April 4 - United States:
Heidi: Los Angeles, CA
Jon: Springfield, VA
This morning, I woke up when Ket got up for work so I had cereal and watched "Bandits" on her VCR. (I'm trying to catch up on my pop culture.) Then it was time to hit the town.
Hollywood Boulevard
I drove down to Hollywood Blvd and managed to find a one-hour parking spot nearby the Visitor's Center. Well, at least where Lonely Planet said the Visitor's Center was supposed to be. A quick five-minute search of the area revealed that there was no Visitor's Center. So I walked back to the car (which, by the way, is a green Kia - very slick and sporty) to put away the Lonely Planet.
As I leaned down to unlock the car door, a man walked - okay, stumbled - up to me to slurrily ask me the time. I told him it was 12:30 and waited for him to go away. He didn't, so I walked around to the other side of the car, really annoyed when he followed me. My first thought was "You've gotta be kidding me. I just GOT here!" I then continued around the rest of the car and walked right into a cheesy souvenir shop to see if he would follow me. he did. There was a young girl behind the counter and I said "Can you help me get rid of this guy?". Gabby (the girl) looked up as the drunken buffoon walked into the store, sidled up to me and slurred something - I have no idea what. I asked him to go away. Gabby asked me, "Do you want me to call security?". Somehow, I knew she wasn't really going to call, so I said "Yes. That would be great." Gabby told Buffoon that if he didn't leave she would call security, and proceeded to get on the phone in a fake phone call. He left not long after. I hung out in the store for a a while until my girl Gabby went to look down the street for me. He was definitely gone. So I thanked Gabby and continued down Hollywood Blvd.
This place is super-cheesy. I'm sure the "Walk of Fame" was spectacular in its heyday in the 20s and 30s, but now it's just sad. I definitely didn't recognize most of the names of the stars I saw on the sidewalk.
Mann's Chinese Theater
Mann's Chinese Theater was cool, though. Ketron told me that it had recently been restored when the Kodak Theater (home of this year's Oscars) was built. It did look nicer than it had eight years ago when I was last here.
Mann's Chinese Theater
The concrete is covered with people's hand and food prints, some 70 years old (Shirley Temple) and some as recent as 1998 (Tom Hanks). Many of the squares read with a note to Sid Graumann, who owned the theater. For example, "Sid, thanks for all the memories.", etc. But the interesting thing is that all the notes to Sid were obviously written in the same handwriting. The word "sid" is written with a capital S, small i, and capital D. And the rest of the letters are similar across the various concrete squares. So I have to wonder, did Sid Graumann write these love notes to himself before or after the celebrity hand and foot prints? And if it was after, I wonder how Humphrey Bogart felt about having his square desecrated with words he didn't say? Just a thought.
Humphrey Bogart's Square
After Mann's Chinese Theater - which is still showing movies, by the way - I went tot he nearby Galleria to walk amongst the shops. The Galleria is also brand-new and filled with nice stores. In the large plaza in the center of the outdoor mall are a number of mosaic paths. The mosaics are quotes from various actors, directors, and screenwriters about how they got to Hollywood. For example, "I was working as s secretary and my boss said to me, 'You're really not very good at this. Is there anything else you can do?'. So I came to Hollywood. - Actress." None of the quotes have proper names, only "actress", "director", "cowboy star", etc.
The View of the Hollywood Sign from the Galleria
The Walk Nazi
That evening, Ketron and I went for another long walk into the Hollywood Hills. I'm calling her the "walk Nazi" because she drives us both pretty hard. But we have some great talks in between the monstrous hills and lovely houses.
After our walk, we made something to eat and got dressed to go to her friend's Pauline's house. Pualine and Ketron worked together at Christie's and have remained great friends. Pauline is a gorgeous French woman with two beautiful children. Her mother was visiting from Paris and Pauline wanted us to meet her. So the four of us women bonded over wine and two rambunctious children (Nico is four and Alex is two). Pauline kept apologizing for the endless energy of her kids, but the whole night just made me miss home and our nieces and nephews.
Another in a series of guest appearances by Jon
Errand time!
Oh boy, today was an exciting day filled with errands. Mom and I went to the DMV and transferred the title from her BMW over to my name, I called USAA and got car insurance, I got another cellphone (keeping my old phone number, should anyone want/need to get in touch with us - we have tons of weekend minutes so feel free to call!), and then started detailing the car.
Detailing the car
It was really cold and I didn't want to freeze my hands by washing the car myself so I took it someplace to have it washed and vacuumed, then I brought it home and bagged all of Mom's belongings that have accumulated over the years. I think it was kind of sad for her because Dad had bought the car for her but she also knew that it meant that her new car would be here soon. A 2003 BMW 328i convertible. Nice.
Anyway, once the car was emptied out and clean Mom and I started to polish then wax the car. This is something of a tradition for me, once I get a car I tend to spend quite a bit of time getting it in good shape. We polished the entire car then a second time on the hood, roof, and trunk, then waxed the car. Pretty soon Shannon and the kids were over for dinner at Mom's and we took a break. The kids were having a great time sitting on lawn chairs in the garage and watching me clean up "Mom Jo's car". After dinner was over and the kids had left I was back out in the garage cleaning out the inside of the car: the windows, upholstery, console, you name it. I know it's a bit obsessive, but what are you going to do??!!