EastGirlsWest

Booth Girl

Apparently, The Husband is working very hard at GadgetFest ‘08.

Hmph.

Goodbye

This photo was taken yesterday. That’s my car, begin towed away from me forever. How’s that for some not at all subtle end of year symbolism?

I donated the car to KPBS, partially because they told me to, every five minutes on the air. By the time I heard the “donate your car” spot for the one thousandth time this year, it transformed into mind control. Donate my car, you say? Well of course! Here it is. Take. My. Car.

The other reason I donated is for a big fat tax write off. Oh, and just sheer generosity, of course.

I try not to get too sentimental about things, especially cars. But I have to admit to some tears hitting my cheeks as the tow truck pulled away.
This car was my I-can-parallel-park-like-a-rock-star in Chicago car.
It was my aren’t-you-jealous-of-my-seat-warmers car.
It moved me from the midwest to southern California, making it over the Rocky Mountains with a UHaul trailer in tow. At $10,000, it’s the most expensive thing I have ever purchased. It’s one of the few remaining vestiges of my pre-San Diego life. And it’s given me years of both freedom and reliability.

But letting go of the car has given me a different sense of freedom. I stood in the middle of the road yesterday, watching the car get smaller as the tow truck moved down the street, feeling energized by the combination of a significant deacquisition and the start of a brand new year. The 2008 slate now has a little more blank space. And I like that.

I don’t know what my next car will be, or exactly when I will buy it. In the meantime, The Husband and I are going to attempt to be green(er) for a few months. We’ll be sharing one car, and no doubt countless conversations and negotiations about who will use it and when.

I experimented with taking the trolley to work last Friday, and aside from the fact that it adds an hour each way onto my 20 minute commute, it wasn’t so bad. Perhaps this is the reading time I need to keep up with my New Yorker subscription?

The sky as seen from our yard this morning, looking east. We live off the I-8, near SDSU and not far from Qualcomm Stadium. Both the Harris Fire and the Witch Fire are burning east of us, to the north and to the south, respectively.

I’m starting to see some large pieces of ash fall from the sky and float into our backyard.

Les Simpsons

So when The Simpsons Movie opened last week, it wasn’t just released in the U.S. While most films are distributed internationally after the domestic launch, The Simpsons Movie “premiered simultaneously on millions of screens worldwide. And while the film took in $72 million in the U.S. over the weekend, the foreign take was in excess of $100 million.”

The film’s promotion was inescapable in France last month. The photo above wasn’t taken in Paris - but a tiny, quiet town near the Pyrenees called Mazamet. (I walked amost every street in the central village and didn’t even see a movie theatre.)

So why do they love Homer so far away from home? Well, funny is funny in any language, and our Simpsons are nothing short of hilarious. Another theory: our European friends adore the way “The Simpsons” mocks America, holding up a funhouse mirror to our politics and pop culture as we laugh and laugh and beg for more. If you’ve seen the movie, the scenes in the White House say it all.

I finally saw it last night, and think I’ll be singing “Spider Pig” for weeks to come.

Left Banker

Are up on my Flickr site. They’re not great, but they prove we were there.

New Haircut

And I couldn’t be happier! Photo evidence for all my faraway friends.

Mask

…livin’ crazy is the only way.

Girl’s Night

Soundtrack: Michael Jackson ‘Off the Wall‘ (yes, we danced)

Cocktail: Rivola Sardon del Duero 2003 (still enjoying leftover wedding wine)

Dinner: Pasta Primavera (Tay says this dish is from the 90’s, but it was delicious anyway)

Activities: purifying facial masks, wine knowledge flash cards, outfit consideration and packing for France

Dessert: popsicles

TV: Carnivale (season 1 finale)

Tay and I have a phrase, or rather a phrase structure, that we like to use when we’re being definitive about something. For example, while the onset of sleepiness may be expressed as such, true exhaustion merits the declaration “I’m tired like tired.” A particularly fine meal is “delicious like delicious.” And occasionally, the phrase will feature a noun rather than an adjective to highlight a particulary urgency, as in “I need wine like wine.”

So Tay emailed me yesterday to ask, “Is it hot like hot?”. To which I could only reply, “It’s hottest like hottest.”

I now feel there can never be enough of the following items:
1) SPF
2) Bottled water
3) Light cotton fibers to protect one from the sun and absorb sweat from the body

I can’t really complain though, because while I did spend a fair amount of time outdoors yesterday, the nature of my duties here allowed me to spend many hours in the air conditioned (ish) dining tent. The crew, on the other hand, has spent four days building the set, the production control room, and everything else on site from scratch. They’ve put up lighting, set up cameras and cables, unpacked loads of equipment. In the heat. All day. Every half hour or so they would come into the tent and grab two bottles of water, pour one over their head, and drink the other. I’m in awe of their perseverance.

We were at the site until 11pm last night, and right before rehearsal a dust storm kicked up. Winds were battering the tent, convincing us all we’d be lying under a pile of canvas and metal rigging in no time. Walking outside required - I’m not kidding - sunglasses at night. Dust in nostrils, eyeballs, hair and every possible crevice of clothing. Mouth closed. I just tried to pretend it was all very The English Patient and I was Kristin Scott Thomas (not a problem for me to immerse myself in that fanstasy).

But despite the heat and the wind, it is beautiful there. This particular corner of the Judean desert is stark and gaunt, monumental and very impressive. It’s a grand setting for tonight’s show.

Sunrise Over the Dead Sea

You knew that headline was coming.

I woke up at 4:15 this morning and sat outside my room on the balcony, looking out across the water. Those mountains the sun is coming over? That’s Jordan.

A few hours later I walked across the street with some colleagues, and we floated in the salty sea. Round pebbles of salt cover the bottom, and it’s true about the floating. Impossible not to - we laughed at the need for the lifeguard surveying the little beach we left our towels on. We also spashed around like true tourists, laughing and squealing at our inabilty to stay vertical in the water.

My skin has never felt as soft since I got out. The entire experience was so strange, so impossible…I understand why people think the sea has healing power.

Next on the agenda today is a site survey with my producer and cameraman. We’re heading to Masada at high noon, and have been told it was 124 degrees there yesterday. It’s already suffocatingly hot here next to the water and I can’t imagine what awaits us on the mountain.

Moments before we leave for the ceremony

(Photo by Angela. You can see more of her pre-wedding pics here.)

What can I say? It was a grand day. An absolutely perfect time - full of family, friends, love, joy and delightful surprise. I think the photos tell the story better than I can…so check ‘em out! A few on my Flickr page (by Peggy & Allen), plus more on Susan and Aaryn’s pages. Many, many more to come.

P.S. The Betrothed is now The Husband!