sha in LA

'88 was great, '08 is better

This past weekend I went back to the DMV area (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) to attend my 20th high school reunion from Largo High School.  Nothing earth shattering happened, it was your typical "wow, has it really been that long" type of event with the requisite exchange of info and "see you in 10 years."  I went to the dinner on Friday night and planned on going to the picnic on Saturday but I had an incorrect address, hence an incorrect google map and no GPS, so I decided to call it quits after driving around the back roads of rural Maryland for about 20 minutes.  I'm truly a city girl at heart - give me a grid street structure any day of the week over single lane roads and tons of trees.  It all looked familiar but I had no clue how to troubleshoot the fact that I was on the back side of a very large park, far away from where the "official" entrance was located.

So I cut my losses on the picnic and decided to visit my old neighborhood and the family that I grew up next door to for 18 years.  We caught up and laughed about the good old days when I was this goofy little girl (guess I still am actually).

[telling Cedric the neighborhood boxer dog to "go home" - he frequently would jump the gate and run around the neighborhood.  bossy then, bossy now.  change much?]
 

That evening I had tickets to the Nationals/Giants game and prior to leaving L.A. had no one to offer my extra ticket to...until the plane ride to D.C.  There I am at LAX, waiting to get on the plane when I bump into a friend that I haven't seen in about 10 years.  A friend that I know from L.A. but who happened to be traveling back to D.C. with his wife on the same flight as me.  Then he mentions a mutual friend of ours who lives in D.C. that I haven't seen in about the same amount of time and a little light bulb turns on in my head.  Bingo!

I met Khalil at his coffee shop, Pound, and from there we took the subway to the beautiful new Nationals Park where we proceeded to sweat our a$$es off.  Mind you, there was a small little heat wave happening with temperatures soaring near 100 degrees during the day with something like 100% humidity, making it feel like an oven-sauna.  D.C. is not like L.A. where the temperature breaks in the evening, it stays hot and muggy and in a word...disgusting.  At the game we pulled up weather.com on his iPhone and it said the temperature was "88 but feels like 98."  With no scoring well into the 7th along with no breeze we did the L.A. thing and left.  Turns out S.F. got 6 runs in the 8th so we didn't miss much.  We thought about going and getting a drink but the heat had done us in and we parted ways at the Chinatown/Gallery Place metro stop.

[Khalil at his coffee shop]

[This is what you see upon entering Nationals Park.  It's a beautiful stadium, by the way, I just wish it hadn't been so freaking hot!]

[the "W" in the grass]

[the largest HD jumbotron in the league]

[you know me, gotta get my "art shot" in]

[the view from our seats]

[another shot of K - the t-shirt he's wearing will be explained in a forthcoming post]

[Goodbye, off to find AC!!!]

To add insult to injury, all weekend long my phone was peppered with text messages from my L.A. friends telling me of the "beautiful 75 degree and sunny weather with not a cloud in the sky."  Bastards.

Overall I'm happy I went back and although I didn't have as stellar of a time as I did a few months ago I did realize one thing, nevermore will I bitch or complain about the cold and the rain when I visit again.

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a monumental trip

Last weekend I traveled to the Nation’s Capital for the D.C. Lindy Exchange (DCLX) which is a yearly swing dance event that takes place in conjunction with the Cherry Blossom Festival time period, essentially early April. It’s one of the best times to visit the area, save for the masses of tour goers, threat of rain and chilly weather. Even still, I had one of the best visits back home in recent memory.

As I was planning for this trip a few months back there was a new airline on the market offering pretty decent fares, so I called up Virgin America on the good old internet and was wow’ed by the pretty pictures and fancy entertainment options. The price was right too so I decided to go with the unknown. Good choice that was. I had a great experience on both legs of the journey and would gladly choose them again in the future…actually, I already have my next flight to D.C. in June booked with them – at $270 RT it was not a difficult decision to make.

I arrived on Thursday morning and picked up my car with Enterprise. I can safely say that by now I’ve used every car rental option at Dulles Airport and Enterprise was heads above the rest. So very attentive and fast. Again, I’ll be booking with them on my next trip in June as well.

Once I settled at the place I was staying on Thursday morning I passed out on the comfy air mattress and set my alarm for noon. Then noon-thirty. Then 1pm. Then 1:30pm. Then I said “screw it” and decided I needed sleep more than anything else. I eventually woke up and danced a bit that evening, effectively starting the LX portion of the weekend.

The weather forecast for the weekend claimed that it would be raining EVERYDAY so when I woke up on Friday and saw that it was “just cloudy” I held on to my glimmer of hope for a decent day of no rain. I met up with a fellow dancer from L.A. who was experiencing his first time in D.C. and we decided to explore the city together. My main goal was to go to the International Spy Museum. I sprung for the combined Operation Spy and Museum ticket for the both of us and we had a blast! Operation Spy is an hour long live action interactive game where you attempt to “find a missing nuclear trigger before it gets into the wrong hands”. Limited to 15 people max, the outcome of the game depends largely on the combined efforts of your group in surveillance and other various spy activities. Afterwards we sped through the Museum portion and it still took an hour – there’s so much stuff exhibited that you need either a really long attention span or to go back a few times and it’s definitely worth the price of admission.

Prior to the Spy Museum we had to kill a half hour and the guard suggested we go over to the newly renovated National Portrait Gallery. Since we didn’t have much time to spend there we were really only able to check out one exhibit, RECOGNIZE! which is a celebration of Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture. Graffiti from artists Tim Conlon & Dave Hupp lined the walls of the main corridor while the interior galleries showed Photography from David Scheinbaum, Paintings from Kehinde Wiley, Film from Jeffrey Pinder and Poetry and Installation from Nikki Giovanni and Shinique Smith. It was an awesome exhibit and Marshall was slightly stunned (and very excited) to see Hip Hop Culture recognized in a Smithsonian Institution. Mad props to the curators. If you find yourself in D.C. between now and October 26th definitely go check it out.

That very same evening, after the main dance was over, a group of about 8 of us decided to go on our own self-led Midnight Monument Tour. We caravaned into the city and found an unrestricted parking spot near the Washington Monument. We then hiked from there to the World War II Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam War Memorial. I have many favorites when it comes to the Memorials but the Korean War Memorial at night is definitely up there. In a word, amazing.

I woke up Saturday morning to find the birds chirping and sun shining, I quickly made my way into the city again for more “me time” whereby I go to the National Mall (D.C.’s large grassy knoll, not an actual mall) and walk around and reflect on…life. First stop was Freedom Plaza where I said a quick “hi” to some friends who were starting to congregate for the afternoon dance, then I headed over to the Mall and decided to walk towards the Capitol since I had already walked the opposite direction the previous evening. Along the way I spotted kids flying kites, teenagers playing an impromptu game of kickball and a somewhat organized rugby game amongst college kids. My travels led me all the way down to the western edge of the Capitol then back up Pennsylvania Avenue to Freedom Plaza. In total it was about a 2 1/2 hour walk on a beautiful day.

[the requisite cherry blossom and art shot]

Sunday was the day the clouds came and the threat of rain was the greatest however that didn’t stop a group of us from meeting at Eastern Market for lunch. Afterwards I headed to the airport for my trip back to L.A. and am eagerly awaiting for June when I shall return for another visit – one that will include my 20 year high school reunion and a trip to the new ballpark to see the Nationals beat up on the Giants!

A full set of Flickr pics here.

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it's off to D.C. for me!!!

Tonight I leave for a weekend jaunt back to D.C. and the surrounding environs, a place I like to call “where I grew up.” From age 0 – 18 that part of the U.S. shaped my life. From age 18 – onward I’ve been in L.A. and loving it every day.

In other exciting travel news, I’ll be flying Virgin America for the first time and from the looks of it they will be making it very difficult for me to get some sleep with their multifaceted interactive entertainment system.

See y’all on the flip side.

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brown out in arizona

Sunday was the longest day of my entire life, or at least it seemed that way. Waking up at 5:45am was brutal especially after getting a not so restful night of sleep prior. It felt like I was 7 years old waiting for Christmas morning...the anticipation of going to the game was so intense that I couldn't sleep. Upon picking Patrick up at 7am I learned he had a similar experience. He immediately gifted me with a Kellen Winslow jersey which I proudly wore all day long. He sported a Kamerion Wimbley jersey so we looked like twinsies.

We arrived in Arizona just before 11am, picked up the rental car and made our way to the stadium in lovely Glendale, Arizona. Gordon Biersch was the place to be before the game and it was packed with an even mix of Cardinals and Browns fans.

At the stadium we were regulated to park in the Browns parking lot....I mean Brown parking lot (all the parking lots for this particular stadium are color coded). With the amount of Browns fans at the game, and in that lot, I'm quite shocked that a creative type didn't alter the sign in some way. I should have taken the lead. Next time.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity we found ourselves in the stadium and at our seats. 28 rows up from the field on the 15 yard line. NICE.

The fun part of the story ends there. After kickoff it steadily went downhill with the Browns playing, in my humble opinion, like crap. It really sucks watching your team lose but the pain is magnified infinitely when you travel and see it in person and have to deal with drunken Arizonans whooping it up. UGH. At least we weren't dressed like this guy....I dubbed him Crazy Dog Bone Head Man.

After the game we went back to Gordon Biersch to watch the evening game and kill some time before our 9:30 flight out of town....which was delayed. The odd part though, we left Arizona at 10:15 and arrived in Los Angeles at 10:15. Time stood still momentarily on the longest day of our life...

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a girl walks into an airport terminal...

What kinda town is it that you can't find the local football game on any TV's at the airport? Oh that would be Boston. I think you know where I'll end up with this story...

So Friday morning I arrive in Boston just in time for morning rush hour. In LA that would mean sitting in traffic for god knows how long. In most other major cities it means finding just enough room for you and your luggage on a crowded subway car. The latter is fun for a while but I can see how it would harden a person.

A few stops later and I was in Cambridge and ready for a nap. Laying down flat versus being cramped in an uncomfortable chair was all I needed to get me back to normal. A lovely half hour walk to the college in unseasonably warm 80º heat was not so fun but the sheer joy of being in a new place overshadowed that small nuisance. An evening of Figaro at the ART, a cracked out waitress named Rita and watching the Sox win a playoff game in a bar filled with Sox fans rounded out the evening.

Saturday was another lazy morning, and a little groundhog day-ish in the walk to the college. The Empress and I made our way into Boston-proper late in the afternoon and hit the Freedom Trail, which all references thereof were lost on me the night before. Along the way I took a few pictures of noteworthy items of interest:

Ben Franklin and Old City Hall

Imagine my utter shock and horror at hearing a guide tell tourgoers that Old City Hall was the ugliest building in the city. There must be more to that story but i didn't stick around to find out...and I'd hardly call that building ugly.

The Freedom Trail for Dummies

Some cities have the Red Light District, Boston has the Red Line District....follow the Red Line on the ground to access historical sites from Boston's past.

Paul Revere's house

The Empress made me take the picture. A long ago relative rode with Paul for about 15 minutes before escaping according to the timeline. Prescott is a family name.

Paul Revere Statue

Chowda from America's Oldest Restaurant

The Empress had this thing about the chowda and everyone I spoke to prior to going to Boston said the same....so chowda it was. The hour wait for our table was spent at the bar watching Jim work. Yes, I make friends fast especially if they are a tender of bars. What can I say, it's in my genes, my dad was a bartender and my mom was a patron. But I digress. We asked good old Jim for some rec's on places to hit up afterwards and he pointed us in the direction of Silvertone. We managed to find it by nearly sheer luck. Upon looking for "City Hall and a graveyard" we found Old City Hall as referenced above with a graveyard behind it. However little did we know that a block away was New City Hall and a graveyard in front of it...which is where Silvertone was located. I can see how it could have been fun but there was no where to camp out so after a quick shot in The Duchess' honor we decided to hit up "the friendliest bar in town" the Hub Pub which was the epicenter of 4 random people meeting and sharing a beer. Libby was a doe-eyed 21 year old who just got out of the Army 2 weeks ago and on his way via train to South Carolina to work as a security guard. Ben was a charming 21 year old community college student still figuring out a lot about life. They had both met on the train and somehow found their way to Hub Pub. We all had a drink and the 2 of them were on their separate ways as we found ourselves heading back to Cambridge.

Back on the other side of the river we had and uneventful drink at Cambridge Commons then walked directly across the street to Westside and found our 2nd favorite bartender of the evening, Dave. He was skilled at altering drinks and created a lovely concoction for The Empress' sensitive taste buds. I wished to stay here for the rest of the evening but my unruly partner determined that we should keep moving....so the final drink of the evening was spent at New Towne Pub (or something like that). Football talk between me, Fred the bartender and Jason a patron somehow ended up in both us girls walking out of the bar with Boston Red Sox pint glasses. Yeah, I don't know how that happened either....but no mind...it was far better than any t-shirt I could've bought.

Hollywood Empress Video

The great thing about our mini pub crawl? Traveling via subway and foot the entire time.

The great thing about the east coast? First football game of the day is at 1pm. I was in bed at 2:30am and didn't have to get up at 9:15...it was sooooooo nice to sleep in.

Since we had made such good friends at New Towne we decided to go back to watch the Browns get pummeled by the Patriots. Mind you I am a Browns fan so I cheered very gently on the 2 good plays we had in the first half. Since my fight was leaving at 6pm I decided to go to the airport semi-early and catch the last quarter of action in the terminal because surely it would be on a TV somewhere at the airport right? I mean c'mon we were in Patriot land for heaven's sake. No, we had the 3 TV's in the bar trained on the Red Sox game and all the other TV's in the terminal on the FOX network feed which consisted of the Steelers/Seattle debacle. I watched the ticker. 10 - 20 Patriots (not bad considering). 10 - 27 Patriots (damn). 17 - 27 Patriots (we got a TD!). And in the final minutes 17 - 34 (damn, now it actually looks like we did worse than maybe we really did....what do I know though, I'm just getting numerical updates).

So that's my long winded story about an airport, a football game and my weekend in Boston.

Go Browns!

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a wicked good time

Liveblogging from the Haaavad area. What happened to the lovely fall weather? It's 80º degrees out here. This is so wrong.

Watched the end of the Red Sox game last night at some random college bar.

Going into Boston proper later today for some Freedom Trail action.

Tomorrow morning afternoon I'll be watching the Brownies play the Patriots from a local sports bar that carries the DirecTV package so it'll feel a bit like home. I wonder if Patriot-nation is as bad as Raider-nation...

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sha(y) by the bay

Due to a certain set of circumstances I found myself in San Francisco this past weekend. And what a weekend it was. My newfound love of walking up big hills was satiated in a grand way seeing that I spent a lot of time in Pacific Heights and had to ascend hills quite often.

Some highlights include stumbling upon the Cable Car Museum, sitting in a park watching a French Bulldog furiously attempt to catch a Jack Russell Terrier in a great game of chase, the slingshot flying monkey, that little corner of Ghiradelli Square, The Bucaneer (both times), sitting by the lake at the Palace of Fine Arts, the impromptu 7 mile walk, The House of Nanking, Saturday night in general, and spending quality time with 2 of my favorite people who happen to share the same name.

On this trip I was able to use a different camera than the norm. It was a Canon Digital Elph SD550 which I greatly enjoyed playing with, especially the Color Accent Feature whereby you select a certain color and it highlights that while making the rest of the image black and white. As you can see already, I utilized that feature often and it just may be the selling point that sways me toward this line of digital camera for my impending upgrade.

San Francisco, always a good time, and this little "get outta LA" trip was no different. Call it coincidence or synchronicity but the following story gives me hope that my life is on the correct path.

As I'm sitting with Chriss in the park my phone rings, its a mutual friend of ours from LA also named Chris. I answer and he asks if I have Chriss' number as he will be in SF in a few weeks and wants to get together with her. Now mind you, LA Chris has NO IDEA that I'm actually sitting in a park with SF Chriss so I casually say "yeah, hold on a minute" and hand the phone over to let her take care of the well timed request.

You can amuse yourself with the complete photoset of the trip here.

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isn't that a mortgage?!?!

As spotted this weekend during my travels in San Francisco. Granted this was in Russian Hill I believe, but still. I like the amenities...heat is included, yay!!!

Angelenos, I think we've got it OK down here.

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DCLX and my life 23 years ago

Two weekends ago I spent a lovely time in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, a homecoming of sorts as well as swing dance trip all combined into one. Here are some thoughts from the weekend.

- Jet Blue really does have more legroom!
- you have a 90% chance of getting a car rental upgrade at Dulles airport if you arrive at 6am on a Thursday morning
- the beltway is a circle. Pure EVIL! I grew up there and am constantly confused as to which direction NORTH is…
- …consequently, U-turns are your friend
- the middle school you attended 23 years ago still smells the same but the furniture is smaller
- Maryland is for Crabs, unfortunately spring isn't crab eatin' season
- rain sucks
- swing dancing makes all your ailments magically go away…temporarily
- ice packs (or frozen bags of peas) are your friend
- James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution, never set foot in DC
- the Old Post Office Pavilion has great views of the city, unfortunately the tower is open to the elements and if it’s windy it’s not fun…
- happy hour in DC has a decidedly political spin
- east coast guys are attracteeeeve
- you will get lost driving in DC however you are damn lucky if you look up and realize that the “missed turn” has miraculously put you directly in front of said establishment you were looking for in the 1st place
- the monuments are stunning; be it day or night, 1st or 801st time viewing them

Random photos from my solitary day in DC on Friday as well as the visit to my grandparents grave on Saturday. A quick story about that day...as I arrived at the cemetery it started to lightly rain, fitting I thought. Then as I was being led to my grandparents plot I thought I should have brought flowers because that's what people do when they visit a grave, right? Well, as I walked up to their plot there was a single stem of fake purple flowers right there, as if they blew away from another arrangement nearby except there were no other fake flowers in close proximity. Fate? Possibly.

1984 was a pivotal year.

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sha in D.C.

Liveblogging from our Nation's Capitol. Actually I'm just outside the Beltway right now but to those not from the area it's all relative.

I flew on the red eye last night and will be spending the next few days here in D.C. on my annual "go back home, swing dance, see swing dance friends and reminisce about my youth" trip. April in D.C. is fantastic....when it doesn't RAIN! I'm not bitter or anything.

The days leading up to this trip were crazy busy with work and theatre. I agreed to do some quickie shows at the theatre the 2 days after I return so last weekend was spent in tech. Joy. As of next weekend I will be semi-retired from Stage Managing, working on things that don't require a 6 week commitment and preferrably have a run of anywhere from 1 to 3 nights total.

Regularly scheduled blogging will continue on a more frequent basis after April 21st.

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