2019: Annual Wrap-Up

It’s my annual wrap-up post: time to take stock of my year and to appreciate all of the incredible things that happened in these past 365 days.

Admittedly, 2019 was a hard year. It was filled with difficult changes and challenges. We had losses and blessings. We are hoping that 2020 will be easier.

We started the year with a blessing. We had my step kids, Zoe and Felix with us for the holidays. We rang in 2019 with fireworks at Knott’s Berry Farm and spent the first day of the year on the beach in Santa Monica. It was wonderful to have the kids with us and we even experienced a magical “White Christmas,” when it began to snow as we were in the middle of opening presents.

Then the plague hit…on the drive home from Santa Monica, I started to get the chills and had a high fever. I was intensely ill for several days, but had to fly the kids back to Sweden, so I got started on a course of antibiotics. Dan caught my cold the day before the kids left and was ill for over a week. Zoe and Felix miraculously escaped catching our bug.

I flew the kids home and on the way back, I stayed three nights in England at my sister-in-law’s house. It was great. I spent time with family and even went with my niece Pippa, for a day of drinking and theater in London. We saw Kit Harington in a production of True West. On that trip, I also spent time with my mother-in-law, Jan, which ended- up being very special.

On my flight home, I had the good fortune to be upgraded to British Airways Club World (essentially business class, with my own pod area). The guy ahead of me in the queue to board was obnoxious and basically demanded an aisle seat, so he was given my original booking and I was granted a major upgrade! It was awesome, but mid-way through the flight, I started feeling achy and by the time we landed, my fever was back. I was very ill for about two weeks and needed more antibiotics.

January, February, and March were a blur of bad weather and mini-trips, especially to Palm Springs for Dan to under-go painful dental work. Excuse my language, but it was a shit-show really. We had a massive storm on Valetine’s Day, when Dan was away at an annual conference, that actually made me feel worried that the house would slide down the hill. It was swaying and we lost power, so I cuddled with my cat and tried to keep calm. In the end it was okay, but there was more snow than this Glendale girl could handle. I was trapped in the house for a few days and had to dig myself out.

We took one memorable to trip Arizona, visiting Phoenix and Flagstaff on a four day road trip. We went in an attempt to find sunshine and warm weather, but ended up realizing it wasn’t quite as nice for the pool as we had hoped. The best part of the trip was a morning spent at Bearizona. Bearizona is a wildlife park where visitors can drive through some of the exhibits- animals coming up to your car! We visited during an off-peak, weekday and we were alone with the bears, wolves, and other wildlife. It was one of the best days of the year!

At the end of March, I was booked to attend the AWP conference in Portland, while Dan worked, but we got terrible news that Dan’s mom was in the hospital. We changed our plans to fly to England, but she passed before we arrived. It was unexpected, sad, and surprising. It’s also weird to think that now, all of our parents have passed. The upside of the situation is that we did get to spend time with Dan’s sister and her family, plus a day trip to see Dan’s uncle Barry and his wife Jo. We also saw a few friends, including Dan’s best friend Paul. Despite the terrible circumstances, the time we had with family and friends is to be cherished.

In April, we went to Las Vegas for a trade show that Dan attends annually. I like to tag along and get pool time. Of course, the weather was unseasonably cold and windy.

In late spring, we started to push getting our house ready to be sold. We knew that we wanted to move, but had severel projects that needed to be completed in order to put it on the market. Getting contractors moving was a full-time job and nothing moved fast. It was expensive and frustrating.

We spent the 4th of July holiday at our favorite resort, The La Quinta Resort and Spa in Palm Desert. It was boiling hot and we both got sick again with fevers. We went to a local urgent care and we were both diagnosed with sinus infections. I suppose if you have to recover, a fancy hotel isn’t a terrible place to be sick. We mostly slept in the room, but as soon as the antibiotics kicked in, we were poolside..

Zoe and Felix were back with us in mid-July and this was the best part of our year. We took a two-week family trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, where we snorkeled, went horseback riding, attended a luau, toured a chocolate plantation, went rafting through an old sugar cane irrigation system, rode a zodiac boat, visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory, and spent a day at Volcanoes National Park. It was the best vacation that we have ever taken! To book-end the weeks in Hawaii, we spent several days at the La Quinta Resort in Palm Desert. I’m surprised that we didn’t turn into raisins from all of water activities.

August was spent putting the final touches on getting our house ready to sell. In the last few days of the month, we embarked on a road trip to Oregon. We went through Death Valley and Yosemite National Park. On the drive back, we went through Sequoia National Park. California has so much natural beauty!

Dan left his job in September, which occurred right around the same time as we put our house up for sale. We also brought Slinky to stay with a family friend, until we got settled in our new place. This was a very stressful time for us, but we tried to keep positive and we enjoyed a few small trips. We went to Las Vegas to relax at the Waldorf Astoria and we also traveled to San Diego, where we bought annual passes to the zoo and wild animal park.

Our house got an offer in October and Dan did too, a great new job that brought us to Colorado. Prior to his accepting the position, we visited Colorado, to make sure that it would be a good life for us. We were worried after our bad experience in Portland. Colorado immediately won us over. It is so beautiful and the people are welcoming. Plus, although it has snow, it has tons of sunshine. We treated that first visit as a bit of a tourist trip, incase the opportunity didn't work out. We visited the Coors Beer factory and saw Buffalo Bill’s Grave.

November was spent anxiously hoping that the sale of our Big Bear house would go through without any delays. We found a new construction home in a new estate called Sterling Ranch, in Littleton and put a down payment to start the buying process. We drove our Camero out to Colorado, taking the Arizona/New Mexico route. In New Mexico, we took the cable car up to the top of Sandia Peak, discovered “Christmas” chili, and had our car cleaned at the car wash from Breaking Bad. We flew back to California to finish packing up our house. Our move was not simple and involved three different companies. Our big Timothy Oulton furniture required a crane to get it out of our house. We also had to have certain items crated. It was a logistical nightmare that somehow worked out. We had a goodbye dinner with our friend’s Bryan and Valerie, hitting several of the local restaurants in Big Bear Village. The next morning, we set off in our Ram Truck, taking a Nevada/Utah route to Colorado.

We spent about two weeks at a local Hampton Inn, as Big Bear was nearing the end of escrow and the finishing touches were being made on our new home. The staff at the Hampton Inn were terrific, but we were thrilled when we finally moved out the week before Thanksgiving. With a huge amount of luck, everything regarding the sale of Big Bear and buying in Littleton worked out exactly as it needed to. Our new home is gorgeous and our neighbors are welcoming. We live near a giant field with cows!

I’m writing this a few days before Christmas and we finally feel settled into our home. It feels like our home in a way that the previous places we lived, never did. Last week, I flew back to California to pick up Slinky. He experienced his first plane ride. I was very worried about flying with a cat, but it was less traumatizing for both of us than I Imagined. We missed him so much and are just happy that he is back with us.

Speaking of cats, we have a new one! We adopted a ten month old kitten that we named Tom. He’s a long-haired ginger, fluffy ball of trouble. Slinky isn’t so sure about Tom, but Tom adores Slinky. Slinky can’t eat or use his litter box, without Tom following him.

We are ending the storm of 2019, on a calm and happy note. Dan’s company even closes for the holidays, so we get a bonus vacation that starts on Christmas Eve. We tossed around the idea of a holiday trip to Orlando, which I never thought I’d think was a bad idea, but we decided that it would be better to stay home and just relax with the cats. We haven’t decorated for Christmas and we have zero plans for either Christmas or New Years. Yesterday, we did join a local gym, so maybe we will just get a head start on those resolutions.

Book Review- Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check out Marie Kondo’s much hyped book: The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Kondo has been in the news a lot this year. She has a new reality show on Netflix and some of her ideas have been quite controversial. For example, she advises to keep only about thirty books in your personal library. Book lovers lost their minds!

Kondo preaches the idea of only keeping items that spark joy. If you do not feel joy towards an object, you should not have it in your home. Rather than just dumping joyless objects, she gives these objects a little consideration. For example, if you bought a sweater on impulse and realize that it doesn’t suit you, you should take a moment to thank this sweater for teaching you a lesson or for perhaps fulfilling that moment of needing to shop, before sending the sweater to its next owner. It’s okay to let things go, but you should acknowledge their presence in your life, even if you feel that it made a minor impact. You should treat objects with respect and gratitude.

Along with this, she has a lovely ritual of greeting her home after a day out. I’m sure this could feel silly for a lot of people, but I like the idea of gratitude and taking pride in your home. The more I considered Kondo’s method, the more it hit me that it isn’t so much about organization, but about deep gratitude and careful consideration for the material objects that you allow into your life.

I’ve embraced a few of her suggestions. For example, the Kondo or “KonMari” method recommends folding clothing into drawers, rather than stacking them. I could use more practicing folding, but the concept is solid. If you open a drawer, it allows you to see all of your items at once and eliminates messy piles that tend to topple over. I redid our drawers with the KonMari method while my husband was on a business trip and he loved the change. We are moving soon, but when we get settled in our new place, the first thing we are splurging on is a new dresser! This method is not limited to clothes. The idea is to stop stacking items and to have them all clearly visible when you open a drawer or box. Having items visible and displayed in a pleasing manner will make you appreciate what you own and cut down on unnecessary items.

I know that I’m guilty of over shopping and shoving the evidence into drawers or closets.

Back to the books…I am one of those book lovers who freaked out at Kondo’s thirty book statement. That said, Kondo never forces people to give anything away. It is not about a specific number of items, but about only keeping the items that you truly love. In her TV series, she made a comment that really changed how I viewed my bookshelf. She mentioned only keeping items that you could see in your life moving forward.

I really listened to this advice and it rocked my world.

Last week, I took a hard look at my bookshelf. Admittedly, this process was made easier, since we are moving soon and having to physically haul masses of heavy books is not appealing. As a book lover, I am often gifted with books or pick up books along the way. As a writer, I love supporting fellow authors, even if they have written books that are not my taste. I had cookbooks that I never used. I mean, a cook book filled with recipes based on The Hunger Games, seemed like a good idea at the time. Right? I don’t even cook. With Kondo’s words in my heart, I ruthlessly culled my bookshelf and ended up donating over a hundred books to our local coffee shop that has a “take one, leave one” pile. I took none and I felt a million times lighter. My bookshelf is still full, but it is no longer bursting. Most vital, it only has books that I am excited to read.

I’m pretty darn excited at this new perspective. I even let go of some sentimental items, like pictures that my grandmother painted in the 1930’s. I had been holding on to those bulky paintings for purely sentimental reasons, but I no longer needed them in my life. Hopefully, someone else will find joy in them and if not, I will never know and that’s okay too. I was ready to let go.

If you’re in need of a new perspective or a good declutter, I highly recommend Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The Netflix series is inspirational too, especially being about to see Kondo in action. She has a very warm and happy energy.

Brick and Mortar: The Closing of Samuel French on Sunset

A few days ago, I heard that Samuel French Film & Television Bookshop, is closing its Sunset Boulevard location at the end of this month. I felt crushed by this news. Samuel French, especially the Sunset blvd. location ( other locations still live on,) has been one of my favorite places since I was a teenager. Bookstores are magic and for a theatre lover, Samuel French is the most magical of all.

My love of theatre and plays began well before I discovered Samuel French. It started in elementary school, when I was about ten and I found the play section at our local Crown Books. My mom and I used to have an amazing ritual, where every Friday night we would go the bookstore and she would buy us each a new book. As soon as I discovered theater, I began to amass quite an impressive collection of plays. Neil Simon, especially his Brighton Beach Trilogy, was the first playwright that I really loved. I read plays and became familiar with playwrights, before even attending my first play. My mom had instilled a love for books and movies (our Sunday morning ritual was a trip to the cinema), but she wasn't a fan of live theater.

As soon as I saw my first play, I was hooked. It was a production of The Phantom of the Opera at the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I would guess that many Los Angeles kids of my generation had this same show as their first musical or theatre experience. It ran at the Ahmanson Theatre for four years and to say it was a big deal in Los Angeles is an understatement. I ended up seeing it seven times during its run.

Shortly after, I auditioned for The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) and was accepted to begin my sophomore year as a theatre major. I love theater and respect the art of acting, but acting was never for me. I love my high school, the friends that I made, and the many incredible experiences that it afforded me, but I wish at the time that my school had offered a writing department. It would have been a better fit for me. I did take the optional playwriting classes, where I worked on abysmal experimental theater pieces that I’d be mortified if they ever come back to haunt me!

It was through LACHSA, that I discovered Samuel French Bookshop. It changed my life. My passion for plays was no longer relegated to the single bookcase that most bookstores offered, but now I had an entire store of theatrical books. AN ENTIRE STORE!!!

Samuel French had two locations in Los Angeles. The smaller location was in Studio City and it’s lovely, but the real prize was the Sunset Boulevard location in Hollywood. Both bookstores were located about a twenty minute drive from my house, but asking my mom for a trip to Samuel French, was akin to asking her to drive me to Florida. She hated it. I think worse, she knew that it wasn’t as simple as a quick shop, that she could leave me to browse all day. She would agree to quarterly visits or if I desperately needed something for school ( this was the early/mid 90’s, before online shopping was a thing) and she would wait in the car with a novel, while I had about an hour to shop.

When I had my first car and could drive myself, it was bliss. I would spend hours discovering new playwrights. Samuel French on Sunset blvd was my happy spot. I continued to be a regular customer for many decades and it was a bookstore that not only brought me so much joy, but opened me up to new writers and new worlds.

Learning about the closure, I’m not only sad for what will no longer exist, but I feel guilty. Through changes in my life and reading habits, I have not been a recent customer. I have not visited Samuel French in over five years. One of the reasons that the store is closing, is because more customers are shopping online, they cannot justify a brick and mortar store. The delight of browsing and the thrill of discovery is a unique aspect of physical bookstores. I am using this as a stark reminder, to keep shopping at physical bookstores, to keep spending my money in the stores, rather than online. As much as I love the convenience of online shopping, it simply does not replace the magic of a physical bookstore. Online stores cater to well-known authors, rather than exploring new or lesser known talent. The experience for a book lover does not compare.

Samuel French will continue to exist in other physical locations and online, but it hurts that the Sunset location is closing. It really hurts.