Friday, April 02, 2010

Irvine and LA

I'm in Irvine and LA for a few days.

I drove down last night from the Bay Area with my college friend C3. We debated where to stop for dinner, and decided on a Caltech tradition: the "reverse time Tommy's run". I'd never actually done this before.

Legend is that Tommy's chili burger is so bad that it sends you back in time. I envisioned Tommy's as a sit-down restaurant, but apparently it's a fast-food burger joint. A corollary to the tradition is to perform the Tommy's run during daylight savings time switchover, so that you actually return before the time you departed.



I'm glad I experienced the tradition, but the food was lackluster.



...

Now I'm in my brother's apartment. Last night he told me cute stories of his artist friends being perfectionist. He'll ask them to whip up some placeholder art. They'll come back with it, saying, "This is so embarrassing. I only had an hour to spend on it. Don't show this to ANYONE!" Then they give it to him, and it's an amazing masterpiece.

...

Starting Sunday, I'm spending a couple days in downtown Los Angeles, to visit a friend. I'm staying at a hotel with an art deco pool:



My friend is picking me up from my brother's apartment and driving us to LA. LA parking is ridiculous. The hotel room only cost me $55 per night (via priceline), but parking costs $40 daily. I refuse to capitulate to this.

I hope my room has a good television for watching movies. I really want to watch movies in the room.

5 comments:

Wanda said...

I dated a mole and went along for the negative time run once. The rule was that the moles had to each eat a chili burger before returning- they competed to see who could come back earliest. I took one look at that thing and was grateful that I wasn't a mole.

N said...

I ate one, and it was okay. The fresh tomato in the burger was pretty good.

Sylvain said...

I hear you on parking prices, seems to me those LA hotels accept low prices on priceline as a bait but then make it up by charging parking + valet fee. I've seen this in SF as well btw.

Paul said...

Niniane, did you used to go to Tommies on Hill in Pasadena when you were at Caltech?

N said...

It was my first time at any Tommy's. :)