i'm moving

over here

Becuase I am just never satisfied. And the grass is always a lovelier shade of green.

Dancing, skating, mansions, shopping... THIS is the post you've been waiting for!

My last post was a pretty good arbiter of how my week was going. I've had better days than the last few, but to spare you a whiny, on-the-verge-of-tears post, I'm going to make this about all the things that haven't caused my nose to snot up this week.

1) I am finally all caught up on Grey's Anatomy. 9 weeks is a long time to be without Tivo, but I survived. I've avoided web sites that rehash my favorite shows; I've fled the room with my hands over my ears whenever GA, (and a bunch of other shows) came up, and I am finally out of the darkness. And oh is it good! (And ok, the thing about the old woman dying and her daughter flying in from wherever she lived with her lady-lover totally had me all asnot, but good snot). I love that Meredith is hooking up with George (at last), and that Izzie and Alex are finally getting naked in the bunk-bed room. Even Addison is starting to warm the cockles of my heart. I am totally starting to respect her as a neonatal surgeon, or whatever the hell she is. If I am ever in a complicated labor delivering a litter (as a result of the IVF I'll have to resort to as a result of my advanced maternal age), I want my surgeon to be Dr. Montgomery Shepherd.

2) Olympic skating. Yes, I like the skating. I love Sasha Cohen. I was very bummed when her long program didn't live up to the short one. She is so cute, and nobody skates like she does. She's like a graceful Gumby. And I just found out that her mother is Ukranian, she's fluent in Russian, and once acted as an impromptu translator for another winning skater at some competition they were both in. AND.... I'm pretty sure she was listening to something cool on her iPod in the workout room.

3) I got to hear these words come out of my boyfriend's mouth: "I'd like to eat some breakfast before we go dancing... "
Breakfast? Dancing? What could that mean? It means, people, that we are now ballroom dancing on Saturday mornings. We had our first lesson this morning, and I am pleased to say that we are not so bad. We only had one flaw highlighted in front of the whole class by the instructor, and it really wasn't that embarrassing. We now know the basics of Swing, Salsa and the Cha Cha. Next week I am definitely wearing heels and a skirt.

4) Skype is saving me a huge amount of money in international phone calls. David got it while I was gone so we could talk daily, and it rocks, that's all I can say. If you have DSL, and make international calls, go get it. Sitting talking to my parents with headphones on and a microphone in front of my face does unleash the overwhelming urge to pretend I am a radio announcer, but I think even my parents (who have high tolerance for my humor) are sick of my "stay tuned" and "more after these messages" quips.

5) We did lots of fun stuff with my sister over the weekend. Indian food at someplace on La Brea I can't remember the name of, Farmer's Market, shopping, plant shopping for our "deck", Venice Beach, Joan's on Third for one breakfast, Le Pain Quoidien for another. But the best, the best thing ever, was our grand tour of open houses in the Hollywood Hills, listed at 2 million or higher. My niece is obsessed with fine homes and if it still exists, is probably the only person who still watches Robin Leach's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and my sister loves to play the game of: "if we sold our large flat in San Francisco, what could we buy down here..." ) And believe me that number is far from 2 mill, but we thought it would be fun to go big. And it was. We saw beautiful 1930s mansions, some with their original kitchen and bathroom fixtures, super-modern "Dwell" magazine style houses with swirling 360 degree views of the city, cute Spanish "bungalows" with terracotta tiles and lots of dark wood. There was one monstrosity, a HUGE Italianate-style mansion with new construction that looked like something you'd see in Vegas. Don't even ask me about the humiliation my niece and I suffered when my sister decided to bust a move on one of the very top floor bathrooms to pee. She said she just couldn't hold it, and there was no one else up there so... Were we proud when we heard the flush from TWO FLOORS DOWN? No.

Ok, five good things is good, right? Well that's all you're getting. I'm off to the bookstore to find a new book or two, now that I am getting a pay check on Monday, and the library is just taking too damn long to procure my requests from other branches.

I know, I suck.

I seem to have forgotten I have a blog. Apparently I have lost interest in prattling away about TV, cooking, and the fact that I can't afford to get my haircut. And really, I know how much the three, four or five of you miss it too. But the very fact that I am sitting here typing this instead of lying on the couch with the remote in one hand and a glass of wine in the other is true testament to my recommitment to the blogging life. Because honestly, today was a ghastly day, starting with a whiplash-inducing snap judgment about how much I hated someone I'm working with (sorry, working for) and ending with my not being able to find a basket at Whole Foods. Where the hell do they keep the baskets at the WF on 3rd and Fairfax? I circled between the two store entrances like a restless dog, and all I could see were carts. Big carts. I know, I'm not 2, and I could have, should have, just sucked it up and gone for the cart, but dammit, today I was back in diapers, almost throwing myself down on the tiles and turning purple with rage about the fact that I couldn't find a damn basket. And I think anyone who's navigated a Whole Foods at rush hour understands my inner tantrum. .

But let me back up. Yes, I have a job. A freelance, contract position at a newspaper I get. Every day. Yes, that one. I'm writing marketing bits and pieces for the ad sales department. After my last job, I never again thought I would hear a magazine sales rep say to me, "Denise, I need a piece that says....." But here I am, hearing it again. I guess I must have "publishing bitch" tattooed somewhere very visible. I shouldn't complain. The money is good, I will soon be able to justify expensive beauty treatments, new boots, and a wardrobe from THIS season, (I am well aware that I've taken the "Gaucho" yoga-pant look just a little further than the good trend-setters intended). But my god, the woman who hired me? She comes directly from Hell's Colon. Today I was on the tippy toes of having to explain the meaning of the word "complement" to her (she clearly never learned the difference between that one and the other one, but honestly, I sort of see why) and then I just found myself picking another word. "Oh Never Mind!" is my new motto. Soon I will be writing things that say "Please advertise in this nice paper. You will like it. You will sell more of whatever it is that you sell". Seriously, that is what it will come to, I can feel it now. The worst of it is that last week (when the colon dweller was on vacation) I was actually having a good time. I liked the person I was working with in her absence, and actually found myself thinking, "Huh, I could do this for a bit".

Oh never mind...


In happier news, I had the most fun weekend with my niece and sister who came down from San Francisco. It was my niece's second time, and my sister's first (not in LA, just visiting me here). My sides are still aching from all the pee-in-your-pants laughing that went on. I'll save some of that for another post, in case this is a little too much from me too soon. You knew I'd come back with a vengeance, didn't you?

The day I went to the mall without brushing my teeth...

So when I'm in South Africa I always go on and on about how weird it is that I NEVER bump into anyone I know. No-one from high school, college. EVER. It's bizarre. As if my entire generation was sucked into a black hole. This has made it relatively safe to venture out and run an errand unshowered, without a lick of hair product or make up, perhaps wearing clothes you took out of the laundry basket on a whim. On my last day there I took this a step futher and actually decided it wasn't even worth the trouble to brush my teeth. (I'm actually embarrassed writing this, really I am.) Anyway, there I was, innocently dashing into the Constantia Village shopping center to get some last minute things and who do I run into? Not just any one of my high school classmates, but the one who happened to be a successful model once upon a time. As luck would have it, she still looks like a model. She had on the cutest outfit, an adorable haircut and that perfect daytime make-up look that I never seem to get right. Anyway, for just a wee moment, I flattered myself by thinking, "She couldn't possibly recognize me after all this time. And looking like this?" But she did. Oh the shame.

I'm baaaaack

Wow. Two months and one week, and I'm home again. I feel as though I was gone forever, but then today walking to Gelson's and the dry cleaners and checking email and catching up it felt as though I had never left. I really wanted to blog more while I was gone, but internet by the minute and an aging computer was a tad prohibitive. But now it's a new year, and it's February already and my god, I need to update my blog. So while I have much to say, I'm going to limit it to the following:

1) I will never fly South African Airways again. Have YOU ever stopped somewhere for refueling, (say in a forsaken place like Accra, Ghana), only to be informed by the pilot that there is NOT ENOUGH FUEL available to go on to your destination? Have you? When the announcement was made, I was in the throes of recovering from an Ativan-fueled sleep and I honestly thought I was having some crazy sleeping pill dream. No such luck. The solution was a quick jaunt up the West African coast to Dakar, where it seemed they had just what we needed -- the remaining two thirds of the tank. When a 17 hour journey gets spontaneously extended by another 4, it's not a happy thing. Not to mention the panic that follows for the typical neurotic freak. Why is there no fuel here? Are they SURE there's fuel in Dakar? Will it be enough to get us there? What if there's an emergency landing in the Atlantic? Oh my god, I KNEW I should have paid more attention to those airline safety videos, instead of reading In Touch Weekly while taxi-ing to the runway.... And so it goes. But I''m home now, so obviously everything's ok.

2) If the flight attendant on my United flight from Washington DC to LA referred to the movie as "Pride and Prejudiced" ONE more time after the first 3 times he did it, I was going to smack him. Fortunately once "Pride and Prejudiced" started, he didn't need to say anything more about it, so that was that.

3) I am VERY good at crying during airport goodbyes. I'm getting weepy just writing this.

4) LA doesn't look as pretty from the air as San Francisco did. And after two months in pristine Cape Town, I could smell the pollution on Santa Monica Blvd today. Sigh.

5) My wonderful boyfriend had removed the ceiling fan in our bedroom and replaced it with an attractive light fixture. This might not seem like a big deal, but believe me, if you'd SEEN the ceiling fan, you'd understand. It's the kind HGTV moments are made of.

(he also got rid of the ugly chandelier light fixture in the "eat-in" part of our kitchen and installed some under the cabinet lights. Do you hear the sound of my jig-dancing?)

6) I need to get a job.

7) I don't really want one yet. But I need some LA friends, so that might help. But then I think I might like to try freelancing if it can pay the bills. Was I supposed to come back with some sort of career clarity? I didn't.

8) Old news, I know, but H&M is opening up at the Beverly Center. Oh happy day!

9) I didn't read nearly enough as I planned to on my trip. Not enough alone time.

10) I have found Sudoku. Seriously, that and the NYT crossword compilations were my best friends on the plane. A number grid puzzle is the LAST thing I thought I would have been into, but there you have it. 'Cause once the Ativan wears off...

Ok. 10 is a nice number. I'll write more about my trip tomorrow.

oh one more thing. My niece and sister are coming for a visit in two weeks! That makes me dance my jig a little longer.