Whee! Earthquake!

Wow. At 11:42 this morning, I experienced my first "real" earthquake, complete with aftershocks and everything. I was on the phone at my office when all of a sudden I noticed that the walls of my office were swaying! Very strange. The last one I was in was a 2. something or another, but this one was a 5.8. I'm very glad it wasn't close as that would have been terribly intense and this was certainly enough!

To those who haven't been in an earthquake, it's sort of like waking up on a roller coaster ride. As you come to, you start to realize, hey is this thing moving? Yes? Oh no! Then you hold on for dear life, or in this case, get the heck away from the giant bookshelves. The scariest part is you don't really know what's going to happen next, so it's best to be safe!

Games for Kids

Many of you know that I support an organization known as Child's Play. The charity donates games and consoles to children in hospitals. I know when I have a mere cold, I love playing games because it takes my mind off being sick. These kids have to deal with that reality every day, which is why I donate the titles I don't want or need.

It looks like Nintendo is jumping on board too, as they recently donated "Fun Centers" to hospitals all over the country: http://laist.com/2008/07/01/wii_fun_centers_at_childrens_hospit.php

Recently, a couple of friends embarked on a Mario Marathon where they played through all of the Super Mario titles over a period of a few days. They raised $10K for Child's Play and it sparked my interest to do a marathon of my own with friends. Any thoughts on what titles we could play or a theme we could focus on?

xo
Hollywood

Hilarious

A moment from the reunion. And yes, I'm a ham.

Nowhere Like Home

I already miss Detroit.

For many of you, that might be a strange statement - missing a city that is so maligned, so badly publicized, a city that to many, must seem like a wasteland. Yet for me, the area holds so many memories and still is home to many close friends that when S and drove back to the airport early Sunday morning, I was choking back tears.

The weekend was fantastic, but a bit of a blur. S and I arrived early (around 5:30am) Thursday morning and after a much-needed nap, took the day to wander around some of my favorite parts of Royal Oak, Birmingham, as well as some of my old neighborhoods. Though, much to my dismay Royal Oak is morphing into a slightly less well-kept version of Birmingham, it appears that Ferndale is starting to attract the crowds and businesses that made the city so cool when I was growing up. I did, however, fall in love with a pair of shoes that I snagged (and a pair, that sadly, didn't fit) and coveted but much too expensive Red Wings tank-style shirt made by RetroSport.

That night, after a delicious dinner (including my favorite, spedini, and some tastings of grappa and lemoncello - interesting but not my thing) at Maria's (a must-visit Italian spot if you are in the Detroit area), I got to see my good friend H and PB, one of my best friends growing up who I hadn't seen in four years. It was a real treat - and a surprise, considering the dreads he'd had since ninth grade were gone! We were out until the wee hours of the night, drinking and talking, and catching up.

The next morning, we attempted to wake up early to go downtown. We ended up missing the Red Wings parade (who schedules a parade for 11am? Ridiculous!) but were able to ride the People Mover, visit Greektown (Opa!), and see many of the fabulous art deco buildings in the area. After about five minutes, I stopped counting how many times S said "Oh my god" in awe. Though, I will have to agree, the outbursts were deserved.




That night was devoted to the cocktail party for my ten year high school reunion. It was surreal. There were people I hadn't spoken to in ages who I had lost touch with and that it was wonderful to see, then there were others who I never had anything to say to in high school and still had about that much to talk to them about. Near the end of it, it started to pour. I loved it, as there are so few thunderstorms in Los Angeles, and the storms in Detroit are powerful and romantic. That night we grabbed a small bite to eat at a coney island...though I'm still kicking myself a bit for not going to Dick o'Dowd's where apparently Lidstrom brought the cup!!!

The next day was devoted to visiting my old school, and for anyone who has been there, it takes some time to trek the many many acres. I think S really enjoyed it though, as I was able to show him all the little nooks and crannies that I knew from going there since I was very little. I even nearly got him with the Weeping Zeus! Hehe.






The old class (well, a quarter of it, at least):


Having fun


We're still teenagers at heart :)


That night, after the reunion dinner, we went to O'Dowd's for a drink (no Lidstrom, sadly) with friends then back to Ferndale to meet up with the same crew and stayed until the wee hours of the morning and H brought out some old photos that were hilarious!



I didn't want to leave, as it was my last night with them, but we had a plane to catch early the next day to go to my friend JD's wedding in New York.

I'll say this about the wedding. I don't cry at weddings. But at theirs, I had to keep wiping away the tears. So, thank goodness, later, there was plenty of dancing (their first song was to James Brown's "Sex Machine" - um, awesome) and fun.


In the morning, before we had to head to the city for our flight, S and I took a tour around Sleepy Hollow in the 95 degree heat (oof), and despite not much help from the locals (except for an extremely knowledgeable, helpful historian at the cemetery), found the headless horseman's bridge, as well as many notable graves and locations from the spooky novel.

Knocked Up

Today I had a checkup at my lady doctor, and the couches in those offices, in case you've never been to one, are packed with women eating for two. There's the occasional husband/boyfriend/baby daddy there too, but usually it's just the ladies. But this morning nearly every woman was accompanied by her male counterpart.

And, while most of the men were doting on the ladies carrying what was likely their child, sitting across from me was a couple where the guy looked positively absolutely beyond uncomfortable. Instead of assisting his super pregnant wife with anything (water, a hand to help her get up, anything) or being affectionate with her, he just sat there looking nervous with his hands squished between his knees, dodging any and all eye contact, be it with her or anyone else. Even when she picked up a magazine and tried to engage him in conversation, he merely mumbled out a comment here or there. I seriously wanted to shake this dude and tell him it's about time he grew a pair.

If I'm ever in the position of being preggers, I certainly hope that my significant other will be a little more on the ball - and much sweeter - than this wet blanket.

Lovely Weekend

I'm not quite sure what was best about this weekend. Was it getting to see my friend Paul (who now lives in New York) read from his upcoming book of poetry, interview Justin Theroux about writing the screenplay for Tropic Thunder (among countless other things), or enjoying the super hot curry that S made from scratch for us and that we're having again tonight, prompting a run to the store for more milk. The recipe called for 1/2 tsp of haberno and he put in a "generous" 1/2 tsp. Zowie!

Also this weekend, S's roommate D graduated from LMU with his teaching doctorate so I'm sure there will be plenty of corny "Is there a doctor in the house" jokes for the next few weeks!

It was a lovely, somewhat lazy, weekend indeed.

Getting Crazy in Wine Country

It's been a fun couple days. Ok, well, perhaps except for yesterday when I was stuck at jury duty all day and nearly ended up on a three-week civil trial regarding law malpractice. Snore.

This past weekend was S and mine's one year anniversary. On Friday night, he whipped us up a delicious meal of paella, mushroom caps stuffed with mushrooms and pancetta, and a light salad. Yum. We also shared a fabulous French wine while watching Sideways, a tongue-in-cheek film about the snobbiness of wine culture and how what happens in wine country stays in wine country.

On Saturday, we woke up early, piled into the car with all of the camping equipment, and headed off for Santa Barbara, or to be more specific, Cachuma Lake. We arrived in time to get a great spot (or, what we thought was a great spot until around 5 am when drunken campers started wandering through our site on the way to the bathroom which resulted in a completely freaked out Hollywood.) and made a savory lunch of sandwiches, brie, hummus, and blackberries. Mmm. Then, we hit the wineries.


First was Zaca Mesa, a quaint little winery that holds its tastings inside a farmhouse. I definitely got a few looks because of the dress I was wearing (hey, gotta dress up for special occassions, right?) but the wines were nice. Much better than those at Firestone, where we ventured next.

Firestone, from what I gathered, is pretty much the McDonalds of wine. Ok, it's not that bad, but it's definitely corporate (It was built by the Firestone tire guys after all) and they have it down to a science. We got a free tour of the winery and got to check out how they make the wine as well as the oak barrels they store it in. These are the large vats for the white wine.


Naturally, I asked plenty of questions, none of which I received satisfactory answers to, but perhaps I will search the answers out at a later time. The one I'm most curious about (though by no means obsessing over) is: If you're in the same area, why does wine made from one set of grapes (say merlot) give you a much different taste than another winery's stock also made from merlot grapes?

However, though the woman giving the tour was not the nicest I've yet to encounter, the woman giving us the tasting was very pleasant, and S surprised me with a bottle of their Sauvingon Blanc clone on the way out. :)

Before heading back to camp, we visited Solvang, the cute little Norwegian-style town nearby. After browsing the local Christmas shop (where I wanted to purchase some ornament gifts but ended up only with an unbelievably cute pufferfish for my own tree), we embarked on one more wine tasting. I was already quite tipsy by this time, but I wasn't driving and the wine store had olives you could taste with the wines. And boy, do I love olives.


Finally, after the last tasting, of which S treated me to another bottle of wine and some fabulous olives stuffed with jalepeno and blue cheese, we went back and made tacos for dinner. I fell asleep pretty early as it was chilly and I really wanted to cozy up inside the sleeping bag.

The next day we went on a short hike to a lovely little waterfall just outside Solvang and fed ostriches and stared at emus at an Ostrich farm in the area. They're crazy-looking up close but quite cute, in an ugly sort of way. There is plenty of land there for them where they can run free. On the way back from the hike, S and snapped some photos in the middle of a wheat field and he let me drive stick until we reached the highway. I must say, I think I did a nice job.

On the way home, we stopped off for one more drink at Saints and Sinners, a favorite watering hole of ours, and sipped on maragaritas and beers during their Heavy Metal happy hour. We also got $1 sharpie tattoos from one of the other barflies to support their friend's chemo. I had the words "knit" and "purl" inscribed on my wrists, and S had, well, take a look:


Oh, and, for the record, Iron Man was awesome.

The Moment

One of the biggest things I've realized I want to work on, personally, is my inability to live in the moment. I excel at living in the past, or in the present, but no so much in the right here, right now. Does anyone have any suggestions on how one might accomplish such a feat? What do you do to stop thinking about everything except what is right in front of you?

In other news, I've recently dyed my hair (or, I suppose, to be more accurate), had it done, but the lovely Bo Mattie at Saints Studio in Santa Monica. She's really quite fabulous, and dyed it to a super dark brown with bright red highlights. Hopefully, there will be photos soon.

Iron This!

Tonight I'm going to see Iron Man with a friend of mine up in Hollywood. I've been going to quite a few screenings lately, which is both awesomely fun (no ads, no $10 tickets, getting to take my friends to fun movies before they're out in theaters...) and time consuming. It reminds me of my days as a movie reviewer and how I used to really start to resent going out a couple times a week to see films.

Thus, I'm trying to only see films that I really want to see! For example, last week was Baby Mama and Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. Both were capital-A awesome. And tonight is Iron Man. Ever since I saw the first awesome preview, I have been looking forward to this film, and my friend Z even contributed a piece to it, making it that much cooler. Despite Robert Downey Jr.'s past mishaps, I've always enjoyed watching him onscreen, except well, maybe in Threesome. That was pretty terrible. But he made up for it with Wonder Boys, which was fabulous.

So here's to Iron Man not sucking all the air out of the room like a little film called Spider-Man 3 did.

Aww

Atari is adorable.


But also trouble.

Golly Gee

I've been awfully miserable about updating the blog, so sorry about that. Things have been a bit hectic as of late.

This past weekend was a blast. On Saturday, S and I woke up ridiculously early (6:45am) and took a nice early morning stroll down to the Sidewalk Cafe on Venice beach for brunch. We'd passed it quite a few times, but had never ventured to try it, so we figured that day was as good as any. The food was good - if S's Huevos Rancheros didn't have eggs in them I would have totally attempted to convince him to trade me for my pancakes (which were also good) - but the people watching was the best part since there are always a ton of interesting characters on the boardwalk.

Later that night we met up with some of his friends for a show at the Wiltern, an incredibly gorgeous art deco venue in downtown LA, to see the Editors and Louis XIV. Good times, though both of us were exhausted by the time we got home.

On Sunday, we scooted out early to hit the farmer's market for the BBQ later that night and travel to Monterey Park for some dim sum in honor of Chinese New Year. Dim sum was excellent, though we couldn't find fried shrimp for anything! We did, however, stumble upon a very interesting dessert soup. Later than day, I met up with SL to see the chick flick 27 Dresses which was very cute and much funnier than either of us had expected. Dinner, was awesome BBQ courtesy of S and D.

Fine

Things are fine here. I think I might be experiencing some winter doldrums despite the warmish (see previous post) weather and neverending sun. In the past few weeks, I've participated in many enjoyable events including going for a six-mile hike through Malibu Creek Park and seeing the remains of the set of the hit TV show M.A.S.H., going on a six-mile walk to a downtown Santa Monica cafe, doing another stint on G4 (see below) and last night going to a hockey game and getting to see my Red Wings crush the LA Kings three to nothing. Despite all of that, I'm still feeling stressed and generally blah. I feel like I'm falling into the same ruts as I was back in New York, spending nights on the couch (though, to be honest, I am at least knitting), not going out and exploring, letting myself get overwhelmed, etc. Hopefully all of this improves soon.

Seriously, I Didn't Sign Up for This

This morning, S and I took a quick walk before stopping by the farmer's market to get supplies for dinner (chicken marsala, mmm) and to pick up a tasty breakfast croissant from the local french baker. All of that was lovely, but the temperature when we stepped outside? A brisk 51 degrees! Um, brrr!

When I considered moving to Los Angeles, I thought it was 70+ and sunny year round. Well, I hate to break it to everyone, but that's just not the case. Today's low? 48. The high? Well, it's 67, but never mind that for now. Because, sure, it's sunny, but at just after 7am when I want to walk, it's in the 40s! Granted, I have become a bit of a weather wimp and 60 degrees is enough for me to want to break out the hats and gloves, and yes, I made fun of K last year when she was complaining about the chilly 50-something weather, but this isn't anything new. I hate the cold. Always have, despite my Midwestern upbringing. So now I live in the land of the warmth and sun, and while it's definitely sunny, I still get chilly! Ugh. At least it's supposed to warm up a bit this weekend.

In other news, my keyboard is sparkling clean. I know that's not very exciting to anyone else, but after three years of using it, it's become very very dirty, and though I now have a raging headache (thanks cleaning products!), it no longer looks super gross, which is a bonus.

Other updates...Christmas was lovely, as was new years. I spent a week home with my parents and really relished that time to relax and catch up. New Years was laid back - S and I went to Z's and ate all the fake food we could (or at least I did) before succumbing to our month-long experiment, where we eat entirely "real food."

Last weekend we went ice skating, which was hilarious. S is an excellent skater (and a bit of a show off with all of his jumps and turns and skating backwards. hehe.) but I can barely stand up! But I braved the ice, and with S's help, after 40-some minutes finally got some speed going and was able to pick up my feet. And I only fell once! Later that night, we met up with E and her friend L for a relaxing dinner at Nook. The fries served with wasabi mayo were...well let's just say it's good I don't live nearby. Afterwards we had a pint at a nearby dive bar and watched (and sang along) as people belted out their favorite karaoke tunes.

Last night, I did another G4 spot that will air tonight around 7pm, and tomorrow we're planning to go on a long hike up in Malibu.