This past weekend was a kaleidoscope of moments, none of which were particularly (or even specifically) serious, but each of these moments were familiar in my LA past:
After repeated weeks of thinking I was The Cooler in real life, I amazingly won all my college football bets. I don't appreciate this "all or nothing" response to my purported wisdom, but I can say that, as of this writing (and strictly because of a bet I won on Saturday) that Florida State football is professional. So, too, is North Carolina and Louisville. I didn't mean to do an all-ACC Football ticket, but then again, if you really knew me, you would expect such a thing to have occurred as pure happenstance and then you'd nod, returning to your sangria. I now look back, and the 2nd thing I thought was "I remember having a weekend like this right AFTER an awful one...ain't that something?"
I also spent a fair amount of time attempting to get two (2) volleyballs out of a tree. "Help" and help kept arriving, and all of it matching the laughter and emotions of a game show audience. Here come people I don't know with all sorts of implements...and just before success occurred, I looked over my surroundings: a handful of children and their families, all moving about. Maybe I've stumbled on to a great idea for a stunt show - it'll cover the time once all the strikes are over, and new shows aren't ready.
I'm not used to my location being "the place to be" - at least not in decades. And even then, that's not ideal because you can never truly break away. I was watching USC and Arizona State go at it when the request came for pizza. This was around 10:30, and I said no out of reflex: I didn't want to get up and do anything. Then, to my surprise, my own lightning storm hit me: why the hell not?! I couldn't think of an answer beyond me own laziness, so a bit later, I suddenly realized I was hungry for pizza, especially since I'd just brought one home. Our guest had decided that she was enticed by a pizza commercial and, it turns out, not actually hungry. Oh well, breakfast is figured out, I guess.
At a crowded eatery on Sunday, I said "5 for smoking, please" which not only elicited laughs from the hostess, but many angry looks from the other diners young and old. Am I the only one who remembers this? Can anyone take an unexpected joke in this town anymore? In the quieter moments, waiting for the food, I remembered times when I delivered a solid gold zinger, and the help was just so damn dense it laid there like the crusts of a reuben.
I would go on, you see, but people keep pretending to say "hi" to me but in actuality are looking at what I'm writing. That, unlike all of my examples above, is a new one.
