1:22 p.m. - 2003-04-16
more california
wednesday, april 16. 2:20 PM
yesterday morning, tax day, I received a check in the mail for a goodly sum of money. i thought it was a mistake, too good to be true! but it was my apartment deposit from when I studied abroad. pennies from heaven, Jesus loves me. I will not go into debt.
and now for the real story.
there are so many of you out there, so many versions of this I can tell, but I guess it will have to be a clean install kind of thing, an overview. i like this diary but telling a story without my hands and facial expressions is not my forte, unfortunately. anyway.
last tuesday I went home to grinnell.
drinking box wine straight from the bag.
the boys.
then I came back to illinois.
truck stop sky.
then the california adventure began.
everything that happens seems a different incident all on its own, tiny stories that i guess can all add up to a weekend trip. but now it seems more fragmented. it was a perfect vacation, enough time away, enough different things to see and do, and plenty of time with a friend I haven't seen in nearly a year.
this is shane, and this is where he lives in bakersfield.
i really liked southern california a lot. i was amazed by the vegetation, everything so thick and leafy and flowery. at the end of a long chicago winter where everything is bare and dirty, LA looked like Eden. well, except for the massive amounts of homeless people. but I guess that's what happens in warm urban areas.
we went to a Lucien Freud exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and I was super impressed by his work. He's a modern painter, the grandson of Sigmund Freud. I can't remember the last time I loved a modern artist so much. his faces were so strange and sad, and the modeling so bold and fine.
a frued drawing. it's low light, no flash, so I didn't get kicked out for photography.
also we went to an Anaheim angels baseball game. i bought pennants and took tons of pictures in order to prove myself a good sister to my two baseball-loving brothers. they won, but whatever. it's fun sitting in the sun and watching people. plus i got a helmet sundae!
baseball.
the hotel we stayed at was sweet, really retro cool. across the street was a tiny shack full of western shirts, 3 for 25$. underneath the hotel was a kickin' diner full of hipsters. there were sweet furniture stores and boutiques all over. Television City, where they tape The Price is Right, was about three blocks from us.
our hotel, the beverly laurel.
i took the Scientology personality test on Hollywood Avenue, and apprently I'm depressed, aggressive, non-appreciative, a poor communicator and overly active. I'm pretty sure I took the test wrong, or they got my results messed up with someone else's. In either case, some guy talked to me forever about how L Ron Hubbard's Dianetics could really improve my focus and success!! he kept telling me my brain was really a computer, and computers shouldn't feel sad. uh, whut?
I'm losing steam on this entry. all in all, I'm happy about my trip. Immensely glad to see the Pacific ocean, an amazing field of flowers, a Buck Owens concert, and much more.
pictures to round out the entry. I'm sure more of my stories will come seeping out as days go by.
