Third Decade

On Friday evening I flew into LAX and Monkey picked me up and took me to have some delicious Thai food (mmmm, tom yum soup. Mmmm, spicy noodles.) I hadn't seen her since shortly after our wedding last year, so we were up late catching up and my cold was still coldy and I was still getting dizzy spells and I was all gross and coughing all over her place. No wonder Julius (her cat) was afraid of me!

In the night, Julius put on a concert for me, which I found lovely but would have preferred hearing during daylight hours. I have a natural affinity for orange kitties and find him delightful but it wasn't the best for my beauty sleep. snerk.

Saturday I woke up at 7 AM and couldn't fall back asleep, so I read until Monkey woke up, and we had some breakfast, ran a few errands, and went to see Watchmen. Usually, Dan and I see comic book movies together but I knew he didn't want to wait until I came home to see it, and I knew Monkey wanted to see it, so we went. Afterword we did some girly shopping at H&M and had sushi and I got to try pinkberry for the first time. I felt enormous and uncomfortable around so many skinny people walking around old town Pasadena, but chalked it up to being in LA, where nearly everybody has body issues.

The original plan was for Monkey to drive me to House of Oldest Friend, wherein a small group of her closest friends would go to dinner before the Big Party. 30 minutes before we headed over there, OF called me and told me the plan had changed and that we should go to the house where the party would be instead (also known as the Heat House because it was featured in the movie Heat) and meet everyone there. So we climbed all the way up a big hill to an amazing house and meet two giant doggies. OF wasn't there yet (and neither was anyone else but the house's occupants), and Monkey left me there to help set up for the party (she came back later). I helped Dave and Jayme move furniture and rugs, change out bulbs in the cool lamp fixture, and took photos of stuff. And I waited.





After that, I waited some more. I called Dan to chat for a bit and the cake arrived. I called OF to see what was up, and she said she was about 20 minutes away, so I went to do my hair and makeup while the house was still empty and quiet.


Arrivals by OF's friend Sarah, OF and her parents, and a few other folks brought me out of my hair-curling reverie and I went out to present her with her surprise birthday blanket. (She liked it, hooray!) I returned to finish primping and pulled out the four wraps, four pairs of gloves, three sets of jewelry and two pairs of shoes I'd brought as possible accessories for the dress OF had brought for me to wear (a dress last seen nearly a year ago that I'd made for her to wear in our wedding). After a few minutes of consultation and discussion, the accessory decisions were made and I spent a few minutes getting dressed.


I went with the green pearl necklace Julie had made me for our wedding, the longer white kid gloves (made in France! probably 60 years old!), the thin light green wrap, and the new silver shoes I found at DSW on clearance ($12!). My hair was curled. My makeup was done. I felt hott. I wish Dan had been there to see me, because he would have given me That Look and it would have made me feel even hotter.


A few last-minute projects were completed, and then everything was ready. I snapped another photo of the skyline as the beef sizzled on the taco truck and my mouth watered, hoping they would soon cook the chicken so I could eat dinner. And when it was ready, boy was it tasty! The taco truck guy and I chatted about Mexican food and Rick Bayless and love for cooking while he prepared my chicken tacos. "I make all the sauces," he told me, "and the one in the middle there, the spicy one? That's my own recipe." I wish I had gotten a photo of the taco truck, because it was awesome.

The evening went on, and drinks were consumed, and more people arrived. I was the fanciest one there until a couple wearing masks, tux and sparkly red dress showed up, and then a girl in a flapper dress with peacock feathers, and suddenly all those party poopers who came to a Birthday Ball in jeans must have felt a little out of place. There was mingling and there was singing happy birthday and there was red velvet cake, and a toast and speech by the birthday girl, and then the dancing began.




Somehow I managed to stand, walk, and dance in spike heels for several hours (a first!) but eventually they came off. After there'd been dancing for quite some time, OF announced the winners of the prizes: best duo, most valuable partier, best male, and then....I won best female! Me! I couldn't have done it without the fancy dress and the shoes and most especially Julie's grandma's gloves (thanks, Julie's dead grandma!)

Everybody danced for hours, and drank for hours, and it was 1 AM and I was about to keel over (having had little sleep, been up since 7 AM, and still sick) so Monkey and I bid adieu to those who were left and I gave OF an extra hug and we headed back to Monkey's place. It was the best birthday ball I ever attended, and I even got a Major Award.

Sunday, I was groggy from the NyQuil Monkey made me take (it was probably necessary; my cough was terrible) but managed to wake myself up and help Monkey make brunch for me and a few other people she knew. I fried the homemade paneer for the saag paneer; I hand-blended the spinach and wiped out the idli molds after the first batch came out. Mostly, I watched Monkey cook (while she intermittently called her parents to ask about ingredient ratios) and enjoyed the spicy smells. We had a great brunch (nothing better than a brunch with samosas AND mimosas) and hung out until it was time to take me to the airport.

I flew home, completely wiped out, and reflected on my whirlwind LA weekend, on turning 30 with my oldest friend, and remembered the last time I was in LA for OF's birthday: the day of the LA marathon, when it was 95 degrees and I only made it halfway. Luckily, the weather was mild and beautiful and the view was amazing and OF had a great party. Complete with Major Awards.

Tying it up

1. Once upon a time, I asked for suggestions on how to use my Aveda gift certificate, which was due to expire in early March. I got a lot of good feedback, and still wasn't sure what to do, and then we had dinner with Julie and Steve. They're going to a wedding on the East Coast this weekend and Julie talked about how she really wanted a haircut and highlights done before they left. They've fallen on some tough times (as have a lot of people, because duh) and I offered to let her use my gift certificate to get that stuff done at the Aveda Institute. She was all over that, and when we went in yesterday to set it up they told us they weren't taking any more appointments for the day. Denied! The girl extended the expiration on my gift certificate and Julie's mom offered to pay for her haircut so now I'm back to where I started.

2. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I'm going to LA this weekend to attend the 30th birthday of Oldest Friend. Because it's a ball I wanted to find a fancy dress or something otherwise appropriate to the occasion, and did a lot of looking around online and in regular stores. I found some actual, no shit ball gowns in a store in the racetrack mall (the store is called FT Casuals yet there's nothing casual in the store); they sell prom and quincenera and wedding dresses and hooker shoes, and lots of dresses in the store could have worked for my purposes but a) they were all kinda oogly, and b) I still wasn't willing to spend that much on a dress. I tried a few costume stores, thinking I could find something vintage or something I could alter but didn't have much luck. So I called her up and asked if I could wear the dress she wore as my Best Woman - when I made the dress, I made it to fit me because I knew it would fit her; we're the same size. She said yes! So, that being solved, I went about Project Gloves. My first stop was Claire's, thinking that it's prom season and they'd have them if anyone did. Nope, all they had were bright-colored fishnet gauntlets and tacky black lace Madonna gloves. I went on a wild goose chase into 3 other stores to no avail. I guess the girls aren't wearing the formal gloves no mo. My mom has several pairs that belonged to her mother but they're in northern California and I needed some for this weekend; no time to get them to me. Luckily, I mentioned my predicament to Julie because I figured she might have some, having been in about 8 gazillion formal expensive East Coast weddings over the years. "I've never been asked to wear gloves in a wedding," she told me, "but I inherited a giant box of gloves from my grandmother." Her wealthy, New York Jewish grandmother. Who attended umpteen formal functions over the years. I went over to her place and we went through the piles of gloves (and a few hats). Oh. My. There were leather and kid gloves of all lengths and colors (even blue!), there were forearm-length fabric ruched bright yellow and bright orange. There were simple, short ones, black and white, with intricate beading. Many of the gloves had obviously never been worn, since they had the tags still attached and cardboard inserts. It was a fun glove-trying-on party and I'm borrowing four pairs (one black velvet elbow-length, two white kid (different lengths), and one gray forearm-length) to see which ones look best when I have the whole outfit put together. I'll be wearing silver or black shoes, a mask also borrowed from Oldest Friend, and one of four different wraps. Oh yes, there will be photos!

3. I have one project at 95% completion that you'll get to see on Monday and another at about 90% that you'll get to see after I mail it to Jive Turkey. I want them to be surprises, so no peeking this time!

4. Please, think good thoughts for me. My cold took a turn for the worse last night and I woke up this morning with some new symptoms (sore, constricted throat, dizziness - maybe my inner ear is affected?) - a relapse, or have I gotten another cold on top of the one I had? Either way, I ended up going home early from work and napping for some of the afternoon and may not go in tomorrow, just to rest up for my plane trip. I get to stay with Monkey and spend time with Oldest Friend and attend a ball and eat homemade Indian food and I don't want to be sick! No more sick!