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Well, on the plus side, i had a most excellent bike ride with Nat and his dad on Sunday evening. Stopping for food, however, was most abominable. Let's just say that beach tourists can't understand why anyone would ever NOT wear as few clothes as possible. Also, remember staring problems? They still exist.

In any case, we probably rode about 5 miles one way, then turned around to head back to the car. (There is a loooong path right above the beach, which we took from Hermosa up past LAX.) As we neared the place where it all began, the sun was setting, and it was absolutely amazing. Speaking of staring problems, we stared at the sun a lot. (ha, ha: once, in high school, i dropped acid and sat staring at the sun as it went down. Don't ever do that, please.) It seemed to take forever to go down, which was fine with us... the whole world around us was glowing with pink and orange and coral hues, turning to roses and violets and eventually the light was leaving and the grass began to exude that sharp, eveningtime smell that it gets when it starts to cool off. i was listening to "I Love A Man In A Uniform", by Gang of Four (groovin' song!), and then, because i am super cheesy (and because it came on right afterwards on Shuffle mode), "She's So High" by Tal Bachman. Ah, the nineties.
Anyway, the sunset reminded Nat and i of Sirena Beach, from Super Mario Sunshine, if any of you have ever played that game. It was lovely, like a dream.

Some minuses of our trip included eating quite possibly the worst meal of my life at an English Pub in San Pedro, and getting extremely mad at Nat's parents for micro-managing me in the kitchen while we were all making lunch on Monday afternoon. Blame it on the PMS; i actually walked out of the room. :/ Never had that problem with his parents before.

Some pluses, though, were getting to watch Labyrinth again after all these years, and re-watching some X-Files gag reels that Nat's sister owns. So hilarious. And what is the deal with Labyrinth? Her wicked stepmother tells her that she wishes she would date: lady, the girl is like fourteen years old! What in the hey? But anyway. We all love David Bowie and his balls. (Go on, click it- i'm not a perv.)

We also got to open some belated x-mas gifts, which were wonderful: Nat's sis gave me Anne of Green Gables on DVD (::swoon::), and Nat the book on astrophysics that Brian May (of Queen!) co-wrote. Too cool! Nat's mom gave me my very first pop-up book, of The Nutcracker, which i am utterly enthused about. i don't know why it took so long for me to have one of these; i love them so much! And we got some cute English-themed (always!) fridge magnets: Nat's was a jar of Marmite, and mine was a ration card from WWII. His mom is so cute :) Also, they always do the christmas stockings thing, where you get a bunch of chocolates and nuts and fruit and small gifts all in one container, and it is so much fun. We never did that in my family, but i'm hoping to do it for my kids (if i ever have any).

Um, anything else? Hm. Did i watch the inauguration? Nope. Know why? i guess i'm not one for ceremony. Especially not state ceremonies that are rife with religious under(or is it over?)tones. ::shrug:: Call me a wet blanket, i don't care. Isn't it enough that i am thrilled for our new president? i am not totally naïve, though. i know he will disappoint a lot of us. i know he will be different than he presented himself to be. But they all do that, don't they? Par for the course, at this point. i guess i'm trying not to be too hopeful, lest i get let down. The earlier in his campaign, the more i liked him, and i am pretending like everything is going to be fine. Just fine! He has a lot of work ahead of him. Of course we wish him luck ;) At least now i am not ashamed to be an American, at least not as much.

Until next time.

p.s.) On making an "Animals" playlist, i went in thinking that Cat would be predominant. How wrong i was! Apparently (in my music library, anyway), it's Horse, Dog, and then various Birds (Swan, Raven, Sparrow, Chicken, Eagle, etc.), followed by varieties of Fish/Sea life (Herring, Lobster, Octopus, Starfish, and so on). Who knew?