Thanks for dinner, the disappearing act.

Despite your age, when you go out to dinner with your friend's parents, they'll insist that they pay. That's been my experience, thus far, anyways. Anticipating that that's the case, you often wonder if you should even offer to pay your share.

It seems when you try, you get an almost disgusted reaction that you would even consider such notion. As though they're thinking, "she thinks we went poor all of the sudden?" So you sit and chow down, occasionally ponder whether you should eat less, not order that martini, dessert & coffee? Screw it, just order like you're gonna pay. But of course, you're not.

I Heart Free Meals.

Travel Gay's birthday is 12 days after mine, so on Saturday, we went to Deluxe Panda Express (a.k.a. P.F. Chang's) for dinner. His parents are awesome. Despite his mom's religious ways, she managed to have a gay son, an extreme jesus-lovin' seminary-going son, and a once-divorced then impregnated-out-of-wedlock daughter. She takes it all in stride now, but it has certainly taken some time. Her and the mister always make me feel like part of the family. Who wouldn't want an adopted Asian child? Everyone's doing it... Seeing and being with them always make me feel warm and fuzzy.

On Sunday, Artsy Gal and made it down to The Garment District. We had a field day going through an insane amount of fabric choices to make our belly dancing costumes.

(Speaking of which... Yikes! Just about a month until we perform, for the first time EVER, on stage, in front of strangers. *gulp*)

It's a blessing that her and I are usually in sync with our tastes and color palette. We got some magenta stretch velvet for our tops, mostly blueish kinda tie-dyed flowy fabric for the skirt, nice turquoise silk for the veil, and a sequined material to make fringed belts. There's gonna be some major sweat shop work going on in the next month...

So a fun story for you... Not sure how many you have experienced what Downtown Los Angeles has to offer, but one thing is for sure... Whether it's at the garment district or the jewelry district, it's full of illegal vendors. No, I don't mean Mexicans, though they typically are. Go figure.

Picture it (Sicily, 1933), Artsy Gal and I hit a jewelry stand that advertises $1 for any item. What a deal?! (Refer to #59 on 100 BCOL Revelations) While looking through the racks of cheap earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, I smell delicious Mexican Food. Mmmmm.... where's that coming from? I turn to see a crowd surrounding a tiny little food cart. Two men are frantically trying to take money and dispense food. I thought to myself, "Mmmm, carnitas tacos. But, I'll wait until the crowd dies down a bit." I continue to look at the jewelry...

No more than 3 minutes later, I look back at the direction of the food cart... No more crowd, no more food. They disappeared! What the....?

You'll come to learn that there's a large network of flash pan vendors that work by ways of ultimate mobility and wireless communication. They've got each other's back and surely have point people/informants. If you see a vendor on their cell phone, within seconds, they'll be packed up and gone. They don't mess around and they're certainly not about to pay any sort of store front overhead. What rent? What license? What's a fee? We don't need no stinkin' inspection.

Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed for not getting a Tijuana-style, potentially E Coli laced, taco from a rinky dink street vendor. Next time amigos, next time...