alright, california.. it's been nice, but i'm outta here.

tonight anita and i enjoyed quite a bit of wine. south american wine, might i add. and i'm juuust tipsy enough to have the lip-numb-smile-nice-at-everything-let's-write-on-the-bloooggg effect. s'allll good.

so anita is part one of the pair that took me in in los angeles for the past week and a bit! add it to the list of amazing individuals whom have made my stay in california absolutely lovely- larry and anita. larry is a business associate of my uncle's... it wasn't until i was enjoying the ride in his vehicle with him and his brother from west hollywood to westchester that i found out he doesn't even KNOW my uncle, but hell.. they're both fibrenewers (i.e. own a fellow franchise).

i'll get back to larry and anita in a bit. for now i shall continue on with post-vegas. i met an australian, julianne, on the shuttle back from venice beach. i informed julianne of the $1 margaritas from 11-5pm at our hostel. julianne was all for it, especially if i could get them to not ID me (as, at that point, i only had a photocopy of IDs as opposed to anything remotely valid and acceptable as appropriate ID). mission accomplished, since the night before the same russian bartendress had given me beers, so she just gave me a little stare and said, knowing i had no ID, "you're 21, right?", to which i nervously replied "yes i am... i swear!", after which she presented me with a marvelous $1 margarita. mwahaha. VICTORY! anyway.. we downed a coupla those. then 5-6pm FREE champagne time rolled around, so we got her to fill the MARGARITA cups with champagne more than a few times over (we had a one-up on the other since they only got the chincy "free champagne" tester cups). then there was 6-7 free food time. we ate free food and talked to the old couples and the dutch and the british. (previous evenings i had endlessly imitated napoleon dynamite with tom since part of the free food was "tots"... never grew old. but no one could share my napoleon imitations this time). we were surprisingly civil after so many drinks, but it was then that i realized i had an entire bottle of two-buck chuck in my bag! i'd been carrying this damn wine around with me since san francisco. "i don't CARE if it's $2, it's a damn good bottl'a wine and it gets the job done and i'm keeping it, plus it's surprisingly weightless in this big bag o' mine" i kept thinking to myself. (it was then i realized how little the little things affect the weight, {since i barely recognized a difference in pre- and post-wine weight of the bag}.. though at the same time, how every little bit adds up. paradox is a bitch. but i'm happy to say i'm now buying full tubes of toothpaste thanks to this revelation.) anyway, so we wandered our way to my room, bypassing alll the people i'd met on my previous stay at "los angeles backpackers" and we invited every single one of them to my one tiny bottle of $2 wine. by the end we got a decent crew at the picnic table in front of my room. luckily we picked up more alcohol because that bottle wasn't going to last us all. we did a number on my corkscrew. from that eve blossomed wonderful friendships, and the next morn i ventured off with andre, andy and chris to hollywood. i had already been to hollywood and wasn't impressed, but i was sick of just sitting around, and i hadn't technically done hollywood in its entirety...

hollywood still sucks. it was much more fun with others, though. you can see snow white on the walk of fame and say out loud "ha! snow white!" and NOT look like a psycho. or laugh at the name "chubby brocolli" and not be giggling to yourself. or stare blanky at the hand- and footprints of famous people in front of the chinese theater while waiting for... or no, wait.. if i were by myself i wouldn't have had to wait. that's okay. their company was worth it. i randomly ran into a nice guy i danced with a lot in vegas. small world. so that was hollywood. prior to that we walked sunset strip- if you can believe it, it's even less exciting: saw the house of blues- awesome dilapidated building. the comedy show, the laugh factory... woohooooo. it's really awesome just LOOKING at those buildings. (not). we went to a cafe thing and got some really cheap fresh nachos with perfect homemade salsa. thought we'd start the afternoon off right and order a drink. since they were 2-for-1 at 3:00 in the afternoon, we each ordered one, thinking we were getting in on each other's 2-for-1 deal. oh no. we EACH got two of the drinks we ordered. oh boy. i ordered a blood mary, giving that drink one last chance. it had lettuce- big lettuce- and even a slice of tomato- which got my vote..... but it was absolutely disgusting. everyone that tried it choked on it and andre, the gentleman, ended up trading me his orange juice concoction because i guess he felt sorry for me. thank yyooouuu andre.
i had the best apple of my life from an organic food shoppe in hollywood. mmm.

that eve at the hostel *on melrose avenue* (droppin names like they're hot yo) there was a comedy show. even the manager was like "we make NO promises- it's hit or miss with these comedians". i mean, you're practicing at a hostel- you're not going to be a seinfeld or anything. BUT... they were aaammmaaazing!! they were so so funny and they each confirmed my suspicions about hollywood- it's just an over-valued hot-spot with a big sign on a hill and people's footprints and stars in the sidewalk. THANK YOU. there was one act that eventually got kicked off the stage, but there was a swedish girl in the front who was so drunk that she just kept giggling really hysterically but softly after everything he said, which in effect made me laugh really hard because the guy himself was super low-energy... and although it was by far the least-funny act, i think i probably laughed harder at her laughing than at any of the other acts. so anyway, that was really awesome. met a tonne of people that night in the "party room" since we all got kicked out of the main room. myself and "justin from new york" (that was his full name for the eve) were looking for who-knows-what when we opened a door of the hostel and found nothing but toilet paper piled to the door-top. i COLLAPSED in laughter.... apparently THIS was the funniest part of the whole night. i have no explanation... but i do have a picture.

i was the last one to slumber in my dorm, yet the first to wake. the boys were staying another night, but after 10 tries on 7 different pay phones (i have come to loathe pay phones...) i got ahold of larry! so i was off to westchester before 11 am checkout. i never even got to say goodbye *sigh*.

at the melrose avenue (still droppin) 7-11 i purchased a chocolate milk. taking after my mother's hangover remedy, i just wanted un lait du chocolate. i didn't even THINK to look at the % of the milk. after one stomach-turning sip, i took a look at the bottle. HOMOGENIZED CHOCOLATE MILK. who dddoooeeesss that?!? i've never even seen chocolate milk over 2%. i was horrified. yuck... only america. (if you're wondering.... yes, i still drank it. a dollar twenty-nine of my hard-earned money, alright?! and if you're still wondering, yes... it made me feel sick).

larry and his brother jeff were wonderful hosts. that eve was independence day... night... and there were wicked fireworks goin off like thunder all around his house. we took an ice cream run (although i never ended up at the ice cream store) and on the way ran into a personal fireworks display on the street! these guys must've been pros because i've PAID to see worst shows! it probably went on for like 45 mins to an hour and they were amazing. i was freezing, but it was worth it. one of them exploded sideways and shocked the street... pretty awesome. at the house, the dog, max, was found in the bathroom with his tail between his legs and panting harder than i've heard any living thing respire in my life. i was honestly scared he was going to have a lil doggie heart attack. poor thing.

the days after that are kindof a blur... i depressed into a comfortable halt in my travels, but it kindof felt good. got everything straightened out (almost)... got my birth certificate, my credit card, health insurance, my passport (the girl at the consulate yelled, with a big grin, "now staple it to your body!!"). my peggy dearest even hooked me up via internet with an ecuadorian friend which ended up in serious spanish practice which was WICKED and highly necessary! i was going to volunteer somewhere for the time i was stuck in l.a., but a bus driver convinced me out of it- he said i would get bitten by dogs and homeless people. no one wants rabies.

in los angeles for the past week and a bit i explored the surrounding area a little. it's really hard to get around l.a. because it's SO huge and every trip takes like 7 different buses and 18 hours... but that's okay- i had time. one day larry and his well-travelled friend steve and i went out for breakfast at a cute curb-side cafe in steve's town. we then decided to hit laguna beach (it's like an artist's village sorta- full of galleries and art shows and such) because larry, knowing of my artistic inclinations, thought it would be a good place to go. unfortunately everyone else in l.a. felt the same and the traffic was horrendous, so we took a second route and like 5 hours later (alright, i exaggerate)... we arrived! we walked around for an hour and saw some really amazing art in the galleries.... and then walked back! the people in these galleries have MASTERED water.. which is so, SO hard to master. i was impressed. i also learned about making prints of works since steve used to do sell art. that was interesting. we had really good chats in the car ride back.. about life n love heh. it was a good day!
i also was planning on bussing my way to santa monica/venice one day when larry's mom marilyn calls me up and offers to take me instead! beautiful. so she gave me a tour of santa monica- the pier filled with ferris wheels and roller coasters, the old-school carousel that's not a historic landmark, all the little shops in the palisade. i told her i was going to treat her to lunch when she turned the offer right around and told me she was treating ME to lunch... how does that work? anyway we ate at a favourite italian restaurant of hers and it was AMAZING. we had really nice chats- she's about 77 i think and she's travelled ALL over- she's off to vietnam, laos and cambodia next!! i love it- i think it's great that she's still at it. on the walk back we saw an "art car"... this particular piece was made by a recovering alcoholic and was covered in spray foam and foliage and had not only a water fountain on it, but a moving train set!
another day i was invited to the family sunday breakfast with anita, larry, their daughter alyssa, marilyn and two family friends. after breakfast i was dropped off at the bus station. i made my way to the getty center- the place where money goes to die, i feel. this was the prettiest man-made place i've been in california, but it must've cost millions. it sits atop a mini-mountain in los angeles- you take a tram up the side of the hill to this glorious white marblish institution. there's sky on all sides and you geta great view of the city. it has lovely gardens and waterfalls and very elegant posters and everything.... it was almost otherworldly to me for some reason. but the best part was that it was free, and full of art. the artist tim hawkinson was featured and his stuff was SO cool! unfortunately there were only four pieces........ but i can deal with that. one piece was particularly wicked- i looked at it from afar and it just looked like a dinosaur bone masterpiece, but i saw people looking intensely at it so i gave it a closer look and found that each vertebrae of the dinosaur was actually a person that looked like they were rowing, with the ribcage of the dinosaur as oars- each person with their legs around the person in front, which really looked remarkably like a vertebrae. then the head of the dinosaur was actually a man on his knees holding his head with his hands with his elbows on the ground.. it was insane how much the entire sculpture (made of crayola model magic, might i add) resembled dinosaur remains. i was super impressed by this guy. another of his works was the underside of an octopus, but he took pictures of big pursed lips, and those were the suckers haha.... it made me laugh. so in other words, he makes things out of everyday objects that looks normal at first glance, but are quite bizarre upon further inspection. loved it. there was also a sculpture in the "classic works" section of a nude man and woman that really stunned me. they were so intertwined and loving draped on each other in a winding pattern and... i took a 360 degree video of it! i loved it. very well done.
after the getty center i took some buses to venice beach. finally saw muscle beach- sweaty, tanned, rippling musculature in speedos pumpin iron on the beach- love it. also saw a very large, very white male standing topless in front of a boombox waiting for someone to pay him to dance. fascinating. i had so many questions.

the following are random things that i just.. want to say.. but they don't really fit nicely into the above paras:

the family i'm staying with are jus great! larry is very chatty and very willing to help me sort out my messed up travel life, which is very kind of him. anita's a nurse and i always have an immediate soft spot in my heart for nurses- we have nice chats about health things and other things and we both like our red wine chilled. plus she has a cute giggle. and she's the only one cher allows to draw her blood! there's alyssa, their 9-year old daughter, who asked larry if i spoke canadian, and was concerned that i wouldn't be able to understand them, and vice versa. little alyssa is a drama queen and i let her steal my candy and coax me into drawing cher for her and playing math games on the computer and she's highly entertaining. then there's the dogs... max is the biggest german shepherd i've ever seen but he's like a puppy dog (if you ignore the incessant barking), and kasey is a blind and deaf poodle-like doggy who smells like pee and runs into things, but just wants to be loved. they're both really cute.

in vegas i made an intense purchase. i decided i needed a watch. but not just any watch- i needed an alarm, i needed water-resistant, i needed VELCRO. okay i didn't need velcro. and i didn't need "mystery answers" either. but i got them both- i got it ALL... for just $9.99. ages 6 and up. lovin it. and alyssa now lives her life by the randomly selected yes/no answers my watch provides her.
p.s. don't try to set new watch alarms when you're drunk or ALL time is lost.

i experienced the most amazing buffet EVER. larry and i went to "souplantation" which was like 7 soups but then the most salad ingredients you've ever seen in one place.... i was in heaven. all that was going through my head was "just eat til you puke, just eat til you puke". i'm getting hungry just thinking about it. corn, sunflower seeds, beets, oh my!

larry's friend steve's camera got stolen.. but they left the memory card. what a thoughtful bastard.
larry's friend steve is from new york and still has his accent and the way new yorkers say "larry" is hilarious to me and everytime he'd say it i'd laugh hysterically and imitate him. i think i became really annoying.

i wanted to get larry a big bottle of rum because he provided me with a drink or two every eve... so i hit the grocery store, managed to get through the check-out without presenting proper ID, then i'm walking home and i rest the bottle on the bus stop seat... and the SIXTY of rum slips off the seat and shatters to bits on the sidewalk. it was definitely a captain jack sparrow "but the rum!" moment... it killed me.
i returned two days later and purchased another bottle. this time i had ID.

i can't believe i've spent 38 days in the states.

so the plan was to get on a bus to nogales, arizona tonight and take it alll night long and then hop over the border to nogales (walnuts, in spanish), mexico in the morn and hitch a bus to guayamas to arrive tomorrow afternoon. yet, due to today being friday the 13th, and alyssa stressing its imminent presence and that bad things always happen on this day, plus larry convincing me that paying nearly double to take a plane (vs. buses) to get to hermosillo mexico is worth it if i can skip the sketchy border town.... i am now awaiting a 1:30 flight to hermosillo tomorrow afternoon. i love how this was decided 2 hours before i was about to take the bus. i will arrive in guayamas at approximately the same time i would have had i taken the bus.

can´t wait to be somewhere refreshing. i still have my obsession with variety, change, progess, refreshment. the states are still too similar to canada to be thoroughly refreshing.

got me photos on a site now, thanks to philly milly: themillman.com/shayla-g ...
and i'm off!! next stop: mexico : )

much love to all, and I'LL BE SAFE!!!! don't worry, and the next person that tells me to be safe gets a whippin.
(p.s. i forgot to post this before i left, so i am now in mexico, sana y salva ¡entonces no te preocupas! (safe and sound, so don´t worry!)).