Friday, October 12, 2012

End o' week musings

I believe you can never have enough adventure, but sometimes it can be a little overwhelming....

Last Friday I left work at lunchtime, gathered up my friend Linda and hit the road for Vallejo in Northern California. A little more than five hours later we arrived at my friend Lynn's house on a hill next to a dam. The view was stunning-- a busy bay with boats going back and forth, cars flowing on the freeway, tons of trees, busy birds and more.

Inside, Lynn's house is lovely. It has all wood floors and nice furniture, but the kind that's welcoming and comfortable, not stuffy. Plus she has four (rescue) cats-- each with a different personality. Linda took the guest room, while I camped on the sofa-bed. 

The first night, Lynn took us to a local watering hole, The Warehouse. It had very eclectic decor, ranging from a huge taxidermied polar bear in one corner to weird art and more, plus an oddities store sharing the property. We got root beer floats (the adult kind) and sat on the patio, which overlooked the railway tracks and a river. Trains went by, as did boats, adding to the atmosphere. It was quite nice.

Saturday we went to the Northern California Renaissance Faire in Casa de Fruita. It was a pretty drive through the hills and the setting proved perfect. I joined up with the Danse Macabre group there for two parades, while Lynn and Linda shopped, ate and caught shows. DM provided lunch for me and also a fun initiation into their group-- they made the "newbies" stand in the center of their circle and sang "happy dead day" to us, plus another tune boasting of their large musical repertoire. What a fun group!

The next day Lynn had to work, but Linda and I were ready to go back to the Faire for some fun. Unfortunately my car decided to die at the gas station, fortunately we were still close to Lynn's house. There wasn't anyone to help with my car, so we hung out at Lynn's chatting, writing and reading... ooo and playing with the kitties. Monday was much of a repeat, as I needed a distributor and it wouldn't be delivered until Tuesday morning. By 2 p.m. we were heading home-- thank goodness! Although it was very nice to see Lynn and her place was very serene.

I came back to lots of work and now I'm finally back on track- yay!

This weekend I have lots of fun planned-- and so should you! I recommend getting tickets to Wicked Lit, a trio of plays based on classic horror literature presented on location at the Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena. Learn more at www.wickedlit.org

One thing I'm doing that I will share is being in the studio during the broadcast/livestreaming of "Dining With Dills" 6-7 p.m. Saturday. Gene Simmons is the guest and will be in-studio to talk about Rocktoberfest and his restaurant, Rock & Brews. He may even bring in some food and beer to sample. For more information and a link to watch the show, please read the blog post above.

Next week I will be interviewing Dave Wakeling of The English Beat, as well as a clutch of other interesting people.

In rotation this week: "Almost Alice" compilation album, Owl City, Terrible Things and Wicked Tinkers.

Photos we got 'em: Just one cute pic from the web-- sooo appropriate for Halloween, not to mention the rest of the year! (And yeah, I'm guilty too...)


Thought o' the week: Keep cool under pressure. Man, if I ever had an excuse to be upset it was earlier this week. Planning a vacation with a friend and ending up "stranded." Despite being teary, I was able to let my anger go and look at the positive side of things: we were safe and comfortable, we had food and a place to sleep, we had a friend in the area, we had cats.... Life was still pretty good.

I focused on making the best of things, as did Linda and Lynn. We ate, we chatted, we giggled. It was OK. Choice was the operative word here, as we chose to be happy and still have a good time. We could have been like some people and bickered, complained, and so on.... Things worked out and we got home fine with a different adventure than we planned, but still one we could share with a smile.

It is often the better road to find the sweetness and positivity in life. One of the best ways is to keep cool under pressure-- can you?

Keep on rockin'
Mickie





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