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.

Flickr Rocks (and other random thoughts)

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A while back, one of my Sonoma photos was chosen for use in the Schmap guide.  Today I got an email that yet another one of my photos was up for consideration for the San Diego guide.  It was one of my Hotel del interior photos.  Pretty cool if I do say so myself considering I don’t edit my photos and they’re taken with my little ‘ol Canon (which I do hope will be upgraded this Christmas or for our upcoming trips since the lens cover doesn’t open more than half the time).

And speaking of Flickr, does anyone know how to remove “friends”?  I tend to keep nearly all of my photos public, but I’ve accidently added some “new contacts” as “friends” from time to time.  And well, I’m not sure how comfortable I am knowing that personal photos and updates are sent out to “friends” on a weekly notice.ve.

On a  non-Flickr related note, the new KT Tunstall is quite good.  The hubby has had it for quite some time now, but he finally released it from his clutches and added it to the insane, ever growing pile of CDs.  Seriously, I have no idea what to do with those stacks since they just keep growing and growing.  It’s not like we can trade them in.  Though I could probably trade in a few to update my DVD library some.  Oh well, I must work on that some more and come up with something.  I’m open to suggestions though.

It’s official, both our Albuquerque and our San Fran/Healdsburg trips are completely booked. I think I’m more excited to go back to Albuquerque than wine country (maybe because our wine stash is also a bit out of control).  Fall in NM is an amazing time, especially if it’s chili roasting time.  Sadly, it won’t be roasting time, but you better believe that I’ll be filling up on more than my share of green chili!!

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.

Let’s Go Meet Crazy Aunt Purl

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If anyone would like to join me at the Grove to see/hear Crazy Aunt Purl later today, you’re more than welcome.  We can do dinner or drinks or coffee too!  And if it helps to motivate and excite you, she’ll also be doing a raffle for a divorce gift basket (as seen here).

Come on, what could more fun, inspirational and social to do on a Thursday night?  You’ve got better plans?  Did I mention she’s crafty?!?

Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
Los Angeles: Barnes & Noble at The Grove [Google Map]
Reading, Q&A session and book signing

It’s 2:30 and I’m Still in My PJs

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Ack!!  In my defense, I’ve been busy, busy, busy.  My site had some malaware issues so I’ve been dealing with that over the past couple of days.  Let it be known, I am the beauty, not the brains behind our website and tech-crap is not my strength by any means.  But I can fake it with the best of them!

But really, I’m all sorts of proud because I managed to find the offending image and handle it myself.  Granted, it didn’t involve anything more complex than contacting the ad agency we use regarding the four new ads that all launched on the day our challenges began.  They were then able to isolate which ad it was and wam-o, blam-o it’s fixed and malaware begone!!

So now I’m sitting here after finally managing to inhale some hot dogs (gotta love those Hebrew FF hotdogs and Wonder light buns – yum!) and taking a moment for myself before I jump back into work related stuff.  But first, I must get out of these PJs (they’re really not all that comfortable, even as they get bigger as I get smaller, so I’m thinking it might be time to ditch them), put on some real clothes (you know, yoga pants and a tee) and head on over to ‘bucky’s to pick me up a non-fat, pumpkin spice latte!

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

I Learn Something New Every Day

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I came in here to write about what I dumb ass I was not all too long ago – always a good topic.  I’ll admit it, I thought that Banff National Park was in British Columbia.  Funny thing, I just now learned that while it is most definitely NOT in British Columbia, it is exactly where I thought it was (in the Canadian Rockies) and does indeed border British Columbia.  And to think, someone found this amusing enough to laugh about (and I’m sure I’m opening myself up for more laughter still).

Sadly I just fall into the generalization of yet another one of those damn Americans that doesn’t anything about the rest of the world.    Though to be honest, it does make me wonder why we learn all about Europe, yet nothing about Canada or Mexico while in school.  Then again I’m just not the type to try to make someone feel stupid because they didn’t know that Kansas City is in Missouri or that Texarkana is in both Texas and Arkansas.

But I always was about the teachable moment.  Of course, I’m sure that won’t stop some folks from still thinking me a dumb ass for not knowing my Canadian provinces, but who am I to judge.  A humbling experience though it wasn’t.  Ah well, live and learn; and learn I did.

Mi Casa is Bueno, but that Casa is Mucho Bueno*

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I love our apartment. I love our street and neighborhood. I love the wall I painted and think it really helps to make the place look not so much like an apartment and more like a home.

I love and appreciate our landlords (though there are some other challenges like their crazy, psycho, 95ish mother that lives next door, but that’s a completely different story for another day). And I’m just thrilled that after listening to our bathroom faucet leak for nearly a month, it’s finally fixed – though how the hot water and cold water switched sides I have no idea (and it does take a little getting used to).

You might remember a while back I was coveting both my neighbor’s and my landlord’s current remodels. Well, remodeling is still going on and while I’m glad it’s not me having to go through upheaval for this whole time, we are affected daily. Everything in our house is covered in dust. Sadly, that includes electronics like amplifiers, printer/copiers and computers. Needless to say, it’s freaking the hubby out a bit.

So instead of complaining about the dust, the noise and the constant dog barking, I’ve decided to work on manifesting us a new home! I’ve even found the house and it’s in our same neighborhood even. No mind you, it doesn’t have to be this house (there’s another one in the Arroyo that I’m keeping my eye on as well), but I do love this one and always have since it first went on the market shortly after moving to this area.

So let’s do it, let’s bring this baby home!

new house

* PS – I don’t speak Spanish so please forgive my bastardized Spanish in the title

I’m Doing It…

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I’m learning to knit.  I broke down and ran out to not one, but three different stores today to pick up knitting supplies.  The first store (Joann’s) I picked up large, chunky yarn and big’ol needles, but sadly it was too dark and chunky for me to see what I was doing.

Then I ran out to a local little shop hoping to get some different yarn and an opinion on what I was doing.  I was doing it wrong, was what I was doing.  So I picked up some $7 wool (nothing inexpensive in this store, boy howdy – at least it was on sale) and practice with the gal helping.  Then I decided that chunky was still too difficult for me to see clearly since it’s all uneven, so I packed up and headed out again.

This time I hit up Michael’s.  I decided I just wanted basic, inexpensive yarn.  So I picked up a heathered oatmeal, medium worsted skein and a new set of size 8 needles (as the wrapper suggested).  And now, I seem to be doing much better with my double cast-on.  It moves smoother and I can definitely see my stitches more clearly.

I’ll just keep practicing with this.  I have a feeling I might be pulling things too tight though, we’ll see once I learn the knit stitch.  I also found someone local (gotta love MeetUp) that is up for meeting with me tomorrow to work with me a bit.  I’ll use my chunky stuff for when I’m ready to finally break down and knit a scarf.

I’m quite excited.  Thankfully, an online friend pointing me in the direction of KnittingHelp.com where they have how-to videos.  For some reason, I find watching how to be much easier than reading how.  I do have to say, a friend told me to start cheap, but um, I’m not so sure this is much of an inexpensive beginning.

Okay, off to cast-on some more and then try my hand at knitting and then maybe purling.  This is just so freakin’ cool!