Even though I'm in the midst of writing my very last paper for grad school, weeding/trashing/packing stuff for New York, and getting emotionally ready for the parents to arrive on Thursday, I still have time for the really important stuff:

The free swag me and Wes collected at the Pride Parade on Sunday. It's like I'm a free clinic.

The Dykes on Bikes in L.A. aren't topless like the S.F. ones. Sad.

Gay vaqueros.

Gay WaMu.

Naked gays.

Gay icon (Deborah Gibson).

Gay pimp mobile (mobile disco ball).

Gay gawkers.

Nina's idea of the perfect night: a busted Magic Mic and a game of Scrabble with my new Scrabble set designed by Michael Graves for Target.

I love this shade of green, reminds me of kryptonite. And it comes with a timer that has mint green sand.

Probably the worst game of Scrabble ever played by two people. Wes challenged my "bi". Silly Wes.

Birth Week Done RIGHT!!!

After pestering Crystal and Wes for birth week pics (the flash on my camera no longer works but that's a hairy monster I don't feel like talking about), I'm finally ready to sit down and do a birth week detox. The general consensus is that Nina does not have to celebrate another birthday for at least a few years. We met and exceeded all birth week extravaganza expectations set forth a week ago. I must give a hearty shout out to my roommates, yes, you know them as Crystal and Wes, for being such troopers. Crystal couldn't do laundry for an entire week and nearly passed out from exhaustion and Wes, well, he went to Hooters for me. And to Christine, honorary Club Manning roommate, for being such a bad influence.


Tuesday May 29th- Scoops and Mashti Malone's

New favorite ice cream place Scoops (sorry Pinkberry). Our first visit to Scoops was too good to be true.

We got there close to closing time so the choices were sparse but still excellent. Let's see if I can remember all the flavors: Crystal-brown bread (Grape-Nuts cereal), mango apricot soda sorbet, green tea, coffee molasses, Wes- vegan black tea, pumpkin rum, me- chocolate & vanilla, cinnamon and ginger, green tea. Do you see why we love it so? Three scoops will run you only $2.75. So great.

Scoops is next to two bike shops.

My chocolate and green tea match the colors of my wall. Perfect.

It wouldn't be a birth week event if we went to just one ice cream place so we also visited Mashti Malone's, which was recommended by a couple of people. I have one word for Masthi's: BOO. SUPER BOO. We made the mistake of bringing with us our Scoops attitude where the people are hella nice and they let you try all their flavors. Mashti's dude was not in the mood for us. Plus I wasn't impressed with their rosewater ice cream concoctions.

But I felt compelled to get something. Note: this is the debut of "magic straight" Nina on the blog. See how unfloofy my hair is now?

Wednesday May 30th- Tranny bingo at Hamburger Mary's

This was special guest tranny not our actual tranny host. She was on Nip/Tuck.

So the deal with tranny bingo is that for $20 you get to play ten rounds of bingo, approx. three cards per round, your money goes to charity and you can win prizes. That week our money was going to WeHo Church, which has a program that benefits children with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Each round is different i.e Frank & Beans, Top or Bottom?, Bingo Whore-izontal, Camel Toe, etc. etc. The winner also has to run through the entire place while the losers pelt him/her with our bingo cards. Prizes that night included Hollywood Bowl tickets, Equinox membership, digital camera, etc. etc.


They even had bingo blotters!

Yup.

That's Christine winning and reaching down the tranny's dress for a bingo ball to break the threeway win.

The absolute best prize went to Christine! Of all the things she could have won, homegirl brought home a microwave and coffee maker combo! HAHA.

Hella big.

Thursday May 31- Flux kickoff party and Scoops, cont.

The plan was to go to this kickoff party for Flux, whatever the hell Flux is, in Culver City and then go to Hooters. Usually these artsy things have minimal food and maximum snobs so we weren't planning to stay long. Wes even complained that we were going too early but apparently arriving fashionably early is the new fashionably late. To continue our "good is the new bad" theme, the party was called Outside In.

Good thing we arrived early because this party had hella food i.e fried plantains, rotisserie chicken, fruit, brie, free drinks and booze. See, grass inside.


Fake shrubs and tree.

This is just a pretty picture of my new pretty hair. *snicker, snicker*

Click here for a super cute pic of the three of us on the Flux Flickr page.

Although too full for Hooters, we still had room for dessert at where else, Scoops! The owner also gave us a take home cup of strawberry balsamic vinegar.

Friday June 1st- GAMeBoi Night at Rage and Souplantation (not pictured but like always, hella satisfying and great)

Packed.
Yep.
So the deal with GAMeBoi is that everyone goes crazy when they play Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone". We got there too late but the night wasn't a total loss because we heard "Glamorous" and were able to yell out "If you ain't got no money, take your broke ass home"!

Saturday June 2nd- Shia, Scoops, Hooters and Edison!

Day:

So after GAMeBoi night, me and Crys dragged our butts out of bed so we could be in Westwood and see Shia at the Surf's Up premiere. Here he is arriving and looking very sleepy.

They had penguins from SeaWorld.

Looking very cute and chipper.

This is right before he slipped into the theater without talking to his devoted fans.

A little bummed and a little hungry, we made our way back to Scoops, this being our third time that week. Crystal had the pistachio, lychee, and blackberry perdot.

I had the brown bread, Guinness tiramisu, and black tea with honey.

Evening:

If I only had a man to buy me that $180 chicken wing dinner with Dom Perignon. Who knew Hooters was so classy?

It's been my dream all year to go to Hooters and eat some wings but of course, no one in their right mind will ever go with me but no one could say no to birthday girl. After all that, the wings were a bit too greasy and our waitress was a butterface, albeit very nice.

I asked for a birthday balloon and Stella the waitress came through and even wrote a birthday wish on it for me.

Night:

The ever elusive Edison. After I nearly got into a fistfight with the bouncer, we finally got in. Long story short, if you want to go to The Edison, make sure you make reservations because they're hella, super anal, strict and Nina had to get all crazy on bouncer ass and use the "it's my birthday, you best honor my reservation even though we were late" card. HA.

But it was worth it because this place is super cool.

The Pans: Christine and Wes.

If I don't make it as a librarian, I can always try and be a flapper dancer.

Very cute Ray and Sarah who made it in after waiting hella long in the no RSVP line.

Sunday June 3rd- my birthday...finally!

Yes, we honestly did go to brunch at the Scientology Celebrity Centre and it did not disappoint. We saw genuine crazy celebirty scientologists i.e Giovanni Ribisi, who smiled at me after I got my bacon, and Conner Cruise, Tom's Cruise's adopted black son, who was dining with a black family, most likely his real family. This is their crazy garden with Scientology shrubery symbols.

Andrew and Cit aka rejects from the Miss Asia pageant, which was going on in the building across the way from us. The brunch was quite lovely and had a wide spread of goodies such as lox and cream cheese but no bagel and brie but no crackers. Like I said, crazy Scientologists.

Back at home, I was presented with my birthday cake a la Wes. We were all a bit wary of eating this because Wes has a reputation for making weird things i.e Jello brownies and eggplant with a dash of cinammon. So we were all quite surprised when the cake turned out d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.!

Starting from the bottom: crushed almonds with brown sugar, flour, and butter, Cool Whip mixed with yellow Jello and cream cheese, and raspberry Jello. Yummy!!!

Everytime we go out and eat Thai food, which isn't very often, I always say "Dude, I could cook that s**t" and everytime I say it, Wes and Crystal always respond with "So why don't you already?" So as a thank you for being such troopers during birth week, I finally cooked Wes, Crystal, and special guest Cit a genuine Thai dinner a la Nina. Here is my version of pad see ew.

My version of tom yum soup.

My version of fried fish patties.

My version of fried banana although it looks like a fried twinkie.

The only downside to celebrating your birthday for one week straight is that when it's your actual birthday, you think you're turning a year older than you really are because in your head you've been twenty-sexy for a week, and are now twenty-heaven. But no, that's next year. Can't wait.