Thursday, February 10, 2005
So Cal in slow motion
I’m in San Diego now with my folks. Spent Saturday and Sunday nights in LA at Abe & Louie’s fab new pad. The Stupor Bowl was a blast, a really good time and as usual a chance to catch up with some old friends. My DJ set was short but sweet, with a few choice tracks donated by DJ Freddy, King of Pants. Thanks Freddy! I got into some trouble that night. Good trouble! The kind of trouble where you're up too late and you do things that make you laugh and cringe a little the next day. But it was all good.
I was a bit of a mess when I finally woke up on Monday. After 15 minutes of quality pooch time with Spencer, I started running around the house, gathering my shit up. My Mom was still in the hospital, having been admitted Friday afternoon for a variety of reasons related to her cancer. She had made it clear that I was not to skip out on the Stupor Bowl, but now it was time to get my ass to San Diego and I was not in great shape.
Finally got my gear into my muddy, tape- and trash-littered truck and hit the road. In a classic flashback to my previous life in LA, the most pressing issue was finding gas and food and the shortest, fastest, most efficient way to get them and go. Just figuring out what to have for lunch is the kind of thing that used to take me hours in LA. I wound up sitting down to pad see yew at Mae Ploy in Echo Park, which was actually perfect as I didn’t realize until after I’d ordered and eaten that all my cash was gone. I forgot that I had given the last of my bills to Art for his post-party plans with some dude he'd met.
Afterwards it was my truck’s turn to get filled up. While pumping gas at a nearby station I was dumbstruck by just how LOUD everything was. I felt assaulted by a deafening roar of traffic, music, people, choppers, etc. It was really just a typical LA day, the kind of environment that I paid no mind to as an Angeleno. After less than a year away, I guess I’m already used to my quieter life on top of Queen Anne.
Finally made it to the hospital, just in time for my Mom to take a snooze. I went downstairs to the cafeteria and my phone rang. It was an agency I hadn't worked with in a while. Was I available for a meeting at 10 am the next morning? I kind of laughed and explained that I’d just left LA to be with my Mom in the hospital. “So…. you can’t make it then?” Uh, no. The only bad thing is that the project was for a client that had previously contacted me a few weeks ago to let me know they had a lot of projects for me between now and June. But this one just couldn’t be done.
My Mom finally came home from the hospital Wednesday morning. I’m now on “Mom watch” at home while my Dad does his thing at work. When I was down here in November, the drill was based around my Mom’s good days and bad days. Now it’s good hours and bad hours. This is going to be a very long month.
Time moves very slowly here at my parents’ house. I had some other projects that were due this week and I got them all done early. I spent fifteen minutes the other day throwing rocks at a huge lizard sitting out on the deck. It never moved, so I concluded it was dead and prayed that a cat or a gardener would come along to take care of it. A few hours later it was gone. I've made some really good pre-production progress on my TV show. I think I also need a book.
My back problems are starting to come back a bit. There’s not really a good place for me to sit and work here. You’d think in a two-story, four-bedroom house there might be one decent spot to plug in a laptop. You’d be wrong. My first night here, when I was really stressed out about my pending deadlines, I worked in bed until 1 am. When I got up, that old familiar stabbing pain came back. No more of that. I think I also need to keep up with the exercising and get back on some of the supplements I’d been taking. If I can survive a three-day drive down the entire west coast without any pain, I don’t want to start deteriorating here in a San Diego suburb. Which means I also need to stay out of my parents’ kitchen, which is stocked mostly with junk we’d filled our Christmas stockings with. Chocolate-covered “moose droppings,” anyone?
I’m hoping to make it back up to LA this weekend to see some more people, hit the MOCA opening on Saturday and maybe catch a show. Monday is, of course, Valentine’s Day (“fucking hearts”) but even better is that it’s also Tim’s birthday. And! Filet Mignon Night at Taix! So maybe I’ll stick around for that. Tuesday is my parent’s anniversary so I’m sure something will happen that night. If it’s a good day.
I was a bit of a mess when I finally woke up on Monday. After 15 minutes of quality pooch time with Spencer, I started running around the house, gathering my shit up. My Mom was still in the hospital, having been admitted Friday afternoon for a variety of reasons related to her cancer. She had made it clear that I was not to skip out on the Stupor Bowl, but now it was time to get my ass to San Diego and I was not in great shape.
Finally got my gear into my muddy, tape- and trash-littered truck and hit the road. In a classic flashback to my previous life in LA, the most pressing issue was finding gas and food and the shortest, fastest, most efficient way to get them and go. Just figuring out what to have for lunch is the kind of thing that used to take me hours in LA. I wound up sitting down to pad see yew at Mae Ploy in Echo Park, which was actually perfect as I didn’t realize until after I’d ordered and eaten that all my cash was gone. I forgot that I had given the last of my bills to Art for his post-party plans with some dude he'd met.
Afterwards it was my truck’s turn to get filled up. While pumping gas at a nearby station I was dumbstruck by just how LOUD everything was. I felt assaulted by a deafening roar of traffic, music, people, choppers, etc. It was really just a typical LA day, the kind of environment that I paid no mind to as an Angeleno. After less than a year away, I guess I’m already used to my quieter life on top of Queen Anne.
Finally made it to the hospital, just in time for my Mom to take a snooze. I went downstairs to the cafeteria and my phone rang. It was an agency I hadn't worked with in a while. Was I available for a meeting at 10 am the next morning? I kind of laughed and explained that I’d just left LA to be with my Mom in the hospital. “So…. you can’t make it then?” Uh, no. The only bad thing is that the project was for a client that had previously contacted me a few weeks ago to let me know they had a lot of projects for me between now and June. But this one just couldn’t be done.
My Mom finally came home from the hospital Wednesday morning. I’m now on “Mom watch” at home while my Dad does his thing at work. When I was down here in November, the drill was based around my Mom’s good days and bad days. Now it’s good hours and bad hours. This is going to be a very long month.
Time moves very slowly here at my parents’ house. I had some other projects that were due this week and I got them all done early. I spent fifteen minutes the other day throwing rocks at a huge lizard sitting out on the deck. It never moved, so I concluded it was dead and prayed that a cat or a gardener would come along to take care of it. A few hours later it was gone. I've made some really good pre-production progress on my TV show. I think I also need a book.
My back problems are starting to come back a bit. There’s not really a good place for me to sit and work here. You’d think in a two-story, four-bedroom house there might be one decent spot to plug in a laptop. You’d be wrong. My first night here, when I was really stressed out about my pending deadlines, I worked in bed until 1 am. When I got up, that old familiar stabbing pain came back. No more of that. I think I also need to keep up with the exercising and get back on some of the supplements I’d been taking. If I can survive a three-day drive down the entire west coast without any pain, I don’t want to start deteriorating here in a San Diego suburb. Which means I also need to stay out of my parents’ kitchen, which is stocked mostly with junk we’d filled our Christmas stockings with. Chocolate-covered “moose droppings,” anyone?
I’m hoping to make it back up to LA this weekend to see some more people, hit the MOCA opening on Saturday and maybe catch a show. Monday is, of course, Valentine’s Day (“fucking hearts”) but even better is that it’s also Tim’s birthday. And! Filet Mignon Night at Taix! So maybe I’ll stick around for that. Tuesday is my parent’s anniversary so I’m sure something will happen that night. If it’s a good day.
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