Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Should've posted this last week, but ... you know... stuff happens/happened.

 So, I was going to delve into something deeply personal, but I'm not feeling it yet – this week, anyway. The week before Mother Nature arrives, a couple of things happen that give it's eminent arrival away: 1. I become extremely tired... like so sleepy tired, that no matter how much I sleep, it's not enough. Which makes work harder to go to, and things I need to get done, harder to get done. Add this to the heat, and I am a wasteland of do-nothingness for about 7 days. As an OCD/Type A personality, this is no bueno. (Side note: I have tried both Midol and iron supplements, but neither boost my energy levels or impact the tiredness. I have also resorted to generic 5hr energy, which – in “normal” conditions – usually give me an edge without the edginess. During this particular week period, I can fall asleep after drinking two 5hr energy drinks. Any other suggestions would be more than welcome... it's something that has developed as I've gotten older; rather, it's something I have recognized as I've gotten older). Anyway, #2 is that I become much more introspective. Things that normally are filed away under “get over it” or “said and done” or “I worked through this” come back to the forefront of my mind and I keep them on instant replay in my head as I fall asleep or work or whatever. Which is a long winded (ok, REALLY long winded) way of how I ended up debating on blogging the deeply personal on my second entry. But after boring ya'll with that, I don't think I will delve into the deep and personal just yet...

Ok, now what? Well, let's start with a fantastic week last week. Had a retro-lovely and wonderfully prepared dinner at the Dal Rae in Pico Rivera.
Sign for the Dal Rae... So much fun!!
Valet parking is mandatory (but only a $3.50 charge!) and my friend and I dressed up in our retro-lovely best. There was a traditional relish tray, complete with handmade pickles (absolutely divine, and I love pickles – except sweet or bread & butter pickles – those are disgusting!), carrots, radishes, and pickled peppers. DIVINE! They are famous for their pepper filet mignon, and I have to say, it sliced and melted like butter – very rich and flavorful and delicious flavor. My friend is vegetarian, so she had the shrimp scampi – very large and delicious looking shrimps... Both of ate every last spec off of our plates while dissecting and discussing our lives since the last time we had dinner together. Had the waiter had the foresight to actually leave a dessert menu, we may have had dessert, but since he only tried to tempt us with the souffle (not a fan, personally – but I love other desserts), we declined. The ambiance was very 1950's-1960's, and you could definitely tell which patrons had been going to this restaurant for years. It is also said that “Mad Men” has filmed there, which I can very well seeing being truth. Very dim lighting, the booths were shoulder high (as opposed to leaning back and touching the back of the person behind you), and although the tables (and therefore the patrons) were very close together, there was still a sense of privacy and seclusion about the dining room. It was a fantastic way to catch up, share girlie secrets and enjoy our love of the vintage and retro world. Time flied as it always does when she and I go to dinner, and it was definitively one of the best dinners we have had together.

I also had a fantabulous girls night out with two of my closest girl friends from work. We all get together at the Purple's* house, sit outside because we all three smoke, and turn into a triplet of kvetching – over work, over play, over boys, over life. On ocassion, we'll imbibe a little eToh, but usually, we end up drinking Pepsi or whatever is on hand, and normally we'll do a $5 pizza from Little Cesar's (we all work for the same employer, so none of have a lot of extra money to spend). This time, we ended up at Carl's Junior (after Taco Bell was shockingly closed! It was only 11pm!) which also has the Green Burrito. MMMMMM.... GREASY TACOS + PEPSI AT MIDNIGHT IS AWESOMESAUCE. We also went nuts over Jenna Marble's youtube vids and Honest Trailers. Normally, someone has to open the next morning, so we don't stay too late, but this time, none of us had to open, so we slammed it until 2am. I AM TOO OLD FOR 2 AM. (I know this now. The next morning, I was still up at 645 am and didn't make it to take a nap or anything all day. NOT A HAPPY CAMPER. But, I would totally do it again!). Ethel* usually brings me home, which is a ton of fun, because for some weird reason, she always gets lost in my town. It's a running joke now between the three of us as in Ethel's picking up Lucy, so they'll be a couple hours late. Going with Purple to pick out a dress for her cousin's wedding in Texas in August, which should be fun and interesting... hoping for Manny's El Loco for lunch, but gotta check with her.

Last week I also helped Alice polish all of her silver (we had previously washed all of her crystal and china), which was a first for me. Despite destroying my nail polish, my rings were absolutely shiny gorgeous when we were done! In putting things back into her china cabinet, we came across her marijuana plate (her name, not mine, but highly accurate). And she giggled like a schoolgirl. And I had to take a picture. Imagine, 93yr old Alice with a 1960s marijuana plate! The thought still makes me laugh out loud! Alice was a schoolnurse, and one year (in the late 60s), the school's principal gave this to her as a gift and told her that his wife had picked it out once he saw what it was. Apparently, the wife did not recognize the marijuana leaves, but thought they were very naturish and gardenish, and since Alice loves gardening, she thought it would be a great gift. The kicker to this story is that this was the same year that all schoolnurses had to start going into the junior high classrooms to talk about “dope” and “pot.” She keeps it because it brings her a little giggle every time she sees it, and a very fond memory. Her housekeeper and I tried to convince her to hang it on the wall (instead of hiding it in the back of the china cabinet shelves), but she was not to be convinced. She said that she remembers when she walks by the china cabinet.

Please excuse the chipped nail polish that none of you noticed til I pointed it out... Anyhow, the plate as a whole...

And a close up of the "leaves." Ok, seriously, how do you not know what that is?? Funnier than hell!
I am a member of a pin-up group of penpals that has just recently gotten started. It has been so much fun! I am loving picking up things and making things that are going to other girls that are like me in their love of pin-up and vintage goodies... And I am so hoping that this group leads to life-long friendships. I received a couple of awesome packages in the past couple of weeks, and am preparing some to send out. I've been collecting four-o'clock seeds from my garden to send out to one of the girls in the Netherlands who enjoys gardening. Speaking of my garden, it is starting to really bloom beautifully. I am convinced that it is because of my very awesome flamingos.

How awesome are they? I mean, right?? Totally the flamingos!!

And you can see my beautiful zinna, the strawberries (center basket), and tomatoes (bottom basket). The back is the bird of paradise which can be (and often is) the bane of my gardening existence. But, again, how awesome is she??!!
I probably should give some credit to Miracle-Gro as well, but definitely the flamingos. Every time I go to the store, I usually end up picking up something else to add to it, and the combination of everything together is actually seeming to grow well and look well together. And I so enjoy my morning ritual of taking my coffee, cigs and Kindle out the front yard before anyone else is up (and before the sun becomes evil hot) and watering the grass and my garden and seeing how everything is doing. I play my Kindle while I'm doing 5 min cycles on the different sections of the yard, then taking the hose and attacking the “dead” veins of St. Augustine grass to bring them back to life (yep, I know how to resurrect St. Augustine), then flush the four-o'clock seeds back into the garden so that they spread out and root all over the garden. I end up this ritual with closing back up the seed containers that are hothousing whatever new seeds I've planted. This is every other morning at the very latest, especially in this heat... when it's typical SoCal cool, only every couple of days (which sucks, so I'll sometimes just go out and sit on the front porch with my coffee and Kindle and enjoy the weather). I recently planted some GoldenDew seeds from a Golden Dew Melon into the front yard itself, where there used to be grass... and I can't wait to see if it will produce! I separated the seeds into two plants, and planted them within a couple of feet of each other, along with a purple salvia to bring in the bees for pollination. I just bought three more different melons, and I will probably plant those seeds in the yard too, because this grass is taking too long to come in and these will help make the yard green and pretty and smell good and give me (fingers crossed) some yummy melons to share with Alice.

I started walking the kids again (and by kids, I mean my dog Coco (Chihuahua) and my mom's dog Duke (German Shepherd/Lab mix). In our “neighborhood” (a term I use loosely, because there isn't the sense of neighborhood that I had growing up here – yep, I lived in 3 different houses that are all adjacent to each other, so I literally grew up here, and this is where I returned when I had no other choice. Anywho, I know a few of my neighbors – mostly those who I've known for the majority of my life, or who have known various family members during my life – but there is no sense of community within this area like there was when I was a kid. And instead of gang members (NorthSide Bolen!! um, yeah, no joke), we live cattycorner from the Mongols (a Motorcycle gang from California (I believe they originated here) that is mainly known for being a veritable threat in the drug and prison community), who bought a house and who likes to stay up late partying with unnecessarily loud motorcycles. ANYHOW... people here are weird (in my opinion) about their dogs. On the corner, aka the EVIL DOG HOUSE, is a house that currently has two Golden Retriever/Terrier (I think!) mixes who bark and try to attack any other dogs that walk by the house. The fence around this house is only about 3-4ft tall, so it's not a problem for them to be up on the fence barking like mad and trying to instigate crap with other dogs. There is another dog pair around the corner from them that has two very friendly dogs, but whom my dogs are not allowed to “visit” because it makes their dogs bark (wtf?!?). There is a street down a ways that we've walked down before and had no real problems with, but then we went down there and were attacked by a bunch of little dogs who basically had been let out of their houses/yards without parental supervision and ran the gamut of the street. THAT WAS SO FUN. And since I make friends with the dogs that I walk by on a regular basis, I would like my kids to meet Sadie in particular (a Boxer who LOVES me and gives me lots o kisses on my way to and from work). Coco is not usually Little Miss Friendly, but Duke loves to play with whomever he can. And they remembered all of their direction from every time I've walked them, although I do have to say, walking is a relative term. Coco tries to mush like she's running the Iditerod, but she's a whopping 5lbs and I can pick her up and carry her til she gets it together. Duke, on the other hand, is as tall as I am when he stands up, and although he weighs less than I do, his brute strength is enough to make me run behind him. I have to wear yoga gloves when we walk because if I don't, my hands become shredded messes of leashburns. I actually have to spell out W-A-L-K when I'm talking to someone about taking them out, because they both know what it is when I say it out loud and they go absolutely crazy in anticipation. I love walking them... previously, I used to listen to an MP3 or my cell phone playlists, but the past few times, I've stopped and just paid attention to what was going on around me, so it's become therapeutic. I've tried to be neighborly and talk to people and say hi, although Duke is intimidating because of his size, I try to show people how friendly he is, especially the kids. I usually stop walking them in the late fall/winter because of the weather (Coco doesn't do rain) or because my work schedule won't let me, which is usually around the same time because of retail's holiday season.
Coco in her normal pet-my-belly-now position that she assumes anytime someone gets near her.

Duke (when he was a wee bit younger) with his I'm-so-cute-Scooby look.
This will probably be one of a couple of posts for this week... as mentioned, I've got a lot on my noggin and need somewhere to get it out. This is the easy stuff, the fun stuff, the life-lite that is easy to write about. The other stuff, not so much fun, or easy, or life-lite (more like LIFE with the resounding announcer voice). I figure if I separate the two, you (as a reader) can pick and choose what posts you want to read.

So here's my list of loves for this week:

G7 Coffee from Vietnam. OH. MY. GAWD. This stuff is awesome and I forever love my manicurist/hairstylist for introducing it to me (and giving me the directions, since the bag is only in Vietnamese and I don't speak that language). Now, I just need to find a direct source for it. The first bag I squandered away in less than a week; this bag, I am going slow on. Helen loves me and keeps pimping it out to me everytime I go in to see her. She is an awesome person who does fantastic eyebrows and manicures. AGAIN: THIS IS AWESOME COFFEE. I will post a pic the next time I have some cause I already finished this package (much to my dismay!)!

Gatorade's Sandia Citrus (aka Watermelon Citrus) flavor tastes just like a watermelon Jolly Rancher. Their Strawberry Lemonade Limited Edition flavor isn't bad, but once I went Sandia, that was it for me. I even prefer it over my favorite Raspberry Melon, but I can only get it at 7/11, and we all know that is not the cheapest place to get anything (unless it's a slurpee, cause you can never pay too much for a slurpee).

My lawn flamingos. I cannot get enough of these guys, and I am having a helluva a time finding them. These were 99cents each at the 99cent store, so I couldn't resist picking them up, and now that I am head over heels in love with them, I can't find them anywhere. So, a plea for help: if you can find them, please for the love of Pete, tell me!!
(I actually just wanted another excuse to show off my girls cause I love them so much!!)

Once again, Jenna Marbles. The vids we laughed the hardest at were the ones “what a girl/guy thinks during sex,” which was hilarity.

Honest Trailers. The one about Titanic 3D is insanely on the mark and hilarious.

Puffy Cheetos. Enough said. 

Until next time, stay classy world!

Desilu

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent (ok, not always so innocent). 

No comments:

Post a Comment