Saturday, April 25, 2009

Interesting Friday~

So, I think I had mentioned before that I was required for a class to go to the Museum of Tolerance in LA this past Friday. Which in turn, I was really looking forward too... but that day had some twists and turns, much more then I had expected. ;D

Let's start with heading out the door that morning. My Dad and I decided we should leave for LA at around 9am (you never know with traffic, on a good day it would take 45 mins, on a bad day it could take up to 2-3 hours). So we left at 9am! No biggy...

Until we went down two blocks from where we lived... stopped at a Stop sign... and all of a sudden we hear a 'Pop' noise... so we pull to the side of the road. Only to realize, Wow, the clutch is not working in having the van change gears?! Hmm, that's not good. O.o;
IMG_0038

This is what happened! One of the axils had poped off! (To me it looks like a plunger lol) Soooo, my dad calls his mechanic... he can take it in today... next thing, we kinda need to get the van to him to fix it. After calling Alex (who is still at home), he googles us a towing company, which we've used before.

IMG_0039

So about 10 minutes later, the tow truck arrived. (My Dad's van is a 1986 VW Vanagon)
After a cheapppppp $66 dollars later, they will tow the van to the mechanic for us! So my Dad and I walk the super super far two blocks back home, hop in my car (the volvo) and at 9:35am we head off to LA!

(At the end of the day, the mechanic fixed the Van with no problems and $80 dollars later, the Van was done and ready to be picked up! Talk about the best of the worst happening, two blocks from home, a cheap towing and an easy inexpensive fix... we will pick up the VW later today.)

Now I really do not have any photos of driving to LA, we did not encounter much traffic really. However, we had like 2 near hits, one with a guy merging into our lane... while we are still in it! The dude, decided he wanted our spot in that lane apparently, so my Dad switched lanes to avoid the jerk. Second event was while traffic was moving well, all of a sudden the kinkos truck ahead of us breaks, so we follow suit... However! The car next to us also breaks, yet the person behind him was kind of going a bit tooooo fast and massively breaked, full on smoke, black tire streaks, the whole nine yards (including the bad smell of burnt rubber and noise). So to the left of us, we see this whollleeee thing happen! The small black car, did lightly tap the SUV's bumper... and I was expecting to see (after hearing the breaking) quite a crunch between the two vehicles... and honestly... I saw noooo damage.... nothing. So they were both quite lucky... yet they both eventually did get off the freeway to check possible damage and insurances. Irregardless to the fact that nothing bad happened, it was still nerve racking for me to see it all. u.u; Yeah LA freeway driving, is sooooo not like ventura country freeway driving.

Plus in LA, there are ANGRY drivers, oh the amount of honking you hear is insane! Poor LA people are cranky. Maybe its too much coffee. lol I dunno. ANYWAYS~

We get to LA and decide, it's almost lunch time and we have to be at the Museum at noon, so we need to get some food. Then we spot a Norms resturant!
IMG_0041
All I can say is nom nom nom~ The food is fantastic. (Iam sorry but f*you Dennys)

My Dad then procedded with sharing his stories of these type of resturants growing up in the Vally (San Fernando Valley) here and eatting at these places. He even listed the various ones as we ate and as he remembered them. Like how he went to this smorgiousbord eattery (I know I cannot spell it) before he left for Vietnam with his family and ate 23 sausage meatballs lol a personal best he said. ;D lol My Daddy. He's cute.
- - -
Then we go to the Museum of Tolerance, good stuff. Very educational. They have upgraded things and topics in the Multi-Diversity section, which was very great to go through.

The Holocaust section is just as I remember it as a child... (8th grade)... but different all at the same time. I really enjoyed getting a more adult perspective, plus having the oh I dunno, 8 years of knowledge worth of history to reference to everything else was a bonus, in that I was able to follow it all that much better.

3 hours later, we were finished. :) Good stuff. Even if my classmates were as quite as rocks in discussions our tour guide tried to start. My Dad and I had to jump in and talk quite often, because no one said anything, most of the time. u.u; (which is another similarity of when I went to this museum in 8th grade, apparently 8 years later, some students still stay the same) lol ~
- - -

Afterwards, it was close to 4pm... which means Dun Dun Dunnnn Rush Hour traffic. So we take some detour routes and head towards the PCH freeway and pulled over to McDonalds to get something to drink (and ice cream ;D) and wait out the traffic a bit.

Yet we pull into this tiny McDonald's parking lot to realize there are these white screens and half of the parking lot is closed off. Hmmm. What's this?!
SSPX2163fx
A Commercial shoot/filming for a McDonalds Commercial!!!

Now to point things out in this photo. My car is on the right side of the photo... see the 'actor' in the light blue jacket to the right, my car is parked (you see the back window) to the left of his left shoulder... kinda hard to see, look past the silver car.

The Camera is to the far far left, middle of the photo. Then I guess the group of 'teens' in the brightly dressed clothing are 'dancing' with McDonald's bags... among their 'cars'. Because really, in Southern California, this is how our 'teens' dress... and they totally have these types of cars... and this is what they do on a Friday afternoon and 'hang out' dancing in a parking lot. Yeah... well that's the media.

My Dad and I sat in the window looking at all of this, I guess the premis of this shoot is, to film kids 'chilling' outside a McDonalds. Dancing to some whatever music, with their McDonald's bags of food, while 'teens' walk around (like the two kids to the right were just walking back and forth from the store to their spot where they are now). However, they filmed these blueish and greenish glasses on top of the third green (rice burner) car and the 'teens' would put them on the roof of the car.... and then join the 'dancing group' all smiley and dancing.

So, I dunno. I am excited to see this commercial when it airs... to figure out what on earth were they doing. ;D Another day in southern california, I guess. ;p
- - -

After all of this, we pick up a quick dinner, and head home. Yet Jimmy had texted me, that his friend Paul was having his 22nd birthday at his house, and that Jimmyhad mentioned of my friends would be there (whom I rarely see). So I decided, that maybe I could stop by and just say Hi to the people and stay for a bit. (oh the perks of having my own vehicle, seriously)

I get there and hang out for a bit. It was actualy quite fun. Got to talk to Tim (my friend who I rarely see), see Jimmy, say Hello to his friends, meet some new people, got to have some enjoyable conversations with these new people~ and overall had some fun just hanging out. :) I even played some Rock band with Jimmy. ;D

I think however, one of the oddities of the night, was Tim... deciding to dress in a suit... in particular... a Flu Suit?!?!
IMG_0042 edi

All of a sudden I see this person run from the garage into the living room dressed in this white thing... to find out it's Tim! O.o; This fabulous suit cost 2 dollars... and I was told of a 'flu epidemic' in Mexico... and it may come here, yada yada yada... Tim bought it... just to wear it... and for 2 bucks... why not. It was a good laugh. ^^*

I then headed home around 9:30pm... and went to bed~ I was super tired... :)

Overall, my Friday was quite eventful.
- - -
I did not get much knitting done. I did crochet on my Granny Square on the way to LA... but no photos of that... because I left my crocheting in my car... which my Dad just took to go to a meeting a half hour ago... soooo. Yeah. I am liking it and am throughly enjoying the pattern. (It is totally relaxing! I cannot wait till I finish this! ;D)

I need to get back to my Pomatomas socks... and finish those lovelys up this week! I have 6 days and counting! Dun Dun Dunnnn ;D

No comments: