It's a Wrap!!

I and I slaughtered LA!!! Our itinerary was jamm-packed and damned if we didn't do almost all of it - and me with a puss-filled eye (Yes, by Sunday my cold had mutated into my eye with an infection - that or I caught some bacteria amongst all the humanity shopping at the Alley - more on that later)...still recovering from the cold but boy was Saturday night worth the Sunday hang-over.

I arrived in LA with a bang-literally! We got rear-ended on the highway on the way back to my friends place - small tap, all things considered but I was not thrilled as I was squished into the back seat - HELLO! and welcome to LA. The Standard Hotel in Hollywood, after some introductory champagne to calm the gitters (this was to become a theme) and a quick change was our one-stop for Friday night at midnight...shared their world-famous burger and a bottle of Veuve - way cheaper in LA and boy do American's do a stiff pour - as we would find out the next night. The waiter was super-cute and super vacant just as I imagined LA would be ;-)

Saturday morning started with my stocking up on my Victoria Secret lipglosses and a stroll around the Grove Mall with a Starbucks...gotta say disappointed in Anthropologie - the only other store there I wanted to check out -- guess it's been copied and done to death. Back to home base and I arrived --- out for the Oscar red carpet walk-about...many pictures were taken...and I spotted Lainey and the CTV crew on a break!!! My friends said we had to say hi - Hello, it being my idea to stalk her at the Roosevelt Hotel (we left our cards and a copy of our itinerary with all my notes on the outfits I planned to wear) where she and the rest of the crew were staying -and all of a sudden I get all nervous - like what a silly idea actually saying hello and thank you for saving me from hours of drudgery and toil with my daily gossip fix pick-me-up...WTF??? Me, nervous?? But I decided - we did have to say hello and we doubled back for some pics, intros to the crew and Tanya Kim...and a bit of gossip - of course I did most of the talking...as only she can, managing to get in that she just flew in from set on Friday - killing it! and Lainey promised to give us a call after she was wrapped.

Fully satisfied I had accomplished my only stalking goal -- (see my last post, below) we wandered over to Rodeo Drive and marvelled at all the money and cheese on display - Gucci, Prada, and Coach to name a few stores we visited and drooled over. I was confused as to why a potato-sack-like dress one could get at Old Navy was over $1900.00 - I explained "It's Prada" with the appropriate disdain one has for the fashion-ignorant suffusing my tone. Our friend was running low on blood-sugar even after our A-list lattes from Urth Cafe...good thing we had a 5pm reso at the Peninsula Hotel for high tea. Not that we saw any stars...although I kept insisting that some loser with bad hair and his collar up was Patrick Dempsey. I am sure he wished he was due to the amount of times he passed back and forth between the bathrooms and the bar. Gotta say pretty sweet deal for the high tea experience - $24 gets you all the finger sandwiches and pastries you would ever want along with fantastically aromatic tea (see pic above) I got the Russian Caravan although the majority of our party opted for the Belvedere house blend.

Off for a rest and shower and pre-drinks before deciding to forego the reso at Chateau Marmont for the reso at Koi, seeing as In Style Magazine said it was the place to go pre-Oscar-Saturday...and I had some random vip-list after party lined up that I thought was at the Marmont but ended up being the Monte Martre (heehee)....Boy was Koi the right decision as there is nothing like by-passing a huge and envious line-up and sidling your way past the huge and menacing bouncer at the door to make your way into gastronomic heaven!!! There is something to be said for making reservations a month in advance.

-more post-LA tomorrow.