1st Day of Girls Trip

After YEARS and YEARS of bitching and guilt-tripping my girl friends to come visit me in LA, they DID :)

We had a great time - doing 100% typical LA activities.

This post is about the first night. More to the point, it's about where we stayed - The Standard Hotel in Hollywood.

Pulling up, it looked pretty swanky. Walking up to the registration desk, there was a woman in the wall behind the desk! She was encased in glass and laying on some pillows, on a computer! We joked that she was on facebook and IM'ing friends. It turns out that she gets paid $100 for 8 hours - and she can do WHATEVER she wants behind the glass. I joked that I would definitely take that job - from 12am to 8am every night :)

The room that 4 of us stayed in was TINY. It had two double beds and was the height of IKEA chic. The blanket on the bed was grey, utilitarian and scratchy. The 32 inch LCD screen had horrible reception. However, we did have a balcony. One that all 7 of us could fit on to take a picture. The other room that had a king sized bed and a "non-pull-out" sofa bed was huge - but still IKEA chic.

The hotel is 3 floors, with a pool in the middle. At night it is pretty cool to hang out around the pool - but truthfully, during the day, in the summer, the pool would be NOTHING special.

Right inside the hotel, there is a "yellow-laminate" diner, and through the diner, a "Purple Haze" bar/lounge. We ate "dinner" at 12am at the diner on Friday night. The food is actually quite good, but I couldn't really get past the decor. The lounge/bar is kind of nice inside (especially the purple, fuzzy, swinging benches) but the music kind of sucked.

All in all, aside from the cool chick behind the glass, and the comfy couches and plastic swinging bubble in the lobby, my first impression of The Standard was pretty "sub-Standard".

Once I get permission from my friends, I will post pictures.