Fewer Movie Billboards

I'm having a bit of trouble adjusting to being back here. Little things are different, like the tree that was in front of the parking lot of our condo building (which is now my brother-in-law's condo building) is gone and I can't remember what it looked like when it was there.

Or: as I drove to Stanford Mall today, I couldn't remember exactly how to get there off of Central Expressway--absolutely nothing came to mind when I tried to visualize how to get there. That was scary. I'm already forgetting directions.

Also: there are fewer movie billboards per block here than in LA.

Very few at all, actually. It's the major architectural difference between Northern and Southern California, as far as I can tell. In LA, you get assaulted by billboards, by posters in bus stops, by placards on buses, by entire buses painted to be a moving billboard. Up here: ads in newspapers and on MovieFone. The billboards are reserved for announcements of Intel's latest chip.

Stanford Mall has changed a little. (I didn't drive around Stanford to see how much that has changed; I don't think I could take it.) They have a Godiva shop now, whereas they didn't before. A few other things appeared to have changed, but I wasn't in a shopping mood.

Then I went to Cafe Borrone and had lunch with Judy. I love Judy--she is so vibrant and intellectually curious. We gossiped and talked about our plans for the future. We are both working on creative pieces and thinking about our business futures. Darin and I are going to visit Judy and her husband on Christmas Day, but lunch today allowed us to be a little more frenetic and less formal than that get-together will be.

I came home and drove around the neighborhood. Not much has changed, but some things have. There's a new hotel or apartment complex over by the City Center buildings, on what used to be the empty lot where Apple employees would park.

I walked over to De Anza and investigated what it would take to get the AA degree in film I earned summer of 1996. I know: I have a bachelor's from Stanford and will have a master's from USC; which one of these things is not like the others? But I earned it, dammit.

Turns out that, since I no longer live in the area, it's going to be complicated for me to get the thing. I'll have to make phone calls and make formal requests and yada yada yada. Sigh. Bureaucracies. (I'd say, That's why I go to private schools, except USC has taken the cake bureaucracy-wise, so I won't.)

Sunday

Darin and I went to see Mousehunt (which Darin insists is spelled Mouse Hunt). We laughed. It's not a great movie, but it's probably okay for kids. Although: have kids' movies always had descriptions about making love like wild animals? I didn't think so. Nathan Lane and Lee Evans (from the very strange Funny Bones) are hilarious though.

Darin's parents arrived in the afternoon. We went over (as a group) all the house improvements we have to do and which ones Steve might be able to help us with.

I had made plans to get together with Sandra (of The Letterbox), Juan (of mi vida loca), and the Mighty Kymm, because Kymm was in town. After much debate, I agreed that I would drive over and spend some time with them, but not eat with them and save my dinner bit for later. Sandra had made two pizzas, so she probably wasn't too happy about my bagging on her food-wise, although I did enjoy talking to her and Joel and Juan very much. I did not enjoy talking to Kymm because Kymm didn't show up. (Grumble grumble.)

Actually, it turned out Kymm was confused about what time to show up: Juan and I showed up at 6:15 and I left around 7:30; Kymm didn't show up until 8. Ah well. We had a good time anyhow. Juan and I did our best to drive Sandra crazy by drinking nothing but water.

I returned home and Darin, his parents, and I went to dinner at the Gaucho Grill. The food was okay--asking for your skirt steak "medium rare" does not mean you want it "medium well", folks--and the service abominable. When we walked out, I turned to Darin and said, "Wild horses." As in, what it would take to get me to go there again.

Monday

I spent most of the day with a plumber. (He plumbed, I observed.) I then went and got a manicure, and the manicurist actually had to clip my nails. This is a first, folks: for the first time in my life, my nails were so long they had to be clipped. I'm still kvelling.

Darin went shopping with his mom. Steve turned to me after Darin and Carole left the house and said, "I'm worried about those two going shopping together." Darin's mom loves to shop. Darin doesn't love to shop, but when he's in a shopping mood, anything is possible, and he was in a shopping mood. I fully expected him to come home with a 50-inch television, but he said he didn't need to get that before Christmas; getting it after was okay too.

One of the things they did come home with was a really cool new digital camera, which was Carole's birthday present for Darin and our anniversary gift and probably my birthday present too. (It's a nice camera.) So maybe I'll actually get around to taking photos now and again.

The 4 of us had dinner at Terusushi. Despite my distinct intentions otherwise, I still ate too much. Oy.