Another Fantastic Friday

Friday nights have been pretty fantastic for me the past few weeks (months?) because that's my set Los Angeles hang-out night and I get to see Kate perform in Scandal! (final show is Friday, April 25th - don't miss it!!) and I get to eat awesome cookies and stay up late. But last night might have been the best one yet.

I took the day off of work, so Ryan and I drove up to LA (and by drive up, I mean drive around the entire city because I thought he knew where he was going but instead he has a sonic locator device that delivers you into gridlock traffic at every turn.) during the day and got to hang out at the Natural History Museum and poke around a bit. We didn't get there as early as planned (ahem) so we didn't get to see it all, BUT we did see enough beautiful and frightening stuff to make it a successful trip.

After that, we met up with Kate and grabbed a quick dinner before releasing Ryan into the wilds of LA all alone. Kate and I had a date with Julie Andrews so Ryan was left to fend for himself. We made our way to the theater, got an EXCELLENT parking spot, then fell in line to pick up our tickets. At which point, we found out that Ms. Andrews wouldn't be autographing her books as planned, but had pre-signed a number of books that were available for sale. Kind of a bummer, but still ok. Apparently not everyone else was as cool as us. People were screaming and raving and ranting and acting like assholes about the fact she wouldn't be available to sign their book. It was a mob scene. Seriously, all this because the poor woman didn't want to be mobbed by morons. If I were her, I'd never leave my house and become all Howard Hughes about it. It never occurred to me how people sincerely feel that they are entitled to celebrities. She's Mary Poppins, therefore I own her. It was scary.

The interview was lovely, and Ms. Andrews looked brilliant as always. She told lots of funny stories that didn't make it into the book and other side notes about the people she worked with. I need to write them down so that I don't forget, so remind me: The Rex Harrison fart story. I only took a few pictures because apparently I am stupid stupid stupid and forgot to charge the extra battery pack that I brought. I hope that Kate's pictures turn out better than mine.

After the Julie Andrews interview, we headed over to the Acme Theater so that Kate could prep for her show (Scandal! Final episode this Friday, April 25th!!) and I checked in with Ryan who had apparently been comic shopping with Adam for hours (let this be a lesson: never go into a comic store with these two. Separately is ok, but together... you'll be there all day). The boys came to meet me at our favorite cookie spot for Cherry Bombs and Mont Blancs before the show.

Since it was the show's second to last episode (final one this Friday!) there was a giant audience - everyone is dying to know how it ends! - and also the characters were in GREAT form. Everyone was working hard to bring the show to an exciting final conclusion, so lots of great things happened. Daring escapes! Fistfights! Burning buildings! Girl-on-girl kissing! Gunshots! The living dead! It was really really really great. And I don't say that just because Kate is in the show. Seriously, I wouldn't drive to LA in 2.5 hours of traffic (ahem) if the show wasn't good. I got some cell phone pictures and cursed myself the whole time for not having camera batteries.

Afterward, we went for rejuvenation at the neighboring restaurant/bar to catch up with the cast and chat around the group. I was also able to give my presents to Kate and Dan (who plays Stone Rocket in the show). They are both truly wonderful improv actors and hilarious characters to boot. And since they were so kind as to sit through my dissertation on Why Needle Felting Is So Awesome last week, I made them each a figure of their character as a keepsake from the show. Giddy Girlie: #1 Fan Girl of Sketch Comedy! I had so much fun making them, that I almost didn't care if they liked them or not, but they were both very sweet about accepting them. For the record: I fully comprehend the weirdness of receiving a felt sculpture of yourself. Which is why they're not obligated to keep it or display it. My feelings won't be hurt.

During the post-show excitement, we learned that Ryan and Adam had failed to feed themselves during their 4 hours together (not enough time!) so they were languishing. We took them over to Toi Thai, which is like a punk rock club (including bouncer) but is a Thai restaurant and had some excellent food and I introduced everyone to Larb. Seriously, why doesn't everyone know about the deliciousness of lime and chili sauce?! We were given fortune cookies after our meal, and everyone agreed we'd opened the wrong cookie. So we switched our fortunes and then headed to 7-11 to play the lottery with our 'lucky numbers' which was hilarious because Adam had never played the lottery so we had to school him on how the scantron worked AND because right when we got there, the machine broke and so we couldn't buy tickets anyway. Everyone kept their form and is supposed to buy a ticket sometime this week - don't forget.

It was now nearly 3am and we stood around saying goodbye for another good, long time. We had a rock, scissors, paper tournament to see who would get to drive Adam home (we lost) and then we set off toward home.

Ryan and I were so amped up from the day that we ended up staying up talking for hours after we got home and decided to call it a night when the sun came up. And then we layed in bed giggling about our own sketch ideas until we heard the neighbors wake up and start making breakfast. So around 7am, we reeled it in and went to sleep. As soon as we stopped talking, we fell asleep immediately. Until 11, when Ryan's alarm went off so he could go to band practice. Good times!