For as long as I can remember, I've always had a love/hate relationship with my birthday. I love making a big to-do about it but as the day draws nearer oh, who am I kidding? I don't hate anything about my birthday! I LOVE my birthday. Personally, I think June birthdays are the greatest. When I was younger, my birthday meant bringing in cupcakes from Shubert's (their cupcakes had the most frosting) for the entire class and having Free Dress Day. Wearing a Catholic school jumper day in and day out really made you appreciate Free Dress Day although I think years of wearing a uniform really hindered my ability to put together a normal outfit. Anyway, my birthday always signified that the end of the school year was near and a summer of watching soaps and going to the library was just around the corner. Thanks to Christine, June 3rd means that I'm going to be twenty-sexy and not a wretched twenty six and I'm kicking it off with:
5/29- Ice cream at Scoops and Mashti Malone's. Scoops has flavors like balsamic vinegar and brown bread, all for just $1 and Mashti's is some Persian ice cream place that only had enough money to change the first half of the pub's name that they took over hence the ethnic Mashup. 5/30- Tranny Bingo at Hamburger Mary's, site of the legendary "kick-your-ass" mimosa 5/31- happy hour at Hooters because no one will go with me otherwise 6/1- Gameboi night at Rage, where "Import" Nina will make her debut 6/2- daytime: Surf's Up premiere with fellow Gemini hottie Shia LeBeouf at Fox Theatre, I have my Dodgers shirt ready people, nighttime: the ever elusive Edison 6/3- Let twenty-sexy begin with a Scientology cleanse at their brunch buffet at the Scientology Celebrity Centre. If they don't try to do one of their crazy E-Meter auditing sessions on me, then it'll be like when the cleaning cult didn't want to convert George on Seinfeld.
And FYI, other June birthdays: girl crush Natalie Portman- June 9th ultimate girl crush Angelina Jolie- June 4th ultimate man crush Mark Wahlberg- June 5th underage crush Shia LaBeouf- June 11th
There's a lady named Anne at my internship that I really like. She's at least 75 years old and like all elderly people, she volunteers at a multitude of places to keep herself busy. I asked her today if she had any kids and she said no, she's never been married. I asked her why and she said that there was a man that she was serious about but he died and she never got over it. I didn't press any further. She said she was always consumed by her job (she was a social worker and worked with Latino gang members) and she just never worried about getting married, that it would happpen if it happened. I found her independence refreshing but it got me thinking. She was probably in her mid-twenties during the late 50s to early 60s and it was probably the "fad" to state your independence and not get married. But I feel like these days, women can do whatever they want. We don't have to get married. We don't have to have kids. We can have high flying careers and be a Miranda, Carrie, Charlotte, or Samantha. That said, it seems that now that we're given the choice to get married, and no one is forcing us to, we all want to anyway. It's sorta like reverse psychology. Tell us we don't have to get married, make us think it's our own idea, and we'll do it. Blah. And of course it doesn't help that, by all practical and realistic means, there's a natural deadline if we want to have kids. So I guess what I'm saying is I feel a little resentful/worried/bitter/anxious about finding someone that I like that likes me.
Like Anne said, the problem wasn't that men didn't like her, she just didn't like them.
I don't think I've ever combed my hair so much in my life.
Saw Lily Allen last night at the Wiltern. She said that "loss an-juh-leez" is her favorite American city. She was very cute and cussy which are always a good combo. It was very easy to fall into her "I don't give a f**k, I'm just going to have another Jager shot" attitude but then I caught myself and realized I'm going to be 26 next month. I am not a 22 year old British pop singer with super cute hair that wears dresses and trainers. How much longer can I go around being as Wes calls it "bitter"?
Koreans are my new best friend or at least Charles at Hills Beauty Club in K-town is anyway. Kevin did the unthinkable. I went in for a "magic straight" and three and half hours later, I no longer have poufy, frizzy, big hair but straight, straight, sleek hair. I think I sorta look like Demi Moore or Sacagawea. When I sat down in the chair, Charles picked up my hair and examined it and asked what I did to it. Perm? Coloring? I laughed a big hearty laugh and said "Nothing, this is my natural hair!" HAHA. He then rubbed his hands together, giggled, and said "We have a lot of work to do." HAHAHAHA. I'm glad I could give him a challenge. The sleek hair really enhances the size of my head. This is either good or bad. I think it's too early too tell. At any rate, I'm pretty much delicious 24/7 now. Glamour shots will be posted asap.
I told her that I loved, loved, loved her on Seinfeld and that she is the funniest actress ever!
So what happened was that I went to go see Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, talk at UCLA and I was in the front row and I turned around and noticed a man two rows behind me who looked like one of my professors and then I noticed the woman he was with and I thought "Gee, that woman looks like Elaine. Wait a second. That is Elaine!" She looks exactly the same except with slightly curlier, frizzier hair and less make-up but still very adorable.
At one point, I even heard her laughing and she laughs just like Elaine did with that sorta horsey, funny laugh. Love it!
After the talk, I made my way over to her row and just as they were leaving and headed toward the stage, her husband was blocking my way so I had to say "Julia" and she turned around and I smiled and she smiled and I blabbered away. Eeekkkkk!!!!
What a great night and Will Shortz signed my crossword puzzle book and told me to find the Al Hirshfeld crossword the Times did for him when he passed away. Apparently, Al had a daughter named Nina and he would hide her name in his drawings and the crossword for his death has 19 Ninas in it. Neato.
Summer weather has finally arrived in L.A. and I couldn't be happier. Hot weather means summer shorts and bad tan lines.
Watched Lucky You with Wes on Saturday night and we spied this monster of a Simpsons display. The movie btw was quite lame and Drew Barrymore is just godawful in it. She already can't act but this was more like her a first time acting ever.
Wes is feeding Homer some Red Vines which came from an open pack that he saw was abandoned on a seat after the movie which we proceeded to eat. Yeah, we're that gross and pathetic.
Dang I look really small compared to Homer.
Chillin' with the Simpsons.
Nappin' with the Simpsons.
Sunday ate at Rose Cafe in Venice and because it was such a gorgeous L.A. day, we took a stroll.
My new goal is to spend every Sunday until I leave splayed out on the beach.
Beachfront condos that Wes and Crystal fell in love with. Front view.
Back view.
That same night, we went to go see Ray Lai's short film at USC. Ray is Wes and Crytsal's UCLA buddy who is in film school at USC. His short was called "The Astounding Adventure of Augustus Appleby". It was whimsical, funny, and heartwarming. Three qualities not exuded by his cohorts. I'll stop there before I get too mean.
Afterwards we decided to try out El Gran Burrito on Santa Monica and Vermont. Not so grand but for $4 I can't really complain. The highlight of the night was spying an actual L.A. Metro subway stop. This particular stop must have been designed by the same person who did the Metro in Washington D.C.
As you can see, the subway in L.A. is not frequented so much although in its defense we were there around ten or eleven at night.
Tonight watched Paris, je t'aime at the UCLA Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Musuem. This movie, which comes out May 18th, is a collection of eighteen shorts directed by twenty different directors. There were some real gems. My favorites were: the Alexander Payne one, the one with Steve Buscemi, the one with Natalie Portman (who I have a serious girl crush on), the one where the guy gets stabbed, and the Oscar Wilde one. After watching the cringeworthy USC shorts, these shorts were a breath of fresh air.
Yoda, zombies, David Sedaris, Spidey-Man, Amy Winehouse, etc. etc.....etc.
It's Friday and that means it's Nina's time to unload a week's worth of nonsensical mumbo jumbo on her blog. I don't know where my roommates are and I just drank some expired beer (thanks a lot Trader Joe's, I should turn you in), devoured a Snickers, and am seriously considering going to McDonald's for a soft serve cone. Single life in L.A. is oh so glamorous.
Is it wrong to love Grey's Anatomy as much as I do? I just finished watching it online and I must say they've done a fine job of putting together Addison's spin off show. The people they found for the show are great. I think this could be the golden ticket for Taye Diggs. He's such a good actor but somehow keeps ending up on booty shows but I think playing a doctor in L.A. is perfect for him. And I think the show will be really good. There's a good chemistry although I don't care much for the surfer/receptionist dude. A little too Point Break but not in a good way. This is totally random, but at one point Addison is getting unwanted acupunture from the new hottie doctor because he thinks she has a lot of emotions welled up inside and I thought, if the Chinese are supposed to be the gurus of alternative medicine and can do all these things to release tension, blah, blah, blah, then how come Chinese people aren't happier? Right? When I think of a happy ethnic group, I think French, I think Italian but definitely not Chinese. I'm just sayin'....
Check out her itty bitty shorts.
Check out her itty bitty thighs.
Amy Winehouse is much too skinny and I should know better than to wear a loose fitting, horizontal tee shirt. But Amy was absolutely great. She actually sings well live and her big hair reminds me of Elvira.
Taken paparazzi style while I was still in my car.
She finally notices me.
I love this cat.
That expression is priceless.
How cute is Yoda! This is possibly the friendliest kitty cat ever! She lives next door and pretty much hangs out all day and lets everyone stop and pet her. Although, I did see her shimmy across the street when a sticky fingers toddler was chasing her. I love that Yoda has the sense to not like kids.
Last Wednesday me and Wes went to go see David Sedaris at UCLA. Finally. I've tried on several occasions to see David Sedaris so I was really excited. He spoke at Royce Hall and the place was packed with white, liberal, KCRW lovin folk. David read some new stuff and it was really terrific. I wish I could write half as well as he does. I wish I could remember more of his phrases. There was something about how his partner Hugh gets up at six in the morning and he does it really righteously, as if he's saving the world and is better than David who doesn't roll out of bed until ten and then David was describing how when he peered through a magnifying glass to look at a spider, he was "seeing the chaos that was her face". Haha. That's almost as poignant as when that redhead on Project Runway said "There's some serious ugly in this room." Haha again. I stood in line for over an hour so that David could sign my copy of Me Talk Pretty One Day and I was really nervous about talking to him. I can't talk to people I admire or respect or when the moment calls for me to be clear and succinct. So I just sort of stood there and half-answered his questions but you could tell he was really unimpressed with me. And I'm not being paranoid because David went out of his way to not offer me this pot laced zucchini loaf that a fan gave to him. He tried to pawn it off to the couple that he talked to after me. So meeting David Sedaris was a bit of a let down all because I don't know know how to be charming to save my life.
I'm really going to miss the shenanigans that always happen at Club Manning. Last night the three of us went to a free screening of Spider-Man 3 at Universal Citywalk (also known as hell on Earth). Crystal got there first and stood in line for us. Meanwhile, Wes picked me up at school around 5:45 and we panicked a little because it was 5:45 which means lame ass L.A. traffic. We crawled along Sunset and Wes made an executive decision after checking the traffic maps on his phone (how high tech are we?) that our best bet was to drive through Bel Air, Mulholland Drive, and Coldwater Canyon to the 101-S. I must say that I have mad driving skills. I raced around those curves like a pro and we made it to Universal around 7. The story is just begininng people. Crystal was already inside and she said the theater was packed but there was still a line outiside so Wes asked some guy in charge and he said they were only going to let in 20 more people. We definitely weren't part of that 20 so Wes checked with Crystal about how they let people in and she said they ripped the Spider-Man ticket in half. So me and Wes hatched out our plan. We each took one piece of the ticket and split up. If we could have I think we would have put our hands in the middle and yelled "Go" but we were trying to be incognito. Anyway, I went to the door and told the two ladies that I had to go to my car to put my camera away and could I please be let back in? She asked if I had my ticket stub and I flashed it in front of her and she said I would have to wait for the Sony people to come back and ask them. I said that was fine. After a minute, they got tired of me staring at them so the Asian lady escorted me inside. I wasn't sure which way to go so she asked me if I had really been inside earlier and I said "Oh yeah, of course" and proceeded to head up the stairs. I started making small talk with her so she would get distracted and it worked. So long story short, I found Crystal inside the theater. But what aboout Wes? I called him to let him know I made it in and he said the person guarding the door was the guy he had talked to earlier so he had to wait until he left. After about 5 minutes I called him again and he was still outside. I was getting a little worried. As me and Crystal were trying to come up with a plan, Wes walks into the theater! I needn't have worried a bit. Wes can fend for himself and what he did was great. He said he started to pace back and forth in front of the door pretending to be in a heated argument on the phone. He kept saying "I have to go, the movie's going to start. I have to go now." After the guy left, Wes headed for the door like it was no big deal and continued to shout into the phone "I have to go" and no one stopped him. Haha. So great. As for the movie, eh, it was ok. Not as good as the first two and some really embarrassing Tobey moments (think dancing and lame ass hair). I liked the Sandman villian but even his story line was a bit weak. They did a pretty good job of tying up all the loose ends. Lots of crying and "I forgive you(s)".
A much better movie to watch this weekend is 28 Days Later which came out in 2002 with Cillian Murphy. I watched this because I didn't know what the hell the commercials for 28 Weeks Later were about. Apparantly this movie was/is a big zombie hit. People who know me know that I refuse to watch scary movies. I cannot handle them. I'm the jumpiest/screamiest person and I ruin the experience for everyone. I don't like them whatsoever and will probably end up in tears if forced to watch one. That said, I think zombies are lame. I don't understand the fascination with them. The living dead? Gimme a break. They're slow and well, I'm pretty sure I could out run one if need be. But apparantly this 28 Days Later is pretty intense and Crystal assured me that zombies are "f**kin crazy". So I watched it today when I came home and I must say that these zombies definitely were not slow. In fact, they were pretty damn quick. This is a really good movie. I think I really like movies were the world is ending and people are left to fend for themselves. Now I'm looking forward to 28 Weeks Later although it's not by the same director. Zombie/David Sedaris tie in. At the David Sedaris talk, he mentioned that whenever he goes on tour, he likes to promote a book. This time it was The Zombie Survival Guide. David is obsessed with zombies and loves this book. Warning: the web site for the book is a little scary. Not kidding.
Lastly, I've been enjoying waching Conan O'Brien in San Francisco this week. I really do love San Francisco and love to see non-natives love the city as well. When Conan went on a tour of the city, he stops to talk to Chinese people in Chinatown. How come only Chinese people in San Francisco look like that? Makes me a little homesick.
