Here Come July

The title of the post is a Scritti Politti song but in reality, July is already here (and almost half-way over - how did that happen?!?!) The month kicked off with a bang because on June 30th the Traitors and I had a show at Que Sera in Long Beach, performing at our friends Crush's record preview party. They played all new songs and it was a fun night! After we played, my friend Brad aka Swivek performed and I helped out on stage with the backing tracks.

Brandon, Me, Myles and Elene on stage at Que Sera.
Photo by Luther Orrick at Double Agent Photo.

That night after the show, Brandon went to LAX to pick up our sister Adrienne who arrived around midnight! I didn't get to see her until the next day for lunch, when I met her, Angie, Dylan and "the other Adrienne" (Pearson) at Kabuki for happy hour!

Me and Adrienne at Kabuki for Happy Hour - in the Sunset/Vine District!

After work, we all went over to Brandon and Angie's where we met mom, who Brandon had just picked up from the airport. We had a nice dinner of pizza and beer/wine out on the patio and I showed off my new Alesis Micron which I had just gotten with birthday money recently. Hoagie even stopped by for a bit, as he was in the area to pick up a Craigslist find. I was pretty tired from the show the night before so Dylan and I headed home fairly early.

The next day, Dylan and I had breakfast and then I painted his toenails red, white and blue for Independence Weekend.

Pretty patriotic pedicure!

Then the whole crew came over to our place before Brandon, Angie and Adrienne headed to Hollywood to meet Amanda, her dad and friend Jessica to go see Hall & Oates at the Hollywood Bowl. While they were doing that, mom, Dylan and I went to Venice to my co-worker Sarah's BBQ. My co-worker Joe and his wife, Gabi were there plus Sarah and her boyfriend Ben and lots of their friends who I hadn't met before.

Mom and Dylan in Sarah's backyard. Yummy BBQ!

After a while, mom, Dylan and I left to go walk around Venice Beach before it got too late. It was quite the scene over there and we enjoyed taking some photos, watching the skateboarders, and buying some incense.

Mom and Dylan at Venice beach.

Then we went back to the BBQ for a little more visiting, with my boss and her family. We had Sarah show us Lindsay Lohan's house, which is just down the street from their place. She had just gotten off house arrest so she wasn't home, of course. Then we drove back home and we went and picked up our neighbor Viktor's dog, Princessa, who we dog sit for sometimes. I knew mom would want to meet her. So we borrowed her for awhile since Viktor was going out with friends anyway. We tried to stay up watching TV so that we could go pick up the kids after the concert and take them back home, but mom was falling asleep and by the time they called, they were still wanting to go out and party more so they said they would just get a cab home. Dylan, Princess and I slept on the air mattress in the living room and we returned Princessa in the morning.

Then, we all went to the beach the next day up in Malibu at a spot Amanda had recommended (she, Adrienne, John and Jessica met us there later). The traffic there was horrendous, but we were all expecting it since it was July 4th weekend. It took over 2 hours to get to where we were going but once we finally got there, we ensconced ourselves in our little beach area and had a picnic. We stayed most of the day and I even got in the water for a little bit, although it was super cold! Finally the sun was about to go down so we got back in the car and the traffic was much better on the way home. Adrienne came back home with us this time, so mom and I walked to Whole Foods to get groceries so I could make a stuffed avocado salad for dinner, which everyone loved. As we were leaving, mom went into Liquor Time Liquor to get some white wine and was in for a rude surprise, when a cop with his gun drawn motioned emphatically for her to get out of there! Apparently the was some situation going on in there - we never did find out what it was though.

The avocado salad was a hit, and after dinner we watched "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" which we all loved, although mom and Adrienne had to finish it the next morning since they were so sleepy.

Finally, July 4th came and we decided to go up to Dylan's mom's place so we could go swimming. It was the perfect day for it because it was over 100 degrees in the Valley, so nobody had any qualms about jumping in the pool, especially the 4 little poodles that live there!

Dylan and his mom with the "Poodle Express" on July 4th.

We had a lot of fun playing in the pool all afternoon and then we decided to have dinner at Off Vine restaurant, a place I just adore in Hollywood. We didn't get to see any fireworks, but we did get to help a guy out with his dogs, one of which was very scared of all the firework noises going on! We watched the dogs while he walked to go get his car so he could get the dogs home. Then we bid Brandon and Angie adieu and the rest of us went back to our place where we watched "Devin & Dylan: Surfin' Kansas" which is a home movie that we made when Dylan and I went to Hays with mom, dad and Adrienne back in 2006 I think, where we spent the holiday with grandma Irene, uncle Ronnie and Lisa, Caitlyn, Aunt Sharon, Andrea and all her family - it was such a fun trip and I edited the video into a really funny DVD. After that we all went to bed, it was so fun for me and Dylan to have both our moms with us on Independence Day!

Mom and I on July 4th.

On Monday, it was sadly back to work. Dylan got up early to take Adrienne to Burbank Airport since it's close to his work. Then, mom and I went in to my office and she watched the Casey Anthony verdict in our conference room. We had to wait for them to read the verdict before we could leave for lunch! We met Brandon and Dylan at In & Out Burger in Universal City, because my mom always loves to eat there while in California. I remember taking her there the first time she and Adrienne came to visit Brandon and I when we lived in Winnetka, and it's been a tradition since then. After lunch, mom left with Brandon so he could take her on a few last sight-seeing trips on the way to the airport. I was so sad when I came home from work and knew they were both gone!

The next weekend, we had a rehearsal for the Traitors on Saturday and then on Sunday, Brandon, Angie, Tiger and I went downtown to the Fashion District so I could get rhinestones to bedazzle my keytar with.