Home from So Col.

We are returned from our sojourn in the south. Everyone who was sending prayers and good vibes for our trip was remarkably successful! Usually I spend my time in LA in clench-jawed determination to be a good sport. This trip, I actually enjoyed myself!

The fiftieth anniversary luau was lovely. DH had the idea of taking our picture of the original wedding party and having it blown up to poster size as our gift to the happy couple. It was a huge success. So many of us can no longer see well enough to appreciate the details of a 5X7 photo.

People sat wherever they chose. DH who was the ring bearer lo these many years ago, wound up sitting next to the woman who had been the flower girl. They had a marvelous time talking cruises. Her husband is a sculptor for films and TV. In an upcoming episode of CSI New York, when you see the investigators rappelling down the face of the Statue of Liberty, I met the guy who built and sculpted that face! And he's interested in doing the cover for my western romance! Wayy cool!

We went to San Diego with my MIL and rode the Historic Trolley which I would reccommend to anyone new to the city. It was $30 per person, but the pass was good for the whole day, you could get on and off as you chose, and you got to see the historic old town, the gaslamp district, Seaport Village, the beach resprt town of Coronado, the San Diego Zoo, And Balboa Park which has seventeen different museums! DH and MIL. although born and raised in So. Cal. had no idea San Diego had so much of interest. (Our driver was funny, very informative, and enunciated clearly, which is really important to old farts like us.)

People in LA give directions by using strings of numbers. I don’t really clue in to numbers. “You take the 110 to the 91, cross the 710, and get off onto 57 . . . I could be listening to the refrigerator running for all the significance I get from this. If I write it down, and track it on the map, I’m ok, but God help me if I ever have to drive in this madhouse!

SIL had two friends visiting from out of town, so we joined them for a nice brunch on Sunday, and again, on Tuesday when they went to Disneyland. I think I'm too old for Disneyland. The crowds wear on me, the rides are too short for the length of time you spend in line, and the t-shirts and trinkets are cheesy and overpriced.

I took a mid-afternoon break, walked back to the hotel, and lay down in the dark, cool silence for a two hour nap. Oh golly it was nice!! I had DH’s cell phone so we could re-connect. I headed back and called SIL’s number. She never answers her phone but waits for people to leave voice mail. Frustrating when you are trying to find someone. But I left the voice mail. Soon the phone rang. It was DH on SIL’s phone. I could hear him fine. He couldn’t hear me at all. I don’t own a cell phone and though I can see their wonderful utility, I still sense they are a snare of the devil. Goodness knows our connection was cursed. I was fighting my way through manic hordes frantically having FUN the length of Downtown Disney with overstimulated toddlers and parents on their Last Nerve snarling, “It costs $120 a day for you to go to Disneyland. I don’t care if you’re exhausted, you are going to get my money’s worth if I have to drag you kicking and screaming the whole length and breadth of the damn place!” And all the time I was bellowing, “Hello? Hello? Can you hear me now?” Finally I hit the wrong button and disconnected. So I called back. This time SIL answered. She couldn’t hear me either. I could hear them just fine, but they couldn't hear me at all - though as loud as I was shouting, everyone else in the damn park could. I was like a salmon, swimming upstream on Main-Street USA, trying to find my mate, and unable to make connection. Goddam modern technology! In the old days we would have arranged beforehand to meet at a specific place at a specific time and that would be that. Now, I have no idea where he is on the acres of park, and I have nightmares about losing people who are dear to me in crowds. Panic is rising in my bosom when at last my phone rings again. SIL has given the phone to her son who can hear just fine and talks me right straight to them. I was so fraught that I nearly threw the phone on the ground and stomped it!

I would have been blogging about this all along but time was short, and although the hotel has a wi-fi service for $10 a day, there was a computer gaming convention in the next hotel, (and the streets were thronged with young people wearing “World of Warcraft” t-shirts.) So, When I tried to access the hotel website, another site kept popping up with a stronger signal. Every time I tried to log on, the security programs in my laptop said, “Ohh, bad juju. If you go there, don’t tell them anything you don’t want to world to know.” Well crap. With all those web-heads out there, do you suppose someone is financing his trip with a pirate site? No blogging after all, untill finally I found a wifi site at the airport where I could pay an exhorbitant fee for a few minutes of internet time. I checked my e-mail and right away up popped a picture that Ay Lane had sent me of a guy who had an expansive tattoo in a singularly tender area. "Puff the magic dragon. " The young man sitting at the terminal next to me, glanced over, goggled, giggled, and then nearly blushed to death when I glared at him. I was so flustered, It took me a moment to figure how to move on to the next item in my inbox. And then I started giggling. Which pretty much blew the rest of my internet time.

and Blogger is refusing to upload my pictures. I'll try to edit some in when we get the desktop back from the Geek Squad. Laptop- desktop - boxtop - it's all confusing to me.