slept badly last night for some unknown reason. also, made a cake.

brain numb, desk messy.

countdown to phoneswitch: 8 days

Counting down the days before I can upgrade my phone. No more hanging while trying to googlemap, please.

Drove out to LA on a weirdly cold (but thankfully not too wet) evening to celebrate Hoisin Steph's birthday (she's even prettier in person which is ridiculous). It started with me nervously looking for parking, meeting her at Umami on La Brea and proving to her friends that I'm real and not a figment of her internet imagination (I think VV doesn't quite believe she's real either), changing from flat shoes into heels, walking to her friends' place where I got to try absinthe (!) for the first time, going to Busby's and partying like I was 23 again (I can still do it!), and then wrapping up the night with a freezing cold walk and greasy food at IHOP.

Argh you can see how atrocious my skin has been lately in that first photo. I'm all red and peely like I've been sunburned BUT I HAVEN'T BEEN. I'm also a little upset that I didn't think to break out my fake lashes. I have so many pairs and haven't used any in ages.

Also, Steph got her faux garter tights at Topshop in VEGAS. I'm now a tiny bit upset that VV and I decided on going to SB to see Garbage instead of Vegas. Oh well. I'm sure a few wine tastings and Aebleskivers in Solvang will quickly make me forget my Topshop longings!

Oh, and the heels I was wearing that night? AWESOME. My feet were reasonably good all night long. They are so coming with me to Xin's bachelorette party! (HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yesterday) XIN!)

Am REALLY ANNOYED that I forgot one of my SD cards back in OC. I have two card slots on my DSLR which is awesome in general but also allows me to be more forgetful. I was going to do a little more picture/blog post catch-up today but meh guess that's not going to happen.

I told VV we should go to Umami in Costa Mesa when it opens. And it opened. So we went. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea. We went there at around 3pm, hoping to miss the crowds (well, also I woke up past 1 that day) and it was still insanely crowded. We waited about 45 minutes to get seated. The nice thing was that they take your phone number and text you when your table is ready so you don't have to hang around the restaurant while you wait. VV and I went to Native Foods so I could get some watermelon juice (I'm a little wary of vegan restaurants but am 100% a-ok with vegan watermelon juice) and then went to East Borough to get VV a ca phe sua da before going back to Umami to wait.

Did you know that Umami Burger has TRUFFLE CHEESE FRIES. It's not on the menu but while we waited we were watching the cooks in the kitchen putting slices of cheese over piles of fries, heating them up, and then slipping the whole thing into a bowl. We watched one cook prepare about 4 or 5 orders of them and they looked so good that we asked our waiter what it was so we could order some too. DELICIOUS.

It was VV's first time at Umami. His conclusion was that he still likes Shake Shack better but that it's still a really good burger. I think I like Shake Shack better too (!) but Umami is here and Shake Shack is not (sad).

Happy Umami and sad (scared?) Umami. The Umami logo looks like lips to me. And VV too, apparently.