Barma?

Well, that's officially a pretty lame title.  But what's not lame is what happened at the bar last night.

We asked the bartender for some napkins and somehow ended up with an order of nachos (and still messy fingers).  After she realized what had happened, she told us they were on the house.  Since we were full, we offered them to the two guys next to us.

About 20 minutes later...the couple on our other side (unaware of what had happened) leaned over and said, "Do you guys want this beer?  The bartender gave us one too many."

Yes, please.

It pays to share.

Ha.

Face lotion.

Swanlike.

Awesome.

Way to be observant

I let two friends borrow my car while I was out of town.  They even picked me up from the airport!

It took me almost two days to notice, but they cleaned my car for me!  And not just ran it through the pay car wash...but got the Armor All out himself and shined the inside.

So amazing!
(I blame the jet lag on not noticing until late.) 

Margarita Mondays

Was doing a little happy hour tonight and some point the lights just above us turned on super bright.  It kind of killed the vibe, but we ignored it.

A few minutes later, they changed to an almost strobe action.  My friend and I looked up and then at each other.  Sort of shook our heads and kept talking.

Again, lights on.  Right in our faces.

And then strobe.

What tha?

Finally a girl at the table next us leaned over and said, "I'm sorry,  I can't take it anymore.  We've been playing with the lights and just watching you guys.  Been fun."

Pretty great.

It's that time of year...

I knew i was coming home to a wreck of a room and wasn't looking forward to it.  I usually try to make my room spotless before I get on a plane because there's nothing better than coming back to that after a long trip.

However, coming home to these on my bed made it much, much better.
Yay, roommates and my favorite Valentine candy.

Sharing the sun

Man, I still love when people share their sunshines with me.  It's so great.

I was in NY and it was my first night away from the baby, and my wife's first night alone with him.  On day two (after the first night) I got a call ay 7AM from a very unhappy momma.  He had a terrible night....up every couple hours...lots of screaming....not good.  We went back and forth and I did what I could from NY to help out.  I was at lunch and saw this coming up the stairs from the bathroom.  It made everything all better. :)

One (and Two and Three) Tunnel Ave

I have to walk through a tunnel everyday to get to work and there is a woman who lives on various ends of the tunnel, depending on the day.

What's crazy is she isn't just moving a cardboard box from place to place everyday.  She moves an entire home.  She has a coat rack, a mirror, artwork, multiple pairs of shoes (that she leaves outside the door), a plant and a lovely pink hat.

I haven't seen entirely inside her house (because I have manners) but she's got a pretty sweet set up. 

Yay, bartenders.

Since I've been a little stir crazy, thought I'd run out to grab a bottle of wine to keep in my room and on the way decided it might be nice to have a glass of wine with real people, like in a real bar.  Not sure my cold was super excited about the idea, but I NEEDED to not be in my room.

So I went to the hotel bar (new bottle of wine now in my bag) and sat down at the bar.  Just as the bartender set my glass in front of me, I could see my bag starting to slip off the chair next to me.  I lunged to grab for it and managed to get a hold of everything in the bag except the bottle.  I watched it in slow motion as it headed toward the ground and exploded all over the place.

The bartender was very nice and refused to let me help clean up.  I felt awful.

I chatted with him over my glass of wine and as I paid my bill, he slid a new bottle of wine across the bar and told me to quickly stick it in my bag before anyone else saw.  "It's not YOUR fault our seats are slippery.  Enjoy."

So sweet.

Sick Overseas

I've been locked in my hotel room for two days with this nasty cold/flu thing.  I couldn't even muster up enough energy to go out and get something to eat.  Which brings up a good point -- when you get sick, best to check into a hotel so you can have room service.

As I came out of my room today the housekeeping lady was right by my door.  She looked at me, sighed and said, "How are you?  Have you been sick?  I was worried about you."

I didn't realize how much I had missed someone checking on me or seeing if I needed anything until she voiced her concern.

She told me to "stay warm, keep resting and smile when I can" -- it would make me feel better.

I already do.

The Cave

I've been listening to Mumford & Sons on repeat the last few days and thouroughly enjoying it.



And then....
There was this.
And I almost died.
Heart. Full.
So full, ya'll.

Hey! It's you.

It's refreshing how excited kids get when they run into their friends outside of school.  I watched two kids spot their friend in the shop across the way and their eyes got big, they looked back and forth from their mom to their friend, just chomping at the bit to run over and say hi.  Their mom gave them the go ahead and they could barely stand it.  They ran over, stopped a little short -- a safe distance from their friend in this unfamiliar environment -- and just waved at them.  Smiling ear to ear.

They all then ran back across so moms could awkwardly meet moms and the kids just couldn't get over seeing each other.

 I'm gonna try to be as excited when I run into people unexpectedly.  Honest.

They're not just silly on the intercom.

This just made me cry.  
Pretty sure the tears came when I read: in his bare feet.

They can't go anywhere without me...

Indeed.

It's because the DMV is fun...

Went to check out Foster the People in San Diego tonight and had the bouncer hold on to my ID just a little bit too long.  He was a bit stand-off-ish, wasn't smiling and was just staring at my picture.

As I raised my eyebrows in slight annoyance, he slowly said, "Niiiiii......ccccce.......smile.  I love when people have a sense of humor on their driver's license.  I mean come on, what's with the serious face all the time?!"

Which made me think of a friend who had the silliest face on his driver's license and I was always stunned when bouncers kept a stone cold face when they looked at it.  Boooooring.

Full Circle

It's crazy how small Los Angeles really is.

I went to check out a prospective project for the Do Good Bus today and the woman who introduced us to the cause was planning to meet us there.

As usual, I was running late and my partner had already started chatting with her. As I walked up, they were talking about guerrilla gardening and the woman was explaining that she hadn't gardened, but that she had made seed bombs at some event.  I just smiled and sort of dismissed it; seed bombs are all over now, it didn't mean she made them with LA Guerrilla Gardening.

As we were making our introductions, a little girl - with so much hair on her head I thought she might topple over - peered around the corner.  Her face was so familiar and I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

"And that's Graciela." Her mom said.

Suddenly pictures were piecing together in my mind.  Seed bombs.  Big hair.  Cute little girl.  Event. Dancing.  Graciela.  AH HA!

I interrupted this lovely woman and said, "I'm sorry, were you guys at Park[ing] Day LA when you made seed bombs?  And did Graciela dance in the street with lots of strangers?"

She sort of sweetly rolled her eyes and said, "Yes.  I remember that exactly.  I had run in to Scoops to grab some fancy ice cream and left her dancing with you all. When I came back out, she was giving everyone a dance lesson."

I almost jumped in the air -- I couldn't believe it.  This was the little girl I had written a sunshine about 2 years ago!

It's The Little Things

Love grabbing a stack of paper for a specific print job, throwing it in and then coming back to the printer to find you picked the EXACT right amount of pages.

Yessss.

Golden Ticket

For me, opening a full-size chocolate bar isn't really about the sweet goodness inside.  The part that gets me is slowly, carefully opening each fold.  One side at a time.  The crinkle of the shiny wrapper inside.  That sound.

I am Charlie every single time.  Closing my eyes, heartbeat getting stronger, deep breaths...hoping for the golden ticket.

It will never get old.

California Girl

I had no idea the trials and tribulations iPhone users in the Midwest, Northeast, Northwest...um, and anywhere else that isn't approximately 70 degrees year round...have to cope with.

I went out early this morning and happened to be wearing gloves.  Now, I'm fully aware how the iPhone screen works -- with the temperature of your skin.  But as my phone started to ring and I couldn't be bothered to take off my glove, I resorted to kissing my phone in order to select the answer button...and I quickly realized how hard it must be to live in the cold.  So did the gentleman at the bus stop who watched it all go down and wasn't sure if he should laugh or shake his head in embarrassment. 

Those poor people who live in snow...you can't even answer your phone properly.  Sheesh.

Yep.  I just posted that.