It’s actually 4 AM (despite the 8:08 time shown below that I started this post!) and Vivek and I are sitting here on the couch blogging from separate laptops and watching Project Runway. Before that, we watched the opening ceremonies which were really impressive. Especially the gymnasts!
Beijing is off to a good start! Yesterday I had dinner with Dar, Jenn & Tressa, and I also took the dogs to the dog park. There was a woman there who looked vaguely like Kate Walsh from Grey’s Anatomy (without makeup). She was actually really nice and took a picture of me with the dogs. Still not sure if it was her, but several people insisted it was. At any rate, Oreo & Shadow are really getting acclimated to the Hollywood lifestyle. They may not want to go back to Orange County when their family returns from Hawaii!
Whenever I visit another country, I think of myself as an ambassador for my country. In recent years, the rest of the world’s opinion about America and indeed Americans has plummeted to new depths. (After all, we did elect the village idiot twice!) It’s ironic that I live in Hollywood, because so much of the rest of the world’s perceptions of the United States is formed (falsely) by Hollywood (see: http://weblog.xanga.com/CareyGLY/563533475/americas-most-influential-export.html). What I really love though, is getting to show someone who has never been to this country, just a portion of its beauty and majesty. Of course, in LA, that means celebrities. LOL. So yesterday I took Vivek to Cheebo, where we just missed Jennifer Garner. Later though at Pinkberry, Paris Hilton’s sister Nicky whizzed by us. We finished the night with an encore presentation of Mamma Mia. How refreshing it must be for Vivek to go to a movie without having to first go through a metal detector. Sometimes we take our freedom here for granted. I’m so happy to be able to share a bit of “California dreaming” with Vivek. I hope he enjoys his time here!
A power lunch at a Hollywood hot spot
Is that the guy from Project Runway??
Lounging by the pool at The Hotel Careyfornia.
The obligatory Pinkberry visit and covert picture (no photography allowed, LOL).
The City of Angels.
Everybody come to Hollywood, they want to make it in the neighborhood…
Does Your Mother Know – Mamma Mia from Carey Anthony on Vimeo. I just love Christine Baranski and she was so great in Mamma Mia. I took this video in the movie (shhhhhh!!), just because it’s such a fun song and I wanted to watch it again. The actor who plays her “boy toy” is named Michael Philip. He just added me on Facebook, and we exchanged a couple of messages. What a great role for him! Can you imagine!
It was a busy afternoon at the Hotel Careyfornia. Lisa ,Joel & theboys are going to Hawaii for 9 days and I’m watching their dogs, Shadow & Oreo (named after my Oreo!). They’re parking their car here at my place (just like Claudio is), so now I have 3 cars. That’s kind of ironic seeing that my own car was in the shop for four months up until recently. So when Lisa & Joel got here, I took a late lunch and we went to Jerry’s Famous Deli. After that we headed to the airport, where, coincidentally, Vivek had just flown in from Delhi, India, by way of Seoul, South Korea. He’s here for an internship, and will hopefully get some good news about the Project Runway application he submitted. (I’m really hoping for a ticket to the Oscars next year Vivek, especially since you didn’t bring me a souvenir from Korea!!) Vivek was super tired after his whirlwind trip to Korea and flight to LA, so we did a quick drive down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and the sites of Hollywood (Grauman’s, the Kodak Theater, etc.) before he retired for the evening to get a good night’s rest and start the first day of the rest of his life tomorrow!
The obligatory pose!
A very dangerous picture!
Waiting for the valet at the H.C.
“This is is the day…your life will surely change.”
…and Pet Motel.
Blog buddies!
I hope this song is good luck for you Vivek. It was playing on a fateful day in 1990 when I made a decision that would change my life forever. It involved switching jobs, agreeing to take care of two children and moving from Chicago. I never looked back, and I hope that this too “is the day your life will surely change.”
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE “More
bad news for air travelers. Earlier today, U.S. Airways began charging
passengers on its flights for water. Even worse, the oxygen masks are now
coin-operated.” — Conan O’Brien
Saganaki is a Greek dish that comes to the table accompanied by
cries of “opa!” and a dramatic fiery flourish. In reality, it’s just
cheese – but what wonderfully salty, sinfully satisfying cheese it is. The same could be said for Mamma Mia!
It was a hot, hazy day in Los Angeles today, so Tuan and I decided to go see Mamma Mia at the Arclight.
Who knew Meryl Streep could do this?!She was amazing!
The 2:45 showing of Mamma Mia was actually full! It’s great fun. Set in a lush Greek island, with breathtaking cinematography. It’s a delicious romp!
Tuan (far right) didn’t think he was in this picture
There were so many good musical numbers in the movie, but this one was my favorite. It was so cute!
When I go to the Arclight Cinerama, I always like to park up on the roof and take pictures. Today there was this very tame pigeon up there, who let me get pretty close:
You can barely make out downtown LA on the top left.
After the movie, we went to The Abbey and ate a late lunch.
It was unusually humid today too, and I was so tired of my long hair in the heat, so I stopped by Supercuts on the way home and decided to get my hair cut. You may remember my last haircut debacle just three weeks ago:
After that experience, I wanted to be very specific. So I told the girl I was thinking of a Caesar cut. She was Hispanic, and she thought I was saying “a scissor cut”. (Think scissor with a mexican accent…see-zor!). So she said she wouldn’t use clippers! I said, “Not SCISSORS, CAESER. Do you understand?” “Yes, I understand,” she said, “No clippers.”. We went round and round for a couple of minutes and I could not get her to understand what I meant. Finally, she asked a girl at another station, and the girl said, “Of course I know what a Caesar cut is!”. So I switched stations, and later, she whispered to me, “You should have just told her to give you a “George Clooney.”" LOL
The finished product.
Speaking of bad haircuts, thanks to Sam, I was up way too late playing with this awesome site, www.yearbookyourself.com. The scary thing is, that I actually had many of these hairstyles in many of these years. (Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I was born in 1965. and my hair was never that long in the 70′s!) Place your mouse over each picture to see the year it’s from. (1988 and 1996 are remarkably accurate. LOL…Time to fire up the scanner!)
Actually, 1976 is pretty accurate too, and I just found proof. I was 11 when this family photo was taken in 1976. That’s me on the bottom left…diggin’ the outfit! Incidentally, 1976 was the year that Abba’s Mamma Mia, hit #1 in the U.S. And we’ve come full circle!
Tonight we took the kids to The Great Park in Irvine. They have a huge, tethered helium balloon that stands 118 feet high and holds 30 people. It flies 500 feet above the park, which used to be the El Toro Air Force Base that was closed in 1999. We timed our visit perfectly. We only had to wait about 1/2 hour and the sun was just starting to set when we went up in the balloon. It’s really a great park, and the balloon ride is free. We all had a great time.
P.S. When I was little, I was fascinated by hot air balloons, but I before I could say “hot air balloon”, I simply said “honeymoon”. For some reason, my parents never corrected me, and as I grew older, I continued to call them honeymoons. Once, when I was in college, I saw three hot air balloons and announced to my friends, “Look, honeymoons!!” Suffice it to say, I was the laughing stock of the dorm. Sad, but true!
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE “The
earthquake [in Los Angeles] was powerful enough that an entire group of people
lined up outside to see ‘Batman’ ended up lined up to see ‘Mamma Mia.’” –
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel
