Last week, my awesome friend, Misti, came to visit me. She is most definitely one of a kind! It seems every time I'm with Misti, I feel energized and happy, and perfectly free to be my true, utter and real self. Because Misti just loves and accepts you for who you are. I'm so grateful to have a few friends like that. It's a really wonderful feeling!

Misti arrived Tuesday morning, and picking her up from the chaos of LAX was quite a feat in and of itself. I ended up going around the perimeter of the airport twice before realizing we weren't on the same level. "I think you're upstairs," I told her, to which she responded, "There's a DOWNSTAIRS to this place?!" Hee!

We finally met up on the same level at the same time (magic, I tell you!), and headed to Whole Foods for lunch. It was delicious, as usual, and we got some shopping done, too. We ended up talking to a really nice sales girl for like ten minutes! Misti said she's always running into cool people, which I think is just awesome. I realized recently that she has all the good attributes of the Mary Kay people that I always admired (the fearless ability to talk to anyone and everyone, just to say hi and see what they're about), and none of the parts that always made me uneasy (only talking to women who clearly have money, because they're the ones who will make good cutomers, to name just one). Anyway! It made me realize I might try just opening up and talking to people more, because you have fun conversations that way. Such as ones about mold in peanuts that quickly and bizarrely segue into tales of film school and moving across the country from a small town to the big city. Fun times!

We chatted all afternoon until it was evening and we decided to hit the Hard Rock Cafe. Neither of us had ever been there before, and Misti said she felt like going there, because she was in the mood for a loud and bustling place. I got the rare urge to change my outfit before going out, and Misti put my hair in pigtails for the first time in my life (which I loved!). Then we were on our way to Beverly Hills! We got a little lost along the way, but we found it, eventually. And then I giggled, because it was like a ghost town as we walked in. "So much for loud and bustling!" I said to Misti, once we were seated. But we had fun trying to figure out who the artists were for the songs that played overhead, all the while enjoying some cool conversations and really awesome food.

That night, we stayed up until 6am just talking about everything under the sun and more. We got more and more philosophical as the night wore on, which was kind of cool. The theme phrase for her visit that both of us said fairly often was, "Woah, you're blowing my mind!" And we weren't even high or anything! Heh. We were just having fun coming up with random epiphanies and new ways of seeing things. I love sharing different perspectives on things.

The next day we visited Urth Cafe (awesome food!), which is part of the Bodhi Tree Bookstore, one of the coolest metaphysical bookstores out there. They had some amazing things, and while I could have bought like a million of them, I limited myself to a deck of seriously beautiful animal tarot cards, and a little "portable rainbow," which is a piece of wood, with lots of pretty rainbow colored strings hanging from it. It's now hanging on the knob of our halogen lamp in the bedroom. So pretty!

We briefly visited Aunt Vi's garden that day, too, and tried but failed to find a nearby cemetary. See, Misti told me that she loved Marilyn Monroe, and Mallory had told me she'd seen her grave in a cemetary very nearby me. So, how could we not try to find it??

We didn't find it that day, though, so we said we'd try again the next day, and that we did! After another night of staying up late, being silly, and having fun, we actually managed to wake up early, as in, before ten. Woo! We set out to find some lunch and found a parking spot right in front of the cafe we wanted to eat at, where we had an awesome and healthy lunch. Then we discovered the farmer's market right by campus, which we took a quick stroll through and where I made a mental note to revisit sometime soon.

After that, we parked and walked and actually did find the cemetary, where we saw the graves of Mel Torme, Walter Matthau, Rodney Dangerfield, and yes, Marilyn Monroe. I tried showing Misti some tree stars, but it wasn't working out right, unfortunately. I tried to stop checking trees once my eyes hurt from accidentally looking into the sun one too many times! But I checked a couple more after that, anyway. Still, no luck. At least we found the cemetary we were looking for!

Then we had some frozen yogurt, came back to the apartment to relax, and all too soon, it was time to take Misti back to the airport, where I was sad to see her go.

We had a hell of a good time together. We laughed, we shared, we talked constantly for three days! Misti recorded random funny phrases on her tape recorder that, when played back, made me laugh so hard I cried all my mascara off! She also helped me style my hair in a fun, new way, and we both had fun taking lots of pictures to document our silly time together.

I love Misti! I really appreciate the love and energy she brings to my life. She is a true friend, and I can't wait to see her again soon!

See the rest of the pics here!