Fourth of July weekend

Train trips, explosions, laziness, and not leaving the house.

I hope your Fourth of July weekend was full of thrills and chills and fireworks and friends. And maybe a sense of purpose. Mine very vaguely contained these things, but strangely I am ok with it.

Thursday night, I took the train to LA to meet up with Kate and Miss Bliss to discuss our plan for Comic Con - there's a lot more logistics and planning than you'd think! - and I got to experiment with the LA mass transit system. All-in-all, pretty fun.

On the ride to Union Station, I watched episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and kept thinking of Danielle's brilliant video interpretation.

The metrolink, apparently, time travels as well. It took me back to June 23rd.

I finally nabbed a train-window picture of the best grafitti ever.

From Union Station, I took the red metro line north, to Hollywood & Highland. All the trains start/end at Union Station, so it was pretty easy. You just get on and can't go wrong, right? So I'm sitting on the train and this lady gets on who is clearly strung out and she's pushing a baby stroller and anyone who tries to look at her baby gets rammed with the stroller. It was amusing and slightly scary. She plopped down next to me and threw all of her bags (which were many and filled with assorted junk) on my lap and was nervously eyeing the door. Until the Tourists across the aisle leaned over to confirm with her that this train would take them where they wanted to go. Crazy Baby Lady says no. That this train is going to some stop (undecipherable and also not on the map) elsewhere, so these people should get off and go back up the stairs to switch tracks. They were going to the same place that I was, so I was curious, although not completely trusting. I got off the train at the next stop and read the signs that confirmed that the train that I was on - though painted red - was the purple line and would soon change course and take me away from where I needed to go. The next train to the platform (about 2 minutes later) was the 'right' one, so I got on it and there were no problems. In fact, I stood the rest of the trip next to Kate Flannery and shared an I know who you are but don't want to be a Fangirl smile. She smiled back and all was lovely. As we exited the station, she was directly in front of me and I was tempted to say hello, but too shy. As it turns out, she's dating a friend's brother (also with her during this trip) and if I had known that beforehand, I could have said hello to both of them. Ah, well.

So I get outside the station and Miss Bliss is just pulling up to get me - perfect timing! So I hop in the car and we sped off across town to meet Kate for dinner and discussion. Which of course took hours and lots of delicious food and then cookies and coffee. And then Ryan came and shanghai'd the conversation... which took lots of additional hours, a change of venue, more coffee, and food. It was great fun though and just reminds me why I must hang out with these people more often. There are not enough hours in the day. Especially when there are things that you must talk about.

Friday was the 4th and we were invited to a couple of BBQs, but we're pretty lame and I wasn't feeling great, so we decided to stay inside the air conditioned cocoon of our house and do stuff. Our neighborhood association does a big fireworks display just a couple of blocks from our house, so we didn't even have to leave the comfort of home to watch them. Out in the driveway, I wore my new patriotic glasses to watch the show. It was so nice afterward to just turn around and walk 10 steps back to your front door. No lugging chairs or coolers, just step-step-step and you're there.

The cats were a bit scared this year, I think mostly because Monkey had a vet visit on Thursday that made him weary of all humans and Ruckus was scared of Monkey being scared. They were both super sketchy and wanted to sit on my lap. At least until the neighbor kid set off a string of firecrackers and then Ruckus bolted to hide under the bed.

The rest of the weekend has been equally uneventful. We watched some movies, made some artichokes, took some naps, made some crafty things. I feel totally bored with myself and the prospect of washing dishes is no better. Although, in actuality, I need this boring lame-ass weekend at home. I need to rest up because next weekend, we've got company coming, and the weekend after is Comic Con -- which is enough to kill a stronger person. I've got a lot on my plate with Work and also my side projects and getting Ryan ready for the convention... so I need to appreciate the slow times. Instead, I am going slightly stir crazy.