from the road

four days into our cross-country trip and there's already too much to write, and much fun to report on. this is absolutely the vacation i needed... a mental detour after a stressful but important month for me (and us).

spent monday evening with the yosts drinking wine on the porch. they were quite ecstatic to care for toonces for 2 weeks, and brought us to the albany airport at 4am tuesday morning for our 6am flight. after a layover in detroit, we arrived at las vegas airport at 10:30am pacific time. despite much experience with jet-lag, we took a few days to adjust to the 3-hour time change due to our unusually early flight. good thing we had a hotel to sleep in on our first night...

my parents are on vacation this week in vegas, and we got to crash on a cot in their hotel room at the circus circus. plus, they spoiled us by taking us out to a nice dinner and drive down the strip. mom has an infatuation with slot machines, and the two of us played the penny and nickel slots until she'd won about 30 bucks (on penny slots, no less). we were all zonked, especially my dad, as this was his first time out of the eastern time zone. we crashed by 10:30, and spent the next morning together at Red Rock Canyon, west of vegas. it was stunning, and so cool to see it with my parents who've never seen desert in their lives. we parted ways thereafter, them returning to their hotel and us on our way through the mojave desert to los angeles.

we've been in l.a. since wednesday night and it has been non-stop fun, with reunions with old friends every day. staying with our dear friends thad and jeff and on our first night we went to a buffy the vampire sing-a-long with my girl amy who has been in love with sarah michelle gellar for years. john and i were the only freaks in the audience who'd never seen an episode, but we had a fantastic time laughing and popping noisemakers along with everyone else. at the end, john and amy were star-struck when director/producer joss whedon made a surprise appearance, 5 feet from us (we were in the 2nd row).

yesterday we had a relaxing day at the getty center, one of the coolest most beautiful museums i've ever seen. the humble photography exhibit and impressionist room were both pretty cool, but the highlight by far was tim hutchinson's uberorgan, a giant construction made from wires and plastic that played a music and resonated throughout the building. stunning!

last night we reunited with more rit film kids... kurt and debbie, marcos and crystal, greg and kim, and kurt's brother mike. we had pizza and hung out at their apartment before going out to the red lion - a german pub that served my favorite authentic german lager, bitburger. it was so great seeing everyone and we all agreed we need to do so more often...

today begins late after sleeping in, but john and i are off to zooma zooma beach (the best, according to thad) to get some swim and sun. tonight we may have a party here at thad's to see everyone again one last time before we head north tomorrow. still have a few friends we haven't met up with... should be another fun day.

this will probably be my only post, as from tomorrow on we will be camping...

having a ball, and must say that l.a. has surpassed my expectations. i can see why so many people have come here. it's beautiful, and so much more laid back than nyc.