Three to the Zero.

I got a shit ton of emails today. Mostly from Facebook alerting me that someone had written on my wall.

Thank you wall writers. Seriously.

But my favorite email of the day was from OKCupid -- you know, an online dating site of the free variety.

The subject of the email was:
Happy 30th Birthday!

And the body of the email:
Happy Birthday, _rolypoly! Still single?

I mean come on. That's funny.

Meee Yow

I was walking into my office today (after a sweet costume showcase at Cassidy Preschool) and thought to myself..."What the hell is hitting my leg?! Annoying."

"Oh, right. It's my tail."

During the ride from Santa Monica to Santa Clarita, I some how forgot that I was in costume.

Tail and all.

Captain Crunch

Oh, the iPod shuffle. There's always a song that comes up that brings you back or makes you cry.

Today, it brought me back.

So you should hear this song, you really should. Because it made my day today when I was stuck on Sawtelle and thought I might kick myself in my own shins.

Listen HERE

This is my friend from high school who made a celebrity status for himself on Orlando Morning Radio. That doesn't matter though. This song makes me grin....always.

Adventures in Life

Whenever I host anything at my house, I'm always running late. I think I secretly get my kicks out of this...but regardless, I'm always finishing things very, very last minute. The to-do list usually consists of the following:

Finish making snacks
Fold laundry
Clean bathroom
Sweep
Make Playlist
Finish creating game
Do makeup
Etc
Etc
Etc

All with 52 minutes before people show up.

When I'm scrambling and wiping down counters, throwing the sponge across the room into the sink and lighting the last few candles...I ALWAYS feel like Elizabeth Shue in Adventures in Babysitting.

After their huge adventure in NYC (shit, apparently it's Chicago) and getting the kids home safely; she's scrambling to clean up the mess and just as the parents open the door she jumps over the couch, plops down, opens a magazine and looks up at them, "Oh hey...you guys are home already?"

Rushing around my kitchen reminds me of how much I wanted to BE Elizabeth Shue.

I maybe still do.

Beater.

I'm speaking of a chocolate beater, not an old car.

Made cupcakes tonight and LOVE that my roommate likes licking the beater as much as I do. It clearly tastes better from there.

She was telling me that as a kid she had to share because there were four kids and only two pieces of chocolate goodness.

Today, my friends, I was grateful that I only grew up with one brother.

La la la la love

Met a friend for dinner tonight and there is nothing like seeing the glow of someone who is in love. It's so mesmerizing and engulfing. Especially when you're sitting across the table from a girl who you could never understand why someone hadn't already scooped her up and ridden off into the sunset with her.

Yay for friends being in love.

Guessing Game

When flowers arrive at my door, I usually have three thoughts:

1. Oh my goodness...do I have a secret admirer? I totally do. And it's gonna be some perfect stranger.

2. Then I realize: highly unlikely. They're probably from my mom. Which is amazing in itself. How is my mom so great?!

3. They are also quite possibly from my best friend in FL because she knows my favorite flower, and THESE are THEM.

However, today I opened the card expecting to see my mom's name...and no.

It says, "Dear Raaaaaaabecca" which means it's my dear, dear, dear, dear friend who is currently traveling the world on a sailboat and managed to send me flowers.

Way better than from a silly boy.

Funny thing is, he DOES have a brain.

My brother once told me that event coordinators are crazy. And if only seen in action during an event, I'd probably agree with him.

They're usually rushing by you at astonishing speeds with two radios attached to their hip, paper coming out of every pocket, slightly strung out, bloodshot eyes and lots of shouting orders.

You can call me whatever you like.

But I've never felt CRAZY...definitely overwhelmed, frustrated, exhausted, capable of strangling "higher ups", unappreciated, slap happy and lost. But I've learned to hire the right support to make those feelings less intense.

It may not be advice in business school books to hire your friends, but I will forever do it. Knowing I can count on someone to truly put their heart into something (whether it's serving appetizers to Ben Stiller or hauling straw bales in 90 degree heat) is a quality that is nearly impossible to find.

This weekend, rushing around my event and seeing this guy sneeze straw just to make a kid laugh was worth the exhaustion, the frustration and the heat.



Sned, you're kind of my hero.

B to the Rain

Our little Utopia (work) staff went out for drinks tonight after a long day of load in for our event. We're never a boring crowd, but tonight was particularly non-dull.

I've mentioned him before, but for this story, you'll need a quick run down of Brain from my office. He's a mid-40's techy type with a huge heart, short legs and one of the nicest guys I know. He's nerdy, in a very very endearing way but he's hip...ya know....he gets it. He surfs every weekend, he's mastered online dating and he loves everything Asia(n). My boss and I love Brain whose real name is Brian, but after tonight, he will forever be called B-Rain.

It was Latin night at Tijuana's in the lovely city of Irvine. And based on the outfits, I would have guessed we were at a South Beach prom gone wrong. Our crew was in sweaty polo shirts, various shorts and tennis shoes. But I will have you know, that WE, with our white dance moves and big smiles, started the dance floor. All because Brain looked over at the empty space with it's lonely disco ball and fancy fog machine and said, "Nice dance floor, but where are the bitches?"

It rolled off his tongue as if he said it every Friday night at the club. I convinced him that if we went out there, not only would we bring the dance floor, but the bitches too. And we did.

And B-Rain puffed his chest out the rest of the night as we worked it in the club.

Dumpster Diving

Soooo....tonight I pulled up in my alley, grabbed a few empty cups from my car and headed toward the dumpster.

It's always challenging opening it with hands full, but I managed and proceeded to throw everything in.

Including my iPhone.
Shit.

I experienced a slight moment of shock and then the first thought to pop in my head..."Oh my god, I should Twitter about this."

And then...

Instantaneous laugh attack.

Fangs and fur and such.

I got to color at work today. And not in a doodling on my notes kind of way...but, like, I was getting paid to do so.

I was drawing monster making machines and monster body parts.

Rad.

An Ode

I get it.
It's just chicken.
From some seemingly non-special Fast Food joint.

But it's not.
It's delicious....for one.

But the experience only gets better from there.
Free wireless.
Amazingly friendly staff.
ICE DREAM.
And plenty of sauces to choose from.

Chick Fil A.
You know this,...but I love you.

And today, not only did you have fresh flowers on every table (I mean come on, what Fast Food place offers this?!), but they were SUNFLOWERS.

Top shelf my friend, top shelf.

The workout begins.

Mornings have never been my thing.
Ever.
Just ask my father.

But somehow in highschool, I woke up at 5:30am every morning and got my butt in the pool.

THIS morning -- it was not 5:30am, it was 6:30am. And it was not the pool...but I started a workout regime that I'm hoping to keep for at least 4 weeks.

And sunrise, ocean and Santa Monica...well, it's not a bad combo really. If I could just smell like chlorine when I got home, it would be perfect.

Cleaning on Sundays

There is still something about masses of Crayola markers and Sharpies that get me excited and make me feel like a kid in art class.

You can never have enough.
Love it.

Round of applause

Some more Guerrilla Gardening today and it never gets old at Wilton and Sunset when people speed by yelling "Thank you" out their window.

Today, a guy drove by in his truck with both hands out of his window giving us a round of applause. Pretty great.

You're welcome, Hollywood.

Approval.

Been working a lot of overtime lately for an event coming up and finally finished most of the artwork for all our signage.

Had to get it approved by the client and my boss today. And, I'm not gonna lie, the "Fantastic" and "Love it" comments I got...made my day. Hard work paid off.

Vino

Stayed late again tonight...but drinking wine at work makes it less painful.

I suppose wine makes most things less painful. But its fun to blast my music, sip on wine and not have anyone bother me. Maybe I should work solo more often.

So kind.

I was late to work today because my windshield wiper does not like to stay in it's home. It fell off twice today on the 5 freeway and it sounds like a shotgun when it unhooks and hits my window going 70 mph.

Not to mention I can't see because it's not doing its job.

I was explaining this to my boss when I walked in and he said we'd go look at it later.

Later today, he left in a hurry to run errands and pack before a big trip and I totally forgot about my car.

I just happened to step away from my desk for a break and to watch the rain for a second....and low and behold, my boss was down there, IN THE RAIN, checking out my windshield wiper.

Wow and wow.

Sick.

Everyone loves to puff out their chest and compare east coast and west coast. I'm technically partial to the east coast, but if you ask New Yorkers or even Bostonians, they'd tell you Florida is NOT the east coast and I should shut my mouth. Right.

So I, a girl from the SOUTH coast, was getting coffee today at my favorite local joint (Cafe Bolivar -- go here!) and the guy behind me saddled up next to me and said, "That's the sickest tatt I've seen in awhile."

Ah, but there's more to this sunshine than getting an early morning compliment.

I immediately thought..."Wow, I love when people are just friendly and talk to you. It doesn't happen very often here." And then I processed that he said "sick" -- which could mean he's east coast even though that word has morphed its way into everyone's vocabulary. But then (bear with my train of thought here), I thought of my friend Jane who was recently visiting from the east coast.

She came home after a day of gallivanting around and said, "LA is weird. People just talk to you...for no reason. It's creepy."

That was a long train to get here, but:
Friendly Strangers are great. No matter where you are or where they're from.

Boo.

It's my favorite month. I think we've talked about this before, but I love the rain, the cool temperatures, football in the background and Halloween.

And this morning I walked into my office and was greeted by this guy:



This is why my boss and I get along so well. We both agree that Halloween is BY FAR the best holiday.

Apply with in.

I need to laugh like this please.
Watch me.

Taking applications.

Concerned.

I visited a couple gardens today and at both places set my keys down on the curb since I didn't have pockets.

People are very concerned about keys. I can't tell you how many people stopped to:
A. see if they were mine and
B. make sure I wasn't going to forget them

Girl stealing water from a church -- no big deal.
Girl hauling a garbage can full of compost across the street -- no big deal.
But keys, alone, with no owner -- huge deal.

Overly-Friendly-Kilt-Wearing-Guy

I saw you walking out of Starbucks and wasn't looking forward to running into you. But you were surprisingly really nice and your sort of over-the-top - "You're most certainly welcome, my lady" - actually made me smile.

Grrrr.

I got a phone call today from my mom and her voice sounded sort of concerned. I thought she had some bad news. She wanted to know "if I had a second to talk."

Come to find out, she was calling me to vent. She was frustrated and just wanted someone to talk to.

It was a first. It's almost always ME calling HER with some dilemma or complaint that I need to talk through.

I felt so honored that I actually got to be on the receiving end this time.

Friendly Stranger

My brother and I walked into a bar tonight and the group of guys who had just walked in before us turned around, gave us high fives and offered to buy us a shot.

Fantastic.

So maybe there's a theme lately...whatever.

Kids seem to have infiltrated my life lately, but this girl isn't complaining. I feel like I'm surrounding myself with kids on purpose...they tend to brighten almost any day.

Tonight I attended a Back to School Night at Cassidy Preschool. Which was sort of unexpected. I ran by to pick up photos from our Guerrilla Gardening dig and was lucky enough to stick around for a bit to see a friend schmooze with parents...but more importantly, see a friend in the middle of a dream realized. She (and her loving husband) made a dream come true when they opened their preschool. And I got to see it!

And as a bonus, when I got home to edit photos, found this gem. I mean, come on.



Other photos from the GG Day at Cassidy

Lost and Found

As I pulled out my wallet to pay for lunch today, I realized a couple of my credit cards were missing -- namely, my LA Guerrilla Gardening bank card. My heart skipped a beat and I tried to remember the last time I saw it.

I decided it had to have fallen out in my bag and to not worry about it.

At the register, the cashier watched me as I autographed my receipt and then she sort of cocked her head and said, "Are you involved with gardening?"

Weird. "Yes I am."

"Are these yours?" She handed me a stack of cards, including my Guerrilla Gardening business cards. "I recognized your name. Someone JUST came in moments ago to drop these off...said they found them outside by the post office."

Thank you kind stranger who doesn't believe in finders keepers.

Head to Head Competition

Got to spend my afternoon at a BBQ with lots of kids. And one in particular convinced me to purchase a new game for my iPhone. Important to note that she's all of 7 or 8 years old, just moved here from Mexico and barely speaks English and knew how to use my phone better than I did.

I bought an air hockey game and the deciding factor was the position you have to sit in order to play. Granted, I LOVE air hockey and the perfectly copied sound effects from the game that this app offers, but mostly it was positioning.

We must have played for 30 minutes. And in order for both people to be able to see the board and be able to block goals, we had to sit across from each other, each of us holding one end of the phone -- literally head touching head.

Don't worry. I've already decided I'm bringing it out at bars when I meet a cute boy. Perfect.

Excuse me, mam...

I was in search of free mulch today and ended up on the westside at a place that is supposed to offer it 7 days a week. However, every time I've been to pick it up, the place seems to be closed early. Just like every other time, today, I drove off annoyed and frustrated that I'd driven there with zero success.

However, this time after turning around 3 times in my car, I noticed a posted sign. Apparently the location had moved to the back of the building, just around the corner.

As I stopped my car, put my flashers on and hopped out to verify the sign....a man pulled up in a pick up truck with his beautiful dog hanging out the window and said, "Are you having car trouble?"

I responded that I was merely trying to find free mulch and he said, "Oh, I saw you pull over a couple times and get out, I thought you were having trouble so I turned around to make sure you were okay."

THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN LA. It just doesn't. Other places (i.e. Tennessee & Florida)....yes, it does. But it was so out of the ordinary today. And I loved it.

Cheers to big cars.

Soooo...I get made fun of for having a messy car and almost never having room for passengers.

But, ya know what?

I'm kind of proud of it. There's usually an insta-party in my car and you can't fault me for that.

Just Because

I was just noticing the other day that my email inbox is mostly about work. Fulfilling favors or putting ANOTHER event into my calendar or deciding which forward to read.

Over the past year or so, the personal How Are You emails have dwindled and its made it less fun to see my inbox full.

But, as usual, just when I get down about something I'm always proved wrong. I got a very sweet Just Thinking Of You type email from a friend today and it made my day.