Our friends from the restaurant

When you speak to strangers at a restaurant, do you invite them to your house?
We know some people who do just that, and more!

Three years ago, Daniel, Sophia and I went to dinner with my parents, my sister and her husband at the Bridge Café near South Street Seaport in New York. Sophia had just learned to walk, and was toddling all over the place – mostly up to other people’s tables and into the kitchen.

Respite arrived in the form of Will, a nine-year old from LA jauntily dressed in a three-piece pinstriped suit (his mother, Julia, said he never dressed down). He spent the next few hours entertaining Sophia – at and under our table, and that of his family. Daniel and I enjoyed the rare treat of sitting back for a nice meal, a drink and a chat with our family.

At the end of the meal, Julia took down our email address and said that if we were ever in LA, we would have to visit them.

So three years later, we did.

Julia, a writer of magazine articles, screenplays and now a novel, suggested that we park the Airstream outside their house and said we were welcome to use the facilities and have breakfast inside.

I think we initially took up their offer because it was so crazy. We suspect that they invited us to stay for the same reason.

Julia and her husband Chris, who is a comedy writer for TV shows including ‘Frasier’ and ‘Beavis and Butthead’, live in Hollywood. Also residing there are Will, now a more mellow (waistcoat, but no jacket) 12 years old, their ten-year old extrovert daughter Coco. Grandmother, who at 81 is still a practicing doctor, lives there part-time.

The first night, we were invited to a pizza dinner. The second night, to Grandmother’s birthday party. The third night, room was offered in the driveway, and there was talk of sleeping in Coco’s bedroom once Julia’s niece and nephew – in town to support Alabama at the big national college championship football game against Texas at the Rose Bowl – returned to Birmingham, Alabama.

All the while, Julia provided excellent suggestions for things to do in LA, the whole family played with the girls, and Will asked when I would be updating the blog – noting that the last entry was December 17, and printing out pie charts showing readers’ countries of origin.

After two nights, we had to go. We felt too guilty, and were unsure what – if anything – we were providing in return.

We did return, though, on our way out of LA en route to San Francisco. Airstream-less (the trailer is spending the next week at C&G Trailers, a repair shop that has been highly recommended up and down the West Coast), we were upgraded to a specially converted suite in Coco’s room, edging the poor girl out of her own bed, on a school night.

Once we return with Daniel’s mother, Barbara, we are invited to stay with them once more.

We have been adopted.

Promiscuity

Since we got to LA, we have done a terrible job at keeping up with the blog.
The excuse is rather fabulous: we have been leading a very active social life!

One could even say we’ve been promiscuous. We hope we haven’t taken advantage.

Everyone has really gone out of their way to be incredibly kind to us. We hope we can do nice things back to them, and soon.

Because it’s unclear whether our friends in LA know just how much we get around, we had better come clean about our dalliances, right here, in chronological order.

• Our friends from New York: Soo-Hyun and Joseph, who I met ten years or so ago - through Stephanie, who singlehandedly spins huge networks of smart, talented, fun friends – moved to LA from New York about a year and a half ago. They felt like a change, plus it made sense for work – Soo-Hyun had won a place at a screenwriting lab in LA, and Joseph’s photography often took him to the West Coast. Plus, the chance to swap an apartment for a house and garden would give their son Nomi plenty of space to play.

The night we rolled into LA, they greeted us not only with a dinner party but a spot in their driveway to park our Airstream for three weeks. Plus, they put us up at their house (see photo 1), and then at Soo-Hyun’s sister Chi-Yoon’s, where we did some light cat-sitting.

Throughout our time in LA, they’ve welcomed us into their Atwater Village home/clubhouse/workspace, sharing many a meal, drink and essential LA tip (such as using one’s GPS to avoid getting hopelessly lost).

Nomi and Sophia have become BFFs, playing for hours at a time without fighting. They even manage to merge his-and-her games into something that works….for example, Mommy and Baby Spock.

It must be serious: Sophia is considering marrying Nomi.

• My former Brooklyn flatmate: Lisette “Lisi” Linares – another point in Stephanie’s magical web - was one of my flatmates in Williamsburg 13 years ago. She is – of course – the one person we know who has starred in reality TV (‘Survivor: Fiji’) and had an electropunk hit in France.

She and her girlfriend Carolyn, who moved to West Hollywood from Miami seven years ago, are so much fun and pick out the best kids’ gifts. Like the British accented phonics game Sophia calls the “punch-button-er”, a Hannah Montana doll and Lulu’s glow in-the-dark, spinny-roundy, smiley-faced rattle/teething ring. We have a Beverly Hills celebrity bus tour pending.

• My former Michigan flatmate: Laura, who’s been mentioned before on this blog – she’s the ONE person so far to join us for a spot of camping!

Laura, who moved to LA to study Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica - has hosted us in not one but two houses in LA – the first in Mid City and the second in Los Feliz – all while starting a new job, moving and having her mom to visit. As if that weren’t enough, she also drove us to LAX at 5 in the morning and looked after our car for two weeks.

• My childhood friend: Elisa doesn’t live in LA, but was in town with her boyfriend Eric en route to New Zealand (their hobby is spending all their time and money going to weddings all around the world). Their friend Elizabeth threw a very elegant New Year’s Eve Eve party for them, so we all (Spring-Landons, Soo-Hyun, Joseph and Nomi) got to tag along.

• Our friends from the restaurant: This one probably merits its own posting, so maybe it will become one. See below.

• Daniel’s brother’s friend: Brian Parsons, Tim Spring’s good friend from a long time ago – we’re still not sure where – moved to LA a year or so ago to head up the theatre department at USC.

He is loving life in Marina del Rey, dating a beautiful German and has no intention of ever leaving. He joined us for a barbeque at our RV park in Anaheim, it was great fun.

• Our friend from the campground: Kristyn, who we met on our extended stay-cation at Santa Margarita Lake – she spent a weekend staying in the cabins with her university friends – totally hooked us up with Disneyland tickets. Her friend Ramona works for Disney and signed us into the park.

We went to some galleries with her as well, and hope to see her again.