reunited and it feels so good

okay so the craziest thing happened, I got contacted by one of my old high school best friends, Bianca, and I hadn't talked to her in about 10 years. But the really weird thing was i was just thinking of her, I was driving to work yesterday and I saw an old Nissan Sentra just like the one she use to drive when we were seniors, and i thought, gosh i wonder what Bianca is up to? And then literally, today, I got an email from her... it is so crazy when you put stuff out into the universe like that, it ends up coming back. In high school her dad worked nights at the local jail, so we were partying all night every night at her house until 6am when her dad came home from work. He'd also made the mistake one day of telling her she could paint her room however she wanted, so we promptly had a painting party that consisted more of writing things on the walls-- qoutes to live by, pictures of each other, our tagger names, just plain silliness. And so since she didn't want her dad to know that we were all coming over at night, we all only came in through the window.

rain makes l.a. really pretty

I saw a rainbow this morning, not one of those half-kinda-in-the-sky-half-bow but a real fucking huge end to end rainbow. Cheesy, i know, but it really made my morning on the drive to work. Despite all the houses falling off the hills, flooding, and sink holes, Los Angeles does look really amazing when it rains. Every normally brown dead hill has come alive, green and gorgeous. Driving over the 405 this morning into the valley, I saw streams and mini waterfalls in the crevices of the hills right past the Getty. The last time I went to the Getty, I stared out from one of the balconey's onto the L.A. basin, and all I saw was brown and grey and a few semi-green palm trees. But today, L.A. is beautiful, gorgeous, majestic. If I wasn't already having a love affair with the city, I would certainly be trying to edge my way in now! And I know it's glamourous to live in the Hills and be cool, but I guess it's not really that cool when your house starts to fall down the embankment. Or your driveway is blocked by 8 feet of mud. Maybe that is why people in Malibu really drive SUV's. Every few decades it becomes a jungle out there...

rule 1, you better drive fast, even if it appears like you can't

My boyfriend doesn't know how to drive in L.A. He's been driving here since he was 16, yet he has no idea how to get anywhere and hasn't mastered the art of maneuvering, lane hopping, or overall speed. He'll sit angrily behind a semi for miles, gripping the steering wheel, cursing while no one will let his visibly signal blinking truck in. He'll call me annoyed that I suggested he take La Cienega instead of the 405 to the 10 at 8:30 in the morning. Then call back and apologize when he intuitively took the Fairfax fork, avoiding impeding congestion from construction, thus getting him to work on time. He really hates driving with me. I jump from pocket to pocket, trying not to hurt anyone, cutting slow ones off nicely (don't they know they really need to pay attention and hug the car's bumper ahead of you, lest get jumped on?) Oh, I've had my share of aggravations, like the bitch in the BMW (the cheapest one) practically hitting me while cut in front of me, then as I responded with a hand placed continuously on my horn, she had the audacity to flip me off when she had almost caused a most horrendous fender bender on the 405 South at 6:02 p.m. But, to live here, you must learn the rhythms of the freeway. You must know each stretch, where the lanes expand then contract. You must also learn the exits to the best sidestreets, since sometimes the freeways don't neccersarily take you where you want to go. They also sometimes take you nowhere, when because of an accident or police pursuit you are stuck moving two miles an hour. But the greatest thing about living and driving in LA, is the random acts of kindness the traffic gods bestow on you, the day when you leave the valley at 4:13 p.m. on a Friday and get home to South Bay in 40 minutes. You keep looking at the clock, thinking, there has got to be some mix-up! This can't be! I can't possible be driving so fast at this hour! Those are the days you live for. And the rest of the time you just thank god for KCRW, Air America Radio, Indie 1031, and of course, your iPod with the car radio converter.

It's coming off slow, but its coming off...

Okay, so I have been dieting now for about 17 years. And I am only 29. I was always really skinny as a little kid, I was allergic to dairy and a very picky eater. I would only eat mashed potatoes, french fries, and the fat off the ends of pork chops. But my parents were never alarmed, they wanted me to eat SOMETHING, so it was really no big deal. That was until puberty hit at age 11. I remember going into the Gap instead of the kids section at JC Penny's and having to buy size 1 jeans, because my hips were too big for the size 12 (kids size mind you) in the girls section. Then in 7th grade, everyone had Guess Jeans, and I was so bummed because I had to wear a size 27 while everyone else wore a 24 or 26. (But I pulled up a pair of size 27 now and damn do I wish that I could even squeeze a leg into those!) Feeling extremely fat compared to my peers, I tried to unsuccessfully diet, by only eating apples and peanut butter, but no matter what, I was always a size ahead of everyone I knew. Finally in high school, at 16, I went on weight watchers with my mom-- I was 134 pounds, which felt humongous on my 5'1 frame, and I successfully lost 14 pounds just in time for prom. But over the summer I gained it all back, and spent the next five years gaining. On the eve of my 21st birthday, I was tired of not being able to wear a bikini on spring break and wearing half shirts out at clubs, so I went to mexico and bought diet pills (you know, the ones they banned-- Fen Phen and something that started with an R) and lost 30 or 40 pounds, and kept it off for awhile, but over the next 8 years it all creeped back. I went back to Weight Watchers last year and was shocked that I weighed 148. I quit after 3 weeks, having lost nothing, and then over the year, after getting a desk job and quitting my only aeorobic activity, waitressing, proceded to gain another 18 pounds. My "A-Ha" moment was when I walked out of my house, wearing a peach fitted sweatshirt and black skirt, and someone in big obnoxious truck yelled "You really shouldn't wear orange, you look like a pumpkin!" I ran back upstairs crying. My boyfriend, the sweetest thing in the world, wanted to go find the guys and kick their ass, but it was that moment that I had had enough. So now I went to Lindora, paid a ridiculous amount of money, but since December lost 15 pounds. I was kinda bummed because i felt like I should have lost more by now, but hey, 17 years of dieting might slow things down a bit. My goal is to be thin by 30. And I know that I shouldn't say this, and people say all body types are different, blah blah, whatever, I really am going to be thin, very thin, LA Thin, but that is another entry.

monday monday

So I am back working again, IMing all day. I wish all my friends were on the same messenger service, I am talking to my friend in Argentina on MSN, my old roomate on AIM, and my best friend on Yahoo. And they all have different little annoying rings when someone sends a message. Hilarious. IMing is like being able to send notes back and forth but with a more immediate response! crazy.