Wed 14 Dec 2005
The image hosting site is back up, so let’s finish this post up. 🙂 So, it was Saturday afternoon/evening, and my friends Sandy and Johnny have me over at Johnny’s to cheer me up, and to join their holiday setup as well as enjoy the beautiful Manhattan Beach, golden sands one small block away.
Don’t tell me this isn’t sweet:
What I was laughing at is the pose I had before Sandy actually took the picture.
Me with my oldest friend in the world (not old as in age, old as in we were running around the pier in braids and pigtails chasing after Uno cards blowing around at 5am as over-bundled-up six-year-olds in sweaters, vests, jackets and shawls as our dads hung over the pier and fished and our moms…actually, I have no memory of what our moms were doing).
You know how you drink a little too much, look into your wineglass, and think, “Look at all the pretty colors! It looks likes a sunset over Manhattan Beach” ?
Back at the house, we finished decorating the tree with the antique ornaments, and Sandy and Johnny are now taking a break with their wine. Sandy and Johnny are both admiring their respective favorite things in the room.
“It’s Christmas-Chunks!” Sandy chirped delightedly at seeing Chunk the cat in front of the tree. I told her I thought “Christmas Chunks” sounded like someone threw up eggnog.
The tree lights were finally turned on, and after oohing and aahing, Sandy went to do some adjustments and finishing touches. Johnny, as you can see, moves *really* fast.
Johnny’s holding back tears at his Christmasy living room scene. “It’s beautiful, man,” he sniffles. Gruffly and masculinely, of course.
I think the imagery there is breathtaking, it reminds me of growing up in Barbados and watchng the sunsets every night. How can one be upset after seeing such beautiful sunsets.
You’re right. And the photos don’t even do them justice cuz I have a dummy camera. I was definitely giddy during the sunset visit.
[…] I didn’t finish the Raytheon roughs until midnight, and Sandy was still working next to me on her own laptop. This girl works till about 7p, and then goes to some group meetings at work, and then comes home at 8p, gets on her laptop, and continues working remotely while IMing and telephoning with her project teammates. She says she normally goes to bed about 1a. Anyway, we chatted for a little bit, I showed her some random photos that were taken since I’d last seen her in December (which I wrote about here and here). Then I left at about 1a. After the parking garage gouged me $65 for parking (it was automated, there was no one to argue with, and the $10/hour rate was not posted ANYWHERE, I checked), I drove toward what I thought was the 710 fwy entrance. Turned out it’s changed somewhat in the last 2 years or the sign’s fallen off on the street, cuz I ended up crossing bridges and going to the ports. I was following these big tanker trucks at 1:15 a.m., getting really nervous, cuz there’s nowhere to turn around, and I’m over water. Finally, I managed to get off onto a side bridge and went back up on a street that had a name I remembered passing while going down the 710 South to her house. And I was right. There was an entrance to the 710 North on that street. So happily, I got on… and got detoured off on the very next exit, Pacific Coast Highway. Apparently the freeway was doing some construction or something, and everyone on the freeway (there were amazingly quite a few of us at 1:30 in the morning) got herded off onto PCH. Soon, the “freeway detour” signs disappeared. I found myself driving God knows where passing factories, run-down storefronts, questionable staggering men, and strip clubs. Lots of strip clubs, offering full nudity on their Girls!Girls!Girls! as proudly emblazoned on their neon signs. I finally called Sandy and wailed. She had just come out of the shower so she was still up, and she at first didn’t recognize the streets I was on and told me to pull into a gas station to ask for directions. I refused at that hour at that time of night. Eventually I got to an intersection she was familiar with and she guided me to a different freeway entrance and saved me. I didn’t get home until past 2 a.m.. […]