LA weekend!

I had such a fun weekend!  I need to remember how much fun four day weekends can be, especially when I'm working the next two Federal holidays!

My weekend was slightly elongated since I combine work & play this weekend.  I left Thursday afternoon for Loma Linda so that I would be ready to attend my Supracricoid laryngectomy course  on Friday.  Brooke and I travelled together since she had a speech pathology conference at the same location.  It was great to drive with a friend, for both the company and the carpool lane!

We arrived in Loma Linda and spent the night in the hotel room that was provided for the resident course so free lodging!  Even though the bed was small, it still felt great to save money!

The course itself was great.  Excellent lectures and lots of time in the anatomy lab.  I felt like a did a nice job on my dissection and I worked with a PGY-4 and PGY-1 from LLU.  That night, Brooke and I ate at Wild Rocket in Redlands, where she made fun of my chatting with the bartender.  Then we went to the movies and watched "Flight."

The next day, we "slept in" until 8, then got ready and went to LA Live to watch the Williams-Amherst game!  The Amherst folks definitely outnumbered the Williams crowd and they won (because Amherst is full of dirty cheaters ;).  The game viewing was hosted at LA Live in the ESPN Zone party room.  It was right next to where everyone was lined up for the Twilight premiere.  That was three days away.  Yes, people were camping out for Twilight.  OMG.

After the game, where we saw Dr. Drew (an Amherst alum), Brooke and I headed to LACMA based on Johanna's recommendation.  What an awesome museum!  I talked my way into the member's preview of the Caravaggio exhibit (the sign at admissions said it was open that day!  For everyone, I assumed incorrectly!).  We also saw some more contemporary art like Klee, Sam Francis and Georges Braque.  I loved going to that museum- it was great!  There were also a line of food trucks out front which looked delicious although we weren't hungry.

Levitated Rock

Later that afternoon!

Actual 10 segment piece of Berlin Wall, W. Germany side

East Germany Side, Graffiti/Artwork added in America.
East Germans were not allowed to access the Wall.

LACMA front

Interactive art with lots o'germs, likely

That night, I went to Mumford & Sons after picking Jenny and Steffani up at the train station.  We had the best time!  We had a sushi picnic in the partially finished hotel lobby.  The sushi place was packed, so we placed a to-go order, bought booze, picked up our food (and drank one of our beers while we waited- classy!) and ate at the hotel, which is currently being renovated.  It was so much fun.  We missed the openers, but were there in time for Mumford and Sons.  They were great.  We spent most of our time sneaking up front, which was worth it!

Hotel Lobby Sushi Picnic!

Sushi Picnic Close-Up

Original Seats!

Much better

The next morning, I felt a little worse for wear but drank water, took ibuprofen and made it out to the FESS course.  The highlight was drilling a respectable modified Lothrup dissection!  I felt very advanced.  After the course, I went back to LA and Jenny and I went out to dinner at Osteria Mamma and had dessert at Cafe Gratitude.  No Jason Mraz sightings, unfortunately.

The next day, we went to Toast for brunch and then met up with Brooke and her sister for the TMZ celebrity tour.  It was a little cheesy but fun to do.  Highlights included seeing two Backstreet Boys in their car while driving around and a hungover girl on the bus puking over the side.  That was more gross than anything, but still, a deviation from the standard tour (I think/hope).  After that, we went to lunch at Grub where I had a delicious salad with a side of crack bacon.  Then I picked up my tickets for the 11/12 show (which I thought was the night prior since I can't read a calendar) and scalped them to a nice woman who really wanted to go!  It was sad to let those tickets go, although the profit took some of the sting away.

Then I made it home, did laundry and went to bed.  It was an awesome weekend with great sights and even better friends.