Movies, Malls, and Stars

On Saturday, the Monkeys saw three movies with Brother Monkey and Brother Monkey's girlfriend. They are pretty much our go-to people for movie days. And, when I say movie day, I really mean day. We started at 12:50 and didn't get out of the theater until after 8:00. Serious stuff.

We began with Transformers, which was simultaneously horrible and awesome. The special effects were wonderful. It's amazing what you can do with CGI these days. But, fundamentally, it was a terrible film. The story was stupid, and the dialogue was extraordinarily stilted. Of course, who the hell goes to watch Transformers for these elements? I didn't. I went for the crashes, explosions, chases, and transforming. I wasn't disappointed. Having been a huge Transformers fan as a child, there was no way I couldn't like this film. If you used to have the toys, roll out to see this!

Our next movie was Live Free or Die Hard. I fell asleep. For about half the movie. My companions tell me it was actually pretty good.

Finally, we saw Ratatouille. I hate Disney, and I hate rodents. Yet, I enjoyed this film. It was easily the best of the day. How they made a rat so utterly adorable is beyond me. This is a movie worth seeing, even if you don't have children. Take it from us -- a 25, 28, 30, and 33-year-old -- it was delightful.

After watching Ratatouille and all of its wonderful imaginary French food, all of us were extremely hungry, so we headed to a tasty dinner at Wood Ranch. Ribs, tri-tip, barbecue chicken, macaroni and cheese, and smashed sweet potatoes. Mmm...expanding waistline.

Sunday brought more food, folks, and fun. I met four friends at The Grove, and we caught up and shopped and had a grand ol' time. We started off at the new Barneys CO-OP, which was lovely, except for the fact that none of us could afford a goddamn thing. Then we hit J. Crew. Strike two. Cute, but just not for me that day. Anthropologie was next. We headed straight to the sales racks. I got a Sweet Pea top ($39.95, originally $68)
and an Edme & Esyllte skirt ($39.95, originally $78).
The gang then journeyed to Banana Republic, where I bought a black silk strapless dress ($94.99, originally $168) and a v-neck silk orange and burgundy bold-patterned dress ($94.99, originally $148).
While I tried on several pieces of clothing, my four friends sat patiently on the long bench outside of my dressing room and witnessed hilarious goings-on unbeknownst to me. An older, heavier woman in a dressing room next to me busted out of her room, spilling out of a way-too-tight and way-too-young dress and demanded of the male dressing room attendant, "Unzip me!" It wasn't a polite "Excuse me, can you please help me with this zipper?" She just barked at him.

As told by my snickering cohorts, the male dressing room attendant looked absolutely horrified and locked eyes with one of my friends as if to beg her, "Please, please don't make me do this." Notwithstanding his silent plea, the male dressing room attendant did his unfortunate duty (which was particularly unfortunate, as the zipper was on the side, directly below this woman's underarm), the woman went back into her dressing room, and the posse giggled uncontrollably. Then, after the woman left the area, the male dressing room attendant informed the bench bunch, "She had hairy armpits!" The giggles escalated to guffaws.

After the Armpit Adventure, we strolled to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to grab some refreshment and then to Nordstrom, where one of our friends invested in some Laura Mercier products and got a free makeover, during which I was regaled with the details of the above Armpit Adventure. The Laura Mercier people laughed, too.

We capped the day off with dinner at The Farm of Beverly Hills, where another friend met us. I had a juicy burger with gruyere, accompanied by fries. My friends dined on a chicken wrap, vegetable pasta, a barbecue chicken salad, a barbecue brisket sandwich, and another cheeseburger. Our desserts included a red velvet cupcake, banana crepes, s'mores, a brownie sundae, and mango sorbet. As usual, we laughed loudly and often and got some dirty looks from other patrons.

But, while everything was tasty enough, the yummiest part of the night was...Paul Rudd! You may remember from a previous blog entry, Paul is The Object of My Affection. I don't know what it is, but this particular group of friends and I always have the best luck spotting stars. Just one little booth wall separated us from him and his cute tousled hair and little bright yellow indie t-shirt with green text.

[swoon]

We all took turns getting up to use the restroom to get a better look, and we all sauntered just a bit more slowly past his table as we left the restaurant.

I love L.A.