MY word of the day

San Diego is the place where I watched Law & Order for 5 straight hours.  Not that our view isn't beautiful---it is, and we're within walking distance of the water, but I'm not walking so well just now.   This had been happening to me on and off for the last year, but I thought it was over weeks before we went on holiday.  I was being kind of gleeful about being "cured", so I'm feeling as annoyed as sore.

Hubris, anyone?

What Kind of Day Was It?

Well, they were but miles from me---the glamorous, the gifted, the beautiful, the tremulous, the eco-friendly-dressed and the soon to be disappointed-but-valiant.

Dave, my sister Kathy, her partner Bob and I were sitting in a bar after having braved multiple freeways to get to  the Universal City Sheraton where my sister was staying.  The TVs were too far away from us for the Oscars to grab our attention when suddenly, Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz jumped into my vision.  Well, actually, they sashayed.

I always watch Cameron Diaz because she looks so much like Sarah.  Of course, she doesn't know that, but she looked splendid nonetheless so I jumped up and stood in front of a bar TV so I could catch her and J-Lo (as some call her).  A nice woman from the bar staff came over and asked if we'd like to watch the Oscars on a special hidden screen in another part of the bar, which of course, we did.  They moved all our stuff over to a fine little corner with a huge couch and a couple of high-back chairs, and the screen rose out of a credenza before our eyes.

It was decent watching even though I had trouble with the sound because a TV in the next little nook was a volume millisecond ahead of us, and another a millisecond behind.  I don't seem to be able to unscramble sound anymore, but the goings-on were fairly comprehensible just the same.

It was sort of thrilling to think that Glenn Close and Meryl Streep were probably knocking back Chardonnay just down the road, but I understand that's just another day in LA.  

The alphabet of our trip so far:
A. Awesomely Amazing trip along the Coastal Highway(I didn't scream once)
 B. Brilliant decision To turn back when all five lanes of the Santa Monica Blvd stopped moving at 4:02 p.m.
C. Calamitous decision to try to post from an IPad.
 D. Delicious dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Express,four cheese macaroni,chardonnay and vanilla lemon coconut cake
 E. Elephant seals, hundreds of them on the beach at Big Sur
 F. Flexibility,family and friends
 G. Goldarn goodies at Whole Foods H. half-pathetic experience at Venice Beach---few crazies, no nudes I. Incandescent sunsets, no sunrises so far
J. Java, java everywhere, but no Tim Horton's (Peet's coffee is my favorite so far)
K. Karmel! I've already used the "C"
 L. Los Angeles at night---the jaw drops!
M. maximum exposure to gross, yet inviting, consumerism
N. Notorious gadding-about in SN Francisco
O. Obnoxious security guards, but that was eight days ago. NO! I'm still mad!
P. precious little time devoted to reading
Q. Queries about my accent---pshaw, you know I don't have one
R. Redondo Beach, where we are right now, a block from a dog-free, beautiful beach.. with pelicans and dolphins
S. Sunshine every day so far
T. Terrible sense of entitlement, to which I feel we're entitled
U. Ubiquitous Californianess
V. Vistas of the most terrifyingly beautiful coastline imaginable---I should have used "T" for twisty
W. Washed-out travelers
X. In california, no "X's" are used
Y. You bet we're enjoying it
Z. In California, when you are tired, you don't have to play fair

A California Primer

The alphabet of our trip so far: A. Awesomely Amazing trip along the Coastal Highway(I didn't scream once) B. Brilliant decision To turn back when all five lanes of the Santa Monica Blvd stopped moving at 4:02 p.m. C. Calamitous decision to try to post from an IPad. D. Delicious dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Express,four cheese macaroni,chardonnay and vanilla lemon coconut cake E. Elephant seals, hundreds of them on the beach at Big Sur F. Flexibility,family and friends G. Goldarn goodies at Whole Foods H. half-pathetic experience at Venice Beach---few crazies, no nudes I. Incandescent sunsets, no sunrises so far J. Java, java everywhere, but no Tim Horton's (Peet's coffee is my favorite so far) K. Karmel! I've already used the "C" L. Los Angeles at night---the jaw drops! M. maximum exposure to gross, yet inviting, consumerism N. Notorious gadding-about in SN Francisco O. Obnoxious security guards, but that was eight days ago. NO! I'm still mad! P. precious little time devoted to reading Q. Queries about my accent---pshaw, you know I don't have one R. Redondo Beach, where we are right now, a block from a dog-free, beautiful beach.. with pelicans and dolphins S. Sunshine every day so far T. Terrible sense of entitlement, to which I feel we're entitled U. Ubiquitous Californianess V. Vistas of the most terrifyingly beautiful coastline imaginable---I should have used "T" for twisty W. Washed-out travelers X. In california, no "X's" are used Y. You bet we're enjoying it Z. In California, when you are tired, you don't have to play fair

Up and Down in Oakland

There's no mirror in the bedroom of the room we have in the condoloft in Oakland. I had to turn on my laptop videocam to comb my hair.

Not too bad for "on the downside".  On the upside we met our charming cousin Chris who probably wasn't even born the last time I was at a family reunion, and his charming dog Jackson, and Dave, Chris and Jackson went hiking up along the ridge---at least I think that's where they went---and saw an amazing sunset.  Dave took photos, which we may, on the upside, be able to download and post later this week. And by "this week", I mean our week, which started on a Tuesday.

Today we're meeting the Rhodester and Dorian to get a guided tour of The Castro and the Haight.  It has been amazing, meeting in person the people I've known online for so long.  They all seem to like Dave for some reason, so the social niceties are easily taken care of.

We had wanted to tour Alcatraz, but this is the President's Day long weekend, and we would have had to get our tickets 10 days ago, which of course, we could have done online from Ottawa.  Our inability to do that has made our "this holiday couldn't be better" attitude kick in, and we just know that we weren't destined to look over the place where Alcatraz the TV series has made the bad old days seem so vivid.

I had a few minutes to blog while Dave was shaving and showering (pause here for gentle, kindly laughter about the combo of Dave, razor, shower and time) but I think I have to get ready for breakfast and an exciting day in San Francisco.

a rantette

Took piles of photos today while walking on Muir Beach in Marin County, had a wondeful kale and cranberry salad from Whole Foods, zipped through Berkley Campus, bringing back memories of my so wanting to go there when I was 17, then had a pedicure with coral polish; then a tomato and goat cheese pizza withedamame salad and  Red Zinfandel.  Realized this sounded like a Facebook entry rather than a blog and decided that it was totally appropriate due to the combination of  exhaustion and Zinfandel.  Will actually look at the photos to see if there's anything worth posting.  Want my kids and grandchildren to miss us, damn it!

L and D go to SoCal and notSoCal...end of day 2

Arrived at LA in the dark, met my friend, had profound discussions, left early the next morning for San Francisco.

That is the skeleton of our two days so far,  Here is some of the meat:

• got a really helpful taxi driver to take us to the airport; he helped with our bags; he got a big tip
• was able to watch the awesome and mystical Canadian Rockies from thousands of feet above and felt I had already got my money's worth out of the trip
• helped Dave take everything out of all our luggage because after we got our rental car, we couldn't find our GPS---found the GPS in a flowered shopping bag Dave had chosen to put all our car things in, which was, ironically, sitting in the car
• had a meal at IHOP
• went to our friend's house and found that we could throw stones from her wonderful courtyard townhouse, if we wanted, and they would land on Redondo Beach
• left LA before 7 a.m. to drive up to San Francisco; encountered a scene of such beauty leaving the city that it brought tears to my eyes, and a soon-to-be useless search to my luggage for my camera
• tried taking video, but either hemmed and hawed or giggled my way throughout the wobbly handheld video of the suicidal cows
• met up with our friend in San Francisco, got friendly with the four dogs who are the first of ten she'll be taking in this weekend, spent far too little time in Whole Foods, had an amazing tour of Oakland and points west, culminating in a view of Oakland and San Francisco that I actually thought was an attempt to drive us all off a cliff
• Oh, and we talked politics  

By the numbers, poutingly

I have 63 things to do on my ToDo list before we leave on our trip Tuesday at the unholy hour of 4:00 a.m., so naturally, I spent 4 hours watching The Walking Dead and the Grammys.  I never watch award shows, but I had a personal interest in The Civil Wars who were nominated in two categories.  Emily and I saw them in Montreal at the end of October, and it was one of the best live shows I've ever seen. They didn't win, but they did a 60 second intro for Taylor Swift.  A kind of win/not win/win thing.

Given that linen always wrinkles, I've decided to save time and not steam my linen clothes---no one will be able to guess if they're wrinkled because I was lazy or because they're so comfy I've been wearing them for days.  Only 62 things left on my list, and I'm going to just ignore all the ones that are things I usually do for Dave, which he never realizes, but if he notices, changes.  14 things left on my list, only one of which is sleep.

If I remember No 8, check the camera battery, I'll send photos while we're away.

Subterfuge

Damn, tonight I cut my hair, still wearing the clothes I'd chosen to wear out to dinner. I just know I'm going to regret this.  And I'm going to itch.

Today is my brother Pat's birthday.  It's as hard to believe he's 65 as it is for me to believe that David and I have been together for 38 years.  He swears retirement is not going to interrupt his cool way of life.  And knowing him, I believe it.

Pat is the one in the glasses.

  

How to...101

Here I am in the midst of something I would not only fail to recommend but would speak strongly against.

I've unbalanced my life.  I hope it's temporary, and probably because I'm aware of it, it is.

Dave and I are going on holiday next week, our daughter Emily is testing for her somecolour belt at the dojo, our daughter Sarah has been away for 10 days and we haven't caught up yet, our son just started a new job, I took on a volunteer project that I'm totally capable of doing without a bead of sweat if I were in another timeframe and Dave has developed an addiction to online Solitaire.

Somewhere in there I'm hoping to get the fridge and the plants ready to be left alone for 3 weeks, find my last year's sandals, get my eyelashes tinted (well, you can't expect me to travel with eye make-up remover!), tone my upper arms and ensure my e-reader has lots of tasty content.

Oh yeah, check camera batteries, cut Dave's hair, return borrowed books, find industrial clippers for toenails, make soup for sick neighbour, see at least one of the plays at our regional theatre, catch up with my friends Evelyn, Mieke, Janine, Robert, and so on, make a ToDo list.

Hmmm, I've got seven days to do all that.  Think I'll take a nice glass of lime cordial and read for an hour or so.

7 days makes 1 weak

How did it get to be Friday again?

Of course, it's early, early Friday but Friday nonetheless and another week has zipped by.

Friday didn't used to be my counting-by day; that's just happened because Emily and Robyn stay over on Friday and it's probably the one constant in our lives these days.  It's a warm and charming constant, something I look forward to every week, but it's a passive, rather than an active, event.

When I look back on our family life, I can see different timeframes, different counting-by days:

• when I was living at home with my parents, the week started with Sunday mass, which coincidentally meant some kind of roasted meat later in the day.  That just led us easily into Monday back-to-school, library day, Brownies, washing day and back to Saturday night Bonanza.
• when I was a teenager, my week started with Saturday morning pouting and culminated with Friday night at the Teen Club and the stuff in between didn't seem to have any weight whatsoever.
• as a young married person, and until I had children, the week started when we slept in on Sunday, had dinner with the family, work,work,work and Star Trek on Fridays.  Saturday was the day for getting "the stuff" done, the washing, cleaning the car, catching up with the papers, rotating the library books and seeing a movie.
• once I had kids, when they were babies, I sometimes didn't know what day of the week it was, but I knew the days of the week in German, and got to do my marketing in the village every day but Sunday; try anything else if your fridge is waist high and has no freezing compartment
• kids in school, our week started on Saturday morning, when we would put our TV in the big square hall outside our bedroom so the kids could watch but still be heard if we weren't sleeping, and would end Friday night when the kids finished their hamburgers or pizza and looked forward to the no-schoolness of the weekend, Oh, and Star Trek (the ongoing series on Fridays)
• ten years into our 4-person family, along comes Emily and our week revolves around whichever day we all get to sit down together for dinner
• years of that
• Dave and I retire, and in spite of our careful planning, our week now starts on any day whatsoever, and with the Condo Board, PFLAG Canada, our son's trucking schedule, our daughters' young-parents' schedule, our electronic pals, our sketchy naps and The Walking Dead, our week recycles itself when Dave makes Eggs Florentine.