Eat, Drink, Dance, "Hangover"...what a weekend.

This weekend was a lot of fun. I don't work on Fridays, so it started out with me going with my cousin to see her husband's office, which is a sweet studio in Downtown LA. We went to lunch at a pizza place, and although I've been warned about how bad west coast pizza is, this wasn't terrible. Not New Haven-caliber, obviously, but not completely awful, either.

That night the three of us went to Pasadena and saw "Rudo y Cursi," a Spanish-language comedy starring Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal as two brothers who come from a small village in Mexico and become big soccer stars in Mexico City. Afterwards we went to an awesome little burger joint on Colorado Blvd. (the shopping district in Pasadena) and got burgers and fries and beers.

But Friday was simply a warm-up for Saturday. My cousins had their friends over to watch Colombia play Argentina in soccer...my cousin's husband is Colombian, so needless to say it was a big deal for everyone present. The game ended at 4, and that's when the party really started. One of their friends broke out the *first* carton (yes, carton, not bottle) of aguardiento, which can only be described as a highly alcoholic liquor that tastes like licorice...kind of like the Colombian version of tequila. Needless to say, good times ensued. I might have gone to bed at 12:30, but the party lasted until 4 AM. I was very impressed...even if the very loud electronic music kept waking me up.

And then I woke up this morning to find some of Saturday's guests still at the house. After everyone (except me) had the miracle hangover cure of seafood soup and rice and beans from the local Mexican seafood joint, everyone went back to sleep but me. I had gotten over 9 hours of sleep the night before, so I was good to go. I went for a run, did laundry...and by the time everyone re-woke up at 5 PM, I was reading the manuscript I had to finish for Monday morning for work. The five of us thought that the only fitting thing to do with the rest of the day was to go see "The Hangover"...obviously.

The theater we went to was in Silver Lake, which my cousin referred to as "the Brooklyn of LA." Basically, it's hipster central. The theater itself, the Vista, is a beautiful old cinema decorated like an ancient Egyptian tomb or something. It was absolutely gorgeous.


The movie itself was hilarious, and was everything I wanted it to be. I won't spoil anything...but if you haven't seen it already, you probably should. It is pretty much the most epic game of Saturday Morning Detective you can comprehend...and then some. Also I have a huge crush on Bradley Cooper now.

After the movie we went to Little Thailand on Hollywood Blvd. and got Thai for dinner. Really good pad thai at the Palm Restaurant, I must say. Also there were a bunch of old men lip synching to Elvis, Elton John, and Simon and Garfunkel...weird, but not a big deal since the food was so good.

Work again tomorrow...but I'm looking forward to it. Not the commute, however...but it's a necessary evil.