Cherry Blossom Candy Leaf

So nothing much has been going on, but I have been urged to update my blog. That makes it seem like I have a huge following, so let me rephrase. Sasha has asked me to update my blog. So here it goes.

Uh, let's see, my life. What's happening? Hmmm.

Here's a short list of things that have happened or that I have done since my last post...

• Ben and I saw The Reverend Horton Heat at the House of Blues in Hollywood. We went on a Friday night, which made me feel old. I had been up since five in the morning and the Reverend did not begin playing until midnight. Even though we were not the oldest ones in attendance, I was exhausted. The show was good, but it was the same show we saw at the Ventura Theatre a couple years ago and 4th and B in San Diego a couple years before that.

• I took an art class in Santa Barbara at my friend Joni's house. Her house overlooks the Pacific Ocean so it was perfect inspiration for the day. There were only six students in each session and Joni. Before the class, we were urged to go on a photo scavenger hunt of light. I used photos from my wedding, honeymoon and other photos taken in the past before this assignment was given. We were given a compilation of poems about light and used certain poems as a place to begin for our own poetry. We wrote about a recipe for happiness. We also used the line, "There have been these things that I have never seen before" to start another poem. I will try to publish mine later. We then printed very light copies of our own photographs and used pastel over the copy. The result is a highly impressionistic piece that is nice enough to frame and is great for beginning art students. Finally, we made miniature collage cards that I have already begun to send out.

• The Home Owner's Association President informed that I could no longer park my car in the complex so I am forced to park half a mile away and walk to my car every morning, which is fine if I'm not running late. The way she told me was absolutely pompous. I asked her, "Why are you so concerned about my car? Are you on the Board or something?" (I thought she was just your typical busy body, but NOOOOO!) She replied, "IIIIIII'm the President," just like that. Since Grandma has the meetings at her house, I found this to be the most opportune time to mention, "That's funny, because I never see you at the meetings." I moved my car anyway, but she still felt it necessary to call Grandma and inform her about what I was doing (Grandma pretended not to know as I told her to do.) And the President also sent me a letter. Talk about having too much time on your hands.

• On Valentine's Day, when I arrived at my car before driving off to work, Ben dropped off my heavy school bag and chocolates on the driver's seat, which was a surprise. In addition, he sent me fruit cut like flowers. They were delicious. When I brought them home, Grandma quickly offered up parts of my gift to the bags who were playing mahj (mah-jong for short). I didn't really want to share. I have never really liked to share food.

• Over President's Day, Ben and I went to San Diego to visit Olga, JoEllen, and our recently engaged friends, Megan and Jason. Unfortunately, Olga had already arranged to fly home that weekend so we spent a few hours together before she was off to the airport. JoEllen was sad because of the loss of a friend on the day after Valentine's Day, but we tried to make the best of it. We went to see the Annie Leibovitz photo exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. I love that her work wasn't in the photo museum. The exhibit was called A Photographers Life, 1990 - 2005, which explained a mish-mash of photographs. There were photos from her days at Rolling Stone, family pictures, and photos of a friend named Susan (possibly her sister) who battled with cancer twice. It truly was a collection of life photographs, 15 years worth. We met up with Jason and Megan later that day, ate pizza, and hung out at their house in Ocean Beach. We listened to the Love CD from the Cirque show in Vegas and like an acid flashback, I was brought back to Vegas. I have to buy that CD. The clarity is really something else and when the CD started, I got chills. Ben and I stayed at the HoJo in Encinitas which was fine. Because we snuck the dog in and paid $70/night, we didn't complain about our room's position at the foot of the stairs and 2 feet from the pool. Needless to say, there were many children swimming at 6:30ish in the morning each day. That was a delight.

• Ben and I saw Babel this weekend and I really liked that movie. I am still thinking about communication and misunderstanding along with things that are universally understood across cultures and then again misunderstood among husband and wife, family, friends, etc. I highly recommend it.


• Now I am back at work and am a little scared that my thyroid has once again forgotten its purpose. Hopefully I'll be back to my almost-normal-self, soon.

Well, Ben is spending his last week in his 20s. His feelings about it are, uh, mixed. He still gets carded for beer and looks like the pure white angel that he is. But I'll still call him, "my old man," for fun.

# posted by RZV @ 11:57 PM