Occasionally when I realize that time is whizzing past me and I am being catapulted into old age, I find that a variety of things have become profoundly more important. Things like: organizing closets and drawers, trying to plump up my sad wrinkled skin, eating right and losing the "muffin top" and other excess baggage I've carried for the last several years, but mostly it's about relationships, family and otherwise. I've decided that when I think about how much time I may have left I suddenly feel the need to find my day-timer and fill it up with dates with people who are important to me.
My friend Marilyn and I always talk to each other before the Oscar's and then again after the show to compare notes and talk style or the lack there of. I called her after last year's show and said "Enough! From now on we are going to spend the Extravaganza together." So on Friday I boarded the Amtrak and headed to San Jose, California.
I usually drive when I go to visit, but with the cost of gas and leaving my bunk mate without a car, I decided to branch out. It was a delightful experience. Many of the actual train routes have been replaced by Amtrak buses though, which I suppose makes sense with the cost of everything. I did manage to take the train both ways on the "Starlighter." It traverses the coast north from San Diego, Ca. to somewhere in Washington once a day and then south once a day. You a limited on the time of day, which for Californian's who are spoiled because of our love affair with cars and the lack of public transportation can be a problem. We, however, worked it out and with my senior discount the grand total was only $47.00 round-trip and the parking, had I needed it, was free! It would have cost me $90.00 and rising to drive.
My age did manage to catch up with me though. I bought a new CD player on the way to the train station because my old one finally gave up and clawed it's way to the trash can. We stopped at the library and I picked out a book to listen to (Amy Tan's "Saving Fishes from Drowning"...don't bother) on my adventure. I failed to bring my instructions on how to operate my new player, which leads me to the rest of my story. Now you would think that it would be simple enough to turn such a tiny thing on, right? Especially when you consider I have had several. Well, after several minutes of pushing, pulling and sliding buttons, I finally succumbed to defeat and asked the college girl, merrily doing 3 electronic things at a time, in the seat beside me to "Please, show me how to turn this damned thing on!" How sad is that?! It turned out after 2 discs that it wasn't necessary to have bothered her.
Oscar evening Marilyn and I went to her daughter, Karen's, house where we spent the evening drinking champagne and eating hors d'oeuvres, finishing off with molten lava chocolate cake! What a great time! Bob called in the middle to comment on one of his all time favorites, Helen Miren. She is lovely, even with the tattoo on her hand, a teenage transgression. Like Winston Churchill's mother, if she had known at the time she would become famous she would have made better youthful choices. Lady Churchill had a tattooed bracelet and anklet. Funny, huh. The little peanut in the top hat isMarilyn's granddaughter, Summer.
The following morning Bob called with a weather update and it turns out we had a nice covering of pea-sized hale that hung around until the next morning. More plants bit the dust, but I have to learn the hard way which plants freeze...we always have a freeze. No more Mexican heather for us.
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