On my way home today I noticed that they have certainly begun work on the turnstile project for the Metro. Here’s a photo.
Category Archives: I'm in LA, Trick.
Other things: Happy Friday
Last night I went to my first-ever grown up “opening” at a gallery for an artist I KNOW PERSONALLY. (Gray, he’s in the middle of the photo). It was pretty fancy (it was in Beverly Hills.) I wore a fancy dress and fancy shoes and had a twist in my hair with a Bobby and carried around a dainty clutch. I was all set to go in with my handsome boyfriend and gorgeous friends, and as we walked in I realized something was sticky on my shoe. And what was it? …gum. I mean, it could have been some famous gum, chewed by someone I would probably take ABC gum from, but that was not the point. I politely excused myself and walked out to a poll behind a bush in front of the Pilates studio next door, and scraped it off the best I could.
It was all very civil, the gum (which was green, so probably wintergreen, by the way) scraped off well, and I went back in, where my handsome boyfriend got me a drink, like we were part of a civilized crowd, and then we proceeded to stare at the art and comment thoughtfully.
This begs the question, though: am I ready for openings in Beverly Hills? Maybe not…but hopefully we fit right in.
And that’s Gray’s boyfriend, Jeff.
Photos from Independence Day
The unreasonable amount of stuff in the car. The trunk was full, too.
All our stuff on the beach. 6 foot table, bikes, bags, tunes, etc.
It was pretty cold outside, so Corelyn and I were in sweaters. Here we are grilling.
Our summer salad…
Veggie kabobs. Delicious.
Playing football at dusk…
July 4: The Marvelous 11 Hour Beach Day
July 4. What a day. What a day. So good, guys, so good! I’ve been absent, and I’m sorry, and I left my camera charger in MI, so I can’t add pictures yet, but this is how it went:
July 3 — Corelyn and I menu-planned for the 4th, did laundry, grocery-shopped, and prepared salad and veg kabobs and dressing and the coolers. We also went to Target to gather supplies. Not in that order. In fact, we didn’t get to the grocery until 10:30 pm, after a series of unfortunate events, and finished up with the salad and prep work around 12:15, when I promptly went to bed, on account of getting up at 8 am for the 4th.
July 4 — We got up and met on the patio at 9 am, filled the coolers, dumped ice on our burger patties, rum in coke (ingeniously disguised in a 2 liter, we are so smart), our Sam Summer’s, etc. We packed the car with so much stuff it looked like we were going on a week-long road trip.
Items Included:
Six-foot table (to put the food on)
Charcoal grill
Charcoal
Utensils, plates, cups
2 coolers
Frisbees
Football
Chairs
Blankets
Towels
Sunscreen
Change of clothes
Sweatshirt
Lantern
Flashlights
Cards
Hair detangler
Comb
Hair ties
Book
Crossword puzzle
Sunglasses
2 bikes (Jeff, mine)
Helmets, bike locks, bungee cord
I am probably forgetting things. It was marvelous.
Then we rode the 45 minutes to the beach. We got there around 10:45, and promptly said, “efffffffffffff” because the beach was SO crowded. We were hoping to get a fire pit, but clearly this was not going to happen. However, so many people at the beach meant that everyone was grilling, and thus the lifeguards/police didn’t care that we had a charcoal grill on the beach. We proceeded to make 4 trips to and from the car to the beach, arranged our items at our camp set up, and proceeded to lay out. I sunscreened 4 times. I got tan — everyone else is burnt. Jeff is the worst, and it makes me die a little inside.
We played football, drank some rum and coke, worked on the crossword, watched the boys dig a hole, worked more on the crossword, listened to tunes, and went swimming. Well, Andrew and I (Corelyn’s husband) were the only 2 to go into the water and we were in the water for like 40 minutes, and then we saw a seal.
A SEAL IN THE OPEN OCEAN BY US. AT LOW TIDE.
Do you know what seals in the open ocean at low tide mean? Usually? Sharks. Big ones. So we promptly hopped outta the water after Andrew pointed this tidbit out and I said, “Eww, I hate it. Let’s go.”
Anyways, the rest of the day was spent reading, crosswording some more, playing scrabble, and generally having a good time. Then we BBQed into the night, and waited for the sun to go down. The kabobs were delicious, the burgers marvelous, the chips that guests brought scrumptious, and the veggie salad was heavenly. We had visitors coming and going all day, with a total of 12 in all, with 8 of us BBQing at night. When the sun disappeared, we saw fireworks all the way up the coast: Marina Del Ray, Santa Monica, and 2 separate places in Malibu. Beautiful.
We arrived home around 10:30, and by the time we were all showered and clean, with our stuff tossed into corners to be dealt with other days, it was 12, and we all promptly went to bed and slept the morning away, dreaming of the wonderful 11 hour epic beach adventure we had partook in.
Riding the Metro to work?
Last night, on my ride home, Jeff called to say that he had to be somewhere east of LA at 7:30 am. The same time I have to be at work. Which meant…I had to take the Metro to work. I looked for options out of it, but in the end, this was the only option.
So I woke up at 5:10 am. I got up. I showered. Jeff offered to drive me to the train station at 5:55 am. I arrived at 5:58 am. That’s right, folks. In the 5 o’clock hour, I was at the Metro station.
I walked down the escalators, bought my ticket (I always buy my ticket, even though no one checks your ticket and there are no turnstiles. I like to be honest, and I believe that if no one pays, the system will never get better. So I pay.) I walked to the platform, impressed at my alertness, sipping my coffee, ready to pull my book out…book out…BOOK. I had forgotten, in my haste, to grab my BOOK! And this is terrible news, because I finished a book yesterday, leaving a wide open space for me to pick up where I left off in The Red Tent so I could attempt to finish the book club books on time.
No dice. And then, I remembered that I could listen to my Bridge of Sighs book on tape. And then I remembered it wasn’t on my iPod anymore.
But then I thought it’d be OK. I could people watch.
So I did!
And let me tell you, it made me feel like I was on the subway in Beijing again. That was the last subway system that I was familiar with, and it reminds me of the Beijing. There are tons of people on the LA trains that are not “white people.” In Boston, it feels like there are Irish, Italian, and a slew of college students around. In China, everyone was Chinese. Here, people are white, Hispanic, black, etc. I feel like it’s more diverse here than any place I have lived, and a good place to see that is on the subway.
As I rode to work, I had lots of time to take in my surroundings. I took some pictures of the scenery, because most of the Gold line is above ground (the second line I ride.) I also rode the Pasadena ARTS bus for the first time! (Pasadena Area Rapid Transit System.) It was wonderful, because the bus arrived promptly, which meant I walked into work at 7:25, just in time to see Liz’s dog!
All in all, not a big deal at all. A little sleepy, but I have an iced coffee here. Tomorrow I will remember a book.