J sent these from the morning and the evening. He’s not especially close to the fires, but, well, LA is a basin and so everyone gets to share the air. Pretty sunrises and sunsets, but it’s not as though the air wasn’t bad enough already.
and here
and here
Fall is nice when there are deciduous trees around. And there’s a lot of brick.
Made the flight in Oakland with time to spare, made it to Dulles on time. All four checked bags arrived, apparently unsearched and unscathed, as are mom and me. Andrea was waiting at baggage claim and took us home, even once she’d seen how much garbage I was dragging with me. I think that the bribe of fresh sourdough may have helped.
Now it’s Well Past bedtime, EDT and Hardly bedtime, PDT. I can sense that this could be a problem for a little bit. Getting keys to the place tomorrow and a new phone, but likely not a new number, and resting. Pod arrives on Friday and then it will be an Orgy of Unpacking.
Revelling in the whole “stuff going on that I can go to” - I’ve bought tickets to two haunted tours (Georgetown and the National Building Museum), three plays (Fall of the House of Usher, Speed the Plow, As You Like It) and a lecture and a construction watch tour at the National Building Museum. Part of me really feels like this is a vacation and I need to cram everything in as fast as possible. That may change once I start work.
In the meantime, it’s probably time to try and get some rest as there’s a Very Active One-Year Old living here and I bet he doesn’t sleep in.
Met up with Sid for breakfast at Fox and Goose (OK, Sid up in time to go out for breakfast is weird, but she’s got a kid in school now and people evolve). It was a gorgeous rainy day and we were in desperate need of ollaberry scones with Devonshire cream. They were goooood.
Headed to Stockton, music roaring. I bought two coats - black velvet and long caramel leather. Hey, I NEED them now. Stopped at Gunther’s on the way back - yes, peanut butter cup ice cream. Hung out at 8th and T to catch up with the beautious Leendah and to make my cautious way down those steps one last time.
Met parents for dinner at Amarin. Drunken noodles, spicy eggplant, vegetarian Amarin rolls, fried tofu, Popeye spinach. Had a crazy Flashback moment listening to “Girlfriend in a Coma” while driving down I St. Cruised the Halloween selection at Evangeline’s before calling it a night and rolling home.
You say rut, I say Tradition.
Generally, when it comes time for Brandi to dye my hair, I can’t wait. Because of the distance, the color tends to be well past its prime and I’m feeling ugly. I’ve been known to stage a trip north with the primary intention of hair and secondary one of seeing everyone else.
This time was different. Dark Tulip? Still glowing. Everytime that I saw the color out of the corner of my eye, it made me happy and yet, certain sacrifices must be made in the name of Good First Impressions. I’m already going to be That New Girl From California, a state with enough wacky associations already. My first summer out here, people kept saying “I hear that Gary Coleman is going to be your Governor”. I always told them I was voting for Angelyne, but cringed inwardly.
Anyhow, she went over everything with dark brown and a flat iron and now I have Asian hair - super straight and glossy and very dark. Several people took a few minutes to recognize me. And once I wash it, the curl will be back and in a few weeks, the darkness will fade, and once I get the feeling for my new workplace? I may put in some surreptitious streaks.
J read the instructions and discovered that the new bike rack actually works pretty well, once straps are placed appropriately and pins are inserted. Fascinating, this reading thing. Must try it sometime.
I made a pitstop in Ventura for tacos (of course) in downtown Ventura with Collin. Hadn’t been there since Greg-n-my Monsters of Swing days and I wondered why it was I’d not managed to make it for a visit in the last four years. I vowed to
1) take full advantage of any and all opportunities presented in DC and
2) to stop mocking the people who said “I can’t believe you’re leaving LA! I was going to come and visit!”
One person who ALWAYS takes advantages of opportunities is Bryndie. When she heard I was on 101, she said “Come for dinner” and when I called to say I was in Salinas, said “I bought cake and Prosecco - you won’t be able to properly enjoy them if you have to drive for three hours afterwards. Better stay the night.” And so I had one last pine-scented, dark, quiet, social Monterey evening and and am, as ever, grateful to her as a role model and a friend.
Stacy came up to Long Beach and we hit the Starling Diner for a rainy day breakfast. We started off with a bottle of champagne, a pitcher of fresh-squeezed juice and the Baked-Every-Morning Basket of Scones, then moved on to the food. She had French toast stuffed with creamy Mascarpone and Crème Fraiche with fresh berries, I had crab cakes with scrambled eggs and polenta potatoes and he had something with poached eggs, spinach and sausage. Crazy yum.
Spent the rest of the day geeking out on houses. Drove the wilds of the LB to check out all that is historic and cool, added a plethora of new building terms to my working vocabulary, then went for Mexican. I had tacos. You’re surprised.
Finished up day by watching the Cal-Oregon State game. I kinda understood what was going on. THAT part, you can be surprised about. What a long way I’ve come since that Chargers game …
Great exhibit and actually, a very nice museum. I’m a little ashamed to say that I’d never been, which is especially egregious since
A) it’s scant minutes from my (former) apartment and
B) I’ve been known to travel cross-country to see an exhibition.
But I’ve gone now and it was an excellent farewell. Finished the day with a going-away party (not mine) at Steelhead (the scene of so many OC events) and dinner at the Lab with Alexa.
and now I’m Audi.
I drove up Highway 1 watching the sunset, as I have so many this summer, only this time, I was keeping a wary eye on the rear mirror. The rack seemed to work pretty well, only I probably should have spent a little more time reviewing the instructions. Whatevs. Everything arrived in one piece and I only thought of two things that I forgot to do - it’s a major victory!
Went grocery shopping and J made dinner. It’s nice to be able to borrow a home once you’ve abandonded your own.
After 36 hours of playing Tetris with my wonderful and patient mother, the Pod is filled.
We suffered through a few minutes of what was clearly a waking nightmare where I didn’t have ENOUGH stuff to properly pack everything. This was so far afield of all of the potential problems that I’d anticipated that I had to take a few minutes to reorient myself.
Crisis averted with the judicious use of a few extra boxes and NOT my original suggestion of going out and buying a few things to fill in the cracks.
Had wonderful dinner last night in LB; wine and flowers and good conversation. It made the last two days bearable and whatever happens with J in the future, I will forever be grateful for how nice he was to my mom.
I’m meeting my landlord to hand over keys and get my deposit back tomorrow. The only real certainity in my life in the next seven days is that I’ll be on a plane at noon next Wednesday.
