{"id":2080,"date":"2007-06-13T23:58:48","date_gmt":"2007-06-14T06:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/of.jennism.com\/?p=2080"},"modified":"2007-06-14T00:33:17","modified_gmt":"2007-06-14T07:33:17","slug":"el-ay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/?p=2080","title":{"rendered":"EL AY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s a rarity that I would freely choose to head down south.  To Los Angeles.  I have visited multiple times my entire life for adventures to Disneyland, Universal Studios, other theme parks, college visiting, friends visiting&#8230;but well never out of my free will.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/circia\/545994488\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1038\/545994488_c763e9844e.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Someone is distracted with someone's phone...\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So last weekend, I took a short trip to see people who used to be part of an online community I used to be part of several years ago.  Back then, most of us were naive and innocent.  And now we are&#8230;well dollar signs are floating above our heads.  At least mine is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/circia\/545983624\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1425\/545983624_6decedb0d4.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"IMG_2428.JPG\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Food was abundant.  And so were the high prices.  And so were the many Asians.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/circia\/546278328\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1331\/546278328_8f988df3cb.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"IMG_5228.JPG\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/circia\/sets\/72157600352887769\/\">photos<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Things I learned:<\/p>\n<li>Always have a plan.  Regardless of any potential goals, have a plan.<\/li>\n<li>Driving from the South Bay to the LA county line can take 4 hours and 7 minutes<\/li>\n<li>If you are struggling with 5+ boxes\/bags, someone even the homeless guy will offer to help you down the stairs.  Sigh.<\/li>\n<li>Meeting Taiwanese mothers is a bit scary, maybe it&#8217;s just her&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Lawrys is really a great steakhouse\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe female servers wear nursing type shoes and when they pour the secret house dressing into the spinning salad, they tiptoe just for show<\/li>\n<li>Pinkberry isn&#8217;t that great.  Seriously.<\/li>\n<li>Hotels that are awesome have free breakfast and free internet<\/li>\n<li>Also awesome for chupachups.  Only if they were at the front desk ALL THE TIME<\/li>\n<li>The maintenance guy at the Springhill Suites in Hawthorne will be in your room in less than 5 minutes if you have an issue.  Like a toilet problem at 3 am in the morning.<\/li>\n<li>No matter what, I&#8217;ll get a tan (not a sunburn) when out in the sun<\/li>\n<li>Always wear sunscreen<\/li>\n<li>Beaches are nice.  If sand doesn&#8217;t get inside your shirt and pants.<\/li>\n<li>Wear flip flops on beaches<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t sleep next to the AC<\/li>\n<li>The Santa Monica Promenade is one of the main must-visit places in LA<\/li>\n<li>Celebrities do attend the jr. philharmonic concerts&#8230;and do make an appearance onstage<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s a rarity that I would freely choose to head down south. To Los Angeles. I have visited multiple times my entire life for adventures to Disneyland, Universal Studios, other theme parks, college visiting, friends visiting&#8230;but well never out of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/?p=2080\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}