Cape Cod

The last time I went to Cape Cod, it was 1997 and I was thrilled to have a brand new waterproof walkman for which I bought a bunch of Zoe Lewis tapes while walking around Provincetown one day. I was only 20 years old, still in college and had barely traveled. Though I think I must have done a lot of reading that week, I can't remember what I read.

Flash forward to today and I am all packed to go back to the Cape, though I've learned to pack light since then. I am bringing my iPod which is the size of one cassette tape, but loaded with enough songs to last a lifetime and I am also bringing several books. I will not, however, be bringing my computer because, despite being so happy with the technology that I have now that I didn't have then, I still would like a beach vacation that involves a lot of reading and swimming. If I get desperate, I can check my email on my phone, but if I wait another 12 years before going back there, I don't think I should remember sitting around blogging while the ocean does its thing just outside the door.

Bye for now . . . I'll be back online by the 20th!

William Smith & Abby

A quick trip to Geneva over the weekend was much fun and long overdue. More photos to follow!

O Canada (or wherever you're from)

Today is Canada Day and my friend Ruth, via her blog, pointed us in the direction of a neat article in honor of the occasion. If you don't have time to click over and read either her blog or the op/ed piece from the NY Times, I'll summarize: In honor of Canada Day, Canadians living in the US share their thoughts about what they miss about their native land. It's fairly interesting and despite not caring that much about Canada (which I know is bad to say, but sorry, I am who I am), I liked reading it. After all, no matter where you're from, there are things you miss when you are not there.

Now that I am actually back where I'm from, I'm noticing how strange people can be, but I'm also enjoying some things with a newfound sense of appreciation. Foods, mostly. Local delights that people don't get everywhere, many of which I plan to enjoy for the July 4th celebration this weekend:

1. Salt Potatoes
2. Hofmann's Hot Dogs (German Franks & Snappy Grillers!)
3. Spiedies
4. Sweet corn from a farm market
5. Cheese curd that squeeks when you bite it
6. Hot Sausage Patties (not the kind for breakfast, the kind you make on the grill instead of, or with, burgers)
7. Soft ice cream with sprinkles from a roadside ice cream stand
8. Pickled things: Brussels sprouts, watermelon rinds, cucumbers, eggs, etc

Happy 4th of July!

Summer Reading, Part II

The last time I talked about "Summer Reading," I was in the thick of Anne Frank's diary which was so much more interesting to me as an adult than it was when I was a tween, though I felt a little self-conscious reading it in public since the book itself looks like a tween book and since the only people I've ever seen reading it are, in fact, tweens.

Now I have moved on to Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan whose book cover looks more appropriate for my age. I guess Loving Frank is considered historical fiction which is generally off my radar except for the fact that I like Frank Lloyd Wright's style and, as a sometimes stereotypical Access Hollywood-watching, romance-novel-reading gal, I can't help but care about a person's personal life if I like their work. Also, having been recently to Hollyhock House for events for work and then also for my own learning, I thought it was timely and appropriate to continue my schooling on FLW since he seems to keep popping up in my consciousness whether I want him to or not. I put him in the category of people-I-like-but-can't-quite-get-my-head-around-their-time-period like Laura Ingalls Wilder, Thomas Edison or Alfred Hitchcock.

Now that it's rainy again and we don't have company coming for a few more days now, I am back in the swing of reading. As you can see from my desk, I have quite a lot of books I'm trying to get through this summer and/or before I get a job and have a valid excuse not to be obsessively reading as opposed to my current excuse for lagging behind which generally has to do with napping/Roseanne reruns/Facebook.

Pretty Kitty

Syracuse!

Yesterday, I took my grandmother to Syracuse for an appointment at University Hospital. This photo was taken before we left because she and my mom both had on such cute little outfits! My mom didn't go with us because she was going to someone's retirement party, but we managed just fine, the two of us, and I got to drive my Grandma's Buick (5 years old and with 20,000 miles on it) and it was a smooth ride! She said I'm a very good driver!

For part of the time while she was at her appointment, I took a nice walk around the Syracuse University campus - my goal being to head to Marshall Street, though I walked around SUNY ESF and other parts, first. It was a very hot day and by the time I reached Marshall Street, I had to immediately go to Starbucks for an iced latte because I was so hot and they not only had cool drinks, but air conditioning! I sat for a while and looked out the window. A strange man who'd been harassing people out on the street wandered in demanding water, but his tone was such that he could have been demanding the contents of the cash register and/or for everyone to give up their wallets. Figuring I did not live in LA for 7 years incident free only to come to little old Syracuse to get beat down by a rogue Starbucks patron, I split.

Anyhow, as all my SU friends know, Marshall Street is right on the SU campus and offers lots of little shops and restaurants along with being a quaint walking around area. I was kind of disappointed because all the great restaurants I remembered are places I can no longer eat - Cosmo's Pizza, a pita place, sub shop, cookie shop, etc - but that was OK, because the big draw for me has always been J. Michael Shoes. I didn't buy anything this time, but as usual, I mentally spent about $800. They have - and have always had - the best selection of shoes/boots/sandals around. Nowadays, they also even carry True Religion and 7 jeans and the like - definitely a change since the last time I was there - but they do keep with the times, so I guess it's only fitting.

So it was a nice day and being on a college campus, no matter how large, is nice because of the nice big architecture and greenery. I think this building was part of the law school, but I can't be sure. We headed home and had dinner and watched The Real Housewives of New Jersey Reunion show!

Hometown Monday

Yesterday, I took my dad out for Father's Day breakfast. We just went to Denny's because there are not a whole lot of places to go around here, but it was good and I think he had fun. We followed that up with a trip up to Tractor Supply Store which is actually a fairly interesting place and offers much more than tractors. They have some nice ladies' clothes and boots and I enjoyed looking at that stuff while he browsed the nuts & bolts, dog toys and safes.

Today, I got up, read the paper over breakfast and put in a load of wash (my first free laundry, other than when I was home on vacation, in 14 years!) and am getting ready to go to Wegmans with Gram to shop for our upcoming trip to a beach-front cottage on Cape Cod! Wegmans is a grocery store which is, in certain locations, better than even the Whole Foods I used to shop on the west coast. They have everything and more! And the trip to the Cape is a trip Gram does every summer and I used to go until I got job and/or moved away, so this will be my first trip back in 12 years! Very exciting. We're buying "staples" at Wegmans today which now include, for me, gluten free items so that I may, too, enjoy cheese & (gluten-free) crackers/happy hour in the evenings. Later, I think I'll do some reading and also tend to my herbs and vegetables before kettlebells class.

Such is the life of the unemployed! Well, at least how unemployment has been so far for me.

Gardening

I have finally found a justification to wear Crocs: gardening! Because I aspire to be Laura Ingalls Wilder and/or a modern farm hermit, we spent a lot of time planting heirloom tomatoes and jalapenos in the front garden and planting arugula, basil, thai basil, German thyme, flat leaf parsley and cilantro in pots yesterday. I realize one cannot live on salad alone - though I've tried! - but it is very exciting to think we might soon have vegetables and herbs we've grown ourselves! The Amish market down the road can fill in all the other blanks until I can learn to make cheese, pickles & pickled Brussels sprouts myself!

We also planted some flowers and tended to the roses - just in time for a night of rain! Enjoy these photos of food and flowers . . . the lady in the pictures is my mom:

Summer Reading

The last time I lived at home, I was at the age where the concept of "summer reading" made me cringe and/or throw a tantrum. Though I've always been a reader, I have never liked being told what to do, so having a list of dry books to plow through when I wanted to be swimming really stunk. Nowadays, I'm a free agent, despite living with my mother who is a former English teacher. And nowadays, I have 15+ books sitting on my desk that I really want to read this summer! I will not, however, be cranking out accompanying book reports even though she will probably want me to write them!

Anyhow, after finally getting settled in my teeny tiny cozy room (before and after pics below) I decided to pick up a book I read in my adolescence. I'm finding it much more enjoyable now. I am not in any way comparing my tight living quarters to those of Anne Frank, but I am really liking this diary this time and I seem to understand so much more of it historically and in terms of its significance. The last time I read it, I really just liked reading published diaries, probably because I wanted to learn someone's secrets which I hate to admit because I am still kind of nosy like that. Not only do I like reading this book so much more now, I like the book itself. I'm not a fan of hard-backed books, so this smallish paperback that smells pleasantly musty is just perfect for me. It even has a 1960s drawing of Anne Frank on it!

Here are a couple of pictures for you - one of the absolute disarray of my room - how it looked for the first 2 weeks I was here followed by one where I have put things away, hung up clothes, have thrown out the utility rug and replaced it with a spiffy green jute rug (because I just cannot have sub-par rugs) and actually got a bed!

Before:
After:
And another after (for which I don't have a "before"):

Population Density

West Hollywood, CA: 19,000 people per square mile

Oneida, NY: 499 people per square mile

No wonder I am in a state of glee every time I go to the market and have my pick of several parking spaces!

Hometown Updates

So I've been home a week+ and already have started taking kettlebells classes and have also joined Facebook despite never wanting to. I thought it might be good for networking on the new coast. My friend Rebecca said it would be great for job hunting, but it's just been 2 days and so far I have just put up some pictures, chatted with former colleagues and announced that I spent the entire morning watching Golden Girls reruns. (I still do say that blogs are better than Facebook, btw).

My mom and grandma are here now and so we are three generations under one roof + pets. We all have laptops that we sit in the living room pecking away at. It's a fun time. And luckily for me, there is a hot tub here since I can barely walk after kettlebells.

Top Secret Move

Several people have asked me how someone goes about moving across country whilst keeping it a surprise. Others might want to know why I would do such a thing in the first place. Either way, here is a brief rundown:

A few years ago, I thought I might move home, but then I didn't. However, in the years in between then and now, my mom would often ask me about moving home and/or make sideways comments about it which made me feel BAD. I finally told her that IF and WHEN I ever moved out of Los Angeles, I would not even tell her, but just show up on her doorstep! So then when I finally decided to do it, my mom was in Florida helping my grandma out with her health issues, so in addition to wanting to make the move home a surprise, I also thought it was beneficial not to tell her so as not to give her one more thing to worry about.

How it all actually happened was that I spent about a month not having much to talk about with my mom since when you're leaving your job and planning such a big move, there isn't much else to talk about! All of my friends - and my mom's friends - and everyone else in my family knew about the move and though it didn't work out quite as planned since my mom was in Florida when I actually arrived, I called her on the phone at the time I would normally be getting out of work in LA and said "oh, hi mom, I just got home and have a bunch of stuff in my car I have to unload." And since she'd been a little suspicious that something was going on that week, she was still pretty shocked when she found out that "home" was her house and that I'd left LA for good.

So here I am . . . Monday morning in Upstate NY. It's 55 degrees out. I am covered in spider bites from the night before last. One must have joined me in bed. I also saw a bat fly out of the garage last night as I attempted to bring some more things in from my car. I have only begun to unpack and I think it'll be a while before I figure out where everything is. It's still very weird not to be going to my job and sometimes I have these realizations that I am not going back to my apartment in LA. My mom and grandma will be back this week and I'm glad!

A Few Photos From the Move

Here are a few pictures from the move across country . . . first you can see what the apartment looked like for a few days with no furniture and with lots of stuff stacked up. There are also some pictures of our street and the lovely purple flowering trees, our loaded up cars and also some from on the road. Pay attention to the one where you can see the crack in my windshield from a little rock that bounced up and cracked it, ironically, IN Little Rock, Arkansas.

We took route 40 all the way from Southern California to Bristol, Virgina where we picked up route 81 north into NY state. Route 40 goes all the way through Oklahoma which I hadn't ever been to and the western half was very desert-like and then, past Oklahoma City, it was green and southeastern feeling. We had walkie-talkies for the trip which was great since it was easier to communicate rapidly as opposed to calling between cell phones the whole time. And it was fun to comment about bad drivers, get advice about when to pass someone and decide where to stop to pee or eat. Lara was also funny on them as she broke into full-on Southern accent the second we crossed into Texas - and this didn't end till we'd stopped to see her dad in Arkansas for a day. (You can see Lara's Jeep parked in front of his cute house in one photo).

It was a good trip and I have now been to all 50 states which, as some of you may know, was my biggest goal in life. What to do now? As much of a hassle as it is to clean out an apartment and move across country, I think we did it the best way possible. Other than mailing 10 boxes of stuff home, I sold many things on Craiglist and only took what could fit in my small car. Lara mailed 15 boxes, filled her Jeep and tied a bag, 4 chairs and a bike to the roof. It was so much better than U-hauling it all which I've done before and I can tell you sucks eggs. The last picture of the sunset is what it looked like when we were on the home stretch - Route 12 north. Who says the best sunsets are in California?

Dismantling a Life at Point A . . .

. . . reconfiguring it at Point B. That's what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks. And it was all a big surprise for my mom which is why I didn't write about it until now. Now the cat's out of the bag and all is great! (Yes, I left my job, sold much of my stuff, packed the car and drove 3000 miles without mentioning any of it to my mom!)

So now I welcome you to my new and improved blog - now called "East Coast Time" - because I am now back on east coast time as I have moved out of Los Angeles and back to my home state of New York. It was time - and now I'm actually in the same time zone as my family which will be as hard to get used to as it was to get used to being in different time zones. I haven't actually lived in my hometown since I was 19 years old, but I'm going to try my best not to start acting too teenagery.

Now that I'm back on east coast time for the first (permanent) time in 7 years, I'm afraid I won't shake my deep appreciation and snobbery about avocados, Mexican food, sushi, the ocean, road trips, environmentalism and new-age-y ideas about the universe. I am armed with a cell phone, a neti pot, Dodger's cap and a convertible, but otherwise, I'm just the same as I was 7 years ago before I left and the same as I was when I was a kid afraid of earthquakes. I'm just glad I didn't let that deter me from going west in the first place - and I'm sure glad the big one didn't hit before I left thereby preventing me from coming home.

Pictures and stories from the move to follow!

More Celebrity Rediculousness

I happened to see this article online this morning and couldn't keep myself from sharing it with you. It kind of goes without saying that people like Kanye West who write books about their philosophies in life are not putting out the most touching literature ever written - but yet, his book exists! There are a few things that bug me about this: 1) he doesn't even read (he proudly said!) 2) if he were not a famous rapper, he'd have to relegate his "philosophies" to self-publishing or writing opinion pieces for the local paper and 3) this book of little personal theories was written with the help of another person! Um, if you are so bright and philosophical, why do you need a co-writer?

Wipeout

The other night, I watched a great show on TV called Wipeout in which a bunch of people agree to attempt to conquer a wobbly, greased-up and water and/or mud-surrounded obstacle course while commentators riff on "balls" in all of the funny ways shows like these tend to do. Here is a clip from another season. I know it's not top drama or intelligent at all, but it is pretty funny:

Driving in LA

I've had some fairly moderate road rage lately and find it very curious that so many people are so impatient that they would prefer you hit a pedestrian in the crosswalk thereby screwing up your whole life and the whole life of the pedestrian. Really, they can't even wait 20 seconds for someone to cross the street? So the other day I launched a firm bird at a lady flailing her arms in the truck behind me because I chose to wait for a pedestrian to cross the street, and then I realized that she's a lady who works in my building. So I put my visor over to the side and sat up tall so she couldn't see my face when she gunned it and passed me in a rage when we both finally made our turns. I do have to see her at work, after all.

Then today, I was driving down the boulevard and I heard and saw an ambulance about half a mile back. During rush hour, I know it's impossible to get an ambulance through, so I pulled over to the right with my signal on thereby allowing a string of cars 20 deep to pass me. Yeah, no one even pulled over. In fact, they thought I was being a hazard, but I guess overall they were fine with it because they got through the light and I didn't. What is wrong with people?

5.0!

Earthquake in LA last night, but I'm fine! It was a big shaker but it was only for a few seconds. Then everyone came out of their apartments and said "was that an earthquake?" and then they went on with their lives.

Why Blogs are Better Than Facebook or Twitter

So I can talk about what I'm doing without having to boil it down to one line:

Today at work, I got bitten on the foot by something that had been living under my desk. I'm thinking it was a spider because after I starting getting itchy, I noticed my ankle swelling up like a billy club. Then I developed a horrible headache after eating really old chocolate from like 3 Passovers ago. I ate it because 1) I was really craving chocolate and 2) it seemed like an entertaining thing to do since no one else would go near it and clearly I have the maturity of a 12 year old boy. I should have known it was going to screw me up since it was gray instead of brown and had the consistency of chocolate-flavored dirt, clay or chalk. Gray chocolate, by the way, is not particularly harmful to you - it's just not too appetizing. Apparently the grayness comes from some kind of sugar and/or fat separation that happens over time . . . I looked it up to make sure I wasn't going to require medical attention. Having worked in an office before where a colleague did at one point require medical attention, I know for sure that this is to be avoided at all costs. I make it a point to remain vertical during the hours of 9-5.

I was also not feeling too well after a few hours of wearing a sorry combination of inappropriately shifty undergarments beneath my dress. Ugh. Half way through the day, I went to the bathroom and took off my dress, took off the offending undergarments and stuffed them in my purse, but by that point my whole being was so agitated that it didn't help much. So I left work, went to Trader Joe's and picked up a bunch of crap that I thought would make me feel better. And it did! So my dinner of jalapeno cheezy poofs and beef jerky washed down with a splash of white zinfandel on ice seemed to do the trick. Talk about a trashy dinner, I know, but jeez. I'd been on a downward spiral all day.

So I'm pretty much back to normal now and despite the full court press I'm getting on the Facebook front, I think I'll stick to Blogger for all my unnecessary putting-myself-out-there needs. (And aren't you glad? Otherwise, I would have all these stupid stories all pent up inside still!)

Happy Mother's Day!