i went to sleep last night at 1:30 because i kept watching episodes of “sex & the city” on dvd, because brendan and jerri have all of seasons three and four and if i keep watching i might get to all of them before i have to leave. but i stayed up a little too late because there was no voice of reason anywhere about to say, “uh, it’s kind of late…” and then this morning i got up at six thirty, and i DO NOT FUNCTION on only five hours of sleep. i’m going to return to bed soon, i think.
i took C.(Charlie) to the airport last night; his flight left at midnight. actually, yesterday morning he thought it was leaving tonight instead of last night, but then he checked his schedule and realized it was last night instead and he tried to change the reservation but because he was using his frequent flier miles there were no seats on any other flights till april 6th. but actually, the flight from here to chicago was full, so maybe there were no seats no matter how you got your tickets.
we went to the airport early because there was another game across the street at the staples center and we didn’t want to get caught up in that traffic. i said we should go to the bar Encounter which is at the airport and is a really cool structure and i’ve been there and drew barrymore was there, back when she was with that one annoying actor she married for a while…what’s his name? i knew it last night, but this morning i’m not really clear on much of anything. anyway, they were at the bar and she was just kissing him all over.
we got to the bar last night, however, and it had just CLOSED. which was a big bummer, because there’s no place to hang out and have a drink at the airport if you aren’t flying anywhere. so instead we drove down the street to an airport hotel and the guy was going to charge us seven bucks to park for less than an hour, but then he said we could park for free. the bar inside the hotel wasn’t so much a bar as a little bitty thing set up in the lobby, with two drunks standing in front of it trying to drink as much as they possibly could in a half hour. i don’t know if they had a flight or they were just in some kind of frenzied heavy drinking program.
we sat at a table where they serve breakfast and had our drinks and it was kind of nice and all the people who worked there at the hotel were very very friendly which made up for the rather tacky surroundings.
i need to go get some gifts. a little something for my family. but where? i don’t want to go on the freeways anymore if i can avoid it. i can’t think of anyplace good to go. i’m sleepy. i want to get a massage today. i need to go back to sleep.
i have to mop the floor. jerri and brendan’s fabulous place has nice hardwood floors although actually Gary says they’re really made of bamboo, i think he said, but they look like hardwood and they’re covered in dog hair from brooklyn the dog who has short hair and yet sheds a LOT plus there are quite a few muddy footprints all around and it’s a little bit bad.
so i have to mop the floor. and THEN the massage. and maybe a few gifts. maybe i could wait and get some at the airport? because where else would there be such a selection of stuff that has LOS ANGELES printed on it?
anyway, here are a few more photos of the huntington. i also have about a million photos of the beach, but those will come later.
this first one is a formal garden in front of the mansion with a whole bunch of statues in front of it.
these are some bamboo trees along a path.
here’s a japanese rock garden – there were a bunch of bonsai trees nearby.
and this is the japanese garden, except they used to call it the chinese garden. but they’re building a big new chinese garden nearby, so they just changed the name of this one, which seemed a little odd to me.
the rose garden is spectacular, but there were few roses blooming. we’ll have to go back later in the summer.
one more thing before i go back to sleep – we were driving back from santa monica and were going to stop at a very fancy grocery store i knew about in brentwood, but when we got to the little shopping area that looks like a homey country place because that’s the kind of fake expensive faux down home place brentwood can be because this the land of illusion, the store was no longer there.
we walked into this huge, delicious-smelling bakery full of scrumptious-looking bread and pastry and i asked if there was a bristol farms market nearby and the guy behind the counter started to answer me but then this guy sitting at the counter who was typing on a laptop looked up and said “you’re the second person to ask me that today” and he said it used to be bristol farms but it’s gone now. and i said i used to live there and i knew that it was around somewhere and we chatted for about a minute or maybe less and then the guy, who was clearly the owner of the place, handed C. and me some big pieces of bread and he said they were croissant-pretzels. he said “they’re crunchy on the outside, but on the inside they’re soft and buttery and warm…like you.”
this seemed just a little bit odd, the soft and buttery and warm like me part, but the pretzel-croissants were delicious and C. and i talked about the guy as we drove away and C. said the guy was certainly hitting on me and i said maybe he was just trying to be a good businessman and C. said it wasn’t good, hitting on me in front of my boyfriend.
soft and buttery and warm. it did make me laugh, anyway.
i wish i had one of those pretzel-croissants right now, come to think of it. but i don’t feel like driving all the way back to brentwood.
ok then, enough already, i think the delirium could make me sit here and type all day.
goodnight for now.
wednesday grace.