Optimistic Much?

I'm feeling especially optimistic today, folks.

It all centered around an excellent lunch. And any of you who know me well know that it takes little more than a good meal to set me up in the right frame of mind.

I had pulled pork BBQ. Sweet potato fries. And apple slaw. With lemonade. Each absolutely deserves its own sentence.

Backtracking a bit, I was befriended and high five-ed by Benji from behind the counter at the Larchmont Bungalow Cafe, I believe simply because I asked him how he was doing. Having spent the better part of the morning behind my own counter just down the street, having my greetings ignored and offers to help rebuffed, I had newly determined to treat other human beings like human beings, always. It's like that high five was the initiative, secret hand shake into the club for optimistic yet slightly customer-weary salespeople.

In further good news, I got paid today, bought Traci this fabulous cotton candy cupcake at a bakery Justin Timberlake frequents, watched 500 Days of Summer and Buffy with Caitlin, made the biggest bowl of whipped cream and finished the day with quite a bit of ice cream.

And then there was this: Joseph Gordon Levitt talking with Peter Travers about how its way more fun to be an optimist. Not to mention the greatest off the cuff song.

Stay tuned. Josie promised to film me walking around Beverly Hills playing Beverly Hills on my mandolin. If I can get my act together.

Hope you're enjoying life as much as I am right now!

Ketchup? No, Catch Up.

Oh no. I'm starting to lag again.

Which means I have a lot to tell! Let's see...

Let's start with Suz's boyfriend, Brian's new roommate, Javier's welcome party where we played three games at the same time and I SHUT THE BOX! Did you hear that former Kaboom! employees? SHUT THE BOX! My name was immortalized on the official score card. PS. We should have had an official score card at Kaboom! instead of just hear-say.

Then there was the World Cup. So sad that's over! This was Suz's and my game day spread because chips and dip are a little less appetizing at 11:00 in the morning after having just woken up. Kind of a disappointing game, that final, just in terms of level of play. Although that goal. So. Pretty. Congrats, Spain. I was rooting for das Nederlands, but was easily happy that Spain won just based on the fact that they're both somewhat underdogs and my underdog-loving complex is still fully intact.

Also disappointing: The retirement of Paul the Octopus.

So then there was Suzanne Parker's 24th Birthday Ice Cream Social! Which was as fabulous as it sounds. I had my first root beer float in probably ten years. Many more pictures to follow, including a group pic, insisted upon by one Caitlin Lorraine Bauld.

And that brings us to last night, another great night of food and friends at Paul's (not the octopus) birthday party, where I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in Y.E.A.R.S!

Oh, and I woke up to ants on my side table this morning. We're having a small ant problem in our apartment at the moment. It's now to the point that (ridiculous story): I got pulled over by the North Hollywood Police for talking on my cell phone and after making my day by telling me he wasn't giving me a ticket he proceeded to ask me if I knew there were ants crawling around in my car. I tried to keep it cool, but weirdest start to a day ever!

So now I'm lounging around, thinking about making myself food before I drive down to San Diego for church and dinner with Julia. Good times.

Although, I'm slightly worried the ants are going to take over my room while I'm gone...

Spoiler Alert: My next blog may be in a super sweet code I just learned...

So Much to Blog About!

Sorry for the lapse, folks! And for the impending information overload. I have so much to tell you all about. First of all, this car exists. Don't have much more to report in that case, just make sure you check out the "Shoe Repair" sign and know that someone is way dedicated to their business.

Next item on the agenda, Sarah Meaghan Strohl of the late Kaboom Toy Store sent me the most amazing package in the mail. It consisted of all the free Sour Patch Kids from Kaboom's last days...sorted into each different color! Notice, the much, much lower amount of red ones. That's because I used to pick out the red ones when I bought them from Kaboom!

Now, in light of my last blog you may be wondering how this fits into my giving up SPKs for Haiti donations, but I've decided that since I didn't buy these SPKs it's OK. I've been dutifully donating, on schedule!

But moving on. We've got a lot more to cover here, people. Like the Fourth of July! Traci, Caitlin, Suz, Suz's boyfriend Brian and I all went to our friend Jennie's beach BBQ at Dockweiler Beach. Which is this awesome beach somewhere in between Manhattan Beach and Venice Beach.

As illustrated by this picture we packed like we were actually moving to the beach. The trunk was empty when we finally unloaded, after giving up the dream of finding a magical tunnel to the beach parking lots, forcing our way past a "Full Parking Lot" sign, and finding a parking spot despite an hour of driving back and forth along the crowded coast.

Jennie and Company had staked out a BBQ pit on the beach (they got there at 6 in the morning and got the last one!!!). Jennie fed us SUPER well with hamburgers, hot dogs, kabobs, corn on the cob, s'mores... Add in my chili, Traci's America platter and Suz's straight peanut butter sandwiches and we had an overabundance of delicious food.

After playing catchphrase and a bit of beach soccer, we built a bonfire and watched fireworks. Since our beach was kind of in the middle we could see fireworks from, like, 5 different coast towns. We could see tiny fireworks shows miles and miles away. Then also the ones from the closest town. Not to mention, the ones being shot off by our fellow beach BBQers mere feet from us. It was probably the most fireworks I've ever seen at one time. It was great.

After telling us all night how much she loves fireworks, Caitlin in particular was completely absorbed in the shows. Even as we were driving back we kept pointing out different sets of fireworks we could see from the car.

Hope you all had a happy fourth! Happy Birthday, America!