Conan on his TBS Set

Please take note of that big moon in the background! Okay, now onto a wonderful trip story!

Wednesday Matt, Tom (our friend), and I all got off of work early so we could leave for Los Angeles at a reasonable time. From where we live, it takes anywhere between 5 and 7 hours to get to LA, depending on number of stops, traffic, etc. We hit the road around 3:30pm on Wednesday and only stopped a couple of times for bathroom breaks and water breaks. Pretty good if you ask me!

Tom driving us to LA!

Me in the backseat

We arrived in LA around 8:15pm, where we checked in, changed our clothes and headed back down to the bar for our complimentary sparking wines. Yum! Here’s a few pics of me in the hotel before our wines:

Notice I'm rocking my new shoes?!

I know its dark but check out the cool floor!

The hotel that we stayed at was Palomar, which we’ve stayed at before when we saw Paleyfest last March. It’s a beautiful, super funky hotel and I love the decor! The rooms are reasonably priced and it’s fairly upscale, which is a nice change of pace from the hotel we stayed at for part of our trip to D.C. It’s very clean and the hotel staff is always friendly. I would definitely recommend it!

After our drinks we walked down the road to a restaurant to meet our friend Tom’s friend Steve, who works on the Conan show, and his girlfriend Kate. Matt affectionately gave them the nickname Steve & Kate Plus 8, although they have no kids The first restaurant we tried was packed so we decided to meet up at BJ’s Brewery, which is always a safe choice. Aside from the horrible service, we all enjoyed lots of beers and food and got to know one another.

Want to know something weird? Tom’s friend Steve actually is from where we’re from and ended up knowing my sister. Man, what a small world! Turlockers, I swear Anyway, Steve and Kate were so fun to hang out with; we all have similar senses of humor and we enjoyed everyones company so, so much!

The next morning we woke up, checked out and went to a Bakery to get breakfast. We had trouble finding a decent sit down restaurant so we just went with the first thing we saw once we had already driven fairly far out of our way! When three people who are coffee heads get together and don’t have coffee in the morning, it gets REAL. So we went in and ordered breakfast.

All three of us got the breakfast burrito:

Breakfast Burrito

We were all pretty hungry so when we got our food, the chit chat stopped Unfortunately I only ate part of my burrito because it was too greasy and I didn’t want to risk an upset stomach before seeing Conan so I opted to leave half on the plate. Better safe than sorry!

Here’s Matt and I waiting for our food:

Matty & Me

We were all fairly disappointed with breakfast (they didn’t give free refills for coffee!! WTF?!) so we left as soon as we could. I did manage to snap a few photos of their sweets, though

Kosher Sweets

And the only one that jumped out at me was this one, because it reminded me of See’s Bordeaux chocolates, which are SO my favorite!

Don't know what it is but it looked good!

And before I move on, let me just add this in: when we were finishing breakfast, an old Jewish woman wandered into the bakery off the street and asked us if we could “help” her. She was full dressed, had a leather purse, was wearing make up and had a nice watch on. Now, I don’t know her situation but I do know that Matt and I do not give money to strangers/homeless/etc. Call us bad people if you want but we do things in other ways, but giving money to vagrants isn’t for us. Anyway, after I told her we had no cash (that’s the truth, we are strictly credit people, folks!), she asked me if I was Jewish. I kindly replied no, to which she replied: “That’s why. If you were, you would have kindness in your heart.” Can I say how extremely rude and offensive this way? But I had only one cup of coffee in me at this point so I cared more about getting more caffeine than I did about defending my honor to some woman. But still, can you believe that?!

Moving on.

We then drove to the main area of Beverly Hills and got Starbucks and walked around for a while.

Me with My Starbucks & New Mug

Matt & Tom sucking in the caffeine!

After mosey-ing around Beverly Hills (driving by the Playboy Mansion, too!), we headed to a local Mexican restaurant to get some drinks and snacks before the show. Matt and I both got Strawberry Margaritas and they were so amazing! I didn’t finish all of mine, though!

Margaritas at El Torito

Now here’s where the story gets interesting. When the Conan show called me, they said to arrive at the parking garage (that’s where they have the check-in set up at) by 2:30pm. They didn’t tell us it was recommended that we get there at 1:00pm. And if you know me, you know I’m totally anal about getting to places early and that Matt usually makes us late, which is always an argument. But since I had no idea that we were supposed to get there early, we didn’t arrive until 2:10pm. Matt told me on our way to El Torito that it said “no later than” which meant we should’ve gotten there earlier but none of us really knew for sure. It’s just one of those things you have to figure out as you go. (Although its always safe to be early! Just sayin’!)

I had got the tickets over a month ago but the way it works is first come first serve. So by the time we got there (we accidentally went to the George Lopez line first, then we thought we were checked in but we really weren’t, then we had to give our camera to Tom to take to the car, etc), we were in the 3rd group of Stand-By. Ugh. After we had come all that way, we weren’t even going to get to see the show. Insert pissed off rant and crying here. Yeah, I know, I’m 7 for crying about this. Whatever!

Thank God for good friends. Tom is such a good friend, honestly. He got on his phone and called his friend Steve and told him what had happened. Between the two of them, they managed to shoot out emails and phone calls until at last, we had seats. Seriously, these are times when you realize just how selfless and caring some people truly are! I can never thank either of them enough! Not only do I love Conan but my heart was set on seeing John Krasinski, too. Thank GOODNESS for those guys!

With our Conan wrist bands!

We ended up getting to sit in the electrical box at the back of the studio (not in the audience but behind them slightly higher up) and it was even better than being in the audience! We didn’t get to see Conan or the band as close up as the audience members but they were better seats, IMO. We sat with the guy who was in charge of “moving the moon” and guess what? He let ME move it After Conan’s opening, the moon switches sides and he let me do it! Steve later told us that the guy who we sat with was actually the guy who created the Robot for Short Circuit. So cool!

We watched the show from our killer seats, laughed hysterically at Conan and John Krasinski who, btw, was hilarious! After the show, as if it wasn’t amazing enough as it is, Steve gave us a backstage tour of his office and the WB facility!

Matt and I at the Conan guest area!

Matt and I met Pierre, who was frequently on Conan back when Conan was in New York. We also saw some footage of Conan’s childhood videos, as well as toured sets of Gossip Girl, Jurassic Park, and other shows.

Where the Celebs enter!

It was truly an amazing experience and I cannot thank Steve and Tom enough for everything they did for us. Seriously!

After the show and the tour (Thanks again Steve and Kate!), we ate dinner and had some drinks while waiting for the traffic to die down. We hit the road around 8:30-9:00pmish, got home around 1am and got to bed around 2am. We were exhausted but Friday was Matt’s birthday (post coming!) so fun stuff filled our tired Friday and made it a bit more bearable!

Overall it was an amazing time and a great experience! We are both so grateful to have experienced Conan with our good friend Tom (who is also, by the way, one of the best and most comfortable drivers I have ever ridden with!) and to have been hooked up from his friend Steve. Amazing. Thanks again, guys!

We can’t wait to go see Conan again. Only get there earlier this time!

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Breakfast Challenge Day 2
2. San Francisco/Tosh Recap
3. SF was fun… being sick ISN’T…

This morning I woke up and took a nice, long, hot shower. Isn’t a hot shower where you can take your time and just relax the best way to start the morning? I think so!

After that, Matt & I knew what we’d need to get the day going… Starbucks! We got breakfast there, too, since we have ZERO food at our house.

Full to the brim! Cafe Americano

Reduced Fat Turkey Bacon Breakfast Sandwich

The coffee was really hot but I sipped on it for an hour or so while I cleaned up the kitchen & cleaned the living room up. By the time I was done doing that, the coffee was nearly cold so you know I was chuggin’ it! Mmm, mmm! It’s good hot AND cold! Love it! The sandwich was good.. it always is!

After breakfast and cleaning up my kitchen and living room, I started the laundry. I’m one of those anal weirdos who has to have the house spotless and all the laundry done before I go on a trip because when I come home, I like to know that the only thing I have to do is unpack–which is unpleasant enough! So I’ve been washing, drying, folding & hanging up clothes like a mad woman literally all day!

After that I changed the sheets. See, my friend Mandy and I went and got spray tans yesterday and the rule is that you shouldn’t shower for at least 7 hours. I made it 5 before I couldn’t stand the stench and stickiness anymore. But I did a light shower which apparently didn’t do much for my smelly skin because when I woke up this morning, the sheets smelled like a stinky tanning bed! So a sheet change was in order!

And by the way, I love spray tanning! I didn’t get the hang of it the first time, which I expected. My hands and wrists are pretty sloppy and the bottoms of my feet look so funny!

The bottom of my feet are orange!

Orange Thumbs! (and wrists.. and finger tips!)

I know you can’t really tell from these photos, but my fingers (mostly the tips) are super orange! It looks so funny. Man, Snooki must be a pro because her tan isn’t streaky at all! Anyway, the rest of my body looks pretty good, considering! Now I know when I go next time, be really aware of my feet and hands! (Good thing no one can see the bottom of my feet!!)

In the midst of doing laundry, I busted out my “to pack” list and started the madness. Here’s what my bed looked like before I started to pack:

Pre-pack disaster!

Then… once the majority of my work out wear, clothes, and work clothes were laid out, my bed looked like this:

All for 7 days!

And sad to say… that wasn’t even all of it! I am stuffed to the max! One HUGE suitcase and one big duffle bag! And this is not as bad as it could be. See, since we’re going to be doing tons of walking around, I didn’t even pack any heels or “fun” shoes! Just two pairs of boots, one pair of flats, and my tennis shoes for the gym! So yeah, it could’ve been worse!

I took a quick break for lunch, which Matt cooked!

Before: Broccoli, Rice & Chicken..

After: Some chicken and rice...

I was hungry and it was super yummy! We don’t normally eat such big portions but since we’re leaving for a week we had to try and eat it all because we couldn’t save it. As you can see, it didn’t work

Lunch refueled me for more packing… ahhh packing sucks!!

After I got all (minus the stuff I need tonight!) packed, I walked to the store to pick up some last minute items: breakfast bars, some snacky snack Cheerio chex mix, more dry Shampoo (Suave now makes aerosol dry shampoo for $2.97 so I’m giving it a try!), lady products, and Q-tips. It was such a nice day out that walking just felt good

Now I’m blogging and laying in bed relaxing. I’m seriously exhausted from cleaning house, doing laundry & packing! It’s a buttload of work! I’m trying to find the motivation to straighten my hair because my natural wavy frizz look is just slightly too frizzy to be wearable in public:

Its borderline wearable but just too frizzy!

We are driving to Matt’s parents house this evening because we’re spending the night there tonight. It’s just easier because they are driving us to the airport and since we have to leave so early and drop off Leon for the week, being there is just the easiest! Well… for us, not for them We’ll have to say thank you in a big way…

Now I’m off.. to watch Scrubs (it always makes me laugh!), read my favorite blogs, and get ready to head out. More from me later!

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. I’ve Been Busy
2. Been REALLY busy.
3. Second Saturday

(Had to put this as my picture for this post since my sister has literally been HARASSING me and my husband to start watching Entourage.. HARASSING US FOR MONTHS.. & today/night we finally are.. and we like it a lot! Haha)

Today has been a really great day.

First, I got to take a shower. See previous post to help explain why that’s such a great thing. Then my husband vacuumed our area rug, cleaned our hardwood floors, hung this great mirror I got from Target ages ago, and still waited on me hand and foot all day. So not only did I get to relax on the couch and watch DVDs, but my husband also took care of house stuff for us. VERY nice!

&&… my sister came over and brought me/us a bunch of great drinks (a variety of different flavored iced teas–our favorite) and snacks. She kept me company throughout the afternoon, had lunch with us, and watched Entourage with us all afternoon. They are her Entourage DVD’s, too. So yes, we are lucky to have such good family. My sister especially!

I started to get some pain and nausea today and I think it was from 1. using my arms too much this morning and 2. not taking enough pain medicine when I need it. So I remained on the couch the rest of the evening after my sister left, dozed off and on while Matt watched Entourage, and then decided to actually sit up on the couch. Big step, I know So, thankfully, I’ve been relaxing. Really trying to give my body a rest.

On the other news front… I’m in that “in between” stage of my implants where they aren’t swollen and discolored, but they aren’t perfectly hanging and shapely. They are still quite high in my chest, like pec’s, so I can’t quite buy any proper underclothes until they settle. So it will be a few weeks (4 months until the implants are in there final settling place) until they are settled enough to really look good. I am, however, wondering what I am going to wear to work to cover this big white strap on my chest. Not to mention something that will cover this awful medical bra I have to wear. I don’t believe I will post pictures of it until I officially no longer have to wear it.. but trust me, it’s hideous!

Anyway, I’m excited to get new bras & clothes. I’m already online shopping, of course. But I have a ways to go before I buy anything. Humm, what else? Oh, I still have just a partial appetite.. I ate more today than I have been the last few days but it, in turn, made me feel awful. Still can’t go #2 but I’m on top of my pills so that should happen. Other than that, my body is overall feeling better everyday. Tomorrow my hubby is running a 5k at the college near our house and I’m so excited for him He isn’t looking forward to it because he gave up the last week and a half of training for it to take care of me.. so I feel bad, but I know he will still do well!  I wanted to go and snap photos of him and his buddies racing but… I don’t think I am able to in my current state. Another time, though!

What did you all do this weekend??

Who’s watching SNL tonight??

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Post-op Update #3: Slow Movings..
2. Working Out with Jillian Michaels
3. Let’s Talk About: Plastic Surgery

Over the weekend, my husband and I took a trip to Beverly Hills/Los Angeles to attend the second night of Paleyfest at Saban Theatre to listen to the panel of ABC’s show LOST. (Why? Because I LOVE LOST and begged the crap out of him to take me!) This trip we didn’t get that many good photos because it was really rainy on the way there and we weren’t sure if we could take our camera into the panel (edit: the pictures in this post of the panel, theatre, and hotel room were taken with my Google Nexxus One.. it takes great pics! I just resized them for Facebook & Twitter). I did, however, get a few good shots on the way there (like the photo of a Almond Blossom orchard above) and some cool ones of the hotel room. Driving around in Beverly Hills was truly amazing. We went down all the famous streets where celebrities shop and let me just say WOW. Everyone is driving a Mercedes or better. I mean, the best cars around here are the worst cars around there! I’d have to say we saw close to 15 Bentley’s in one day! It was amazing. And we drove around the residential areas… the houses were absolutely amazing! Beyond my wildest dreams! All  in all, the trip a lot of fun I just wish we would’ve brought our SLR camera to the panel So here are some high lights/low lights of the trip:

On the drive there, the conditions were really crappy. Some spots were pouring rain, others were not raining but lots of stop and go traffic. Regardless of the traffic or weather, there are always bad drivers. We saw so many people fly past us in the worst conditions and we just looked at each other and said “Seriously?”  So, naturally, we were bound to see an accident. I tried to take my camera out as fast as I could to snap up this car, because it was pretty messed up. I don’t think any one was hurt, as there were no ambulances to be seen. But that just goes to show you… drive slow and be careful or else! We saw another accident on the way home and the car was completely upside down. I think our whole time there we saw 3 or 4? That’s a lot

My shout out to my blog from the hotel stationary! We stayed at (if you can’t read it in the picture) Hotel Palomar on Wilshire Blvd. It was the least expensive/nicest (best deal) on Wilshire and it was really nice! The hotel was ultra modern with a funky throw back feel (i.e. weird wood paneling around the all-chocolate colored room doors.. very Shining-esque). We would definitely stay there again. The bathroom had a really cool over-the-counter stand alone sink with a big ornate mirror, the bed had an amazing wall-covering headboard and the bed had sweet damask pillows. We had a 45″ flatscreen TV and a cool lounge chair next to the window (which had a decent view). Granted, the room wasn’t the big and we didn’t stay long enough to try out any of the amenities, it was still a good stay. I had a really crappy headache after Paleyfest, so much so that we were willing to pay $5 to take the Tylenol in the hotel room but when I opened the box? No Tylenol. So Matt went to the desk and asked and they promised to bring me some up, no charge. They never came. That was the only downside. Parking was $33 a night but we parked down the street in front of some condos for free So all in all, I would not only stay there again but I would also recommend it!

Because we didn’t bring the SLR to Paleyfest–as you can see I’m pretty upset about–we came back to the theatre the next day to snap some photos of the sign board. The theatre (you can see pictures of the inside of it online) was truly amazing. It was so ornate and beautiful! I know “LOST” is over but I may have to go back for another show–Dexter, The Office, maybe?–and take pictures of the theatre because it was just that cool. We got to the panel at 6:00pm–actually maybe a pinch earlier–and there was a line about 400 feet long. 400 feet! When we were walking to the back of the line I kept thinking “How are all of these people going to fit?” but somehow they did. And even though we were in line for 30 minutes, the line moved really, really fast for a line of that size! Every 2-4 minutes the line moved up around 5 to 6 feet so it wasn’t that bad. I’ve never seen so many Dharma jumpsuits and LOST shirts in my life Anyway, our seats were in the mezzanine–and they were great. I mean, if I could do it over again I would be paying attention to the day the tickets come on sale and I would buy Orchestra seats before they were sold out.. because once they’re sold and you have to buy them from places like StubHub.com, the price nearly triples (that’s what we did)! But if you buy orchestra seats, they’re normally only $60-$100 and it’s totally worth it! At the end of the panel all of the people sitting in the orchestra seats got to go to the stage and get autographs! And while Matthew Fox (and many of the big stars from the show) were not there, Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson WERE there and they were beyond amazing! I would’ve killed for an O’Quinn autograph! But now I know for next time! Now for more about the actual panel…

The panelists were: Terry O’Quinn (John Locke), Michael Emerson (Ben Linus), Nestor Carbonell (Richard), Zuleikha Robinson (Ilana), Elizabeth Sarnoff, Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Jack Bender, Edward Kitsis, and Adam Horowitz. The moderator was comedian Paul Scheer (you might know him from MTV’s Human Giant with Aziz Ansari, or Funny or Die Presents) and everyone was really great. They opened with a sneak-peek of next week’s episode (short but really great scene of Sayid and Miles… Miles telling Sayid that he actually is dead and that he is no longer himself!) and went straight to the panel. People went ABSOLUTELY CRAZY when Emmy winner Michael Emerson came out. Then Emmy winner Terry O’Quinn came out and they went even more crazy! It was great to see that kind of love for the LOST characters who aren’t Josh Holloway and Matthew Fox! It was super interesting to hear about the writing process, how they decide what stays in an episode and what gets cut, and what they do when someone wants off the show. Listening to the writers was most interesting than seeing the actors! But here’s a jist from what was discussed: in the flash-sideways we learn that Jack is married and has a son… his wife in these flashes are someone we have already met on the show (could very well be his ex wife), Charlie is coming back, they are trying to work in a way for grown-up Walt (the actor is 17 years old now) to come back, we will learn the significance of Libby to Hurley, Rose and Bernard may not get revisited much more in the name of time, the love triangle between Jack-Kate-Sawyer will finally come to a head (yes!), and we will find out who the smoke monster was pre-Locke at the last episode. Everything will–they promised–come full circle! If I remember anything secret or interesting I will update the post. For now, that’s all

All in all it was a great trip but, like always, I am very glad to get home. While on our 6 hour car ride (yes, 6 hours!) Matt and I discussed a lot of our internetting (fake word but love it) plans and goals and I come back home feeling renewed and dedicated to making my full-time living from websites.. maybe one day so I can buy an amazing house in Beverly Hills? Hmm. All in all the trip was great. Wouldn’t do much different. Am REALLY looking forward to tomorrow night’s episode of LOST. But since last week was a Jack episode.. I may not get to see him But now that I’ve seen O’Quinn in real life, my interest in him has greatly risen! Long live Locke!

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. San Francisco Trip
2. Happy Valentines Day
3. LOST is almost back!

Today is Valentine’s Day and the only reason it’s a good day is because we have tomorrow off of work, so it’s Sunday but it feels like Saturday. Otherwise, Valentine’s Day is just like every other day. I am working on the computer–blogging, organizing bills, accounts, working from a home a little, etc–and just relaxing.

I thought I’d post these LOST Valentine’s Day cards because I am a huge fan of the show and they were pretty much the funniest Valentine’s Day cards I had seen on the internet.

Anyway this is just a brief post to tell everyone to have a good V-Day… even though it’s a completely made up and consumerist holiday!

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. LOST is almost back!