I love to travel

I'm sitting here at work, watching Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel. That girl has the best job ever! I have an ever-expanding list of places I want to go to. Not just to Europe or Asia or Africa for a couple of weeks on vacation. I'm all for leaving on a Wednesday morning, flying to someplace, Santa Fe; Montreal, New York, Mexico City and having a long weekend, then flying back Sunday afternoon. It's amazing how much you can do in about four days. It's no wonder I have no money. I've been to France, Monaco, London (for 2 days), Montreal, Quebec City, Las Vegas, all over California, New York, New Orleans, Phoenix, Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Oahu and Maui, Kansas. When I was a kid, my brother and I would go on vacation with our folks. We traveled all over the western half of the U. S. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Colorado. Mile after mile, we saw so much country. We didn't have portable toys other than coloring books to keep us distracted, so I spent hours looking out the window, watching the landscape and letting my mind wander. I saw patches of snow under the trees driving thru the hills in Idaho. In June! I was amazed that snow was still on the ground. There were endless open plains in Wyoming, no fences. There were literally swarms of tarantulas running across the road in the desert in Arizona and New Mexico. Sometimes we would be the only car for miles and the spiders would stop and rear at the car in self defense. There would be so many that my dad couldn't help but hit some. Spiders have always wigged me out so this was nightmarish for me. Especially since we had a convertible at the time and when the roof was up, I could look down into the well and see the road go by. I had a great fear that the spiders would come up thru that space.

Clean!!!

Bobby aka Dr. Christmas called this morning and we had breakfast at Champagne. One of my three jobs is working for him during the Christmas season, decorating houses, hotels, restaurants, etc. Here's his website: http://www.drchristmas.com/ It's been a lot of work but also alot of fun. He has a very talented crew this year, a great bunch of folks. So far this year, Bob and the crew have decorated the Beverly Hilton Hotel lobby and ballrooms; the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica; Mickey's in West Hollywood; several celebrity homes (I don't know if I should mention their names, I'll check with Bob) and a few other places.

Bob's is actually my second job, my first being a full time management position at an entertainment company. The third job I have is working with a friend who just started a rights and distribution company. Her partner bailed on her and she needs some help. And I need the $$. Did I mention I'm also in school?

Today, being an increasingly rare day off for me, I'm going to clean my house and get it ready for my mom's visit at Christmas. For years, we did Christmas at my folks, then dad died. Mom had moved to be closer to my brother so he could help with dad, but daddy went into the hospital the weekend they moved and died there four weeks later. He never saw the new house. So for the last few years, I have been making the 8 - 9 hour drive from LA to Sonoma County to spend a few days with mom, my brother and his family. Life moved on as life does, the kids grew up, my brother and his wife ended up divorced after 27 years and things just change. So mom's coming here and for the first time since I moved to LA, I'm having a Christmas tree and decorating my house. Hence the cleaning. I better get started, I have a lot to do.

My first blog entry

This is my first entry. I hope I will keep this up on a regular basis. First, the name of this blog. I wanted to call it How Did I Wind Up Here? but blogger said it wasn't available. So I decided to go with the nickname that friends used to call me. And maybe I can find my way, not back, but forward to that place again. Things are a mess.