What More Can One Ask For?

I decided that as part of this blog business, I am going to start to describe my feelings in conjunction with various activities. I am glad that I started a blog because it's cathartic and also a good way for friends all-over to keep in touch.

Okay, it's Sunday morning and I am barely awake and soon I will drive my latest visiting friend, Robin, to the airport for her flight back to Tucson. Then, sadly, it's back to reality-preparing for a busy work week, working again on Arizona paper revisions, trying to get my car window fixed and everything else that needs to be fixed, the thoughts almost depress me. Robin and I did so many activities over the past few days that my head is spinning around. And I had better write it all down now or I will forget.

I was so psyched to leave work early on Thursday-it felt like a Friday and better yet, I knew I wouldn't have to go back until Monday. I had found out on Thursday that I had been doing my protein assays completely wrong after consulting with this professor that morning. I don't consider it a week lost though. Because I have been learning. So, either I could have gotten depressed or laughed it off-so I laughed it off. Anyways, Friday was going to be my first day off since I started work (with the exception of one day that I was sick). I knew that having a day off and a fun weekend would be just what I needed.

The funny thing about the arrival terminal at LAX is that passengers come down to baggage claim via an escalator and the nature of the escalator is that you can't see people-just their legs as they come down it. So, I have gotten good at recognizing friend's legs-ha. In this case, I spied Robin's flip flops and knew she had arrived. One of my favorite moments when I have friends coming to visit is that moment when you see them for the first time-sometimes I wish that I could capture that moment on tape-freeze it-and then the initial hug, the -"holy crap it's good to see you hug."

Anyways, following the airport pick-up, we spent Thursday night on my patio grilling-we made this amazing salmon with asian sauce-with ginger, soy, garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar sauce, and then grilled corn and portobello mushrooms and zuccini with an olive oil, basil, and rosemary dressing. Of course we drank some white wine. The weather was beautiful-a little chilly, but a nice ocean breeze. I love my backyard and my flowers currently look very fetching (and based upon Robin's expert advice, many of them got re-potted this weekend).

I don't remember what time we went to bed that night but neither of us slept well-for me, it was because I went to bed buzzed and for Robin, she heard the lovely loud traffic outside my window, on Ocean Park Blvd. I am sorry to all of my overnight visitors, who while enjoying the comforts of my futon, have to deal with the noisy traffic.

Hmm, so Friday morning we got up, walked to Zabie's for breakfast-the nice little French cafe near me-had some eggs, toast, pancakes (okay-so my blogs tend to ruminate on food), and I swear the owner has started to recognize me by now. We then walked down to Ocean Park Beach, about a 3 mile walk. We must have walked like 5-6 miles that day. On our walk, we looked at a lot of flowers-including birds of paradise which kinda freaked me out. I forget that when I am with certain friends, I tend to notice some things more-for example, little details like what's in people's yards. There were so many pretty gardens on our walk. The beach of course was beautiful and we also walked to the Promenade-went in a lot of shops, including that fabulous soap store-Lush-, I bought some tank tops, went into huge Urban Outfitters, we even went into a store called Hear Music which lets you make your own CD. We caught the bus home and stopped off at a local favorite for take-out sandwiches-The Counter. I love eating sloppy sandwiches with a good friend. Then it was time to get ready for Ben Folds concert.

It took us about an hour to drive there on Fri night-it's in rush hour traffic, and in Hollywood so...We stayed on Wilshire Blvd all the way so she got to see Rodeo Drive, etc, Beverly Hills, we never made it to UCLA though (next time-and for a basketball game!). Robin swore that she saw Brad Pitt's vehicle-I forget it's name-it's silver, looks like a jeep with tinted windows.
We get to the Wiltern Lantern-it's a beautiful old theater-long curtains, antique looking ceilings-we are literally in the very last row on the top, but there is a good view of the stage. It's not so far away that the performers look like ants. I even entered us in a concert to win backstage passes but no luck. By the way, this was only my second concert ever-the first was Billy Joel when I was 14. Ben Lee opened-he is an Australian guitarist with a nice smile. Then, Rufus Wainwright came on-I hadn't really heard him before except for that duet he does with Ben Folds called Careless Whisper. Oh my god, him and Ben Folds have the two most beautiful male voices that I have ever heard. Rufus alternated between a guitar and piano, he had a few duets with his sister who has a clear beautiful voice, he just sounded amazing. Ben of course was the icing on the cake-he played some oldies and a funny song making fun of Dr. Dre's rap, also got the crowd going with that song in which in directs the crowd to sing-the ooooh, ahhh, song, there was so much energy from both of them-it was palpable, I could feel it. Robin had tears in her eyes and I have to be honest, I was close to it too. I have never felt that way about music before-you feel like you are part of the rhythm. One of the best moments was when they sang ""Careless Whisper together. So, I don't know if anyone else I saw could top that. I thought it would take us a long ass time to get home but it didn't -30 min, we were too tired to cruise by Sunset Blvd and see the clubs. The funny thing was that we got home and Ben Folds happened to be on The Tonight Show-had to tape that.

Let's see -so Saturday, another busy ass day, we woke up-went and worked out-45 min of cardio, some weights, I forgot how more motivated I get when I have a workout partner. Stopped off at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on the way home, ran into my neighbors including my neighbor Mark who is a sweetie, chatted, got cleaned, then hit Venice Beach. There is something so pristine about the ocean-so mind-clearing. Venice of course is fun-very active, lots of sidewalk amusements, etc, friendly people, surfers, we then hit the Santa Monica Promenade for more shopping-ate a mid-afternoon meal in the Beanery where Taryn and I ate breakfast-It's fun inside-lots of old ads, paraphenelia. It's been open for 80 years!
I had the biggest ass hot dog that I have ever seen-a foot long-didn't finish it though.
We were so pooped that we got home and just had a quiet evening-watched tv, grilled some chicken (garlic, lemon, salt, pepper sauce) and corn so we ate dinner at like 9pm (Mark, I am sure you are in disbelief if you are reading this). Had some wine.

So that's it really, a lot packed in but it felt very spontaneous and fun. When Susy was here, we did a shitload, and even took naps, we were so tired, but no naps this time and even more stuff.
It's just always so hard to say goodbye to friends though-that's the hard part...because you know that living in another place, you won't see them as often so it makes the time together even more special. It's really nice to be with a close friend too-you end up laughing a lot, smiling a lot, finishing each other's sentences and thoughts, and wishing that they lived next door.

Allright, well I started this blog earlier, now I am finishing it later-I know it's going to be a lazy day!

Julie