Welcome to Cali!

Y'all remember that Ice Cube song "Today was a good day?" Well this past weekend was a good weekend. Work at the end of last week was crazy. I was in a training class all morning Thursday and then out of the office most of the day Friday, so I was scrambling to get a lot done in a short amount of time. My division spent Friday afternoon at the Mall of America, shopping and observing what kids were wearing which was actually quite insightful. On a related but side note, I'm looking to put together an advisory group of parents whose kids wear sizes 6 through 14, If you fit the bill or know someone who does and would be interested, email me asap. Now back to the mall. After our work time was officially over, I went shopping at the mall and ended up spending a grip at The Buckle on some Affliction tees.
I had a great time in LA last weekend. After a very tiring week, I arrived late last Friday night. My friend Crystal picked me up at the airport and we went to the Cheesecake Factory at The Grove (??? - Crystal, let me know if I got that one wrong). Anyway, they brought out this nutritional menu that told you exactly how many calories are in the foods on their menu. Why did they do that? Seriously y'all - you will never feel good about eating at the Cheesecake Factory ever again. Trust me. I ended up ordering one of the lower calorie items on the menu (Corn Fritters, which were very good I might add) and a smoothie (about 550 calories total). Let's just say about 90% of their menu is in the 1000-2000 calorie range. Anyway, Saturday morning we went to brunch at this spot Crystal had heard about which was on the way to Santa Monica. The food was really good and we got to sit outside (the weather was beautiful). I wanted to hit up Fred Segal, since I had never been there, so we went to Santa Monica and shopped there. I bought a block print maxi dress, which is adorable (I ended up wearing it on Sunday). I had been looking for a maxi dress but hadn't found too many that I really liked so it was perfect. We went across the street to other part of Fred Segal, and I found a dress which may be my dream dress. Really. It's a Missoni dress - it had a mix of brown, red, yellow and other earthtone colors, with a lace trim on the bottom. I absolutely loved everything about it - except the price tag. It was marked down 50% off an original price of $888. When the saleslady did the math and added the sales tax, it came very close to $500. Yeah ok. Of course, Crystal, being the true enabling friend that she is - along with the sales lady, who was just doing her job - tried to convince me to buy it. And honestly, I had a moment of insanity where I was ready to pull out my Visa. But then I had to knock some sense into my head. That's a car note. And, I'm not talking a Corolla car note either. I decided to implement the shopping test (which is what you do whenever you see something you think you absolutely cannot live without and want to drop a grip of money on it right then and there). I decided that I would wait until tomorrow. And if the next day I woke up and was still thinking about the dress, then I would come back and buy it. And if not, then that means I didn't want it that bad. So I left the store (still thinking about the dress of course and debating hard internally about whether I was making the right decision....although in retrospect, how ridiculous is that??? It's a decision about a dress - I wasn't saving anybody's life...so not that deep). Anyway, after Fred Segal we went back to Crystal's, changed clothes and headed to the Melting Pot. Y'all know I had been talking about that for weeks and it was every bit as yummy and fun as I remembered. Crystal and I are pros, so we managed to get through all four courses in an hour and 15 minutes. Yes, I'm talking cheese fondue, salad (my favorite - the California salad), entree and chocolate fondue (the Disaronno meltdown with milk chocolate...so heavenly). After the Melting Pot was the Beyonce concert at the Honda center in Anaheim. When we got there, the group "Rich Girl" was just hitting the stage - they opened for Beyonce. I had never heard of them and from what I saw I wasn't really missing much. Crystal had managed to get us seats on floor level (nice!!!) and we were maybe 20 rows back, right next to the second stage in the middle of the floor. Beyonce came on stage at 8:52 (yes I checked my Blackberry) and performed for a full 2 hours (how she has all that energy, I don't know). At one point she slowed it down a bit, and did "At Last" and "Halo" and some other slow stuff that I was really not interested in, so I had to sit down but I was back up when the booty shaking music came on (lol). Eventually, she came and performed on the stage in the middle of the floor and she was ridiculously close. I took tons of pictures. She did a lot of Destiny's child songs when she was performing there. All in all, I had a really good time and it was such a great birthday gift! As we were leaving the Honda Center, we noticed a guy standing outside next to a limo holding a sign that said "Here to Put a Ring on It" - how cute?! He was waiting for his girlfriend so he could propose and he looked so nervous. Apparently the poor girl had no clue he was about to propose to her in front of a crowd of people (yes, you know folks were gathered being nosy, waiting for her to show up - us included. And at one point he made the mistake of telling someone in the crowd her name was Erika and they started chanting the poor girl's name). When Erika finally arrived, she looked like she was in complete shock, although good for the guy, she said yes. I gave him lots of points for boldness and creativity. You have to be bold to propose in front of a large number of strangers (and wait there for 15 minutes in front of them for your girl to show up). And the sign (especially at the Beyonce concert) was quite creative and appropriate.
Anyway, Sunday was spent at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles (my favorite!!!) in LA. We met up with some Wharton friends who are living in LA and a couple who are in Sacramento, and just chowed down on chicken and waffles. It was the perfect ending to my LA visit :-). Except that I overstayed. We left around 2:50, with me thinking the ride to the airport was only about 15 minutes. Well I didn't get there until 3:30 and my flight was at 4pm. Yeah, not good. Then at the kiosk, it couldn't find my reservation so I had to put the code in. Then it told me I had to speak to an agent (probably b/c my flight was already boarding). I bypassed the line and found an agent who didn't look particularly busy, and he printed my boarding pass for me but told me I would have to run. And run I did. I lucked up b/c there was no line at security. As I was coming through the security machines, I looked up and my gate was the very first one past the checkpoint. I heard the attendant making a final call for my flight, so I grabbed my bags and booked it! I was one of the last people on the plane, but I did make it, thank God!
Anyway, there's lots more to report but I need to get a start on my Saturday errands so I'll write more later.