..more than a woman..

sorry, you'll have to excuse the title; c's in the living room watching saturday night fever. the tunes are catchy, what can i say?

a lot has happened since my last post; apologies for such a long break but life has just been extremely busy! los angeles was a lot of fun! as most of you know i headed out the weekend before the conference and really the bulk of fun that was had occurred during that weekend. i went with a friend (met up with my nyc friend's sister-in-law who i contacted via email prior to my trip) to the santa monica pier for dinner which included fabulous guacamole and then went for drinks afterward at a bar called the liquid kitty. the first thing i noticed about the bar was that it smelled really clean and wasn't full of smoke, which was a very welcome change, but as soon as i started sipping on my beer i was jonesing for a cigarette!

so my new friend in l.a. introduced me to her circle of friends who were very, very cool. they invited me out to a get-together at will rogers state park and we played frisbee and baseball on a beautiful summer afternoon!! the grass was just as green as could be and you really couldn't ask for more perfect weather for the occasion! we hiked (it was a very mild hike) up the hill to catch a view of the ocean from the top, but unfortunately the marine layer (er, fog) prevented us from capturing what i was told was a spectacular view of the ocean. but i had a great time nonetheless. the food was great, conversation was stimulating, the people were fun the sun was shining.. i would have to say that day was the most memorable day of my trip.

the next day i checked into the "dorm" at ucla. it was just like being in college all over again. a mini flashback of sorts.. though i have to say the ucla campus is much nicer than my crunchy ass college! but breakfast and lunch was served in one of the "dining halls" and let me tell ya, the food has not changed. i don't care where you are, there's just no mistaking the taste of dorm food! needless to say i made sure my dinners made up for it!

the seminar was well.. a seminar. interesting at times, boring at others.. and just like in college i caught myself snoozing a couple of times especially right after lunch! but i learned a lot, despite the snooze breaks! a couple of the classes were just way too overwhelming though.. like the speaker just tried to incorporate way too much material in a short period of time. but i survived.

two main stories i brought back home. both bizarre, both equally disturbing:

1) a ucla cop stopped me in the middle of the street to give me a jaywalking ticket. yes, a jaywalking ticket. as you read this, you're probably thinking "wow, i didn't even know people really got jaywalking tickets in real life".. well, i'm here to tell ya, the shit is real and the shit is as ridiculous as you can possibly imagine. i suppose it didn't help that i was looking at the cop like he was an idiot the entire time and my tone of voice was as sarcastic and flabbergasted as i could possibly make it. supposedly i'll get something in the mail that will tell me how much i'll have to pay... but you know, cali's hurtin' for cash these days so i guess they're just trying to make a living eh? i'm still very annoyed by the whole incident.

2) the conference room for our lecture was like a refrigerator, so during one of my lunch breaks i headed over to a gap store i remembered seeing on my way up to ucla. i went in to buy a sweatshirt but of course i came out with a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. so i wore the jeans the next day and as i cleaned out my pockets at the end of the day, i found a slip of paper in the back pocket (about the size of a fortune cookie slip) that read: "thank you for supporting child labor". so somebody with a lot of time on their hands is going around gap stores and slipping these pieces of paper into pockets of jeans and who knows what else. only in los angeles, i tell ya. now.. i know all about child labor. bangladesh is one of many countries where child labor is rampant. and really, that's gotta be a discussion for another day.. but i was slightly disturbed nonetheless.

the week of course ended with back to back meshell concerts at the roxy which were both awesome! the first night i went by myself and had a blast as i met a couple of really cool folks. the second night i went with my new l.a. friend and we had a great time, except that it was much more crowded than the thursday night show. my short ass was stuck behind a bunch of people so most of the show was spent standing on my tip-toes! ouch.

of course i went to see meshell at the dusable in chicago as well, so i had her 3 nights in one week. what a loyal admirer i am. but of course she deserves it. every show was off the hook!

work is so busy right now i want to cry! but it'll only be for 2 more weeks. i suppose i'll live. summer's almost over and that makes me want to cry too. especially considering late hours at work are keeping me away from daylight. waaah!

ok. no more whining...