An Ideal Husband

Friday was a good day. Work was slow so I gave myself a mental break and dreamed of all the places we could go with the one week we have in August before John starts teaching again. I think I am settling on Guatemala; the fare is reasonable and we have never been to central America.

John had gone to *$$ earlier to get us some lunch and was out and about which left me to daydream in peace. He called about4pm to say he was on his way home and would I like to see the showing of the play "An Ideal Husband" in which his friend Elizabeth was acting. Of course!

A quick shower, dress, and a touch of lipstick later I was ready to go at 5pm. I had called the Long Beach Playhouse (http://www.lbph.com/) to find out if I could buy tickets -- the lady who answered said they still had 70 seats free in a 200 seat theatre so I could just walk in and buy the tickets an not incur the $2 per ticket fee -- fine with me!

We headed to our favorite sushi restaurant Mimi's Sushi on Brookhurst where we decided to try out our new plan: only have sushi at a Japanese restaurant. By the time were were done with 6 sushi orders we were full and the bill was only $33 and that included a beer for him -- plan worked. If you have seen some of our dinner bills you would understand why this is a triumph.

We go to the theatre in plenty time even after a row over Maude, the GPS, and my being direction challenged. What can I say, I was not paying attention, Lord Briginshaw was chauffeuring I was feeling pretty good -- who cares about a small thing like directions?

Anyway we had great seats -- all the seats in the theatre had a good view of the stage. The set was very very quaint and well done -- the costumes were just fantastic. Elizabeth appeared in the first and third acts as Countess of Baildon she was great. Lady Markby and Viscount Goring stole the show but to be honest all of the actors were quite good they did a good job with the British accents (Elizabeth and Teri-- Lady Markby are both English).

I would have sworn that Viscount Goring took his direction from the Rupert Everett role in the film portrayal because I kept on getting flashbacks. In all it was a great show and the dresses were just mahvelous mahvelous!

An Ideal Husband Cast Cast Photography—Robert Craig Photography

Not the best cast picture but our friend Elizabeth is lady standing on the right.

Elizabeth Livingston Wallner (Countess of Basildon)Elizabeth was born and grew up in England. She is happy to be making her first appearance at the LBPH. She has trained with Acting Express and the Performers Academy. Her previous roles have been with the Newport Repertory Theatre and include Mother Gearth in Till Death Do Us Part, Ma Bailey in It´s A Wonderful Life, and most recently a bay lady in ER. She is also playing in the film, Outworld, written and directed by Robert Michael Conrad.

Elizabeth and John met in one of Robert Michael Conrad's acting classes and were in ER together and are both in Outworld.

Wednesday at Orange County Airport & Westin

Wednesday 6/13

On Thursday, I was having a meeting in SF with my new partners at which I was to present a proposed process to cure all ills (or a stop gap measure to lessen the hurt) -- this is the series of monthly meetings that has thrown my travel schedule awry. I have been going to SF to work almost every week for the past 2 months -- I am a little cranky about it. This time I decided to be smart and fly in the day before because there is nothing more brutal than trying to make it for a 6am flight especially when the airport with such flights is about 3/4ths of an hour away! I timed everything just right. Flight was at 7:20pm. Earlier in the day I packed 2 sets of clothes -- you never know when you might have a bad clothes meltdown especially when then those are the only things keeping your confidence in check.

The thing is on my last trip to SF I visited Ross (my favorite thing!) and Marshalls (my favorite thing!) and bought 3-5 blouses a pair of trousers (is trousers a man thing?) and a skirt that I just had to add to my collection. I am into to black and white contrast lately so all of these items were either solid white or black and white patterned in some way. I have this dream of the perfect summer outfit that is all white but I am chicken to wear all white so I am working my way up to it -- have progressed to barely off white and patterns with mostly white. Maybe when the summer is just about over I will be ready. Anyway, when I came home I came to my senses that 2 of them were overkill so they are going back sometime in the next 30 days. I took 2 of those blouses with me with the tags still on just in case I had another change of heart.

Back to the airport. At quarter to 5pm I was done with my day. Showered, dressed, and fully packed by 5:20pm with 10 minutes to spare for last minute OMGs. I even remembered to pack my inhaler which I never use and that heaven-in-a-ziplock-baggie to take care of all your personal needs (if only life were so simple!).

John was already off to school to teach so I was doing this solo so during the blur of activity to get ready I called up the airport to check on the parking status (Yuki will be so proud of me for advanced planning). All terminal parking was full except for the off airport parking which 5 minutes away from the airport and cost only $12. Ahhh, I get to have another adventure -- parking at the remote structure for the first time.

Getting to the airport was a breeze. The one thing I like about our current house is we are only 15 minutes away from SNA which is about 8 minutes of surface street time and 7 minutes of highway. It is wooonderful. Even with some traffic you have to try really hard to be late. I was so anxious to see the new parking I turned down the wrong street and started my normal exploring routine and chided myself in to sticking to the plan I had plane to catch.

Well, the operator was true to her work I was at the airport about 10 minutes later which included waiting for the bus and it was 6pm. All checked in and waiting in security line and would you know this is one thing that does not move quickly since this is not rush hour at the airport there is only on id checker and one security line open. So we wait and wait and wait to get processed. Thank goodness I built in time.

Finally, I am on the plane in my usual window seat and getting ready to snore for the rest of the flight. I get up and we are landing in Oakland and life is good. An Air BART and BART ride and a 3 block walk later I am at the Westin checking in. Already thinking about rehearsing my presentation which I reworked on the rides. I get to my room and guess what there are a couple of newspapers on the floor, used robe draped over a chair, empty golf box on the bed, used soap in the shower and used hand towel by the sink, and some leftover knickknacks on the table and TV dresser. I call up the front desk and tell them the situation and the lady asks me if I want housekeeping to be sent up! Heck no! I want a new room! Even the bed looks slept in! We all know people have used those rooms before us but we really do not need the reminder when we walk in!

I get shipped off to a new room on a higher floor which I like. I walk in and I am hit in the face with the smell of smoke --the window of the room is open so someone was trying to air out the room. I have become somewhat of a detective in my old age. Now, I am weary, annoyed, and glad that by some fluke I remembered to bring my inhaler. I called up the front desk and asked if the room was a non-smoking, an emphatic yes sailed through the headset. I complained that in my unique circumstance that was not the case and said since it was already 10pm with already one room change behind me, I was not willing to do another but was very disappointed.

With the stand-by-me help of my trusted inhaler, the rest of my stay went swimmingly. Even with all the prep I practiced till about 2 am in the morning. Left messages with the project manager at said time of the night with changes and tried to nod off to sleep at about 2:30am for exactly 5 hours.

Thursday morning went great almost anti-climatic considering the preparation. I wore white pinstriped black pants with a white and black patterned blouse -- I looked good -- did not have any outfit meltdowns. Even my hair behaved -- it is in dire need to a touch up though.

Dashed off to catch the 6:38pm flight home and soon enough I was enjoying my house again.

Richfield Ohio, LA Zoo, Oceans 13

It has been a while since my last post. Life has been a little hectic. Basically traveling every week for the past 3 weeks turned me into a vegetable.

Last week I was in Richfield Ohio for Client Loyalty Training. Richfield is 30 minutes outside Cleveland. I left Wednesday 5/30 at 11 am and did not get to my hotel till about 11pm at night. Beat after a day of traveling, getting to Richfield at 11pm at night was not the best thing especially since I did not know where I was going and I turned the wrong way on Highway 21. I was well on my way to Akron before I realized I was going the wrong way.

On the upside I was driving a red Mitsubishi eclipse. I get to the Avis counter and ask for the car I rented online a sensible 4 door intermediate car. When I get there the friendly lady at the counter jokes about not having a car -- she probably sees how far my face has fallen and laughs it off. Then she asks me if I want to pay $2 more a day and get a large car. No thank you, I just want the car I rented. She then says they don't have the car I rented so for no further charge I can get an Eclipse. Who am I to say no. What I fully resent it the fact they try to get you to give them more money first then give you the car for free anyway. Humph!

When I got to the toll booth on Highway 80 the lady was admiring the car. I must admit I felt like a hot mama in a red sporty car. She was clearly appreciative of a thing of beauty. It was bloody hot in Ohio! Normally my arms are frightful sights but I did not care and took off my jacket. I was also thanking my lucky stars that I had not done this trip when my colleagues came in the dead of winter. I hear the winters are dreadful in Richfield.

There wasn't much to Ohio especially since I spent most of my time in classroom with a number of A personalities so I had to shed my timid demeanor and give back as good as I took. You all would be proud.

On the way back home I made sure I had more than ample time twice the time I needed to get to the Cleveland airport and wouldn't you know there was a smash -- I used the word smash because John uses it and I tell him the word sounds so benign for a car crash (must be an English thing. That crash which blocked 3-4 lanes of traffic, thank God no one was hurt, ate up all the extra time I had built in so I and my heart were racing to the airport. At that point everything takes so bloody long, getting to the car rental agency just about tried my patience because there were the most convoluted directions I have ever had to take -- you know, the take 2 rights then a left and drive till you see the building that has a yellow chicken on top then take another left and drive for 3 miles till you see Paul Bunyan and you are there. On top of that I had to get gas. In the end it was all fine with a little time to spare but not before playing havoc with my blood pressure. I never ever sweat, except of course during exercise, but you guessed it I was sweating by the time I got to the airport. Yuck!

Anyway, I am back at home for a few days then I am off to SF for work again Tuesday this week and back home again on Friday. So crazy!

Today we had a late breakfast at Side Street cafe and since I did not want to go home and Maude was obliging I declared we were going to the LA Zoo. Well we got there at 4 pm and the zoo was closing so much for seeing the wild life. We decided to head back home and still not in the mood to go home we went to the cinema. We decided to see Oceans 13 at 8:40pm. Unfortunately the line at Kabuki Japanese restaurant was too long so we decided to go to the guest services desk and ask them to exchange our tickets for a show an hour earlier. It worked! We watched the movie Oceans 13 and it was really funny and delightful -- highly recommended. After the show we went to Kabuki and the sushi dinner was great as well.