Friday, February 20, 2009

My Friend Kate


Kate (no longer known as Kathryn) and I go way back to high school and share a funny story of how we ended up being best friends. Neither of us really know how it all came together. We have, since the birth of our friendship, been long-distance. We joke about how our friendship may fall apart if we ever live in the same city.

Earlier this month, Kate made the trek across the U.S. from D.C. to L.A. to spend the weekend with us. Let me pause here to mention that it wasn't until this trip that I was informed via an interaction with a third party, that Kathryn no longer goes by Kathryn. Rather, she prefers Kate now. Do you know what kind of difficulty that produces for a friend that has always called you something else? It's a lot of pressure. Back to the story....For weeks I got her excited about the beach weather we were having and kept reminding her to bring her bathing suit. Go figure, it rained all weekend.....but that didn't stop us from having fun. After a brisk (I use this term loosely) morning walk, we stopped at my favorite coffee place in quaint downtown Glendora. After getting our coffee fix, we headed to Pasadena for a day of shopping. Kate was excited to fully experience Loehmann's for the first time. We returned in time for dinner, which my wonderful husband had already prepared for us. We then got busy on painting an accent wall in the living room. This wall caused so much stress, second-guessing, and money....but by Sunday morning, all the stress disappeared. Thank you Kate!

We spent the day driving to Vegas where Kate had a conference for the week. Rough life huh? The drive was long, but we spent the entire drive having some overdue conversation. There are friends in you life that will come and go, change with circumstances or location. Then there are friends that no matter the circumstances or geography involved, you can always pick up where you left off.....that is how Kate and I are.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

January Jaunt







I'm not going to waste time explaining all of the reasons why it has been so long since I have posted. Rather, I'm going to jump right into the explanation of the title of this post. I recently purchased a book entitled "1,000 Things to See Before You Die" (the U.S. version) and it is packed full of things to see in California. Lindsay and Harrison (our fellow Georgians) have joined with Patrick and I to do one thing from the book every month. Once we conquer the California list, we have plenty to do in the surrounding states. Along with that, Harrison is heading up one hiking trip every month. There are endless trails and beautiful scenes to see.

With that being said, our first escapade was a trip to Hollywood and Beverly Hills. We walked down Rodeo Drive and paid a trip to Harry Winston, LaCoste, Juicy Couture, Coach, Dolce and Gobana and the like. There were a mix of emotions as we took note of the price tags, but the most prevalent was disbelief. Disbelief that anyone, regardless of their income, would pay such an outrageous amount for the sake of status. The trip served as research for Patrick because he is in the middle of a series on money at the 808 service. Crazy, but that seemed to be the center of the conversation for a larger part of the day.

After taking a driving tour of the mansions in Beverly Hills and visiting the Kodak and Grauman's in Hollywood, we headed to Pink's Famous Hot Dog Stand. We didn't know much about Pink's other than it is one of those places you have to visit in Hollywood. At least that is what we heard. I must add here that Patrick and I rarely eat hot dogs. Once we become educated on the ingredients, we decided we might never eat another hot dog. We occasionally make exceptions, and Pink's was one of them. When we arrived, we were less than excited about the line wrapping around the building. After a little over an hour, we found ourselves at the window to order. We went all out: chili, cheese, grilled onions, curly fries, and sodas. And then came the first bite....crunch. "What's this? A plastic lining?! Yuck!" What a let down. Who puts a crunchy lining on their hot dogs? I couldn't even finish it. After waiting in line, in the beating sun, I couldn't even finish the crunchy lined hot dog. So....next time you are in Hollywood and someone tells you that you have to have a famous chili dog from Pink's, just remember that unless you like a crunchy hot dog, you may not find the wait worth it.