KZalan's Blog

After last weekend's disappointment, we decided to do something a little bit different meaning, we crashed a party. The idea was to drive by this one place we had always seen on Friday and/or Saturday nights throwing monstrous parties with people swarming the outside while loud music and at times what sounds like live performances are taking place inside. It's a house centered in Beverly Hills where my girlfriend lives and each time I drove to pick her up or left in a drunken stupor, it never ceased to amaze me that there was a party going on and all I kept thinking was, how do we get invited?? My girlfriend only described the dwellers as "mystery" people. She said she never saw them leave the house yet everytime she tried to catch them leaving or going, she'd miss them. No dogs to walk, no newspaper fetches, only shadows appearing through the windows. Still, we made it a point to crash the next shin dig we saw.
So we did it. Saturday night, we walked from her house and slowly manuevered ourselved onto the lawn where partygoers were taking their cancer stick breaks. First I had flashbacks from Eyes Wide Shut and wondered what we were walking into but figured it was safe to walk in to the sounds of Timbaland. Unless people like having giant orgies to that now...so we took a deep breath and walked in when we heard, "Excuse me." Door man, i thought...forgot about that. But it wasn't...it was worse. "Do I know you?" he said. We had no idea who he was. "Um -- we live up the street." I wanted to run. He pushed on, "Oh, hmm, well who invited you?" Just as I was beginning to make a run for it, a saving grace came. Someone had shouted for whoever was grilling us and we could only conclude that he was the host or owner. As we began walking through the house I thought "what's the big deal if we're not invited?" We started talking to a couple people there, one guy asking, "Have you tried the buffet yet?" We retorted "No, we're not really hungry." He started laughing and walked away. It took a second to find the "buffet" but when we did, we realized why it was invite only. It's the kind of sight that's sort of hilarious because you feel like you're in Scarface but at the same time fucking scary because it's real. To be honest, it's not something I want to describe and all I'm going to say is we picked the wrong party to crash and we booked it to the next shin dig where if caught we wouldn't spend our lives in prison...but they did play great music.

So after my weekend in Orange County I was stoked to finally go out in L.A. But after the weekend I began asking myself, "what happened L.A.?" I started thinking it was maybe just one of those things when after a while things just get a little bleh and then they pop again. Friday night my friends and I headed to Tropicana. This is actually the place I met Jed for the first time...remember the Men In Black??? We were nervous since the recent firing of one of Hollywood'd biggest promoters and hoped thatit wouldn't be dull and dead. We walked in for our 9:30 table to see that is was indeed, dead. We decided to hold off, ordered our bottles at the table and waited. Thank god it got busy - real busy. We started inviting people over to our table (obviously we were wasted) and began chatting up with one group only to realize we had so much in common - one guy had worked at the same agency with our other friend and some people that were visting him from Michigan new my ex (gross). No matter where you move or how big things seem, you always realize it's a small world. The excitedness of meeting new people when I went out started to fade a little. Now it was, "I know this person, Oh I know that person's person too and this person..." Sort of takes the fun out of it...
The next day, extremely drunk and hungover, I started having the "I'm never gonna drink again" thoughts. But as night time came, I found myself making a 10:00 dinner reservation for Koi. I had started getting fed up with trying out new places that sucked and wanted a a good dinner for once. It had been several months since my last visit there and maybe it was an off night but after our check I wondered what all the hype was about the place. I had the sushi but wasn't drooling over it and the crowd there was the best I've seen in a long time but for me it didn't live up to the huge hype it promotes. But props to them for not being a flash in the pan restaurant and for having endless paparazzi out front. Anyway, we were still on the prowl and decided to cruise sunset blvd and find another spot. Much to out dismay, we discovered Sunset had sort of gone to shit. It just looked a little trashy. I tend to stay away from Sunset (now I remember why) and was upset to see that the famed Sunset Blvd. was well, no comment. We headed over to the Cahuenga Corridor which has been a new little spot in Hollywood and thankfully found a spot to grab a nightcap. Hopefully it's just an off time waiting to pick up again or else, I may have to start hitting those private parties again...

It's always good to get away every once in awhile. It gives you a chance to get some clarity and the best situation of all, to appreciate the things that you have. The last leg of the birthweek ended back in O.C. San Clemente to be particular although if you want to get to the nearest major city, it would be Irvine and for a step beneath that, Laguna. Although we had to drive north just to find a decent place to eat and hang out, I started to realize to myself that the closest I would ever get to Laguna Beach again is on t.v. if that at all. It's funny that people seem to think L.A. is a snobby place and after being there, L.A. was looking more and more friendlier. It's not that everyone is rude or gives you the look down (twice, thrice) it's just that I couldn't help but feel like I was in high school. During lunch I got my first snicker after answering where I was from. His only comeback was, "I'm sorry (that you live in L.A.)" I replied, "I'm not." The small minded mentality was beginning to make me gag. "Are you a moviestar?" "Uh, no, there are people in L.A. who aren't 'moviestars'." And who the hell says moviestars anyway?? Girls competing with their clothes, their purses, their boyfriends and the size of their tits. I mean, I didn't have to worry about drowning when there was two flotation devices floating within arms reach. Going out was the worse (in the beginning of the night). As I observed, it could only be described as what appeared to be multiple "cliques". Again, high school. And the fact that everything closed at 9:30!?! We left her house to get something to eat at 10:30 and found out everything had shut down and the only things still opened were these little bar/clubs that I could no longer tolerate. Thank god we found a little spot that saved the night, a bar by the name of Hennessy's. The bartenders and the people there were pretty friendly granted we had headed back down south towards San Clemente and was now in Dana Point. Within a day, I found myself missing L.A. and the overall hopsitality and believe it or not politeness of the people here. I definitely drove back into town in my new car and a new attitude towards L.A. I never thought I would be so happy to see "You are now in Hollywood"...unfortunately my best friend has nestled herself into San Clemente so I'll have to endure the trips to see her but will most likely head further south next time, to San Diego or back to that nice bad in Dana Point. Sorry but no.c. for me.

So it's my birthweek. That's right I said week. My friends and I have since decided that instead of having birthdays, we will have birthweeks. If you are like me or any of my friends, we've all had those birthday we wished didn't happen. We find ourselves saying, "Why did this have to happen on my birthday??!!" "Why couldn't it have been tomorrow?! yesterday?!" So now, in order to ensure ONE and ideally more good days, we've invented the birthweek. This week is my birthweek, yes the actual day still matters but every day will be a celebration. We have it all mapped out. Tonight, me and another friend drive to OC to meet up with my best friend, then we're going to San Diego. After that, we drive back to L.A. fly to Vegas and finish off the week back in L.A. Oh and in between all this, there's definitely gonna be lots of booze and shopping...

So it was one of these "movie" weekends in Hollywood. Not that I went, but instead of the buzz being about some new place, everyone was talking about the long awaited Da Vinci Code even though the folks at Cannes made no hesitation to slam it hard with bad ratings right before it's big premiere. I still believe no one really cares about ratings except for people in the big cities. I never remember touching a newspaper or jumping online to find out if the movie was good or not. We just WENT. Anyway, my friends and I ended up having dinner at Katana's and checked out this new place Social which wasn't so Social but really nice inside. Maybe it was too early??

So I got stranded this weekend. My best friend was moving down to CA and I wanted to meet up with her so we arranged to meet halfway in Huntington Beach. I was pretty excited since it had been a while and figured I'd make a day long trip out of it and head back to L.A. for another friend's birthday party. Once we met up she informed me that her boyfriend would need to use the car later and not to worry, we would be fine...right. So we end up going to this bar in Santa Cruz and her bf meets us there to grab her car. So it's like good ol times in Florida when we're drinking, no worries, shot after shot and I'm feeling pretty good when this guy walks in. Apparently he runs his own shop close by and is like the local town "hunk". He was HOT. His name was James. We started talking and luckily he had a friend that ended up talking to my friend. So James was REALLY cool and before we knew it the bar was closing up. Luckily they knew the owners and we stuck around long enough trying to track down her bf. Now I'm thinking forget the bf, we need to call a hotel. Of course James is nice enough to invite us to stay at his place which seems like a psycho idea but he seems NICE.

So we go. Turns out there's like a huge party going on. Apparently this happens ALL the time and here I thought L.A. knew how to party. I thought I was walking into the ASP Surf Championships. I couldn't keep up with the number of pro surfers, skaters and random people I had seen in Hawaii and throughout my years of surf and skate expos. It was pretty cool and the house was AMAZING. I was starting to think I was falling in love with this guy. So James and I kept talking throughout the night and he ended up being one of the sweetest guys I've ever met. I ended up crashing in his bed alone (his idea) while he slept on the floor. We went to lunch the next day and still wondered where my friend's bf and at that point, we had forgotten about and had the best time. Sucks that James lives a distance from L.A. but I think I see myself making trips to the OC more often. It's the best feeling having a crush...