Los Angeles

Since we're heading to LA this weekend without the kids I'm getting pretty excited. There never seems to be enought time to drive by all of our old haunts, eat at all of our favorite restaurants, and shop at my favorite stores. The list seems endless and usually we only hit up the one thing we are craving most. Roscoe's is at the top of the list most of the time as well as some good Asian donuts from the OC. Since we'll be specifically in Long Beach that rules out most of the OC and shopping, and since we have already paid for what will be, I'm sure, a fabulous hotel catering dinner consisting of some sort of grilled chicked and frozen butter for cold day old rolls we will not have the option of eating some place great Saturday night.

This is frustrating yes, but I'll still get my fix just by being in LA. When I sit in my little office everyday and write these blogs and watch the storms roll in, watch all the neighbors dogs and horses frolicking on their own private 3 acres, and watch the school buses drop off first the highschool, then the middle school and finally my own grade schoolers, I sometimes forget about the big bad world out there. I forget there are ghettos and barrios and gated communities with full time gardeners. I forget to wax my eyebrows and to wear something other than old torn jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. I forget about smog and traffic and the daredevils that drive 85 on the 405. I forget that all the people I read about on Perez Hilton are real people who are living their lives in LA. They take their kids to school and pick up thier dry cleaning like anyone else. I am so insulated here. I miss hearing and seeing all the different kinds of people that we don't have here in my mountain village.

I might not want to live there anymore, but I think I would suffer from withdrawal if I didn't get to visit LA every few months like we do. It's a completely different world and I love it and miss it. I miss the history that the city has, the old buildings and the startling new modern ones. I miss seeing people walking in their neighborhoods with shopping carts. I miss the old people. We don't have too many here due to the high altitude and sometimes I forget what the world looks like when it is populated with every conceivable kind of human being. LA has that and sometimes it is refreshing and sometimes it is scary.

I won't come home from this weekend with any shopping bags or a belly full of great food, but my eyes and my mind will be full and that will be satisfaction enough for me.