We had the best evening with Ying yesterday! She was coming back from closing on their house in Denver, and we went to LAX to pick her up at 5:20. After we got there, we found out plans had changed so that Ståle was going to fly in too, around 10, so we said we’d hang out until then and pick him up too. And thus began the evening.
We went to Versailles and stuffed ourselves silly on garlic-saucy everything, then decided to spend the rest of the time at the Arclight seeing Kung Fu Panda. We began to creep north through the traffic on La Cienega, when I thought about how lovely the air felt outside and opted to take a detour.
We ended up in the park between LACMA and the Page Museum, where there are modern sculptures as well as giant reeking tar pits. Both museums were closed, but no matter. We wandered through the park and around LACMA grounds and this is what we did:
-discovered that the stuff that smells like asphalt on top of the tar pits is asphalt, and the bubbles are methane coming up from below
-watched two boys practicing capoeira in front of the Page Museum
-wondered what a lady was doing (was she praying?) but discovered she was merely covering her eyes and counting to play hide-and-seek with her granddaughter
-walked on the grass in our bare feet
-walked single file over straight concrete structures (like benches)
-went up and down a clear glass elevator
-had a security guard wave at us in some kind of security-guard semaphore we didn’t understand
-found a stack of random pieces of wood, and moved two pieces of wood perpendicular to the others (one horizontally, one vertically)
-found purple poppies
-walked through a sculpture we were supposed to stay off
-made “Ikea instructions” for a sculpture and found new appreciation for it [sadly, I can no longer find our drawing]
-sat in and on trees
-threw a piece of bark in the tar pits and watched it float
-jumped on a concrete bridge and made it shake
-wandered through and admired all the markings on Chris Burden’s incredibly beautiful light installation, “Urban Light,” in front of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum
-talked to a security guard and found out the light installation was solar-powered
-watched a photographer come out early
Then we went to Milk, had milkshakes, and admired pretty boys (well, Ying and I did anyway).
And we got to LAX early to pick up Ståle, and while we waited, we clapped, tapped, danced, and “ta-ta-ta”-ed out complicated West African rhythms (courtesy of Erik). The other people thought we were crazy, but it was so much fun. We fetched a very cranky Ståle and took him and Ying back home, and then we went home.
Best evening in a long time, and all we did was nothing. And eat.
[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 