Disney-size me: dinner at Geisha, fun at the Mouse House

Went to Disneyland the Sunday of the weekend of the epic weekend visit from my epic friend, Curly Beast. We woke up at 6am in order to be good to go by 6.45. This wouldn't have been much of a crazy caper had we donned our nightcaps at, say, 8pm the night before. But silly us, we thought sleep was for kids.

In the spirit of food-lovers, we ate out the night before at the too-trendy-to-actually-classify-as-classy GEISHA HOUSE in Hollywood. Sushi and sake flowed like butter on a hot skillet skating towards the rim of the pan. And the sushi quality wasn't half bad. But I'll tell you what, after the fruity and flavorful "Geisha's Kiss" cocktail I enjoyed while awaiting our table, everything tasted good.

I'll admit, I was annoyed by the wait, especially considering that I pulled a connection to get an enviably good dinner time reservation for a party as large as ours, but once seated with a big bowl of edamame at my fingertips, I forgave and forgot. The restaurant was packed and our table location was bad--both of these factors perhaps contributing to why our service continued to be leisurely slow throughout the night--but our stay was peppered with D-list celebrity sightings to make up for the annoyance. But not like "Kathy Griffin" D-list, no sir. We saw "the girl who freaked out on Season something of America's Next Top Model when they cut her hair," as well as "that guy who's been an extra on a couple of episodes of LOST." Okay, yeah, it was more like E-list.

FIVE REASONS WHY GEISHA HOUSE DESERVES YOUR VISIT (ONCE)
1. It's in Hollywood and close to a number of local night-spotty attractions, from Opera to Crimson to Vice to...Cinespace.
2. The gigantic plate on which they will serve your sushi is an eye to behold.
3. The cocktails. All wonderful, delicious, lip-smacking good.
4. The noise. Go on an awkward date and you've got every reason to stop talking to that sucker.
5. D-listers! One guy at the table next to us wore sunglasses in the dimly lit dinner room all night and kept standing up and gyrating his hips. I wish I'd had a camera to document his complete unimportance for a lifetime.

After Geisha, we hopped over to OPERA but were denied entry (or, rather, we REFUSED entry, given the wait) and slid down the street to CINESPACE to pretend we liked it there. It was fun, but when Curly Beast and I finally ambled home at about 1am and realised we had to wake up in five hours...we kind of wish we'd stopped at sushi.

But Disney was a grand experience. While I'd been to the World, it was my first visit to the Land, but with my friend Disney (I told you she'd come back) as our guide, we raked through that park like...well, like a rake through some grass. Fourteen rides and ten hours later, we were primely positioned to watch both night fireworks shows. Our eyes were teary as we wished upon the stars and munched on treats from the Downtown Disney Confectionery and ached for the love of it. Or maybe it was from over-eating? Two weeks after the trip, I've learned that the most epic Disney ride of all, It's a Small World After All, was closed for our visit and has been closed for quite some time due to technical changes to accommodate the growing girth of Disney visitors...proving once again that obesity is an epidemic in America, blah blah blah, ho hum drama, same old same old. Anyway, is anyone up for some sushi buffet this weekend? Mmmmm.

FIVE REASONS WHY I FORGIVE DISNEYLAND FOR LOVING OBESE PEOPLE
1. The breakfast croissant sandwich I bought for six dollars!
2. The three Patina group restaurants on site--we ate at Naples and the caprese pizza was terrific. (And the "individual" size definitely fed 2.5 people. Maybe could have fed three, but we actually ate the second half of the third person.)
3. Everything inside the Blue Ribbon Bakery
4. Uuuuhhhh...more food?
5. Meeting Mickey, Minnie, Mary Poppins and Merlin...and running into Jason Schwartmann of DARJEELING LIMITED (which I have yet to see) and the band Phantom Planet like five times! D-list sightings be damned, we're up to A...minus!

THE RESTAURANT: http://www.dolcegroup.com/
THE THEMEPARK: http://disneyland.disney.go.com