’19 December

December 29

You know how when a room starts to take on a rosy hue so you open the door and then Bam, sunset.

December 27

I went with Sharon for my first walk in three weeks. We stopped off at LA Louver to see an Edward and Nancy Kienholz exhibit. Edward died in 1994 and I don’t remember that Nancy was credited in the past.

I remember this: “A 1966 show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art drew considerable controversy over his assemblage, Back Seat Dodge ‘38 (1964). The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called it “revolting, pornographic and blasphemous” and threatened to withhold financing for the museum unless the tableau was removed from view. A compromise was reached under which the sculpture’s car door would remain closed and guarded, to be opened only on the request of a museum patron who was over 18, and only if no children were present in the gallery.”

And his other big sculpture of the time, Five Card Stud (1969-72) was even more disquieting to me, both being defining experiences for me struggling with the big question, But Is It Art? (Answer=Yes)

Happy Birthday Carl!

From before, driving up to Marija and Brian’s, Ho Ho HO!

December 26

OMG amazon.com. I have lived to see the day when shopping is possible for me. Get this, all the wrong things that I chose, I just have to carry them across the street to Whole Foods and a refund will appear on my credit card. A-Ma-Zon A-May-Zing.

December 25

No picture of the kids…no pictures of the yummy food and the festive morning. So let’s have Oliver!

ak.

My across-the-street neighbor took this picture while I was in the hospital. As soon as it’s street cleaning day and the cars are gone I’ll get another one.

It’s still missing some parts and the ground cover is just little blobs waiting to grow. Patience they say.

ko.

Merlyn and Hilda are in London for the holidays, so here’s a crooked selfie and a lovely street.

mc.

December 22

Look what the Hawaii Browns sent! Lona is in Hawaii with them too. It’s a holiday-get-well bundle of loveliness. Thank you guys!

December 21

The King family is in town and I got to join them for a few hours at the Getty Villa.

And then instead of joining them for dinner I went home for a nap and woke up the next morning. Rest and drink water, just like the doctor ordered.

December 20

My holiday decorations: three angels..

..and a tree. I took this in the dark – maybe I’ll try for a better one. I enjoy it very much!

December 19

This is my doctor, a picture from at least before 2005. He has Far less hair now, but he’s still a cutie and my favorite kind of doctor. He never overreacts and he wants what you want. I went in to check that for 100% sure I wasn’t contagious. 100% my doctor said, you are not contagious.

UPDATE! I left the hospital thinking I’d had a bladder infection which made me vulnerable to flu.

No he said, they have no idea what was the source of your infection because it was everywhere, which is what made you so sick. They treated it in the drip with multiple broad spectrum antibiotics and antivirals for the flu and you got better.

About this pervasive septic infection (a much more dangerous condition than I thought I had), why did it happen? What could I do differently? Apparently No One Has Any Idea! My doctor says drink more water.

I’m going to write this here so it’s somewhere, from my discharge papers. “You were hospitalized for Sepsis due to undetermined organism. Your diagnoses also included Mixed Hyperlipidemia, Flu, Abnormal Ekg, Cystitis, Metabolic Encephalopathy.” When they released me all tests were negative for that list of conditions.

December 17

Ken and I went to the LA Zoo for their Light Show.

The rose garden was one of our favorite displays.

And the red-nosed rhino of course.

These guy are big, made of painted fabric stretched across a wire frame.

Two stories tall at the least! Should I have been out this late? Maybe not. I slept the entire next day!

December 16

That’s Saint John’s Hospital, a nice place if you must. I have some stories which I’ll try to remember throughout the evening.

The white log was fish, a 2×3″ piece. One does not go to the hospital for the food.

I watched seasons 2 and 3 of The Marvelous Mrs Mazel (the hospital has excellent wifi) and I was struck by it’s Mad Men-esque devotion to a design sensibility, and reminded how back in the olden days we got comedy from listening to records. And there were only so many records.

Where the magic happens.

No one could come into my room without a mask and gloves which they changed multiple times. It felt like I was in a movie.

The kids from my trip to Sweden. They did this last year and I loved it then too.

December 14

Looks like I’m going home from the hospital in a few hours, oh YAY!

Advice: Get a flu shot. The reason is because IF you get the flu you will be harangued by ALL and sundry. ‘Did you get a flu shot?’ ‘You didn’t?’ ‘For heavens sake why not?’ You will hear this 10,000 times before it’s over so save yourself the bother and just get a shot.

Some hospital stories to follow as soon as I get home and clean up the remnants of my crisis.

December 9

Another great party. We all talk about this party all year looking forward to the next one.

me, Marija, Alicia, Ljubica, Maxine, Lourdes, Becky, Marsha, Ann

December 9

Cynthia sent these of Kai and her dog sitting client Titan. Aren’t they sweet!

cc.

And when I got home, LOOK, a Present from Cynthia!

Oh YAY I can make coffee in 1.5 minutes too!

I moved it around a few times but this has been working. I had to move the tea service to the other side and I even like it better there!

I am fishing through amazon for some cord control product. Any ideas?

December 8

Lilly playing Little Anna in the Redondo Beach Community Theater production of Frozen.

She was PERFECT. She sang and acted the part so wonderfully..

..we were all So Happy for her.

Darryl, Christa, Lona, me, Liz, Gary, Lilly, (oops..I forget Lilly’s friend’s name)

ak.

December 5-7

Among other things…here’s what we did on Saturday, all according to the design of Rome and Lilly.

In kind of random order (and btw it rained all day on the 4th so I finished unpacking from Saint Paul, did laundry, cooked food, etc. It was lovely.)

I’m with Rome and Lilly for three days while D&A go to a music festival in Vegas or as Rome says, Vegas Baby. We’re having FUN!

This morning’s Elves on the Shelf found their way to a Shelf!

Last night we ate down the block at the place that used to be an Indian place and then used to be another Indian place, we liked them both, and is now a much snappier and fully packed Italian place. And we even ran into Ken and Susie there!

Then we went to see Taylor and Tessa in the same play that Lilly will be doing on Sunday. They have enough kids to put together seven full casts and hence seven shows.

Here’s Lilly sitting with Tyler and Rome sitting with Tyler’s sister Emily.

That’s Tessa in the blond wig as Little Elsa who had a few solos and everything..

..and that’s big sister Taylor in the blond wig as adult Elsa. Taylor got THE part in the whole show, and to top it off she sang Let It Go to huge cheers from the standing crowd. You go Taylor!

from T&T’s mom Denise.

Tessa was over after school on Friday for some play time before dance class followed by her big show.

This is from spotless, in 45 minutes. And a fine time was had by all.

On Thursday Lilah came over after school and we had another fun afternoon and evening but it was a school night so we were in the regular routine.

On my first night there the Elves on the Shelf decided to keep watch over me.

December 2-3

Monday I spent the afternoon and evening in the valley where the weather was lovely. Tuesday Windy came over and we enjoyed a nice swing through the new Trader Joe’s around the corner from my house.

In honor of Trader Joe’s arrival and as a Welcome to the ‘Hood, I bought this orchid. I’m still not fully unpacked nor have I done the laundry. Sigh!

December 1

Happy Birthday Susie (back in October but we celebrate when the opportunity presents itself). We went to the Disney Concert Hall to enjoy Dudamel and the LA Phil performing a Rachmaninoff piano concerto and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. It was gaspingly great!

But first we ran into Ben and Bonnie at the opening talk! What a happy surprise.

Disney Concert Hall, gotta take one of these.

Marsha was there too and the three of us walked down to Maccheroni Republic. Then Marsha peeled off to the train while Susie and I took the Angels Flight back to Grand.

To get back to the Disney Hall parking we walked through MOCA’s plaza where the airplane sculpture used to be and I was curious to see what would be in its place. Here it is, all glow-y red cubes. It looked cool.