Julie's California Blog - Day 26

Julie's California Blog - Day 26, Thursday, April 25, 2013


I'm getting pretty good at navigating the highways in LA. Of course, it helps having my iPhone talking me through every exit and turn along the way. Jeff used to affectionally refer to Siri as "The Bitch in the Box." I think a great aftermarket invention would be a navigation add on ... a voice like Antonio Banderas, in his sexy broken English voice saying "Hello my love. Let's turn at the next intersection and see what happens." I'm telling you, they'd sell like hotcakes!


My hair is in desperate need of attention, so today, I went to Frederic Fekkai on Melrose Place for a hair appointment. My day of pampering began with a manicure with Valentina and then hair highlights with Begonia, followed by a haircut with Maurice. With a name like Begonia, I was expecting a tattooed, pierced, multicolored spiked hair type with rings on every finger. I was pleasantly surprised. She is an adorable, petite, very kind girl from Spain. And Maurice, the Latin lover from France was awesome, too. He gave me an amazing cut. Now these folks out here at Frederic Fekkai are really proud of their services. I could have bought a nice used car for the price of my day of pampering. Well, maybe a clunker of a used car, but never-the-less, I think you get the point. The sad part is, I was all cut and highlighted and nobody to show it to. Squeaker and Scruffy showed delight when I came in the door. I'm sure they were impressed - or just happy that I was finally home after a long day away.


On the way home from the hairdresser, I finally got to experience the full force of California rush hour traffic. The 405 was like a parking lot. From the time I got on the interstate, until the time I exited the interstate, I don't think I touched the gas more than once or twice, rather just let my foot off the brake to advance a few feet at a time. I honestly could have walked faster. At one point, I thought I was going to have to knock on the door of the RV in the lane next to me to use their facilities, but I finally arrived at my exit and things were moving normally from that point forward.





I got home in time for sunset and glass of wine, which has become a ritual with the neighbors. The sunset was beautiful, but no green flash. Well, Pat (to my right) said he saw a green flash. But as I described Pat in an earlier blog, he may have drug induced brain fry or he's just a typical California beach bum with the "Yeah, man, totally rad" dialog. Heck of a nice guy, but a little out there. He probably sees a green flash at EVERY sunset.

Julie's California Blog - Day 25

Julie's California Blog - Day 25, Wednesday, April 24, 2013

It's a cloudy day in Southern California.  I felt a few sprinkles this morning when walking the dogs.  Scruffy doesn't like rain. He thinks water is cryptonite and he's Super-dog.  He avoids it at all costs.  So he did NOT enjoy the walk this morning.

I had lunch at USC today with the Assistant Dean of the School of Cinematic Arts.  Just as we were finishing, Jeff joined us.  What a treat!  He got out of class late and couldn't find us at Morton Fig, an upscale restaurant on campus frequented mostly by faculty and staff.  Jeff's USC "dining dollars" don't work at Morton Fig, so that's probably why he wasn't familiar with it.  The Assistant Dean had to leave, but I stayed and had a nice time with Jeff as he scarfed down a steak sandwich.  

Later in the evening, I went to Santa Monica to meet my cousin, Diego and his fiancé, Katie, for dinner at Ivy at the Shore.  I arrived early, and since the cloudy, rainy weather had moved out,  I decided to walk down to The Pier at Santa Monica to kill some time.  The Pier is a very active place with crowds of tourists and  hawkers selling everything from tee shirts to iPhone covers, as well as artists sculpting people's faces from clay and artists sketching caricatures.  It's a carnival atmosphere complete with a ferris wheel and various other rides.  From the pier, I could see south all the way to my California home, which was easy to find.  I just looked for the smoke stacks at the Nuclear Power Plant located just a few doors away from my condo.  The visit to The Pier was a great diversion and something that I wanted to do while visiting California.  Done. 

I met Katie and Diego at 7:00.  Katie is delightful.  She's a social worker in Santa 

Monica, and Diego is doing his residency working toward his ultimate goal of orthopedic surgery.  We had a great time catching up and talking about their upcoming wedding.  I was planning to go to the wedding in Chicago until I found out it is scheduled for Father's Day weekend.  So unless I can round up Jac and Jeff in Chicago, I'll be somewhere else with them.

This is my last week in California.   I still have a few things on my "to do" list.  I'm also hoping Jeff and friends will come back to the beach this weekend.

Julie's California Blog - Day 24

Julie's California Blog - Day 24, Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Today was a quiet, lazy day in Hermosa Beach aside from the screaming 18 month baby downstairs and the howling dog two doors down. The marine layer is waiting to burn off to become a beautiful day. 

I started an art project this morning and it's moving along nicely. More on that later.

I was invited by the dean of the School of Cinematic Arts at USC to attend an advanced screening of Pain and Gain, Mark Walberg and The Rock's new movie which opens Friday. Based on the previews I've seen on tv, I thought it was a comedy. Rather, it's a drama based on a true story about three body builders in south Florida who turn to a life of crime. My recommendation, have a root canal instead. It would be more entertaining and less painful. Just sayin'.

Julie's California Blog - Day 23

Julie's California Blog - Day 23, Monday, April 22, 2013









Special shout out to Scruffy on his 9th birthday today. Eight years ago today, our family rescued Scruffy from death row. Jeff used to tell people Scruffy went from Skid Row to Death Row to winning the doggie lottery. He has brought so much joy to our family. Scruff's favorite activity is going for a walk. So, to celebrate Scruffy's birthday, the two of us walked to Manhattan Beach for lunch. Scruffy enjoyed a kiddie burger, only a few bites, but enough to know it was something special. While I was passing bites to Scruffy, my downstairs neighbors from the condo walked by and took this photo for us.

This evening, I took Jeff and two of his friends, Teddy and Zach, to dinner. USC's meal plan doesn't offer steak, so the guys were craving a good steak. Where does one go for good steak in LA? Well Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, Cut, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, of course. It was a great recommendation from Carolyn McRae. Thanks Carolyn. It was a perfect spot for a perfect steak. I must admit, I was a little astounded at the selection of different types of filet. They had grass fed beef from Nebraska, corn fed beef from Illinois, American Wagyu beef from Idaho, U.S.D.A beef, Kobe beef, Prime Dry Aged beef, filet with bone in and with bone out, and Wagyu beef from Japan. So many choices. So many prices ranging from a low of the Nebraska grass fed filet at $49.00 to the $159.00 Wagyu filet from Japan. I'm not a filet connoisseur, so the only difference I could see in the cuts was $110.00. I'm not sure I could eat a piece of meat that expensive. I'd want to have it bronzed and displayed in my kitchen on a crystal pedestal with a glass dome top. Thank goodness the boys did not order the Japanese Wagyu beef. Pictured here are Jeff and I with Jeff's Fraternity Brother, Teddy (blue shirt) and his roommate, Zach. It was a perfect evening. Thanks guys.

Julie's California Blog - Day 22

Julie's California Blog - Day 22, Sunday, April 21, 2013

GOOD MORNING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!!  What a beautiful day.  There are 12 kids asleep EVERYWHERE in the condo.  The kitchen counter looks a Frat house.  Good news ... the place is so small, it makes clean up very easy.  One swipe and the kitchen counter is cleaned off.  Everything is disposable.  So we're good to go again in a matter of moments.  

Everyone is up and running or rather walking up The Strand to Good Stuff for breakfast.  We all stacked our cell phones on the table so we could have meaningful conversation with each other instead of playing with phones.  (This was suggested by the kids.)

There is a huge volleyball tournament on the beach this morning.  The USC Girl's Volleyball team is playing. There is so much energy here today.  It's really fun hanging out with young people.  

After breakfast, the group split up.  Seven kids went back to school and five  stayed on the beach for a while.  There was talk of renting surf boards or sail boats.  In the end, they settled for swimming and a nap on the beach.  Jeff and his friends left around 3:00 to go back to campus.  I miss them terribly, but enjoyed every minute with them.  I'm so grateful for our time together and hope they come back next weekend.                                                                                                          

A marine layer moved in around 6:30, so the sunset fizzled out tonight.  The pups and I spent a quiet evening at home.

Julie's California Blog - Day 21

Julie's California Blog - Day 21, Saturday, April 20, 2013

Sadly, I took Sharon to LAX today for her trip back to Tampa.  Miss you, Sharon.  Thanks for coming to California.  I hope you had as much fun as I.

After I dropped Sharon at the airport, I received a text from Jeff that he needed a ride to the beach.  So I happily headed to USC to pick up Jeff and 5 of his Fraternity Brothers.  They had just completed Hell Week at AEPi and are now officially members of the Fraternity.  I brought the boys to the condo, gave them sunscreen, towels and a couple of volley balls and sent them to the beach.  

 

As the day passed, several of their friends arrived.  We ended up with 12 kids.  It was awesome!  These kids had so much fun on the beach playing volley ball, boogie boarding, football, burying Jeff in the sand, and just relaxing together.

All of them were so incredibly polite to me.  Jeff insisted that I join in all of the activities, making me feel included and loved.  Each one of Jeff's friends are unique and have interesting stories.  I really enjoyed getting to know them.

I had some snacks at the condo, but it didn't take long for 12 hungry college kids to run through the bags of chips and dip like locust going through Oklahoma.  So I took 12 starving kids to dinner at American junkie.  I loved listening to the stories, most of which I promised NOT to repeat, thus I cannot write about them.  Just suffice to say these kids are having a great time at school.  They have already established an astonishing bond of brotherhood.

One of the brothers pulled me aside and wanted to personally offer his condolences.  He shared that he lost his brother a year and a half ago, so he knew something about grief.  Like I said, these are awesome kids!  I'm so glad Jeff has surrounded himself with a group of loyal, interesting, fun guys.

After dinner, we went back to the condo for a few games of Beer Pong.  Jeff and I were a team and we started strong!   

After just four turns, we were down to one cup and our opponents had nine still standing.  I had already written the headline for my blog ... "Old Woman and Son Dominate to Crush AEPi's Top Beer Pong Team."  But alas, they had an amazing comeback and beat us.  I've been secretly working on my game since.  Gotta have that headline.

I called it quits and turned in around midnight.  The troops crashed shortly afterwards.  My rental agreement says this condo sleeps six.  We certainly put that to the test tonight!  Twelve kids slept here.  There weren't enough blankets to go around, so someone decided to turn on the heat and set the thermostat to 85 degrees.  I woke up melting around 2:30 and went outside to turn off the heat and cover some of the kids with beach towels.  College kids can sleep anywhere and EVERYWHERE!  The living room and guest bedroom were wall to wall people!  

I look forward to hanging out with these kids again tomorrow.

Julie's California Blog - Day 20

Julie's California Blog - Day 20, Friday, April 19, 2013


Today is Sharon's last day of California fun. We started the day riding bikes on The Strand to Marina del Rae. It was a beautiful ride of sightseeing, laughing and crashing when doing too much laughing and sightseeing. Just a small crash. Nothing hurt but pride! The Strand runs parallel to the Pacific Ocean, so in addition to the beauty of the Pacific, we saw fabulous houses, interesting people, dogs of all shapes and sizes and volleyball players of all shapes, sizes and ages. We ran across a group of older ladies that I affectionally refer to "Old Babes With Balls." They were next to a group of older gray headed men that I dubbed "BOOFs with Balls." (Burned Out Old Farts). I was actually quite impressed with this group of old folks playing a sport that they clearly love. They probably have their names engraved as volleyball champions from years gone by on one of the bronze medallions at the pier.




While riding, we found our next extreme sport ... Hang Gliding. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the trainer was booked for the day, so I wasn't able to take flight. But I have many days left in sunny California. Perhaps I'll try another day. Anyway, the 18 mile bike ride was wonderful and allowed us to enjoy a good workout.




We had lunch down the coast in Palos Verdes at Nelson's located at an upscale resort called Terranea. Nelson's came highly recommended by a young couple that we met at Manhattan Beach Post. They seemed young and with it and spoke highly of the restaurant so we were expecting something really special. Nelson's was a bit of a disappointment, but the view was spectacular. So if you're taking notes of restaurants to visit while in Southern California, you can scratch this one from the list.

The most fun event of the day was our evening at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach. I went there last Sunday night to see Jay Leno which was really fun. Jay performs every Sunday night to try out his Tonight Show material on a live audience.



Sharon had to leave before Sunday, so we went to the Friday night special at the Comedy Club, "Ten Comedians for Ten Bucks." We didn't really expect much. After all, Jay Leno would be a tough act to follow and let's get real ... 10 comics for $10 bucks??? A buck apiece? What kind of entertainer could we expect? We were pleasantly surprised. Sharon laughed so hard that she almost became part of the show with her laughter. Out of the 10 comics, 9 of them were hilarious! So the best entertainment value in Hermosa Beach seems to be the Friday night special of 10 Comedians for 10 Bucks. You can right that one down in your book for future reference.