Life Highlights: Downtown LA with Ike

From Ike's Snapchat at lunch - only selfie we took today, but I love it anyways (we don't have many silly photos together).

Today was one of my favourite days! Ike and I planned to hang out today on Sunday, but due to being so stressed from moving, I accidentally told him on Tuesday that I was available Wednesday.  He had the day cleared and planned for us when on Wednesday morning I realised what happened and I told him that I had cleared Thursday, not Wednesday to hang out.  After much guilt (and stress) everything worked out so that Ike could still come today (Praise the Lord!) and I'm very happy that we were able to spend the entire day together!

He picked me up from my place at 11am (and was punctual, which was impressive) before we headed into LA for a surprise "planned" trip.  First stop was Grand Central Market.  I hadn't eaten breakfast, so we got southern style BBQ which was amazing.  They even had Arnold Palmer there for $2.50 with free refills - and you could cut in line to fill back up! Excellent all the way around.

Sign right outside Grand Central that a ton of tourists were photographing.

Then we went off to Little Toyko to play at an arcade there.  Unfortunately, it was closed, but we ended up wandering around instead which was even better.  We explored an odd shop with a lot of products I didn't understand like "face massagers" made of plastic and weird sticky notes that had pictures of a "lamp", "clock", and "aeroplane" all grouped together.  (It must be Big in Japan).  It was super fun - Ike was particularly enamoured with the key swords they had there as well as the massive China balls (although they were of much cheaper quality than proper film Chinas).  We even stumbled upon the Japanese cultural centre which had two very needed things - public restrooms and a beautiful garden that was built in the1970s to celebrate Japanese Americans in Los Angeles.

On our way to Little Toyko, but we ended up wandering throughout Downtown to try and find it.

Ike posing at the cute garden we found - it was extremely beautiful and peaceful, but the effect was somewhat dimmed by the sirens just beyond the trees and the loud movement of city workers hauling equipment everywhere.

Afterwards, Ike suggested going to a museum.  I definitely agreed, and although he had originally planned on going to the Broad, we ended up deciding on going to MOCA.  Of course, by this time we had thoroughly wandered around Downtown.  We kept on walking until we realised that we had gone in a big loop back around to the Central Market.  Our GPS said that we had to go on 3rd street, but there was a tunnel blocking our way with no pedestrian crossing.  However, to the side of it were multiple flights of stairs.  It had already been one heck of a "leg day", so we decided to conquer the flights (and hill it was on) before we emerged in the California Plaza.  My favourite place in DTLA, Blue Cow Kitchen, is located here and I knew it was very close to MOCA.  However, I wasn't sure where it was so we stopped to ask a friendly security guard who not only told us directions but also pointed us to a place where we could get free ice cream.  Profusely thanking him, we decided to take advantage - particularly because earlier in the day Ike wanted to get dessert in Little Toyko, but I opted to wander towards MOCA instead.

The excellent free vanilla ice cream with complimentary chocolate sauce, gummy bears, and sprinkles.  It was excellent, and the guy serving it cracked jokes about having both normal ice cream and sugarless vegan ice cream to serve - obviously we went with normal ice cream.  A proper treat to our "Leg Day" stairs.

From there we ended up wandering down the street to MOCA, but changed our minds when we saw the admission price.  It wasn't that we weren't willing to pay, but we had looked at our watches and realised that we had until 6pm to leave our car at the parking lot.  So instead we chose to continue walking around DTLA - we had already walked around six miles by this point, and Ike was thrilled at having more opportunities to "download" the mental "map" of DTLA he was getting from walking around today.  He was astounded to realise that Public Library, MOCA, the Broad, Blue Cow, and the Disney Concert Hall were all right by each other.  We decided we wanted to explore the grounds of the Disney Concert Hall, so we walked up even more flights of stairs to do so.  And from the view Ike pointed out how driving around DTLA made it seem vast, but walking around made you realise how small it really is - the 5 could be seen from the top of the Concert Hall (although not pictured here) as well as all the places we had walked around.

View from the top of the Disney Concert Hall right down Grand

We also explored the ampitheatres and grounds of the Hall, which was super fun imitating making grand speeches and testing out the acoustics of the location - all the while still doing even more stairs.

Exploring the amphitheatres and the grounds around the concert hall.

Then we decided to head back to the car since we both weren't sure where we parked.  Luckily, Ike knew we were located somewhere on 6th street and his "new mental map" capabilities found it pretty quickly.  Then on the way back, we decided to get some lemonade in Whittier (which actually turned into Boba and a peachy iced drink).

Part of the gentrification we saw in Downtown we were walking back to the car.

Overall it was an excellent "last day" all day hang out with Ike.  We talked about everything, of course, like we always do from our favourite Spongebob episodes to taking the Proust Questionnaire together, from talking about what new projects we were working on to (of course) talking about Bowie and his "capital A" ART.

This is one of my all-time favourite things about our friendship - that we can pretty much pose any topic to the other person and we are both game to discuss and discover Truth together.  We also talked about what we learned/how we grew from our friendship, and I told Ike that above all he has taught me compromise and how to be a better listener.  He told me that I've helped him come to appreciate better music - which I was thoroughly chuffed with.

And of course, my favourite topic of conversion being Bowie, I was pleasantly surprised when Ike also told me about his moving experience listening to the song "Young Americans" on the radio.  He said he had no idea that a saxophone could be used in such a way and was terribly moved by the song.  Obviously, I was ecstatic that he was coming around to Bowie and I immediately gave him a surplus of information he definitely didn't ask for about the entire era and the song itself (as well as the meaning and sharing its poignant lyrics).  Additionally, I went on to supply him with a lot of other information about his "Let's Dance" era on the car ride back when the song came on.

Before this the only comment I got from Ike about Bowie was that growing up he'd play "Changes" on repeat and that he liked the song "(You Will) Set the World on Fire".  But today will forever remind me of "Young Americans" and our excellent day (I'm playing the album while writing).  This is definitely a much better memory for me to associate with the album since normally I think about how it was the album I was listening to when I got the news that Bowie died last year.

Although, speaking of that, I have weirdly found that "Young Americans" is now associated with two major periods of transition in my life.  The first, as previously mentioned, is that it was the album I listened to before and after getting the news that Bowie had died (I couldn't listen to the album again for months).  The second being today, as the album being the soundtrack for today.  It was the one under discussion during what will be the last proper hang out Ike and I will have for a while.  No longer just Ike and Jade (the Dynamic Duo) wandering around discussing everything and anything (like we did in Cambridge one time for a comparable time frame).  It certainly felt like the end of an era.

I was sad about the prospect yesterday, but as I told Ike today at lunch, I was determined not to let sadness prevail on our last proper day together.  I wanted to make good memories while I was still on this side of the country because I will have all the time to be sad later.  Not to mention the fact that, as I have often found, people come back into your life in more ways than you expect.  And I believe that today (officially) marked the good beginning of a new era/dynamic to both our friendship and working relationship that we have been working on since February.  It is one that is filled with mutual respect, admiration, and Christian love for the other - knowing that our friendship is going to be steadfast even across the country is something I have desperately prayed for, and today seemed to answer that question with a resounding yes.  So here's to the start of a new era and a great day.  I can't wait to see what's in store for us.