DESTINATION #2
From Las Vegas, Liz and I drove straight on to LA where we shifted gears from being tourists to being visitors. (Hence the relative lack of pictures in this post). We have a number of cousins and friends out there, and my friend Whitney was kind enough to let us stay at her apartment even though she and her husband would be out of town for most of our stay. It was a hot day, so we enjoyed a swim in the pool outside where I did my typical Gemini thing by constantly swimming around, doing underwater flips, climbing out and then dive-bombing back in, and my sister did her typical Taurus thing by clinging to the side of the pool and lounging like a starfish.
Whitney and Daniel had to finish packing for their trip, but that didn't stop me and Whitney from staying up late chatting. She and her husband left early the next morning, but Liz and I slept in. Then met up with an old friend of mine for lunch, where she told us all about her latest relationship drama.
This friend has more relationship drama in her life than anyone else I know, and I'm pretty sure it's not because of her personality--it's because she's gay. She'd just broken up with yet another girlfriend who comes from a severely homophobic family. My friend is out of the closet but the other girl was not, and the two of them had been dating secretly for almost a year. My friend later started to think that this girl was cheating on her with a guy they both knew, and as the evidence for this piled up, she eventually ended the relationship. This is the second time that she's gone through this exact sequence of events. The last time, her ex-girlfriend ended up getting pregnant by, and later marrying, the guy in question.
Now, I don't know if those girls just started dating a guy on the side because they actually wanted to, or because they were just desperate to cover up their own homosexuality; but either way, my friend's life would be a lot simpler if she could openly date anyone she wanted--without worrying about their family disowning them when they find out. Not to mention that her girlfriend wouldn't be able to get away with two-timing so easily if everyone knew that she was already in a relationship with my friend. It just goes to show that, even though my friend is out of the closet and everyone in her life is very accepting of it, she's still deeply affected by other people's homophobia--even the homophobia of people she's never met.
Later that evening, Liz and I went to see our cousins Christina and Colleen. We ate out at M Street Kitchen in Santa Monica (which is an excellent place), and we swapped family stories about our parents, mostly about when the five Duffy siblings were little hoodlums growing up in the 60's, before they became Respectable People. My personal favorite story, one of which I was previously unaware, involves the time when they apparently all got high and wallpapered their entire basement in tin foil. (My father denies having been a part of this.)
The next day, Liz and I went out to lunch at Milo & Olive, a really great little pizzeria and bakery just down the street from Christina's. It's a tiny little place, and the only places to sit are at the bar (where you can watch them cook!) or at two large tables in the center of the room. We wound up sharing a table with a middle-aged woman who had an intense house-wife face and her two early-20-something daughters, who looked up occasionally to smile politely at whoever was talking, and otherwise spent most of the time on their phones. There was also an old man in a Donegal cap who once made a reference to his rock band only to immediately retract it. ("Maybe you could play drums in my rock band!" "You're in a rock band?" "Haha, oh, no, no....")
The conversation didn't really get going though, until this gay couple joined our table. Or at least, that's what I assumed as soon as I saw them. Not that they were obvious about it, but they just had that vibe. They were both in their mid-late thirties. One of them was a very straight-laced looking guy in business clothes--an immaculate white dress shirt and tie, with slicked back hair. The other was more casually dressed in jeans and nice t-shirt, and he whipped up the conversation as soon as the two of them sat down. Turns out he was a photographer, and he showed all of us some gorgeous photos he'd taken of wildlife all over the world. He had a lot of photos from Antarctica in particular--penguins, seals, ice formations--really stunning stuff. The straight-laced guy seemed to be a bit on edge with all the attention that the photographer was drawing to himself, and I could guess why when the two of them suddenly mentioned their wives and kids. And indeed, Mr. Straight-Lace was wearing a wedding ring. Not that that stopped the Photographer from throwing out a couple of references to his friend: "I was never that young or good-looking" he said off-handedly with a smile. Straight-Lace smiled only slightly and his eyes flicked nervously across everyone else at the table. I asked them if they knew each other from work, and Straight-Lace wasted no time in saying, "No," very firmly. The Photographer just laughed and said, "See how quickly he disowns me?" and then launched into a spiel about how office-work is not for him--he preferred being self-employed. I asked him if his clients fund his travels or if he has to fund them himself. "Oh, I fund it all myself," he said. "If someone else pays for it then you can only do what they want you to do. I prefer to do things my way. Then I can take the pictures that I want to take."
"So then you just sell your prints when you come back from a trip?"
"Exactly," he said.
Even as we left the restaurant, I almost wondered if I had just imagined the relationship between those two guys, but as soon as we were out the door Liz turned to me and said, "Was it just me, or did they seem like a closet gay couple to you?"
Later in the afternoon, we walked around Venice Beach with our cousin Colleen. If you've never been to Venice Beach, just imagine a tourist destination for hippies: weed shops, street performers, hobos, kinky souvenir shops, and all kinds of other kitsch for sale so that you can prove that you actually went to Venice Beach! Personally, I really enjoyed the wall art.
Some of the houses in that area were pretty awesome as well.
In the evening we went out for Happy Hour with Christina and hopped around from one awesome bar to another, going from a Japanese place called Sushi Roku, to a beautiful, windblown, seaside deck at the Shutter, to a chic, hipster bar on the 8th floor of a big hotel, overlooking downtown Santa Monica. Finally, Colleen picked us up and we all went out for ice cream at the Sweet Rose Creamery. Soooo yummy! ^_^
Our last morning in LA, I met up with my friends Ed and Laura. We went out to brunch at a restaurant called Toast, which is one of those places where you wish you could just order everything on the menu. Delicious! And it was good to catch up with my friends, hear about Ed's composing projects and Laura's new job, and to swap book recommendations. I had just read The Hours by Michael Cunningham and I'm absolutely in love with it. I told practically everyone about it during the first couple weeks of our trip--much to my sister's annoyance. :-P
So I guess we didn't really spend much time exploring LA, per se, but really, it's way more fun when you can enjoy the hospitality of friends and family! I feel so lucky to know so many awesome people out there. Thanks for everything, guys!
Till next time.... ^_^
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