A day at the beach, Lunch in Paradise, and Easter Oldies

America!

There you go home-boys and home-girls, the news is out, Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Now I realize that people do not migrate to this blog to hear about my political ramblings so I will get back to what everyone really wants to hear about, stories about what I did these past two weeks. Before I do however,  I WILL express one bummer from this whole development, and that is that nobody at work is going to want to continue talking about the Royal Wedding tomorrow. DANG! I had so much material on those two princess' dress attire at the wedding. Those head pieces? are you serious? Oh well, next time.

Wow it has been a busy two weeks. Things starting out with a bang at Huntington Beach as Steph, Jeff, Trista, and I, made our merry way south to enjoy a fabulous day of fun in the sun. We packed a cooler complete with PB&J Sammies and Smore Pop Tarts, grabbed a football, and searched for a plot on the sand to call our home for the day. This proved to be quite a challenge considering we had to wade through patches of PBR sipping hipsters and oversexed yet low self-esteemed teens (illustrated by the shameless lip-ringed make out sessions and refusal to abandon the comfort of tube socks and Converse tennies on the sand...and is that a long chain connecting to a wallet in those black Jnco's? Pack it up! we're heading down the beach.

(CUE: Insane Clown Posse song and a quick run to Hot Topic for a hilarious tee shirt)

Well we wanted to make the most out of our day, so my roommate Jeff and I decided to rent surf boards and you know, shred for a while before tossin' the ol' pig skin around. What I have realized however, is that I have a wonderful way of oversimplifying the events of a day. The first step was squeezing into the rented wet suit (size medium 'sorry brah, the only size we got left') which smelled like it was recently peeled off a heavyweight in a wrestling match. With my shame fleeting, I zipped into my wet suit in a public beach bathroom (imagine an outdoor prison toilet with sand) and finally emerged, a genuine surfer. Now, since I identified myself as a NOVICE surfer, I was directed to the "I Suck" surfboard rack stocked with 9 foot "safeboards" which were essentially canoes covered in thick, brightly colored, foam. A warning to swimmers that they were in for a real show. The sheer size of the boards were designed so that even the most hefty and nonathletic beach goers could 'catch a wave'. The party ended shortly after entering the water, 45 minutes of kicking and paddling proved to get me nowhere except closer to the beach after being thrashed by every wave that rolled in sending me on a collision course with every fat kid wearing a tee shirt while swimming to salvage their pride.

We called it quits after an hour, my arms were sore for the next three days.

The rest of the day went much smoother, opting to stay on land and show off the football throwing and catching ability of my girlfriend, who I must say went undiscovered in college much to the chagrin of the powder puff football coaching staff, myself included.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY, that is to say the Sunday before Easter, (wow I have not updated this blog in a while) was spent driving North up the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway to all my Midwesterners) to the amazing restaurant-on-the-sand "Paradise Cove". Now I must say that the pretentious name proved fitting. It was a family get together celebrating time with my Wonderful Great Aunt Helen and some of her children (I can't think of the relation, 2nd cousins? 1st cousins once or twice removed?) Helen was out visiting from her home on Torch Lake in Michigan and spent the better part of the afternoon fishing ice out of her Bloody Mary with her fingers and cussing me out for not moving in with my girlfriend. A truly incredible lady. I have realized how lucky I am to have such great family out here, they have made the transition much easier.
Platters of calamari later, feet in the sand at our table, we had an awesome lunch. We were also graced with a sighting of Howie Mandel (Deal or No Deal), who was looking particularly haggard in his denim Affliction jacket, the ladies at his table seemed to be doing all the talking.
After lunch, I struck up a great conversation with two of the women at our table, Michelle and Meredith. Michelle has been involved in a writing program at Warner Brothers Studios for the past few months and is hoping to land a spot as a television writer for a show. Meredith has been a producer for television for a number of years and was regaling me with stories about filming in Hawaii and other exotic places. It was inspiring to hear from people who have been through the ups and downs of the television industry and have come out on top. They gave me some great advice about pursuing a future in the industry and staying focused on what I really want to do, if I could only remember what that was...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well the hunt to find Stephanie a new TV finally came to an end a couple of weeks ago. After days of wandering through websites, Target, and Best Buy, and with the guidance and collaboration of many of our "technically savvy friends", Steph decided on an awesome Dynex 32" LED flat screen TV. Oh and did I mention a totally sick Samsung Blue Ray DVD player with wireless internet connect-ability and online apps. Booyah. (Thanks to all the techies, nerds, and geeks, who made this choice possible, Jeff Giblin, Eric Rhode, Ryan Schott, Josh Ford, and Alex at Best Buy). Now I, err Steph, can stream episodes of Dexter directly from Netflix onto the television.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Absolute HIGHLIGHT of these past couple weeks was getting the chance to spend Easter in Arizona with Dusty Wahl and Casey Miller last week. Of course the cast would not be complete without mentioning Dusty's sister Callie, Callie's "squeeze" Andy, Char, and Dad-Dale.

Stephanie and I took a beautiful drive from LA through the Palm Springs desert area and eventually ended up in beautiful SURPRISE Arizona. Now if Disneyland is a child's dreamland, then the Sun City Grand retirement community must be the aged equivalent. Hundreds of retirees soaking up the Golden Years ambling this way and that through pottery and Zumba classes at the rec center, and golf carting through the streets just as slow as they damn-well pleased.
We spent much of the 4 days laying out poolside (no kids allowed, huge plus). The desert sun punished our inexperienced skin while the elders basked like seals and took no notice as the sun relayed off their bronzed, brazen leathery hides. Truly, hides. In my delirium I commented that one guy in particular would make for a very nice handbag. Gross but true.

We spent an evening at a casino, where I won $25 on roulette and then promptly lost it at the black jack table. The real joy of that evening was spent before we hit the tables at Yogurtland, totes the best hun-cal-fro-yo.

The real excitement came on Easter morning after a powerhouse sermon by our own Dale Saxon. We tip toed our way out of the chapel so as not to stumble into too many conversations about "Well...Now...My Granddaughter must be about your age" or "Oh well isn't it wonderful to see such young people at church, young people are always texting, too busy asking each other what color shoes they are going to wear" (actual conversation I overheard).
We raced home for some delicious food but FIRST, were treated to the BEST Easter Hunt of my life. Gold Dollar Coins were hidden all throughout the house and so began an every-man-for-himself free-for-all. All the classic symptoms of a traditional Easter Egg Hunt were present; excitement, focus, determination, greed, cheating, selfishness, and possibly some pouting from those who couldn't seem to find any coins (my situation until I hit a gold mine in the laundry room).

All in all it was an awesome trip. Thank You Char and Dale for opening your home up to us, you guys are the best! Can't wait to take you up on your polite invitation to visit anytime, that hammock is screaming my name.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daniel Curtis: PA

Well work has been keeping me busy lately, I guess that's not all bad but last week I had the privilege of driving a massive moving truck all over LA in an attempt to optimize our office by snatching up free furniture from various production companies. As if driving in LA doesn't by itself cause stress, now I was driving down Sunset Blvd in a vehicle larger than my apartment. I was dreading the task but soon realized that I was king of the road, like a large boulder in a stream, the current of cars seemed to continue to flow around me, I was free to drive as slow as I wanted. The other nice thing was that I was able to SEE a lot more of the city from my new propped vantage point.

There was something calming about cruising ABOVE the rest of the LA traffic. I even found myself getting cocky, I turned up the radio, rolled down the windows and would even give a little head nod to passing truckers, as if I was a seasoned vet. Unfortunately truckers (at least other moving truck truckers) don't share the same sort of bond that motorcyclists do, where they give a little wave when they pass each other. One guy just rolled up his window. Whatevs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other big news..... My roommates and I have officially and finally moved! (soon to be 'FB official'). So for all of you who need to know where to send care packages, *wink wink, but seriously.

Send them to 360 S Burnside Ave, Apt 9J, Los Angeles, CA 90036

This marks my return to Park La Brea, but more importantly, to the same building I lived in when I was here in 2009! It's good to be back.

Other notable moments of late...

I purchased some "Slim fit" jeans from target, I will be returning them soon.

I made a pot of coffee the other day with no pot. Disaster.