Celebrity Sighting!

I know, I've had a dry spell when it comes to celebrity sightings. Luckily, my coworkers were nice enough to let me know that "New Girl" was being filmed right outside our building. I took a quick break from work to go watch. I saw Zooey Deschanel and Dermot Mulroney! May I just say that he looks much better with some gray in his hair. And Zooey is sooo pretty, even in real life. I didn't try to zoom in and get a good picture of her for fear of being kicked out and not allowed to watch the filming. But I did see her eating lunch and eating an apple (she looked great eating an apple... I only wish I looked as cool and un-awkward as she does).

It was also really exciting seeing the filming. The set medic came over to offer us some sunscreen and he chatted with us for a few minutes. I could see the set people driving cars around to set up the scene (it was a scene where Zooey's car breaks down).

While I don't actually have a picture of the celebrities I saw (my coworker was brave enough to ask to take a picture with Zooey), but I hope to soon post some pictures of the filming.

Latest celebrity sighting

Bouchon, a French restaurant in LA, is great for celebrity sightings. The husband and I have only gone during Restaurant Week, but apparently famous people go then also (I don't think they bother with Restaurant Week though).

We went last Sunday night with a coworker of mine and his girlfriend, and inadvertently ordered the same food we had last Restaurant Week. But it was still really tasty.

The real highlight though was seeing Michael Caine, who I love as Victor Melling, the pageant coach, in Miss Congeniality (one of my favorite movies ever, tied with Legally Blonde and the Oceans movies). The husband recognized his voice -- yes apparently that's the way he talks in real life -- and so we all looked, and sure enough, it was him. Exciting!!

Cotillion and Conan

This post is long overdue, I know, but I finally had a break from work and other stuff.

A few weeks ago, I attended the first meeting of the school year for the Girl Scout troop I am mentoring. Get this... the meeting was at a country club. The leader who's a member (well technically her family is a member since her grandfather was a founder) tried to tell me that the club used to be kitschy and only became fancy in the last few years. But still.

The oddest part about the club was the cabanas. It was in Malibu on the beach, so each family had a beach facing cabana where they could hang out. But the cabanas reminded me more of storage units you can rent by the month -- complete with metal roll-up door and no windows. About the same size too. But it was nice!

So the reference to cotillion. I had always thought cotillion was something done only in books and movies. I know it's Southern, but I didn't think even people in the South still had cotillions. But no, the girls in the Girl Scout troop are in the process of planning their cotillions. Crazy! I'm hoping to get invited. It sounds fun and fancy :)

And the reference to Conan... I dropped my car off at the gas station to be washed, and I sat in a Starbucks for a while and did work. Before picking up the car, I decided to walk over to the bank and get some cash for tip. On my way back to the gas station, I noticed three people walking backwards while taking pictures. I was trying to figure out what or who they were photographing. I saw a guy walking with his son, so I assumed they were famous. I stared at the guy for a while, and I realized it was Conan O Brien! It was so exciting! I did feel bad for him though since he was just trying to go on a walk with his son and they were being photographed like crazy by the paparazzi.

Another celebrity sighting

Sort of. The last group of volunteers I led at Dress for Success was a group from the Actors Fund. There was a bunch of kids -- one from Dexter, one from a Geico commercial, and one with a minor role in the new Red Riding Hood. I think that counts as seeing celebrities, at the very least they're stars. That was exciting =)

Right now I'm sitting at home with a cold =( I'm hoping it gets better soon, given that I have a busy weekend. I do have to shout out props to Puffs with Vicks. Those tissues are amazing!

And I'm super excited about the fact that Lion King is being released in 3D! There's a really cute theater near our place that's old school with great seats and murals on the walls, and they're actually playing the movie! I'm hoping to watch it this weekend, but I'm not hopeful given that I still have a lot of work to do on my business school essays. We'll see :)

Latest (but not really greatest) celebrity sighting

Well, I suppose it wasn't really a sighting because we went there with the purpose of seeing him. A friend of ours works in product PR, so she got invited to a launch party for some tequila that Oscar de la Hoya is the new face of. Something about legacy of tequila and legacy of boxing... his speech wasn't great, so I missed out on why he's promoting the tequila (besides the fact he's making lots of money).

Anyway, I saw him, and I snuck a picture for proof. By the way, the husband claimed that no one who read my blog would know who he is, but I think he's pretty well known, so let me know if I'm way off base here.

The party itself was interesting. It was at this old theater way east in LA (well, easter than I've been before) and it had been converted into a banquet hall of sorts. It was beautiful, with gilded ceilings and huge antique chandeliers. The decorations were also really fancy.

But the party itself wasn't all that. I didn't feel like I was in the hippest Wednesday night scene. Everyone was sort of in their own groups, eating food and drinking (tequila of course), there was no mingling or anything I'd associate with a "scene" (not that I've been to a "scene" before so I have nothing to compare to). The girls were definitely dressed like it was a scene though. Skirts/dresses were a little too tight and a little too short. Our friend and I were both wearing business casual, since we had come straight from work. What I want to know is how all those other people either got away with wearing those outfits to work or had time to change clothes between work and the party.

We both felt so old critiquing their outfits as too scandalous, especially since they were all our age (at least). But I guess when you're not from LA, you tend to have a more conservative approach. I think our friend is from Maryland, which is borderline South / East Coast, both of which tend to take a more conservative approach to dressing. Yes, girls in the South dress up for silly things like football games, but they wear classy (knee-length) dresses and pearls - not what girls in LA tend to wear, at least not for parties like this.

So to be honest, I own a few "LA" pieces (by few I mean 1), but I just feel really overdressed wearing something tight and short on a weeknight. Am I just overly conservative? Or LA just is a totally different fashion scene?

Anyway, this week has been quiet except for this party (woot, we stayed out until 10:30 on a weeknight!). I'll post more this weekend about my Girl Scout volunteering.

Remember that celebrity...

Remember that celebrity I saw at Yogurtland after I just moved to LA? The guy that looked sort of Indian and older? (See post here)

Well I started watching Glee last night -- Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2 -- and I realized that the guy I saw is the principal on the show. Iqbal Theba. Not Indian -- Pakistani -- but still of South Asian descent. And he lives in LA so it all fits.

I'm glad that mystery is solved.

In other news, Glee is so awesome. I'm very excited to go home tonight and watch more episodes.

Target Dresses and Indian Food

So this weekend I had two accomplishments.
1. I went to Target the first day they had their Designer Collaboration re-release and I bought 4 dresses (of which I will keep 2-3). I'm very excited. I rarely buy stuff full price, but given that this is limited edition, I was willing to fork over the whole $40. I will probably write about the dresses in a later post.
2a. I cooked some good Indian food. Well, mostly good. I found some fresh okra at the Indian store and I was inspired to try a new recipe. I spent 20 minutes mincing onion really finely for a North Indian stuffed okra recipe, but by the time the okra actually cooked to an edible texture, the onions had burnt into a blackened mass on the bottom of the skillet. Sad. The okra was still good though.
2b. I also made bitter gourd with tamarind sauce. I absolutely love bitter gourd. It is, as its name suggests, really bitter, but with the right hot and sour sauce (the aforementioned tamarind plus chili powder plus other spices), the bitterness is tempered and you get a healthy bunch of goodness. Instead of using frozen bitter gourd as I usually do, I actually found some beautiful fresh bitter gourd at the Indian store, which results in a much crispier dish. Mmmmm looking forward to eating those leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

On another note, I had another celebrity sighting -- and this was one I sought/sighted/saw myself. We were walking out of a restaurant and I was looking around at all the people because I felt sorely underdressed. And then tucked away in a corner near the entrance I saw a familar face with blond hair and a weird nose. I did a double take and realized it was Owen Wilson. Not wanting the husband to miss out on the sighting (he missed the first one), I turned around and hissed "Hey, look, it's Owen Wilson to your right." Luckily, he was able to see him =) I'm pretty proud of myself for noticing a celebrity. I feel like I'm generally too oblivious to notice these things.

Lastly, to finish off this post revealing my true dorky sensibilities, I spent some time earlier today making a weight loss spreadsheet for my husband. I made graphs, I added a moving BMI counter, and I used index/match functions to link everything together. I'm pretty proud of myself actually. My husband, who's made his own share of Excel models, thought I'd downloaded the spreadsheet and didn't believe me when I told him I made it myself. So since it's not copyrighted or anything, let me know if you want the spreadsheet and I can send it to you. I'm hoping it will be useful and help him reach his goal.

Another celebrity

So I saw another celebrity last night -- at dinner at Bouchon. I guess I just haven't been hanging out in the right places thus far, so now that I'm going to "trendy" places, I'm seeing celebrities. I mean, I don't think I'd ever notice unless someone pointed them out, so I'll probably be oblivious most of the time.

Last night, two tables away from us were Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Suri Cruise -- and two assistants or something. Our friend Ravi pointed them out to us (we would never have noticed if not for him). It was fascinating sitting so close to them, but I didn't want to be rude and stare and then be kicked out of the restaurant for bothering the clientele. But I snuck a few discreet looks and here's what I noticed. Katie Holmes is much prettier in person than she is in magazines. Tom Cruise's hair is really really glossy. I don't know what it is, but his hair just seemed really straight and shiny. And Suri was so cute! But that's about all I could gather without being creepy.

On another note, does anyone know how Tom and Katie agreed to give Suri the last name Cruise instead of Holmes or Holmes-Cruise? It looks like Katie still goes by her original (maiden?) last name.

In other news, Restaurant Week continues through the end of the week but the husband and I are going alone so it's unlikely we'll notice any celebrities that may be around. But that's okay -- I'm not jaded yet from seeing too many celebrities, but I also realized that it doesn't make a difference since they just sit and enjoy normal dinners (in public!) like the rest of us.

My first REAL celebrity sighting!

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I went to Nobu for Restaurant Week last night with some friends. The food was good and all that, but the most important and notable part was that I finally got to see a real celebrity up close.

My friend Chetesh nudged me on our way out and said "Hey that's a Lakers player over there." I don't know a lot of Lakers players, but I thought I'd ask which player it was. It turns out it's Pau Gasol, one of the only two Lakers I recognize (the other being Kobe, of course). I didn't recognize him though -- I've only seen a few games, and in those games, he's always running around sweaty with a headband with his hair flopping around. At Nobu, he actually looked like an awkward, pimply 18 year old. Even though I think he's older. And his hair may have been shorter.

Anyway, the point of this ramble is that I finally saw a real celebrity in LA! I'm hoping I'll see a few more during Restaurant Week -- I will keep y'all posted!

My first celebrity sighting!

Ever since I've moved to LA a month ago, I've been waiting to see celebrities. Tonight was that fateful night where I saw my first celebrity.

After some friends and I went to an Indian restaurant in Culver City, we went to the nearby fro-yo place that has neon green and neon pink spoons. My husband noticed an older, distinguished Indian gentleman with gray hair that was combed back. He surreptitiously leaned in and said "I think I've seen that guy sitting behind us on TV." I turned around and stared. I recognized him from somewhere, but unfortunately I can't remember his name or what TV show he was from. Great... my first celebrity sighting and I don't even know who he is or why he is famous.