Valentine's Day
Johnny woke Dylan and I up with breakfast in bed! He made eggs with tomatoes and artichokes, and cut out heart shapes from fresh oranges, and black coffee. It was so sweet of him.
I got up and took a shower and then packed my bag. We hung out and talked for awhile but then Marc was texting to see when we were picking him up, so we finished getting packed and said goodbye to Johnny.
Back at the whore house, Amy and AJ were already leaving when we got there so we got to say Happy Valentines to them and saw them off. Red and Laura had already left the night before, so then it was just Marc, Billie and us left there with Heather and Shantell. My car was already almost loaded up so we just had to put a couple things I had left there in and we were good to go. It's always so hard saying goodbye to Heather and Shantell but I always know we'll see them again soon.
The drive back was nice and actually kind of relaxing. A few years ago, Denny had burned me 100 mix CD's of various songs, mostly 80's stuff, but it was supposed to be a collection of all the best songs. I had helped him put it together and even gotten some of my own favorites in there that he wouldn't have included on his own. The CD's filled 4 little cd books that I had gotten at the dollar store and later he told me him and Charlotte had made up this game where they listened to the CD's in the car and if someone didn't like one of the songs, they would yell "what the fuck is this shit" and they would skip to the next track. So, we did that on the way home with the CD's but the first one we put in actually ended up being almost all good songs. I don't think we skipped one of them. The next disk has a few clunkers on it so we skipped them but there were still plenty of good songs. We made it back to LA really quickly, in less than 2 hours, stopping only once to get gas where I almost drove really quickly off this big drop off!
We dropped Marc off and then got home and Dylan took a nap while I watched the episode of RuPaul's drag race that I had missed last week. I woke Dylan up at 4:30 so we could get ready for our Valentine's date: we were going to the drive in movie theatre in City of Industry with Brandon, Angie, Rebecca, and Loren (each couple took their own car, of course).
We got there first and there was already a line, but we needed to get dinner and drinks so we went to find those. When we came back, everyone else was already inside and the line to get in was long and slow. We started getting really frustrated and wondered if we would even be able to see "Valentine's Day" or if it would be sold out. Then, the movie started while we were in line! We turned the radio on and tuned it so we could hear it, but we couldn't always see the screen when cars would block it but we could get a glimpse of it now and then while we slowly approached the ticket booth.
Finally, we got in and easily found Brandon and Angie's car and were able to pull up right next to them. It was only a few minutes in and once we got settled everything was cool. I ate my chinese food and had some wine. Finally, I just started feeling really happy! This was such a great idea.
I think like many Americans, I have a certain nostalgia for Drive In movie theaters. One of my earliest memories, in fact one of the few vivid memories I have before kindergarten, is when my family went to the drive in to see "9 to 5" with Dolly Parton, which according to wikipedia came out in 1980, when I was 3 years old. It's very possible that it had already been out for awhile before it came to the Sky-Vu, Russell's drive in theater, because if I really was only 3 then that is probably my earliest memory. I don't actually remember anything about the movie or really even about the drive in, but I remember that I was holding the whole trip up because I refused to leave the house because I could only find one of my lenticular smurfs sandals. I do know we had the original blue van at the time so it's highly possible that I fell asleep during the movie.
That was the last time I was at a drive in movie theatre, but I distinctly remember seeing the abandoned Sky-Vu many times when we would drive between Russell and Hays, and I always felt sad that it was gone (the signed remained for many years and still might be there to this day). I remember that later in high school and college, some people would talk about how there was still a drive-in somewhere near Ellsworth or somewhere, but I never did make it there. I just always had this romantic idea of drive-in's being such a part of Americana, something really 60's that came with the car culture.
Sitting there watching "Valentine's Day" in City of Industry everything just felt so right. Every few minutes I would just sit there and smile and grab Dylan and say "I can't believe we're at the drive-in" or something similar! I just can't even describe how fun it felt.
Rebecca had made cake so she shared that with us, and we had fun going from car-to-car and having Brandon and Angie come get in our car too. In between movies, we all hung out outside between the cars. The next movie was "The Blindside" which I was really not looking forward to and almost vetoed seeing it at all but I figured we could just make fun of it and talk, which is what we did for awhile after it had started. However, as it went on, I actually got involved in the story and realized it wasn't really that bad of a movie. I still don't think it should have been nominated for best picture, but it was actually a good, uplifting film. If it makes just one wealthy, republican christian white family think twice about the way they treat young black men, then it was worth it.
I had drank a little too much wine so Dylan was kind (and sober) enough to drive us home, where we watched the episodes of "30 Rock" and "Community" that we had missed, and then I fell asleep on the couch so Dylan woke me up and took me to bed.
Hello 2010, goodbye junk!
NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 44
The Air Mattress. Very sad, but this air mattress had a good run. It was actually Brandon's bed when we first moved to LA. Mom and Adrienne had come to visit after we got situated in our studio apartment (actually a condo) out in Winnetka and mom bought this air mattress at Pic and Save in Canoga Park for Brandon since he didn't have anything else to sleep on. I had bought a futon for myself a few days before they arrived. After he moved back to LA, I kept the air mattress and used it for many overnight trips. Later, on another one of mom's trips to LA, this time with Dad I think, she bought us a nice Eddie Bauer air mattress with a built in pump that was much bigger and nicer, but we kept the smaller one just in case. That turned out to be good because after SG played a new year's show in Costa Mesa, the built in pump ended up disappearing and without the pump, the mattress was worthless because the pump had to be screwed in for the bed to stay inflated. Anyway, as I wrote about yesterday, Dylan accidentally got the mattress caught on a rose bush when he was carrying it in to Johnny's house and it had gotten a hole poked in it so we threw it away but Dylan promised to buy a new one.
I got up and took a shower and then packed my bag. We hung out and talked for awhile but then Marc was texting to see when we were picking him up, so we finished getting packed and said goodbye to Johnny.
Back at the whore house, Amy and AJ were already leaving when we got there so we got to say Happy Valentines to them and saw them off. Red and Laura had already left the night before, so then it was just Marc, Billie and us left there with Heather and Shantell. My car was already almost loaded up so we just had to put a couple things I had left there in and we were good to go. It's always so hard saying goodbye to Heather and Shantell but I always know we'll see them again soon.
The drive back was nice and actually kind of relaxing. A few years ago, Denny had burned me 100 mix CD's of various songs, mostly 80's stuff, but it was supposed to be a collection of all the best songs. I had helped him put it together and even gotten some of my own favorites in there that he wouldn't have included on his own. The CD's filled 4 little cd books that I had gotten at the dollar store and later he told me him and Charlotte had made up this game where they listened to the CD's in the car and if someone didn't like one of the songs, they would yell "what the fuck is this shit" and they would skip to the next track. So, we did that on the way home with the CD's but the first one we put in actually ended up being almost all good songs. I don't think we skipped one of them. The next disk has a few clunkers on it so we skipped them but there were still plenty of good songs. We made it back to LA really quickly, in less than 2 hours, stopping only once to get gas where I almost drove really quickly off this big drop off!
We dropped Marc off and then got home and Dylan took a nap while I watched the episode of RuPaul's drag race that I had missed last week. I woke Dylan up at 4:30 so we could get ready for our Valentine's date: we were going to the drive in movie theatre in City of Industry with Brandon, Angie, Rebecca, and Loren (each couple took their own car, of course).
We got there first and there was already a line, but we needed to get dinner and drinks so we went to find those. When we came back, everyone else was already inside and the line to get in was long and slow. We started getting really frustrated and wondered if we would even be able to see "Valentine's Day" or if it would be sold out. Then, the movie started while we were in line! We turned the radio on and tuned it so we could hear it, but we couldn't always see the screen when cars would block it but we could get a glimpse of it now and then while we slowly approached the ticket booth.
Finally, we got in and easily found Brandon and Angie's car and were able to pull up right next to them. It was only a few minutes in and once we got settled everything was cool. I ate my chinese food and had some wine. Finally, I just started feeling really happy! This was such a great idea.
I think like many Americans, I have a certain nostalgia for Drive In movie theaters. One of my earliest memories, in fact one of the few vivid memories I have before kindergarten, is when my family went to the drive in to see "9 to 5" with Dolly Parton, which according to wikipedia came out in 1980, when I was 3 years old. It's very possible that it had already been out for awhile before it came to the Sky-Vu, Russell's drive in theater, because if I really was only 3 then that is probably my earliest memory. I don't actually remember anything about the movie or really even about the drive in, but I remember that I was holding the whole trip up because I refused to leave the house because I could only find one of my lenticular smurfs sandals. I do know we had the original blue van at the time so it's highly possible that I fell asleep during the movie.
That was the last time I was at a drive in movie theatre, but I distinctly remember seeing the abandoned Sky-Vu many times when we would drive between Russell and Hays, and I always felt sad that it was gone (the signed remained for many years and still might be there to this day). I remember that later in high school and college, some people would talk about how there was still a drive-in somewhere near Ellsworth or somewhere, but I never did make it there. I just always had this romantic idea of drive-in's being such a part of Americana, something really 60's that came with the car culture.
Sitting there watching "Valentine's Day" in City of Industry everything just felt so right. Every few minutes I would just sit there and smile and grab Dylan and say "I can't believe we're at the drive-in" or something similar! I just can't even describe how fun it felt.
Rebecca had made cake so she shared that with us, and we had fun going from car-to-car and having Brandon and Angie come get in our car too. In between movies, we all hung out outside between the cars. The next movie was "The Blindside" which I was really not looking forward to and almost vetoed seeing it at all but I figured we could just make fun of it and talk, which is what we did for awhile after it had started. However, as it went on, I actually got involved in the story and realized it wasn't really that bad of a movie. I still don't think it should have been nominated for best picture, but it was actually a good, uplifting film. If it makes just one wealthy, republican christian white family think twice about the way they treat young black men, then it was worth it.
I had drank a little too much wine so Dylan was kind (and sober) enough to drive us home, where we watched the episodes of "30 Rock" and "Community" that we had missed, and then I fell asleep on the couch so Dylan woke me up and took me to bed.
Hello 2010, goodbye junk!
NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 44
The Air Mattress. Very sad, but this air mattress had a good run. It was actually Brandon's bed when we first moved to LA. Mom and Adrienne had come to visit after we got situated in our studio apartment (actually a condo) out in Winnetka and mom bought this air mattress at Pic and Save in Canoga Park for Brandon since he didn't have anything else to sleep on. I had bought a futon for myself a few days before they arrived. After he moved back to LA, I kept the air mattress and used it for many overnight trips. Later, on another one of mom's trips to LA, this time with Dad I think, she bought us a nice Eddie Bauer air mattress with a built in pump that was much bigger and nicer, but we kept the smaller one just in case. That turned out to be good because after SG played a new year's show in Costa Mesa, the built in pump ended up disappearing and without the pump, the mattress was worthless because the pump had to be screwed in for the bed to stay inflated. Anyway, as I wrote about yesterday, Dylan accidentally got the mattress caught on a rose bush when he was carrying it in to Johnny's house and it had gotten a hole poked in it so we threw it away but Dylan promised to buy a new one.
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