Wait for it…….
Posted: July 17, 2014 Filed under: Me | Tags: A Discovery of Witches, All Souls Trilogy, Deborah Harkness, Shadow of Night, The Book of Life 1 Comment
Book Three
I’m a big fan of book series (plural for book series – seriess, seriei?). Characters grow and change, plots thicken, twist, turn, sometimes they take us backward, sometimes forward. I’d rather get sick of characters than feel like I didn’t get enough. Usually, I will not even consider beginning a series unless all the books are published. I have self discipline to wait for something at the beginning but once I start reading my addictive brain wants to inhale the whole thing as soon as possible……I’m the same way with pie.
So when I finished Deborah Harkness’s “A Discovery of Witches” and realized it was a trilogy I was thrilled…..UNTIL I learned the third book was not yet published. “A Discovery of Witches” rang all my bells: supernatural, historical fiction, adventure, romance. I couldn’t help myself after finishing the first, I HAD to go for the second even though I knew it be that much more painful to wait and wait and wait. Two years, my friends, two years later book three is available!! I can’t say I’ll ever knowingly do this again but I decided to reread the first two books in order to recreate the excitement of tucking into a final book and right now my anticipation is thru the roof, there might be something to this waiting game after all.
Walking in LA
Posted: July 14, 2014 Filed under: Travel | Tags: 100 OCT rally, Beatrice Valenzuela, Clueless, Dosa, Fred Segal, Hotel Andaz, Hotel Roosevelt, Los Angeles, Matteo, Mauro's cafe, Moon Juice, New High Mart, Original Pintail Longboard, Ping pong club, Pound fitness, Skateboarding Venice beach, Spin Standard, Sqirl, The Detox Market, The Little Door, The Little next door, The Standard Downtown los angeles, The Sweat Shop Leave a comment
Hotel Andaz Los Angeles
Last weekend my husband and I took a solo trip to Los Angeles for a friend’s birthday. It’d been over a decade since I was last there…… I believe swing dancing was involved if that gives you an idea of the timeline. This time was a world wind adventure of our friend’s favorites in Los Angeles, here’s a little taste of the weekend:
We stayed at the Andaz hotel, pictured above, contemporary style, comfy beds and pillows, amazing location with a bird’s eye view of Sunset Blvd.
I enjoyed one of the best croissants I’ve had outside of France at The Little Next Door. I would for sure comeback to this place if I ever find myself in Los Angeles again.
The Little Next Door Los Angeles
We went skateboarding from Santa Monica to Venice beach and back – my first time ever on a skateboard, we chose this board because we loved the song in their you tube video and they looked like they were having so much fun! Despite my great hope, watching this video 15 times did not immediately turn me into an awesome skater lady, I did however fall in love with skateboarding.
Lunched at Fred Segal where I could barely contain my “Clueless” quoting. Our lunch was fairly fantastic as well.
“Lucy, where’s my white collarless shirt from Fred Segal????”
I went to a ping pong club called SPiN at The Standard in downtown LA and watched my birthday friend have a Forrest Gump moment but in longer shorts.
SPiN Standard
Forest Gump Ping Pong Diplomacy
We paused at a 100 OCT rally party held at Hotel Roosevelt, in case you are unfamiliar with this event allow me to fill you in. Wealthy people (usually men over 40), buy expensive cars, possibly modify these cars to make louder sounds or go faster, then they enter this “race” from San Fran to LA, they make stops along the way to have fancy meals and look/talk about each others’ cars. Not my thing, but I was sort of impressed to hear one person figured out how to create flames from the modified titanium exhaust on his Lamborghini – cause when is shooting fire out of something not fun?! (Did make me think of the poor pedestrians in Los Angeles, people DO indeed walk in LA but the drivers sure don’t like it, now it seems they might be in danger of getting singed).
Finally on to dinner where we enjoyed an incredible mediterranean meal at The Little Door.
And that was just Friday – Goodnight Los Angeles!
P.S. Here are a few places that I did not have the chance to visit due to our schedule but if anyone out there visits please share your thoughts:
Sqirl for some jam, The Detox Market to explore the latest greatest in the natural beauty world, Moon Juice for a smoothie, Dosa, Matteo, and New High (M)art for Beatrice Valenzuela shoes among other things for shopping, The Sweat Shop to chastise them for their poor name choice and have a sauna and finally Pound for some super fun rock star fitness!
Road TRIP!
Posted: July 7, 2014 Filed under: Travel | Tags: car travel with kids, summer road trip, The Beatles, The Dark Crystal 2 Comments
National Lampoon’s Vacation
I’m in the midst of planning a 4,000 mile road trip for myself and my kids this summer. For bonus points I wrangled another mom to join me along with her three boys. Some quick math sums up 2 moms + 5 kids + 1 minivan + 4,000 miles = genius. I can already picture us laughing around the dinner table 10 years from now, “Hey mom remember when you thought it would be fun to cram us all in a minivan and drive to California!” Then, of course, hilarious tales will unfold that only can happen in a car with a 5, a 7, an 8, an 8 and a 9 year old.
My own mom had this same brilliant idea. My older brother, sister and I would pile in the station wagon (with wood panelling) and head up to New England from Texas. There were marathon recitations of “The Dark Crystal”, The Beatles sing alongs, spelling games that have scarred me for life (I still sweat if forced to spell in public). We were crammed in among luggage, slept in motels, stopped at the requisite tourist attractions. There was no GPS, no DVD players or iSomethings, it was my mom and her AAA TripTik and her spirit of adventure that caught us up in the magic of a summer road trip.
I couldn’t tell you half of what I saw on those summer trips in our station wagon but I remember us being all together, I remember having fun, I remember sleeping on floors, I remember trying to make a lollipop last for hours because it was all the entertainment I had. I have no idea what it’s going to be like on the “mom” side of things for my own upcoming road trip. But even if the whole thing turns out to be more difficult than I ever imagined it’ll be worth it if we have even one crazy dinner conversation about it years from now!
Wish me luck.
800arrows 