I spent the last few days in LA for a JNE meeting. Before I left I got in a long walk and went past a Rite-Aid that was originally a Thrifty drug store and still had a Thrifty ice cream sign out front. That brought back such memories of getting 10c square scooped ice cream. Wow – it is amazing to think Mom could buy ice cream for the 5 of us for 50c!! There weren’t a lot of choices – I often got Neapolitan because it felt like I was getting 3 ice creams in one, though strawberry was not a favorite. On my walk I also saw a fence decorated with colorful crocheted flowers and a gorgeous crane.
I got to have lunch with Emmy and Winston at her house. She told me all about the great time she and her cousin Alea had at the Taylor Swift concert in LA, it sounds like it was amazing! Emmy took me to the airport and I sat and enjoyed the views to Burbank. After a few false starts with room cards at the hotel I finally dropped off my bag and got some dinner. Did some review for the next days meeting, read a few chapters of my book (When We Were Sisters, highly recommend it!) then got to bed. The next day and a half were busy and productive – I got to know more of my fellow commissioners and learned from them as well. Always so impressed with everyone’s intelligence and dedication.
I had a couple of hours in between the end of the meeting and my flight so I checked out the Grammy Museum. It was so much fun hearing songs and watching performances that brought back so many memories. The compilation film of notable Grammy performances had me smiling, singing, moving in my seat and in tears – a few times! There was an excellent exhibit about Shakira, I really enjoyed learning more about her and loved the clips from her concerts, in particular her version of AC/DCs Back in Black. And, of course, there was a Taylor Swift exhibit, mainly a video of her song I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) and several costumes from previous tours. My couple of hours at the museum was a fun trip through music history.
I boarded my flight as news about the impending tropical storm was all over the news. The day had gone from sunny to completely overcast and every flight appeared to be filled to capacity, I’m sure many folks were eager to get out before the weather turned. In fact, I ended up sitting next to a young woman who had just flown in from Denver yesterday because she was going to spend the weekend in Palm Springs, but her Sunday night flight got canceled so she was headed back to Denver today. I sure hope this tropical storm ends up being nothing.
Ended up getting home about 9:30 pm after using almost every form of transport available – Uber to the Burbank airport, plane to Oakland, BART to Concord, bus to Emmy’s neighborhood, my feet for the 1/2 mile walk to her house from the bus stop and car to drive myself back home. I think the only other transport I could have taken was a bike (and I’m very glad I didn’t have to do that with my carry on’s!) The weather went from warm in Burbank to chilly in Oakland to hot in Concord to windy and cold in Mill Valley. Typical!
