Glitz, Glamour and Gridlock

My friend Molly was on a business school "field trip" to LA last week with her classmates from Singapore. Not to miss an opportunity to visit with our favorite X-Pat, Molly's friend Matty and I flew down from SF for a "glitz and glam" weekend in LA (according to our planning emails).

The trip wound up to be less an episode of Laguna Beach than it was a scene out of European Vacation. "Look kids, Big Ben, the Parliament" is one thing, but "Look guys, taco stand, the parking garage" is another, especially since we were in our home country where all the traffic rules theoretically should have made sense. Despite our best effort, we just couldn't figure out how to get in the right lane, or on the right highway for that matter.

Exhibit A (above): Picture of Day 1. Is Pasadena close to Hollywood?

So much for my vision of us walking around in over sized sunglasses, sipping soy lattes while people looked at us, trying to figure out if we were famous. I think we might have given ourselves away when we had to keep pulling over to break out the AAA maps and ask for directions to get back on the I-5 North, or was it the I-5 South? See how confusing it is? Mark my words: next time I go to LA, I'm going to first adorn my map with glitter, a stunning Bedazzler creation and maybe some logo stickers for bands with a healthy hipster following. That may be the closest I get to glitz and glam.

Exhibit B (below): Picture of Day 2. It was nothing short of a miracle that we made it to my new favorite pizza place.