FUN NIGHT...

Last night, Thursday, I went to Houston's to meet my good friend and her ex husband for dinner. Yes, ex husband.  He had come in from New York City to attend his nephews graduation from film school.

I arrived early due to the fact that the parking is almost non existent if you arrive a little later in the evening.  Since I had about forty five minutes to wait I sat at the bar and ordered a club soda. I thought I'd wait to have a drink at the table.

While I was sitting there this man walked in and asked if he could sit at the seat next to me.  Be my guest, I don't own the stools.  He was a salesman from Chicago and after chatting with him for a while I found out he was in the restaurant supply business for Corporate offices and was in California for the restaurant show being held in L.A.

The other interesting thing was he had a son that had just graduated from Purdue and had completed an Internship at Timken Roller Bearing in Canton, Ohio, my home town in marketing. He said his son actually liked Canton and that there still was a Timken on the board of the company. I went to Timken High School .....small world.

I told him I was waiting for friends but he said if my friends didn't come he would like me to join him for dinner.  If they did come and my friends and I had dinner would I come back to the bar and join him for a drink.  Another lonely salesman...not going to happen. I did have dinner with my friends and I did NOT join him for a drink, although he was still sitting there after two hours.

My NY friend came in and we waited a little while for his wife to find parking.  It was great seeing him. He was kidding me about not leaving me alone for a minute because there was always some guy around hitting on me.

 I've stayed with him and my girlfriend in his condo in NY.  The condo is on the upper Westside close to Central Park and located on the Hudson.  The building was originally a Trump building but had been sold to someone else. I can't imagine what the rent is as I know that a small two bedroom is $10,000. a month in NYC  His place is big, two bedrooms, two baths, prior to that he was in a Brownstone that I visited previously. He is quite the man about town in NYC and is well known all over the city.

Anyway, it was a fun reunion and they issued an invitation to me and another friend to come to the beach house in Laguna on Sunday for a BBQ to celebrate the graduation.

My life certainly has its ups and downs.  One never knows what a week will bring.

IT'S ONLY WEDNESDAY....

Sunday night the girls came for dinner at 5:00. I made Annabelle's to drink, which were shades of the seventies. They are frozen pink lemonade, half and half cream, and vodka put in a blender, equal amounts. Very pretty and of course low caloric. Since several of the gals are vegetarians I made mac and cheese with a salad. Everyone brought an appetizer and one brought this wonderful dessert we use to make in the seventies called "sex in a pan. Whipped cream, chocolate mousse, angel food cake on a baked almond crust. Good heavens we will all have to diet for the next month if not longer. We caught up with everyone's goings on. These women have been in my life since the early seventies when we all lived in the same neighborhood. It is always nice to keep long time friends and know they will always be there for you. Now on to Bruno....I bet everyone is sick to death of hearing about him. He returned from China on Saturday, emailed me Monday and came over to see me after an appointment in Dana Point that did't go well. He said he felt the China trip was a waste of time and would remain to be seen if things moved forward. I don't know why there is such a connection but since we have been dating going on four years it certainly hasn't waned. He made the statement that it was more then like and it hadn't been casual since we met. Of course his actions speak louder then his words and I'm taking it all with a huge grain of salt. He is having a birthday soon and since he has been looking for another car to add to his collection he purchased, before he left for China, an Aston Martin.. he didn't want to tell me what it was but finally admitted what type, convertible of course. I told him he was going through his mid-life crisis and he said that had happened when he was twenty eight and bought a Carrera...boys and their toys. I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to get him for his birthday and he said he wanted a car cover. Monday night my ex neighbor and I went to dinner at Quinn's. That place is so much fun and has good food. Since it seems to have changed ownership I'm hoping that it remains good. Older crowd and everyone knows everyone. Like a Cheers bar. My friend and I caught up. She and her husband had just gotten back from a river cruise in France and enjoyed it Yesterday I went to the Aston Martin dealership in Newport Beachto see about the car cover As with everything, nothing is easy. I don't know if I can get one, they have to be made and this Aston is older and of course the cover may no longer be available. We'll see. I met the salesman and the parts manager and one of them is suppose to call me today to let me know about the cover. After I left the dealership it was lunch time. Before that I had gone to the doctors for a consultation and thought since I was in the area I'd have lunch at The Ritz at the bar. I had a great Ceasar with steak medallions. Of course the place always has these various men that can't mind their own business. This one man sat down close to me and was waiting for his date He rather resembled a pig and never in a million years would I be interested. He said he was some big real estate development firm in Arizona and had his brochures and card to prove it was his company. He had a girlfriend but was meeting someone he picked up at the Ferragamo store. All men are really dogs aren't they? His actual girlfriend was shopping. This man thought he should introduce me to some of his friends because I needed to have someone spoil me....not that isn't a bad idea but since I didn't want to give this guy my phone number it wasn't going to happen anytime soon, if ever. It seems I'm always fending off advances. One would think at my age the boys would leave me alone. After I returned home I changed clothes and headed for the Elks to pack boxes for Afghanistan and vote for a new ER. So that is this week so far. This morning I had an email from Vet man asking me to lunch next week on Monday. I haven't answered him yet...I'm not sure what his deal is. He has a girlfriend, although the last time I saw him his comment was, "one can't always have what they really want." True. Keeping my fingers crossed that things stay normal the rest of the week.

GETTING READY...*t

Yesterday was a fairly busy day.  I had a lot of errands to do, lunch with Vet Man to catch up. It was the first time he had asked me to join him for a very long time.  Don't know what made him do so. We chatted about mundane things, including Bruno and Vet mans girlfriend.  I left the yacht club and headed for Orange to get Bruno a birthday card.

The only place that had a card I wanted for him was Watson's drugs and since I had a lot of time between lunch and meeting the girls for the movie at Fashion Island',s Island movie house was at least four hours.

The Island movies is one of those where you have assigned seats, if you choose to have a glass of wine or something to eat they deliver it to you.  The seats are super comfortable and it is more of an experience, of course you pay for that experience.

When I met the girls the movie time had changed from 4:00 to 5:00 so we went to the Yard House for a drink and a snack until the movie, The Millers, started.  The movie by the way was funny although like every movie now a days the "f" word was rampant. I think the writers  todayare verbally challenged.

After the movie let out we took the escalator down and Muttopolis, a dog apparel store, was having a doggie fashion show.  The pups were so cute.  Some were dressed up in cowboy hats, Chihuahuas and some others in dresses and boy clothes, mostly little dogs.  They looked like they were having a good time except for one that was not very happy about the whole thing.  God, only in California.

After the above I headed home as did the gals and spent the night trying to get my act organized for the Kona girls coming on Sunday evening.

Today is getting my bathrom and the back patio ready for Sunday night.


T

CELL PHONE...

I can't believe it, but I have either misplaced or lost my cell phone.  It  really is a problem since I use it for everything.  All appointments, grocery lists, contacts, etc.  I stopped service on it after calling the three places I went today.  I swear I had it next to me on the sofa, but the gremlins have appeared out of no where and hidden it somewhere.  The ringer is off since I was at a doctor's office and I muted it.  That's what I get for being considerate.

I have looked in the trash, cupboards, car and every available area  I thought the thing may be hiding but to no avail.  I'm giving myself a couple of days before I purchase a new one.  There goes another couple hundred dollars.

To go to other things. I have pretty much been home. Bruno is still in China and I have heard from him several times, he is suppose to return this coming Saturday.   I was a little concerned about the  terrorist alert, mostly in the middle East I guess, but with Embassies closing and all the crazies out there one can't be to careful..

I did get invited by Vet man to go to lunch tomorrow at the yacht club.  I haven't seen or been near him for over a year so I don't know where that invite came from totally out of the blue.  I'm suppose to be on the Marine Corp Ball Committee but I quit...I think he wants to talk me into coming back.

Actually Vet man stopped texting and calling me after he met Bruno at a function.  No chance for him once he saw who I was with. He does have a girlfriend so we will see.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm meeting two girlfriends to go to the movies to see The Millers...should be fun.

Back to looking for the phone.

REINCARNATED CHAR WOMEN...

I swear I am a reincarnated Char women.  This house of mine because backs up to the hills and avocado groves gets so dusty.  So much for double paned windows. The building of nineteen hundred homes a mile or so away doesn't help either.

I spent my day cleaning, washing clothes, ironing, polishing, cleaning floors and I'm still not done.  Some little things need done that no one in the world would even know I had done, but with my up bringing and coming from two neat freaks it is inbred.

Other then that and communicating with a girlfriend who was on a cleaning binge too that it about it for today.

My life!

BUSY THIS WEEKEND....

It was a good weekend.  Saturday I did go to the Crab Fest with my girlfriend.  I stopped at her house to pick her up and we sat on her porch and had a drink with her four little dogs. We had a phone text from a friend that said the Orange Elks was filling up fast.  We left shortly after and the place was hopping.

It was a great feast.  All the crab legs with butter all you could eat, chili,baked chicken breasts, rolls, butter, cole slaw and cake for desert  There were never ending crab legs. The event was all volunteer and the guys said they had bought 140 pounds of crab legs. They were very good as was the whole meal. The best part was it was only $25.00.

Of course the usual drinks and people at the bar.  The trouble with the Elks is that drinks are cheap and there is no end to the men that want to buy you a drink.  I had promised myself that I would have no more then three for the whole evening and pretty much stayed to that promise. 

As we were standing at the bar for our first drink a little Mexican man wanted to buy us a drink.  As he was doing that this six foot four, black curly haired man with a black beard came up and to say hello.  He too wanted to buy a drink, but that had been taken care of so we declined.  He kept looking my way and finally came over and said he couldn't believe he had met someone at the Elks. Ditto!

Black Beard said he had to leave with his buddies to pick up someone that was at Huntington Beach but he wanted to come back and meet me somewhere other then the Elks.  The crowd was starting to thin out so my girlfriend and another friend decided that Citrus City Grille would be close so we could walk there.  

We were sitting talking to a group of people and Black Beard walked in.  Now, you would think that would be a good thing but it ended up not being so.  I swear to God that the men are either idiots, self absorbed, or you name it. I found out he had been homeless due to the downturn in real estate and a bad leg accident.  He was climbing out, but living in one room on Workman's Comp, Vet benefits etc.  Then I found out he was only fifty four.  He was suing for a big settlement that he thought he had in the bag, but I know how that goes...good luck to him.  Good Lord I'm old enough to be his mother. He thought I was in my early sixties and I didn't tell him any different.  That put an end to that.  Bruno may be a lot of things but at least he isn't on the dole and whatever it is between us it takes precedent over others, at least for me.

I drove my girlfriend back to her house and we sat on her porch and talked for a bit and I went home.

Sunday I met my other long time girlfriend in Newport Beach at Fashion Island to see a movie, The Way Back, and we had dinner after the movie at a French restaurant.

Monday was the Balboa Bay Club for lunch on my other good girlfriend and a little shopping.  For me it was just looking.  I'm trying not to spend money and it is hard.  I saw several things I would have bought in the past.  I don't need it, but...its hard to gear down, but I have to.

So the weekend was interesting and good.  More adventures to come.

.

MUSEUMS AND FRIENDS...

The visit to the local Bowers Museum to see the Medici Jewels and to have lunch with two of my girlfriends was a very nice day.  The information regarding the cameos and intaglios that were so beautiful made one wonder about the talent that created them. It is amazing that the workmanship could be so concise when the tools were so primitive.

The Medici's fortune spurred the patronage of the arts and although collectively these people where one homely group they certainly knew about art. It is something that so many of these items survived in total. from the early 1400's.

Lunch was great and as always Tangata was filled with people visiting the museum.  We were there about three hours with lunch and the museum tour.  Bowers is such a gem in the middle of Santa Ana.

I stayed home afterward and got up this morning, Friday, to meet my grandson for breakfast.  He is such a delightful young man.  He just graduated from high school and is working and planning on going to school. It is very refreshing to see young people that are nice.

I had given him, as a gift, a portrait of my husband, his grandfather.  He was so very close to his grandfather and I couldn't think of anyone that would appreciate it more then he.  He said when he opened it he cried.  Behind the portrait was a 30 year pin from Elks.  I also gave him a card with money.  I think he was pleased with the picture and I'm so glad.

Bruno left for China last night.  I don't envy that flight over there.  I did it in the nineties and if I recall it was seventeen hours leaving from San Francisco.  He left from LAX and I believe it is between fifteen to nineteen hours depending on if China Air is non stop.  He was in such a state the day before he left.  I received a few emails from him and they were short and sweet.  He said he would call me.

I was leaving the house on Wednesday  so I thought I'd leave a voice mail telling him to call me on my Cell.  I got a text back that said he was in the middle of a meeting for big dollars and don't bother him.  Alrighty then!!  I didn't think a voice mail was a bother.

Bruno called before he left and did apologize for his text but he said that the last several days had been brutal.  I know he is dealing with millions of dollars and things aren't easy, so I understood and didn't make an issue of it, although I could have. Dealings here are tough for that much money and I can't imagine how hard China will be,especially Mainland China.

I met my girlfriend Wednesday night for dinner at the Elks in Orange and I'm meeting her again on Saturday for a Crab Fest dinner at the same place. Sunday is a movie in Newport Beach and Monday is lunch at the Balboa Bay Club.  Do you see a theme here.  Eat, eat, eat.

I also had a phone call from a man that I hadn't heard from for over a year or so.  He just called to say hello. I've never been out with him, but have had conversations with him at various times the last several years.  It is funny how they come out of the woodwork.

It isn't a problem meeting men, it is a problem meeting someone that you like and the right one. If Bruno would stop traveling he would be the right one....or not!