Pleasure Notes

I love lists – To Do lists, What I Covet lists, Favorite XYZ lists. You get the picture. So imagine my pleasure at discovering this particular list, which I believe was started by Zen Goddess Jen but which I found at one of my regular stops – My LA Blog. The list remains the same for everyone. The items in BOLD are things which I have accomplished. The italicized items are still to be done. If you cross something out it means you’re committing to never doing it, ever. I’m a commitment phobe and have learned the hard why to never say never, so you will not see any crossed off items on my particular list. But yes, I did tweak the title a wee bit because, you know, it really is all about me.

1. Started your own blog. Obviously. You are reading it now.
2. Slept under the stars. Not yet without a tent or a roof between me and randomly falling objects.
3. Played in a band. I still have fantasies about being in a rock band, but since the only instrument I learned to play with any conviction was the piano and my voice is of the quality that would make even Paula cringe, I’m not quite sure how this one will manifest… Maybe Rock Band? I have yet to play it.
4. Visited Hawaii. Twice. Oahu and the Big Island of Hawai’i.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than I can afford to charity. Frequently. I’m a sucker for a sad story.
7. Been to Disneyland. I detest amusement parks. Too many little fiends children who should be killed have had too much sugar.
8. Climbed a mountain. Grew up in Colorado. My sweat has dripped on plenty of 14ers.
9. Held a praying mantis. I am willing to hold something that looks like a leaf. But I can’t promise I won’t crush it while it is in my hand.
10. Sang a solo. It was not a good thing. See #3 regarding my vocal talents.
11. Bungee Jumped. Have been wanting to do this for years, just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
12. Visited Paris. A few times. J’aime le Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught myself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child. My impulse would be to cross this one out, but I’m not entirely convinced I won’t someday want to give a needy child a loving home.
16. Had food poisoning. I’ve blocked out the details.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty. A hell of a lot of stairs.
18. Grown my own vegetables. Haven’t played in a vegetable garden since I was a child, but I would love to have some tomato plants of my own next time I have a yard.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France. She is very small. And she has a weird look on her face.
20. Slept on an overnight train. Yep. Don’t recommend it. I woke up to find myself being robbed.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitchhiked. Numerous times. Only in Europe. Great way to meet guys.
23. Taken a sick day when I wasn’t ill.
24. Built a snow fort. Best part of a blizzard. Well, that and making snow angels.
25. Held a lamb. I’ve petted one though.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a marathon. I won’t cross this one off. If I ever end up doing this, however, hell will have frozen over. I’m just saying.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice. Opted out of the singing though.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise and a sunset. I try to watch the sunset every day. Never disappoints. Sunrises usually happen a bit too early for me these days.
31. Hit a home run. I can barely hit the ball much less make it go any distance, but there’s always the chance of experiencing that one perfect moment when the universe is in synch.
32. Been on a cruise. This would not be a bad way to spend my 110s.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person. I’ve seen Iguacu Falls, though. Pretty damn awesome.
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors. Mostly. I’m a mutt, so there are a lot of places to visit. Ireland’s the only one left, though, and I may be able to check that off the list this very year. Will let you know.
35. Seen an Amish community. Did not see Kelly McGillis once.
36. Taught myself a new language. Portuguese. And smidgens of a few others.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person. A week before some crazy chopped off the dude’s toe.
41. Sung karaoke. As awful as you can imagine.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt. A big thank you to my parents for loading us into the car every summer for road trips across the lower 48.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant. No, but look forward to doing that once #37 is met.
44. Visited Africa. Planned a trip to Egypt but then we bombed Baghdad, the first time, so it was scrapped. Many African countries are on my Must See list.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight. I live in Southern California. It would be criminal of me not to have done this many, many times.
46. Been transported in an ambulance. I passed out in a Baja Fresh and wouldn’t wake up. I was very thirsty. The uniformed boys were very nice once I became coherent but were mean and wouldn’t let me sleep at first. Not the smoothest ride ever.
47. Had my portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing. Given how I responded to night fishing, this is not going to happen in the near future.
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person. That Michael dude knows how to draw.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Nice, but there are many, many other things I’d rather spend my time doing in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving and snorkeling. Love snorkeling. Have done it in Hawaii and Indonesia. Scuba diving is still very much on my list of things to do.
52. Kissed in the rain. Delightful if done right. If done wrong, dump the dude. Water up the nose is not romantic.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class. Someday, I will know how to crush your eyeballs, gonads, and kidneys all at the same time. Hear me roar!
59. Visited Russia. I must increase my tolerance for vodka.
60. Served at a soup kitchen. Every Thanksgiving I plan to do this but then get distracted by a large table of overflowing food served by friends or family. I may be a bad person.
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies. I have bought plenty, though. Shouldn’t that count?
62. Gone whale watching. I keep forgetting, and then they are gone.
63. Got flowers for no reason. Always a pleasure.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma. Blood.
65. Gone sky diving. Free fall is amazing. The rest of it, not my thing.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp. A few of them. Fucking depressing.
67. Bounced a check. Just last week, thank you very much.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy. I am very sentimental.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten caviar. Salty. Would rather eat sushi.
72. Pieced a quilt. Yep, I made a few quilts using the log cabin pattern. I was in an Arts & Crafts phase. It has passed.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades. We should really stop destroying them.
75. Been fired from a job. I really, really suck as a waitress.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London. Would not want that job.
77. Broken a bone. Collar bone. Jewish camp. Touch football. Don’t like religion.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle. See #22.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person. Successfully puked blueberry muffin over the side of it too. How many folks can say that, hum?
80. Published a book. Open for bids and proposal ideas.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car. Just paid it off last year – Boo-Ya!
83. Walked in Jerusalem. Look forward to doing that when there’s a peace settlement.
84. Had my picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible. Heard there are some interesting horror stories.
86. Visited the White House. Smelled too much like the previous night’s gin to get the private tour but loved getting frisked by the Secret Service.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating. Someday, I WILL eat a cricket. I’ve heard they taste like chicken.
88. Had chickenpox. Very mild case, thank god. I am not kind when I am sick.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous. I live in LA and work in the Entertainment Industry for god’s sake.
92. Joined a book club. Love it. Only chance I have any more to read books.
93. Lost a loved one. Funerals are very strange affaires.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person. It’s a fort.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake. Never even occurred to me to do this. Now, it has.
97. Been involved in a law suit. I won.
98. Owned a cell phone. I think this item is hear to make people feel good about themselves even if they’ve done nothing with their lives.
99. Been stung by a bee. I prefer butterflies.
100. Read an entire book in one day. One of the best ways to spend a rainy day. Must be done in bed or at least under a very comfy blanket. Preferably while one is still in one’s pajamas.

February is the shortest month of the year, and there’s a Holiday Weekend stuck in there, so you’d think it would be the busiest and best month too. Unfortunately, February is also the rainiest month, at least in Southern California, and prolonged rain makes me go stark raving mad. Clinically. Then, there’s that little economic problem to deal with. Unless you were on a cruise to Antarctica for the past 28 days, you already know the Stock Market decided to commit seppuku, and the Dow is down 11.72% for the month. Don’t you wish you’d spent February getting sea sick and taking pictures of penguins? So, this month, perhaps more than any other, it is vital for me to highlight some moments that brought me pleasure.

1. New Glasses. I was one of those kids who sported braces and fish-eye glasses, which then morphed into very classy, graduated-shading, bug-eyed lens, and finally to the social status-reviving freedom of contacts. When I got Lasik about 10 years ago, it was the coolest thing ever. I could see the alarm clock from the bed. I could recognize people on the street before I walked past them. I could distinguish the difference between dolphins and sharks prior to inducing a panic attack. So, when my Optometrist recently recommended that I get myself some prescription lens for night driving and movie viewing, you’d think I’d feel dismay. Instead, I got super excited. I successfully ignored the fact that this purchase would be an expense for which I hadn’t budgeted, and that the need for lens might be construed as indicative of my advancing age. Instead, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to play dress up. Since I don’t have to wear them all the time, these new glasses get to be an accessory… I decided to go with the sexy geek look. It works for me. And, yes, I can see the traffic at night now too. Lots of cars out there.
2. Scrabble with Dad. My pops made an appearance in Hollywood to spend some quality time with me. A short but sweet visit. And, as usual, he beat the pants off me at Scrabble. I rarely win the damn thing – for which I convincingly blame bad luck letter draws – but I still love this word game. So much, in fact, that if Scrabbulous was still around, you might find me on FB more often. Those cute little wooden squares are simply irresistible.
3. Duncan Sheik. If you’ve heard his music, and listened to the lyrics, you’ll know this munchkin of a man is clearly the love child of David Lynch and Tim Burton. The dude goes to some seriously dark and twisted places, surrounded by beautiful melodies. His latest concept album, Whisper House, is about a little boy who is dumped at a lighthouse to be terrorized by ghosts after his father dies and his mother has a breakdown. Cool shit. He played at the Echoplex in Los Angeles recently. I won tickets to the show – how fantastic is that! – from KCRW, my fave music dispensary and the sponsoring radio station. Damn, but there’s not much better than listening to good music, live, with a Newcastle in hand, and money still in your pocket.
4. Sycamore Cove. About 15 miles north of Malibu on the PCH, this pristine beach is just far enough away that I’d never visited it before. A travesty! On the late February day I finally went, dolphins frolicked just outside the break, huge pieces of driftwood made me ache for a camera, and only five other people were visible along the entire stretch of sand. Great hiking trails were waiting for us on the other side of the road, in Point Mugu State Park, but I’ll be going back to get my toes wet.
5. Abandoning Arrowhead. This may seem like a random event to highlight as particularly pleasurable, but it’s sort of a big deal for me. You see, I’ve had Arrowhead Water delivered to my house for years now. There is a myth in Los Angeles that the tap water will kill you, or at least make you look your age. Increasingly, however, I’ve been wanting to do my part to curb global warming, etc., and it’s been harder and harder to ignore the facts about how much damage the bottled water industry creates. But I’m a creature of habit. And I prefer to drink my water out of bottles – yes, I know Freud would have a field day with me but, really, the bottle issue is only the tip of the iceberg. So I’ve been very reluctant to try anything else. In addition, the last time I got a bee in my bonnet about all this, I went out and bought a Brita Filter for my faucet and the damn thing didn’t fit. But the Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water Company did for me what I could not do for myself. They screwed up on two consecutive deliveries. So I kicked them to the curb, got myself a Brita Pitcher, and crossed one more expense off my “potentially expendable” list. Yippee for me!

As I said, it’s a short month. It’s fitting, then, that this be a short list. Many other truly pleasurable things happened this month. And the torrential rain finally stopped. Honestly, looking back, I wouldn’t have wanted the last 28 days any other way than the way I got them.

So that’s my February. How was yours?

While most people associate seat belts with safety while driving, the denizens of Southern California are compelled to turn even something this seemingly mundane into a fashion statement. Yes, I’m talking about the seatbelt bag. And what better way to celebrate the enduring nature of this iconic fashion statement than to open a gleaming storefront on Melrose Avenue, in the middle of an economic crisis. Harveys, the company that started the seatbelt bag craze from a little home in the O.C., has done just that, despite creator Dana Harvey’s promised, just a little over a year ago, not to go Hollywood.

Convertible Tote by Harveys

For the record, I love bags. I’m even a fan of seat belts. But wouldn’t this idea have been so much better if the bags were actually made of recycled seat belts? So, how pleased do you think I was when I discovered Harveys actually offers the Treecycle line of, yep, recycled seatbelt bags? Yippee. I can now officially jump on the bandwagon.

Treecycle Messenger by Harveys

To be honest, the bags are so damn cute, I’d already convinced myself that the company’s use of new seat belts could be the only thing preventing seat belt manufacturers from filing Chapter 11 now that the auto industry is in the toilet. The headline could be: Once Again Hollywood Saves the Day!

Baseman VENISON by Harveys

Alas, no. The creators of the seatbelt bag are not the only industrious souls to find seat belts strangely alluring out of context, or to devise ways of sharing their obsession with the easily-converted masses. Behold.

The hammock you wish you had:

Sling by Ting London

The perfect arm chair, for that perfect person over whom you’re surreptitiously drooling to lounge in, perfectly, while sipping a perfectly shaken Martini:

By Nuttapong Charoenkitivarakorn

The Brangelina version of your grandmother’s backyard bench:

By Peter Danko

The throw pillow you won’t really want to throw, from dead stock and recycled seat belts:

By Ting London

And, oh dear… Okay, so I’m breaking the rules a bit with this last one, but this is absolutely, hands down, the sexiest flooring on the market, made of recycled leather belts, and constitutes one of only three purposes for which to have a belt in your house:

Custom Designed by Ting London

Close enough to seat belts, right? And environmentally friendly. The cows are already long dead.

So, screw Heroes. Seat belts will save the world. What else do you think will?

Most of the country is suffering through a record-breaking, bloody-cold winter. Even those of us lucky enough to live in a more amenable climate like Los Angeles have found ourselves shivering from time to time this year. But, this being tinsel town, we won’t abandon fashion for warmth. Luckily, I have discovered the perfect way to both stay warm and dazzle the masses. This Pleasure Find is for the ladies, wherever they may be, and the gents who love them…

Lady Godiva by bebaroque

Bebaroque stockings, tights, and leggings are designed and crafted by two fabulously hip Scottish women.

Miss Godiva by bebaroque

Anyone who has been to Edinburgh in January can attest to the fact that Scottish women know cold weather, and how to slog through it stylishly, so you are in good hands with Mhairi McNicol and Chloe Patience. Besides, they won the Scottish Accessory Designer of the Year award and that’s no mean feat.

Tattoo Me by bebaroque

Hand embroidery, beading, Swarovski crystals, and original print designs embellish these little gems. Whether you want to simply flash a well-shaped calf or go for a fully tattooed gam, bebaroque legwear styles add a dash of sensuous, playful pleasure to the mix.

Lady Godiva by bebaroque

Just a wee warning as you fall in love with these creations: they are not like your mama’s 4-dollar Leggs, but more like those pre-war silk stockings women used to covet more than chocolate. That is to say, they are a luxury item. But you can’t put a price on fashion, right?

I completely understand if you are stressed out about money at the moment. Most of the world, or certainly the people I know, are trying to reduce their spending by removing all unnecessary items from their shopping lists. But do not eliminate from your life the little treats that bring you pleasure, I implore you! For me, one of those little treats is fresh cut flowers. And I have discovered the perfect bud vase in which to place that just-awakening tulip or Gerber daisy.

By Heath Ceramics

This sweet little red vase, from Heath Ceramics’ 2008 Limited Edition Winter Collection, holds a single bud, or perhaps a few of the thin-stemmed variety, beautifully. It makes a statement in any room, bringing a splash of color to your surroundings and a smile to your face. I just bought one of my very own, and have placed it on my kitchen table to hold an almost perfect white rose.

And for those who know nothing about Heath Ceramics, let me tell you a quick story. The company is based in Sausalito, California, but, happily, they just opened a gorgeous, minimalist showroom in Los Angeles. Edith Heath started the company in the mid-1940′s and, while she is gone and the company is now owned by someone else, they still make pottery the old-fashioned way. For that alone, they get a gold star.

So, what flower will you place in yours?