Buena Park Mall

I slept in a little this morning, woke up around 10 and finished my soup. I called Sylvia to see if she wanted to hang out today. We decided to have lunch and watch Jumper. 5 Freeway was surprisingly smooth. I tested the free iPod FM modulator I got from work while driving down to Orange County. Too bad my old classic iPod wouldn't fit, so I used the nano instead. It worked pretty well. Still, FM modulator sounds like crap compared to direct audio input.

Sylvia took me to this new hot dog place called Portillo's in Buena Park Mall. There were a lot of people. Supposedly this restaurant came from Chicago. We got Asian wonton salad, lemonade, signature beef sandwich, and this new Portillo hot dog sandwich. For fast food, the food served here tasted nicer and the ambience was better. The prices were reasonable too. They even served beers and wine. The atmosphere was pub-ish and busy inside and out. I had a good dining experience and expected this place to become very popular with Californians.

We went to the back of the mall to get tickets for the 1:55 showing. This part of the mall was emptier, far less crowded. There were many retail spaces left unopened and unleased too. Not many people walked or shopped here, the difference was quite drastic. After we got our tickets we walked inside the mall, it had the same emptiness - half of the stores remained untouched. Even the lower dining area was closed. We looked around and went into DSW to look at sandals for her. We didn't buy anything. There were more shoppers in there than in the entire mall. It felt sad.

Inside the movie theater looked new and had a plush posh decor. The sound was pretty good too. The movie itself was OK. It wasn't trying to be anything it wasn't. The zoom here and there was exciting to watch. Imagine Nightcrawler from X2 looks like a college freshman, has family + responsibility issues, and tries to protect his girlfriend because Samuel L Jackson is after him. I thought the film was a little rushed and could spend some time to make each character stronger and the relationship between the two leads more believable. Then again, it's not supposed to be anything meaningful, so for what it is, Jumper is a decent even fun if at times flawed, sci-fi movie.

I came back around 5:30 and finished the second banh-mi I bought last night. Dave and Jose might come to have dinner with me after their movie. It is still raining outside. Maybe hot porridge tonight?