big crab!

More crabs

Fish school

Fish school with no flash. Looks like they're moving faster!!

Manta ray

Sting ray

Saw shark

He's hungry...

Sea dragon

Really ugly fish

Really ugly fish again

Pretty fish

I think the best part of the aquarium was the Lorikeet cage. Before going in, the woman asked if I wanted to feed them some nectar. It was only a dollar, so I was like, sure thing. Dude, when I walked in there, I was attacked right away. The birds landed on my head and pretty much stayed there for the remainder of the time I was in the cage (a good half hour). They didn't jump on anyone else's head, they stayed away from my grandma, and when my aunt came and fed them, nothing like this happened at all! I was afraid that they were going to crap on me, because I had all these birds on my head, shoulders, stomach, arms, etc. Some of them crapped, but over the side of my arm. Some splattered on my shoe, (unfortunately I was wearing sandals). But, happily, no one crapped on my head. :)