Everything in my life was leading up to this weekend.
Specifically Friday.
We had the big move of our office to a stupid regular corporate building off the lot.
Thursday, we finally had the walk through. Carrie and I almost cried.
It is horrible.
It is great if you are a big wig. If you are an assistant, it suck the worst kind of ass.
Then we moved. No one was happy. And it was almost going off without a hitch. I had unwillingly been elected to coordinate so much shit since most of our department was on vacation. Thank god for our amazing staff of temps.
I know that the worst is still to come. We have like a million boxes to unpack and we moved to a smaller space. In fact, because I was in charge and putting out fires all over the place, the last 2 boxes with the most important things in them, I did not mark. I hope they get moved. And when they get moved, I hope I can find them. I guess I have to look for the only unmarked boxes that are floating around the new space. Whatever. Small shit to sweat for a later date.
The day was almost over when more fires had to be put out. It was awfil. I almost cried. And then I went home.
Carrie and I drank some wine on the balcony and vented about everything.
Then I got ready for the reading for my one woman show at the Andy Dick theater at Improv Olympic.
It was great to see my class again.
I went first and the heat got the best of me and I was a sweaty looking hottie up there reading. It was something out of a sitcom. It looked like I was nervous. At one point, I reached up to my face while I was reading and I noticed my hand slip off of it. That can't be good I thought. Can I pull off getting the audience into my story while they watch me melt? Who knows if I succeeded.
I had a nice group of friends. Amy, Mel, Shana, Mads, Zapato, G and S and Samantha showed up. It was great.
My classmates did a great job too.
I also went off the diet. 22 and a half pounds lost since January. YES!
After the reading we went to Micelli's and I had chicken canelloni. Totally amazing.
This morning, I woke up knowing that I had nothing on the agenda today. That was the best best best feeling. I hadn't realized how captive I had been feeling towards my situation.
I am working on my resume now. I am also really putting it out there that I need need need a creative career. Writing, voice work. It will happen.
Went to pan pipes today and got a candle to meditate on.
Mads and I went to breakfast at Highland Grounds. Then we went to BH and had awesome lattes at le pain quotidien.
She is shooting a wedding tonight in Malibu.
I am totally decompressing. And everything feels right again.
Tomorrow, Arcade Fire and David Byrne at the Hollywood Bowl.
I haven't said it for awhile but today I will say it...I love my life!
I have been writing all fricking week.
I take breaks.
I take breaks by watching Dogtown and Z Boys.
I grew up in Venice like 7 years behind those guys.
I knew skaters and surfers who knew them. A lot of nostalgia of the graffiti came back while watching it.
I also watched Entourage.
And now I am catching up with Dinner for 5.
I just joined Netflix to give it a chance.
It is funny...when you don't have to return them by a certain time, that is when I watch the films faster.
I guess I hate authority. I mess with myself something awful.
I am about to go back to writing.
How can something you love to do soooo much, be such a pain in your ass?
oy
Mads and Jazzy went to the Greek last night to see Wilco.
I have never been to the Greek to see a show. Which is weird if you live in LA.
But I have seen a show that was playing at the Greek.
Huh?
"But you just said...?"
I know what I just said. And it is true.
I saw Pearl Jam perform at the Greek, but I wasn't at the Greek. I was in the trees behind the Greek.
My friends had gone to see Beck perform there and he gave a shout out to the Tree People because he had been one back in the day.
A collective "Yahoo" came from the trees indicating many tree people.
So when my friend Leigh said she wanted to see Pearl Jam and couldn't get tickets, I said, "Let's be tree people"
I didn't even know what that meant.
But try we did.
We drove up there and parked like normal ticket holding concert goers.
And then we followed the people who were wandering up the hill.
It was dark and kind of steep.
But we made it.
And there we sat with a large group of people. It was its own kind of party.
Leigh and I had oreo cookies, sandwiches, soda and chips.
We noticed many blunts being passed around.
She held the cookies and the chips and said, "We might want to hide these as they get higher. This could become an ugly raid soon."
We were right up against the fence and could see the band playing and the sound was amazing.
We met a group of guys who actually took to the tree people space as if it was their own.
They would come on non-concert days and clean it up.
They made sure it all looked good for the next concert.
We ended up going out to House of Pies with them afterwards.
The walk back down was a little trickier than going up. First, there was still no light, I have trouble walking downhill, and the fact that stoned people were careening into the cliffs and to other people made it a dodgy situation.
But it was still a fun night.
I wonder if Jeff Tweety knew there were tree people last night. I wonder if he gave them a shout out.
Either way, I am sure they enjoyed the show.
The last 2 days I cheated on my diet.
I know.
It is almost over and I cheated.
Wanna know something?
I would do it again.
The weight is still coming off but both cheat nights were very special.
Sunday, Mads and I went to Hermosa Beach and had 2 awesome guys make us dinner.
And there were carbs and chocolate involved.
I couldn't be rude.
I had to eat it.
And it was goooooood.
Last night, my dad and Rondie came into town and we along with Mads went to the old Yote and I had a margarita and some chips.
It was good.
Plus I saw Danny Masterson there.
I like him.
Not like him like him, but like him.
It wa fun.
My dad and Rondie are a hoot.
They are on their way up north starting with a Sideways tour sort of. It's the area my dad went to school as a teenager so it is a bit nostalgic for him as well as movie friendly.
today sucks ass but I am really trying to keep a handle on myself in the face of everyone's assy behavior.
When I went to lunch, the air was smoggy, the heat was yucky and humid and traffic was a pain.
"What the hell Universe? Help a girl out, come on, help me out now. Throw me a bone."
It didn't.
But I feel a little better now that I have eaten.
Moving offices when you are already slammed with regular work and when most of the regular assistants are out for a good 3 months (vacations, maternity leaves) and your bosses are both new and you are doing other people's jobs and you are having to spring clean your files, when you really want to be writing for your one person show and it is hot out and you still don't have an A/C in your car, all of that...not as much fun as I read in the brochure...just in case you were wondering.
In the summers, I would go to visit my dad in Fresno, where it is hot hot hot.
Everyone we knew had a pool. The key to surviving that kind of heat is stay cool cool cool. You did that with A/C in cars and movie theaters or by swimming in pools. When the pool grind became too repetitive, we would go to a waterslide park called Blackbeards.
It was such a rush to see all the slides. All the opportunities to slide down to the main pool of chlorinated green water probably infused with kid pee.
At the top of every run I would be optimistic that THIS run would be the best. But every time I would go on a run, my mat would slide out from under me, leaving my bare skin to be in direct contact with the cement-like slide.
Or I would try some weird move where I would end up having a moment of glory of a cool ride before I bonked my head against the wall. Sometimes, if you got enough momentum, you would go over the wall and land in the next slide. Hopefully not on someone. It was actually kind of dangerous. And you were scraped up. And no run would ever live up to what I had planned in my mind.
And yet, I continued to go down the slides, run after run, until my step mom would come pick us up. I just kept going for it until I got it right and I loved it.
My one person show class is feeling a little like Blackbeards.
I love it. I continue to go. But whenever I try a new maneuver or think I have a handle, it turns and I bang my head against the wall.
My horoscope today said that I have a lot of good things coming my way, but that all I need to do, is look at the world through a new set of positive expectations rather than the negative ones from the past. That I need to know that the process is working for me and not against me. And that I need to reclaim some of the innocence I had as a child.
That same innocence that never let the bumps on my head or the scratches on my legs interfere with the enjoyment of the slides.
So that whatever happens today, I will just slide down the slide, laughing all the way into the pool at the bottom. Crossing my fingers that each landing will be a splash.
Went to the Alcove with Claire last night.
Yummy food.
Great conversation.
Nice evening.
This morning I woke up and thought it was Sat.
Oops.
Threw the cat off the bed and got to work on time.
Today is Rere's last day of work before she leaves for 6 weeks for Spain.
We are all going to lunch to send her off.
The move is still underway and my new boy boss seems nice. Very quiet.
Not sure what he thinks of me, but I don't really care at this point about things I used to. Like impressing a new boss.
I still do a great job and keep up the socializing and the humor because babe...that is who I am.
Tonight is Carrie's bday party at Jones. It will be fun, I am sure.
I am almost on the last week of the challenge.
I have lost a lot of inches and about 10 pounds so far. Yippee.
My ipod is shuffling all my faves and I am in a good place for the most part.
Mads is my anchor at the moment. Thank god for the friends I have right now.
And thank god for my class which is challenging me in creative and personal ways.
Congrats to Laura on the new position!
May we all start living towards our purpose in the same way.
Today is better.
I am not sure why.
I am not going to question it.
But it is better.
Lots of good conversation last night. Lots of thoughts expunged. Lots of ideas flowing this morning. But because I have a higher expectation for my memory, I didn't write any of it down and have somehow forgotten brilliant ideas.
Dios Mio. I think I need some ginko biloba. Does that help with memory. I thought it did, but I have forgotten.
Work is sucking the life out of me.
I am exhausted all the time.
But...good news is that I am not cheating on the diet.
I am not drinking.
I have good friends who let me vent.
I am continuing to exercise.
I would like another massage from the thai place but I am afraid they will give me the chubby lady again who walked on me and knocked the wind out of me.
I made noises I think I would only make if I were being thrown down a mountain.
Turns out...I make them when a chubby thai masseure walks on me too.
I booked my ticket to Portland for the summer.
Which made my mom happy.
Until I told her I charged it to my new credit card.
Then she started to lecture me.
To which I started saying, "You have already told me your opinion. I don't need to hear it again." over and over to drown out her voice telling me over and over how she is worried I will get in over my head with debt.
I need a new job. Everything else is falling into place. Except for that.
And we are moving off the cool location into a cheesy regular corp. America bldg. Away from the creatives. And the food.
Sigh.
The weather is stunning. I better go outside and take a break before I take out my eyes with a letter opener.
I swear I getting in a better mood. You just can't tell because I am hiding it so well. But trust me...I am in a better mood.
This morning I walked to my car to go meet my writing partner leslie. I noticed an old man with a walking stick showing it off to a man with a Rite Aid bag who was admiring it. It was wood with a wooden snake wrapped around it. It was really pretty as walking sticks go. Part of my warped Hollywood brain pictured the man with the Rite Aid bag grabbing it out of the old man's hands and whacking him with it. I was glad that didn't happen since my reaction would have been to change the channel rather than run or help him.
Weird thoughts for so early in the morning. Must have been my no-caffeine zone.
As I was getting into my car, the old man passed me and asked,
"Is Father's Day this Sunday?"
"Um, no. I think it is next Sunday."
"Oh right...next Sunday. Whew. That's what I thought."
I kind of laughed wondering how old HIS dad must be that he was worried he hadn't gotten his dad a present.
Or maybe he was keeping tabs on his own kids.
Or maybe he was making sure he was in town to show off his new walking stick to his kids. Maybe this weekend he had a hot date with a lady with a cool poncho and he wanted to get the weekends in order.
Who knows?
After such an amazing weekend, I didn't want to go to work.
I should have gone with that feeling.
Yesterday sucked. We are planning for a move and I am getting a new boss and we are slammed. Just. Too. Much. For. My. Brain. To. Handle.
Me: Today sucks - it is like god is shitting on me today
Rere: Friday was worse
Me: Friday felt like god farting...today, he is definitely shitting on me.
Thank god I had the idea to work out. I didn't want to. But it was a great work out and I have lost more weight. A lot of inches too.
I hope god's bowels are in tact today and that all goes well.