Tagged: vacation

Aug 15

Catching UP

Holy cow-  It’s been a whirlwind week – and I didn’t have ANY internet.

Glory, glory…

But now I’m plugged back in and pretty excited about it.

I’m also damn tired, so I’ll catch you up in bullet points:

  • I just got back from a kick-ass vacation in Arkansas where I spent 5 beautiful days getting to know the Fella’s family, eating delicious food, and zipping around Greer’s Ferry (This HUGE lake, I mean, HUGE) on boat, innertube, and (for about 3 seconds – upright) water skis.   I had so much fun and the weather was beautiful at the lake.
  • Heirloom tomatoes… I’m hooked.  There was a palate of them at the cabin and they rocked my world.  I must now try to find a place to buy them around here…
  • Blue Bell vanilla ice cream.  It is seriously the best.
  • You can remove ticks by swabbing some nail-polish over them, which cuts off their oxygen, and then wait for them to back on out… then you grab them with a tissue and flush the fuckers.  (we had 1 tick incident, and no, it was not me)
  • I’m blogging for the LAFPI again… I know, way to come back into the week running!  But it’s great timing because it’s also Tech week for…
  • DIRTY LAUNDRY.  Can you believe it is actually here?  Do you know what’s going on with that whole thing?  Here, check out the link if you haven’t yet:  www.LittleBlackDressINK.org
  • This all means that I’m going to be really crazed again this week… so I probably won’t get you a proper blog nearly as soon as I’d like.  I’m thinking about you though :)
Thanks for sticking with me – I know it’s been uneaven – but remember, I also blog on www.LosAngelesFAIL.com, LAFPI, and Little Black Dress – so you don’t have to miss me ;)

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Aug 03

Baaaack… finally

Woof, what a trip.  And exactly what I needed.  Here’s a little summation:  Met a new human, played Anne Geddes, laughed with girlfriends, met/defeated a creeper-possum, helped resolve cable issues,watched Chris Pine spray front row w/faux blood and real spittle, interupted possible car-jacking, laughed w/fellow scribes, heard new play read by talented gems, indulged in yummy drinks and delicious food in the company of some of my favorite peeps… (takes breath)  and now I’m pooped!

Here are some pictures from the photo session with young Mr. Ethan…

He’s such a sweetie and I fell instantly in love with him :)  It was wonderful to be able to visit Miss Nicky and hold her newborn babe.

As for the rest of my busy week, let me just say that my love of Martin McDonough’s plays has only grown after seeing The Lt. of Inishmore at the Mark Taper Forum. It wasn’t the best performance, I’m sure, as much of the cast had major troubles with their Irish dialects, but I had a fantastic time and while their Irish was wonky, their performances were (for the most part) still pretty good.  However, the play is so fantastic, that even with some sub par moments, I was totally and happily entertained by the show.  Fantastic!

The eating and chatting and laughing was soul quenching!  And I’m just so thankful that I have such lovely, genuine friends to visit with.

Tomorrow?  Back to normal posting, I believe.  Thanks for the mini-vacation :)

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May 11

Cell-Pic-Fun

Alright, I’ve taken a few silly pics on my new Droid (LOVE IT!!!)  and kept forgetting to upload ‘em…

Cat-in-the-Box

I don’t know what it is about cats and boxes, but put the two in a room and it won’t be but a moment before they’ve merged.  Midnite loved this side-ways box so much that she growled at me when I took it away.  Not the “I’m gonna’ eat you alive” growl, but the “You kind of suck right now and I might ignore you for the rest of my life… or until I forget what I’m upset about which could take – Hey!  Did you see that bird out there?!” kind.

This is my dad in my side-view mirror following me to the tire store… Nothing says “Don’t lie to me, tire guy!” like a grumpy biker.  Car update 2,097, btw?  BACK IN THE SHOP… and I’m falling a little too eagerly in love with the loaner they gave me – a brand new Subaru Forrester.  Nothing quite hits home just how crappy your own car is than to be sitting pretty in something you can’t afford.  (sigh)

Awwww!  It’s a Road Runner… sitting on a fence.  Awwww!

A blurry, softy, sunset pic… One thing about AZ skies: They really light up.  I remember when I was younger the big seller at all the AZ tourist shops were these thin sand and water devices… You’d turn them over and an air bubble inside would make sure the sand drifted slowly, painting this beautiful sunset desert landscape.  It really is pretty enough here that people loved the idea of bringing a little interactive version of it home with them.  Now, if we could just do something about this damned wind…

What can I say?  When the Hamm-it-UP mood strikes…    I found this carazy rubber grill glove in our massive (too massive) Fry’s Grocery-and-Everything-Else store.  After posing for 4 minutes while my mom tried to figure out how to use my cell’s camera (without turning me into a hundred blurry pixels) I decided that the unpleasantly clammy feeling inside the glove was definitely NOT worth the cool rubber index finger and exciting ribbing design.

This is the avery at the hotel we stayed at in Pheonix.  I can’t but look at it without hearing a little voice squawking… “Pigeon Date, May 9, 2010.  It’s been 547 days and we STILL haven’t managed to dig our way out.  Lacking opposable thumbs, I can see why the plan was doomed from the start.  Frankie and Johnny have taken up a petition to start pelting the pooper-scooper guy everytime he comes in, but our meager tools (birdseed and feces) seem only to amuse him.  The Cat, that vixenish night-prowler, continues to taunt me… sing-songing ‘You’ll never get past these vicious little claws!’ ”

There’s a children’s story in there somewhere… but I’m afraid my current state of mind would be to infer that it’s better on the inside where the food and fresh water comes to you.

And that, my friends, is all for today…

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May 09

My Cat has Dandruff

Look, it’s Sunday, I just spent the weekend in Phoenix drinking margaritas in toast to my AMAZING mother, sitting by the pool, and eating tons of delicious food.  My brain is operating accordingly, so I’ll speak in bullet points… Ready?

  • It’s a good thing my parents don’t have a pool.  I’d be a burnt out piece of leather by the end of the summer and not a hint of paycheck or written material to show for it.  Just brown skin, BLONDE blonde hair, and a pickled liver.  Because you can’t sit by the pool all summer without margarits.  Lots and lots of margaritas.  Although, strictly between you and me?  If I find a good deal on a kiddie pool, I’m hauling it home…
  • Census-Porn is apparently a big search item on the interweb.  I’m not joking, I got a lot of hits on that one.  Let me just tell you though, it doesn’t pay to make-out in Census training.  Literally.  They got fired.  I guess maybe all you really do need is Love…  Or lust.  Or someone to let you stick your tongue in their mouth without any sense of discretion.
  • Speaking of the Census, it’s official – I’m official – we’re all friggin’ official!  Tomorrow I start knockin’… and counting… and paying bills!!!
  • A friend of mine used to be an apartment manager.  He recommended I don’t cash the mal-nourished security deposit check staring up at me from its envelope.  I’m tired, my bills are due, and I ain’t got any dough because these assholes are trying to rip me off.  But I sold my fridge.  Seriously, if you told me at graduation that two years later I’d be at the place where I was so broke I’d be thanking the Gods for helping me sell off my stuff in order to pay for my cell phone, I’d… well, I’d probably have cried and gone clamoring back to UCLA, begging to be let back in.  But here I am, comfortably nestled into my parent’s loving home, so at least there are no end to the tissue boxes and snacks to soothe my woes.
  • My cat has dandruff.  It’s BAD.  And she’s black.  Any tips?  Please?
  • Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there.  It’s a wicked world, and you keep us safe, help us grow, and love us even at our worst.  I wouldn’t be anywhere near the sane (semi-sane?) creative and bold person I consider myself to be, if it weren’t for my amazing, loving, strong and beautiful mother.  She is my inspiration and role model, and I can’t thank her enough.

Now, I think it’s time for a little vacation recovery nap…

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Aug 29

All Quiet on the Home Front

Maybe it’s because I’m leaving in two days again… or maybe it’s because I’ve been a cleaning/organizing/redecorating FIEND these past two weeks, but the weekend is here and I don’t wanna’ do a thing!

I’ve spent the day lingering in other people’s imaginations – finished a great book ( I swear, this is the third in a month!  I could get used to that!) and I did a little catching up with the DVR.  I contemplated the beach, but it’s just so damn HOT outside.

In any case, I do need to do some laundry before I can pack… and pay some bills so nothing gets turned off.  But what’s wrong with having a lazy Saturday?  Not a damn thing, I say  :)

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Aug 17

Home Sweet Bed…

Ahhh, there is something purely blissful in returning home, no matter how luxurious the trip, to fall into your own bed.

Perhaps it’s because it knows your body like no other bed can.  And that’s really all I had to say tonight – or have the energy to say tonight… an ode to my nest.

I missed you.

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Aug 15

Sunny Swap

Swap meet guns

Swap meet guns

I don’t remember the last time I went to the swap meet.  It’s certainly been a few years, although when I was younger I feel like we were there every other weekend!  There were always interesting tables set up, and I usually wound up with a new little stuffed animal, or a cool polished rock from the rock booth, or a slurpee… I had fun.

Well my dad and I walked around the place today, and it was amazing just how much STUFF people haul in there to sell!  Rows and rows of booths set up hawking everything from Crackers (yes, literally a giant stack of boxed crackers [with salted tops]), knives, broken-in cowboy boots, and guns.  What?  Guns?  YES!

Maybe I’ve been in CA too long, but it just seemed strange to see a man standing behind a table of coins, deer antlers, and three or four handguns with a rifle or two thrown in for good measure.  Need some firepower?  Head on down to the Swap!

It was a fun little trek, I didn’t buy any matchbox cars (although sure enough someone had a whole table devoted to the suckers) but I did get  a chuckle out of some of the items.

A mermaid sitting on a "Bomb" swing from the fifties

A mermaid sitting on a "Bomb" swing from the fifties

I don't know what this is- but it's for sale!

I don't know what this is- but it's for sale!

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Aug 12

Monsoon Magic

The wind rushes by, pregnant with ozone, the smell pulling me outside to bear witness to Mother Nature’s muscle.  The cool rips past my cheek, tossing my hair in it’s wake (I’m so glad it’s grown out) sending a shiver down my back as the first drop lands splat, splash, I’m here.

One of my favorite memories of growing up is of sitting on the patio at our old homestead, the monsoons flying in with a strength unwavering.  I used to love to sit and listen… waiting for its arrival.  You could always smell it first, and then feel it coming.  The rumbling skies above sending a quiver of anticipation as the water began it’s descent, tumbling, rumbling along, unwavering in it’s lust to kiss the earth – a perfect meeting between elements.  We would sit out there enjoying the lightening splintering across the heavens as the thunder bellowed it’s warnings, the water filling the gutters and streaming up, over, and across the cement and out towards the thirsty ground.

I loved the way it all worked together – a bounty of refreshment for the dry, hardworking Arizona earth- and how it made me feel connected, cradled between cloud and sand, the magic of it all swirling around me.

Thanks be to the brief storm that thundered in this afternoon, awakening happy memories as I sat on the porch and just breathed.

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Aug 06

The grass is always greener…

I grew up in AZ – a mulit-terrained state boasting some of the most beautiful country around.  But it’s hot.  And people have rocks in their front yards instead of grass because, well, it’s hot.  And dry.  And it’s hot.

I remember the first time I visited LA as an adult, I spent a large part of my time staring around myself in wonder over all the green.   Fast forward and I’ve been living here about 11 years now and I’m still a sucker for our flowered trees and luscious grass.  But it’s not only the vegetation that pleases – it’s the weather… or lack thereof.  I mean, sunny and 75 (while not all that exciting) is a hard thing to walk away from once acclimated.  I can’t even go home now without sharp complaints about the heat (in the summer) and the damn cold (in the winter).  I’ve completely bought into the SoCal thermostat.

Then there is the nearness of the ocean.  I love water, and being near the awesome Pacific is peace on a grand scale.  I think it would be difficult for me to return to the land of the landlocked… even when I don’t get to visit her for a while, knowing that the deep blue is present and available makes me smile.  (Not to mention that delicious ocean breeze that floats over the Westside)

All in all, I guess I’m devoting some considerable appreciation to the city that usually gives cause for my furrowed brow.  Perhaps it is because I am going home for a visit and know that the dry Arizona air will soon be chapping my lips and wrecking havoc on my hair…  In any case, I’ll say hello to the rocks for you.

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Aug 03

Reading… finally!

I’ve had a luxurious day full of couch and book… something I haven’t had the priveledge of doing in quite a long time.  There’s always a stack of scripts that need reading, or my own writing that needs tending, but today for some blessed reason I gave way to my inner muse and just reveled in one of the many as-yet-un-read paperbacks lining the shelves and retreated into it’s soft papery world.

Ahhh, bliss.

Not to mention the snacks.  One must always have snacks readily available for such a day as this.  I’m reminded of the young boy in Never Ending Story, hiding in the attic at school, barricaded from the storm of adolescence outside and munching on his paper-bag lunch over candlit pages.  It was magical to watch, and although I’m sitting in the well-lit living room of my adult life, I’m still enjoying cold-cuts and soda-pop like a kid…. because that’s what it feels like to take a whole day to dally in the make-believe.  Why is it that we’re submerged in a world of “Immediate” and “Available” and have less and less time to enjoy it?  Shouldn’t we be able to take more time off to breathe rather than run ourselves so ragged that we desperately need it?  When did relaxing become such a luxury and why haven’t we done anything about that?

But (sigh) I’m much too contented at the moment to worry too long on the subject.

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