The Countdown

Time has been slipping away from me so quickly. It seems not that long ago that I moved back to Los Angeles, became a waitress, quit being a waitress, got the babysitting twins job, starting religiously saving up money, found my future Italian family, and bought my ticket back to Italy.

Today is officially t-minus 1 week (7 days!!!) until I leave. My mind is constantly being filled with things to add to the never ending "TO DO" list, while my stomach is in a constant state of feeling like I'm going to throw up combined with that anxious feeling of excitement you get before going on an especially frightening roller coaster for the first time. I wish I could just sit down and relax, but whenever I try to my mind races on ahead of me worrying about anything and everything possible ("Do I have enough socks!?," "What boots should I wear on the plane?," "Can I fit all my electronics in my carry on bag?!," "What does one wear in the snow?!," etc. etc.)

In the meantime, I have been trying to do as much stuff that I've wanted to do before leaving the country for a possible year. I'm not even going to try to tackle information on everything but I thought I'd share some photos from the past months or so to try to sum up my adventures in good ol' US of A before I say goodbye.

Dressed up as Fionna from Adventure Time at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles. 

Time spent with friends - Ralph and I

Bowie and me at Amoeba

Days and money spent at Amoeba

Movie/show night with friends

Show included a debate between presidential candidates Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman

Halloween spent with the twins

My wonder twins

My baby

Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (which was AMAZING)

The Unhappiest of all reindeer 

Love!

Fun learnings at the Natural History Museum with friends

Time spent with my best friend

My best friend is one supreme mother - Charlie's first birthday party!

This will most likely be my last update from Los Angeles, so here's to new beginnings! Next time I blog I'll be bloggin from another country! How crazy is that!? I still think over and over that I must be completely mad and totally out of my mind to have made such a life changing decision to abandon my American life in the way that I am, but hopefully at the end of it all I will look back on the decision and be confident that I made the right choice. 

My next few days will be spent at Disneyland, one last dentist trip (you can never be too safe when it comes to proper dental hygiene!), going away gathering with family and friends, and my last two days spent packing and trying to organize a year's worth of necessities into one suitcase.  

How Flickr Got It Right: The Tube

While studying abroad, I took a trip to London, England. While there I realized one thing that is so true about the city, they sure do know public transportation! After my time in London I don't understand why every other major city in the world doesn't have such an amazing transportation system. Everywhere in London that I wanted to go, the Tube was able to get me within a few blocks, so I grew to have much respect for it. I'm sure living there and experiencing the foot traffic the Tube experiences daily wouldn't make me like the Tube as much as I do as an outside, but as a traveler with limited time and no car access (Not to mention the fact that I probably wouldn't even be able to drive it on the left side of the road! It would throw me off so much!), the Tube was total perfection. 

So I thought I'd do a little background information on the Tube. Wikipedia has to say about the London Underground:

The London Underground (often shortened to the Underground) is a rapid transit system in England, serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. It incorporates the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863 and now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines; and the first line to operate electric trains, in 1890, now part of the Northern line.
The Underground system is also colloquially called the Tube.The Underground serves 270 stations and has 402 kilometres (250 mi) of track, making it the second largest metro system in the world in terms of route miles, after the Shanghai Metro. It also has one of the largest numbers of stations. In 2007, more than onebillion passenger journeys were recorded, making it the third busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow and Paris. The tube is an international icon for London, with the tube map, considered a design classic, having influenced many other transport maps worldwide. Currently, 86% of operational expenditure on the London Underground is covered by passenger fares. Almost all London Underground trains currently lack air-conditioning, which leads to the network getting very hot in the summer, although plans are under way to mitigate this problem with new air-conditioned trains and other schemes.

- Wikipedia

So, admittingly it does get quite hot inside of the Tube (even when I was there in the winter, I was sweating because of how many people are crammed into such a limited underground area), but even with the heat and the sweat I still think it's an amazing feat of the modern day. So on that note I'd thought I'd find some awesome pictures on Flickr and share them with this post, not to mention my own photos from my trip.

My photos:

From November 2010.

Me! From my "About Me" page.

From one Victoria to another.

How Flickr got the Tube right!:

"London Underground map - H Beck diagram, first public version, 1933" by mikeyashworth on Flickr

"Mind the gap" by Andrea Blanquez on Flickr

"London Bridge Tube Station" by Kavinda.K on Flickr

"London Tube" by Joseph^ on Flickr

"London Tube" by gintoxin78 on Flickr

"Tube" by gastanuke on Flickr

"London Tube" by Coto Photo on Flickr

"London tube train moving through station" by Misterzeee on Flickr

"London Tube: Bank station" by PJWoodland on Flickr

Los Angeles Highlights Part 3 - Brite Spot

• Los Angeles Highlights Part 1 - Venice Beach Boardwalk
• Los Angeles Highlights Part 2 - Wacko's Soap Plant / La Luz De Jesus Gallery 

Yesterday I met up with my grandparents for a little lunch at this place in Echo Park. I told them to meet me there without them have ever eaten there and they both said they really enjoyed the food, so it got me thinking, I really enjoy the food there as well and if even my grandparents (who are normally very picky about food), like it, then I think others will as well. So I want to show you some great images I found and suggest to my readers out there, that the next time you are in the L.A. area and are a bit hungry, you should definitely check this place out. 

PART THREE - BRITE SPOT

"20090607175843" by Googiesque

 Brite Spot

1918 W. Sunset Blvd

Los Angeles, CA

90026

(213) 484-9800

Now, after doing some research online about Brite Spot I've read some good reviews and some bad. I've had friends in the past say that they don't like this place and I've had friends who I go with every so often because they like the place, so I would say this place is really up for grabs when it comes to opinions. I can easily say that every time I've gone there, the people have been nice and the food has been good. I particularly like this place because they offer vegetarian friendly foods as well as a meat lovers paradise (my grandfather can vouch for how good he thinks their hamburgers are). Their diner style (plus lots more) menu is broad and chances are you can find something that sounds yummy to you when there.

Another thing about this restaurant that I like is that they have always played good music when I was there and the decoration inside the place is very interesting and fun to look at. They have chalk boards along the walls that always have great chalk art with special menus incorporated into the art. 

At the end of the day it's your own experience with the place and it's food that determines if you like it or not, but I suggest you give Brite Spot a try. 

"Brite Spot" by Angelica Robles

"Full Moon" by Castro142

"chilaquiles" by 7-how-7

"Brite Spot - breakfast quesadilla" by bionicdog

"Brite Spot - burger" by bionicdog

"Red Velvet Cupcake" by Ms Holloway

"brite spot stop" by neptuneyear

"hot sauce" by '|'||'| '|'{}||{

"Brite Spot - Echo Park by Ms Holloway

"breakfast" by poppely

"britespot2" by dealinhoz

"Andy J. Scott" by laurenlemon

 More pictures of Brite Spot on Flickr can be found here.

Los Angeles Highlights Part 2 - Wacko's Soap Plant / La Luz De Jesus Gallery

• Los Angeles Highlights Part 1 - Venice Beach Boardwalk

Like in my first LA highlights post, there is no better town for me to share knowledge about than my hometown Los Angeles, CA (maybe Florence, Italy and some surrounding cities in Italy, but that's another series all together, possibly...), so I thought my second edition of Los Angeles Highlights would be about one of my favorite shops in LA, a shop that I always take people to if they're from out of town or have never heard of it, so hence this post.

PART TWO - WACKO'S SOAP PLANT / LA LUZ DE JESUS GALLERY

Via: soapplant.com

"Wacko" by hburrussiii on Flickr

Wacko's Soap Plant / La Luz De Jesus Gallery

4633 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90027

Wacko's is unlike any other store I've ever entered before. Sure there are shops out there that sell knick-knacks and what-nots, but I think Wacko's is in a different gene pool because of the sheer size and the overwhelming amount of things everywhere. Every square inch of this place is packed with tons of interesting items from rows and rows of books, to posters of obscure movies (some pornos), felted skulls, incense, lighters, postcards, vinyl records, candy, t-shirts, toys, figurines, bags, bones, reptile skins, dolls, clocks, soaps, etc. etc. All in all Wacko's is your one stop shop of odds and ends and everything in between. 

Another wonderful thing about Wacko's is that it isn't just a store, but a gallery of local artists as well. The gallery is constantly having openings and have a back row of previous artists work always available for purchase. Their blog tells more. 

What Wacko's is really about and it's true history is something I'm unsure about, but what I am sure about is the fact that no matter what kind of person you are I assure you out of the millions of things they sell at this huge store, you are bound to find something that sparks you're interest. 

"WAKO - SOAP PLANT" by wilbura59 on Flickr

"SOAP PLANT - WAKO" by wilbura59 on Flickr

"Wacko" by mimmyg on Flickr

"Wacko/Soap Plant" by Patrick - msigarmy.com on Flickr

"Wacko" by dogwelder on Flickr

"Bibus "Cat Head Under Glass 2010"" by Snap Spontaneo on Flickr

"Sarina Brewer "Franken-Pussy"" by Snap Spontaneo on Flickr

"Sarina Brewer "Pimped Peep"" by Snap Spontaneo on Flickr

There are a lot more photos on Flickr that I found, but the owner did not allow downloading rights, so check them out for yourself here.
Next door to Wacko's is Ozzie Dots, an awesome costume/clothing store that also has odds and ends for one and all. 

Also, their website has a small shop section that has some stuff available for purchase, but nothing near as much as they have in stock in the shop. 

Awesome thing: Google maps does an inside street view of the store!