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.
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| 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.
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| Please excuse the chipped nail polish that none of you noticed til I pointed it out... Anyhow, the plate as a whole... |
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| 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.
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| How awesome are they? I mean, right?? Totally the flamingos!! |
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| 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.
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| Coco in her normal pet-my-belly-now position that she assumes anytime someone gets near her. |
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| 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!!
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| (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).
