Day 20: Los Angeles

Well.. today has been uneventful to say the least.

I woke up at 10 knowing I wasn't going to have a full on day. I sat outside and the German guy (not the hot one, the creepy one) kept asking me what I'm doing, where I'm going.

"I don't know."

I don't want him to hang around us and invite himself like he's done numerous times before. He's so odd. I know that sounds so bullying and child like but this guy is like 40 and he made jokes about killing us all and saying how Amsterdam is JUST about weed. Yeah so anyway, I was sitting outside and then I see someone walk out of the door. It was Ryan, a roommate I had during my stay in Miami who was really nice. We conversed and he told me he was going to see the place where Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded his favourite album. I would've went however I was not sure what time I had to be in places today, which I knew I had to be in places.

I ended up leaving to attempt to go to the Grammy's Red Carpet at 2:00. I had an iced mocha frappucino with caramel sauce on the whipped cream for lunch. Hey, it's got like 400 calories, so it's ample. Got on the subway, and topped up my tap card with $20 for a 7 day pass. I was sick of topping it up every day knowing I was gonna use close to enough to $20. I should've done it from the beginning when I topped it up with $!0. Oh well. I got on a train and a light rail to the Staples Center where the Grammy's were to be held. This man (who was obviously homeless) on the train kept talking to me. I have my earphones in for a reason. I do not want to talk to you. 

"Does this go to the Staples Center?"

Well there is only ONE train that will go there and you are standing on that platform. So yes.

"Yes."

"Where you off to?"

"Staples Center."

"But where you off to?" he continued to hassle me.

"The Grammy's" I replied

"Same, you got a ticket?"

"No I'm just chilling"

"Oh I'm picking up mine. I'm a member."

Bullshit you fucking old fart. I had my earphones in blasting it loudly as possible so this motherfucker got the point. He would not stop hassling me, asking me where I lived (Hollywood), how old I was (22), if I was from USA (yes, migrated from Mexico). Stop fucking talking to me. As I was walking to the venue, I made sure he was in front of me so he could hurry up, I was slowing down on purpose so I wasn't near him and he kept looking back purposely going slower. At one point the light to cross went off, and I power walked into a crowd and I lost him. Yay. Freak.

Anyway, back to the Grammys. It was jam packed. The entire like 4 blocks was blocked off. Imagine like the Hume Highway blocked off, and you can't even cross the road. That was the Grammy's. I ended up walking down about 4 blocks to where I was allowed to cross the road and proceeded to enter a section that was barricaded off and there were so many fans waiting at the barricades. Mind you, we could not see a red carpet. If you see a horizontal strip that you'd assume would be where the red carpet is, and at the end you see an ANGLED red carpet, barricaded off my huge shields, you get a bit disheartened. I spoke to people around me who had been to numerous Grammy shows before and other award shows and premiere (there was a couple that met through doing that together for 5 years), and they told me it was the first time that the Grammy's had ever shielded it off and had it in that location rather than on the horizontal strip. The only "famous" people we saw was Tamar Braxton, Far East Movement, Capital Cities (they sing that song Safe and Sound), and Billy Ray Cyrus (who we just kept asking for Miley lol). This guy behind me kept talking about how he did meth with some famous person backstage, yeah bullshit, and I don't think that's a thing you should be like parading around anyway. I exchanged numbers with some of the nicer people so we could all go together to the premiere of That Awkward Moment with Zac Efron. Hopefully that's more fulfilling than the fucking Grammy's..

On the way home I gave in - I had Mcdonalds. I had a hot and spicy mcchicken and a small fries. That mcchicken was sized like a chicken and cheese, but it was so great. It wasn't as big as a normal mcchicken in Australia, knowingly because it was only $2 or something like that.

I made my way to the after parties, however I didn't realise how early I left.. I reached the Warner Music Group. Security was so tight. So. Tight. Like honestly if you were trying to get into that huge traffic light near St. James Station and Elizabeth St (I'm sure most of you know which one I'm talking about, you'd be told to move at Hyde Park Fountain. Legit. And they're so rude too! 

"You better move bud or I'ma get the police on you"

I did not even say anything. I was just walking. I did not say one word. What if I legitimately wanted to get past? Fucking douche. The show was still on and even paparazzi were told to move by police. This was horrible. What were my chances? Very slim. It's not like me to give up on a celebrity opportunity, but I gave up.

I continued to walk to where another after party was at - the Republic Music Group after party. On the way I stopped at a Coffee Bean to kill some time because I was so early and I had a latte. I sat there for like 40 minutes just talking to Paolo because I missed his voice. I ended up realising, it's not going to be worth it. Was Britney, Miley, Gaga, Rihanna or Beyonce gonna be there? No. I gave up. Again. Honestly, celebrity stalking here is so different to back home. Security is so tight because of paparazzi and because a lot of the events are "invite only". They need to realise though we aren't trying to sneak into the events. (I'm writing this the next morning). It's a good thing I decided to go back home because the only notable people that went to the first after party was Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran (I'm a Katy fan but the first after party was too tight), the second after party no one went there, wow. 

Getting home, I got a service called Lyft. It's like Uber back home, and cheaper than a cab. This service is so good, you can get a driver in like a minimal amount of time and it's a regular person and you just talk to them and all that stuff. It's pretty cool.

On the way home, I had been talking to my date for the next day (which is today, if that makes sense, I'm writing about Sunday and it's Monday right now).

Conversational tangent: Ugh. I'm so over Australians they are everywhere you go. Well maybe because there's a group of really homosexually ignorant folk here. Talking about fags trying to hit on them or how we are opposite a gay center (which we are) and how they're most likely to get STIs. I'm just keeping my mouth shut not because I'm not proud, but there's like 10 built guys and I wouldn't be surprised if I got bashed. Ignorant fucks. But hey Patrick just sat in front of me. Oh Patrick. But this chair smells like piss. Why am I sitting on it. Ugh.

Anyway, so yeah, I had been talking to my date and we organised dinner in Santa Monica together. I'm so excited! 

Budget:

Food:

$4.50 - Starbucks

$5? - Coffee Bean

$4 - Mcdonalds

Oh I forgot I also ate dinner with Joyce and Reese, I ordered something but only finished half and gave the rest to Reese.

$12 - Spicy Chicken Fried Rice

= $26 (let's just round it up)

(Oh I found out what smells like piss, it's this woman's perfume, dumb bitch).

$26 - Taxi (10 + 16)

$20 - Recharging my public transport card (it'll be worth it)

22 + 26 + 20 = $66.

How the fuck did I spend $66. Honestly. That's still within my budget but fuck sake.