it's the best bad idea we have

i just couldn't stay away from argo.  i try and be conscientious about movie ratings, but argo had my name written all over it.

first, it's ben affleck, who i've loved since good will hunting when everyone else was falling all over themselves to get in line behind matt damon.  don't get me wrong, matt damon is great, but ben affleck has always been a little more "me". there was a time around those jennifer lopez years where i hid my love in a closet, but thankfully, the jennifer garner years (who doesn't love them some alias?) have allowed me to open that door, and open it wide.

more importantly though, i grew up in a world where employees of the "state department" were my sunday school teachers, middle-eastern souvenirs turned out to be live grenades, the words "assassination attempt" were part of my childhood vocabulary, and there was a day where my father sat in ronald reagan's oval office and was 'encouraged' to hold the iran-contra scandal he had discovered.

iran was a place i was aware of, even at a young age.  in fact, despite the fact that we lived in a pretty "white" northern virginia suburb, my best neighborhood friend, bita, was first generation iranian-american.

i was fascinated by her.  i loved listening to her speak farsi and tell stories about her home.  in hindsight, i wonder if my dad found it ironic that during the time iran was so heavily featured on the world stage (and in his life) that it was also so relevant in my world, for completely different reasons.

at any rate, when i first heard about argo, i was excited and hesitant.  i was too young (3) to remember any of the details of its non-fictional origin story, so i was curious and interested.  it reminded me of my childhood after all (how many people equate iran and hostages with memories of their childhood, i ask you?). and it's also ben affleck.  on the flip side, i've been on a run of  crappy movie choices lately, and i didn't want to be disappointed by this one.  i waited for the reviews to come in, and was blown away by the high rankings.  and that made me even more hesitant.  with great expectations comes the very large possibility that they will not be met.

but i got over it, and it's one of the few times my great expectations have been exceeded in a movie theater. after all, how does a movie where you already know the ending (spoiler alert: the hostages get out) keep you engaged and wondering what's going to happen next?!

somehow, it did.  somehow knowing that there was a happy, real, ending, did not lessen one ounce of  the tension i felt.  i white-knuckled it through the particularly stressful moments and felt genuine concern for the characters, forgetting time and time again that they would in fact escape, and wondering which moment would be THE moment where it would all fall apart.  it's what makes the movie genius.  perfectly cast, acted, and directed, it gives you just enough, but not too much, and all at the right times and in the right ways.  it's been a long time since a movie hit the mark for me like this one hit the mark.

and my last, lingering, thought, is one of gratitude. i am grateful for the unsung heroes. the ones whose faces don't make the six o'clock news, and whose names simply become stars carved on marble walls.  and i am grateful for the sacrifices that i don't even know have been made in order to secure the freedoms that i and all other americans enjoy.

happy halloween!

halloween in california is the awesomest. seriously. the best.  maybe it's an overcompensation for lacking real seasons, but the variety of october holiday experiences are diverse and numerous -- and i've been taking advantage all month.

the celebrations continued on saturday evening with a church sponsored mid-singles dance/awkward social experiment up in los angeles.  the truth is, i really shouldn't have gone.  i was exhausted from my late night pool adventures and my early morning flight, but i get to be in town for these things so rarely that i felt like i had to go.  unfortunately as a result, i went with a bad attitude and a low tolerance for the 'awkward social experiment' portions of the evening.  i can't imagine that my company was remotely enjoyable, so i'm grateful that my companions were not only people i genuinely enjoy, but also ones who were very patient with me.

nicole, matt, jami, me, and rick

and on the upside, i was happy with my (red riding hood) costume, for the first time in years!

luckily, i had a chance to redeem myself on all hallow's eve.

a friend from church had organized a group outing with various stops throughout the evening.

jami and i headed to john's (the organizer extraordinaire) house to see if anyone else needed a lift, and filled the car before heading off to stop 1: the earrywood haunted house.

the local haunted house celebrated it's 10th anniversary this year, and this was my second visit (my first, a couple of years ago). i love that this free haunt is a truly home-crafted affair created for the sheer love of the holiday, and of scaring people, and that it is a really good haunted house!

during our wait, the group expanded from a dozen or so to 30 or 40 people,  we used the time to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

when our time came to enter the maze, rick, emily (a new introduction), and i headed in.  much to my chagrin, i brought up the rear of our trio, so of course i quickly became the obvious target.  so much so that one of the 'characters'  followed me through the entire maze, periodically popping up out of nowhere to remind me that he was there.  i got a few genuine scares and screams from the experience and managed to make it out alive!

i waited for jami and the rest of my car, who had somehow ended up at the back of the line, before we headed out to stop number 2: dr. tony's halloween extravaganza

this was a new, and totally amazing experience for me.  all i knew going into it was that we were going to some kind of halloween block party, but i learned later that the event originated from a local brain surgeon who loves the holiday and happens to own a few investment properties in the same neighborhood.  so, every year, he picks a theme, foots the bill for and enlists the aid of his tenants and other neighbors for a neighborhood-wide halloween celebration.

my initial reaction was surprise at just how many people were wandering the streets participating in the festivities.  i also found it very exciting that there was a halloween activity that somehow blended children and adults, costumes and 'street' clothes, trick-or-treating, and party, seamlessly. 

the crowd, though large, was remarkably tame, friendly, and diverse.  it felt so different from previous halloweens in virginia.  i've been a little east-coast homesick lately, but october has given me a chance to remember some of the things that make california special, and the block party was the icing.

this year's theme was the wizard of oz, and after joining up with a couple of other cars, we began following dorothy's journey from kansas to oz and back again.  criss-crossing the street from top to bottom, each house held a piece of the story.  we started on the farm (complete with actual tractor) with dorothy singing about a rainbow and slowly made our way through the rest of the tale.

we saw dorothys at most of the houses, each one at a different place in the story.  we met glinda, the tin man, scarecrow, cowardly lion, and of course, the wicked witch, time and time again. we lost our friends and found them, and lost them again.  we avoided a tornado, sang with munchkins, traveled to the emerald city (complete with giant animatronic 'wizard'), met more friends, waved off a hot air balloon and called it a most excellent night.

a date with sandy

my recent trip to hollywood, fl (near ft. lauderdale) was memorable for a number of reasons.

in no particular order:

1. a reunion with one of my best friends from high school - 18 years after the fact

me and amanda on naples beach at sunset

thanks to the wonders of email and facebook, we've casually stayed in touch through almost two decades of separation   we've made the attempt to get together during my travels before, but something always came up to prevent it--the most dramatic of which was a nasty fall (mine) on the way into a 7-eleven, resulting in a torn mcl (my second knee injury in six months).  finally, closer than i've ever been to her hometown, i was absolutely determined to see her.

between us, it took three hours of drive time to meet in naples, fl.  we had settled on the beachside restaurant at the ritz carlton, where we knew we could spend a few hours catching up and watching the sun go down over the atlantic.

we seemed to pick up right where we left off and i couldn't have been happier than to sit across a table from my long-time friend, sharing a meal, and the highlights and lowlights of the last 18 years.

2. my first hurricane!

my co-workers did not believe me when i told them that florida had welcomed me with beautiful sunny weather.  instead, they were greeted by heavy winds and rain.

befores and afters

as it would turn out, sandy was much kinder to florida than to the northeast, but we were in awe of the wind and waves on the normally mild atlantic.

3. checking off TWO diners, drive-ins, and dives restaurants

first up, sonny's famous steak hoagies.  i had the #90 (plain with onions), with provolone and green peppers, and i've gotta admit, it was pretty good.

kevin, me, eli, and greg, after stuffing our faces full of steak

i've spent years looking for a steak and cheese sandwich that could compare to the best steak and cheese that ever existed.  i don't entirely know what made that particular sandwich the best sandwich that ever was, but i spent much of my youth praying that dad would make a stop at trio's in dupont circle on his way home from work.  that prayer was often (though not often enough) granted, until the day that trio's ceased to exist.

i never had a chance to discover all the secrets of the trio's steak and cheese, but i do know that the 'steak' was marinated ribeye.   and while ultimately, sonny's (also) marinated rib eye steak and cheese sandwich did not dethrone trio's, it was darn good.  in hindsight, with a lot more cheese, it might have been a true competitor.

greg and i checking out the menu

next up was grampa's bakery and restaurant, where it was clear that the 'bakery' and the service were the real treasures.

iris (maybe 'gramma'?), our waitress, was fantastic.  we spent a lot of time chatting about the experience of filming the show, what guy fieri ate, liked, didn't like, etc.  all while enjoying the complimentary danishes, which, even though i'm not a danish lover, were amazing.

we all ordered the breakfast sandwich and shared chocolate chip pancakes while i satisfied an intense craving for hot chocolate (something about storms!).  aside from the perfect danishes, the meal was par for the course diner food, yet the experience was a highlight in my ddd adventures.

4. the glass-bottom pool

the weather didn't exactly cooperate with our hoped for jacuzzi time, so when the rain stopped temporarily on friday night, we decided to go for a midnight swim.  the real fuel for our fire being the unique pool on top of pool layout at the hotel.

on the upper floor, an infinity pool which formed a sort of 'bridge' over the pool passing underneath it.  what made it even more unique was that a portion of the top pool had a glass bottom, which could be seen from the pool below.

greg and i were itching for a photo opp, which is the only reason that swimming at midnight, in the middle of a hurricane, seemed like a good idea.

i had the benefit of going second (so i learned from greg's failures) and eli was able to capture these awesome pics.

after our photo experiments, we decided to end the night with a dip in the hot tub.  little did we know, things were going to get even hotter when, due to the weather conditions, an electrical fire broke out in the stairwell from the pool up to the lobby.  since it was nearly 1:30am, i ended up walking through the entire lobby in my swimsuit (why i didn't grab a towel is beyond me) to alert the hotel staff.  just one more piece of evidence that my 'emergency' streak is back.

5. no flight delays

we weren't sure if sandy was going to let us leave florida.  eli and i had scheduled our exodus for saturday morning, and since we both had plans that night, we really wanted to get home.  almost unbelievably, there were no flight delays, and in fact, it was the smoothest travel day i've had in some time!

bucket list, #345

i wish i actually had a bucket list. an official one. where items on said list had numbers, and could be crossed off or check-marked, providing the immense satisfaction that us virgos can only get by crossing things off lists.  sadly, i don't.

i should add that to my 'to do' list.

suffice it to say that even though it's very unofficial and does not require ink or a keypad to log completion, i do have a running list of things i want to do, try, see, in my head. one of those things was to see one of the summertime movie screenings in the hollywood forever cemetery.

check.

having removed myself from a work trip to vancouver canada due to sheer travel exhaustion, i was home for an entire weekend.  when my friend jami asked if i'd be interested in seeing 'dawn of the dead' at the hollywood cemetery, i jumped at the chance.

we were joined by a newish (to me) friend, whitney, and came prepared with our chairs, snacks, and mst3k (mystery science theater 3,000) style commentary. having never seen the movie before, i was fascinated to learn how many story lines from my current obsession, the walking dead, seemed very similar to its zombie predecessor.

we enjoyed the movie, the people watching, and the cemetery itself. we wandered the portions of the ground that the security guards would allow, enjoying the sheer grandeur of site.

we also wandered into a line that turned out to be a themed 'photo booth'  with a professional photographer, and assistants carefully directing the smoke, providing a perfectly eerie setting for our group photo.

it was a perfect way to cross this one off the intangible but completely real, bucket list.

halloween horrors

it's probably fair to say that halloween gives christmas a run for it's money in the 'favorite holiday' category.  i love everything about it; the costumes, the spooks, the (usually) chill in the air signifying the changing seasons.  and there is something eternally child-like about halloween.

conversely, october is typically a difficult month for me personally, because a heavy work-travel schedule means i don't have a lot of time to enjoy those things.  so, when an invitation came my way to join a group at the universal studios halloween horror nights, and i was going to be in town, i simply couldn't pass up the opportunity.

california does halloween right.  i've 'discovered' and loved other haunts during my time here, but had not ventured up to la la land for what i had heard, was a 'premiere' experience.  so, i took a deep breath and sucked it up to pay the exorbitant 'front of the line' ticket price (hopefully) ensuring quick entrance to the various mazes.

when saturday finally rolled around, i wasn't sure i was going to be up for it, having flown in from boston the night before, but i couldn't justify bailing when i had paid so much for a ticket.  thankfully, the financial commitment saved me from missing a truly fun-filled night!

me, rick, kristina, dean

my house was the meeting point and we split up into two groups to head north.  in my car were a couple of people i have 'sort of known' for awhile, and a new face (to me).  we intended to join up with the other group for a meal before heading in to the park, but wait times in local restaurants were long, so when we discovered they were behind us, we opted for a quick bite (which turned out to be delicious) at a citywalk creperie before heading in.

i was particularly excited about the walking dead infiltration at this year's event, and i got my first taste on the 'terror tram'.  while the other group ate, we were off and running!

or so we thought.

dean, kristina, me, rick

because we had made it on the tram quite speedily, we didn't need to use our front of line passes.  it wasn't until we met up with the rest of the group at the next ride that we realized i was the only one of our foursome who had been given the special pass.

ultimately what that meant was that we had to head back to the opposite side of the park to pick them up.  even though i had mine, i opted to stay with my foursome as i was really enjoying the company.

our 30 minute detour left us a little frustrated, as we hadn't yet realized just how much time those passes would save us (seriously, if you are going to do horror nights, spend the money), but we headed back from whence we came and began the serious business of ridin' rides and gettin' scared.

i turned out to be the obvious mark.  fortunately, new friend rick was a gentleman and offered his arm as my 'stress ball', while dean and kristina mostly laughed at how ridiculously easy i was to scare.  what can i say? i like to be scared, so i allow myself to be scared.  that's what makes it fun!

we gave up trying to meet up with the other group for awhile as we played in the lower half of the park, taking a small break from the spooks to try out some rides.  our passes were amazing and we walked right on to the mummy, transformers 3d, and jurassic park rides.

we did a little screamin', got a little wet, and decided to head back to the haunts.  the surprise hit was the texas chainsaw massacre maze, which may or may not have inspired a little pants-peeing action.  after finishing up the lower park, we headed up to try to meet up with the other half of the group.

on our way, we stopped at mazes and rides we knew the others had already done, and eventually the entire group was back together.  i was excited to go through the walking dead maze with the two organizers--sisters--who share my obsession with the show.  and it absolutely did not disappoint.

with only a couple of mazes remaining, we took the opportunity to take some photos, grab some treats, and slow it down a bit.

but, after eventually finishing with all the haunted festivities, our groups said farewell, and we slowly made our way out of the park. the evening was happily concluded with an in-n-out stop and some iphone app video making in the back seat on the way home.

i'm not often able to take advantage of social opportunities on home turf, so it's hard for me to accurately explain just how excited i get when i can.  while i don't know that i would do horror nights again (i thought knott's scary farm was better, and for less $$), the fact that i got to spend my night with a fellow native easterner (rick) and also discovered that someone (kristina) i've sort of known for a while is someone i really like, made it worth every penny.