Tonight, hopped up on chai tea and unable to sleep, I realized that I haven't dished in a while. These past few weeks have been incredibly busy, and, although I'm sure I have one or two blogworthy stories to tell, it's all gone by in a crazy blur. My sister came for a visit from Hawaii; one of my closest friends got married; I took my trip to LA; and I've been spending every free moments painting, packing, and cleaning in preparation for the big move to my new apartment.

Overall, Chris and I had a great time in LA. Disneyland is timeless and a blast at any age. I felt like a kid and had as much fun as I did 10 years ago. Except, I seriously wanted to jump ship from It's a Small World. A few words of advice, don't do it. Spend those ten precious theme park minutes on something else. If you absolutely can't stand not knowing what you're missing, experience the same effect by asking your friends to stand around and sing an annoying verse over and over again while you sit in the bathtub at home.

In our few days, we visited the Getty (gorgeous!), Mulholland Dr, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Redondo Beach, Mann's Chinese theater, and an ancient bowling alley. The weather was wonderful, and we fit in lots of time by the pool and ocean.

In Cali, I learned that a) driving in LA isn't much different from Seattle, except that people are horn happy there. A simple trip to the grocery store three blocks away (driving, of course) is chock full of beeps! honks! and urrrrs! Seattlites are much too polite for this kind of behavior, preferring to careen dangerously around sluggish drivers, casting terse looks and nasty glares. b) Each freeway/highway is known by about five different names and may be referred to by any of these at any given time. Highway 1 is also known as Pacific Coast Highway OR Sepulveda...but not always. Sometimes, Sepulveda is just Sepulveda, a road completely independent of Highway 1, and it's hard to figure out why and at what point that happens. Unaware, Chris and I discovered this while driving circles--totally lost--around a place called Torrence late one night in search of dinner. Yikes. c) Smog is yicky and can make your throat scratchy, but it may be a reasonable trade off for reliably warm and sunny weather. d) The lack of ozone becomes painfully apparent when a 15 minute walk on the beach turns any exposed parts tomato red, forcing you to wear the same full coverage t-shirt two days in a row to hide glaring burn lines and scarlet skin.

Most importantly, I am now aware of a little something called free scoop night at Baskin Robbins. It's an annual thing, and our friend, Jesec, told us how he and a friend successfully obtained three free scoops, in spite of a late start, last year. Thanks to him, I have several months to come up with a strategy for the next one.

People keep asking me if I saw any celebs, and I have to say no. I'm starting to think that maybe it's not in the cards for me, since pretty much everyone in my world has by now. I can't say I care much. But, it is a little sad having zip to share when others launch into their stories--even Chris. After saying goodbye to me at the airport, she saw a current celeb AND stood in line with Dylan of 90210. Me? Nada.

Such is life.