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Ok, am back in the Big Apple just in time for New Year's Eve. This edition of Static will be devoted to the week that was, since I was "off the grid" in L.A. Am no Pico Iyer (but I brought Sun After Dark to read), but here's my 8-day mini-travelogue.

Escape To L.A.
Waiting in Newark. Aside from 2 Puffy Amiyumi characters *lol*, there wasn't anything of note.


Until I discovered that the dwarf i saw loitering around the waiting area was actually my seatmate. And I'm in the middle seat. On my left was a sneezing German mathematician doing post-graduate studies at Princeton. Did I mention he had a cold?

Night 1
Flew into LAX at 5.30PM PST. Picked up by my Tita Josie, my 14 yr old cousin Erin, and my Tita's coworker Carol (who drives her own white Dodge Durango - whoa.). First stop: dinner at Noodle Planet. Apparently, the first stop on my Dad's trip here as well. Check out the menu (http://www.noodleplanet.com/).They have those blended drinks with Boba (a.k.a. 'sago' - hey, we have that here too! Duh. *lol*)

Day 1
Woke up freezing - that's what i get for being conservative with the heater. Stayed outside most of the morning to bask in the Cali sun, iPodding and reading more Tibetan mysticism/reality stories from Pico Iyer.

3PM Headed for the Santa Anita mall. Man, Yanks really love their malls. Can't hold a candle to The Galleria in Houston, but way better than Jersey Gardens. In the mood for laughs, we went to see "Meet the Fockers". Dustin Hoffman steals the movie. Word(s) of the day: "assss hoooooo!"

Day 2
Watched cable TV, especially the Green Bay-Minnesota game, bookending lunch and food preps.
XMas Eve@carol's. Food fest with new people.

Tita Josie, Ellen, Erin and Carol


Tequila with Salvador Salvador (aka Coya Tong, or Tongtongtongtong Pakitongkitong).

Also got roped into videoke. And why would "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" be the first song I am "forced" to sing? I have absolutely no idea (despite a 90 score). I got a couple of Old Navy shirts. Erin got the Shrek 2 DVD, so we watched it till 2 AM.

Day 3
Went to my Uncle Jerome's house in the Porter Ranch area. Man, that place is perfect. Its in the hills and far away from the hustle and bustle of the city (though it has a spectacular view of it).


Met their kids - teenage cousins really - in essence for the first time.


Erin, Jerwin, Janessa, Me and Janine

Drove later around Hollywood area (sorry, no walk-around. maybe next year). Camera work inside a car is usually sloppy but hey, I have to make do.

Meet me at the corner of Sunset and Vine. ASAP!

Being already late, we decided to sleep over (geez, no personal toiletries or clothing!? So sue me. I didn't go through Boy Scouting *lol*). I settled for a long talk with the older set while trying to win points with the young 'uns (my impersonation of a PC support person with an Indian accent - ah, the small joys of outsourcing - brought the house down).

Day 4
Picked up my cousin Janessa who went to the North Ridge mall way early - because she has to work at the Rave shop for the after-Xmas sale. A 10.00AM pickup time became 10.35. Ah, girls. *lol*
3PM drive to San Diego. Driving down I5, there's too many Aves, Caminos & Missions (bless you, Spaniards). Finally saw the Pacific Ocean.

Got to Uncle June's house (the Mira Mesa area is like Manila transplanted, as RJ said). Speaking of RJ, the nigger was in Escondido the same night. Oh well, just called him and see if he was ok. Was going to surprise him (yeah, he was friggin' surprised hehe).
Lightning tour of San Diego. First stop: US Naval Base on Coronado Island (my uncle's a senior chief on the USS Nimitz. His bro, Uncle Joel, is a Lt Cmdr stationed in Hawaii). Got the walking tour of the Nimitz plus views of the USS Ronald Reagan and USS John Stennis (no pics for security reasons).

USS Nimitz CVN-68

Uncle June and me on the deck, with San Diego downtown in the background

Swung by the historic Hotel Del Coronado (http://www.coronadohistory.org/ourhistory.html) for more pics. Interesting ghost story: http://www.hoteldel.com/history/index.html, http://www.ghosts.org/haunted/coronado/hoteldel.html.


Also checked out the downtown, the convention center, PETCO Park (baseball Padres) and Qualcomm Stadium (football Chargers).

Day 5
Rains come to SoCal. So what do we do except follow Jason Mraz' exhortation to "sleep all day." Its also so cold inside the house, so i stayed inside my heated room. Though I got bored watching SABBs (Stupid Americans Behaving Badly) on Jerry Springer *lol* (TV in room isnt connected to cable) so just shivered in the living room to switch to more varied fare. By nightfall, Erin takes out their own Magic Sing videoke gadget (costs $300 here but cheaper in the Philippines apparently). Videoke has been around for what, a decade or so, so why doesn't anybody improve on it by using the original music instead of those kiddie-level, amateurish, kinapa-sa-piano tunes??? Are we worried about copyright stuff? Like we're worried about the RIAA deploying US Marines to crack down on Videoke makers in Singapore, Malaysia and Manila? Hyeaah right. Or do you mean to say that tsunami was due to divine payback for people pirating stuff in that part of the world?

Day 6
Still raining. Floods all over. So we just spent latter half of the day in Universal Citywalk.

LA lost its football team, so we have to be content with the Raider Nation


Watched "Christmas with the Kranks". I never liked Tim Allen, no matter how good his press is. So this is officially only the 2nd Allen flick i liked ("Big Trouble" was the first, and Buzz Lightyear is okay because I don't see his mug), and it's due more to Jamie Lee Curtis. She's so nice and funny.

Finished it off with dinner at Tony Roma's, and lots more picture-taking. Rains caused a lot of accidents on the freeway on the way home.




Day 7
Another half-day snoozing (still some goddess' tears outside here and there). I think am going to have time zone/jet lag troubles when i get back. I actually get out of bed at 1PM EST!

1.30PM (PST!) Went to pick up some Asian dimsum to eat on the way to West Covina (practically Manila on the West Coast). While waiting for the dentist, picked some items at the 99-cent store. The dental assistant was a family friend (classmate of my uncle Hermes), and she taught me a valuable life lesson: how to brush your teeth the right way. Then the Chinese dentist dropped the bomb: You will lose your teeth in 7 days. Or something like that.

6.00PM Had dinner at Atin Ito, one of the numerous Pinoy eateries sprinkled around the West Covina area. Had binagoongan (wooohooo!) and daing na bangus (double wooohooo!). The frequency of tagalog chatter is a bit unnerving *lol*.

On the way home, Uncle Jerome called and said they were coming over. And so the night ends where the whole trip began: Noodle Planet. Watched the cousins consume the pad see euw like there's no tomorrow *lol* Back home, goofed around while watching Bad Boys 2, before saying goodbyes.


Day 8
Get ready for flight. As is the story of my life, i am saddled with pabaon: chocolate truffles, 6-pack ensaymadas, bananas, cheese crackers, juice, water. This just means i have an extra paper bag to carry on the plane.
9.45 Got to LAX. After checking the bags, i can see am getting good at this, considering the American family behind me asked qustions and whined out loud what to do, and a Shintaro Nakagawa, running late for an 11AM flight to Japan, was bumbling through the self-service checkin kiosk.
10.10 Looooooooooooong line to security checkpoint. Everybody wants to get out of L.A. before the Dick Clark robot rings in the New Year. Poor Shintaro had to get in and out of the line several times because of confusion, prompting the woman behind me (about early 40s, wearing a pink blouse that stated both cutely and ominously "Hard Tail") to speak up: "Are you two together? Why are you cutting in the line?"
10.40 Go, Shintaro, go!!!!
10.55 Got sidetracked by those money-vacuuming airport shops. Came away with a nice blue cotton shirt and another shotglass.
11.00 Yeah they had to put Gate 66 in the furthest part of LAX. And they even had two Gate 66s!
Dammit. Watching parents with cute kids drives me nuts. *lol*

10.00PM EST Back at Newark. *sigh*

SUMMARY:
Online airfare ... $312
Ridiculous taxi fares ... $170
Tony Roma's dinner ... $95

Basking in the California sun
Not lugging your laptop backpack for a week
Reconnecting with relatives
Bonding with your American-born cousins

... PRICELESS.