Dear Paul Rudd,

You are cuter in person than you are in the movies.  And you're pretty damn cute in the movies.

Last night a friend of mine and I were going to get a drink before the Thermals' show at the Troubadour, and had walked down the street to the Palm.  It was crowded, and the crowd was not necessarily a group of people we wanted to hang out with.  We decided to find someplace else, so we walked down the street to Dan Tana's.  Still just as crowded as the Palm, but there's Paul Rudd, smack dabb in front of us as we walk through the door.  We were leaving then?  Not a chance on earth.  My friend has a crush on him.  To her, this was like me seeing Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.  

It's one of those things I love about LA.  Did we talk to him?  No.  Did we have any interaction with him beyond seeing him and him realizing we saw him and recognized him and were looking?  No.  But still, it made the night just a little bit more interesting. 

The Thermals show was great.  I haven't seen a mosh pit in a long time, but the early 20s crowd really brought that back, for such an unlikely band to mosh to.  The set was a little too short, but I got to hear most of the songs I wanted, and they're fantastic live.  

So- There's one more name to add to my "sightings" list.

"you're just so white."

in college one of the girls on my hall was asian.  she once turned to me, during a discussion about me not eating seaweed, and said, "you're just so white."  honestly, i am white.  i was not raised around a lot of people of other races, cultures etc.  unless you consider that half my middle school was jewish, and really- what did i get from that besides an affinity for eating bagels for lunch?

last year i read a write up of a korean spa in my new neighborhood and i've been dying to try it ever since.  its a body scrub, saunas and soaking pools, all with varying "healing benefits" along with various other services offered.  i understood that it is not at all like going to what i consider a "traditional spa" but i wasn't exactly prepared for what i got.  

i check in, and am given a locker key, and go to the locker area.  already at that point 50% of the women are walking around STARK NAKED.  some women are lying off to the side on a platform, which i later discover is a heated marble floor.  you're to lie there while you wait for them to call you for your treatment.  

once you walk out of that room, only towels and robes are allowed, but most people forgo any covering whatsoever.  its a room of about 30 women walking around naked.  there are 3 different pools, of varying temperatures, all with signs explaining what they are IN KOREAN.  there's a steam room, which i did pick up was a "Jade" steam room, based on the sign above the door and the fact that the walls and the floors are tiled with jade, and a sauna.  those i could handle.  you are naked, you put a towel down, you sit.  the pools i couldn't do.  you can't really submerge a towel underwater to sit on (i kept thinking of david sedaris at the nudist colony,) because you're only given a limited number of towels, and you can't waste one getting it soaking wet when you have to shower between each pool/sauna/steam room use.  i did at least know it was bad form not to shower in between each thing.  

i went in for the "goddess ritual." 

http://www.olympicspala.com/rituals.htm

i had a feeling the pools, saunas and steam rooms were going to be a free for all like they were (i didn't know everyone would be so naked) but i did NOT realize my treatment would be performed on a plastic table 18" from the person next to me, also getting some sort of body scrub treatment.  i thought i would be in a private room for this part.  but... not the case. 

the lady (she gets to wear clothes.  bra and underwear.  the women working are the only people who are allowed to wear bras and underwear.  other than that, its towel and robe only.) starts by scrubbing EVERY inch of my skin with scrubby mitts while i lie on my stomach.  then i turn to my back and every inch of my skin gets scrubbed.  then i roll on my side and every inch of me gets scrubbed.  big pills of my skin were accumulating on me, like pencil eraser stuff, but larger, so she kept throwing buckets of warm water on me to rinse them away.

then i get a full body shampoo.  then a massage, not a great massage though, but it smelled good.  i think i prefer deep tissue massages to whatever this was.  then a scalp treatment, a shampoo, conditioner, then more massage, and a facial (no extractions, just a cleansing and a mask while she did more massage.) then she wiped all the oil off of me and put lotion on everywhere.  

it took about 2 hours, and honestly, modesty aside, the discomfort of the scrub aside, my skin has never in my life felt better.   i might go back for the akasuri scrub once a month, in lieu of my pedicure, because i'd rather have healthy skin than pretty toenails.  the only reason i could afford the goddess was because i sold a golf lesson package i won to a coworker for $100, and figured i haven't gotten a pedicure in awhile so i could chip in the extra money.  

i kind of can't wait to go back.  

so, now who's just so white???

questions from my sister's blog

which she got from another blog, but i'm not filling out all of them.

1. Where would you most like to live? here i guess.  i don't know.  i'm sure i could travel elsewhere and fall in love with it and want to move, but i'm okay in LA for right now.  but i'd like more rain.

2. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? depression- i've been there, and i can't even fathom anything worse. 

3. Who are your favorite writers? i'll base it on my favorite books. em forester, jane austen, charlotte bronte, thomas hardy

4. Which historical figure do you most identify with? i don't identify with any historical figure who i currently know anything about.  

5. What is your most treasured possession? the necklace i inherited recently from my grandmother.  star sapphires in a heavy indian gold setting.  

6. What are your favorite names? Elizabeth, Campbell, Robertson, (i'm scared to list any others because my sister might take them and what if i ever need kids' names.) okay, last one, and most favorite one- Evelyn (for a girl- nicknamed evie

7. What is one selfish thing you would like to do before you die? nothing i want to do really seems all that selfish.  everything i want to do is only limited by money, not other peoples' wishes/needs/desires.  

star trek

was fantastic!!!!

i loved it.  i'm pretty sure there were a lot of jokes i didn't get, not being a trekkie, but there were a lot of jokes i did get, and they were good.  

plot is absolutely secondary in this movie.  it's just a funny, fun, exciting way to spend 2 hours.  casting was great, and you walk out of there waiting for them to make a second one.  so much of this was the "reboot", introducing a new generation to the characters and the idea of star trek, that you know they are going somewhere with it.

one complaint- not enough simon pegg.  i usually say simon pegg isn't good unless he's got nick frost to back him up, in something written by edgar wright, but this was the perfect role.

our house is warmed

we had our housewarming party for the new place in koreatown last night.  it was  a lot of fun.  at least i had fun.  we have so much alcohol left over though its not even funny.  we had bought a lot, but then everyone who came (almost everyone who came) brought their own, and stuff as gifts.  i'm swimming in amaretto.  (note- i am not complaining.  i have enough to last a year or 2 at least.)

so now begins the cleanup.  i took three huge garbage bags of recycling over the the recycling center already.  i've cleaned the sink and the dishes.  someone spilled a beer all over the floor of my bathroom, so that's got to be addressed.  (at least i really hope its a beer and not something else.) and do laundry.  party throwing may be a lot of prep work, expensive, and a lot of cleanup afterwards, but the party itself is definitely worth it.  

now i've got to keep myself up for the rest of the day.  i went to bed at 5, which wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for the mariachi band starting to play at 9 this morning.  i'm not kidding, full blown mariachi band.  i went back to bed until about 1 once they quit, and if i take a nap now, i'm screwed for sleep tonight.