"Museums Free For All" Weekend

I just found out that this upcoming weekend is the "8th Annual Museums Free For All Weekend" in L.A. (This is similar to "Doors Open" days where museums & heritage/architectural sites open their doors to the public for free access.) I am a huge advocate of free arts/cultural things (free anything for that matter, haha) -- one of my favourite things about living in the UK was that the vast majority of their museums/galleries are free of charge (well, technically paid for by the government through taxes, but still) and they have some of the most incredible museums in the world including The British Museum, The National Gallery, The V&A, and both Tates. So I'm very glad to see that a similar initiative exists in L.A.--albeit only for a weekend--and would encourage you all to get out there and wander around a couple of museums!

Keep in mind that a good number of these, such as the Fowler Museum on campus as well as both the Getty museums, are actually free all the time so I would focus on the ones that aren't, like the MOCA, the LACMA, and the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Here is an awesome chart that tells you when many of the museums offer free admission on a regular basis (also in PDF):

Also happening this weekend is the 18th Annual L.A. Art Show at the Convention Center. This is apparently the longest running encyclopedic art exhibit in the country and the largest on the west coast. I'm definitely going to check this out on Saturday and can only hope that the crowds aren't too insane! The regular admission is $20 with a $5 discount if you buy online in advance, or better yet, print your free tickets here, courtesy of Rau Antiques who will be exhibiting at the show! :o)

Zipcar Promotion

For those of you without a car, Zipcar will save the day. Just before the holidays we bought a used Toyota (more on this soon) so we no longer have a Zipcar membership but boy, was it handy when we needed it. For more about Zipcars, read this old post. When you're ready, sign up for Gilt City via this referral link which will give you $15 off your first purchase, then buy this voucher which basically waives the application & annual membership fees ($85). Trust me, this is an excellent deal (better than any promo/referral codes you'll find out there) and I would get right on it before the promotion ends!

dineLA Restaurant Week

From Monday January 21st through to Friday, February 1st, you'll have a chance to try some of the best restaurants in L.A. at a fraction of the regular cost.

The concept is essentially the same as Restaurant Week in NYC & Boston, Dine About Town in San Fran, or Winterlicious in Toronto: Business is slow in January so to bring people in, restaurants offer 3-course prix fixe lunch & dinner menus ranging between $15-$45 (often less than half of what you'd normally pay at these places).

Walk-ins are possible but it's best to make a reservation ahead of time. For a full listing and more information, click on the image below.

Free movie screenings!

The Dashew Center puts on FREE international film screenings throughout the year. Tomorrow night at 7pm they are showing "Departures", an Oscar-winning Japanese dramedy in the DeNeve Auditorium in Bradley Hall. They even provide popcorn and hot cocoa and all you have to do is register so make it a movie night! :)

Next up is "The Motorcycle Diaries" in April so mark your calendars!

Hilarious new blog about life with an MBA student

There's really not that many resources out there for the significant other of an MBA student, which is one of the reasons I started this blog -- to share with others some of my experiences as someone who is married into the MBA world and starting a new life in L.A. I figured if I've already lost a bit of my soul looking into things like health insurance and drivers licenses, I might as well spare somebody else the time & suffering in doing the exact same thing as me. (Mind you I haven't really kept up with the blogging as well as I would've liked to, but slowly but surely I will publish the 38 posts currently saved in my drafts folder).

Now for pure commiserating pleasure, one of the other wives has found the link to a blog called Living with a Business School Student and it is fantastic. The premise of the blog is clever one-liners paired with 2-second video clips and there's some really funny stuff on it I'm sure many B-School significant others can identify with. Here are my favourites:

When I got to the first partner´s club meeting I was like:

When I do all the laundry and he comes home and complains 
that I put his shirts in the wrong drawer:

 When my husband puts on a suit for his recruiting events, I'm like:

When a student tells me they are switching from banking to finance, I'm like:

When someone asks when I think my boyfriend will "pop the question", I'm like:

When my husband tells me he's accepted a rotational program 
in Kalamazoo "just for a year", I'm like:

When I'm actually able to help my husband fix an 
Excel formula, I'm like:

Dry cleaners

I rarely take things to the dry cleaner because it's expensive and to be honest, we don't have that many super nice things that are "dry clean only" (I mean, surely not everyone follows those care tags to the T) so I was happy to not have to look around for a good dry cleaner (I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference and just looked for the cheapest one around anyway) and instead just took someone's word for it: R&B Dry Cleaners at the bottom of the Oppenheimer Building at Wilshire & Westwood is the best and cheapest cleaner in the neighbourhood.

I took Mike's suit in to get dry cleaned before Thanksgiving and met the owner Igor (old-school Russian/East European man who gives you change from his wallet) and got the low down on prices:

Suit $9
Pants $3.50
Jacket $5.50
Blouse $3 
Dress $9+ 
Skirt $3.50
Sweater $3.50
Dress shirt $1.75

 
It's usually a two-day turnaround (meaning you drop off on Monday, pick up on Wednesday), but he'll let you know. Hours are Mondays through Fridays, 9:30am-5pm.

Westwood Library Book Sale

Tomorrow, Saturday December 1st (**GASP** Is it really December already??), Westwood Public Library is holding their quarterly used book sale from 10:30am-3:30pm. The sale is outside the library at 1246 Glendon Avenue at Wilshire (just east of Westwood Blvd.). I went to the one back in September and paid $15 for a box of hard cover cook books, novels, travel guides, and coffee table books. From what I can tell it was mostly community donations mixed with library inventory, but lots of new books in very good condition. They also had DVD's/CD's but nothing good by the time I got over to that section and it was really busy so go early for the best stuff! While you're there, you might as well get yourself a library card, see this old post for more details.

Oh, and right around the corner from the library hiding behind office buildings and parking garages, is a quiet little cemetery called Westwood Memorial Park, the final resting place for some pretty big names including Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Roy Orbison, and both Grumpy Old Men, so go have a little stroll around there too!