February in LA
Six months, love in the air, a bit homesick & the Oscars
Welcome to my first newsletter: This Month in LA. February may be the shortest month of the year but it was a pretty long one for us. So long that I had to call on Facebook to help me work out what I did at the start of it.
Of course love was in the air on Valentine's Day and I was so surprised (I know I really shouldn't have been, should I?) by the amount of love was in the air that day. Valentine's Day is not just an excuse to jack up the prices of roses, heavily discount french champagne or create pink & red M&M's but an excuse to tell a friend you love them ... or your postman for that matter. It's actually quite sweet. As I live here and understand Americans a bit better I like what they stand for. But more about that another time.
My daughter came home saying they weren't allowed to choose one Valentine and that if they were going to bring something in they needed to bring one for the whole grade. Of 60 students. Thanks for that. Not only did I have to spring for lollies all around but I didn't get to see if one of the boys wanted to give her anything. Then I was completely caught off guard for two more reasons:
- I (we) didn't prepare pretty little packages of lollies to share rather bought a whole lot of red twizzlers for her to hand out (which we both thought was a great idea)
- I (we) didn't have anything to dress up in because the yanks love a good dress up (as do we) so of course it's come to school dressed in love. I'll be on it next year. And be ready for St Patrick's Day don't you worry.
Thankfully my son was dutifully apathetic so no Valentine's Day treats for him.
Valentine's day also marked six months in LA for us. Yay us!
The first half of the month
The month started with a bang with the kids' school's Gala Evening. I'm finalising a blog post on that so you can read all about it. It was a fun night all in all and I got to set eyes on Halle Berry for the first time and had an extremely funny exchange with actor Ian Gomez (he played the divine Javier on Felicity). Felicity seems to keep coming up, it wasn't long ago I was reminded about it as I fell in love with Dean & Deluca at the Napa Valley last month. Of course Felicity worked at Dean & Deluca (if you didn't get the link).
Later that night we ended up at an after-after party of some actor guy "Scott" in his fabulous house in the Hollywood Hills. He had nothing to do with the event but Nathan's work mates (who were at a separate Awards night) met him and he invited us to his place to continue the festivities.
The next day we had to back it up for our very first Super Bowl party. When it doesn't rain it pours. And it did (a heavy spit more than real rain; oh and in LA not on the game) and the game was a bit of a fizzer but I was very excited to be at a real live Super Bowl party. I watched the game but the ads were a bit of a blur to me.
What else? Yes of course I officially launched my blog. I've still got some teething issues with images and other technical stuff like the contact me page seemingly working fine but coming up as text instead of the pretty form but the main thing is it's up and running. Frankly I could do with more users and that's where you come in. Please share me around, there's enough to go around I promise!
Present day
I think I'm finishing the month a little more upbeat. I've been a bit down in the dumps this week and that's despite having a really good friend from Melbourne grace us with his presence thus heading out to dinners and lunch. I generally try to stay upbeat and positive but every now and again I let things get the better of me. Below are links to both perspectives written about two weeks apart. Check it out for yourself.
What I'm learning is we do need to stay positive and we do need to feel secure within ourselves. I think it's mainly a touch of the doubts that's playing on us rather than reality. We are rather fun to be around and we like to entertain so it's all good really.
So with that we move into March. And what better way to start March than with the Oscars? No red carpet for me this time (or tickets to the show) but I'll be playing along at home. I do hope the rain stays away though, that can't be fun for anyone.
Keep smiling, stay positive and live life to its fullest.
xx It Started in LA xx
Psst ... highlight stories with links posted below. Enjoy catching up! |
