Cup to the Cake

There are most definitely times you need to transport just one cupcake. And today was one of those days. My brother was trying to decide what delicious item from our Memorial Day spread to bring to a blind date.
Cupcake.
Duh.

Once the decision was made, I might have gotten a little too excited about the possibility of putting my solo-cupcake-transporter into use. It felt so good to say, "Ooooo, you need to carry that cupcake don't you?! Well I, my friend, have just what you need. Ta da!"

It's the small things, people. The small things.

Go ask your father.

I was standing outside Albertson's watching everyone walk out with their charcoal and chips and hot dog buns for Memorial Day BBQs across the land. I caught myself passing judgment based on what beer people purchased and was trying to guess who would be attending their parties.

A little boy and his dad stopped at the entrance to grab a cart and as his dad lifted him into the "big" part, the little boy's eyes widened and he held tightly to the side of the cart, "Daddy..." His eyes got even bigger and his voice was almost a whisper, "Mommy doesn't let me do this."

"I know Mommy doesn't, but Daddy does!"

The little boy still seemed a little hesitant to fully enjoy his freedom. But he held on tight, braced himself and they headed towards the charcoal isle.

Tasty.

I swallowed a bug.
I really did.
Yuck.

And it made me think of the lady who swallowed a spider to catch the fly and then a bird to catch the spider and...

That lady was absurd.

Blame It On The Rain

This morning I sat in traffic for 2 hours on the 405 freeway. And when I say sat, I mean that quite literally. We weren't moving.

Once I finally made it to my exit, I was in serious need of a coffee. So I pulled up to my favorite little drive-thru coffee joint. As I waited behind a car, I started playing with my phone and after awhile realized this was taking longer than normal. I was trying to be calm. It had been 5 minutes, not a lifetime.

There was a guy standing next to my car who had ordered as a walk-up customer. I could tell he was watching me out of the corner of his eye so I was trying not to look overly annoyed and impatient.

But apparently, I was. I put my car in reverse and was going to commit to the other side of the kiosk that had no cars. As soon as I pulled up, another car sneaked in right before me. Raar.

And clearly, the car I had originally been behind was now pulling away.
Clearly.
I reminded myself this was all just prolonging me having to sit at my desk, so it wasn't all bad, but I wanted out of my car.

Mr. Walk-up Guy walked past my car and tapped on my window motioning for me to roll it down.

"Don't worry, I told her you had been waiting and she's coming to take your order first."

I smiled and said thank you. And I felt a little bit lame for being huffy and puffy.

CAUTION

There are things you see plenty of in the City of Angels.
But this isn't one of them.

Loving this street sign.

I wear my sunglasses at night.

I won a pair of free sunglasses at a party awhile ago and I learned a lesson:
People pay lots of money for NICE sunglasses because it's worth it. You're basically looking through the lenses of heaven.

Seriously.

This whole UV, Polarized, yadda yadda yadda....that shit's for real.

My relatively new acquired glasses look pretty silly on me. But man, it's a whole new world. It is.

Here's to dreams coming true.

My brother signed on the dotted line today.
Record deal.
Sony/Columbia.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

I joined the band out a bar to celebrate and spent entirely too much on beer in plastic cups and girlie shots, but ended up with a lucky dollar bill.

There was a guy at the bar making fun of the Washington Apple shots I had just paid $9 each for. He told me he was going to offer to pay for my tab, but after I ordered those, he'd changed his mind. I explained that they were very important apple shots. They were in honor of my brother signing a record deal and a reminder to stay grounded. My grandmother was Granny Smith and we were going to put a knee on the ground (literally) and cheers to $9 LA shots and always remembering where you came from.

He paused and pulled a dollar out of his pocket.
"This will be better. Instead of me paying, you should take this dollar for luck. For you, for your brother, for the band. And next time you meet someone who needs a little luck, you should pass it on."

I don't think he realized how excited I was about this idea. He mentioned I'd probably keep it for a week and then would need a pack of gum and just get rid of it. Quite the opposite actually.

I can't wait to pass it on.

Turn it up Chris. I'm about to.

I was walking down my street today, headphones in and scrolling through play lists. It was about 5:30p and high time for traffic with cars as far as I could see just stopped, waiting.

As I hit play and the music started, it was so loud it literally made me jump straight in the air (both feet off the ground). I immediately giggled and looked over at traffic. It appeared no one saw me, but as I kept walking, a dude a few cars down smiled and nodded in that sort of we-just-shared-a-moment kind of way.

Yay for laughing at yourself and sharing moments with strangers.

When breathing doesn't help...

There are days at my office when taking a deep breath doesn't do the trick. So, today, as my heart started to race and I felt like I couldn't breathe and I'm pretty sure steam started to seep...I racked my brain for a diversion. And this video completely did the trick. It's been around for ages and it makes me so happy.

Friday afternoon traffic.

A little sunshine in the midst.

(check out that bumper sticker)

My perfect blind date would be just as resourceful.

Went on a blind date tonight and we agreed to wear silly hats. Sort of to spot each other, but mostly because, um, it's fun.

My day ended up all over the place and I left my intended silly hat at home showing up at our meeting place with 20 minutes to find a replacement hat.

I checked lost and found at the bar.
Nothing.
I Googled local toy shops.
Closed.
Bartender suggested local hat shop.
Savior.

I explained my situation to the woman behind the counter and she said, regretfully, they were sort of a serious hat shop. But she started shuffling through the shelves to see what options we had.

We decided on this lovely gem:



I'd wear it a little incorrectly and it would qualify as silly.

She handed it to me and said, "Just take it. You can borrow it and bring it back later. Just make sure it's Friday or Saturday when my boss isn't here."

WHAT?!

I couldn't believe it. People. Are. Great.
She turned down my offer to leave her some collateral. But I insisted I'd feel better if she'd take my business card. So I handed her my LA Guerrilla Gardening card and the guy behind the counter said, "Oh! I've totally heard of this and I've been wanting to get involved. Perfect."

Perfect is right. My heart is still full of sunshine.

The blind date: He wore a brown beanie.
FAIL.

If you're in the market for a hat, please visit the coolest people in the world of hats.

I will be a hummingbird

I've been trying to explain part of the reason behind getting a hummingbird tattoo and ironically enough, someone sent me this link yesterday. They sent it for an entirely different reason, but this is actually a scene from Dirt! The Movie and was a partial reason for inspiring a hummingbird tattoo.

The cool kids are doing it.

Handwritten,
unexpected,
thank you notes.

Best thing ever.

Especially when they're taped to your door.

F-U-N

Field Day 2010
Number 7
Done and done.

So much fun this year and SO MANY people.

I had a complete stranger tell me that today was the best day of his entire life. The most fun he'd ever had.

Which makes my week.
And also makes me think of a favorite movie from my past:
Shag -- "Now this is the most fun."

Yer Mom...

Isn't as cool as mine.

My brother and I were lucky enough to spend the entire week of Mother's Day with my mom and she proved to be the coolest one around.

Tonight, we played a little Shuffle Board at The Daily Pint and she schooled it. Pretty sure the two dudes we played weren't sure what they were getting into.

I know it's usually moms that are hearing accolades of their children from others, but this week was filled with people mentioning how great my mom was.

Duh. She's clearly the most awesome-est.

SOTD, FML, IMMD -- OMG

Making someone else's day can really make YOUR day.
I promise.

I love hearing those words out of someone's mouth:
"You just made my day!"
Love it. Love it. Love it.

So put your neck out there. Try it. Compliment a stranger, help someone parallel park...maybe today, maybe tomorrow.

Also, in researching that phrase quickly, I found this website. It's the happy opposite of FML. It's IMMD -- http://itmademyday.com/

Smells & Buttons...

...two things that can bring you back to a time and a place.

And this is sort of a future sunshine, but the smell of skunks will always bring me to Hollywood and my first apartment, jacaranda trees and crazy streets filled with people trying to be somebody.

I'm convinced it's a native plant that gives off that smell. But everyone swears it's truly an over abundance of skunks in this concrete city.

Awe-sim

A friend forwarded this site to me today.
And it IS pretty awesome.

1000awesomethings.com

Some of my faves:
#527 The night before a really big day
#522 Dancing when you're home alone
#518 Napping with someone else
#563 Watching cream go into coffee
#720 The final seconds of untangling a really big knot

In need of a tricycle.

I've been doing some shopping for Field Day and when I arrived at a strangers house to take a tricycle off their hands, here's how the conversation went.

"So do you have a toddler?"
"No, I'm actually using this for an event. It's going to be part of a game for adults."
"Oh, um, this isn't really made for an adult."
"Well, yeah. That's why it's fun."
"Ok, well hopefully no one gets hurt. Although, I imagine the only thing that might get hurt is someone's feelings."

I'm not entirely sure what he meant by that. But he decided the bike might need a little adjusting if big butts would be using it. So he tightened everything up for me and wished me luck.