sha in LA

no man is a failure who has friends

The above referenced quote comes from my all time favorite movie "It's A Wonderful Life." Introduced to me by a friend when I was 18, I have repeatedly watched the movie every holiday season since.

Since "the fire" I have been humbled by the numerous offers of assistance by my many friends, all of which I appreciate so much more than words can express.

Living out of luggage filled with the most basic and essential clothing that will suffice for both work and play is my life right now. The positive aspect of this situation - when I go to Boston in 2 weeks I'll already be packed and ready to go. No prep needed. Just zip up the suitcase and I'm off!

But seriously, all joking aside, I'm lucky. Damn lucky to have the friends that I have. And if I haven't told you yet, I love you all. Sorry for the blanketed declaration of love but it's late. My lovely Greek host cooked a fabulous dinner, filled my glass up with my favorite beverage (twice) and is truly my σωτήρας right now.

x

p.s. as with all crazy languages I do hope that that says what I want it to say and not something disrespectfully wrong...then again, it's all greek to me!

and the winner is...

Downtown Dwellers win it by a hair over The Angelenos!!!

[Downtown Dwellers]

The day started with a satisfying breakfast at Arda's. Obviously brilliant minds think alike as our fiercest competition, The Angelenos, arrived mere minutes after we had ordered. We compared maps and noticed that both of us had an edge over the other teams as we were smart enough to bring Cartifact maps to assist vs. the numerous other "bad maps" out there.

[breakfast with the competition]

I can't reveal too much information about the race as there will be another CityRace Urban Adventure on October 20th with the exact same questions however I can say that this race definitely was challenging. Luckily we cornered the market on different levels of knowledge and had 4 minds (sometimes) working together to figure out the clues. More than once we were barking up the wrong tree so if you find yourself really stretching to create an answer then most likely it's not right. My advice, go with your gut feeling first and foremost.

[the researcher, the writer and the reader]

We answered all but 2 of the 25 questions I believe and were able to grab a few of the extra credit scavenger hunt items as well putting us at 143 points. Originally The Angelenos were announced as coming 3rd place however after final scoring calculations it looks like they actually made 2nd place with 136 points. Complete race results are here.

After all was said and done and we received our schwag: a nifty medal, a CityRace t-shirt and a $50 gift certificate to Tea at the Biltmore Hotel - we decided to go out to lunch with Rich and Stephen to Pitfire Pizza where even the counter girl must have been sensing our winning ways.

[number one in more ways than one]

[The Angelenos; 2nd place winners]

The real winner of the day though was Team Spencer, the youngest participant in a CityRace. He will be giving us a run for our money, and medals, in a few years.

x

the calm after the storm

Today is the first day where I'm starting to feel a bit normal again. My life isn't back to normal by any means but my psyche is starting to feel like the old Shannon, not this zombie staring into space and sporadically breaking down at the drop of a hat.

I have settled at a friends pad that is nearby to my place so that I can commute rather easily back and forth. Frankie is still at my very odiferous apartment as his 2 night stint away was so insanely stressful for both of us that I had to put him back where he feels most comfortable.

Still no word on anything; how the fire started, how long it'll take for repairs, how in the hell the smell will go away. So we sit and wait and attempt to clean and throw stuff away and have nightly gatherings in an apartment that suffered no damage and bitch and complain and rationalize and reason with each other about everything.

Tomorrow will bring a welcome distraction in the morning hours. Me and E&P & CJ will be known as the Downtown Dwellers and competing in the City Race Urban Adventure and we plan on kicking some Angelenic butt!!! Bring it baby.

x

a slightly nomadic life

Sleeping in my apartment last night was a bad idea. This morning, under light of day I could really begin to see the extensive amount of fine white powdery substance covering everything that I didn't get to clean yesterday...most notably in the bedroom. My asthma kicked in due to breathing in all that crap all night long. It's a joy to be at work and not near the smokey aroma that has permeated my apartment although at times I actually do catch a whiff.

I shouldn't be frustrated or complain as I am definitely one of the lucky ones. But I do have waves of sadness, frustration, anger and a whole other host of emotions. Hearing nothing but "get out FIRE!" as I lay down to go to sleep last night, slightly delirious from exhaustion. Overjoyed when I woke up this morning and it was daylight and nothing bad had happened overnight. I'm on a roller coaster and I want the ride to stop. But hey, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger right? I'll be OK in the long run but slightly nomadic in the meantime.

Thank you to all who have sent well wishes and good thoughts my way. I can't respond individually yet but know that I'm grateful for your kindness.

Off to do some laundry.

x

early morning wake-up call; the worst kind...

Imagine waking up at 4:30am to the screams of a neighbor yelling "get out, FIRE!" repeatedly over and over again. I don't have to imagine much as that was my wake up call this morning.

Originally thinking that the neighbor was yelling at a possible homeless person to get out of our carport area I quickly realized that maybe she meant something bigger. I grabbed my cell phone, somehow managed to get Frankie into his carrier and got out quickly leaving everything else behind. The entire time all I heard was the exploding of tires and glass shattering.

Local stations on Hillhurst and Bronson were dispatched and contained the fire rather fast. 2 units took the brunt of the fire but surprisingly made it through without much damage. My living room wall is connected to the backside of the carport and the interior walls were smoldering so now I've got a chunk missing from the corner of my living room. Most units have soot covering everything and smell of smoke. And obviously all 4 cars in the carport are no longer operational.

We are very lucky that considering the potential for damage we escaped on the better side of things and as a complex became even closer that we already were. Quite a bonding experience and good to know we are all looking out for each other, even those who aren't in our building.

Most extra special thanks goes to Claudette, the neighbor behind our building that successfully woke us all from deep sleep in time to get out safely.

Photos of the aftermath:

And finally, a Flickr set. Some repeats.

x

half a million dollar view

Tonight, as I was driving back from a swing dance event in Brea, I received a phone call from Celia. Instantly, for some reason, I thought she was calling to tell me that the ever beloved ‘Gina was finally open for business. No such luck, she was excited but in a different way. She was calling to tell me of the Rosslyn Hotel’s newly re-lit neon sign. Now before all those neon enthusiasts get their panties in a bunch, it seemed like the sole reason the signage was lit was due to a nasty word that begins with the letter F; Filming.

Eager to share this news with someone who would really get a kick out of this rare sight she immediately thought of Mr. Neon himself, Eric Lynxwiler. Within due time a small, highly gentrified gang of us were on the rooftop snapping various photos. I had my crappy digital. Both Eric and Jim had better equipment (don’t they always) and got better shots. Regardless this'll do ya' for now:

Added this morning, Dave Bullock's HDR shots put mine to shame. Oh well.

x

beating the overheating

As I sit here in my 90º apartment, which has cooled off at least 10º in since I arrived home about 45 minutes ago, I think back to the folly of the activities of this past weekend all which stem around the attempt to cool off. I had a similar experience last year.

The highlight this year came on Sunday night when after I'd been asleep for 2 hours I woke up and decided that the hot air blowing on me just wasn't cutting it. The only cool spot? Sitting in front of the fan that was in the open doorway to my apartment. I camped out there for the next few hours and it worked, to a point. Once daylight came it was all downhill as I get great (read hot) morning sun on that side of my apartment. Frankie was even more miserable, he's wearing a fur coat for heavens sake. I decided that wiping him down with a wet washcloth would ease his pain....then I thought "wait a minute! that'll work for me too!!!" Hence, the rest of the day was spent with Kimmy at The Compound™ whereby she had the same wet towel discovery as I had earlier, but hers were frozen! Yes, sitting in front of the fan with frozen towels draped on my legs. It was pure, cool bliss.

x