It’s been a busy week at the Hotel Careyfornia, (bandwidth alert) and it’s going to get busier.  Margie flew in Monday from Kentucky and she brought her little dog, Daisy.  Since she’s working down in Orange County all month and staying in a hotel, I’m going to be watching Daisy.  Tuesday, as already blogged, I hung out with my Iraqi friend Haider.  Last night, Lora was nice enough to invite me over for dinner at their new loft downtown, right across from the Staples Center and the Nokia Theater and LA Live.  We watched Idol and dished all night.  It was a lot of fun.  Tonight I brought Pei Wei over to Lisa & Joel’s and visited with the kids for a while.  Tomorrow, Claudio & Ryan are coming with Chazz.  Sunday is my Uncle’s 81st birthday party, and that evening I’m going to try to catch the screening of The Secret Life of Bees with Tony, as Dakota Fanning is going to be there discussing the movie.  Let me know if any of you are going!  Have a good weekend!

The view from Frank & Lora’s balcony

Idol buddies!

Pucker up Frank!

This is the city…

LA Live in the background

These were Lora & Frank’s wedding centerpieces.  Beautiful!

We had to climb over railings to get back to my car…so urban.  LOL

The Grammy’s will be in this complex this weekend

Best of the rest…

Last weekend while I was at Michele’s party, Lisa sent a picture to my phone of Cole snuggled up in one of those “blankets with arms” you see advertised on T.V. all the time.  They’re called “Snuggies” and they look ridiculous.  Then a few days later, I got this picture of Andy in one of them.  So tonight when I was there, of course I had to try it:

 
 

Ridiculous right?  Kind of makes you wanna say, WTF??? 

“I can’t believe a black man’s president…”

On the way to work this morning I took these photos out of the sun roof driving 70 mph

Best of the rest…

I snapped these shots of Daisy tonight.  I think she was sleeping and dreaming when she started doing this, then she woke herself up.  LOL

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
“The ratings for this year’s Academy Awards are expected to be very low because hardly anyone has seen the best-picture nominees. Also not helping — the prospect of seeing Mickey Rourke in high-definition.” — Conan O’Brien

You may remember last summer, Lora, Frank and I went to see the “This American Life” show that was being broadcast to theaters nationwide, live from New York, with host Ira Glass.  For those of you who don’t know,  This American Life is a radio show on NPR and a TV show on Showtime.  If you’ve never listened, I strongly encourage you to download the free podcasts.

One of the stories they showed that night struck a particular chord with me.  It featured an Iraqi student named Haider Hamza who was living in America on a Fulbright scholarship and decided to travel around the Southern United States to give red state Americans a chance to “Talk to an Iraqi” from a homemade wooden booth.  Just take a look at this fascinating two part video clip.  It is beautiful in its eloquence and more than a little disturbing at times.  This should be mandatory viewing for every man, woman and child in America.  I’ve seen it countless times, and it gets more profound with each viewing:

After I wrote about it that night, Haider, the subject of the movie found my blog, and we became friends on Facebook.  This week he was in town working with ABC news and he was nice enough to ask if we could get together.  I felt honored that he took time out of his busy schedule to meet with me, especially since he’s invited to Jennifer Aniston’s 40th birthday party this weekend!  (We don’t exactly travel in the same circles!)  He was staying at the hotel across the street from my house.  We met and decided to walk down to The Abbey which I told him was a 15 minute walk.  Since I walk pretty darn fast, he made me slow down, and an hour later we reached our destination! 

It was wonderful meeting him in person and talking with him about his experiences in this country and his (still) deep ties to Iraq where his family lives.  His is a story that needs to be shared.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to play a small part in it.

Carey & Haider

Haider @ The Abbey

Last night we celebrated Michele’s 40th birthday, 70′s style.  I thankfully don’t own any of my clothes from that era, but I do have a groovy Lacoste shirt and some vintage Adidas shoes.  So  yesterday I went to this great Hollywood thrift store called Jet Rag and found a classic 70′s padded vest, similar to the one Ashton Kutcher used to wear on “That 70′s Show“.  Remarkably, it was only $6.00!  Then I got a matching headband and sweat bands from Sport Chalet (first time I’ve ever been in that store…surprise surprise) and also found an old pair of long tube socks. 

I was going to wear some coduroys, but it was in the upper 80′s (not 70′s, LOL) here yesterday, and I thought it would be too hot.  So I took an old pair of nylon shorts and cut them in to short shorts, a la Daisy Duke.  (Never mind that I have the whitest legs west of the Mississippi.)  To put a modern twist on my outfit, I downloaded a “Pong Clock” onto my iPod Touch.  It basically plays an endless game of retro Pong, and doubles as a clock.  Since the party was down in Mission Viejo, I stopped at Dar’s house where all of the kids were having a sleepover.  Dar was nice enough to sew a velcro patch on my vest, and I stuck my iPod to the vest and voila!  Ashton Kutcher eat your heart out!

The Great White Hope

It pays to have a Nana who works at Disneyland. Andy gets dwarf etched apples!

Lisa & Jenn making me feel groovy!


The guest of honor, looking gorgeous!

My endless Pong game clock was a hit!

Even Elvis made an appearance before leaving the building.

 
Of course, I had to go out and play with (the other) Elvis & Charlie.

Best of the rest…

And finally, what 70′s party would be complete without cheesy 70′s karaoke?  Yes, there was Journey, yes, there was Abba, but mine and Jenn’s rendition of Elton John and KiKi Dee (if you haven’t seen that video,click the link for all it’s cheesy deliciousness) had everyone scrambling for ear plugs!