Tesla Coiling

Earlier today I wanted to go throw myself into a sensory deprivation tank because my brain was feeling a little like this:


Yes, I totally felt like a mental Tesla Coil! I was having one of those moments where I was comparing my life to everyone else's more amazing and awesome life. The comparison game left me feeling agitated because I don't own a house, my car is 11 years old, and I have no cute spring clothes... and those are just the first three things I was getting worked up about.

Sound trivial to you? Well, maybe it is. But I know I'm not the only one who goes through this. I guess I was just having a moment where I felt less than, where I felt like I should be achieving something that I'm not, and in our world, achievement = material things.

I felt like I needed to distract myself from such thoughts so I made the mistake of turning on MSNBC to see what was happening in the world. Why didn't my guardian angel stop me from doing this? Talk about a BIG mistake! I got to hear all the gossipy insanity that is the spin-cycle of our Presidential election process.

Seriously, what in the world is going on with this mess? I'm seeing $6.99 watermelons in the grocery store, there's more homelessness here in LA than anywhere else in the United States and California unemployment hit 6.2% in March, but, nope, I'm supposed to focus on who Barack Obama's ever talked to in his entire life?

Yeah, the TV absolutely had to go off when I was started saying, "Bitch, please," to Joe Scarborough's commentary. AAGH!!! I think sparks were flying out of my ears!

So what made me stop my "Tesla Coiling"?

Well, I looked over to where my four year-old son was lounging, flat on his back in the middle of my living room floor. He was wearing a Spiderman costume with a pair of cowboy boots and he was staring straight up at the ceiling.

He seemed very deep in thought so I asked, "What are you thinking about over there?"

His reply? "I'm thinking about how much I love you." He then sat up and threw his arms around me.

I suddenly stopped feeling like I needed to go to the bookstore and buy some book titled "How to Fix Your Lame-o-Life".

My life is not so lame, even if I have my dinged up car, no new clothes, and no house in the overpriced Los Angeles housing market. Not lame because I have a little boy who loves me and isn't shy about telling me so. Not everyone has that and I'm so lucky.

I hope you have someone who tells you "I love you" and saves you from yourself too.

Why Can't My Sister Live Here?

My sister and I have been having more fun than should be legally allowed. As you can see, we've been out and about, spending tons of time climbing and hugging trees. Isn't she a hot tree-hugger? And despite my worries about her type A, neat freak tendencies, she's doing very well and is only threatening to reorganize the bookcases!

My solution has been to keep her out of the house pretty much all day. Since we've been running around though, I haven't been home to come over and read your blogs or write something new on mine. As much as I miss y'all, that's the way it should be. I don't get to see her too often so it's well worth it to step away from Blog Land for a hot second and have a great time with her.

We first had a grand scheme to go to Santa Barbara over the weekend but instead decided to stay local. My sister had never been over to Venice Beach so on Saturday we headed out that way and strolled the insanity that is the Boardwalk. There were the usual sage and incense sellers, drummers, henna tattoo artists and folks hawking wind chimes made out of colanders and forks. We also dodged waves and frolicked a bit in the sand. Unfortunately though, we ran into some tar that had washed up onto the beach (the surfers said it's oil from ships). I couldn't see it because it was under the sand, so I stepped all in it.

Before I knew it, the bottoms of my feet were covered with tar and it wasn't coming off! The surfers told me they frequently have the problem of getting tar on their boards. They told me to just rub cooking oil on the tar and then it would gradually wipe off. Thankfully, we soon wandered over to the Sidewalk Cafe for a late lunch. The waiter was really nice when I asked him for a cup of cooking oil so I could get the tar off my feet. It took me 20 minutes in the bathroom but thank goodness it worked! But I feel horrible thinking about all the animals that probably get some of that tar on their fins or fur and have no one to rub cooking oil on them to remove it.

What else? We go work out hardcore every morning. My sister is used to running five or six miles a day so I've been going to limp along run with her. Thankfully she gave me a bit of a break today and we only hiked four miles on Mount Hollywood.

The last time my sister was here was pre Griffith Park fire. Parts of the trail are starting to regrow, but this section still only has scorched palm trees. It's amazing that these palm trees survived and are still green on the tops despite the charred bottoms. Whew, the power of nature, you know?

Anyway, she leaves Saturday morning so I only have a couple more days with her. Sob! Trust me, I will continue to both somehow survive her tough workouts and run her all over the city. I love my sister so much. She's really a lot of fun and such a sweet and generous woman.

Gosh I wish she lived here in California. She needs to make it happen! But in the meantime, we've got another full day lined up for tomorrow.

Michael Jackson: Obsession Of A New Generation

My kids have a little Michael Jackson obsession going on.

How did this all happen? Well, remember the days when MTV actually played videos around the clock and you could sit there and tape those videos onto a VHS tape? My husband was one of those folks that did that. So he has every single Michael Jackson video and lots of footage from award show performances. Long ago when he was working in a media services office, he dubbed all this footage onto one tape. Now he's converted them to DVD and my sons constantly want to watch it.

My three year-old, Toussaint, is concerned about the state of Michael Jackson's bladder. "Michael Jackson doesn't wear pull-ups."

My six year-old, Olinga, is concerned about Michael's skin. "Why can't the doctors fix him and make him black again? He doesn't look so healthy with that white skin. He should go to Dr. Yazdani." Olinga has so much faith in his pediatrician that he doesn't believe me when I tell him that Dr. Yazdani can't fix Michael's skin.

They both have fashion suggestions for Michael. "Michael Jackson needs a Power Ranger shirt to go with his red jacket."

There are also regular reenactments of the dancing/fight scene from the "Beat It" video.

This fun and exciting game usually starts with Olinga saying, "Hey, Toussaint, let's play "Beat It"!"

They debate over who's going to get to be Michael Jackson and who's going to be the bad guy. Then they jump around singing the chorus, which they believe to be, "Beat it! Beat it! No one wants to be the meat hit!"

The latest request? They want me to get some rope. Why do they need rope?

"Hey Mommy, can you tie our hands together like they do in the video?"

Olinga also loves the dancing in the video for Billie Jean. But now when we walk to the park I get asked, "Why doesn't the sidewalk light up for me like it does for Michael Jackson?"

The (thankfully, almost out) Griffith Park fire? According to my youngest, "Michael Jackson started those fires, Mommy."

"Why do you think Michael Jackson started the fire?" I asked, even though I was a little afraid of his answer.

"Because Olinga said so."

Okay. So, of course I had to ask Olinga if he said this. "Olinga, did you tell Toussaint that Michael Jackson started the fire?"

Olinga's mouth fell open and from the look on his face, you would have thought it was the end of the world. He was absolutely horrified! "Michael Jackson started the fires? Oh my God!!!"

He then jumped off the couch and ran to tell my husband, "Daddy! Mommy said Michael Jackson started the fire!"

It took five minutes for me to convince everyone that I didn't say it. Who knows how this got in my youngest son's head. He continued to say that his brother told him this.

At least he didn't tell me, "Michael told me when I was sitting on his lap."

Los Angeles Burning

If you haven't heard, part of Los Angeles is on fire. The fire has been blazing through through Griffith Park since yesterday afternoon.

If you don't know Griffith Park, it's the largest park in the United States. It's home to the Griffith Park Observatory. It's home to the Hollywood Sign. The LA Zoo is there. There are miles of trails and beautiful green space. And, it's about a mile north of my house. We go there at least once a week and I love hiking there early in the morning on the weekends. It's strange to think that the trails I love to hike are now going to be charred remnants of their former selves.

How did this happen? One, yesterday was just ridiculously hot. Damn those Santa Ana winds! Indeed, 97 degrees in May doesn't bode well for our summer, especially when we only got about 3 inches of rain all winter. Two, the fire may have been started by someone who dropped a cigarette in the dry brush of the park, although that's not certain at this point.

From my office in downtown, I could see the smoke billowing high into the sky beginning at around 2:30. I headed down to Compton at a little after 4 with some colleagues and the view behind us as we headed south on the 110 Freeway was just shocking. I'd completely figured that it was some small blaze that was just really smoky and that it would be out in a heartbeat. But it was clear that the fire was bigger than any of us had imagined.

By the time we left Compton at almost 8:30 at night and were heading back north on the 110, we were just floored by the flames visible almost 20 miles away. I snagged these photos from the LA Times website so those of you that don't live here can see what all of us Angelenos saw last night.

Some progress has been made against the blaze this morning, so shout out to all the LA Firefighters who are doing there best. Griffith Park is a true wilderness and it can't be easy to fight a fire like this through such challenging terrain.

Let's all hope the fire gets completely put out soon.