Saturday Stroll

When it's football season and Penn State is playing, Mr. Monkey will sit on the couch and not move for several hours. In light of this, yesterday, I took a little walk and got my nails done at Butterfly Total Beauty, as I often do on Saturdays.

To get to Butterfly, I have to cross a bridge over the freeway. This is quintessential downtown L.A.

Butterfly Total Beauty is the best little nail salon downtown (but, of course, that's not really saying that much, since there are only three other options that I know of). It's located on the ground floor of the Medici Apartments and, while the decor is totally not my style, it is well-lit, clean, and spacious.

I love Butterfly because it has awesome massage chairs and does not use nasty whirlpool footbaths, which are breeding grounds for gross bacteria. Instead, Butterfly uses shallow glass bowls that are frequently washed. I simply can't go to salons with bubbling bacteria baths!

Butterfly has a large selection of both O.P.I. and Essie nail polishes. (They also have China Glaze and Orly, but, really, who wants those when you can have Essie or O.P.I.?) This time I got O.P.I's Sweet Memories for my mani (which I requested to be really short this time) and O.P.I.'s Pink-ing of You for my pedi. My usual practice is to do two sessions of massages while my nails dry (the "Morning" followed by "Nighttime" well-being programs). Ahhh.

I really like the color Sweet Memories. It's a lovely sheer pink that looks very natural but much prettier than plain natural nails. The last polish I had (Essie's Real Simple) was a tad too opaque and white for my liking, so I was really glad for the change. I always get my toes pinker, so Pink-ing of You (an old staple of mine) was perfect (it's very close to Essie's Beach Party).

After my nails had sufficiently dried and my joints and muscles had been soothed by good vibrations, I crossed the bridge once again and decided to step into Ann Taylor to see if I could score any deals, especially given the inviting sign outside.

Sometimes I get a kick out of going shopping dressed like a slob, and I'm often oblivious to chatty salespeople because I have headphones on. I'm not really sure why I get such a kick...maybe something about raising suspicious eyebrows when I walk in and dropping dough on my way out.

First, I tried on the pants in my old size. I felt like a SlimFast commercial. Woohoo! Then I tried on the suit in the next smaller size. What a difference a suit makes!

The great thing is that I didn't really drop major dough. The suit jacket was originally $228.00 and the pants $128.00, totaling a whopping $356.00. Totally not worth that price, of course. Never one to pay retail, I shelled out $97.49 for the jacket and $74.99 for the pants. After tax, I spent $186.71 for the whole suit -- nearly half off. Pretty sweet for a semi-decent suit that I can basically wear off the rack. Yay for the Ann Taylor petites line!

As I happily toted my new purchase home, I passed the filming of a commercial, which is a very common sight downtown on the weekends. A ton of filming -- for commercials, television, and movies -- takes place downtown because it's the closest approximation to NYC or any other metropolitan location and is practically deserted on the weekends.

Stuff like this doesn't faze me, but I thought I'd snap a few pics for my non-L.A. fans. Holla!

And that was my Saturday stroll through the neighborhood.