BookClub!

I am in a bookclub. This should be obvious because A) I am a woman in my mid-30s, B) I like to drink* and C) I have friends who are also A & B. and d) we all at one point either read a lot or thought it would be good for us to read (that got a little "d" because it was very minor in the decision to form a bookclub, oh the irony.).

ANYWAY - With very few exceptions we have met every month for 6 years (seriously, 6 years is impressive!!) We don't ALL always go every month and the cast members have changed a bit and we have probably all thought about dropping out at one time but it is a really great time to see our friends, eat some foods, drink some wines and relax. The thing is. We really don't read. This makes us probably A LOT like most other bookclubs who are A, B and Cs. We don't read so much that we actually started alternating bookclub and gamenight every other month. Except that we don't play games either.

So, this month we read a book. And. I actually read it. GET THE FUCK OUT! I swear. I finished it even. And I didn't even like it. Since we probably won't talk about the book tonight at our monthly meeting I thought I would give you my 20 words or less review:

Repetitive
Melodramatic
Cliché
Obvious
Buy it used if you must read it

meh.

*- I shit you not, while I was writing this someone said to me: "You OBviously like beer and wine…"

The one where I get a little sappy and kind of judgy.

Last Friday I heard a father's day story on NPR you... it's short - go listen to it. It's very nice actually... I just had a teensy problem with the way that it ended:

"When we spend a weekend together, she often says, "I love you." But it's the look she gives me that eternally confesses her feelings. I look at my father the same way now that I know he was thinking about me all those years we were apart. I no longer see a man who did nothing for me my whole life, but a man who has always loved me.

After all, he's my father; just as I am hers."

So, what I am hearing is it's ok to be shitty because you're her father and she should love you regardless of what you do just because of it? Yeh - I don't think so.

A good father, just as a good wife, brother, friend, etc is determined, or SHOULD be determined, by more than their title and place in the household. A good father protects and provides for their son or daughter. A good father listens, supports, encourages, and teaches. A good father is patient, knows when to shut up and when to speak up. A good father is a good husband, even if that means knowing when to let his wife go. A good father is a good son. A good father is a good man.

I hate to be all conditional but let's be realistic. I hope daughters and sons all over the world love their fathers - but I hope those fathers feel like they have to earn that love. Nothing is free. Nothing should be taken for granted. Give love. Accept love. Earn love. Don't expect love.

loveyoubye.

Happy Solstice!!

Today is allll kinds of things:

1) Solstice!
2) Father's Day
3) My first sunburn of the year.

Yep. I am 36 years old and have lived within 15 miles of the beach for all 36 of these years and I STILL cannot manage to go to the beach without getting a gnarly sunburn. And it's not even like I completely forget to apply it - I just do such a poor job of it - I am just blotchy. Blotchy legs, blotchy arms, blotchy chest.

Some day I will learn.

YO! What's up? What's going on in the world?

Some random thoughts while perusing the news..

Lakers - I'm from LA, and I really could not care less about basketball, but it's always good to see the hometown team win. At first I was a good liberal and was all up in arms over the parade that was scheduled - I agreed that people who were out breakin shit and looting do not deserve a parade. But you know who does deserve a parade? The other several million fans who did not break any laws. Why should the good fans be punished? I agree that the cost of the parade is high and comes at an unfortunate time but I also think people need to celebrate and it's great that our DamnMayor was able to raise some private funds for it. Party on and don't act like assholes is what I say to the parade and rally goers.

Dodgers - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for beating the A's last night. I am SO over interleague play. And I am SO over the AL dominating the NL with their cheating not real baseball no pitcher hitting ways!

WTF is up with Diet Cola "for men" ??? Stupid.

Congrats to Silversun Pickups on getting to number one on Billboard... I still think you're kind of boring.

Huh, David Sedaris at the B&N at the Grove tomorrow night.. That's kinda cool. I never actually read him (the bookclub girls will frequently remind me that the Christmas book they picked is only like 4 pages long or something...) but I do think he's funny, I just don't really like essays or short stories (that's what he writes right?)

If you haven't been to Wurstküche you are totally missing out. Unless of course you don't like sausage, fries or beer. If that is the case you can close the browser, your kind is not welcome here - unless you're a vegan and then you can stay - but at least they have vegetarian options.

Food Inc. Let's go see it!

Obviously there are things arguably more important than these happening in the world... those things bring me down. I don't read regular news, I read blogs. I get my news from The Daily Show and Twitter and I figure if something is important enough I will hear about it. Unlike a lot of people though (brace yourself, I am about to judge) I don't argue over world events, I don't retweet unconfirmed Tweets, I don't make my decisions on who I will side with or what I will believe based on 30 minute TV shows, Whole Foods solicitors in American Apparel Tshirts with clipboards and a smile, or social media without doing a whole lot of research first. Now I just need to figure out why everyone's Twitter avatar is green... Green isn't really my color.

The way my brain works - sorry world.

So I am walking around San Diego and pass a guy in a wheelchair - and he's no slouch - he's like a Murderball kind of guy - all in shape and shit and I notice he's wearing New Balance and the first thing I think of is "Man, if I lived in a wheelchair I would totally not wear sensible shoes."

Do you ever eat too much butter?

Do you ever think to yourself: "HEY! I'm on vacation and I've already walked all over town and sat by the pool and done yoga in my hotel room via a really awesome online yoga site and decide that it would just be too much effort to put on real clothes, brush your hair and go outside in search of dinner? So you decide to order room service. Only everything looks kind of expensive and kind of unhealthy except for the "Fit" options which just look boring. Then you find Salmon! (which is good if you like salmon.) And you look at the options for sides and see carrots! So you order Salmon, a baked potato and carrots! And you're all proud because you ordered healthy AND yummy! And it comes in 30 minutes or less, as promised, and it looks amazing. And it actually tastes amazing. And then about 17 bites in (because it was the hugest portion ever) you realize it tastes amazing because it was cooked in AT LEAST a stick and a half of butter. But you keep eating it. But you don't finish it because not even you are that hungry. But you do have to go wash your face because you feel like you just bathed in butter.

me too.


So - vacation update day 2 - I slept in late, went for a tasty breakfast of eggs, hash browns and a biscuit and then walked around the marina, for like EVER. I was hoping to take the ferry to Coronado, but I literally walked up as it was pulling away and didn't feel like waiting an hour for the next one. So I just kept walking. And walking. It was good. So good that I took a nap. After being awake for like 3 hours. I got up, searched for food and ended up with some pretty yummy fish tacos. Came back to the hotel and read by the pool before coming back to the hotel room, Facebook, Twitter, Photoshop research for new-ish Mac, decided I didn't need a new iPhone for $500 and did Yoga online. Before the great-butter-dish of 2009 occured.

The best thing happened by the pool though... there was a family there on vacation, a mom was sitting poolside with her baby in the stroller while her husband (I assume) was in the pool with his 3 daughters (I assume). He was towing the 3 girls and hollering out: "I AM ON VACATION! ON VACATION! WE ARE ON VACATION! No lawns to mow! On Vacation! No work! Vacation! SEVEN MORE DAYS OF THIS POOL!" - Man, his excitement was awesome. I hope they had a nice buttery dinner!

Now I am finishing up a decent glass of Pinot, watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix (man, that pilot was REALLY GOOD! Watch it.) and waiting for Guy to get back from dinner.

San Diego on a Sunday

Spending a couple of days down in San Diego for absolutely no reason at all. There is no occasion. There is no agenda, really. I hope to get to a yoga class, to an elliptical, to the pool. I hope to read a book. I might take the ferry to Coronado... I am going to eat some crappy food and probably some salads if I can find a Whole Foods or health food store. I am going to drink some cold beer. (oh! I already did that!) Isn't it funny how we have to schedule time to do nothing? The view from the hotel room could be enough to just keep me in bed though...

sunset.

Do you ever

Do you ever fall asleep in yoga pants and wear them to yoga in the morning?

This morning while I was getting ready for yoga, in the yoga pants that I slept in, I talked myself out of going to the class because I thought my hair looked cute and didn't want to ruin it with exercise and sweat and showering. And then I looked at my arm flab and thought: "yeh, I should go."

Our San Francisco/Sonoma Trip!

So - if you've ever been in my car you know that I love me the TV on the Radio. When they announced their spring tour I was bummed to see that their only LA date was Coachella, so that meant no other play-y in LA-y (and Pomona is just too far.) So when I saw that they were playing in Oakland over Memorial Day weekend I had one of those lightbulb moments and decided we needed a good road trip!

We arrived in San Francisco around lunchtime and took the bus up to Amoeba - I LOVE taking public transportation. I'm not sure if I would love it so much if I had to do it everyday, I'm sure the novelty of it would wear off, but when we are traveling I really enjoy it. We have sort of made a tradition out of buying CDs at local indie record stores while on vacation and I was happy we fit it into this trip. (purchases included Jason Lytle, Au Revoir Simone, Reatards, and two Nick Cave Re-issues)

I found a good deal at the Hotel Palomar, it is a Kimpton hotel, and they are quickly becoming my hotel chain of choice. Comfy beds, and really loud flushing toilet and a shower that didn't drain very well, BUT I would totally stay there again, centrally located and did I mention the comfy bed?

We had some TASTY crab-deviled eggs and a couple of beers before dinner by the water at MarketBar in the Ferry Building, (side note: I don't think I have ever, in my almost 15 years knowing my husband seen him SO excited over a group of shops). Beers and deviled eggs. yum.

Then..

Guy booked us a really yummy dinner at Ozumo Sushi. The Hanabi and Futago were amazing. Everything was great. Including the Sapporos.

After dinner we headed on the BART to Oakland to the recently renovated Fox Theater - it's one of those historic, crazy buildings with really amazing architecture. We had 5 or 10 more beers and were treated to an amazing show by one of my favorite bands.

Saturday morning was a little rough (see mention of beers above) so we got a slow start out of town and eventually made it to Santa Rosa where we checked into our hotel and had a really great lunch at Omelette Express-- soo yummy



Our home base for the wine tasting trip was Hotel La Rose - small, quaint, in the heart of their little historical area and the bed was really comfy... (comfy beds are crucial to my traveling happiness in case you couldn't tell - it has to be firm, not too firm and big enough so that 6'4" husband does not cut into my side of the bed by sleeping diagonally on small beds)

After fueling up on sandwiches and iced tea and when I finally began to feel human again it was time for some wine tasting! We hit a good amount of wineries in the Forestville, Sebastopol and Windsor areas (favorites are marked with a handy asterisk - man I love those things)

Hartford Family Winery
*Harvest Moon
Hook & Ladder
*Woodenhead
DeLoach
Dutton-Goldfield/Balletto Vineyards

Harvest Moon was probably my favorite of the day, and not just because they had a really awesome chocolate lab named Charlotte. Woodenhead had an amazing deck with views of the valley and a woman who worked there was from LA and her parents lived in the same house in the heart of Hollywood for the last FIFTY YEARS. I loved that.

That night we had dinner at El Dorado Kitchen in the Sonoma Square. Note: when traveling check to see if the town where you booked dinner is having any events, like a jazz fest, that could make finding parking near-impossible

ANYWAY - it was really good - I had the truffle risotto, Guy had short ribs. And for desert we had a S'Mores tart. mmmm...

Sunday morning we woke bright and early and without a hangover (yay) and went to breakfast at Parkside Cafe - oh. shit. yum. Chicken Fried Steak and the Country Benedict were both great and not too heavy. Really tiny place with really amazing food.

We walked around the Windsor Farmer's Market and some antique fair thing in Healdsburg before starting day two wine tasting at:

*Stryker
Seghesio
Papapietro
*Dutcher Crossing
**Preston
Mazzocco

Stryker had a remarkable tasting room, beautiful grounds, some horny snakes, and two guys working - one was lively, engaging and outgoing and the other was his total opposite. Guess which one we got?

Preston is an organic winery, with pigs and chickens and cats and bread and olives and really yummy wines. It was totally my favorite of the trip.




OK. Dinner. I booked us a nice dinner based on online reviews and a Michelin rating. So we walk into this old Victorian House/Restaurant and there is classical music playing, unchipped China on all of the tables, salmon colored walls, DRAPES, and a snooty hostess and I have a mini-panic attack. Where did I book us?? Guy calms me and the Goose and tonic calms me and we sit to eat. OH.MY.GOD. It was BY FAR one of the most amazing meals of my life. Go there. As soon as possible. Life is short people.
Madrona Manor
We had five courses of amazing food paired with fantastic Sonoma wines and Champagne, along with things like parm-reggiano churros, pea Vichyssoise amuse-bouche (actually I don't really know if vichyssoise is usually a SPECIFIC kind of soup - this is how much I didn't deserve to be eating there, anyway - it was cold and I only know what amuse-bouche is because I watch Top Chef - see you CAN learn things from Reality TV). We also were given raspberry/hibiscus crushed ice to cleanse the palettes (the texture of the ICE was amazing) - a mini creme brulee AFTER we finished the desert that we ordered, and a handful of chocolates and carmels AND 2 bags of caramel corn to take on the road. soooooo yum.

The whole weekend was awesome. Yay for vacations. I am working on the next weekend getaway now: Ojai. Have never been there and have always wanted to go. I plan on lots of relaxing.

I defintely almost died today

So, this post REALLY needs pictures - but I was not fast (or dumb) enough to bust out my camera so I went online to try and find funny pics and realized that nothing is funnier than the real thing. So imagine if you will...

You are walking North on Abbot Kinney after a successful chiropractor visit

You see a guy walking in a crosswalk - he's about 6'3" and a total douchebag. Weird curly, Jew-ish, dreadlockey things, giNORmous oversized Afflicttion style sweatshirt, baggy black pants - giving a guy in a car that is speeding towards him the "Hey - bitch are you gunna stop for me hand wave"

You look at the guy who TOTALLY should have stopped or at least slowed down a long time ago and he's in a late 80s/early 90s style Supra that has never seen a carwash and is now just the color of dust, lowered, Fast and Furious style wheels - back when it was The Fast and The Furious - a pit bull with a crazy ass scary spiked collar, I mean this poor dog, he's probably seen a fight or 20. REALLY loud music, like loud, like OW my ears and I am standing 20 feet away loud. And the driver..well, let's just say he looked mean.

And mean-driver-guy starts YELLing at douchey-crosswalk-guy. And they are screaming at each other. And by the time douchey-crosswalk-guy gets across the street you are at the corner and mean-driver-with-mean-dog-guy is STILL yelling and pointing his hand in the shape of gun at douchey-fashion-thug-guy - only you are PRAYING to the I'm-about-to-go-on-vacation Gods that you are not about to get shot because at this point you are like 2 feet from Mr-why-don't-you-just-cross-the-street-and-shut-the-fuck-up-guy and you think 2 things: 1) I hope doesn't-know-where-a-carwash-is-guy has perfect aim and 2) I hope he doesn't mind leaving a witness.

And then the both go on their merry ways.

And 2 hours later you still thinking about it.

And then you decide to bliggity-blog because Denis Leary would be so proud.

Just overheard at work: "From a branding perspective you have to keep it on four wheels"

Things I did complain about today

Assholes.

So.

I'm just sitting here minding my own business catching up on the Facebook, the Twitter, and the Google Reader, and I read a comment that someone makes about a rapper who was shot and killed at the Beverly Center today and they said: "just another rapper that got capped" --- now --- you may or may not like rap and you may or may not, but probably don't, know the person who was shot and you may or may not know why they were shot - and unless you were the person doing the shooting, I'm pretty sure that you don't.

I do plenty of judging in my day-to-day life (working on that, really) but this was someone's life. And whether or not you know who are they are or agree with how they spend their Sunday mornings, he was still a human. He was a life. And some other human took that life. I don't know why they did it and I am not going to waste my Monday evening or battery life speculating on it. Someone loved this person. Someone is hurting because they are gone. He was more than "just a rapper" to someone. Why is it so hard to remember that and so easy to judge lifestyles we don't know or agree with?

Who the fuck are we to judge why that happened. Maybe they did some bad things in their life, I don't know. And you know what? I'm pretty sure you don't either. So save the judgments for important things like music you have never heard, white shoes after Labor Day and sushi you have never tried.

No one is a "just"

Things I did not complain about today

My slow computer
My sore foot*
My sore back*
My extremely full inbox
The printer
The smell in the bathroom
The good ol boys laughing and ass slapping going on
Never being able to find information that I need in all of our systems
Asking for one thing (that I should have been able to find) and getting something else

*Shoot - I totally forgot and complained about these - but it was really more of an explanation. It was suggested that I frolic and I had to explain why I couldn't.

I am not your maid.

So, today we went to the Farmer's Market... after all - we are "those people" (more on that some other time) - and after buying grapefruit (3 for $2), cherries ($5 for a bucket - no sprays) and organic berries (asst of blue, black and rasp for $14 - cheaper than WF) I decided that I needed a third cup of coffee in an hour. Actually, I didn't even really "need" the coffee I just really love Common Grounds (mostly because it's not Starbucks, Peets or CoffeeBean) so I got my coffee and while I was giving it a splash of half & half I noticed a guy empty three packets of Sugar-in-the-Raw into his cup and then toss the empty paper packets on the table ONE INCH FROM THE TRASH BUCKET. I looked at him and looked at his trash and it's proximity to the trash bucket and said, to no one in particular, "really?" and put the trash in the bucket for him. A grown man should be able to put some trash in a trash receptacle and I should NOT have to clean up after him but I envisioned the paper packets blowing off the table and onto the ground and creating litter and someone else having to pick it up and why the fuck should someone else have to pick it up when I am standing right there next to the trash, and I didn't even have to bend over to pick it up, and put it in the trash bucket.

When I told Guy what happened he just said "Are you surprised?" and yeh, actually I was. I just don't know what the hell is wrong with people - so you don't know where the trash can is and it's that hard to, I don't know, glance around and try and find it? People - come on - take responsibilty for your actions - don't litter, don't be a douchebag, don't expect other people to do things for you. In case you forgot, you are human and you are not ANY better than anyone else... I am not better than douchey litterer fuckface just because I picked up his trash. We are all the same, let's leave the coffee condiment area nice and clean for the next coffee lover ok?

I really need a hobby.

Today someone told me that "some people" might (may?) think that I update my Facebook status too frequently lately. My initial reaction was, predictably, fuck 'em... But after obsessing over it for a few hours (like 7) I thought - "if only they knew." Most people on FB don't even follow me on Twitter - so if they think I update FB a lot, their heads would explode with all of the combined updates. But even those two combined is MAYBE 1/8 of the amount of updates that I could do or would like to do. Believe it or not I AM actually exercising some self-control. I don't necessarily have a lot of time on my hands, I just have a lot of random 140-ish character thoughts that are CONSTANTLY going through my head. A lot. In fact I started this blog because I thought I would ease the amount of random texts, updates, emails that I send to people... But a blog isn't really the place for 140 character or less thoughts. So this leaves me with a decision to make. Stop making random FB updates (maybe)... increase number of Tweets (no)... just keep them in my head (as if). Hmmm... What is a girl to do. Should I start a different totally anonymous Twitter account or blog that takes all of the pressure off of me - I can post anonymously all of my random crazy thoughts - or maybe having SOME restraint is better so that I can get work done during the day. Husband might have me committed, or divorce me and take custody of the cats: "Judge, I would like to present in evidence defense Tweets #27 - 1,987 as proof of plantiff's inability to contribute emotionally to marriage." Yeh - I need a hobby.

In another news, here is my 10 word or less movie review of Star Trek.
loved it. see it. spock is not sylar, remember that.

PB&B

Things that make me go: meh - Pat Benatar, Blondie and The Donnas are playing

At first I was like: "wow, who the fuck cares..." And then I remembered that I am (still) trying to be more positive and less judgmental and thought "I am sure LOTS of people care, and I probably even know some of them. However, I personally do not care and would not spend a nickel on that show.(except I probably actually thought SHIT and not SHOW)" Ok, I MIGHT spend a nickel - but only if the beers were free. And then I thought - "oh, it's probably part of the Fair tour" except I was thinking it in a really judgy way because fair concerts suck ass (and then I replayed the whole positive, know people who like that shit, conversation with myself)... and I was right. Fair tour. OC Fair - I've been thinking that I need to go to the OC Fair instead of the LA County Fair for a change of pace (even though they are all, literally, the same)... maybe we'll go. and you know what, we would probably have a really good time... we will never know.

Oh and that date on the link is wrong but I don't care.

It's a rainbow in my box

So, like, I color code my emails at work, different colors obviously for different items that need to be addressed… it's a pretty good system, especially since I like to do things in batches - I just batch and color code similar tasks together… I used to move things out of the inbox and into folders but I like having them in my inbox, constantly reminding me how far behind I am, to stay motivated (I THINK the GTD peeps like folders AND color coding but there is only so much time in a day to organize y'know).

ANYWAY… lately I've been feeling a little Groundhog Day --- like every day is just sort of the same or really similar --- same kinds of emails, same kinds of problems, same same. And in dealing with the same emails and problems I've gotten a little behind on filing and clearing out my Inbox, so today is the today I totally get caught up, stay motivated, file and get down to <5 emails. Because I am trying to figure out a way to stay engaged I decided to do things in small batches and in doing so I realized that I made my HOURS very Groundhog Day… here's the way it went today:
1) check inbox & clear out one of my colors (this creates more paper that needs to be filed - it's a legal thing)
2) file stack of papers (which are also batched for quick and efficient filing, except when I totally ignore them, like last 2 weeks)
3) check Yahoo, check Facebook, check Twitter
Repeat
Over
And
Over
All
Day
Long .....
Wow. I am REALLY looking forward to that weekend in Sonoma.
File, Rinse, Repeat. Gotta go - Blue is waiting for me

Mother's Day Schmuther's Day.

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random thoughts on a Thursday night

I added the Blogger Dashboard to my Home page tabs to open because I thought maybe it would remind me/inspire me/guilt me into writing more... see, it's working...

I've had a lot to eat today

I am starving

I can.not.stand. hearing listener comments on the radio. If I wanted to hear random douchebag shithead commentary I would just go outside, like to the mall, or church.

No I am not "surprised" by Manny getting 50 game suspension for drug violation - I am SHOCKED that he was stupid enough to get caught.

I probably would not have even thought twice about it except it is MY TEAM he's fucking with and MY TEAM has the best record in baseball - so if this fucks MY shit up I will not be fucking happy.

Everyone says they will probably still be in 1st place when he gets back, so he better be a .350 hitter AT LEAST when he gets back.

I think it's HILARIOUS that Steve Phillips just pointed out on ESPNews that the Dodgers didn't want to pay him that salary anyway and now they're saving 7milliondollars. True.

Hungry.

Nick!!! mmmmm Nick.

So, I've been in a mood lately. A bad mood. A sad mood. A frustrated mood. Angry. Irritated. Overwhelmed. Sick. Back hurts. No sleeping. You name it and I have lived it in the last 2.5 days.

When I get into these moods I listen to a lot of Nick Cave. Like, a lot. Like, nothing else. His music, over the span of his career, has pretty much touched on all of my moods - so when you're mid-mood swing and a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Shuffle All takes you from a ballad to a murder ballad to a death row walk you are pretty much RIGHTTHERE with it...

"Stagger Lee" is a really fucking great song. And I was listening to it just now (live, hopefully the studio version comes up in a minute) and I am really struggling which of these two lines is my favorite (close browser now if you are easily offended).

A) She saw the barkeep, said "O God, he can't be dead!"
Stag said, "Well just count the holes in the motherfucker's head"

or

B)"I'm a bad motherfucker, don't you know
But I'll crawl over fifty good pussies just to get one fat boy's asshole"

man, that's a good song. and really good and bitchy and sexy live.

oops gotta run, mood swinging back the other way in 3.2.1....

*****************************************
update at 7:43 pm - I am feeling much better and tomorrow WILL be a better day, Fuck yeh.