Erin Go 'Way

In case I wasn't sure I was back in Los Angeles, my plane was greeted at the airport with the news that there had been a security breach, so they couldn't let us off the plane. When they did let us off the plane, the entire airport had been cleared out, and everyone had to go back through the security checkpoint again.

Then I got into a taxi to go back to my apartment. I gave the major intersection near my apartment building: "Ventura and Vineland." These are both major roads. Also, Vineland runs very near the airport. Every other taxi driver has headed for Vineland. Today, the taxi driver heads for Hollywood Avenue, which is in the opposite direction and would take us just a wee bit out of our way.

I told him to turn off the meter until he'd made a circuit around the airport to get us headed towards Vineland again. This kind of behavior comes to me genetically from my parents, who lived in Manhattan for many years.

He got very angry at me and said, "If you want me to take a certain route you have to tell me before you get into the car."

Hey. Shut up and drive.

Our lives continued to be full and crazed for the last couple of days I was home.

Saturday: Greg arrived at our house and we went out to breakfast. Then we went to Barnes and Noble, where Darin and I heroically avoided buying books. Then Greg went back home, and Darin and I went over to Rob and Laura's for our Going Away party. Quite a few people showed up for this, which was very gratifying. Laura also made cakes (mocha almond and apricot), which was even more gratifying as well as filling. I played with Nutmeg a lot.

We also watched some episodes of Iron Chef, of which I had heard much but seen none. This is a Japanese show that I guess is getting quite a camp following here in America. Master chefs battle each other to create an entire meal -- appetizer, main course, and dessert -- out of the "mystery ingredient." The episodes we watched were "Lotus Root Confront!" and "Spinach Confront!" Yes, they made desserts with spinach.

I thought that Iron Chef could be transplanted to America, perhaps as Iron Gracious Living Experts: "Alexandra Stoddard and Martha Stewart in 'Pink Confront!'" Ceej and I also made jokes about "Online Journaler Confront!" with "Today's mystery topic: rage." (Actually, after a while, everything was "(insert item name) Confront!"

After a few thousand hours of fun with chefs, Nutmeg, and M.U.L.E. I went home and the Petries, Ceej and Lance, Sho, and Darin went out to dinner. Darin brought me a plate of sushi. I actually did a little bit of work on my screenplay. Yay.


Sunday: We got up, went driving around, and then ended up at the Century 22 theatre, where there was already a huge line for the 12:15 showing of Return of the Jedi. We bought all the tickets for the rest of the crew, who showed up shortly after we did: Greg, Rob and Laura, Mitch, Timo and his friend. Bryan had already been there when Darin and I arrived, which is why we were as far ahead in the line as we were.

I must remember to write down my comments about Return. The short of it is: that's not a very good movie. And that's so disappointing considering how long they had to work on the screenplay.

After the movie, Darin and I headed up north to see my parents. We spent a couple of hours there and my mom made us dinner. Yum. Roast beef, something I associate happily with my childhood but that I never see out in the world.

We stopped by my sister's apartment for a while to say hi to her and her boyfriend.

Then we went to Rob and Laura's again to a)see them, b)see Nutmeg, c)watch their video tape of The Simpsons, and d)have some more of Laura's cakes, not necessarily in that order.

Then we went home and collapsed. Woke up this morning, got me to the airport. Whee.

Last night Darin and I arrived home late and weary. As we walked into our condo I said, "Sweetie, without you there's no way I could do any of the things I've been doing, and I'm so glad we were able to do this whole thing where I went off to USC and we lived apart for a while. But let's never be apart again."

"Okay." Pause. "Well, I'll probably have to take business trips and stuff." He thought about it some more. "But you could come along with."

Darin and I get to start living together again soon. It's going to be a lot of work, moving into a new house, but I can't wait to be with him again.