One Week

It has been one week since my dream came true. Ok, I am so kidding. But it has been one week since I stalked saw Real Madrid here in unconventionally nice weathered LA. So this may not qualify as what most people think of as a roadtrip, but take it in literal sense. We drove on a road to take a trip to West LA which was very short.. You got yourself a very short road trip.

Let me start from the beginning. I am a World Cup fan. So a couple days before the start of the event, I saw an ESPN World Cup commercial (0:16) and saw a player I thought was cute. Did some researched and learned it was Fernando Torres (or Nando as the cool kids call him) from Spain's national team. So that's when I decided that Spain would be my favorite team (yes I based my favorite team on how cute Nando was withouth knowing their skills). Actually I liked Italy because of Cannavaro, but when they soon got eliminated it was ciao Italy, que tal Spain.

So I watched every Spain match and learned of even more lovely, cool players alongside Fernando like Iker, Pique, Silva, Cesc, Jesus Navas, Sergio, Xavi, Iniesta, Xabi Alonso and I can go on and on and on and on and on. (Can I just add here that for some reason I like Fabregas the most, then Xavi, then Xabi, then Pique, then Iker, then Navas, then Nando....)

So when I learned that Real Madrid would be playing friendlies with LA Galaxy soon after Spain WINNING the WC, I was excited. For a moment I thought about going to the match, but I was reminded of the last time I went to a futbol match and how I got lettuce in my hair because of the unruly people in the stadium. I knew that they were staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel and had many fun thoughts of stalking magically, coincidentally running into them. But knew I was too old to be celebrity hunting like I did when I was in high school at Bob's Big Boy (or COUGHcollegeCOUGH). It was a dream of mine that I wasn't going to reach and I found peace with it.

Then just last Saturday, I was driving me and L to UCLA and we passed the Beverly Hills hotel. I really, really, really wanted to check it out but needed encouragement, so with encouragement from L, I rounded the corner of the hotel and slowly drove the circumference of the hotel seeing if I can spot a futbolista. Sadly no. Then defeated and depleted, made my way around the last corner back onto the main street to continue on the real reason why we were in the neighborhood when we saw two giant white buses. I felt like I had just hit the trillion dollar jackpot.

I double-parked and joined in on the festivities.

There we met this Yehya and guess who recognized him. Me, the TV-watcher.

Then patiently waited about 1.5 hours for Real Madrid to come out and when they did, it happened all so fast. I was just happy to know that I was in the presence of them. I didn't need to go crazy over them like some of the other "fans." But just seeing them with my eyes made me happy.

so here's handsome captain Iker

(this one is for you M)

Iker in motion

And my favorite from the team, Xabi Alonso. He was really nice to the fans. 

 on blogs I frequent, they call him GQMF

Like I said, within a couple minutes, it was all over. Ramos and Ronaldo didn't stop. I saw the other spaniards from afar because I wasn't into being smothered by smelly b.o. But all in all, I loved it. 

Funny story. While we were waiting for RM to come out, L, me, and Yehya were conversing about all the cars behind the buses and if they were private security. Then L makes a comment about how one has a childseat but at that moment, it was all so unimportant. Then when RM left, people started yelling Beckham, Beckham! The car that L had pointed out earlier had Beckham in it with his kiddo. When I was giddy with joy at watching the Spaniards, L was in the back relaxing in the shade and noticed the car and thought the guy in the car was "your average good looking white guy" unbeknownst to her it was 2008's Sexiest Man Alive (I'll disagree). 

But this is the awesome picture I took of him. I think someone should hire me as a professional photographer. First of all the car was not moving and nobody was in my way.

 perfect how the car frame just covers Beckham's face and the light with his tinted 

window creates a mirror. But you can see the side head of his son. So good.

So that was my day and it was a happy day at that. To top it off, I went shopping and ate bbq chicken salad. What more can you ask?