HALFWAY THROUGH THE YEAR

I am rather stunned to realize that we are halfway through 2011 already.  I assume my feeling stunned is somehow an indication that we are really meant to live outside time, or something like that, but I don't quite feel up to metaphysics this morning, so let's just move on to the pics....

June 22:

I always find it fascinating when the line between wild and tame animals blurs.  Back when we lived in the Palisades and the kids were very little, there was a family of raccoons who would show up a couple of times a day to steal cat food.  They would place their little hands on our all-glass kitchen door and stare inside.  Sometimes our kids would place their own hands on the inside of the door and stare right back at the raccoons.  They were almost friends.  Except, of course, that we never opened the door, because they were still wild animals.

This squirrel clearly has no fear of humans, and is probably fed quite nicely by them.  He let me get close enough for this photo (no zoom), and even closer before he skittered a few inches away.  But that doesn't mean I'm going to bring him home.



June 23:

We are on a round of pitches, all over town.  Today we were with a producer at Warner Bros.  I kept looking for Yakko, Wakko and Dot, but didn't spot them anywhere.



June 24:

Sabrina and I had a little shopping to do, and somehow that led us to Umami Burger in Studio City, where we'd never been.  Yum.  All the fuss is justified.  The meat is slow cooked for a long time over very low heat, then flash seared.  (I wonder if there's a way to do that on a BBQ?)  It's served with caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes, grilled shiitake mushrooms, and a crispy cracker-like piece of grilled Parmesan, all designed to maximize the umami flavor.  I felt as if I was tasting the burger I have been wanting to find my whole life.  (And it costs basically the same as a burger at Islands!)  Oh, I will definitely be back.



June 25:

Lee needs new shirts.  He likes wearing things that are colorful.  These shirts are colorful.  But they didn't work.  Thank goodness -- now I can keep buying him more grey and black!



June 26:

What do you do when your church is closed?  You hit the road....  Yes, Bel Air was closed this last weekend because Mulholland Drive was being re-paved.  So we headed down to the South Bay to one of our daughter church's, The Water's Edge (which, I must point out, is significantly not near the water.  I guess that's an aspirational name).  A lovely service.  And worth it -- We drove down Mulholland yesterday, and it's so nice and smooth and black!  I think I hadn't realized how bumpy and potholey the road had gotten!



June 27:

I love reading out loud, and from what I hear, I'm pretty good at it.  I couldn't marry anyone who hadn't read The Lord of the Rings, and Lee wasn't eager to jump into a 300,000 word book... so I read it to him while we were engaged.  I read the entire Harry Potter series to my family (and no one got to read it before they first heard it from me -- okay, so I was a bit of a despot).  Most recently, we read The Hunger Games.  But before we started book 2 of The Hunger Games, Sabrina said, "What about Lord of the Rings?"  I was so pleased.  So here we go.  We started The Lord of the Rings this week.  I realize that it may very well be the last book I read out loud to my entire family before people start off to college.  So I'm glad it's a good one.  The best one.



June 28:

The last of the jacarandas are in bloom.  What a treat it is to turn a corner and be faced with so much beauty!



June 29:

Our dash all over town to pitch our story is now moving up to the studio level.  Today, we were at the Mouse House -- conveniently held up by the seven dwarfs.



One more picture to take, and I'll be done with half the year.  Here's hoping the second half of the year is as good as the first half has been!

SUMMER SOLSTICE

I'm always a bit sad that the first day of summer is also the longest day of summer....  Just as we start to enjoy the freedom and relaxation and late evenings that summer brings, it starts to go away.  Were I a poet, I'd write a heartbreaking poem about this....

But, being just a screenwriter with far too many meetings happening to get anything else done in my life, I will post some more pics instead....

June 8:

A couple more confirmation pics that really should have gone in the previous post.  Here's one of the few family photos we have taken in years, probably the only one we'll take all year:



June 9:

The last confo picture:  Sabrina and some of her friends from Harvard-Westlake who came to her confirmation (a couple had to leave early)....



June 10:

This has not been the best year for jacaranda trees.  They flowered late, and seem to be speeding through their flowering season.  I haven't had that moment yet this year that I've become accustomed to in late spring -- the moment where you turn a corner onto a street that's all jacarandas, and everything around you is brilliant purple and you just catch your breath with the beauty.  I've been trying and trying to get a decent jacaranda picture, but nothing has turned out well.  So I've had to settle for the loveliness of fallen blossoms on the grass....  Is it any wonder that purple and green are my favorite colors together?



June 11:

Our writers group has a tradition that whenever someone sells a script, the triumphant writer takes the group out to lunch (the level of restaurant is determined by the size of the sale).  Here we all are (minus Bob) at our lunch to celebrate the sale of POMPEII.



June 12:

A lovely little moment after church when brothers Michael and Daniel pulled out a ukelele (which they just happened to have with them) and serenaded us with the Iz version of "Over the Rainbow."  Absolutely beautiful.  I took a little bit of video, too, but don't know yet how to transfer iPhone video to my computer in a usable way.



June 13:

Such a treat to have my friend Kitty here in L.A., passing through for a few days on her way from Australia to New York.  And an extra bonus treat that, not only did she make time for me, but my afternoon meeting got pushed, so we could have a 3-hour lunch.  Mexican food, of course, since she can't get it in Australia.



June 14:

We like going to movies in the mornings.  Not only do you get that lovely $6 ticket (at AMC Theatres) but you still have part of the day to get stuff done.  But apparently not everyone likes movies in the morning.  This was our theater for X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, about 3 minutes before the 11:45 showing was about to start.  Oh dear.



June 15:

What a thrill to get to see the Avery Hall/New York Philharmonic concert version of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY!  It was so terrific -- Neil Patrick Harris was easily the best Bobby I've ever seen.  An absolutely packed house for the event.



June 16:

I understand that a place like The Grove needs to keep renovating and redecorating.  But perhaps they could rephrase some of their signs.



June 17:

One in a series of photos in the changing room of the Beverly Hills salon where I get my hair cut.  On Feb. 1, the hangers were empty -- only 3 people in the salon.  On April 30, quite a few empty hangers, but also a decent amount of business.  Today, the place was packed and I could hardly find a hanger for my own clothes.  Let's consider this a leading economic indicator.



June 18:

Cory is about to turn 17.  Oh my.  How did that happen?....  Regardless, it means another party.  Since summertime parties are always difficult, we did it a bit early (not as early as we wanted to, though).  But Cory blew out the candles before I could get the picture.  That boy is so difficult.



June 19:

When it's your birthday at ComedySportz, they pull you up onstage to participate in one of the improv games.  Cory acquitted himself quite well, gave them something to work with, got off a few good lines.  Given some of the embarrassed birthdayers I've seen standing on the stage like a stick of wood, I think the performers were probably thrilled to have him there.



June 20:

Driving to a meeting in Santa Monica, we found ourselves behind the Google Earth Street View camera car.  We were so tickled, we ended up chasing it for a few blocks, had to circle back to find our meeting.  Good thing we were running early!



June 21:

Hammering out a pitch takes work.  It also takes good food, endless caffeine, and a place to plug in.  Happily, this one seems to be working.



And it's all downhill (e.g., shorter days) from here....

JUNE IS BUSTIN' OUT... OH YOU KNOW

I'm grateful to the friends who have written encouraging notes here over the last couple of weeks....  As I contemplate many future endeavors, I continue to take pictures.  Here we begin the month of June...

June 1:

The new President of next year's Executive Board of the Harvard Westlake Parents Association  (who happens to be the mom of one of Cory's best friends) invited the new board to a lovely lunch at Drago in Beverly Hills.  Given that my usual lunchery is more likely to be the Coral Tree Cafe or Islands or the like, it was quite the treat.  I learned that you can, in fact, ask for a black napkin at a restaurant like Drago, so that the fibers from your white napkin don't shed on your black pants.  (Fortunately, I was wearing white pants, so committed no faux pas.)  That's something you don't get at Coral Tree or Islands!  You also don't get a dessert like this:  Orange Black Pepper Sorbet served on a chocolate hazelnut mousse-crunchy cookie thing.  Heavenly.  I will now pepper my orange juice whenever I can.



June 2:

Here are Sabrina and some of her friends on the quad after this year's Spring Sing.  I feel absolutely confident that I did not look this happy (or this cute) in 8th grade.



June 3:

We had some discount movie tickets waiting for us on Fandango, and about to expire.  So we ended up at Universal Citywalk, one of the few theaters anywhere near us that actually takes Fandango.  I think we were the only locals there -- we heard French, German, Hebrew, Japanese and several other languages.  I couldn't get the kids to pose for me, so I decided to blend in with the tourists and take a touristy photo for the day.



June 4:

Sabrina and I had a lovely day clothes- and shoe-shopping to get her all beautiful for confirmation.  And to my surprise, I ended up buying a dress as well.  And at the same store as Sabrina, no less.  (Free People, since you asked.)  I wouldn't take a picture of the dressing rooms (though they were lovely), but here's the lace of my new dress.  And yes, there are more interesting photos coming up.



June 5:

Sabrina was confirmed with 18 of her friends today.  As it turned out, she was also baptized with two of these same friends 14 years ago.  While going through some of my mom's stuff from cleaning out her condo (see the last set of pics posted), I found a church bulletin.  It turned out to be the bulletin announcing Sabrina's baptism, and also on the list were her friends Alex and Alicia, whom she went to preschool with and who were also confirmed on Sunday.  They've been together since birth, before they even knew each other!  A lovely discovery.



June 6:

Not only did Sabrina get confirmed on Sunday, but Cory got to play with TJ and the church band.  Quite an honor actually (he was the only high school student they asked for).  TJ introduced him as a "future ladykiller" which Cory found appropriately embarrassing.  I know this pic is a bit unfocused, but it's so hard to get a shot of Cory actually looking up when he's playing...



June 7: 

We don't have family in the area (actually, we really don't have much in the way of family at all), so it was lovely to have good friends join us for Sabrina's confirmation.  Here are Melody (Sabrina's confo mentor), Cory, "Uncle" Jack (our dear dear friend and the kids' unofficial godfather), me, Sabrina, Lee, and Sabrina's friends from school Brian, Erina and Nadia.  (Her friend Ari had to leave before the picture was taken.)



Today is the last day of school, so I'm sure the next set of photos will show summery things.  You know, like sitting at a computer, playing video games....

Come back and check!

FINISHING OFF MAY

Okay, so it's June.  I can deal with that.  6 days of school left.  Not that we're counting or anything.  Maybe when I can stop getting up at 6:00 a.m., I'll start saying something of substance.  Meanwhile, May was busy but lovely.

May 12:

Sabrina needed new black shoes for her choral concert.  Grateful that she didn't also need a new dress, off we went to DSW.  And somehow the only shoes that would work were stilettos.  Her first pair of stilettos.  We should all feel lucky that she didn't fall off them climbing up and down the various platforms during the concert.  And then it turned out that she had a perfectly good pair of black wedges that would have worked just fine.  All I can say is, I want to see her get some good use out of those stilettos!



May 13:

The choral concert.  The girls' choir sang Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me," wearing pj's and phony glasses.  Cute.



May 14:

Community service is a big deal and sometimes something of a joke at these private high schools.  Yes, it's good for the kids to get out there and see other parts of their community, and yes, the idea of noblesse oblige can be a very good thing for kids as privileged as many of these kids are.  But sometimes it all amounts to cramming in the hours to check off a box on a list of requirements.... 

We had a little of both as Cory and Sabrina squeaked in under the wire with this year's community service.  They went to a public school in Chinatown to help set up the music program there (in conjunction with a private non-profit because, as of this month, the LAUSC now has 30 music teachers left for 500 elementary schools.  And no school librarians -- they all just got laid off.  Shameful.  And people ask why we scrape up the money for private school?)... 

Some kids helped string cellos.  Some kids painted murals in the new music room.  Cory and Sabrina helped entertain kids by singing such classics as Justin Bieber's "Baby" and the SpongeBob theme song....



May 15:

More of the community service.  Our high schoolers joined with the local kids to perform "Stand By Me."  Sabrina helped coach the singers, and that's Cory in the corner playing a bucket in lieu of an actual drum...  There is a special place in heaven for the directors of elementary school orchestras (a place where no one ever plays a note out of tune)...



May 16:

This is the pic that's going on Cory's birthday party invitation.  Whether he likes it or not.



May 17:

Sabrina misses hanging out in Santa Monica quite a bit, so when we had to drop Cory at a party on the westside, off we went to the pier for dinner.  This was the view from our table.  Nice.



May 18:

The end of the school year brings lots of end-of-the-year celebrations, including the parent association dinner.  I could have figured out what we were eating without the posted menu, but it was a nice touch.



May 19:

A lovely chocolate ganache cake with raspberry coulis.  And no one wanted it.  Because the parent association president was surprised with a huge chocolate birthday cake, and that's what we all went for.  I sure hope some homeless shelter got the chocolate ganache cake!



May 20:

Okay, it's a lousy picture.  The car was moving.  The car in front of us was moving.  I had to zoom in, which is a bad idea on an iPhone.  But it was the day of the Horcrux Hunt held by Sabrina's Harry Potter club at school.... and there, on the car in front of us, was a bumper sticker that said "Horcruxes Got Soul."  (Squint, and maybe you can make it out.)



May 21:

I didn't take this picture (though it was taken with my phone).  I wouldn't have been allowed within 1000 yards of this epic event:  The Guitar Hero Championships at Cory's youth group.  Yes, Cory won.  For the second year in a row.  Thereby creating his own dynasty.  And for this, he got his name written in sharpie on a toy guitar kept in someone else's office.  I'm so proud.  All those hundreds of hours of playing video games were worth it.  So proud.



May 22:

The Harvard-Westlake fashion show -- Fashion for Action.  Held every couple of years or so as a fundraiser (this year for a cancer clinic).  The kids put the whole thing on themselves, and get everything donated.  Sabrina picked up a couple of items from the show at deep deep discount afterwards.  Fun was had by all.



May 23:

And here's one of the items Sabrina picked up after the fashion show.  I'm planning to borrow it.



May 24:

Never in a million years (or 16 years, as the case may be) did I expect to have a son who got a varsity letter in a sport.  (Never in my own high school life did I even date a guy who had a letterman's jacket.)  But Cory came home from his fencing awards banquet with his varsity letter in hand.  Now where do I buy the jacket to go with it?



May 25:

I don't need an ocean view.  All I need is some trees to look at, and my heart relaxes.



May 26:

We were stunned when our friends Greg and Kathy announced they were moving to La Crescenta, 22 miles away.  We've celebrated Thanksgiving with them almost every year for years now, and Christmas Eve, and all sorts of occasions, and somehow you think friends like that will always be just down the street or so.  Here they are at when we went out for one last family dinner together...



May 27:

I rarely get good pictures of the kids performing with my iPhone.  So I'm glad someone did!  Here's the yearbook photo of Cory performing at his jazz concert in February.  My future rock star.



May 28:

There's the kind of faux community service you do for your school requirements.  And then there's the times you actually do a service to someone in your own community.  Here we are with a filled U-Haul ready to help Greg and Kathy make the big move.



May 29:

And here's the house they moved to.  As soon as we saw this house, we understood completely.  Of course they had to move.  And Thanksgiving is at their house this year!



May 30:

A lovely Memorial Day barbecue with our writers group.  And a lovely moment for our dear friend Jack with Naya.  Someone get this man a dog of his own.



May 31:

My mom's old condo closed escrow a few weeks ago, but we had forgotten there were still a few things there to be hauled out to the dumpster or the Goodwill.  Off we went for one last time to finish it out.  And I got to take this pic of my mom's view for her first 10 years there... the view she couldn't see for her last 8 years....



...Okay, that wraps up May.  Always a busy month.  And what do you know, I actually sneaked a tiny bit of content in here as well. 

More to come!

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG

So some people say why keep your blog open if you're not bothering to opine on issues of the day.  And others say, go ahead, post your photos, we love them.

And I am actually caught somewhere in between the two.

As I've said before, I am just not as in love with the sound of my own voice as I used to be.  I thought about that last night while desultorily watching the American Idol finale.  A few years ago, I would have written a whole blog post on the AI finale.  And now... well... it's not that I suddenly find American Idol not worth writing about.  It's more that I feel no need to make sure the world knows what I think of it.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying that everyone who blogs is in love with the sound of their own voice.  There are blogs I find delightful and even profound (Sean's blog, for instance). 

And some of it truly is that I now spend *so* much time with a computer on my lap, watching my words go up on the screen, that it's just not as much fun as it used to be.

But part of me thinks it could be fun again.  Which is why the placeholders -- the pics I've been posting. 

So bear with me.  Maybe after the summer break is over, I'll find I have stuff I must say.  The 10-year anniversary of 9/11 is coming up, for instance.

In the meantime, I'll be getting some more photos up by the weekend.  And I hope that's enough for now...

MAY ALREADY?

You know, I thought about blogging about Easter, about the capture of Osama bin Laden, about a few other topics.  But I guess I'm just less enamored with the sound of my own voice than I once was, and no longer feel my opinion has to be shared with the world.  ("The world," in this case, referring to the faithful few still checking in here.)

So here's some more pics!

April 25:

A few more Easter pics:  Here are Cory, Lauren and Daniel at the Hollywood Bowl on Easter.  No explanation for the weird look on Cory's face.



April 26:

Michael and Sabrina at the Bowl.  I think this is a cute pic.  And I'm glad I made Sabrina borrow my earrings for the occasion.



April 27:

Justin and Sabrina at Easter brunch.  Justin's such a cutie, I think it's no coincidence this is one of my most visited pics at the 365 project.



April 28:

I had such an awesome class of MFA thesis students this year!  Nicole is missing from this pic, as she actually had to leave class only slightly late.  But here, on our last class, the rest of us stayed an extra hour, I think because we all just didn't want it to end.  Liz, Kate, Morgan, Matteo and Alec, I treasure you all!  (And Nicole, too!)



April 29:

No, we did not get up early for the Royal Wedding.  But we did Tivo it.  And Sabrina did pull out an old tiara for the occasion.



April 30:

I took this same photo back in January, showing an empty rack of hangers at my hair salon.  Now, a few months later, there are clearly more customers in the shop.  I guess the economy is picking up.



May 1:

Shopping for jeans in Beverly Hills, I came upon this window display of old Singer sewing machines.  I have no idea what the display has to do with the trendy clothes being sold inside the shop, but I loved the window.



May 2:

The school year ends for USC screenwriting students with First Pitch:  A chance to strut their stuff in a speed-dating format with managers, agents, producers, and the like.  Too bad this photo can't capture the nerves shimmering off the students.



May 3:

Cory is determined to bring us all up to date with Doctor Who -- his automatic go-to whenever we're trying to figure out what to watch on Netflix.  So the start of a new season was cause for some celebration.



May 4:

The last book we read in our Mother-Daughter Book Group ("Prudent Advice") suggested that "Gone With the Wind" is a book all girls should read.  So that's what we're reading next in MDBG.  I first read GWTW in middle school, and fell in love.  My best friend Jeff also loved it -- we could both recite from memory all the dresses Scarlett considered wearing to the barbecue at Twelve Oaks, and why she discarded each choice.  When I read it later as an adult, I looked at Scarlett with new eyes, and came to love Melanie more.  On my current readthrough, I'm seeing Rhett Butler with new eyes....  But as you can see, I've read this book many times.  So many times that I had to get a new copy, since my middle school edition clearly wouldn't hold up to one more reading.



May 5:

About a year ago, the drive to Sabrina's school was delayed as a new traffic signal was installed.  The signal was much needed, not for the road we drive on, but for the intersecting road, where people reguarly had to wait 10 minutes to make the turn.  However, for some reason, even after the light was installed, it took a year to actually turn it on.  We have no idea why.  But now we use the intersecting road to make our connection with all the speed needed when one is trying to get to school on time.  Yay!



May 6:

One of the moms in our Mother-Daughter Book Group stepped out of her comfort zone to perform in a spoken word show about motherhood.  Here's Kim with her Playbill for "Expressing Motherhood."  It was a terrific show!



May 7:

Hell freezes over.  Pigs fly.  Jody gets married.  All events with the same level of expectation.... People on the groom's side were all saying they wouldn't believe it till they could see the long form marriage certificate.



May 8:

I was very touched that Sabrina made a special shopping trip with a friend to get me a Mother's Day present.  She got me these very yellow earrings to wear with a yellow jacket that I have.  I'm looking for just the right occasion!



May 9:

Since our cat Leia now has her own Facebook page, courtesy of Sabrina, I can only assume that Leia is trying to post a status update here.  "I can haz Fasebook?"



May 10:

There are some very odd sculptures in the UCLA Sculpture Garden, but this has always been one of my faves.  To me, it feels like a thestral without wings.



May 11:

When Lee is not writing, some strange things happen around our house.  Sometimes he starts (but doesn't always finish) huge housework projects.  Today it was his goal to do every bit of laundry in the house.  I didn't object.  But this also included a mission to match unmatched socks.  He found half a dozen pairs or so.  Which clearly left a few behind.



More to come!