Laziness...

...seems to have taken hold so I'm going to add a new feature to my blog called FeaturingotherpeoplesblogpoststhatIlikeasawaytoavoidwritinganythingoriginal.

First up...some Mississippi Mud Pie...mmm, pie.

California Dreamin'

All the leaves are brown

All the leaves are brown

And the sky is grey

And the sky is grey

I've been for a walk

I've been for a walk

On a winters day

On a winters day

I'd be safe and warm
I'd be safe and warm

If I was in l.a.

If I was in l.a.

California dreamin

California dreamin

On such a winters day

Alright, part deux of my trip - Friday was gorgeous as well, so HB and I road tripped over to Cabazon to see the dinosaurs that were featured in one of the best movies of all time - Pee-wee's Big Adventure. And yes, they were just as cheesy as I hoped they would be. See below for

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

We had a great time walking around inside the dinosaurs, checking out the gift store, and looking at all the other ridiculous dinosaur displays that, for some reason, also included a medieval soldier and a lion and a lamb together. Not quite sure that they were for, but okay.

After lunch and fun with a couple slot machines at the casino on the reservation next to the dinosaurs, we made our way to Pasadena Art Night. A brilliant concept that allowed free access to a wide variety of Pasadena organizations featuring visual and performing art from around the world. We made it to the Pasadena Alliance Francaise (bien sur!), the Public library where there were some great dancers, as well as the Norton Simon Museum which, luckily, featured a great exhibit of ancient Indian art.

Superfun night and a great way to support the arts.

Saturday was a chill day exploring Venice Beach. Definitely a crazy cast of characters with all kinds of art, street performers, color, and random stuff for sale. Wherever I travel, I love to buy pieces of original art - even if the artist is completely unknown. I'll post more on this later, but I have to say - thrilled with the art I bought there.

Later that night, we met up with HB's college roommate for a community production of The Secret Garden. Enjoyed it, but I must say that the musical deals much more with the afterlife and ghosts of the dead characters than the book ever did.

I arrived home on Sunday after a great breakfast at a farmer's market in LA and an easy flight back to Chicago. I was exhausted and burned, but really grateful to have had a mini-vacation with a good friend and great memories. More pics from the trip can be found here.

Oh, and one more goal down: 99) Watch the sunset from inside the "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" dinosaur. (Please note - didn't get to experience sunset because of time demands and I'm pretty sure they weren't even open at that time. But what I say - close enough)

So, that's 11 goals down, 89 to go and it hasn't even been a year!

LA Woman

Yep, I'm totally using my recent trip to LA as an excuse to reference a Doors song...because that's the way I roll. But since the song is actually sort of a downer, I'll refrain from quoting lyrics:) I'll also take this moment to let my dedicated readers (as well as my non-dedicated readers) that there were lots of adventures on this trip, so we're looking at multiple blog posts here. But stick with me kids, cuz the ride will be great. So, onwards and upwards.

Given that I took a total of seven days off last year, I thought that I would try and remedy the situation in 2009 by actually taking a few vacations, however short they may be. This past weekend I headed out for four days to visit my friend HB in LA. This vacation was also driven by fulfilling two of my 100/10 goals. More about that later.

Thursday, I rolled out of Chicago leaving behind snow. I rolled into into LA where it was sunny and warm. Thank goodness! Even better - HB owns a convertible which was totes awesome and highly preferable over my usual transportation - the #6 bus. We drove down to Manhattan beach and hit up a cute little museum on a pier with great view of the ocean. After some great Mexican food, we traveled to the Queen Mary Hotel....which is haunted. Mwah ha ha...

So we come to goal number 26) Spend a night in a haunted hotel. Done!

The Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967. It served a variety of purposes including transporting POWs during WWII and acting as a hospital ship. It has a great traditional interior and many ghosts.

Now, while I super like the TV show Ghosthunters, I am not one to really believe in the paranormal. However, that said, I totall had an experience while on our ghost tour of the ship. The group had ventured down to the cargo hold and sat in chairs in a circle. We then turned out all the flashlights and attempted to conjure the spirits of the dead. While staring into the dark, I felt a sharp tug on the back of my chair. I figured someone was behind me, or HB had hit my chair. When we turned the lights on, I saw no one standing behind me and my friend hadn't moved the entire time...freaky!!!!

I definitely had a great time at the Queen Mary and had "met" a ghost to boot.

Next post - dinosaurs, casinos, and art night.

Making fun of Indiana should not be a pastime...

But sadly, for moviemakers, I'm afraid it's too late.

Yesterday, I saw that the preview for Johnny Depp's new movie Public Enemies (about John Dillinger) had been released. Since this movie involves three of my favorite things: violence, history, and violence in history, I am very excited for its arrival in theaters. However, about 1:08 minutes into the preview, all I could think was "Come on!" When told that he was being expedited to Indiana for trial, Dillinger replies, "I have absolutely nothing I want to do in Indiana." I mean I get it, born to a loser of a father in Indianapolis and imprisoned for a time in Crown Point, it's probably not his favorite state, but that had to make the preview!? Of all things important to this movie, Dillinger's distate for Indiana made the list? Okay, fine, I'll live with it. Although, I think eventually he would hate Wisconsin far more than Indiana, but whatever, I won't judge.



Moving onto another movie, The Royal Tenenbaums. While no Rushmore, I still enjoyed the film. Except for one part when Margot Tenenbaum, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, explained that she is adopted and at one point she went to find her family which, she deadpans, "live in Indiana." Cue the the ignorant hicks. (about 10 seconds into the video)



One last example from Mean Girls. Around the 3 minute mark, Rachel McAdams' character makes a remark about a past boyfriend, Kyle, who was "totally gorgeous but then he moved to Indiana." (cue eyeroll) It's Indiana people, not the Bermuda Triangle.



And these are only three of many, many examples of how Indiana has become the movie equivalent of a cultural wasteland where the great unwashed reside and can be referenced conveniently when needed. I'm not sure if it's laziness or prejudice, but I'm sorry, please stop referencing the Hoosier State in such a manner.

So, in my Lenten goal of finding happiness and letting go of bitterness, I offer you the clip below. It is one of the best examples found in a movie of what makes Indiana great. And if you don't know what movie this is from, I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.

Sugar and a Blackberry don't mix

Now, before you think that I had some sort of weird kitchen accident, I should clarify...by "Sugar" I mean my cat, and by "Blackberry" I mean my phone. Clear? Yes? Brilliant, let's move on.

This past year I upgraded to a Blackberry and boy has it been completely worth it. Why I have not yet (I hope) reached the "Crack"berry stage (thought I am well on my way there), I have used my phone for all things, both legit and nefarious...mwah ha ha. I used the GPS when I first moved to Chicago when I was lost in a neighborhood with no mass transit in sight. I used it while in Europe with the CSO to deal with donors and tickets. I use it to check my e-mail, phone messages, movie times, etc. In fact my Blackberry served an extremely important purpose just the other day when I was out with some peeps and we needed to be able to get directions to Huck Finn Donuts & Snack Shop...this was vital, my friends. (And to all you people who are currently reading this and thinking how you can do soooo much more with your Iphone - suck it, I don't care.)

But one key party is not a fan of the Blackberry...namely, my cat, Sugar. In fact, I'm pretty sure he has strong kitty hate for this particular electronic. Let's say I'm chillaxing on my couch on the phone and I hang up and put the phone down beside me - Sugar will lay right on top of it. Let's say in the morning, since I use my phone as my alarm, I pick it up to turn the alarm off, he immediately start rubbing against my face/arm/etc., so I can't even see the phone, let alone reach it.

But this morning was by far his most aggressive stance against the Blackberry. I had grabbed the phone to turn off the alarm and Sugar jumped up from the side of the bed and swatted at the Blackberry which knocked it on the floor. He then laid down on my chest, put his head on my shoulder and started purring.

I guess he knows that cuteness always wins over technology...

I'm very thankful for...

Yesterday, my friend D and I made the voyage east to South Bend for a friend's wedding. And boy what an adventure...it was anything but what we expected!

D picked me up on the southside and we made our way to I-90 which runs straight to South Bend...sounds easy right? Well, we had just hit Gary, when the car started to quickly lose speed, and it turned out...we were out of gas!! According to the needle we should have been okay for a few more miles, but oops!! guess not. So what's a girl to do?

D calls her fiance (we were driving in his car) to ask him to come meet us with some gas. He says he'll hop in D's car and be there as soon as he can. Sounds good, right? Except for the fact that he then calls back letting us know that he can't get D's car started and won't be able to get to us to help!! We then just both sort of look at each other like, "Well, what are we supposed to do now?" We weren't close to any exits or anything.

We decided to try and at least get the car completely on the shoulder of the highway as people seem to drive like maniacs on I-90. D popped in into neutral and I got out and pushed and we moved the car into a safer position. I have to say though, crappy situation aside, I was totes proud of myself for pushing a BMW SUV all on my lonesome - especially in a dress!

However, that move turned out to be helpful in more than one way. Just as I was getting back into the car, another car pulls in front of us and a young guy steps out of the car and asks us what's wrong. When we tell him that we're out of gas, and he offers to go get us some and come back!! Practically giddy that this guy is helping us we chill in the car waiting for him to return.

And he does...parking on the other side of the highway and jumping the barrier with a gas can and filling up the tank so we can get to the next gas station. Ridiculously grateful, we ask him much we owe, and he won't let us pay. I give him my card, asking that he at least send us his address so we can send him a card (and a check)...we'll see if I ever hear back! We then proceed onto the wedding and all is well.

But the real moral of this story is that there are still good people out there. Brilliantly generous and genuinely caring people out there. People willing to go out of there way to help, are out there. I am still incredibly grateful to our stranger who could not have been kinder.