Category Archives: life

Can You NaBloPoMo?

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nablo07_seal

That’s National Blog Posting Month to you and me. Not to be confused with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is also happening in November.

It’s a pretty simple process. You start up a blog (unless you already have one, that is) and then you head over to the NaBloPoMo folks and register your blog and commit to posting once a day, every day, for the entire month of November. You don’t have to blog on the Ning.com site, you can still use your own blog. But either way, it seems fun and easy. And better still, you can get some new online friends!!

Woot! I might actually start getting comments on some of my posts now…

An Ashy Sunset in the San Fernando Valley

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An Ashy Sunset in the San Fernando Valley
Originally uploaded by katysabrat.


It’s still about and hour or so too soon for the sun to set (I have the blinds down since the pupster was going crazy over the maintenance guy outside). The whole apartment is full of a yellowy-orange glow. I can’t smell anything, but the sky is just amazingly hazy. So hazy that you’d think the biggest storm is a’brewin’.

Oh You, Bristol Farms!

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Hello, my name is Kat and I am an impulse shopper.  When I was younger, and first on my own with my first real salary, Target was my weakness.  I wasn’t able to walk out of that store for under $100.  Yes, you read that correctly!  And sadly, there was a Target right around the corner from my apartment complex.  As a teacher, I worked extra over the summer just to pay down my credit cards that I ran up (mostly at Target) during the rest of the school year.

Nowadays, expensive grocery stores like Bristol Farms and Whole Foods suck me in.  That damn Bristol Farms got to me once before, but this time, this time I was gong to show them who was in charge.  All I wanted was a orange cranberry muffin.  Believe it or not, I drove 20 minutes just to get this damn muffin (well, that and because I’ve got the hubby’s car with new brakes and we can’t switch back until we put 200 miles on the brakes).

Of course, I just had to enter through the gift shop area.   It’s not like I parked that way, or like it was anywhere near the check out, but still.  Needless to say, I think in my brain I did holiday shopping for everyone!  Like I really need that Mrs. Meyers dishsoap set – well it might make a great gift.  Ha!  Actually, I was able to walk out of there without anything but a Women’s Day magazine (honestly, I don’t even read that magazine, but I just had to have it for some odd reason).

I also managed to walk right past the coffee, the teas and the chocolates. Of course, I couldn’t stop tasting the cheese – they had the most delicious gouda out.  But alas, I did not purchase any cheese!  I did, on the other hand purchase some mediocre chicken noodle soup (seriously, I expected so much more), my muffin, a muffin for the hubby, a diet coke because I was thirsty, yet another magazine at the cash register (damn that Martha Stewart and her tasty looking pot pie!) and a roll for dinner.

The damage…$23.  Not so bad this time. But not good either considering it was only six items.  But man, there’s a reason I stay away from that place.

Fire!

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Wow, I’ve lost count on how many fires there are in the general, LA area. I think, besides the three I’ve already mentioned, there are now 2 more out in San Bernardino, one in Fontana (less than 4 miles from my sister-in-law’s place), and now another in Irvine. And of course, they’re all big and they’re all crazy due to those damn Santa Ana’s. This is all just insane. Let’s hope the winds calm down enough so they can get things under control.

I thought I smelled smoke just a bit ago, but when we went outside we couldn’t see anything. It must just be smoke on the wind from one of the nearby fires. You should have seen the sunset today. While it was a beautiful sky, just knowing that it was all the smoke in the air that caused such beauty kind of ruined it.

Let’s just hope the fires stay away. One year we had fires in the hills over in Burbank, and a few months back we had the fire a mile or so away in Griffith Park. I can’t say I knew that SoCal was known for their fire season before moving out here. Fires and earthquakes, not quite my thing.

That was Quick, too Quick

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fire sunrise
Originally uploaded by hereinmalibu.


I just wrote yesterday how the Santa Ana’s have started blowing. Well, by about 4:15 or so this morning the fires started in Malibu. Now, a few hours later, buildings have caught fire and homes have been evacuated. I wonder how long this one will last. Here’s hoping no one is injured.Every year it seems to be something in Malibu, be it mudslides or fire. This year I guess it will be more of the same since after the fires, there’s usually the rains and of course, the rains bring on the mudslides. I think it takes a certain kind of person to live in part of California.Turns out we’ve got some large fires going on in Casaic and Porter Ranch as well. And due to the heavy winds, events all over the area are being canceled.  And you know you’re in LA when the LA Fire Department has a Twitter feed going on.

The Santa Anas are Coming!!

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Those hot dry winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. —Raymond Chandler, “Red Wind”

Well, so much for that cool weather we’d been having.  We’re going from highs in the mid-70’s to highs in the high 90’s in mere days.  In October!  Wait, in late October!  In fact, my weather widget says we’re going to be about 101 on Tuesday!!  This of course, also means the official start of fire season here in Southern California.   Damn those warm Santa Ana winds.

Many movies refer to the Santa Anas and the craziness it has on the people.  I remember this being a key plot point during  Steve Martin’s LA Story.  It was also mentioned during the more recent, The Holiday where Jack Black’s character says that when the Santa Ana’s blow, that “all bets are off” and “anything can happen.”  It’s also said to be a  important part of the storyline in White Oleander.  Believe it or not it really is a crazy experience, especially when you go from a cold snap, to the windy, dry heat that is the Santa Ana’s.

So consider yourself warned…the Santa Ana’s are coming!!

Big Money, Big Money!

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I had a dream last night that I won over $501 at a casino.  So of course, while attending my niece’s regional cheer competition I was just certain I’d win the 50/50 raffle.

Yeah well, I didn’t.

What’s the point of dreaming of winning big then?!  Talk about disappointing.  Well, at least her team won and they’re off to the San Diego state-level championships in November.

You Know it’s Fall in LA When…

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* You’d much rather have anything made from pumpkins – especially the pumpkin line over at Starbucks.  Nothing thrills me like a pumpkin spice latte – non-fat, of course.

* You can find cranberry orange muffins or breads in the local bakeries.  Yum!

* The Christmas lights show up lining the sides of Zoo Drive in Griffith Park.

* You carry a cardigan or lightweight jacket everywhere you go because who knows how cold it will get that day.

* Our neighbors start decorating with their absolutely incredible Halloween decorations complete with smoke and fire – I need to get photos of this is that good.

* You have to sleep with a window slightly opened just so you can snuggle under the comfortor.

* And sadly, it becomes time to officially retire the flip-flops.  I’ve been fighting this one now for the past two weeks.  Each day I tell myself that it’s the day to pack them up.  Then I put a pair on as I run some errands doing my best to convince myself that tomorrow I’ll pack them up.

Hanging Out in Santa Monica

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Last night the hubby and I headed out to the Santa Monica Civic Center to see Rilo Kiley. I’ve seen them a handful of times now and each time I come away awed by their performance. Last night was no exception. The had a great mix of old stuff and new stuff and the crowd was involved straight through. I’ve wanted to include the youtube of their “I Love LA” encore below so you can get a feel for the show, but it kept messing up my formating – sorry. I wish I could say that The Bird & The Bee and San Diego’s Grand Ole Party were as impressive.

To be fair, I wasn’t a The Bird & The Bee fan prior to the show – regardless of how often they may pop up in the hubby’s iPod mix. Many of you may know of The Bird & The Bee from their contribution, “Again & Again” to the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack or their ’06 dance hit (and crowd favorite) “Fucking Boyfriend.” Again, can’t say that I’m a fan, though I do appreciate their stage presence and costumes – who knew that singer, Inara George was such a style maven (then again, I totally didn’t get last night’s ensemble).

I was actually kind of digging Grand Ole Party a bit (they sound great on their MySpace) they were playing with everything they had in them. Usually, this is a good thing, but at this venue (only half-filled during their opening performance) such a loud volume just bounced around the venue and sounded quite hollow and empty and loud – very, very loud. I’m sure at a smaller venue they’d sound much better. The drummer/ singer reminds me a lot of Exene Cervenka and I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not.

The coolest thing about attending a Rilo Kiley show, outside of their performance, is the people watching. Typically, when you go to a concert, you see many young girls and women tramped out to the best of their abilities – the tighter, lower and shorter the better, you’d think. At a RiloKiley show, it’s not about getting trampy and showing as much skin as you can (though the girls do manage to show skin often enough), instead it’s about showing your unique and individual Style. You know, like everyone else. So yes, that means lots and lots of knitted wear, combat boots, black clothes, and that oh.so.fab. Olsen Twin’s look. Definitely interesting fashion choices to say the least.

Of course, this is all just a reminder of how tragically unhip I am. In the past, we’ve always been part of the older crowd at a Rilo Kiley show. Then again, they’re typically all ages shows out in Pomona (yes, I said out in Pomona!) I’m guessing that since last night was their last show here in the US, as well as a hometown, Santa Monica show, there were quite a few older adults around – and that wasn’t counting the “official” Warner Brother’s label crowd.

And just to cement how unhip and uncool I can be…we decided that since we were on West Pico that we should stop in at Don Antonio’s for dinner. Not that this alone made us uncool. No, it was the fact that we chose to check it out (instead of stopping one of our other west-side Mexican favorites) purely based on the fact that Spencer the dork, took Heidi the idiot there for not only their first date, but their “anniversary” dinner. Spencer referred to it as “life altering” so we thought we’d give it a go. It was good, but not exactly “life altering” and no, Speidi were not in attendance.

Human Nature Sometimes Just Fascinates Me

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There’s a very interesting section in today’s LA Times regarding aging and happiness. It basically reports that as we get older, we tend to be happier, in particular in our much later years. It goes on to say that the average 75 year-old is much happier and more content with their life than the average 25 year-old. Personally, I’d find it difficult to find anyone over the age of 30 that wouldn’t be happier or more self-confident than the average 25 year-old.

Now I am far from the age bracket that they’re talking about, but some of it that article really rang true to me. They state that “older people are less likely to be caught up in their emotions and more likely to focus on the positive, ignoring the negative.” This is so true, even for my age. I will go out of my way to avoid certain people and certain activities and discussions that are dealing in negative crap. In the past (and the not-so-distant past as well), this has cost me relationships, but I’ve always been able to look back and realize that it’s usually for the best. Thing is, I learned that if I’m so busy trying to play along with someone’s game or am constantly listening to people tear others apart so that they can feel better, or even tear themselves down so that someone, anyone can regularly build them up (we all know at least one of those) it gets old and it just brings me down and keeps me wallowing down there with them.

Dealing with that sort of thing is like playing in mud all day, even once you wash off, you’ll still find stains and dirty residue in the strangest of places. Who would want to live like that day after day after day? I’m all for moving up and moving on. I’ve always been bit of a Pollyanna (just ask my friends) and I’m the type that would much rather focus on how to do some good in the world, or how to help someone, then to sling mud. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no angel. Like I’ve said, I too have gotten sucked into the negativity from time to time, gossiped with the best of them and wallowed along in my own misery when life seems to suck. But really, who hasn’t? The thing is, no one has to stay there.

The article goes on to say “that older people experience negative emotion less often and recover from it more quickly.” Again, not that this is my demographic, but haven’t you noticed that as you do get older you get more settled and confident in your work situations and interactions. There’s more confidence in your relationships. You suddenly realize that you can avoid those people that annoy you or rub you the wrong way, be it in the family, at work, or even with friendships and you move on to a better, healthier, more comfortable and content place.

It seems that quite often, instead of applauding our peers for moving forward and making changes, we throw rocks at them, pick away at their weakness, start playing passive-aggressive games and in some cases, start stalking them. Why even bother to make a public display of saying that someone is no longer in your life all while you’re thinking up ways to create still more negativity and drama around them? Even so, why go and search them out? Why do you care? Do you really care what is going on in their life or what they’re saying? Will this voyeuristic window into their life change the person that you are or how you interact with others? Or is it really just all about you?

Some people just can’t seem to except that things change, that relationships change. We’ve all been there, and we’ve all experienced it at one point or another. How many people are still friends with their childhood BFF, their college roommate or even their first friend from their first job? How many of us, as adults, are still absolutely heartbrokenly crushed over that first romantic relationship having ended. Still? There’s nothing wrong with growing apart, it happens to everyone at one point of another.

Change is good people. Don’t fight it. Find peace in knowing that as you get older, these little things won’t bother you so much. Stop dwelling in the negativity and the relationships in your life that bring you down and just let it go. I promise you, you’ll be in a much better place and you’ll feel so much more content and dare I say it, happy.