#7: The Sprinkles Cupcake ATM

After living in Los Angeles for five years, I'm sure I've used the phrase "only in LA" more than once, as the only way to possibly justify all of the ridiculous things this city has to offer.

"Only in LA can you take a 70s themed fitness class from Richard Simmons."

"Only in LA will you see Leonardo Dicaprio in an Anthropologie." (this made my life)

And truly, only in LA is there an after-hours ATM for cupcakes.

Yes, CUPCAKES.  Because Angeleos have such tough lives that sometimes the only cure is a cupcake fix at any and all hours of the night.

And the cupcake ATM doesn't dispense just any old cupcake... it dispenses LA's boutique cupcake  du'jour, Sprinkles Cupcakes.  One could argue that Sprinkles is single-handedly responsible for the country-wide cupcake craze, and for good reason.  They are really amazingly delicious cupcakes.

Now don't get me wrong, I love me a good cupcake, but I have never quite found myself NEEDING a cupcake after 8pm (especially when there is ample fro-yo available, hello!)  But I am apparently in the minority with that thinking, as there is a line for the Cupcake ATM every single night.  I quickly learned this when my friend Kaio and I popped by the ATM at around 9pm on a Thursday in December to buy myself a novelty cupcake and check this final LA oddity off my bucket list.

I could hardly believe that there was a line, but as we waited ever so patiently while two guys five people ahead of us bought literally a dozen cupcakes (made 12 times worse by the fact that you can only purchase one cupcake at a time), we started conversations with the people in line with us.  Two young girls behind us, the must have been high-school aged, were particularly enlightening.  They both said that they were "like totally addicted" to Sprinkles cupcakes, and they come to the ATM - and wait in line - almost every single night.  They also told us that this long line we were complaining about was actually "like totally short in comparison to most nights."  A dad in front of us with his tween-age daughter told us that they waited in line, in the rain, on the ATM's opening night... FOR THREE HOURS.  I have never felt so out of place in my beloved Los Angeles, except for maybe the time I accidentally stumbled upon Skid Row during dinner time.

So anyway, after about 30 minutes of waiting, Kaio and I finally made it to the front of the line and it was time for me to order my cupcake.  Of course they didn't have the flavor I wanted (lemon, the best cake flavor ever to exist... though it is worth noting that they DO sell doggy cupcakes for your furry friends) so I settled on vanilla, knowing I would be giving it to my mom as an early "thanks for feeding me for a week over the Christmas holiday" gift.  Of course when I swiped my credit card it didn't work, and after four attempts, as I'm breaking out in a sweat knowing there is a huge line of people behind me waiting on the bozo who can't get her credit card to swipe, the in-the-know girls behind me told me to swipe down to up, and it worked.  They obviously had this down.  I selected my vanilla cupcake, and waited with anticipation as I saw the robot ATM arm reach up and grab the box, then ever so gently place it in the recepticle, which then spun around and TA-DA my cupcake was in front of me.  Not to mention that it was (naturally) about half the size of an in-store Sprinkles cupcake, but whatever, here I had a $4 cupcake in a cute little box delivered to me via an Automated Teller.

When I gave it to my mom the next day, I insisted that after ALL the work I put into it, she had to share it with me (I'm a great daughter, I know).  She said it was the best cupcake she'd ever had, and I thought it was pretty delicious too. 

You can see all the boxes of cupcakes behind the cute pink mesh

Who waits in line for a cupcake machine?! I do.

My excitement is barely contained after waiting in line for 30 minutes!

My cupcake is on its way!!

#16: Santa Anita Park Horse Races

The first year I lived in LA, I technically lived on the Westside.  I say "technically" because, though Westchester is considered the Westside, it is much closer to the ghetto than the beach, and is most famous for being the "Home of LAX."  But anyway, for a weird 6 months of my life, I lived in an apartment right under the flight path of planes flying into LAX.  It was only after I moved in that I realized this apartment wasn't actually in Westchester, but Inglewood.  And as I mentioned in my Watts post, if you know a city's name from a mid-90's gangsta rap song, it's probably not the ideal place to live.  I like to think I built up tons of street cred (I didn't) but the one thing I did learn about Inglewood is that it was home to a huge ghetto horse track and casino called Hollywood Park.

I always wanted to go to Hollywood Park, if simply to revel in how misleading the name was.  Hollywood Park sounds pretty legit, a classy place where stars go to classily bet on horse races, but no, it's definitely in the ghetto whose most famous former resident is Ice Cube.  And the naturally shady aspect of horse racing could only have been intensified in such a setting.  I was fascinated.  But as soon as I moved out of the ghetto and into the 'Hills, I realized that maybe I should just try to be fabulous, not ghetto fabulous, and go to a legitimately classy horse race park instead.  I think it goes without saying that my move to Beverly Hills was a life upgrade in more ways than one.

So, a few years later, I finally made it out to Santa Anita Park in Pasadena, host of the Breeders Cup and other actually meaningful Southern California horse races.  My good friend Marsha - a veritable horse expert - agreed to go with me, and I can't stress how much better the experience was going with someone who knew what a "thoroughbred" was.  I certainly had no clue.  We even wore pretty dresses and fancy hats, just to add a little extra something fun.

General admission cost I think $7, but we paid $20 each for the fancy eat-lunch-while-you-watch-with-a-TV-at-your-table seats, which was definitely worth the extra money.  We were able to sit under an awning, which would have been essential on a hot day, but was EVEN more essential as it was a bit drizzly that day and we didn't want to ruin our fab horseracing dresses.

After we walked around the stadium and checked out the parade of horses about to race, we made it to our table to order lunch and a bottle of wine, which we leisurely consumed over the next four hours. Marsha spent a good part of our afternoon teaching me the different types of horses, and how to read the stats pages.  She also taught me to correct terminology associated with horse racing, such as "trifecta," "superfecta," and the differences between "winning," "placing" and "showing" (basically fancy ways of saying first, second, and third).  She was so patient with me and taught me about the science and speculation behind what people "think" makes a good racehorse.  It was truly fascinating, and she saved me lots of googling.

There were 8 races that afternoon, and we sat through the first five trying to guess the trifectas - basically which horses would come in first, second AND third in the race.  Trifectas have a big payout, something like 50-to-1, and needless to say I didn't correctly guess a single one.  As the sixth race approached we finally finished our delicious lunch and decided to place some real bets.

I bet on a superfecta, which guesses the top 4 finishers, in any order.  Marsha placed three separate bets, for a specific horse to win, a different horse to place, and yet another to show.  I got 3 out of my 4 for the superfecta, which was "close but no cigar" but Marsha actually did correctly predict which horse would place.  Of our total $12 we bet (high rollers, I know) I think we got $5 back.  I was hesitant to bet much more, simply because after 6 races having not even guessed correctly once, I just knew I would just be throwing my money away. 

We sat through the next two races before deciding to head home.  We had spent about 4 hours at the track, and had a blast.  I learned more than I ever thought I would about horse racing, horse breeding, and horses in general.  Marsha was totally in her element and I had a truly fabulous (non-ghetto) time, that I'm sure I would NOT have had at Hollywood Park!

Me, Marsha and our hats checking out the Winners Circle, where the jockeys walk around the horses before their races.

Horses racing towards the finish line, right in front of our seats

Enjoying a late afternoon lunch at the races :)