I'm a Doing the Things That I Wanna Do

Road Trip! Had a blast driving down to San Diego with my Orange County Housewife friend today. Whole day full of happiness reported here in either excruciating detail or glossed right over. We headed to the Janet Evanovich Fearless Fourteen booksigning, and due to my getting up a half hour late and the hot weather making people act abnormally (aka, they got out on the highways earlier in the day) and back up the freeway (not the abnormal part), we got to the booksigning early enough to get a good view for the Q&A, but late enough we couldn't skip out for lunch first. We ran into another couple of book club ladies there and had a grand ol' time.

But it was HOT. The car said 106F when I parked it in full sun. (Only option!) Even with the windshield reflectors and a towel over the steering wheel it was almost too hot to touch a couple hours later). The bookstore had the AC set to 60F, but that only helps so much when you pack in 300 people. (JE is popular.) For the most part though, I still dig the hot. It's a dry heat, see.

I drove down to the OC with the windows and sunroof all the way open, my sundress flapping in the breeze and 2 follow up applications of SPF30 to my left arm. I usually keep bottled water in the car and move a few to the passenger compartment before heading out so I can drink it when I start to get cranky. But all the water was still 90F last night so I refrigerated a few and packed some healthy snacks in a cooler which was wise. When I realized I wouldn't be having lunch before the 2pm signing, I ate some veggies and loquats to tide me over.

The booksigning was fun. JE stood on a chair so people could see her and, perhaps, hear better although turning up the speakers worked better for the latter. The Q&A questions were pretty much all from the FAQ except for "When will Stephanie go FTA?" to which she replied, "Oh, she won't. ... ... I'll have to think about that." This time I wasn't 454, but 346 or so - and then the book club people who spotted us gave us some numbers that moved us up about 120. We browsed. My friend was amused at all my supplies - like my bag carrying handle. I bought some more Emma Hollys I hadn't seen on my local Borders's shelves. Between the Q&A and our time to get in line, I went to the car twice. Once to get coupons and drop off something. Second, to get the &($&# coupons. Again, the sunlight still makes me happy in these small doses.

When we were getting our books signed and 40 pictures taken, my friend mentioned that it looked like she had Sunday off. She said no, she's going to be up in MY TOWN at that little bookstore I can walk to. It wasn't on her national website because the store only holds, like, 12 people. So I might walk there tomorrow morning after driving 370.5 miles "for the booksigning" in SD. Heh. Is that irony? Prolly.

After the booksigning my friend and I were *starving* but I had a bee in my bonnet about going to a diner I saw last night on the Food Network. I had the address and a handdrawn map (I was too lazy to wait for the printer to fire up). We found a pre-opened Thomas guide at the bookstore and sat on the floor planning how to get there and found it was only 10 miles down the freeway we were on and I bullied my friend into going there instead of one of the chains I could eat at any day of the week.

I do not know what got into me but I ordered a Monte Christo. With fries. Yeah, I think it's the last fried thing (except for zucchini or something made by a friend just for me) this year. They did a decent job of it and the fry batter was tasty. I ate some fried batter and tried mostly to pull the insides out to cut some bulk. The Studio Diner makes some of the best fries I've ever had: Light, crispy, hot, perfectly salted. And tasty. Too bad it came after I ordered a chocolate milkshake. Because I sucked that thing down like there was no tomorrow and refilled my glass from the surplus (still leaving at least a whole other serving), and drank the refill to. Then my tummy started to hurt. My friend tried to be sensible and got a portabello mushroom sandwhich. It also came with great fries but had approximately 8 tablespoons of butter on the grilled bread. Then she got the brownie dessert. Having eaten dinner like locusts, we got through about 1/20th of the dessert then her tummy hurt too and we had to leave it there, still with 3 uneaten scoops of ice cream and the remainder of my milkshake.

By using a freeway that I recognized from my SD vaca about 3 Augusts ago, we were able to scoot from there over to Con Pane near Shelter Island about 10 minutes before closing. I picked up 3 loaves: Grueyre & chive, raisin & hazelnut, and sourdough. I had them cut and put in plastic bags for freezing. Now that I have a freezer, the Con Pane run has longer lasting benefits. My friend, who also loves their food, was so stuffed from the diner food it was all she could do not to run screaming at the smell of more food.

To round out the day, we went over to Coronado to sit on the beach and read. My friend actually did this. I had to go to the bathroom. So she walked with me as I dragged her to the bathroom and some of the shops at the Hotel Del. We deliberately didn't take money with us, but I saw some sandals I wanted which I could wear with my touchy feet. So I went back to the car to get my credit card and a book to read on the beach, which I had forgotten. Meanwhile, my friend went to set up shop "between the wedding and the hotel". I started heading over to meet her when I realized I had forgotten my #%(@ book again, so I went back to the car. Again. Then when I finally met up with her, I didn't even crack it open! (More irony? Or just giving her some alone time on her grand day out?) We just wound up chatting more as the sea layer visibly rolled in and blocked out the sunset. It was like watching a massive, dark fog overtake the earth and quite interesting to see. Bostonian that I was/am, I still lay out like I'm worshipping the sun as the sky fades to grey. (If someone can figure out the correct tense for that sentence, or the whole paragraph, do tell. I can't.) We both of us then went back and bought us some sandals.

The ride home was uneventful. Someone else might not think so but this is probably my most calm friend to ride in my passenger seat. Aside from the casual, "watch out for the van trying to sideswipe us", when a van suddenly swerved into our lane. Which is cool. I'm good with people making comments that keep us alive and unscratched. As to the rest, she probably stays distracted by the conversation as we talked nonstop the whole day, just like last trip. It's fun to hear her adventures with the school board and whatnot. Totally different from my life, except that we both read a lot.

After dropping her off (she loaded me up with used books before I escaped), I had to switch on the radio. As I was nearing the end of my ride, all 3 stations played Weezer's Pork & Beans in succession. 103.1's signal started to fade at the end of the song, so I bopped over to KROQ which had it in a Weezer block. When they went to commercial after the block I switched one more time, and you guessed it. Same song. You'd probably never guess that it was the same song played 3 times within a 15 minute span on 3 stations with only other Weezer songs in the interim that actually prompted me to sit at the 'puter and relate most of the day to you all.
But it was.