Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

It is with a heavy, broken heart 💔 that I announce Moses has passed away today.  He was 14 years old. He leaves behind 3 human caretakers, who never knew that one of the greatest loves of their lives would be a kind and gentle 4-legged soul with a big warm smile and the brownest eyes.  We met Moses 12 years ago. He was a rescue. They hadn’t gone in that day to get him. They saw him being beat up in the corner by other dogs.  So they took him with the others they saved that day. He was a bit, okay a lot, hairier than we expected but his rescuers must have saw something in hubs and I as they called us the next day and asked when we would pick him up 🙂.  Adding him to our family would be the best decision of our lives. He had a knack for meeting people in our neighborhood. He introduced us to so many people. Friendships were formed because of his gentle manner. Moses was loved by all who met him. He even coaxed a nervous kitchen contractor, who was afraid of dogs into...

365 days ago it was Friday, the 13th. It was also, my 13th wedding anniversary. It was the day the President declared a National Emergency.    It was also the day school closed for 365 days straight.    It was the day I lost my job in an uber going to my anniversary dinner in downtown.    It was the first time I ate in a trendy LA restaurant that was completely empty except for the 5 us who couldn’t cancel our travel reservations.    It was the day I brought Lysol wipes to the hotel room to wipe everything down before settling in. It was a day that was supposed to be fun but instead was one of the weirdest days that went on to become a weird year. And it’s not over yet, even weirder.    During that year I checked off some unexpected items on an unexpected global pandemic checklist l, such as:    I’ve never been unemployed for 365 days before  ✅  Never used an iPad to log my kid into school for 365 days.  ✅ Never ...

As a little girl I would look on my mom’s arm and wonder why she had such a weird mark near her shoulder. A few days ago, as the warm solution penetrated my bloodstream, I started to cry remembering my mom’s mark. The nurse asked me if I was okay and I told her I was so incredibly happy. As a diabetic I was stressed never knowing if I was doing enough to avoid it but also, keeping some semblance of life in doing outdoor things. I cried because I am incredibly grateful to the SCIENCE that made this possible in only a year. Less time for me to worry about my only kiddo should the worse happen.  If ur on the fence...I’ve worked in entertainment for over 20 years and I’ve seen first hand how easy celebrities influence the public.  Some do good and others well...I’m happy to have a little bit of the gracious Dolly Parton with me.  Scientists on the other hand, very rarely get the recognition for their years of study, years of research and expertise contributing to (wo)mankind....

As we close in on a year of pandemic living (March 13) I’m reflecting a lot on the year. A lot has happened and a lot will happen yet. But there on the horizon is hope and hopefully, in the after we take the lessons hard learned during this time with us.    Hiking has been a great source of comfort to me which is surprising to this theme park loving girl, it brings a calm to my soul and I like knowing there is beauty waiting to be found.  Here are a few pics of my last hike. It was a first for me, a moonlight hike w/ pta mommas to see the February full moon called the Snow Moon.  We not only witnessed a beautiful sunset but the beautiful pink moon rising into Los Angeles from the East.  The views at night reminded me of scenes from movies.

We are inching closer to the day our lives turned upside down (March 13, 2020). In 13 days it will have been a year since the US declared a National Health Emergency.  Living through a global pandemic wasn’t on anyone’s mind, I don’t think, except Bill Gates, who warned for years this was coming. It’s clear now that we were underprepared. It’s clear now that leadership matters. It’s clear now that masks work.  I’m hearing from people I haven’t heard from in a while and it’s been interesting to see how everything has affected people. Mostly, people are out of work. The entertainment industry, especially people in theatrical were hit hard.  Some are dealing with the after effects of having Covid. Some lost a person. Some feel completely isolated. Some are plain worn out from working and do distance learning.  Everyone is in a state of uncertainty. When will I get the vaccine? Will it work? Is it okay to send my kids back to school? Is it okay to see friends who got vac...

The great outdoors has been my saving grace in this pandemic we had previously relied on Disneyland to fill our weekends but we are finding that there is more to life than theme parks! 😱  That has been a refreshing realization.  From creeks, to walks in the woods to exploring tide pools to waterfalls, Southern California has a ton to offer. They even have snow 50 minutes up the 210!  My eyes are more wide open so kudos to the great outdoors!   This past Friday, distance learning was done for the week, tons of job applications submitted and well, I felt the need to get out!  So we spoke to the neighbors and headed out. Two weeks ago, all of us went to Sunset Ridge but there were no signs and what we walked on I don’t think was Sunset Ridge as the signs were sparse and the people I asked weren’t sure either and there were a ton of trails. We picked an unlabeled trail and asked people where we were but they seemed to be just as unknowledgable as us!  Later, w...

It's been 300 and some days before Coronavirus took over our lives. I remember the day it happened because it was Friday the 13th.  It was March 13th and it also, happened to be my 13th wedding anniversary.  Lots of 13's, did I cause a global pandemic?    Well, I didn't but I sure remember the day.  A national health emergency was declared.  School announced it was closing immediately and lastly, I remember being in an Lyft, scared as could be, going to my 13th wedding anniversary dinner at the Nomad Hotel in Downtown LA.  It was supposed to be glorious but it was riddled with fear.  No one knew what this virus was or how it spread and I was going Downtown where tons of people reside... where any one of them could give me this mysterious disease?! Luck was not on my side that day. As I am riding in the Lyft I get a call from my employer telling me they were going a different direction with the job I had and they no longer need my freelance service...

The thing about inspiration is once it gets going it’s absolutely an amazing thing! Over a month ago, parents sat down and tried to figure out what the heck we would do to replace a most beloved in-person MLK event in pandemic times.   What grew out of that meeting was something extremely special and proves a point, that kindness even in it’s littlest form matters.  Last night 12 children out of 123 that participated, volunteered to speak about their month long acts of service within their home/neighborhoods (1 child spoke from Brazil where her family got stuck in the pandemic) via a Zoom celebration.  These kids were amazeballs! Our teachers were amazeballs! Our administration were amazeballs!  I about cried when the principle said “my soul feels full” and when another teacher declared “Kindness is our Jam!” ...just so moved to have witnessed a teeny tiny idea blossom into such inspiration.  This project was OPTIONAL, the kids didn’t have to do it on top of all...

  Duh-ism #5240- Hubs walks into the kitchen with beautiful flowers and hands them to me. I was so stunned. Then 15 seconds later he walks back into the kitchen with a “Farm Fresh To You” box and the realization that I had ordered these for the first time occurred to me. .....Oh well, sometimes a girl has to take things into her own hands! . Today I’m celebrating surviving 348 days of unemployment, 348 days of distance learning 348x3 meals prepared (or ordered) and 1.5 million loads of laundry and dishes done! I’m also celebrating New York opening up their movie theaters!!! Starting to look sunny!

Has anyone else watched Netflix’s 4-parter on the super creepy history of the 1924 Cecil Hotel in Downtown LA? Brian Grazer and Ron Howard definitely reel you in on this one. 80 deaths in one 10 year span alone! Serial killers and the weird elevator footage of Elisa Lam who went in the hotel and never came out? Not to mention the weird General Manager lady who was upset by bad Yelp reviews, the hotel is nicknamed Death Hotel um bad reviews follow me thinks! Also, don’t Google this hotel or you will go down a rabbit hole of people crazily internet sleuthing trying to figure out what happened to the girl and there are bizarre theories. Um, freaky and so many things to discuss. Um, my Friday night movie was interesting.

  Duh-ism #5231....So I’m hiking and I hit a section of the trail I’m sure I could easily get lost on if I wasn’t paying attention, so I take a picture of an item partly hidden in the bushes to mark where I’ve been, you know in case I don’t remember on the way back. Flash forward 45 minutes, we get back to the questionable area and the kids ask if they can go up? I look around for the item I took a picture of and it’s not there. Where did the blue bike go, I ask? About 30 seconds after I asked...it dawned on me that my marker was resting and not a woodsy decoration and it’s owner um, rode away on it. “That’s why dad won’t go on Amazing Race with you.” P says.

Spoke to a dear friend today that I haven't heard from in a long while. Right before Covid hit in March they had left LA to go care for a family member for what was supposed to be 2 weeks and wildly, those 2 weeks turned into a year!   After getting their family vaccinated and also, themself they finally felt it was safe enough to travel home. I asked if they felt safe on the plane and they said they wore double masks, a face shield and bought out the row on the plane because the seats were cheap! I could tell from the description of the past year there was a real relief in getting that vaccine.  My friend returned to a house that hadn't been lived in almost a year, grateful no one had broken in, there were cars in the driveway with dead batteries that had to be jumped by AAA and the yard massively overgrown like a JUMANJI jungle had taken over. It was a time capsule of sorts. However, they slept liked they never slept before last night (I was jealous).   Today with so ...

We so miss eating out in good ole LA...with numbers down...we decided to book a table at our favorite restaurant, at good ole Tam O'Shanter. Eating inside restaurants is not permitted however, eating outside is. So we booked a table on the patio to celebrate this most special day of love and like any good movie there was an element of surprise...WIND!!!   Our first trip back to a restaurant was like visiting the Wizard of Oz with men dressed in PPE gear aka facemarks and plastic gloves. We had to following the brick road to our table. The restaurant had set up tents. This has always bugged me. If you are not supposed to eat inside, why is eating inside a tent okay? Anyhow, we got the one table not covered by the tent which was fine by me (safety) but boy was it ever a windy dining experience!  I am pretty sure no droplets could have penetrated our masks in this unique situation. Despite the weird wind, the meal was absolutely delicious! Prime rib, creamed spinach, mash...

In 2019, my lovely and super dear grandmother passed away, kiddo and I flew to Michigan to go to her funeral, which oddly didn’t happen in the way we expected (long story) and we made friends with her next-door neighbor, who had been such a good neighbor and friend to grams for many years.   As we sorted through grams belongings we found a huge stack of letters that he wrote to grams full of notes and poetry he wrote. He is a teacher, a guy who cares about his community and a fellow fun seeker (he took us for a spin in his red convertible). Anyhoo, he is a good soul.  So after that trip we took to writing letters to each other. My grandmother was a good letter writer and in writing to him it is like I am writing to her as I did for so many years after moving to California. We send stuff back and forth across the country and it’s just fun and in a way it’s double fun because we made a new friend and it’s like hearing from grams when we get a letter from him.  Plus, my pare...

When I was growing up in Michigan we had these things called snow days...so we silenced the screen, double-masked it and drove 50-minutes to the mountain to a place called Mount Baldy.  Our neighbors came with us so it was a girls day and a much needed break for Marie, a teacher who hasn't had a day off since March 2020! Thankfully, the trip to the mountain wasn't as wind-y as it normal is. Usually there is an element of car sickness when you head up a mountain but we either found a straight path or we got lucky. Probably both. With only one other car behind us it was a perfectly socially distance day on the mountain. We parked and immediately spotted a baby Bob Cat lurking very near our car on a hill. That's not something you see every day! We had to wait to get on the ski lift so the girls placed in the snow and picked up shards of ice. You can tell these girls didn't have much exposure to snow as they played gloveless only to find out that their fingers burned a ...

The great “keep yourself entertained during a global pandemic” outdoor exploration continued with a 2-hour birdwatching hike in Temescal Canyon.  Our guide, who outfitted us with binoculars and bird field guides took us around pointing out everything from different woodpecker species to California Thrashers and various hawks. He brought a spotting scope so we could see these birds up close and personal and they had some real gorgeous coats.  One of the highlights of the hike was stopping in an empty valley where he challenged us to be absolutely quiet and listen to the bird symphony around us. It reminded me of being in a movie theater or a mixing stage with sounds coming at you in multiple directions. This pandemic has put a hold on a lot but it’s also has a funny way of showing me what I’ve been missing.  

The pandemic has shut my industry down.  Movie theaters continue to be close and I continue to be unemployed because with no movies there is no marketing and no me.  All those years of contributing to the state's unemployment till are now being called upon by me.   I am grateful for it and grateful for my hubby who is working.   When you are out of work you are constantly bombarded with the message "Do what you love."  You are also bombarded with the words "get a job." In fact, the governments asks you every two weeks if you have looked and while the answer is always yes for me, for one year it hasn't resulted in an offer which kind of hurts one's feelings if it must be known.  Finding a job and finding one that you love is the dream but not necessarily one everyone can afford.  There are a lot of jobs out there and if you can get past the robots, find the right recruiters and eating ice cream while hanging upside down, you might be called for an inter...

NYE Checklist: Champagne Pizza Party Favors Pajamas you've been in all day Ready to go!

Christmas 2020 was very different, yet very nice! It was nice looking back at our memories throughout the years and also nice to be creating new ones at home because it’s not a place where we usually are a lot on the big holiday.   What was unique is that we saved up all of our presents until Christmas morning and opened them! There were sooo many and it was fun watching kiddo rip into them! We had some breakfast made by hubs, took a nice long walk, watched a few fun movies and ended with kiddo reading to us and coloring dog pictures with her.  Cozy at home and 3 pairs of Christmas jammies!!! Tons of good eats!

Who knows what day or time it is...but my spice cabinet and pantry are now organized and having a hubs that can mix on site is a real plus.  Happy Holidays folks! 🎄🍹 #gingerbeerbliss