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Going Gaga

The California coast lit up this morning with the warm embrace of a sunrise so spectacular – in all it’s purply/pink/yellow glory – that the morning news didn’t stop showing shots of it until 7am, when the broadcast switched over to Good Morning America. In related news: I need more sleep. Oh, and TGIF. Time creaks slowly towards sweet, sweet, weekend.

Do you have Halloween plans? I certainly don’t, but honestly I never really try anyway. Not for Halloween. It’s too costly. It’s too time consuming, and I can’t ever drag myself out to the shops or justify the gigantic expenditures for costumes I won’t wear more than once; the general costume selection out there makes any thoughtful effort an enormous pain in my ass. If I want anything good, I will be collecting items from store to store, sewing at home, and hoping the whole thing doesn’t fall off the moment I step out the door. Likewise, disappointment sets in every time I’m invited to a party – I think it’s going to be some evening soiree with exquisitely detailed and realistic zombies, harlequins and 18th century Antoinettes – it is never as imagined; it’s just a kegger, with clowns. Last year, my hubby and I wound up in a grungy bar in the middle of some skanky part of Santa Monica, dressed as a nun and a priest. Everyone kept bowing and asking us to bless them the whole time. Those were seriously the ONLY costumes that wouldn’t require extra parts, so we bought them last minute. It is why I’m lame on Halloween. I’m the one who locks my door and turns off the lights. Then again, I never went trick or treating growing up. I don’t know why it’s exciting to go from door to door collecting candy for hours in the cold (first snow in Colorado is on Halloween). But you, I hope YOU have a good thing going tomorrow.

Be safe out there this holiday weekend. If Auroras emergence this morning has any prophecies in it, it’s that the witchy weather has vanished, and the only thing terrifying about this weekend will be the copious amounts of sugar (and possible alcohol) consumed, and more Lady Gaga’s than I’d like to see in my lifetime.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Shot taken up Runyon Canyon, 8am.

Tags: Halloween, Runyon Canyon, Sunrise

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Categories Flora, In The City, Neighborhood, Weather

Evening Transition, Fiery Skies

1 Sep

Tags: California Fires, California Skies

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Categories Flora

The Fires

31 Aug

Another California summer brought along with it dry heat and dry grasses; ergo the palpitating, unrelentant, blazing flames. On Saturday morning at 7:30am, atop the 3 mile hike that is Runyon Canyon, the smoky city is ghostly and stinks of sizzling debree, like burning rubber.

The entire Valley.

Tags: California Fires, Runyon Canyon

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Categories Flora, In The City, Neighborhood, Quotidian

In The Thick Of It

18 Aug

Last week, the marine layer refused to move, hovering over the city like bad smog. From atop the eighth floor of the parking garage at The Grove, nothing looks more ominous than toasted clouds caught in the hills. However, with the dense mist, there is a genial quiet and the smothered city sound is comforting.

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Categories Flora, In The City, Neighborhood, Quotidian, Weather

Scrambled Eggs…

5 Aug

My Father once said that it is no wonder Dr. Seuss was able to create such imaginative tales with likewise illustrations, because California is so endemically diverse in flora and the sunsets can’t be beat – though Theodor Seuss Geisel didn’t arrive in La Jolla, California until much later in his life, it is true that some of his most famous and best-selling work was written there. It is easy to imagine the tale of The Lorax, for instance (about environmentalism and anti-consumerism), threaded from the erstwhile disappearance of the Orange Groves that covered the hills of Los Angeles or perhaps, inspired by the sight of neighborhoods populated with hundreds of attenuated and bushy-haired palms; and The Grinch (about anti-materialism)…does not need an introduction to where Seuss conceived that story; the ‘Great American Dream’ and its’ accessories was widely advertised in his time (though I estimate that 1957 was a different cultural entity and not approaching today’s cultural compass in its materialistic tendencies, so Seuss was clairvoyant). Either way, California has a nice bit of exceptional scenery.

Tags: Bougainvillea, California Flowers, California Trees, Dr. Seuss, Palm Trees

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Categories Flora, In The City, Literature, Neighborhood, Quotidian

Adopting

3 Aug

What I remember most about owning pets (from birds to cats to several dogs) is that they weren’t around that long. This fact was not due to ill-care, but rather to a certain family member who insisted that each cat/dog/kitten/puppy/bird was succumbing to some unalterable primal behavior of chewing, throwing up, pooping, barking, mewing, attention-seeking behavior and therefore disturbing so-and-so’s sleep and costing so-and-so’s money; thus, eventually, each was given away in its turn due to some ineffaceable error.

I was delighted then, after years of dog lust, when a friend of my Sister’s found a pup. This pup, covered in fleas and wearing a cat collar when he was found, is adorable. Though a full-scale search for his former owners is in effect, nothing has come to fruition and it is assumed he may be another victim of the recession – put out due to financial strain or otherwise just losing his cuteness after growing older. On my Sisters’ friends advice, we are “testing” him out and happily took him out to see the world. However, a lot of comforting and petting and cooing had to be done, the poor pup’s been through a lot.

Santa Monica was wonderful last night; from the salty ocean air to assembled yogis in a sunset class – with complimentary wooden flute soundtrack – butts hoisted towards the flushed sunset.