Attack of the Big, Bad SUVs

A grad school friend from the East Coast once commented on So Cal's relatively large population of SUV owners despite the exceedingly high price of gasoline. Having grown up and lived in So Cal all my life, I didn't know what he was talking about...until I came back for a visit from NY after six months.

They were everywhere, mean and huge! During my weeklong stay in PV, I drove the same, compact Saturn Ion that I owned before I moved out to NY. In the land of the 405 where size matters, my car was no match against the big, bad SUVs when changing lanes or letting cars in. I made the mistake of signalling to get into a relatively empty left lane a few days ago, and out of nowhere an SUV three times my size came charging full speed ahead from a mile away. I debated for a split second whether I should go in even though the monsterous thing was ignoring my signals. There was enough room for it to slam on the brakes and stop without hitting me, but I decided against it. I was too small to have any clout on this freeway. The SUV could have easily crushed me. It slowed down for traffic as I merged in behind it. Brilliant! Now the giant was obstructing my view.

This happened repeatedly all week long. I guess I just never noticed it before.

Hectic Day

I woke up in the late morning, had a quick lunch at home with my parents and then set off on the road to visit my grandmother in Beverly Hills. She is in a rehab center after having some surgeries on her leg over the past couple of months. Traffic was horrendous! The 405N was even more of a parking lot than usual. It took me nearly 2 hours to get out to Beverly Hills, whereas on a normal day, I'd be out there in an hour. Turns out that a dead body was found on the Robertson exit of the 10E, causing all eastbound lanes to be shut off. Creepy!

My grandmother seemed to be doing well physically, although she complained about her health most of the time I was there. She was happy to see me and wanted to know how things were going in New York. I stayed to chat with her for a while until she told me that it was getting dark, and I'd better head out. It was only 3:30PM, and the sun was shining brightly outside, but I left to give her some time to rest before dinner.

Next, I drove out to Santa Monica to rollerblade with a friend on the Pier. It was a little windy, but the beach looked so nice and pure as we rollerbladed on the strand. We rollerbladed until it got dark and then had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. where we caught up on eachother's lives.

Christmas Celebrations

Christmas Eve was at my aunt's house as usual. My aunts, uncles, cousins, grandfather, parents and aunt's friend gathered in Culver City. There was turkey, ham, pasta salad, roasted potatoes, steamed veggies and Chinese sticky rice for dinner. My cousins and I caught up with eachother's lives over dinner. One had just moved back from Syracuse with her fiancee after being out there for about three years. Another was still travelling the world as a computer specialist for the Navy, and another was working for a consulting firm after graduating college last June. For dessert there was a huge custard fruit tart, Krispy Kreme donuts, and festive Christmas cookies to be accompanied with either coffee, tea, various liquers on the rocks or black muscat wine.

After dessert, everyone opened their presents. I got a bunch of bath gels, lotions, and a greeting cards set from my relatives. My parents got me a cool, new digital camera.

The next day, I went to the Boy's house to watch his little nieces and nephew open their gifts from us. The two three year olds tore through their gifts, squealing with excitement the whole time. The one year old sort of poked around at hers and slowly ripped away pieces of wrapping, smiling each time she ripped a portion away. For the rest of the time, the kids played with their new toys and bickered amongst eachother about who got the better toys.

Hangin' Out on the Coast

I woke up late today at around 11AM. My parents suggested that we go to a Japanese restaurant that has outdoor seating overlooking the coast on PV Drive West. I was shocked. My parents always ate at the same few Chinese restaurants in Torrance. Not only were they trying restaurants in a new area, but they were even venturing out into a different type of cuisine. I gladly took them up on this offer and decided to treat. It was a nice change to eat outside with an ocean view surrouding us. We all ordered bento boxes and shared edamame and an appetizer.

Afterwards, we drove around PV Drive West and looked at the magnificent million + dollar cliffside homes. They were all very elegant, new and expensive looking. We stopped at a few lookout points to admire the view even though it was a bit foggy and visibility was limited. Then we drove toward the landslide area to see if the Wayfarer's chapel was open for visitors. I didn' t think we'd be able to get in. Every time I'd come to see the glass chapel before, it was either closed or had a ceremony going on so that I could never go in. This time, though, it was open for visitors. I didn't even know that visitors were ever allowed in. I was so excited! I'd always wanted to see it closer up from the inside. It was gorgeous! The entire thing was made of glass and supported by wood beams. It was decorated with flowers and vines. I took pictures of it at many different angles.






I ran a few errands after this, and then met up with the Boy for dinner and to go to the beach at Hermosa. It was nice to walk around Hermosa, but the fog had really rolled in by now so that we couldn't even see the ocean from the strand, so we went back to his parent's house and watched When Harry Met Sally. I'd never seen the movie before and really liked it.

Back to LA

I'm in LA again for about a week visiting family and friends for the holidays. I woke up at 5:45AM yesterday to catch a 9:00AM flight. The Boy went with me. Since the strike was still going on at the time, two cabs passed us by when we asked them to take us to JFK. I guess they were worried that they wouldn't be able to get back into the city once they left. Our backup plan was to take a cab to Grand Central Station and then take the airport bus to JFK, but we were able to bribe the next cabbie to take us straight there.

At 6AM, there was pretty much no traffic, so we had about two hours to kill by the time we got to the airport. I slept the entire time, and when we got on the plane, I only woke up for the two meals that United served. By the time the plane landed in LA, I was well rested and overfed.

The weather was warm when I stepped out of the airport. I was totally overdressed with three layers of clothing on. The Boy's mom picked us up, and my parents picked me up at the Boy's house.

My parents were hungry for lunch since it was about 1:30PM, so I took them out to our usual Chinese restaurant but didn't eat much since I had no appetite.

After lunch, we shopped around a bit and then went home to take a nice walk around the block. I asked my mom if she noticed that I got a new pair of glasses, hoping that she'd like the trendier look. She suggested I get LASIK.

Later that night, the Boy and I met up to do some Christmas shopping for his nieces and nephew. He found out what his sister got for the kids and was determined to outdo her. We spent hours picking out two toys for each child. It's always fun shopping for kids since I run across the types of toys that I would have loved to get as a child. In pre-school and kindergarten, He-man and Voltron were my favorites. I watched the cartoons religiously and then re-enacted the scenes with a blanket tied around my neck for a cape and a stick for a sword. Most likely, my older, cooler boy cousin got me hooked on this. For Christmas, I wanted the castle set, complete with He-Man, BattleCat and Skeletor action figures. Neither my mom nor my relatives would get me this, though. These toys weren't for girls. I eventually got my wish when She-Ra (He-Man's sister) was introduced, and my mom bought me the She-Ra action figure. A couple of years later when I no longer played with my boy cousin, I was hooked on Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Ponies. For the Boy's nieces, I picked out a My Little Pony Amusement Park playset, the My Little Pony version of Memory, and a Cinderella MegaBlocks pumpkin/castle set. The Boy picked out his nephew's toys. It was 11PM by now, and 2AM on the East Coast, so we both went home and crashed.

Strike's On

The MTA decided to strike early this morning, so I'm stuck working at home. None of the subways or buses are working, and even though I live in the city, getting to work is not convenient. I don't own a bike, and even if I did, I don't think I'd feel comfortable riding it to work with a laptop and other things strapped across by back since it's been eons since I've ridden a bike. It would probably take me hours to walk to work. If I wanted to take a cab, I would be stuck in traffic forever sitting with three random strangers, and would likely be dropped off in whatever order my stop was relative to everyone else's. But I'm lucky to be able to work from home. Some people are forced to find alternate forms to transportation.

The Boy hitched a ride with a coworker who lives across the street from him. He'll have to follow his coworker back later tonight also. This carpool arrangement is a mutually beneficial thing. The Boy won't be able to get back home without hitching a ride with his coworker, and his coworker won't be able to drive into the city past 96th street without 3 other passengers.

Working from home will be a bit of a pain without being able to interact face to face with my coworkers, but I'll still be working. Somehow, when I told the Boy that I'd be working from home, it translated into "the girl's day off." So, he's given me his dry cleaning to take care of and would like a nice dinner with dessert prepared when he gets back. Jackass... Gotta go now. I've got a lot to do.

Brrr!

It's 17 degrees outside today. 17 degrees! I'm pretty sure that I've never been in 17 degree weather. It's so cold outside that it hurts to breathe. It's colder outside than it is inside my freezer, which, by the way, sucks. It doesn't freeze anything. I'm tired of eating slightly melted ice cream. I'm seriously considering placing the ice cream out on the balcony now.

Les Halles, Chinatown and Cookies

Highlights of my last weekend:

Les Halles: It had been a while since the Boy and I went out to dinner alone, so he decided to
take me out to Anthony Bourdain's French bistro last Saturday. The place was quite crowded, so it was a good thing that the Boy made reservations. We started out with the classic French onion soup, which was delicious, but heavy with all of the cheese in it. It was a good thing we decided to share it, otherwise it would have completely ruined our appetites for anything else. My main was the steak frites, and the boy ordered a cassoulet which was really flavorful. Mmm! Afterwards, we walked several blocks to walk off our heavy dinner. It was a fun night out and reminded me of when I used to fly back and forth to visit.

Chinatown: The Boy and I did a Chinatown run for groceries since the fridge was empty and we were both craving Asian fruits and veggies. We did this in a record breaking hour and a half since it was cold out.

Cookies: After my last successful baking experience, I decided to try a new chocolatey cookie recipe. It was a bust. I ended up with my usual cake and crumbs disaster. Thankfully, though, the voice of my mom reminded me to only try a fraction of the recipe.

Chibitini

Chibitini is a small Japanese restaurant just a few twists and turns outside of the F train along the streets of the Lower East Side. I met my friend here for dinner last Thursday night. The wind was chilly that night, and there was supposed to be a snow storm coming in really late. This must have been the restaurant's excuse for having almost an empty house.

The place was cute and warm, though. My friend and I started out with a couple of drinks. She ordered the house specialty, aka "the Chibitini", and I ordered a Sake Royal, a combination of sparkling sake and Chambord. My drink was good, but I liked her drink better. It had a strong plum wine taste to it and was sweet. Later, I tried to order a Chibitini, and they ran out. Grrr! How do you run out of a drink when there's no one else in the restaurant? I ordered a plum wine instead.

Instead of ordering our own bento boxes, we decided to order a bunch of small plates, including salmon hand rolls (mmm!), a plate full of "Japanese delicacies" (a sampler of Japanese style small bites), duck ginger dumplings and shrimp dumplings. We talked, ate slowly and had a good time.

About halfway through our meal, something started stroking my leg.

My thought bubble: She must be shifting her legs. For a place that's not too crowded, these tables don't have a whole lot of leg room. I'll move...Nope, still stroking. That's strange. Whatever, just keep eating and moving your legs away.

My Friend's thought bubble: The hell's going on under there? Why is she stroking my legs?!

My friend peeked under the table and found Chibi, the restaurant's pitbull/mascot, rubbing it's cute, but chubby self across both our legs as he criss crossed around under the table.

We ended the night with a dessert of apple and chocolate dumplings with grapefruit sorbet. Mmm!

It's Freezing Out Here!

It's cold now. Really cold. It snowed for the first time since I've been out here last Saturday night. When I woke up on Sunday morning and looked out the window, the ledge was covered in powdery white snow. When I walked outside, I saw cars covered in snow and a bit of ice and snow on the ground. Everyone told me that I would love my first winter here since it's different to live in a place where there's snow outside, and then every year after that I would hate it because it's freezing cold. Looks like things are going that way. Right now the snow and ice are a novelty, so it's fun.

It's still freezing, though. When I walk out on a windy day and it's cold, I feel like my eyes and the rest of my face will freeze over if I don't get inside soon. I have to bundle up with a scarf, coat and gloves everywhere I go, and then when I get inside somewhere, the heat's on so high that I have to strip it all off.

Today on the subway, a thread on my jacket got caught around the button of another passenger. We had no idea until he had to move his arm and my elbow went with it. I tried to unwind it, but I must have been turning the thread the wrong way, because it wasn't coming apart. The guy was pretty nice and patient about it, but then again it was my jacket that was falling apart the more I tried to untangle the thread. After twisting it a few other ways, I managed to untangle our jackets before his stop.

It supposed to snow more this week. Hopefully the mountains will get enough of it so that I can go skiing this weekend!