Posts filed under 'La-La Land'
It has been scorching hot here for the last few days. Somehow we went from two gloomy weeks of overcast skies, highs in the mid 60’s and chilly evenings directly to highs of 98 and little flowers that had just started to bloom being burnt to a crisp. Can I get something in between? Where are my gorgeous spring days that peak at 75 leaving the evenings blissful and breezy? Is that too much to ask for?
The heat has certainly not motivated me to run, nor has the 5 pounds of phlegm I feel like I’m carrying around in my sinuses and lungs from last week’s cold. So today, for the first time this season, I swam. And lo, it was pathetic. I haven’t done laps in our pool since last fall and you would think that since I just ran a half marathon a month ago and am in possibly better shape than I ever have been that swimming would not be the gasping, splashing, flailing struggle that it was today. But damn, swimming is hard. I need to work on that.
The other big problem with the heat is the fact that we don’t have air conditioning. And we live in a two-story house. AND we sleep upstairs (for now). Last year when we moved into this house, we didn’t bother trying to get the a/c fixed since we were planning on doing some major remodeling that would involve moving ducts and upgrading the current system. Of course, we thought that would all be done by now but sadly, it has even started. It just took much longer than we thought it would to get things in order before someone takes a sledgehammer to the walls. We have plans now, drawn up by a great designer but they are still with the city, a process that we thought would only take 3 weeks and has now taken about 2 months. We’re closer to finding a contractor, but still not sold on any one person. Of course, once all of that gets sorted out and we actually start the whole process, we’re probably looking at 3-4 months of living in construction, but I’m really excited about our plans and am pretty sure it will all be worth it in the end.
Work has been hell for the last couple of weeks and although I get a bit of a break this week, next week is right back into the fire. Luckily, once I hit June things will lighten up a lot and I’m hoping they’ll stay that way for most of the summer. The hardest thing about working at night, which I did last week Sunday through Saturday, is not being around for Ashok’s evening activities. Missing his dinner, bath and bedtime that many nights in a row really sucks after a while, especially since on many of those days I had some daytime work as well. Brian and I agreed that this last week was particularly bad. Obviously, it’s hard on him too since he has no one to help out at the crankiest time of the evening, and let’s face it we ALL start getting cranky as the day wears on, so I’m going to try and plan things out a bit better form now on. This is the pain in the ass with freelancing-all the work comes at once or doesn’t come at all so it makes it hard to turn things down, but I would gladly turn down a few gigs to spend more time with these guys:
At Hosmer Grove in Haleakala Park, Maui
May 19th, 2008
Sometime in the last year, WordPress swallowed my About Me and Archives pages whole and ate them with a side of bacon. I have made a feeble attempt to construct a new About Me page with my limited computer skills. The link is over there to the right. Oh, and the post that link takes you to? Is right below this. Whatever, I’m not exactly in this to win awards for blog design.
April 29th, 2008
We’re in the midst of our first official wildfire in Southern California. We live about 10 miles away from the Sierra Madre fire and although we are in no danger at all, I can smell the smoke from where I’m sitting inside my house and my eyes have been burning for the last hour. I had planned to run 6-7 miles today but with the air like this, I decided to skip it and stay inside. I’m hoping tomorrow will bring good news, hopefully they can get it contained, but it sounds like it will probably take a couple more days. I know a couple of musicians who live in that community so I’m thinking good thoughts for them and all the other people who had to leave their homes this weekend.
April 27th, 2008
I ran my first 10 miler ever today. It sucked. I felt like I was dragging ass the whole way and nothing helped, not water, not clif blocks, not nothing. I won’t post my splits because I was so unbelievably slow and I don’t want to look at them again.
Of course, the big problem today was the heat. I didn’t get out early enough, and by the time I was heading back it was about 75 degrees. That doesn’t sound so bad, but I’m just not used to running in warmer weather right now. Also, I am brown. That’s not a problem, mind you, but I’ve always felt like my skin and my black hair soak up the sun like a sponge. Maybe I’m just making excuses….I do have a good hat. I went through all my water today which I never do, which makes me think that I probably wasn’t drinking enough water in the last 24 hours to get ready for this run, and I ended up walking a quarter mile stretch just after the 8 mile mark. There was a point around 9 where I even considered calling Brian to come get me, but I was so close at that point that I just sucked it up and got myself home.
Next week’s long run is back down to 8 and then 2 weeks from today I do 12, which is my longest long run before the half on April 5th. I really hope that run goes better than today’s and obviously, I need to plan a little better and make sure I get my ass out the door before it gets too warm. The race, thankfully, starts at 7:00 am.
I have so much stuff to do today, mostly practicing, but I feel like just sitting around and sulking. I have an important recording coming up in about a week and I need to do some serious work to get ready for that, but I’m having trouble finding the motivation. It’s a piece I performed many times, so I know it well, but recording is a whole different ball game. I have to be able to play really clean and precise since I know the folks putting this album together have limited time for editing. It is a great opportunity and I’m excited somewhere deep inside, but right now I just don’t feel like dealing with it.
On the bright side, we’re going out tonight to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Dinner will be at one of our favorites, Pizzeria Mozza. If you live in the LA area and haven’t been there, get to it! It is easier to get a reservation than the Osteria and the food is fantastic and although not as fancy, slightly cheaper. I can’t wait. Hopefully, a Butterscotch Budino will help pull me out of this funk.
March 9th, 2008
Congratulations, Brian! My husband had a great race this weekend coming in at 4:16:23. Ashok, my mom and I went out so see him at mile 19, which was right in front of Staples Center where a Laker game was about to start, and he looked great. Unfortunately, my hands were a bit too full to take any pictures of him running by, but I did get some shots of the spectators:
On the (not so) mean streets of L.A….
My Dad is My Hero
It was a beautiful day, highs in the low 70’s, although, according to Brian, a bit too warm and sunny for running 26+ miles. After mile 19, we walked down Flower Street in downtown and I was once again confounded by street closures and barricades and unable to get to the finish line. We managed to find him afterwards, but I wish we could have seen him cross. Maybe if the LA Marathon website wasn’t such a useless piece of crap, they could actually have some helpful information for spectators? Regardless, it was a great day and inspiring as usual too see all the runners and the thousands of people who came out to cheer them on. The marathon always makes me excited to live in L.A.
After coming home, where some people showered and other smaller people napped, we went out for dinner at The York. The York used to be The Wild Hare, which was one of our favorite bars when we lived in Highland Park. We celebrated many different occasions over there, including Brian’s first marathon in 2006. The Wild Hare was a bit of a dive, which I loved, don’t get me wrong, and we were sad to see it go but The York is pretty nice. Excellent beers, a full wine list, great food, and so far none of the hipsters have sneered at the baby in the high chair. I had a fantastic pan-seared tilapia with lentils, swiss chard and bacon and a Crafstman Hefeweizen-I’m drooling just thinking about it. After all that eating, we gave Ashok a bath and both boys were in bed by 8:00. It was a good day.
Now that Brian’s big race is over, I’m realizing that my half marathon is only a month away. I am on track with my training schedule but I looked at the elevation chart for the race today and….crap! What was I thinking?? Am I going to be able to make it through those first 8 miles? Oh well, too late now. If anyone has any recommendations for hill training, I’ll take all the help I can get.
March 3rd, 2008
I did it! I can scarcely believe it. I managed to blog very day in November with only limited cop-out posts. (Of course, if that Whole Foods hadn’t opened a couple of weeks ago, I probably would have been really short on material.) Anyway, it is done and I am glad to say I think NaBloPoMo has renewed my interest in this blog. I may not post every day, but I will definitely try and do more than the once a month pattern I was on before this started up.
I have a 10K tomorrow morning about half a mile from my house. Unfortunately, there are going to be some killer hills and it is pouring down rain here today, so we’ll see how it goes. I don’t begrudge the rain though, don’t get me wrong. I think I can count the number of rainy days since Ashok was born on two hands and we need it so desperately here in Southern California. Not to mention how nice it is to sit here and hear the rain coming down outside while Ashok naps upstairs. Lovely, all I need is a cup of tea and a scone and my day is complete.
So, I probably won’t post tomorrow, but I’ll try and be back with a race report on Sunday. Going to try and keep the momentum going…
November 30th, 2007
Oh, the running, she is so, so difficult. I have discovered that when I’m really pushing (which doesn’t take much these days), my heart rate sometimes goes up to 200. This seems wrong, very wrong. I think I need to slow things down a bit. Which translates to - I haven’t ran in 5 days and am currently seated on the couch eating two, count them, two! different flavors of ice cream.
My mom is in town this week which, although it can be stressful because we tend to irritate each other, has been a help since she luurrrrves Ashok and will hold him all day long if asked. That means I get my hands back and get to practice, wash dishes, etc. etc. It’s strange how all the tasks I tried to put off pre-baby now seem like some sort of luxury. ooooh! I get to sweep dog hair up off the floor! Such fun!
It has been hot as Hades here lately. I do love Southern California but when it is 90 degrees three days before Thanksgiving, something is just wrong. This has been weird even for here-I keep dressing the baby up in cute cuddly outifts only to take him outside and realize that he is going to bake unless I strip him down right away. Poor child, running around L.A. in just a diaper. How will he live that down?
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving…..I for one am looking forward to my Chocolate Pecan Pie. : )
November 21st, 2006
I am back to reality after a glorious weekend away in Ojai. For those of you not from Southern California, Ojai is a little town about an hour or so north of L.A. There’s not much there other than beautiful scenery, an incredible spa resort, and some damn fine restaurants. Without much advance planning, Brian and I managed to have one incredible meal after another just by popping into places that looked good. I’d say at least three of the restaurants we ate at have their own farm or vegetable garden on their grounds, so everything was unbelievably fresh. My favorite moment was during lunch at Shangri-La - after I ordered a caprese salad, the chef walked my dish out to me and told me the life story of the amazing tomato I was about to eat. He then proceeded to explain that he had another even more beautiful tomato in the kitchen that he couldn’t bring himself to cut which he had begun referring to as his “girlfriend.” It was hysterical, and it was a really damn good tomato.
As you can probably tell, we spent a great deal of our time in Ojai eating. Since I’m not much for the hiking or bike riding these days in my pregnant state, what else was there to do? When we weren’t stuffing our faces, we hung out by the pool at our adorable inn, The Blue Iguana. We had a great little room, so hanging out there and reading wasn’t a bad option either. All in all, the whole weekend was great. One of the things I love about where I live is that you can drive just an hour away and still feel like you’re getting away from everything. I only took one picture the whole time (bad blogger), and this is it:
Good work, right?
Now, we’re back to reality. Lucy and I got up at 6:00 this morning to accompany Brian to the Rose Bowl as he gets back in shape to start training for next year’s L.A. Marathon. Go Bri! Our very good friend Charlie is here visiting this week from Sweden so we’ve been bonding over the Price is Right every morning (we actually went to a taping last week!). Even more friends are coming in this weekend for my baby shower, which should be a lot of fun. And horror of all horrors, I have to start working again this week. Ouch. I was just getting used to this life of luxury.
*see what I did there? “post” and “post”, get it?? this is true wit, people.
July 31st, 2006
Project Runway is pretty much my favorite reality show on TV right now. And they scored huge points with me after last night’s episode. Dog models! Sure, it was predictable and a little hokey but I am such a sucker for dogs in clothes that it completely won me over. My favorite designers on the show so far are Uli and Alison. Laura bugs the crap out of me and her anti-dog status last night didn’t help (you have five kids and you won’t touch a dog for fear of getting your perfectly manicured nails dirty? get over it). I’m not exactly a fan of the teacup poodles and other mini-doglets, but they’re still pups so I love them all. Of course, we’ve had our own experience here at home with dog modelling:
So Heidi Klum, the next time you do a doggy fashion episode give us a call. You need some more variety in your models. She’ll go nude if you ask nicely.
In other news, the heat is still killing us over here in L.A. Last night I stupidly turned our air conditioning off at 7:30 thinking we might finally get a cool evening. Instead, our thermostat stuck right at 83 for the rest of the night. Effing humidity. It was gross and I’m getting a little sick of it, quite frankly. Don’t we live in the desert? This weekend Brian and I are heading up to Ojai where I’m hoping it will be a little better. At least we’ll have a pool at our hotel and we can get to the beach quickly if need be. This could be our last official vacation together before the baby comes so it better be a good one. Since I can’t have any cocktails by the pool, I’ll settle for non-stop milkshakes. Can that be arranged?
July 27th, 2006
You Are Los Angeles
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Young and fun, you always know where the best parties are.And while you tend to keep things carefree and casual…You certainly can glam it up when you need to.
Famous people from Los Angeles: Tyra Banks, Jake Gyllenhall, Freddie Prinze Jr.
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Good thing I didn’t get that job in Denver, I guess.
July 23rd, 2006