Vacay with The Diva

OMG! Never again!

We went to L.A. for a few days and it was supposed to be to relax and have some "Mom and me" time along with being available in case an audition or two came up. It didn't happen that way. The Diva was a total beotch nearly the whole time. "I don't like _______!", "I don't wanna _______" (fill in the blanks), "That's gay!", "This is stupid!", "Whatever!" (with much eyerolling)--anyone with a teen can come up with the list. In addition, she had sprained her foot during Modern Dance last Friday and so was whining about that the whole time, putting on a big act with exaggerated limp when she was bored.

I just wanted to do touristy stuff--you know, the beach, Hollywood Blvd., movie star hunts, eat in a "star" hangout... The only shopping I planned on was the American Girl Place, but then *someone* discovered shopping in Beverly Hills. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! We couldn't walk down the street without her dodging into a shop to look at the "cute top". Only good shopping was walking into a Barnes & Noble and discovering that Gene Wilder was doing a book signing.

On top of it all, one of the stores double-charged my CC and refused to reverse it without a second receipt. I think the PITA clerk screwed with it and pocketed the difference, but the store manager wouldn't do a thing. I can call their corporate office and I have already done a challenge through my CC company, but while I wait, I do not have that balance in my account.

We did get to do *some* sightseeing at my insistence. I got brave and drove up into the hills all the way up to Mulholland to look at the Hollywood sign up close and personal. You cannot go up to to the sign itself, but we got close enough. I took a picture of the "Keep Out" sign on the fence along with the others I took. I couldn't get the sulky one to take one of me, though. She was too busy whining about something random.

I did make sure we did full-on tourist and drove down to Hollywood Boulevard, pointing out all the famous landmarks. But I was on a mission for myself. I wanted to get a picture of me by Roddy McDowall's star at 6632 W. Hollywood. Nice neighborhood....

Then we drove over to the Kodak Center to park in the city garage (parking in crappy public lots was like $10 cash up front and not very safe). Diva hit the mall immediately, so we lost some sightseeing time. Once she was bribed with a Build-a-Bear bunny, we did the Walk of Stars. I found a lot of my favorites and took pictures. We then went to Grauman's and played in the footprints for quite a while. I wanted to find the Hollywood Bowl to pay homage to where The Beatles played, but got lost.

Getting out of L.A. during rush hour was a total bitch and it took almost two hours. By the time we got out, it was almost dark. The Diva was cranky, I was tired and we ended up stopping in Baker for the night. The room was austere (to be gentle); Ms. Thang said it looked like a gas station bathroom and she was kind of right. Oh, well... It was a bed. We left as early as we could and got home about 9 AM yesterday.

Good things: Meeting Gene Wilder at a book signing, spending time with The Diva when she wasn't being obnoxious, down time, sharing an elevator with the guy who did the psychedelic lighting effects for "The Trip" (1967 movie with Peter Fonda-Jack Nicholson wrote the screenplay; luckily I've seen it and could truthfully tell him I liked his work).

Bad things: Spending time with The Diva when she WAS obnoxious, wasting time in stores when we could have been exploring, stress.

Pictures to follow.

Balletland is on notice

I have held off as long as I can. I will likely be contacting the ACLU in the next week to file an ADA suit against VS-K and the actual company. I wonder if, after all the other scandals they are trying to sweep under the rug, they can take another hit.