November 2020 Road Trip: Los Angeles

In early November, we had to travel to California to pick up an enormous chandelier. Sure, we could have paid to have it delivered, but where would the fun be in that? Plus, it gave us the opportunity to take a road trip from California to Colorado, via Arizona and New Mexico. We had an epic road trip planned for the summer that was canceled due to covid and I was itching to hit the road.

The first day of the trip was a big deal for me, as it was the first time that I set foot in my home state during 2020. I didn’t think that I would get a “trip home” this year. Here is a picture of happy me at LAX.

I love our life in Colorado. We have made so many friends, our house is beautiful, and we live in a great neighborhood, but a part of me is still in California. Short of a surprise windfall, I know that if we were to move back, our lifestyle would be greatly scaled-down. We’d be in an apartment or townhouse. The air wouldn’t be as clear and our money wouldn’t stretch as far. However, I hope that each year, I will have the opportunity to reconnect with my home state.

This trip we had just an afternoon in Los Angeles. Due to covid, we didn’t make plans to see friends. We picked up a rental car and headed straight to Culver City.

At the rental car company, I had the delight of meeting the company cat named Shadow. Shadow is very old and hangs out in the parking garage wearing a cute sweater. Every business should have a company cat!

In Culver City, we went to the Helms Bakery Complex. This is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles and it was surreal to be back.

We’ve been watching the Youtube show “Worth It.” On the show, hosts Steven Lim and Andrew Ilnyckyj travel around to different restaurants in Los Angeles ( sometimes other cities, even abroad) to try the same dish at three different price points. On one of their episodes, they reviewed pasta, including a restaurant called Pasta Sisters. We discovered that Pasta Sisters was located in the Helms Bakery Complex, so we made a plan to try it.

The pasta was delicious. We went with the simple tomato and basil sauce as seen on the show. It was served with house made bread and we washed it all down Italian style with San Pellegrino.

Members of the Clean Plate Club!

During our visit, Los Angeles did not allow indoor dining. The weather was warm for our lunch, but for dinner we ate sushi at Kabuki in the Victoria Garden’s Mall. The sun had set and the weather was very cold. We did have a space heater near us, but as much as we love the food at Kabuki, it was difficult to eat outdoors at night. Colorado has just recently closed indoor dining in some cities, and as the weather is much colder here, I think the restaurants are in for a very difficult winter. I understand the necessity of this, but it also makes me sad.

Our chandelier was ordered from our favorite designer, Timothy Oulton, who has a space inside H.D. Buttercup. We spent about an hour admiring the latest collection and one-of-a-kind antiques. We showed an unusual amount of restraint and didn’t purchase any additional items, although I had my eye on their “Inception Mirror.” This picture does not do it justice- it’s dazzling!

Dan took a picture of me in front of the drum bookcase. We had this bookcase, but left it behind when we moved from California. It had been placed in a tight spot making it very difficult to move. It was a unique bookcase, but not really practical for a booklover. I could never figure out how to arrange my book collection. Dan liked this display, because it was stuffed, and told me this is how I should have arranged ours. The disorder makes my head spin.

After loading up our rental car with our massive chandelier, we needed a coffee to give us energy for our long, rush-hour drive to Palm Springs. We returned to Pasta Sisters for lattes and pastries. I think their desserts were even better than their pasta!

When I lived in Los Angeles, I was rarely bothered by the traffic. I would listen to podcasts and look at the view. i’d catch glimpses of other people in their cars and fabricate stories about them. I’m not easily bored. However, it had been awhile since I had sat in bad traffic. The drive from Culver City to Palm Springs took nearly four hours. it was slow going, especially as we had already traveled so much in the morning.

We drove past downtown Los Angeles, which made me feel homesick. I really wanted to go through downtown and head to Glendale. I wanted to drive through my old neighborhood and visit my parents at Forest Lawn. I wanted to eat the beet salad at Damon’s Steakhouse and have dessert at Porto’s Bakery. Alas, it wasn’t in the cards for this quick visit. I hope to return to the City of Angels when Covid is under control. I want to hug my friends. I miss them.

In the meantime, here is a picture of my beloved Los Angeles.

Social Distancing in Littleton: Week Three

It has been another long week with new recommendations and many, many deaths. We keep hearing that it is going to get worse before it gets better, although there does seem to be a hint of positive news that social distancing is making an impact. I feel hopeful.

We moved to Colorado in November and I have to admit that I know nothing about our Governor, Jared Polis or Denver mayor, Michael Hancock. I don’t know their party affiliations or if I agree with most of their politics, however, just judging them from how they are handling the pandemic, I feel confident in their bold and decisive leadership. Both of these men are sending out a strong message to our state and they are taking necessary action to protect Coloradans. As with the rest of the world, Colorado is in a crisis, but I feel relatively safe here or at least, less panicked because of our leaders.

I wish I could say the same for the federal government. Trump’s lack of leadership is terrifying and maddening. In my mind, the biggest mistake will be allowing states to make their own decisions regarding social distancing. State’s rights are a huge part of our American identity, but in these very usual times, I wish the president would take control and do what is needed to protect lives. We should have a clear and consistent message about what we can and cannot do to contain this.

I understand that some places have a much lower infection rate, but those places can easily turn into the next hot spot. I understand that closures are not only an economic hardship, but actually devastating to some, but still, if we all act together in a coordinated effort, perhaps we can get to our “new normal” faster with less lives lost.

I’m angry at the people who still refuse to take this seriously. Two days ago, our governor issued a new recommendation that face coverings be worn whenever you leave your house. We got the green-light from our neighbors who are doctors and huge Survivor fans, to use Survivor buff’s as our make-shift face-coverings. Yes, they are buff’s from the China season. It’s what we have. Thank you to my friend Ernest, who gave these to me many years ago. Prior to repurposing them as masks, I wore them nearly every day as a headband!

We’ve been wearing them for our walks in the adjacent fields near our housing estate. It has been just us and the cows.

Many of our neighbors are making masks for the community, so this is hopeful. However, many people are not wearing them while walking around our neighborhood. Many people still stand too close to their neighbors for chats or allow kids from different families to play together. I know it’s hard, but this is so frustrating.

We’ve had some craziness on our community Facebook page. One incident involved parents removing caution tape from our community playground and letting their kids on the equipment. When confronted, they went on the defensive. I know this situation is extra difficult on kids, but that isn’t an excuse to blatantly disregard safety measures.

A new recommendation was released to try to limit grocery store visits to every two weeks. We went on Monday night and tried to stock-up for two weeks. I think we will be good, but we might run out of fresh produce towards the end. We use Royal Crest for weekly dairy delivery, so that has been helpful. The grocery store was mostly stocked (no toilet paper/cleaning supplies/pasta). The only items we couldn’t get that we wanted were fresh spinach and avocados. No big deal. Only half of the shoppers wore masks and a few were not great about keeping their distance. None of the workers had masks.

I worry for the workers in high risk jobs. I feel like doing our part, helps them stay safe. I don’t want to wear a mask, limit my shopping trips, or take forever in the store, but I also don’t want to spread Covid 19 if I'm infected and asymptomatic. There is no reasonable excuse for not following guidelines to protect your fellow citizens. None.

Speaking of which, I’m really tired of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Several of my students have brought up the idea that covid 19 was bioengineered by China. One guy in Brazil told me that he dumped his two cats on the street, so that they couldn’t infect him. As a animal lover, my heart broke to hear this. Most of my social media connections are united in staying home, but one former coworker has been loudly spreading the news that raw veganism makes him immune. He won’t wear masks or practice social distancing. It’s ridiculous.

We are still healthy and employed. As far as I am aware, we still don’t know anyone who is infected. We have settled into a bit of a routine at home and we are trying to make the best of the situation.

We’ve been using our kitchen, a lot. The food highlights from this week include: An English style breakfast with sautéed mushrooms, English roast dinner ( with the “yummiest beef ever” that Dan spiced up with hot sauce), Dan’s homemade bread, and I made lemon-raspberry muffins. We are eating well and should exercise more!

We’ve also been socializing on zoom and FaceTime. Quite honestly, I’m socialize far more now, that I did before the virus. We had cocktails with our friend’s Valerie and Bryan in Big Bear. On Friday night, we were invited to take part in a customer appreciation event through Timothy Oulton, our favorite designer! We had drinks and celebrated our favorite brand with other Oulton enthusiasts. Timothy himself was on the call and they raffled off a gorgeous sofa. On Sunday afternoon, I had a two hour zoom call with my writing feedback group. It was the first time meeting everyone and I feel hopeful that this could be the start of a great writing relationship. I’ve connected with friends on the phone, through text, and with good old-fashioned snail mail letters! Feeling connected has not been a problem. It is exhausting!

We only took the car out once, to go to the grocery store, but when out, we filled up the tank. The prices were not even this low when I started driving in the mid-90’s!

We finally watched Star Wars: The Rise of Sky Walker and we are on season three of Schitt’s Creek. We also discovered a great Netflix documentary series based on the movie Chef. We loved the movie- you should watch it. The series takes a different format with Jon Favreau and Roy Choi exploring cooking techniques with different chefs. The first episodes in the series are filmed at various Las Vegas restaurants and they definitely made me ache for a foodie vacation.

My heart hurt to hear the news of John Prine’s passing. He was such a talented song writer and musician.

I’m going to end on a positive note with our kitten, Tom. He is such a cuddle monster and loves being held on his back for tummy rubs.

Ooh and check out my roots. I haven’t had my hair cut or colored since we moved and I was well over-due before everything closed. I think it might be a dicey idea to attempt a home fix, so we will see how bad the progression gets over the next weeks or months. When this is over, a full spa day is on the agenda!

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.