my day – january 9, 2009

The Project: Note the time when you start your day.  Then on each hour, take a photo.

This is how I spent Friday, January 9, 2009:

6:53am...the alarm clock actually went off at 6:30, but I spent the following twenty minutes laying in bed, pretending that I did not have to wake up. Then I turned on the morning news. This is the forecast for Orange County, which is where I live. 

OK, this project just started and I am already cheating by adding an extra picture. Cuz I just have to show you non-Californian's the forecast for LA County over this past weekend: 

No, your eyes do not deceive you...and yes, this is mid-January...

 

and NO you can not move here.

7:53am: Freeway Onramp 

8:53 am: The View from My Window 

9:53am: In this photo of my desk at work, you can find (among other things) the following items -

1. "Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman" cigarette box
2. "Push Up" Dude
3. Jack's Head
4. Two finger puppets in the shape of insects
5. A snow globe with the old man's smiling face in it
6. Gumby...spanking Pokey
7. Another Jack - the new one, one a stick, with the beanie on top of his head
8. Photo of me, river-rafting in Alaska
9. Four framed photos of The Old Man
10. Two family photos, taken at Benihana
11. A photo of me and two of my nieces, getting on the boat to Alcatraz
12. A Christmas photo of the Old Man and I sitting on his motorcycle with our Santa hats on
13. My computer monitor, which shows one in a series of boring Excel spreadsheets I have to work on every day
14. My coffee mug, which of course does not have actual coffee in it; but does have green tea in it
15. Zicam
16. Sudafed
17. Several boring work-related books which I pretend to refer to on occassion
18. Work-related crapola

   

10:53 am: Leaving work early! This is on my drive out of Friendly Flower Place 

11:53 am: Taken out my window, while driving northbound on the 57 freeway. Do not try this at home. 

12:53pm: At the Salon 

1:53 pm: Weapons of War

2:53 pm:  My Daddy's Garden. He just had to cut a lot of things back, because it is Winter (even in Southern California). But it still looks lovely.

 

2:53pm - Extra Photo: I'm cheating again and including this extra photo of Daddy's roses. Cuz they're purty.

  

3:53pm: On the Road Again. The traffic was too heavy to safely attempt another shot through the window, so I merely hit the button on my camera, which was sitting in the passenger seat. This is what was captured. That's my pant leg in the lower-left corner.

  

4:53 pm:  Self Portrait in the bathroom at Long Beach Airport

 

5:53pm: Jet Blue Airways, flight 286 to Las Vegas!

 

As a side note - I was that annoying person on the plane who spends the entire flight hacking up a lung and blowing her nose profusely in to tissues. You would have wanted to shower immediately after deboarding that plane. I sincerely apologize to any and all of you who had to put up with my coughing and whatnot. I really tried to over-medicate myself before boarding. It just didn't work.

6:53pm: In the air. Basketball and Larry King on the telly's.  

7:53pm: Inside the Shuttle. The wait for my shuttle to leave the airport and take me to the friggin' hotel already was interminible...especially because it was like 45 degrees sitting there with that door wide open and because the ikss was an ass and thought "Hey, it's Vegas. Who needs a sweater?" she was freezing her tits off.

 

8:53pm: Fountain, detail

 

9:53 pm: Registration. The Registration Desk at Planet Hollywood had this cool back wall which changed colors. I was fascinated. And so again I cheat by giving you extra photos. Drop some acid right now and they will look very cool. Go ahead. I'll wait.

 

 

 

10:53pm: You may not be privvy to photos of the rest of the evening, as from about 10:30pm to 4:00am, I was fully immersed in two of my favorite vices - Gambling and Drinking Vodka. You can't take pictures in casinos and anyway, I was focused intently on counting to 21 while inebriated.

I will, however, share some other pictures from my weekend trip to Vegas. Just cuz.

As you may have gathered, we (my friend Liz and I) stayed at Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino. We did this for no other reason except that Liz got the room for $50/night using Priceline. I didn't even know Planet Hollywood had a hotel and casino in Vegas before this weekend.

It is practically obligatory these days that a hotel and casino in Las Vegas include an attached shopping mall (and that mall's ceiling must be painted to look like the sky). Here are a couple of photos from the one attached to PH.

I have yet to understand the logic behind the theme of the mall, but here is a picture of a Cruise Ship in the Sky:

Cool, but...why? The general theme of the mall decor seemed to be Middle Eastern Desert Mystery. I don't know how that relates to Planet Hollywood, exactly. I saw no obvious tie-in to any movie. Again, it was all very cool-looking, in a Vegas kind of way; I just don't understand the point.

In the PH Casino, they had an obsession with all things sparkly and shiny. There were lights and crystals everywhere. There were also scantily clad pole dancers shimying in the midst of the table games, but alas - no cameras allowed in the casino, so I have no pictures of them. Let's just say, though, that many of them were not hired for their dancing skills. The hell?

Some photos from Palazzo: 

 

 

The views from out hotel window...because that's the law.

 

 

The rooms at Planet Hollywood have as decorative items movie memoribilia. Of all the great and memorable movies Hollywood has produced in the past hundrend years, the one memorialized in our room?

Waterworld.

What? The hell?

This picture is horrible, but you have to understand how awful the lighting was. I was taking this picture pretty much in the dark and couldn't even really see the arrow through my viewfinder. I really just had to prove that yes, they did indeed fill a room with Waterworld memorabilia. Including a huge picture of a screaming Kevin Costner directly over the big soaking tub. Now that's relaxing.

 

After a truly fine and extremely fun time (during which I broke even, financially-speaking), we eventually had to drive home. Liz had driven to Vegas to work at the Consumer Electronics Show. I drove back to So Cal with her. I took these pictures through the windows of the car as we drove.

The Drive Home:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rest Stop: