Thursday, December 29, 2005

i'm a big girl

coming home has been all about finding my voice and learning how to use it (appropriately). i think it's been the same for matt. we've made time to see family and some friends, but it's been our vacation, our trip. we make plans and stick to them (and thank you to jenny for putting up with me and my family's antics this afternoon). it's wonderful! although i still feel like a kid when i'm at my folks' house, i also feel like an adult making my own plans and decisions. it's an interesting time and i'm ready to go back to l.a., oddly enough, back to our life together.

matt is already back home with the kitties and he'll be picking up our friend rian at the airport later on tonight. i fly home tomorrow evening, but before i do, here are my plans: dinner tonight at the neighbor's house, coffee with kari, SLEEP, movie or walk with mom (weather depending) in the morning and a facial at 2pm, followed by a trip to l.a. via sea-tac and alaska airlines. i miss my sweetie and can't wait to see him. i guess home is wherever he is. :)

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

home again home again

it is officially tuesday morning and the 3rd day of my vacation! :) i'm here in puyallup in the chilly basement. my pajamas consist of warm socks, flannel pajamas, a flannel sweatshirt and a scarf. the bed has several blankets piled on it. i think we're a little chilly here! i love the rain - i've missed it so! today i saw steph and gloria in tacoma which was wonderful. nancy and greg took matt and i out to dinner at melaque in puyallup and we just finished playing games night. i must say, for playing cribbage for the first time, i did quite well! :)

christmas was wonderful. our parents got together at my folks house in seattle and my aunt muriel was there too. we had a wonderful holiday and i'm anxious for the week to continue. :)

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

overwhelmed

where to begin?

saturday was a blast, but wait, oh yes! FRIDAY!!! my old friend beth came into town and we had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant that i forget the name of, but we had a LOVELY dinner. my personal favorite was the appitizer we shared which was a portobello mushroom stuffed with veggies and topped with 3 kinds of cheese. she had lasagnae with cheese and meat with a side of cheese and meat and i had a grilled veggie panini with buffalo mozzerella and a spinach salad. yum yum! then we headed off to a local piano bar where i surprised beth with a visit from our old friend, celena (we all went to high school together). beth was so happy to see us and we were so happy to see eachother (i hadn't seen celena in weeks). we had a lovely time with drinks and gossiping about those we hated in high school that now are not doing so well. :) (love the high road, right jenny? :P) so then i headed home, which meant unfortunately breaking up the reunion earlier, because my friend gayle was flying in for kari's surprise tea the next day! and she flew into l.a.x. silly girl plus her flight was delayed an hour. poor thing arrived at my apartment totally exhausted around midnight. we went to sleep within an hour.

saturday morning was totally chaotic because we (and by we i mean cathie, amanda, gayle, and i) all spent the morning together excitedly chatting about the upcoming tea and how kari was going to pee her pants! her entire family was in on the surprise and she had no clue. we headed off to breakfast to talk about the plan for the afternoon, and unfortunately "the house of pies" has the worst breakfast i've ever eaten. but we were in for a treat because "santa con" was going on. i met a pirate santa who gave me a cigar and said in his pirate voice "even the little pirate girls and boys need a santa, yarrrrrrrrr" to which i replied "oh my god, you are so awesome!" cathie couldn't stop taking pictures. so after our icky breakfast we did a bit of toodling around including a drive-by-stop-quick-and-get-out-and-take-your-friggin-picture-cause-there's-a-cop-behind-me tour of hollywood and highland for the tourists. they loved it! it reminded me of the first time i saw those theaters (the el capitan, kodak, and mann's chinese) and was completely swooned. then we stopped by my place and poor matt, who was sick with a cold and didn't want excited girls gushing in his place, but he slept the whole time. we stuck to our plan and they dashed out the door 1/2 hour before kari picked me up to go to tea. fast forward to tea where i told her to walk through the door first as i saw all 3 of them, smiling and laughing before we walked in. for about 15 seconds, kari didn't say a word. she just cocked her head to one side as if to say "what the heck are you guys doing here?" and that's exactly what she said.

as the shock wore off we had a lovely tea. we went bowling at lucky strikes and i got drunk, unintentionally, of course, and flirted with everyone. i was not embaressing just fun, and had a great time. sunday we took gayle to the airport and drove back to my neighborhood where we had lunch and did some shopping.

all in all, i called in sick on monday. i don't think i really had a cold, but after all that running around, i deserved a day where i didn't even get out of my pajamas. :)

Saturday, December 17, 2005

happy birthday, kari!

happy birthday, my dear friend! may you have a wonderful day and all your wishes come true! :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

crazy schedule

did i happen to mention how insane my week is? if i can post another blog this week it'll be a miracle. tonight i have class, and tomorrow i have class yet again. friday night beth is coming over and saturday morning is breakfast with a friend, saturday afternoon is tea with friends in beverly hills and saturday night is bowling with friends (money, who needs that?). sunday, well, i may just call in sick to whatever i have planned so that i can recooperate before the insanity of work truly begins.

all this plus there's 2 people at work who have had that nasty cold, plus matt woke up not feeling well this morning. that's all i need...to get sick!

and so the countdown begins...10 days!!!!!

Friday, December 09, 2005

Narnia

fabulous fabulous fabulous! did i mention fabulous! we went to a midnight screening last night at the famous el capitan theater. they have an organ player that plays music while you walk in to get your seats and then an overture right before the movie starts! :) wonderful ambiance and anyone who visits l.a. must go there and see a movie.

very tired today and a christmas party to attend tonight. and it rained last night for the first time in weeks! i can't remember the last time i smelled clean air...

Thursday, December 08, 2005

wave of emotions

first off, great news about mom! :) she does not have cancer in her lungs. instead, there is scar tissue that has developed due to an allergic reaction to the chemotherapy, which she has already stopped. her pulminary cardiologist has put her on a very low does of steroids to help the scar tissue disappear faster. we are hoping that her doctors will wait until january to put her back on the chemo which means she can be active and happy during the holidays. as she said, "how's that for a christmas present?"

we filmed our scenes in acting class last night, and i have to give major kudos to my scene partner, ivan. i was absolutely terrified about being on camera. i figured i'd freeze up and not know my lines. i was scared shitless! the first take went well, just like we rehearsed. then, cliff (the teacher) gave us some notes and suddenly the intensity was 10x greater. we had rehearsed a few physical things (holding hands, him stroking my face) but all of the sudden at the most emotional part of the scene, he gives me this huge hug...you know the type, the one that just takes you away...well, this huge emotional wave came over me. my chin started to tremble, my eyes started to tear up, and i almost cried on camera (i actually cried when i got home). one of the girls in class said i almost made her cry to which i thought "yes!" i'm still a bit shaken - i wasn't expecting that kind of powerful emotional turmoil but it was amazing and awesome. the only complaing from cliff was that i didn't stick around long enough at the end of the scene for my close-up. :)

Sunday, December 04, 2005

weekend

what did i do friday? oh yes. i was at work. all day. from 8am-8pm to help out with the oneg for the monthly early family shabbat services. ick. came home, played online computer game that involves pirates which matt got me addicted too. yes, i am pathetic, but i need something besides movies to get me out of reality once in awhile.

saturday i worked at the bed and breakfast for a few hours, came home, watched some tv, and then we headed out to ontario to see dave and cindy for the evening. yahoo maps said it would take us 40 minutes to get there. HAH! 90 minutes later we pulled into the driveway thanks to l.a. traffic. we had pizza, watched tivoed taped episodes of south park, and played games. i think we went to bed at 3am.

today i stayed in my pajamas, we cleaned the apartment, and i went a little stir crazy. studied lines for my scene class on wednesday (and this wednesday we film - i'm absolutely terrified), watched the pilot of a new show called "sleeper cell" and am totally addicted. on showtime.

luckily since i worked so late on friday, i get to be late tomorrow. thank god (funny that i should use that expression).

Friday, December 02, 2005

prayers needed

for those of you who don't know, i don't necessarily believe in god, but i believe in some sort of higher power. for those of you who pray or meditate or simply send good energy, it all works, and there are a few people i know of who could use a little extra help -

1. my mom and my dad. the CAT scan showed the same tissue that was in her lungs back in may. the doctor's think it's some sort of irritation or allergic reation to the chemo she was on (which they stopped last week). they don't think it's cancer but she is having a biopsy on monday. because she wasn't breathing well and coughing so much, they thought it was pneumonia and then bronchitis. well, it could be something more. we'll know more by the end of next week. my dad is trying his best to stay strong but i can tell he is terribly worried. my mom has good spirits but weak energy because she's getting so little oxygen (another possibility they determined was low iron, but that wasn't it either). please keep them both in your prayers and thoughts.

2. my friend, cathie. she is a fantastic violinist and sadly her car was broken into yesterday. the thieves stole her laptop, rent money, a whole list of things including her precious violin (this happened just outside her home which isn't even on a major street). she is distraught and upset and needs good things to come her way.