Just some travelin' stuff. You know....

I saw this photo
and got really excited (again) about the trip I'll be taking with this person

in September. I cannot wait to see Paris again and I've never been to Amsterdam - I hear Good Things.

Then I saw this photo

and added Malta to the list of places I really, really need to visit. How awesome is that wall o'windows? I have to see it with my own eyeballs.

Malta, I'm not sure why I've never paid you much attention before but I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you.

I'ma gonna be payin' you a visit.

Exciting News!!

I'm not sick anymore. Not the exciting news, just something I thought I'd mention because I know you were all extremely concerned.
Thank you.

EXCITING NEWS!!
I'm on my very first diet, ever!
This is not exciting, I know, but I thought if I could make it sound really awesome, I'd be less annoyed by the whole thing. Here's the thing: I'm terrible at it. Horrible. I'm only cutting three things out of my diet (alcohol, bread, and sugar) and I'm only doing it for a few weeks to see how it goes. In the last four days, I've already forgotten about it for at least three meals. Pathetic. See, I'm sort of genetically blessed and (until now) have never had to work out or diet to maintain a sort of blobby, not-skinny but not-so-fat figure that still wears the same clothes I had fifteen years ago. Not ideal, no, but lazy, which for me is PERFECT!! Now the blobbby that is me is starting to blob out in all kinds of places that weren't much of a problem before. Turns out that I am going to have to do something that requires actual effort and diligence on my part to keep from having to replace all of my beloved dresses. The horror!!
Hopefully it won't be too difficult. As much as I joke about it, I don't drink alcohol that often, I don't like soda, and I can live without my beloved dessert for a while - I'll eat berries and healthy junk. It's not as limiting as I was afraid it might be, mostly because I still eat dairy and everyone knows that everything's better with butter. And cheese. Fish, meat, veggies, fruits - lots of stuff on the menu that I enjoy. It's really a very lame diet and it will probably take a long time to get any results but it's quite possibly the only one I can stick to for longer than four hours.

It doesn't get more shallow than this, does it? I know that there are lots of things going on in the world for which, if I were a less shallow blogger, I would have all kinds of opinions and condemnations and approbations. I also have other, bigger problems that I could be moaning about but right now, this is it. In these fifteen minutes that I've been staring at the laptop, that's the big thing in my brain.

The lack of sleep is beginning to affect my brainthoughts.


Also, this happened

Really? Again?

Every time I get sick I end up writing a post about it. Well, NOT THIS TIME! I'm not going to waste your time and mine (any more than I already am, anyway) whining about how sick I feel, how I've got the plague, how I'm pretty sure I'm on my deathbed, and how utterly useless my pets are in this very drastic situation. I will also avoid mentioning how I ended up not going to my second job tonight because I thought maybe other people would be appalled and disgusted by the buckets of snot dripping out of my face. Instead of working, I'm woozy from Nyquil, watching Liam Neeson movies and getting ready to play video games (LA Noir - so far, it's kind of awesome). If I've got to be sick and suffering, this is an excellent way to go about it.
Since I didn't talk about how sick I am, this post has been about nothing. What a waste.

Home is hard to do

New Orleans was wonderful - great people, amazing food, gorgeous architecture, amazing food... Everything I ate was soaked in butter and then deep fried and I LOST four pounds. Want to know my diet secret? I'll tell ya: Walk all day every day for four days in sticky, humid, 90 degree weather and sweat your face off. You'll lose weight, guaranteed.
I'm not even going to charge you for that little nugget. Feel free to send me a check if you're really grateful.
Coming home and diving right back into my three jobs was a little depressing but now I've got thoughts of Paris in September to keep me going.

WORDS PEOPLE HAVE USED LATELY TO DESCRIBE ME:
Travel-addict
Defiant (AM NOT!!)
Elfin
I get stuff like 'stubborn' or 'talkative' on the regular. Those other three, those are new. Two of them aren't so complementary, either. And the third one doesn't even make any sense. Elfin? Really? I appreciate that it was an attempted compliment and compliments, attempted or otherwise, are always lovely but Elfin? Do you even know what you're talking about? NERD FAIL.

OTHER AWESOME STUFF
Yesterday a friend and I enjoyed a picnic at Griffith Park. We saw coyotes, Tai Chi, bad plastic surgery, good plastic surgery, tourists, and squirrels, all from the comfort of the picnic table. I wore four-inch heels, we ate fine cheeses and drank wine, and basically became one with nature. You know, really touched our roots. It was awesome.
OK, I'm kidding about the 'one with nature' thing. We looked like jerks but we had a great time and the cheese, it was magic.

(No cheese photos because as soon as it was served, it was attacked and I totally forgot I was taking pictures).


I AM AN ELF!!! Watch as I peer at you elfishly through leaves and such.

One more day

Two fantastic days in New Orleans, one more to go. I'm headed back home on Sunday morning.
Tomorrow, I'll visit the St Louis no 1 cemetery, supposedly one of the most haunted in the world. I'm not bothered by the thought of ghosts - what's really upsetting is having to get up early to see the place. Cemeteries in New Orleans close EARLY. Like, 12pm early. I found this out when I got to the Lafayette Cemetery today at 3:30, only to find they'd already locked their gates.  I lurked for a bit, taking pictures through the fence, and finally ended up wandering through the Garden District, trying to decide which house I'm going to buy when I've got my first squillion dollars.    I'd only be in the place for a few weeks a year, though.  As lovely as those homes are, I don't think I could live here. It isn't summer yet and the humidity is INSANE  - I'm sweaty and shiny and I've got hair that could eat Tokyo. 
The food. . . I could move here for the food.  It is amazing. Rich and spicy and buttery and oh, so wonderful.  I've had some Very Fancy Dinners in some Very Fancy Places but I've never experienced anything like the good food overload that is New Orleans. Pub,  diner, jazz club, or Fancy Pants Restaurant, EVERYTHING is incredible.  I'm eating constantly, just stuffing everything I see into my facehole. It's ridiculous, really.  If I lived here I'd be enormous. You'd be able to spot me (and my humidified hair) from space.
I've taken lots and lots of photos and I can't wait to see if any of them are actually any good. My 365 project is still happening, too, but instead of waiting until I get back to edit and upload a proper photo, I'm sending pictures taken with my cell phone. This way it's uploaded immediately and I don't have to worry about catching up.  EVERYBODY (me) WINS!!

So a girl walks into an airport. . .

And spends the rest of her life there. 
I'm in Dallas right now - specifically, the Dallas airport.  I'm meant to be in New Orleans but that's the thing about making plans: You really shouldn't bother. Our layover here has been extended from 1 hour to 3 hours (and counting).  I'd purchased Tina Fey's Bossypants at the Burbank airport and it was a brilliant way to kill five hours of travel time but now I'm ready for the next thing.  Flooding and thunderstoms, New Orleans, I'm coming for you*!

*eventually.

Photo funsies!

I've started another 365 photo project. Given my previous attempts, it seems destined for failure but NO!! I will finish this one. I'm already very happy with a couple and it's only been a little over a week.
TIME FOR SHARING: I dig this one, from Mother's Day:


and this one, from yesterday:


So, you know. It's good, so far.
One fantastic thing about doing the 365 is because I have my Photoshop open to edit the one photo, the daily pic, I just keep right on editing and the massive, enormous, gigantic backlog of photos I've accumulated over the past year is finally shrinking. It's pretty exciting.

THING I NOTICED JUST RIGHT NOW
I was uploading photos from the trip to Vegas I took in March (catching up!) and wondered if I'd taken any duplicate photos from a trip I'd been on five years ago with my mom - you know, the same building from the same angle, the same Elvis (there's a surprising lack of Elvis in shiny, modern Las Vegas) - and while I found a duplicate, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. This is from six weeks ago:


This is from five years ago:



I've made the exact same idiotic face when faced with a drink and a camera for at least FIVE YEARS.