June Recap

I'm writing a June recap 6 months after it happened.  Sad face, but there were three fun events worth mentioning and remembering.

PRIDE 

I never really celebrated pride.  In the past, I would just go to SF and find the Asian corner and say hi to friends and party in the evening.  A lot of people participate in day drinking, but I never really thought to.  This year I just enjoyed a Filipino breakfast at Manila Sunset and decided to hit up the Barnsdell park.  We noticed large groups of women... surprise it's Dyke Day!  We joined in by trying out some double dutch and saying hi to our lovely hot lesbian friend Cindy.  In the evening we let loose and did a little booty shaking with this random shirtless guy... so.. Happy Pride.


Andrew BBQ

Andrew's family lives in the Larchmont area.  When they go out of town, Andrew offers their place for a BBQ.  What do we do during these BBQs?

Karaoke, Cards Against Humanity, Youtube and a R&B Piano Jam session

 I caught David posting a ridiculous Selfie on instagram so I decided to make fun of him.  Got Charles involved too!

HAIRSPRAY DANCE ALONG

Grand Park released a summer schedule.  I jumped on the Hairspray dancealong event which encouraged pinic-ers to learn the dance moves to do along with the movie that was being projected.

I made a facebook event and got really into it.  My friends humored me.

Looks like Charles is over it.  Everyone do the Tail Feather!!

It was a lovely LA Summer Evening.

I told my coworkers who live in Santa Monica about Grand Park and they responded in disgust you mean the one with all the bums?  Yes.. that's the one... now stay west of the 405 where you belong.  DTLA in mine.

Ciclavia - Iconic Wilshire Blvd

When they advertised this event as the most walkable Ciclavia they failed to mention that it was still a pretty long route.  Also it makes a difference when you're the only one walking and everyone else is on bikes.

It's amazing to see a major LA street closed off for bicycles and even more amazing to see how many people participated.  Traffic was bad that day, but not for bicyclists.  They were also handing out pamphlets about major sections and buildings along "Iconic Wilshire."  It was a spectacular history lesson.

We witnessed a couple of crashes where the intersection was opened for cars and there was sudden stops.  There were so many people out that we needed the help of cross guards to get to the other end.

We ran into Cindy and Hannah and played with some of their equipment.  And took a break for Korean lunch!

The good shots are from Cindy's film camera.  Borrowed them from her Flickr.

Our friends!!  What a lovely day!  The next one is in DTLA!  The heart of LA in October.  This time I'm renting a bike!

Modern Family

Meet Kevin and our daughter.  We still don't know who the father is.

 

#proudtolove Jk That's my coworker during kids to work day. Love how we match! This picture actually went out to the entire company as a part of a collage. LOL. I'm lucky to be in such a welcoming environment. I'm excited to plan the biggest party of my life - my wedding. I'm talking about food, choreographed dancing and cultural traditions. Probably 4 outfit changes. The economy is going to do so well! But I imagine I'll be in my late 30's. What's the rush?

Chinatown Summer Nights

Chinatown Summer Nights by KCRW is always fun.

But what made this occasion particularly great was that everyone we cared about was there and the crows were low.  It was easy to get food from food trucks and walk around.

Finally, an evening get together with everyone that doesn't involve Weho.

Above are my favorites from Cindy's Flickr.  I love her film pics!

I ordered a Frito Pie, which is Southern street food which involves meat and cheese mixed with Fritos.  Too over priced and I felt very guilty afterwards.

The confetti canons come from Chinatown.  David bought about $20 worth which gets you  a lot.  Everyone got a canon and we released it all at once.  We used the left over tubes to do Tinikling - Philippine folk dance.  It attacked some dancers.  LOL  So random and wonderful  Channeling college culture show dance skills.

There were so many dancers out.  What Sean represent!

Exploring with Alysia

Alysia is my family away from San Jose.  We don't see each other as often now that her OkCupid boyfriend is becoming more serious, but during the occasions I do see her, it's wonderful.  April is her birthday month and even though she just came back from Thailand, she insisted on having Thai for her birthday dinner.  Alysia is a conundrum - she doesn't like peanuts, curry, beansprouts, coconut or seafood but she somehow manages to find Thai delicious sans those ingredients.

The next stop for her birthday was star gazing at Griffith Observatory.  But it was so cloudy that evening.  Luckily we all had the constellations app and just enjoyed the night sky electronically.

Later that week, I took a Friday off to venture into downtown to places no tourists have ever gone... during weekdays.  This included visiting DWP where we learned about how LA gets its water.  That crane in the background excites me because it's a sign of development.  Brigham Yen knows all about the happenings of DTLA.

Alysia discovered a DTLA Farmers market up the block.  So we enjoyed a great lunch there among the workers of the city around Bank of America Plaza.   The park in this area is so cute.

We ventured back to City Hall where we got our visitor's pass to see the glorious city view on the 27th floor.  Only open on weekdays!  This has been on my to-do list forever!  We can see most of downtown off the top ledge.

GRAND PARK

We saw some great architecture.  But I didn't think my shots were that great.  

The Vegas Formula

Back in April, Charles celebrated his 30th birthday in Las Vegas.  Above you can see that they are preparing to lose their kidneys.  This is the second time I've gone to Las Vegas for a birthday and we've come up with a no fail formula.

1. Drive in on Saturday morning
2. Eat at Wicked Spoon and get wasted from their bottomless mimosas/bloody Mary's (be loud and obnoxious)
3. Drink more alcohol from the stash that we smuggled into the Palazzo
4. Hit the pool drunk
5. Take a nap
6. Eat a late dinner at a burger joint
7. Get ready to go out
8. Have a mediocre time at a gay bar
9. Wander the streets and stay up until 4AM
10. Separate Sunday morning and regret the drive

However we added a few more steps:

2.3 - Judge the Wicked Spoon for mislabeling the Asian food and be a diva about it. BTW they still haven't fixed this even though they responded to my tweet.

Got Charles the same Birthday dessert platter as Ernesto in 2011!

2.6 - Take an epic walk from the Cosmo to the Palazzo and dance to the music playing from the Bellagio water show

 4.5 - Play pool games, but actually just sit on each other and raise your hands randomly.  I had a waterproof case for my iPhone and took some fun pool shots.

5.5 - Try to take a nap while others folic in weird poses.  I actually took the liberty of walking around in my underwear after receiving one compliment about how much weight I lost.  I guess I only need one trigger to feel gratuitously sexy.  No. not posting those pictures. 

Just wanter the halls as if you own the place.

by Martin

Distant Tourists

On Father's Day I gave my dad a call.  Sometimes I wish I lived an hour away so that I could visit without hassle.  One hour is a good distance.  My dad visited early in May to help my brother move out of his college dorm.  He took the opportunity to visit me and enjoy #LALife.

I took him around downtown and became a tourist with him.

There were moments of silence that day where I thought I could just come out to him.  I could have filled that silence with honesty, but I couldn't get myself to do it.  Instead of talking about the city, I could have talked about myself.  My dad knows a lot about me, but there is that one piece that I have yet to express.  The physical distance between Los Angeles and San Jose where he lives is almost as vast as the metaphoric distance between me and my dad when it comes my sexuality.

So we both just wait... wait until I'm ready.  Whenever that may be.  But I'm glad he visited.