My semester is over…phew! After history of R&R, I am absolutely sure that I loath heavy metal in all its forms (there’s A LOT of them) as well as 99% of rap and I (somewhat embarrassingly) really liked the psychedelic genre. After digital photography, I am absolutely sure that there is SO much more to learn, but I have the best camera to do it. After Justice & International Affairs, I absolutely know I will not go into political philosophy and avoid it like the plague (my instructor made it as palatable as possible thank heavens).
At the beginning of the semester, I chose to give up sugar for 90 days and told B that I needed a reward to keep me motivated. We (mostly I) decided that a Christmas shopping trip to LA would be the perfect thing the day after my last final. I made it! And I am still off, as in the process I’ve become hyper aware of just how addicted I was. I am registered to run the Ogden marathon again in May (no running journal this time, I promise) but I resolved to stay off until after the marathon….at least. So I begged Kelly (she warned me that I better not eat sugar!) & Cherie to join me and we were off…
Our little cute Santa Monica beach house we stayed in last time wasn’t available, this one was half a block from the beach….Venice beach that is. Inside was pretty nice and clean. What a difference 2 short miles makes.
A very youthful looking Jim Morrison (R&R irony don’t you think) right outside our place
Another neighbor – look closely at the windows behind me and the woman you see was one of about 5 waiting impatiently for it to open
We ate breakfast here both days, it has very delicious bakery items that I rather enjoyed last time we came and I avoided this time. They made a fantastic sugar free indian spice chai latte that I am still thinking about.
We spent one and a half days in the fashion district (listening to rap and the latino channels playing loudly in all the shops) but all having great success in the mostly finish our christmas shopping very cheaply and then the last day headed to the Grove. The decorations, the music and the vibe was all totally festive. They even fluttered fake snow every hour.
Christina joined us for the day at the Grove. I really loved this day up until about 5:30. We saw the world’s dumbest movie and I did the world’s dumbest thing to make this trip extremely memorable..
It’s not as if I didn’t know that sugar free candy gives me a stomach ache. And yet the gummy bears were too tempting for my rational brain to make the right decision. Did you know that maltilol (sugar alcohols) can cause a laxative affect?? I spent about 6 hours and 30+ trips to the bathroom learning that bit 0f info the hard way. And not something I will EVER forget. On the bright side, we weren’t in the fashion district where there is 1 public restroom that is the most disgusting one I have ever been in – porta potties included…we were at The Grove where there’s a luxury bathroom complete with floor to ceiling walls and doors for every stall. Small mercies.
I also dragged my friends, who were very good sports, down to Seal Beach in terrible traffic to visit my oldest best friend from first grade, Staci Howard. She just had her 2nd baby, a darling little girl and we hung out for the evening catching up. I can’t imagine at this age just starting a family. I could very easily be a Grandma (NO hurry there). But at heart we were the same little girls we were growing up at Evans Elementary school, she even had a few things around her little beach house that were the same things I have at home. I’ve thought about this a lot lately…that friendship isn’t about how many superficial things you have in common, hobbies, looks, where you live, age etc…. it’s about if all of that wasn’t around and it was just soul to soul – would there still be a connection? I am blessed AND lucky (I believe in both blessings and Luck but that’s another post for another day) that I have a handful of “friends of the heart” and for that I am truly grateful!!