Hooray! I survived Day One and am ready to recap Day Two of the Cabbage Soup Diet – you better believe the first thing I did this morning was get on the scale. I lost a pound and a half. I know that’s a lot for just one day, but I have to admit I’m a tad disappointed. I was hoping for two pounds. (I thought I’d lost at least that much in gas – even with the Gas-X!)
I took a Melatonin so I would sleep well. Last time I did the diet I had an achiness in my body that made it hard to sleep. I thought maybe it was the lack of protein making my muscles deteriorate. (That sounds dramatic and unlikely after just one day!) My friend Lisa thinks it’s my body detoxing. Whatever it is I don’t like it and was glad I didn’t have it last night.
This morning I had my beloved baked potato (with tons ‘o butter) for breakfast. I bought the biggest one I could find – it was 11 ounces. If you want to know the truth I was hoping for a bigger one. Hell, I would have eaten a potato that weighed more than a pound if Trader Joe’s had them. I should have gone to Vons. They usually have nuclear sized potatoes. It shouldn’t surprise you to know that I put the potato in the oven the night before and set the timer so it would be ready at breakfast time. I have to tell you, it might have been the best baked potato I’ve ever had.
Don’t be fooled – I put on waaaay more butter than this!
Even after the baked potato I was still pretty hungry. So I had some butternut squash.
Tasty!
I also snacked all day long. Cabbage Soup Diet Tip #2: be prepared and have a variety of fruits and vegetables. This is what I snacked on most of the day:
The peppers were delish!
The peppers were delicious and I ate almost a whole package of snap peas. Trust me, you will not succeed on this diet if you were planning on munching on carrots and celery sticks all day. (Ugh!)
For lunch I had the soup. I hate that stupid soup.
In the afternoon I took a nap. I didn’t really take it because I was tired (I was) but because I was tired of being hungry. The funny thing is, as difficult as this diet is, I haven’t been tempted to cheat.
Everyone was envious of my baked potato breakfast, so I made the family baked potatoes for dinner. This is Marley’s (she insisted on posing):
Yes, my kids still eat their dinner on the Tupperware plates I purchased when they were toddlers – don’t judge me!
Yeah, I cooked freaking bacon and did not even lick my fingers when I chopped it up. I am a diet queen!
I was probably supposed to have the soup for dinner but I didn’t. My dinner was roasted asparagus, butternut squash, Portobello mushrooms cooked in water and balsamic vinegar, and steamed spinach. I would advise not roasting asparagus without oil. Roasted asparagus is one of my favorite things. I love the delicious nutty flavor, but without the oil – yuck! (I might have thrown it away.)
So… Day Two wasn’t too bad. You know, except for the being hungry all day part. Two days down and five to go. Tomorrow I get to have fruits and vegetables. I can do it! (I think.)
Yesterday I confessed to you all that I was going to torture myself with the Cabbage Soup diet. Understandably, I received a lot of flack. My friend Sarah yelled at me on Twitter. I knew she would. She solves women’s digestive problems. But I don’t have digestive problems. I have my-metabolism-hit-mid-life-and-decided-to-stop-working problems. It might have a lot to do with the amount of cheese I eat.
(Or it might be the wine I drink with that cheese.)
Anyway, I’ve decided good, bad or whatever to do the diet this week and journal about my experience here. (Lucky you!)
Day One:
I think that Day One is the hardest day as it is fruit only and fruit is: a.) not filling, and b.) pretty gassy. Cabbage Soup Diet Tip #1: Gas-X is your friend. Take it first thing in the morning and take it as often as it says you can.
This is what I had for breakfast on Day One:
Yes avocado is a fruit!
Looks pretty tasty right? Pomegranate seeds, mango, grapes and half an avocado. Yes, avocado is a fruit. Sure, whoever created this crazy diet probably didn’t intend for you to have avocado, but while the diet strictly says no bananas until Day 4, it doesn’t say anything about avocados. Besides, I gave up coffee. And wine. I deserve something for that don’t I?
At 9:00 I was hungry again and ate more mango and grapes.
At 10:00 See above. (And so on and so on through out the day!)
For lunch I had some yummy Cabbage Soup Diet soup. Doesn’t it look delicious?
Umm,.. Yum?
Well, just close your eyes and plug your nose and pretend it does like I do! (Actually, it’s not that bad. But like I said yesterday, by Day 3 or 4 it really does make you kind of gag.)
In all honesty I really wasn’t that hungry. I mean, yes, I was hungry, but I never felt like I was starving. Probably because I was literally eating all day long. And yes, in case you are wondering I did have the second half of that avocado as an afternoon snack. (Damn it was good!)
And I don’t think I was that cranky. (I tend to be when I’m hungry). Although I did snap at Dave at dinner, coincidentally while he was eating his second chicken burrito and I was slurping more soup. (Oops!)
I did roast some grape tomatoes for dinner. They were pretty tasty. Even without the olive oil I usually slather on before I roast them.
Delicious!
Tomorrow I’ll be eating vegetables all day and I get my baked potato! You’d better believe I’m looking forward to that! I’ll also be getting on the scale and see if I’ve lost any weight. (Yes, overnight. Shut up!)
But right now I’m going to take another Gas-X and head off to bed.
Yeah, that’s right. I’m going on The Cabbage Soup Diet today.
I know… yuck! But I’m fat. It’s true. I haven’t seen numbers this high since the days of postpartum. And rumor has it Thanksgiving is next week. That certainly will not help. I need to do something drastic and this is it.
For those of you not familiar with the Cabbage Soup Diet it is terrible. But it works. It’s certainly not a way of life and it is not a healthy eating plan, but it is a 7-day plan where (pretty much by starving yourself) you lose 7-10 pounds in a week. I know what you’re thinking – that I’ll gain it back the second I start eating regularly again. But I won’t. At least not the first day.
The thing is, I can’t go into the holidays at this weight. I CAN’T. I always, Always, ALWAYS gain weight during the holidays no matter how hard I try not to. Thanksgiving, Christmas, extra alcohol, extra desserts, parties, cheese plates – it’s a mid-life metabolic nightmare. And at least if I can lose 7 pounds this week, if I do gain it all back by the first of the year I’ll be where I am now instead of even heavier. Does that make sense?
So, exactly what is The Cabbage Soup Diet? It is this:
Day One: Eat only fruit (no bananas) and cabbage soup. All that you want.
Day Two:
Eat only vegetables and cabbage soup. All that you want. For dinner you may have a baked potato with butter.
Day Three:
Eat all the fruits and vegetables you want and cabbage soup. (No bananas, no potato.)
Day Four:
Bananas and Skim Milk: Eat as many as eight bananas and drink as many glasses of skim milk as you would like on this day, along with your soup.
Day Five:
Beef And Tomatoes: Ten to twenty ounces of beef and up to six fresh tomatoes. Eat the soup at least once this day.
Day Six:
Beef and Vegetables: Eat to your heart’s content of beef and vegetables this day. You can even have 2 or 3 steaks if you like, with leafy green vegetables. No Baked Potato. Eat your soup at least once.
Day Seven:
Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables. Eat your soup at least once this day.
It goes without saying that I eat the biggest baked potato I can find (with tons of butter) on Day 2 and usually for breakfast – forget dinner! And you’d better believe that I’m stuffing roast beef into my mouth on Day Five first thing in the morning.
What’s in the soup other than cabbage? Recipes vary. This cabbage soup recipe is very popular.
Mmmm… delish???
This is how I made mine:
one 32oz boxTrader Joe’s fat-free chicken stock
package of shredded cabbage
2 cans Trader Joe’s Diced & Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1 package Trader Joe’s Fire Roasted Peppers and Onions
1 or 2 carrots
3 or 4 stalks of celery
Some water to fill up the pot
Lawry’s Taco Seasoning
Just stick it on the stove and cook it on low a few hours until it looks ready. I find the roasted vegetables really help with the taste. By Day 3 the soup kind of makes you gag. I usually only have it for lunch.
And worst of all: no alcohol and no coffee! Well, I can drink coffee – but I can’t have cream or sugar, so what’s the point?
Dave says worst of all is the smell of the cabbage soup and my crabby mood! I can’t share the smell of the soup with you, but I can share my crabby mood. I’ll be blogging daily about the torture my progress.
So this week I’ll be drinking my Yogi Green tea for my caffeine fix and looking at my little tea bag fortunes for inspiration. Here’s today’s…
Always follow your intuition…
I wonder if that means the intuition I had to do this diet in the first place or the thought I had first thing this morning when I almost changed my mind.
I guess we’ll see…
Want to check out my progress? Here’s my Cabbage Soup Diet Diary: Day One
Tuesday, for the 2012 Presidential Election, Dave and I did our civic duty by working a local polling place. It’s something we’ve always talked about doing, so after receiving a robo-call asking for volunteers, and offering us a generous stipend of a whopping $105, we figured “Why not?”
I’ll tell you why not…
We were at those freaking polls from 6:00 AM until 9:30 PM. Yes, you read that correctly – 15 1/2 hours! Of course, we each did get a 45 minute break so we could grab a bite to eat and go vote ourselves. (I don’t like to vote by mail – I like to go into the booth and get my sticker dammit!) I should be fair and admit that we were both offered a second break, but did not take it – the polls were busy and we like to act like martyrs we were actually enjoying ourselves.
So yes, we popped out of bed at five o’clock, took quick showers, ate a fast breakfast, sucked down some coffee and headed to a polling place a few miles away.
Work that pole! (Photo credit: Susan Pascal)
We lucked out because we had an awesome and experienced inspector and she and her husband had set up the booths the night before. All we needed to do before opening the polls at 7AM was set up the outside signs, take the voting box out of her car and set that up and take our oath.
I volunteered for the job of Street Index Clerk and crossed off the addresses of voters on a master and second copy and then rotated it with a third copy every hour. (And would have to quickly update the 3rd copy.) The reason for this is so poll watchers can check the list to see who’s voted and go knock on doors or make phone calls and encourage people in their party who haven’t voted to vote. Of course this only happens in cities of swing states. Not in California. Especially in the suburbs. Even though there are way more Republicans here than I ever imagined. WAY MORE!
One woman I know was registered as a Republican and kind of stood there for a minute holding her ballot and looking a little dazed. I asked her if she needed help. She turned to me and said, “No, I just need to take a deep breath and convince myself I can do this.”
I’m not sure if that meant she was going to jump party lines and vote for Obama because she wasn’t very happy with the men in her party telling her what she could and could not do with her body or she was going to vote for Mitt despite those same reasons. Of course I’m just speculating. Maybe she was on the fence between writing in Ron Paul or voting for Rosanne Barr.
As a poll worker you have to remain neutral and not become engaged in or even allow any kind of political discussion. Even when someone (Republican) shows you his ID and you say, “I don’t need to see your ID” and he says, “Well, you should have to,” or when someone (Republican) comes to vote at 5:30 and asks if it’s been busy and you say, “Yes, we’ve had a steady stream all day,” and he turns to his wife and says, “Yeah, all the people who don’t work.” Sigh…
Of course I’m sure there were some obnoxious comments made by Democrats, but I’m an obnoxious Democrat (the worst kind too – total bleeding heart liberal), so if there were I didn’t notice.
Here’s your sticker. Thanks for voting! (Photo credit: Susan Pascal)
What was great though, and what Dave and I enjoyed most about working the polls, was watching the pride and pure joy that people seemed to get from voting. Everyone was in a good mood. We were lucky because even though we were consistently busy all day, nobody ever had to wait very long. But if they did, they really didn’t seem to mind. Some people came to the wrong polling place and weren’t upset when we directed them to another one. And truly, the best moments were seeing someone vote for the first time. Families came in together to bring their son or daughter to the pole to vote for the first time and had them pose for pictures with their “I voted” sticker. Naturalized citizens came to the polls excited to cast their first ballot in their newly adopted country.
Sometimes it actually choked me up. It made me proud to be an American. (Even when those first-time voters were registered as Republicans.)
It made me think that I might actually do this again in four more years.
Well, Oprah might not have really said that. But I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how to pay it forward. I’m trying to put some positivity out in the universe in hopes that it will come back to me. That’s what Oprah says I should do.
BTW- my spell check says positivity is not a word. Apparently my spell check has never met Oprah.
Today I am going to pay it forward by telling you about my friend Jeanne and her awesome new company, Tomboy Vintage. Jeanne is very much a girl, just not a girly girl. She grew up a tomboy (with six older brothers she didn’t have much choice) and is very proud of that. She still embraces her tomboy spirit – she’s active and adventurous and has confidence that she can do whatever boys can (she can, even Oprah thinks so).
Jeanne is an artist and decided she wanted to use her talent to create a cute tee shirt for tomboys that are all grown-up. She totally nailed it. Her shirts are awesome. Here is her most popular design right here…
Don’t you just LOVE this shirt?
I have that shirt BTW – it’s adorable. If I had clean hair and make-up on right now I’d have Dave snap a photo of me and show you what I look like in the shirt. But I don’t. I look like I haven’t had a shower in two days (which might or might not be true) and I am trying to pay it forward and I think if you saw a photo of me in this shirt right now looking all nasty with dirty hair and no make-up you wouldn’t want to buy it and it would be the opposite of paying it forward – it would be like paying it backwards and making some sort of bad karma debt!
This shirt is also adorable…
Adorable!
I think I will get it next.
AND because Jeanne is super cool and likes to give a little extra, when you purchase a shirt you get a paper doll!
C’mon how cute is this?
And stickers!
Yay! Stickers!
Check out the rest of Jeanne’s shirts by going to her website: http://www.tomboyvintage.com. You should. They’re totally cute! Do it now. (Then come back!)
And if YOU want to pay it forward as well you can:
1. Forward this blog to your entire mailing list (or maybe just 2 0r 3 people on it) 🙂
2. Follow @tomboyvintage on Twitter.
3. Like Tomboy Vintage on Facebook.
4. Follow Tomboy Vintage’s pins on Pinterest.
5. If you like what you see, buy a shirt for yourself or a friend. (The holidays are coming…)
There… don’t you feel better?
One thing’s for sure – these cute shirts will definitely put a smile on your face. And if that isn’t spreading positivity, I don’t know what is.
One more thing… I wonder if alerting the Word Press spell check crew that according to Google (and Oprah) positivity really is a word would be a way to pay it forward even more.
For once I was in the right place at the right time and hijacked received an invitation to a Wii U demonstration party. (The Wii U Experience.) Yes, people, Nintendo is launching its next generation home entertainment console – Wii U and I was invited to an exclusive party for mom bloggers, gamers and industry influencers to check it out. (Or I might have possibly stolen the invitation from someone who wasn’t able to use it – by why get caught up in semantics?)
Now I’m always looking for stuff to do in LA with the kids that is fun and unusual and (let’s face it) free – and this certainly fit the bill. The event took place in a studio in Hollywood that was transformed to look like some sort of spaceship gamer paradise. (At least to me.)
When mom bloggers and gamers collide
We already have a Wii, but this Wii is different – it is the Wii U. It comes with a separate game pad controller that gives you control over the game. What does it mean to have control of the game? Well, for example, when I played Just Dance 4, Marley held the controller and chose the moves the dancers would make and even make us freeze. (Uh, yeah… pretty dangerous.)
She made me do this…
Strike a pose
And she made me do this…
Having fun
So if your kids like to play video games in a group or party setting, a Wii U console is a perfect gaming console for your family. (BTW – you can see that Marley’s controller has a cord. It’s actually a cordless device. The cord was just attached to it for security reasons.)
Chandler and Marley both thought the new Wii was better than the old Wii because of the increased interaction. (And I really think Marley liked controlling me!) Up to six players can play instead of just four. There are tons of games. Some of the other games we played were Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros U and Sing Party. Of course you can also play the games solo, but what my kids liked best about the system was the interaction.
Marley and I liked Just Dance and Sing Party best. Sing Party is like karaoke, but its taken up a notch and made more interactive because one person hold the controller and microphone and the other people follow dance moves on the TV screen and sing along to the chorus.
Marley also liked the photo area where we got to have a bit of fun.
Hamming it up with Yoshi
And she got to meet Mario. (I’m pretty sure she knows it’s a guy in a suit!)
Almost as much fun as Disneyland!
Chandler really liked Nintendo Land.
Go Chandler, go!
I liked the eye candy in one of the gaming rooms…
Well hello…
All in all, it was a pretty fun way to spend a Sunday morning. Even my friend and blogging mentor, Kim Tracy Prince, was there.
Just two moms hanging out on a Sunday morning
They even had cookies.
Yum!
And chocolate moustache lollipops when we left. (This picture is just for you ladies!)
Um, does he come with the lollipops?
The Wii U comes out November 18th. My kids give it two big thumbs up.
I was not compensated in any way for this post. Unless you count the cookies. (And the eye candy.)
Yes, that blurry creature in the pirate costume really is Adam Ant!
Two weeks ago my girlfriend Lisa took me to see Adam Ant. I was excited. I’ve loved Adam Ant since the early 80’s when he was still Adam and the Ants. (Ah the memories of me going to my friend Kellie’s every day after school in 12th grade to eat chipped beef or tuna on saltine crackers -trust me, it was delicious- and watch music videos on this brand new thing called MTV while we did our homework.)
I’d never seen Adam Ant in concert before, which seems unbelievable (to me anyway), because I’m a big concert-goer. At least I was. You know, when I was younger. These days I’m lucky if I see one or two shows a year.
Unless dragging my family kicking and screaming in the summertime to the free Sunday concerts-in-the-park to see Queen and Bon Jovi cover bands counts as going to concerts. No? I didn’t think so.
Adam Ant was playing at the Mayan Theatre downtown so we had to battle weeknight commuter traffic to get there. Ugh. I don’t know how people drive in that everyday and retain their sanity. I also don’t understand why there is traffic going into the city at night when it should be coming out of the city – such is the beauty of LA.
We wanted to find somewhere to eat near the Mayan Theatre before the show. Have you ever tried to find a place to eat dinner in downtown Los Angeles? It’s nearly impossible. Unless you’re near the Staples Center, downtown LA is a scary ghost town at night. Fortunately The Staples Center is only a mile away from the Mayan, so we were able to find a place to eat (after driving around in the wrong direction) without too much difficulty.
We chose El Cholo. (Yes, there is one downtown now. And yes, Yum!) Green chili and cheese tamales + Caesar salad + margaritas = two happy ladies.
After dinner we were walking back to the theater and I felt this HUGE splash on me. A car full of kids drove by and blasted us with an industrial-sized water gun or bucket or something, and as I was on the street side, half of my body was entirely drenched. Drenched! I squeezed into my favorite jeans, put on my cutest mid-life-belly-hiding-top, left the suburbs and battled ninety minute traffic to get a freaking bucket of water poured over half my head?!
And my hair looked really good that night. I even put on eyeliner!
Lisa started laughing because she only got a tiny bit wet and didn’t realize how badly I’d gotten soaked.
“It’s not funny Lisa!” I screamed at her. I might have screamed some other things too. A lot of other things. In retrospect I do not think I handled the situation very well. I think I said the “F” word a few times. (Or maybe a lot of times.)
There was a group of guys behind us and one of them had a camera. “Hey,” Lisa said, “did you get that on film? Let me see your camera.”
“What?” the guy said.
“Your camera. Let me see it. Was this some sort of caught on film thing?” Lisa took his camera and started to scroll through his photos looking to see if they were in on the prank.
Nope. The guys just happened to be there. They were actually really nice and one of them walked me into the wine bar we were passing and got me some napkins so I could clean up. I thanked him and went into the bathroom to confirm my suspicions – yep, I looked like a drowned rat. At least on one side.
I told my kids the story the next morning at breakfast (minus the profanity) and how upsetting it was because it was very disorienting and at first I didn’t quite know what happened. And also I had looked really nice that night and it ruined my hair and make-up.
“Well, that doesn’t matter Mom,” Marley said. “You were just going to a concert. No one was going to see you. You weren’t trying to impress anyone.”
No one was going to see me? I wasn’t trying to impress anyone?! Adam Ant was going to see me! My 12th grade MTV crush! (At least one of them.) It didn’t matter where I was standing in that club. Surely Adam would find me and lock eyes with me and declare me the hottest and most desirable middle age mom woman in the crowd. Jeez! Haven’t I taught my daughter anything?
Because Lisa is a good friend (and was driving) she bought me another margarita when we got to the club. “Make it strong,” she told the bartender. “She needs it.”
As we were standing there I had a realization. A flash of an old memory. (And let me tell you, my memory is shit these days.)
“You know what?” I said to Lisa. “I think maybe I have seen Adam Ant before. In 1995 maybe. I used to work with a band called the Murmurs and I think they opened for him at the Wiltern. I think it was him. It might have been Joe Jackson. I’m not sure.”
“Well, one of them has a piano and one of them wears a pirate costume,” she said. “That’s a pretty big difference.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I know. My memory sucks. I’ll ask my friend Mindy. She’ll know.”
(Uh… Mindy – could you leave that in the comments please?)
Adam came on. The sound at the Mayan was terrible. So terrible that if Adam were more of a diva (and I hear he’s quite a diva) he’d have screamed the F word a few times and stomped off stage. You know, like I did when I got water dumped on half my head. (Uh oh, maybe I’m the diva.)
But Adam performed like a pro. He was awesome. And okay, he’s 57 years-old and still wears a pirate costume (which has morphed into something a little Jack Sparrow-ish if you ask me) and is maybe a little let’s say… fluffier than he used to be, but who isn’t these days? (Who isn’t fluffier I mean, not who isn’t wearing a pirate costume. Although, plenty of people were…)
And the audience loved it. Loved him. Despite the bad sound and extra fluff. The house was filled with die-hard fans singing and dancing to all the hits.
And in case you are wondering – yes he did lock eyes with me. My hair had dried by then so it was okay. Even though he’s old now and probably needs glasses. But then, who doesn’t these days?
I was outside in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon and let me tell you it was hot. And I don’t mean a little bit. I mean the kind of hot where if you’re wearing a skirt sweat runs down your legs and makes little puddles at your feet. I think the fact that I didn’t see one actress break even a tiny bit of a sweat when they were on the red carpet proves what I have always known – actresses (like models) are genetic freaks and not remotely human.
Kristin Wiig looked beautiful, and I loved her dress, but honestly she looked more like she was going to a summer cocktail BBQ instead of TV’s biggest night.
BBQ Chic
I do not know what was going on with that harsh hair-do of January Jones – but her dress – OMG – I LOVED it! I usually like the simpler outfits, I like simple elegance, and this dress is definitely not simple, there is a lot going on, but I just loved it. (But it would have looked soooo much better if she had worn her hair down with soft curls.)
Gorgeous dress – but the hair? Meh.
Ginnifer Goodwin – looved her red-orange dress – it had a very retro 50’s glam feel to it. And that pixie-short hair – adorable!
Adorable!
Elizabeth Moss – love the blonde hair and the beautiful oriental-inspired flower print of her Dolce and Gabana dress. Definitely one of my favorites.
Love it!
Edie Falco – WOW! That Stella McCartney dress was just stunning. This is what I’m talking about when I say simple elegance. It is daring without being slutty. Edie is 2 years older than me and it’s obvious I need to win the Lotto so I can hire her personal trainer. (My mid-life muffin top would just spill over that belt!) I also love her simple low ponytail and pretty eye make-up. I think she might be my favorite of the night. Gorgeous!
I LOVE THIS DRESS!
Hmmm… I’m looking over this post and realizing, not so snarky. Darn it – I hate when everyone looks great. Well, almost everyone…
Uh Heidi – aren’t you the host of a show about aspiring fashion designers? Is that where this dress came from? Was there some sort of challenge to turn a retro one-piece swimsuit into an evening gown? Because seriously, that’s what this looks like to me. Those slits are not sexy, they’re just weird.
WTF?
Did you notice that all the actresses who wore yellow won an Emmy? I liked Claire Danes’ and Julie Bowen’s dresses, but I did not like Julianne Moore’s dress. I thought the yellow was a little on the pukey side (just a little) and I don’t know – it’s the type of simple dress I usually love, but I have to say, I was underwhelmed by it. I am so glad that Julianne Moore won however – her portrayal of Sarah Palin was dead on!)
She’s gorgeous, but this dress just doesn’t do it for me!
As for the awards themselves, I loved the opening skit with the fabulous ladies of comedy. (Leah Dunham – you are AWESOME and have an amazing future in front of you.) And speaking of comedy – the bit with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Amy Poeler when Julia won was fantastic! (I wonder if all the nominees had been in on that and it would have gone off no matter who won – I hope so.) And Jon Stewart wrestling in the aisle with Jimmy Falon and Stephen Colbert and then coming up on stage to give a wonderful, funny, classy speech – swoon… will you please be my boyfriend?
What did you think of the Emmy Awards this year? And what dresses did you love? (Or hate?) I’d love to know!
Today, while I was reading the paper at breakfast I saw that the space shuttle, Endeavour, was taking a tour (on the top of a 747) of the Los Angeles/Orange County area on its way from Edwards’ Airforce Base to LAX. It was flying by Malibu at approximately 11:30 a.m. As I live 20 minutes away from Malibu and didn’t have anything going on at 11:30 a.m., I decided to take advantage of being so close.
“Let’s go see the space shuttle be transported,” I said to Dave.
He was in.
Unfortunately for Chandler and Marley, we are selfish and greedy parents so we sent them to school.
As we were driving to the beach I told Dave how happy I was that we were going. I knew that I’d regret it forever if we didn’t. It was such a simple thing – driving 20 minutes and taking a 10 minute hike to a bluff – but it would have been so easy to shrug away. I’m tired today. And busy. But this was a genuine once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
We got to Pt. Dume and noticed they were filming something. Of course they are always filming something at Pt. Dume. (Trust me – anytime you see the beach in a movie/TV show/commercial it is probably Pt. Dume.)
Just another sunny day at Pt. Dume Beach
It turned out to be Bones. I don’t watch that show, but it sure looks like a crazy episode.
What kind of shipwreck or crazy thing happened here?
We walked up the path to the top of the hill and surprise, surprise weren’t the only people who came to see a little slice of history.
Waiting, waiting, waiting
We even asked someone to capture the moment for us. We never have our picture taken. (Of course with the way I look in this photo it’s no small wonder!)
Waiting for the shuttle in the hot Malibu heat
There was a pre-school there waiting to see the shuttle. I wonder if any of those kids will remember this when they get older. (And even if they don’t, it still makes a great story. I have a photo of myself with John Wayne when I was about 4 years old. I have no memory of the event – but I sure do like to tell that story!)
Will they ever remember?
And look at these two pre-school moms. They are so cute I just want to punch them be them/be their BFF!
Love this skirt/converse look. If I attempted it I’d look like a dork.
As we were waitng someone in the crowd would spout out news reports. “It’s in Santa Barbara.” “It’s flying over Vanderberg.” And then finally, “There it is!”
I couldn’t see it. “Where?’ I asked, “Where?” The guys next to us pointed, “Right there.”
Still all I saw was sky. Dave couldn’t see it either. And then, as if appearing from nowhere, there it was. I was looking for it to fly parallel to the coast but it was coming right at us.
It was super low. (The newspaper said it was going to fly at 1500 feet.) And I have to tell you – IT WAS SO COOL! A space shuttle being transported on top of a 747 – WOW!
After flying 25 missions and 123 million miles (which is even more miles than I have on my 18 year-old Honda), the Endeavour was making its final “flight.” And I got to see it. Damn. I wish we’d pulled the kids out of school.
It literally gave me chills. My hands started to shake as I tried to take a picture. I knew it would be neat to see, but I didn’t realize how truly awesome (in the rarely used, true sense of the word) it would be.
And then, just like that, it flew over us and was gone. It lasted less than a minute, but it was worth it. I’m so glad I didn’t just shrug it away and think, “That would be cool, but I’m too tired, too busy, there’ll be too many people.” I’m glad Dave and I took the opportunity that we were lucky enough to have land right at our feet.
I was cruising Craig’s List for writing jobs today and I came across this:
Who could say no to an offer like this?!
Yeah, as a matter of fact I did write a novel. It’s really awesome too. (If I do say so myself.) It’s funny and endearing and tells a good story and I actually think it would make a really cute romantic comedy starring Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper & Matt Bomer (or maybe Ryan Reynolds).
I’m working on the final(ish) edits and have been stalking following agents and editors on Twitter and reading Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents, but apparently I’ve been going about it completely wrong. I can just sell the rights to this guy on Craig’s List. For (up to) $200!
Wow! Ten (or okay, twelve) years of hard work sold for dinner and a movie. How could anyone say no to that?
Charlene Ross 