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!
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