So I was a parking attendant this weekend. Not the most glamorous job, but I met some interesting people. Most customers were nice, told me to keep the money and have a drink instead (to which I seriously considered their offer but eventually declined). Some were assholes, and some were just plain weird. For example, take the following conversation:
Car pulls up, grandfatherly man rolls down is window, grandmoterly-type wife is in the passenger seat.
Me: Hello, Welcome to UCLA. It's eight dollars to park.
Man: Hey there! You having fun today!
Me: Yeah, now that the sun is out.
Man: I guess it's even more fun making money, huh?
Me: Uh, yeah. (he hands me cash)
Man: So you're having fun in the sun making money. That's great! I bet you'd have even more fun if you were naked.
Me: Uh, no. (had him change and his parking ticket.)
Man: So, you're not the kinky type?
Me: Uh, no sir. Enjoy the festival.
The highlight was chatting with some very smart and interesting students at UCLA. Some were undeclared majors, one was poli-sci, one was english, and 2 were majoring in auronautical engineering.
I must say the highlight of my 20-hour weekend at UCLA was of course, an interaction with a celebrity. She was sweet, kind, and completely stunning. Have you ever seen "Robin Hood: Men In Tights"? Remember Maid Marian?
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Classics
I just love it when I re-discover food. Like the other day, I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. I can't remember the last time I had one! And yesterday I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, with a tall glass of milk. It tasted like heaven, thanks the the organic strawberry and guava jam Julia brought us from Hawaii.
I am working for my dad now, a few hours a week. Mostly preliminary things right now, but this is a huge opportunity and I'm very excited. There are lots of chances for travel and meeting new people which I'm totally thrilled about. Plus the convienience of working from home. It's great!
I'm temping this weekend at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. Tons of authors will be there and I plan on spending my lunch hour perusing the many activities going on. It's doubtful I'll get any autogrpahs, but I sure would love to see Amy Tan.
I am working for my dad now, a few hours a week. Mostly preliminary things right now, but this is a huge opportunity and I'm very excited. There are lots of chances for travel and meeting new people which I'm totally thrilled about. Plus the convienience of working from home. It's great!
I'm temping this weekend at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. Tons of authors will be there and I plan on spending my lunch hour perusing the many activities going on. It's doubtful I'll get any autogrpahs, but I sure would love to see Amy Tan.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Out on the Town
Last night Matt and I joined Marshall and Jeremy (2 students from AFI in the writing program) and brought along our friend Jimmy who was visiting from Seattle for an evening of improv theatre. Marshall's friend was performing amongst a group of women who were doing Monty Python sketches. They served free drinks, which is always a bonus in my book, and we laughed the night away. Jeremy headed home afterwards, and we drove Marshall to his car. Then Matt, Jimmy, and I headed back to the apartment and were up till 3am playing games and having political discussions over 2 bottles of wine and wonderful pizza.
Today I slept in until11am which was wonderful. I've spent the afternoon doing nothing and that's been even better. Matt is at a production meet this afternoon which gives me the entire place to myself . That's something I also never complain about. :)
Today I slept in until11am which was wonderful. I've spent the afternoon doing nothing and that's been even better. Matt is at a production meet this afternoon which gives me the entire place to myself . That's something I also never complain about. :)
Thursday, April 20, 2006
That was interesting...and a little scary...
There was a fire in our parking lot!
I was at the computer and heard this loud crackling noise. It sounded like a barbeque totally out of control. I looked outside and there was a fire starting in the back corner, maybe 5 feet from our car. I ran down to move it and Matt called the fire department. I freaked out as I ran to the car, only to see our landlord moving in with the fire extinguisher. She yelled at me to move to spot number one, which I did, and she ran back and forth three times to re-fill the extinguisher. The fire department showed up within five minutes (I don't mind paying my taxes now) and took care of the mystery smoldering mess on the other side. One of the tenants told me that she thinks there are some people who live outside just on the other side of the fence and maybe that's what started it.
Adrenaline is pumping and Matt and I are off to dinner in about an hour. We have a lovely bottle of wine that will come in very handy. :)
San Diego was a blast. I forgot my digital camera but will be happy to share cute pictures of the adorable baby panda, baby gorilla, and baby giraffe and also share the story of the wildcat we saw get loose while on a walk.
It's been an interesting week so far!
I was at the computer and heard this loud crackling noise. It sounded like a barbeque totally out of control. I looked outside and there was a fire starting in the back corner, maybe 5 feet from our car. I ran down to move it and Matt called the fire department. I freaked out as I ran to the car, only to see our landlord moving in with the fire extinguisher. She yelled at me to move to spot number one, which I did, and she ran back and forth three times to re-fill the extinguisher. The fire department showed up within five minutes (I don't mind paying my taxes now) and took care of the mystery smoldering mess on the other side. One of the tenants told me that she thinks there are some people who live outside just on the other side of the fence and maybe that's what started it.
Adrenaline is pumping and Matt and I are off to dinner in about an hour. We have a lovely bottle of wine that will come in very handy. :)
San Diego was a blast. I forgot my digital camera but will be happy to share cute pictures of the adorable baby panda, baby gorilla, and baby giraffe and also share the story of the wildcat we saw get loose while on a walk.
It's been an interesting week so far!
Friday, April 14, 2006
Out and about
Katie flew in yesterday afternoon. This morning we're headed off to San Diego for a few days! This morning we're headed straight to Sea World and then checking in to our hotel. Then tomorrow we're spending the whole day at the San Diego Zoo! I'm so excited to get out of L.A. for a few days and now I have to go because Matt's getting in a tizzy about getting on the road.
I haven't even finished my breakfast yet and Katie's still in her PJ's. Obviously Matt has forgotten that he's traveling with Mesmers.
I haven't even finished my breakfast yet and Katie's still in her PJ's. Obviously Matt has forgotten that he's traveling with Mesmers.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Celebrity Watch
Living in L.A., the question that always comes up is "Have you ever met/seen celebrities?"
Of course. I live in Hollywood and temp at tv/movie lots. From most recent to first, here's the list of celebrities I've seen (these don't include the one's Matt has seen, I can't remember their names):
1. Today I saw/interacted with Leon Robinson. Stand-offish, probably knew I recognized him. When I asked him his name (I have to get names in order to hand out parking validations), he only gave me his first name and then when I asked for his last name, he seriously hesitated. Whatever. I'm just doing my job, buddy.
2. I was with Beth and Celena at the 101 Cafe when all of the sudden Celena whispered "Look!" It was Sandra Oh. Need I say more? I was completely star struck. She was about a foot away from me and I so desperately wanted to say that I loved her in Sideways. But I played cool. She was with friends and kept her sunglasses on in the restaurant. Really beautiful in person, more stunning than on T.V. which is rare.
3. Alan Ruck at the FOX movie lot. He was coming up the stairs, I was coming out of the elevator and was completely turned around. Now the parking lady very nicely but very quickly told me where to go before I headed into the giant parking complex and handed me a map. So I asked him if he knew where the building was and he said "Well, let's look at our maps." We figured it out, and he wished me well and we went our separate ways. Most famous for his role on "Spin City" and as Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"
4. Kevin Smith. Chasing Amy. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Clerks. If you don't know who I'm talking about, then I feel sorry for you. He's lost quite a bit of weight. I almost didn't recognize him.
5. Famke Janssen. Really skinny in person. Saw her twice on the same day at Runyon Canyon. Seemed snooty but she had a very cute dog looking up at her adoringly and carrying a stick that he obviously wanted her to throw. Famous for her rold in "Goldeneye" and as Jean Gray in the famed "X-Men" movies.
Of course. I live in Hollywood and temp at tv/movie lots. From most recent to first, here's the list of celebrities I've seen (these don't include the one's Matt has seen, I can't remember their names):
1. Today I saw/interacted with Leon Robinson. Stand-offish, probably knew I recognized him. When I asked him his name (I have to get names in order to hand out parking validations), he only gave me his first name and then when I asked for his last name, he seriously hesitated. Whatever. I'm just doing my job, buddy.
2. I was with Beth and Celena at the 101 Cafe when all of the sudden Celena whispered "Look!" It was Sandra Oh. Need I say more? I was completely star struck. She was about a foot away from me and I so desperately wanted to say that I loved her in Sideways. But I played cool. She was with friends and kept her sunglasses on in the restaurant. Really beautiful in person, more stunning than on T.V. which is rare.
3. Alan Ruck at the FOX movie lot. He was coming up the stairs, I was coming out of the elevator and was completely turned around. Now the parking lady very nicely but very quickly told me where to go before I headed into the giant parking complex and handed me a map. So I asked him if he knew where the building was and he said "Well, let's look at our maps." We figured it out, and he wished me well and we went our separate ways. Most famous for his role on "Spin City" and as Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"
4. Kevin Smith. Chasing Amy. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Clerks. If you don't know who I'm talking about, then I feel sorry for you. He's lost quite a bit of weight. I almost didn't recognize him.
5. Famke Janssen. Really skinny in person. Saw her twice on the same day at Runyon Canyon. Seemed snooty but she had a very cute dog looking up at her adoringly and carrying a stick that he obviously wanted her to throw. Famous for her rold in "Goldeneye" and as Jean Gray in the famed "X-Men" movies.
Monday, April 03, 2006
A Cat's Guide
1. Introduction: Why Do We Need Humans?
So you've decided to get yourself a human being. In doing so, you've joined the millions of other cats who have acquired these strange and often frustrating creatures. There will be any number of times, during the course of your association with humans, when you will wonder why you have bothered to grace them with your presence. What's so great about humans anyway? Why not just hang around with other cats? Our greatest philosophers have struggled with this question for centuries, but the answer is actually rather simple:
THEY HAVE OPPOSABLE THUMBS.
Which makes them the perfect tools for such tasks as opening doors, getting the lids off of cat food cans, changing television stations, and other activities that we, despite our other obvious advantages, find difficult to do ourselves. True, chimps, orangutans, and lemurs also have opposable thumbs, but they are nowhere as easy to train.
2. How and When to Get Your Human's Attention
Humans often erroneously assume that there are other, more important activities than taking care of your immediate needs, such as conducting business, spending time with their families, or even sleeping. Though this is dreadfully inconvenient, you can make this work to your advantage by pestering your human at the moment it is the busiest. It is usually so flustered that it will do whatever you want it to do, just to get you out of its hair. Not coincidentally, human teenagers follow this same practice. Here are some tried and true methods of getting your human to do what you want:
Sitting on paper: An oldie but a goodie. If a human has paper in front of it, chances are good it assumes the paper is more important than you. It will often offer you a snack to lure you away. Establish your supremacy over this wood pulp product at every opportunity. This practice also works well with computer keyboards, remote controls, car keys, and small children.
Waking your human at odd hours: A cat's "golden time" is between 3:30 and 4:30 in the morning. If you paw at your human's sleeping face during this time, you have a better than even chance that it will get up and, in an incoherent haze, do exactly what you want. You may actually have to scratch deep sleepers to get their attention; remember to vary the scratch site to keep the human from getting suspicious.
3. Punishing Your Human Being
Sometimes, despite your best training efforts, your human will stubbornly resist bending to your whim. In these extreme circumstances, you may have to punish your human. Obvious punishments, such as scratching furniture or eating household plants, are likely to backfire; the unsophisticated humans are likely to misinterpret the activities and then try to discipline YOU. Instead, we offer these subtle but nonetheless effective alternatives:
* Use the cat box during an important formal dinner.
* Stare impassively at your human while it is attempting a romantic interlude.
* Stand over an important piece of electronic equipment and feign a hairball attack.
*After your human has watched a particularly disturbing horror film, stand by the hall closet and then slowly back away, hissing and yowling.
* While your human is sleeping, lie on its face.
4. Rewarding Your Human: Should Your Gift Still Be Alive? The cat world is divided over the etiquette of presenting humans with the thoughtful gift of a recently disemboweled animal. Some believe that humans prefer these gifts already dead, while others maintain that humans enjoy a slowly expiring cricket or rodent just as much as we do, given their jumpy and playful movements in picking the creatures up after they've been presented. After much consideration of the human psyche, we recommend the following: cold-blooded animals (large insects, frogs, lizards, garden snakes, and the occasional earthworm) should be presented dead, while warm-blooded animals (birds, rodents, your neighbor's Pomeranian) are better still living. When you see the expression on your human's face, you'll know it's worth it.
5. How Long Should You Keep Your Human?
You are obligated to your human for only one of your lives. The other eight are up to you. We recommend mixing and matching, though in the end, most humans (at least the ones that are worth living with) are pretty much the same. But what do you expect? They're humans, after all. Opposable thumbs will take you only so far.
So you've decided to get yourself a human being. In doing so, you've joined the millions of other cats who have acquired these strange and often frustrating creatures. There will be any number of times, during the course of your association with humans, when you will wonder why you have bothered to grace them with your presence. What's so great about humans anyway? Why not just hang around with other cats? Our greatest philosophers have struggled with this question for centuries, but the answer is actually rather simple:
THEY HAVE OPPOSABLE THUMBS.
Which makes them the perfect tools for such tasks as opening doors, getting the lids off of cat food cans, changing television stations, and other activities that we, despite our other obvious advantages, find difficult to do ourselves. True, chimps, orangutans, and lemurs also have opposable thumbs, but they are nowhere as easy to train.
2. How and When to Get Your Human's Attention
Humans often erroneously assume that there are other, more important activities than taking care of your immediate needs, such as conducting business, spending time with their families, or even sleeping. Though this is dreadfully inconvenient, you can make this work to your advantage by pestering your human at the moment it is the busiest. It is usually so flustered that it will do whatever you want it to do, just to get you out of its hair. Not coincidentally, human teenagers follow this same practice. Here are some tried and true methods of getting your human to do what you want:
Sitting on paper: An oldie but a goodie. If a human has paper in front of it, chances are good it assumes the paper is more important than you. It will often offer you a snack to lure you away. Establish your supremacy over this wood pulp product at every opportunity. This practice also works well with computer keyboards, remote controls, car keys, and small children.
Waking your human at odd hours: A cat's "golden time" is between 3:30 and 4:30 in the morning. If you paw at your human's sleeping face during this time, you have a better than even chance that it will get up and, in an incoherent haze, do exactly what you want. You may actually have to scratch deep sleepers to get their attention; remember to vary the scratch site to keep the human from getting suspicious.
3. Punishing Your Human Being
Sometimes, despite your best training efforts, your human will stubbornly resist bending to your whim. In these extreme circumstances, you may have to punish your human. Obvious punishments, such as scratching furniture or eating household plants, are likely to backfire; the unsophisticated humans are likely to misinterpret the activities and then try to discipline YOU. Instead, we offer these subtle but nonetheless effective alternatives:
* Use the cat box during an important formal dinner.
* Stare impassively at your human while it is attempting a romantic interlude.
* Stand over an important piece of electronic equipment and feign a hairball attack.
*After your human has watched a particularly disturbing horror film, stand by the hall closet and then slowly back away, hissing and yowling.
* While your human is sleeping, lie on its face.
4. Rewarding Your Human: Should Your Gift Still Be Alive? The cat world is divided over the etiquette of presenting humans with the thoughtful gift of a recently disemboweled animal. Some believe that humans prefer these gifts already dead, while others maintain that humans enjoy a slowly expiring cricket or rodent just as much as we do, given their jumpy and playful movements in picking the creatures up after they've been presented. After much consideration of the human psyche, we recommend the following: cold-blooded animals (large insects, frogs, lizards, garden snakes, and the occasional earthworm) should be presented dead, while warm-blooded animals (birds, rodents, your neighbor's Pomeranian) are better still living. When you see the expression on your human's face, you'll know it's worth it.
5. How Long Should You Keep Your Human?
You are obligated to your human for only one of your lives. The other eight are up to you. We recommend mixing and matching, though in the end, most humans (at least the ones that are worth living with) are pretty much the same. But what do you expect? They're humans, after all. Opposable thumbs will take you only so far.
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