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April 30, 2008
Tennessee Fainting Goat Curry, anyone?
Posted by debbie at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2008
"I don't like green fruit. Green is for vegetables."
60 Minutes was a Sunday night tradition at my house growing up and I always had a soft spot for Andy Rooney. I would eagerly await his segment as he always had something wise and poignant to say. He was like a bushy eyebrowed grandfather figure to me. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say it was Rooney himself who inspired me to get into journalism.
His probing look into the controversial topic of fruit, I think you'll agree, is nothing short of genius reportage.
This is the kind of reporting that I can only aspire to...
Posted by debbie at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2008
Woo, kind of beat of right now, just got back from a bike ride around Golden Gate Park. On Sundays, they close the park off to cars so bikes rule the road and honestly that's they only way to get me biking in the city. I am not only scared of driving but also biking while others are driving nearby. Thankfully, I am not afraid to be a pedestrian and I can safely and confidently cross the street on my own. It was exceptionally warm out and gliding through the park was a lot of fun, but this being San Francisco it didn't last long- a fog horn blew and, lo, you could see a thick blanket of fog rolling in and and it suddenly became freezing. The weather here is a little too schizophrenic for my tastes. I'm never prepared, never sufficiently layered...
Last night went to a BBQ near where I grew up, friends of my dad's, and then to meet some friends for drinks at the Mallard Club, an old-fashioned tiki-style lounge just a few blocks from my alma mater. I rarely venture to this part of the bay anymore. It's strange to me that people my age live choose to live in Albany (it's become a lot cooler in recent years) instead of say San Francisco or Oakland- to me, it will be forever known as just the place I spent my youth. Frequently the town shows up in my dreams- sometimes I'm running, being chased and other times I'm aimlessly walking around at night, peeking into houses, spying on people eating dinner (wonder what that means?)
Speaking of dinner, we're trying to save money by not eating out as much. Sometimes groceries are so expensive that it's hardly cost-effective (like the other day when I bought three small fillets of salmon for $26!) The real way to save money by home cooking is to not waste purchased food, creatively use leftovers, and not buy crazy expensive ingredients. I wish I had an herb garden. I hate buying a bushel of say cilantro and using a couple of sprigs and then letting the rest decay. Why do they sell fresh herbs in such giant bundles?
I think I'm making these quinoa cakes tonight. I am passionately in love with quinoa, the God of all grains.
Right now I'm not really in the mood for a long or well-thought out post. Maybe I'll turn this blog into chronicling the mundane details of my every day- wouldn't that be fascinating? I only really like to write here when I have something funny or interesting to share but I really can't stand anymore when people ask me what I'm doing these days. Lately, I've taken to saying "various things" and leaving it at that or "I've got several irons in the fire." Maybe I should just say "refer to the blog."
Posted by debbie at 7:08 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2008
Saturday Morning
Posted by debbie at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2008
One bonus of living here and not 3,000 miles away is that I get to see my dad at least every other week, if not more (instead of visits maybe twice a year and the obligatory weekly phone call consisting of talking about the weather). And now that he's up on his feet again, he's able to come into the city, instead of me having to trek on BART to his place.
I'm happy his knee has healed and that life is looking up for him. He even has a new ladyfriend and he's totally smitten. He can't say a sentence without uttering her name. There's even talk of moving in together. She's really into biking and hiking and gardening and..... well, my dad is, to put it mildly, a more sedentary person. But somehow she convinced him to get these new state of the art orthopedic shoes. She has a pair herself and says it's like walking on clouds! She's so into these shoes that the first time I met her, she insisted I try hers on and walk around the apartment for a "test drive." They were indeed bouncy (though they did not, as they would seem to, enhance my jumping ability ten fold) but don't think I'll be sporting these any time soon. My dad, however, bit the bullet and got a pair that looked like this:
His had velcro though, not laces. These beauties are called Z-Coils and you have to sign a waver before you buy them, releasing the company from any liability should your use of the shoes result in injury and/or death.
He tried them out for a few days but felt really awkward in them and nearly broke his neck when a rung on a bar stool he was sitting on got caught on the coils. And considering he just stopped using a cane and is still a little wonky on his legs, he thought maybe the shoes were a little too much for him. So he decided to return them to the store, which happens to be near where I live.
Last week, he tried to return them but forgot the box and they wouldn't take them back without it. So he came back again yesterday and we planned to go out to dinner afterward.
I wish I had remembered my camera to take pictures of the inside of the store. The posters in there were hysterical. Apparently, if you are walking in regular shoes, you are doing irreparable damage to your back and will end up looking like a hunchback. Forget that most humans have been wearing non-coiled shoes for tens of thousands of years. What you really need are GIANT COILS ON THE BOTTOM OF YOUR SHOES. Some people swear that they really do eliminate back and joint pain and enable you to stand for extended periods of time without discomfort. Some people are also blind.
When the sales guy asked why he was returning the shoes, my dad said had written it down on the "reason for return" card. He had marked the box that read: "shoes are not socially acceptable at my place of work/style not compatible with my lifestyle." He emphasized that these shoes made him self-conscious and that "style and image are very important" in his line of work (ha! I'm sure his patients wouldn't even notice if he came into work in a kimono). The sales guy, obviously a devotee of the Coil, looked crushed. He called his manager on the phone and sighed, "We got another return." I had to leave the store at that point because I couldn't stifle my laughter any longer.
Ah what we do for love.
Posted by debbie at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
April 8, 2008
If you've been to our apartment recently, you've already seen all the goods I brought back from Santa Barbara. If not, I'm posting these photos here for you. I scored big time. As I mentioned before, we stopped in Santa Barbara on our ride home from LA just for breakfast when I saw this sign. We pulled over the car and I asked the lady out front if this was for real and she sighed and told me she was closing up shop after twenty years. But she wasn't opening the doors just yet, we were a touch early. When I asked what time she was opening, she said, "oh about eight minutes." It was as if God had aligned everything just so: me, this store, 12 noon. I stood there like a kid in front of the gates to Charlie's Chocolate Factory, impatiently licking my lips and trying to scope out the goods from where I was standing. When the clock struck noon, I ran inside and within 15 minutes picked out quite a bit of stuff. There were only a few casual clueless shoppers and so I had total run of the place. Rafe stood by guarding the haul and in the end, I only spent $25! For SIX BOXES OF GREAT STUFF. If I knew my way around Ebay...Here are a few of my favorites:
This head was $1. It sort of matches another pair of figurines I scored in New Orleans a few years ago. I love this head.
This accordion is super old. The tag says "squeeze box from before Bodie, CA was a ghost town." When the lady saw we were buying this she said she hadn't meant to include this in the sale but oops, we could have it, what the hay. For a dollar.
These matching wall hangings are from Ecuador. And old. $1 each.
This scale is solid brass (?) and is also very, very old. It cost one dollar. It is good for weighing and displaying produce.
This glass hand, for rings I'm supposing, was a birthday gift purchased from another store. Not one dollar, but a cool antique store find anyhow.
One of two old ass clocks-- $1
This old souvenir plate is from Tijuana. This was way before the time when souvenirs from Tijuana usually meant cheap dental work and even cheaper black market Viagra.Only ONE DOLLAR.
Posted by debbie at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)
April 1, 2008
My Spring Break, by Debbie, age 27
Don't go looking for delicious, quirky truck stop cafes along the 5 your way to LA. They don't really exist. You're better off sucking it up and stopping at Denny's. This one places we had lunch at had awful hamburgers but they did have this life-size cut out of Fabio so I was reasonably pleased (as was Rafe). They also had coon-skin caps for sale in their gift shop. Real coon skin!
Just like there is a Starbucks on every other corner of Manhattan and a high-octane coffee house on every block in San Francisco, LA is chock-full of frozen yogurt shops, like this "diet" (no calories! how is that possible?) yogurt place on Melrose. But given that it was 90 degrees out, I can't deny I wasn't all up that fro yo.
This is me and my cousin Jonathan attempting to look casual and natural, at my insistence, since I find posed photos (like this one of me and my other, tanner cousin Rae and this one of the three of us ) impossibly corny, and also I am incapable of smiling normally on demand. He took us to this crazy Japanese place, Yamashiro, way up in the Hollywood Hills. The views were indeed awesome- from that vantage point, LA almost looked like an appealing place to live.
Here is Rafe pointing off into the smoggy distance. Jonathan has lived in Hollywood for a long time and was kind enough to take us around to some of the city's more legendary haunts. We had drinks at the Roosevelt Hotel (where they held the first Academy Award ceremonies) and then dinner at Musso & Frank, the oldest Hollywood restaurant (seriously, all the waiters were between 75-120). Our waiter was one of the younger ones and regaled us with tales of his friendship with the Rolling Stones (he had a photo album to prove it) and how the were regulars of the restaurant and how they once flew him first class to Mexico City to see them play.
This is my cousin Rae driving her dad's '57 Chevy. We drove all the way to Bob's Big Boy, a classic diner down in Studio City (where they still have a "car hop" service and classic car shows every week). And since you can't take this beauty on the highway (it goes like 15 mph) we drove all the way down Ventura Boulevard for like an hour (whereas in a normal car, it'd take you 10 minutes). So as we're putting along like we're in our very own parade, we're getting plenty of waves and whistles, especially from the old timers. It was pretty amusing.
Here we are waiting for Rae to fill up the tank.
This is a Scientology Center in LA (right on L. Ron Hubbard Way!) I was very curious to go in and get a free "stress test" but Rafe dissuaded me. I was just trying to go clear!
Here is my dad's cousin Grace. She's swell. Every day at 5pm is official wine time. It's like an in-house happy hour. She's pours a generous glass, too.
Speaking of drinking. The night before we left for Ojai we met up with Rafe's friend Paul and his girlfriend at the divey Gold Room on Sunset. We were the only gringos in the joint- at one point, the owner, a tough looking guy dressed like Pancho Villa (I kid not) came around and was shaking everyone's hands except ours. But all was forgiven when he went into the back again and came out a minute later with platter of free tacos for all of us. I love LA!
We also had great tacos the night before on our way to a house party in Crenshaw, where Paul told us was the setting for Boyz in the Hood. I know this picture isn't very good, I took it out the car window as we were leaving as I felt a little self-conscious snapping away while we were standing there. It was just a taco stand on the corner in front of a used car lot late at night in a questionable neighborhood- but you know, street tacos are they best kind of tacos.
Anyhow, from the other night, after those free tacos, we went to this restaurant next door where we sought out more tacos because it was Taco Tuesday and they were $1 each. People seem to enjoy tacos a lot in LA. Especially free and/or discounted tacos. But hey, who doesn't? Paul ordered a round of tequila shots for everyone and I thought hmmm, probably not such a great idea if Rafe's going to be driving, so I drank his, and mine, and some others. I never, ever drink tequila. Well, not without disastrous results. This night proved to be no different.
After that, we went to this bar in a strip mall that reminded me of the Reagle Beagle on Three's Company. A lot of places in LA remind me of Three's Company, for some reason. Anyhow, there were a lot of silly, blurry photos from that night like these ones here. This is me this next morning feeling a little unfresh, the day we were leaving for Ojai. Never again tequila- I have forsaken you forever. For real this time.
Ojai is only like an hour outside of the Valley but it was the perfect place to detox and very non-LA in demeanor and vibe. And unbelievably beautiful. A literal breath of fresh air.
This was the view from the meditation retreat we stayed at. You can see Rafe in the background here checking out a lizard. Our room was next door to the "Quiet Room." On the door it said "For Yoga, Mediation, or Soulful Activities." Inside, they had a library of books with titles like "Let Your Inner! Child! Be! Free!" and "Be More Like Buddha in Ten Simple Steps."
Anyhow, Ojai is so cute it hurts. We went to this delightful pizzeria in the middle of an orange orchard. All the ingredients were locally grown. After, I had a strawberry shortcake the size of my head (hey, it was locally grown)
What else did we do in Ojai? Went to some awesome bookstores, checked out some local antique stores, drank tea at the retreat while the sun set, hiked around the hills, and just generally chilled out. Escaping the distractions of our daily routine, even if only for a few days, always helps us to reconnect and Ojai was just an ideal place to do that. My inner child really came alive. As did my liver.
On our last day we stopped in Santa Barbara and had the best day ever. And then on the drive home, we stopped for more tacos.
THE END
Posted by debbie at 8:41 PM | Comments (0)