Clicking My Heels

Last year's birthday I told anyone who would listen that I would NOT be in Denver for my next birthday. I knew that late falling snow is normal in Colorado and I didn't want any part of it. I made good on my promise and got an awesome deal to fly the heck outta Dodge, er, Denver. And to add a pat on the back for my decision, it snowed on the way to the airport. Ugh. GoodBYE Colorado and hello home.

In just over two hours I was back to my home sweet San Diego, sniffing the salty air and admiring the leaves on the trees. Those hadn't shown up out here in CO when I left. Just a bunch of bony fingered branches on the naked aspens. Oh California. Thank you for perpetual warmth and palms. I'll admire the chapparal and cacti if need be. I don't care. It wasn't covered in frozen crystals.

Our first stop was Rubio's. Love that place. Apparently there is one out here but I haven't seen it yet. When I placed my order, I looked at the guy at the cash register and said, "Did you know it's snowing in Denver right now? Snowing?!" He looked at me like I obviously spend too much time on the weather channel and shook his head 'no'. Extended periods of cold weather make me a bit loopy apparently.

About an hour after I got to my mom's I headed back out to join a couple of girlfriends for a wild and crazy girls night out. I mean, WILD. These girls are insane. Oh wait. Nevermind. I don't have friends like that anymore. We hit the stores, we had dinner at a hot spot for prom dinner apparently and saw a movie that wasn't animated. That's wicked awesome in my book. And I got home after curfew. But don't tell my mom, she still doesn't know.

The day before my annual celebration of life, my mom and I drove up to L.A. to visit the Getty. I've wanted to go since it opened and it did not disappoint. I haven't been to a museum without at least one child in tow for um, eight and a half years so it was a treat to be able to look and read and talk without potty interruptions or requests for food or hearing, "mooooomm...I'm booorrred".

The Getty has an awesome garden to meander through. I wish I could have walked through this mini labyrinth, but it's in the water. I don't think they let you do that. Buzz kill. The weather was less than perfect. We had a lot of fog that day *BUT* no snow so I was ok with that.

This is one of the strangest poppies I've seen. When I looked at it from the side in passing, I thought there were bugs inside.

This is my new bed--The Getty just doesn't know it yet. It was huuuuge. Oh those French. Always over the top.

My mom and I spent about six hours there. We decided it was time to leave when our brains expanded past the point of capacity. We couldn't learn anymore at that point. With the Santa Monica pier being just a few miles away, we decided to stop before heading back to S.D. I've never been to this pier so I fit in with the rest of the camera toting tourists.

Here's where Route 66 officially ends. It's actually over the water and cars are allowed to drive and park on part of the pier which is foreign to me.

There's a Bubba Gump restaurant on the pier and these plates just made me laugh. My favorite is the plate with the rainbow. Ha!

What I learned, or finally realized, on the fifth anniversary of my 29th birthday is that people in my home town are RUDE. I know it's not a California thing because I'm a Californian and all the friends I grew up with are (duh) and we weren't raised that way. People expecting you to move out of the way for them, letting the store doors close on you, not even giving you eye contact when you hold the door for them. It's so annoying. As much as I love home, that is one thing that Denver does well. People here are polite. There are too many stinkin' people in San Diego. They all need to go back to wherever they came from. Oh, sorry, was that rude? Bill and I went to Target here in Colorado. On a Saturday. And it was empty. But I digress.

It was so great to be around people I have history with. To see familiar faces and have people see me. To recognize and be recognized. I'm still not there out here. I love home and we already have our next homecoming planned. I'll just have to take enough Xanax that I don't care about rude people.