UAL/LAX, Acronyms and Almost a Palindrome

Wednesday, the 30th-OK, so if you have $500 in vouchers wouldn't you go to the airport to see if you could redeem them? Well, that's what Daryl and I did and we got two round trip tickets to Chicago, for,...drumroll, please,....ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS...TOTAL. And all it took was leaving work for 2 hours. I love United Airlines. Oh, and that's not all, we got seats in economy plus, where we get extra legroom, a boon for Daryl. So see you all at Christmas!

Walking into Walls and One Bad Trip

Sunday, the 27th-We had a lovely breakfast with Mary Land, Michael Metzger, Rik Lopes, and Mo. They took us on a "short" walk. (Poor Daryl was still recovering from Aikido with Michael and was really, really sore.) I must mention that we did get to witness Maurissa walk headlong into a wall-at full speed. Poor Mo! But we only laughed AFTER she recovered, although I do think that Michael might have laughed way before then. And then when Mary and Mo left to go back to SF, Daryl and I stayed behind to play RoboRally with Michael and Rik. It was the first time I've ever played that game where I didn't die and wander around aimlessly. Rik won in a landslide.

OK, now for the drive home. First of all, let me just say, never again. Never again. Never again will Daryl and I, or really, Daryl, drive from SF to LA on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I had no idea. I tell you I had absolutely NO idea. The horror. 30 miles in AN HOUR on the HIGHWAY. What were we thinking? We must have been on crack, if there was a legal, non-narcotic form of crack wherein you lose all your senses and decide to go on a 6 hour car ride on the day that everyone else in the world decides to do the SAME THING. It was so bad that all of the motorists I saw on the side of the road I assumed to be so fed up with the traffic that they just pulled off to weep from frustration. It took us 8 hours to get home and we arrived at midnight to a very upset cat. And I missed Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. I was so pissed.

Mini-Golf!

Saturday, the 26th-We played mini-golf today with a whole passel of SF people and us LA-ites. We all got golf balls with different colors so we could tell whose were whose. Amazing that they made so many golf balls with so many different colors. The course was surprisingly hard. I think they were all supposed to be a par 3. And there were more than a few where the hole was around a corner that you couldn't see. And apparently I won. Could have fooled me, I felt like I was doing very badly. And when we returned our balls we got tokens to play in the arcade. Michael Metzger and I both gave our winnings to a little boy. And then we went to Diane's place bearing cheese and crackers and more importantly for me, RICE crackers. Half the gang ordered pizza and the other half ordered Indian food. Yum! Especially for the girl who can't have wheat! And we played a new game called CELEBRITY that was like a three-tiered game of 20 questions and charades. Everyone puts a bunch of names of famous people on a bunch of paper into a bag. Then, you divide up into 2 teams and each team gets a "caller" who takes the paper out of the bag and tries to give clues to who the person is and they can use words, gestures, etc., and the rest of their team has to guess. In the second, round they can only use two words, and in the third round they can only use gestures. I was told all of this beforehand so I deliberately tried to put in people who I thought were easy to figure out through charades, like, "Jesus", "Buddha", "Groucho Marx", etc. Where it got hard was when people had to figure out Tom Hanks and Drew Barrymore through charades. Not easy. And I have to say, well, the teams were, I think, unevenly matched. And then Diane decided to drop out of the charades portion so Elise and Daryl had to step up and do the charades twice each round. I think the charades scared off a bunch of people and I have to say I wasn't to thrilled about it, but it's good to do stuff that's scary every now and then. And then we discussed Maurissa's love life. That topic took up so much time we never got a chance to play games, so Daryl, Elise, Mike, and I played a game of Cities and Knights before we went to bed.

Stuffing Aikido Unhappy Skin, Sounds Like an All-Girl Japanese Pop Group

Friday, the 25th-Can you believe it? I made more stuffing. Because I am crazy. Like I haven't had enough of making food. It's either that or...I just want more stuffing.

Daryl and I went to join Michael Metzger in his Aikido class. Daryl participated and I watched. It was really beautiful to see people willingly being thrown to the ground, if you like that sort of thing, and I do. I think Daryl would really like to take some classes in LA. Plus, I think he'd be good at it. Then we went to eat dinner at Sparky's where the waiter was so sweet he didn't want to give me my plate because he thought my hand was injured because of my glove.

I 'd like to mention right now that there must be something in the water in SF because after a couple of days here I got a sore on my right hand and it itches like crazy. I got the same thing last year after Thanksgiving and it didn't go away until May. And I'm being very careful, keeping it moisturized and covered. But my skin does not like it here. Sigh. And it's getting worse. I'm just glad I happened to bring all my gloves from last year. I had stocked up on tons of gloves and cut off the fingers so I could still feel with my fingertips.

Day of Cooking, Part 2-TURKEY DAY

Thursday, the 24th-Turkey Day! Everyone tells me I always underestimate how long it takes to cook the turkey so we put the turkey in the oven by 11a. And lo and behold it's ready by 2p. I have absolutely no memory of the turkey taking longer so I'm glad there are witnesses from my previous attempts. I should write a note about that. While the turkey is cooking, we make candied yams AND gingered carrots because I bought way too many carrots. Sorry, Elise, I hope you like carrots. Elise made the salad (dried blueberries, goat cheese, spiced walnuts, on a bed of greens with raspberry vinagrette) as well as a vegetarian stuffing and mashed potatoes and Mary brought green beans made with pine nuts and a raspberry vinagrette and steamed broccoli. Diane bought us some Trader Joes cranberry sauce and cheeses for snacks. I made the turkey, the stuffing, and the gravy from the turkey stock along with the aforementioned yams and carrots. Elise brought an apple pie, Kathy made a pecan pie, and I made the gluten-free pumpkin pie as well as some whipped cream. And the Trader Joes Bluberry juice was really, really good. So we had quite the feast and I only had one helping all day. I really was stuffed. I bought a baster from a cooking store that I love, love, loved. It worked like a charm! People seemed to enjoy the food, so I think I did well. And maybe I'll get another set of turkey legs as well as a whole turkey for next year. Or maybe just cook two. People really seem to like it. Heck, I like it.

Day of Cooking, Part 1

Wednesday, the 23rd-A day of cooking. At least Daryl was around to help me and hang out. He is so great about helping in the kitchen! Unfortunately, my hand has, once again, developed bumps from dryness and I am wearing gloves all the time. I think it may have something to do with the water. When I am in LA, my hands don't have this problem. This time when I cook the food Daryl and I are done by early evening. You see, it helps to make your pumpkin pie a day early. Not to mention your stuffing and your stock for the gravy. But I stay up a little later just so I can get in some prep on the yams. I so love candied yams. I am so glad Mary Land is bringing green beans. This dinner will have everything I like, plus all gluten-free!

Kellee's Dance Studio and Turkey

Tuesday, the 22nd-I feel great today. Daryl and I finally had time to eat lunch with Kellee and her friend Lauren at Savor. Kellee has got a cute little dance studio in the Castro and is teaching ballet to tiny little girls. It's hard to get a business up and running and she's still feeling the crunch, but I feel that by the beginning of next year she'll be turning them away. Robb was busy with a crazy deadline so we didn't get to see him at all, poor boy. And I went shopping with Diane at Trader Joes and Whole Foods for Thanksgiving. I am very excited to cook. And the Whole Foods on 4th is huge. We got a lovely turkey and a bunch of vegetables and I had to do a serious reworking of Elise's fridge to get it all to fit. Tomorrow is going to be a full day of cooking.

Bare floors and Indian food

Monday, the 21st-Today, Daryl is still working, the poor boy, and I am finally feeling sort of ok, so I went to Toby's house in Bernal Heights with Elise and Diane showed up later. She's redoing her floors and there were a few holes in the walls, too. She was looking for a fireplace. Unfortunately, it wasn't there. Toby is very patient with her home remodel and I admire that. She's even got plans for the house in the next few years. Also, learned more about internet dating and The Rules, which I don't think I followed when I was with Daryl. I wonder if that's a bad thing. We ordered Indian food, which was a mistake for me later. Whoops! Poor Beauty is gone. Daryl was so sad to hear it. She was really the funnest dog, always read for a game of fetch, even when she was somewhat paralyzed. Tough dog, that.

SF again!

Saturday, the 19th-Daryl drove us both up to SF Friday night at around 12:30a. We got there, I think, at around 6 or 7 in the morning and had to carefully call Elise to let us in her place so we could sleep. Daryl, unfortunately, had to work at 1p so he didn't get much sleep. I had been sick for days and was still sick. But I brought all of my cooking gear for Thanksgiving and was really looking forward to eating lots of good food. Later in the evening, I actually went out and got some good Thai food, which I strangely haven't really had in LA yet. Elise and Mike went and got the groceries for the dinner, so all I really had to do was cook. I'm glad I had Diane order the turkey. My prep for this year is going to be really easy.

My Hair Is Growing Now

Thursday, the 17th-I got a haircut from a professional today. The first thing she asked me about was my health. Had I been taking antibiotics? Had I had a baby recently? What? Noooo....Because she said that I had SOME HAIR LOSS and that there was some regrowth going on at the moment. (Apparently, epidurals can cause some women to lose some hair.) OK, so my bad health was CAUSING MY HAIR TO FALL OUT. Just one more thing to worry about. In any case, I suppose I should feel better that it's starting to grow back, I'd just rather not have lost it to begin with. I got my hair cut to just below my shoulders. She also blew it dry and styled it a little and at the end I think I looked like a news anchor. All I needed was a red suit and a greenscreen behind me and I could go right on and talk about the war in Iraq or the heartwarming story of a puppy reunited with his family. I also got to go to a screening of a movie on the FOX lot. The security was weird. After passing through, we had to go out and park on the other side of the lot. And we weren't allowed to have our cell phones because they could take pictures. It was fun to walk by the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT set, but I didn't see anything except everyone's parked cars. (2 Porsches.) The screening was really sparsely populated but the theater was huge. It was actually quite pleasant on the lot, sort of like walking around a gated community, which I guess it pretty much is.

Mo and the Olive Garden

Saturday, the 12th-I am going to ovulate within the next 24-72 hours. Not that it matters. Just thought I'd mention it. In other news, we go to Maurissa's place and we drive off to Manhattan Beach to eat at the Olive Garden. Why, you may ask? Well, because it'll be for free because Mo's got dinner cards worth lots of cash and she wants to spend it on us. I'm not one to argue with someone who wants to buy me food. We order large amounts of food and I discover I can only eat stuff on the grill part of the menu, which is a little limited, but at least it's something. And this time I actually get a piece of meat that was cooked correctly. We ordered dessert, too, because we didn't order enough. So Daryl and Mo shared a dessert while I ate a few bites out of a gigantic bowl of ice cream. We go back to her house to chat and watch My Fair Brady, a reality show about Christopher Knight, formerly Peter, of The Brady Bunch, and his romance with a young model. It's too much reality, and Mo and I spend a lot of time talking about the show with our eyes averted AWAY from the screen. It's all a little too much, we both feel like we're eavesdropping on a very private conversation. And we only started watching this show because we were playing with Mo's new TIVO. It's really quite a trip. She will never miss Survivor again.

More Cousins, Judy and Paul

Thursday, the 10th-I've been working at Christian's the past two days and I'm enjoying having a day off to meet with my cousins, Judy and Paul. I remember Judy, when she was Jyung Ming. She was, I think about 3 or 4 when I met her so long ago. And now she's 27 and living in Torrance! It's like she aged on a soap opera. Her little brother, Paul, was born on my birthday, when I think I was 10 or 11, I can't remember. I was thrilled at the time. And my mother took care of him for a day right after he was born and while she was giving him a bath, he peed right on her carpet. This is how I remember him and now he's an adult, out of college and travelling. And I got to see him today because he had just gotten back from travelling in Europe and the Middle East. In fact, he had been at the hotels in Jordan that got bombed, just a week ago. He said that he found a lot of Korean people travelling all over the world. Surprising as it must seem, I guess Koreans like to travel. He also said he found Australians travel the most and live the most cheaply all over the world. Very friendly, too. Judy drove us to a sushi joint called Crazyfish that had huge sushi. There was no way I could finish. Paul told us a funny story about eating at an all-you-can-eat sushi joint. He and his buddies would palm the rice and just eat the fish so that they wouldn't stuff their bellies. He said the owner was not happy when he found out. Then Judy and I went to have some gelato and I finally got the coconut ice cream fix I had been jonesing for for weeks. She works at 7a and gets off at around 3p, tied to the market. And she loves going to yoga in Santa Monica even though it's far from home, it's near work in Playa Del Rey. She says she probably keeps up her Korean because she watches the Korean soaps and chats with her girlfriends in Korean at church. Paul says that he and his friends never speak Korean. I guess it's up to the girls to keep the language up in America. I tell them I've never wanted to speak Korean as much as when I've watched the show LOST, which has Korean characters. Maybe I'll get them to translate it for me or is that too pathetic? But it's nice to know I have family here, especially family that I haven't seen in forever.

Kubrick Double Feature

Saturday, the 5th-My big thing for today was the double feature at the AERO theater in Santa Monica. They were going to show two old Kubrick films, Paths of Glory and The Killing. I had heard a lot about both of these movies when I started in editing. The films, as far as I know, were not available on DVD (They may be now, though). Paths of Glory was a movie about WWI and the crazy generals who treat the soldiers almost as toys to play with for their own personal pleasure and ambition, and about how the soldiers are screwed at every opportunity even when they behave reasonably. The Killing is a heist film set at a racetrack, with a really great ending, which I won't go into here. The Killing was Kubrick's first film, I believe and it was so good it got the attention of Kirk Douglas, who stars in Paths of Glory. I highly, highly recommend seeing both if you ever get the chance, although I have to say that Daryl was angry at the end of Paths of Glory and it almost put him in a bad mood for the rest of the evening. The screening also included a Q & A with an actor who had worked with Kubrick in three of his movies and who was in Paths of Glory. He was a funny guy, very charming and personable with many little anecdotes about Kubrick and it was a nice little lighthearted section in between the two rather depressing films. This time I got to go to the theater without a serious allergy attack, so I enjoyed the evening a lot more than the last time I went, but it was a double feature so we were starving afterwards and went to Swingers to get some food. Thank God for Daryl's innate sense of direction and memory because he found Swingers nearly right away. I think he must have Yahoo!Maps in his head.

The Bus in LA

I've been told to add new entries a little more slowly as people can't keep up. So I'll try to space them out a little.

Friday, the 4th-I worked at Disney, which was great, but I took the bus, which was fine but it took me two hours to get there and two hours to get back. I had to take three separate buses, the 305, to get from San Vicente/Curson to Pico/Crenshaw, then the Metro Rapid 710, to get from there to Hollywood Blvd./Argyle and finally, the 163, to get from there to Alameda/Hollywood Way, Burbank, which is right where I needed to go. I waited for the first bus for 45 minutes. The Metro Rapid 710 was actually a really nice fast bus, but you had to get on it in a somewhat scary neighborhood. (Don't even get me started on waiting there at NIGHT for the return trip. I did it. But I wasn't happy about it. 45 minutes I waited for my bus. The 305 sucks basically.) The 163 was terrific and there was barely any traffic. But like I said, two hours later....I left for work at 7:40a and got there at 9:40a. VERY LATE. Next time I'm taking a different route that has a bus that actually may show up when the Metro says it will. Although this may very well be impossible.

Yay for a regular paycheck!

Tuesday, the 1st-Daryl gets to start work. That's all I got, but it's so, so great I had to make an entry for it.